I laughed. “You’re very good at comforting me and humbling me at the same time.”
Macey patted the spot next to her on the bed, and my heart kicked up its pace. I scooted closer to her. “Let me see,” she said, holding a hand out for my ankle.
Her fingers felt cool against my ankle. My body must be so confused by all the temperatures it encountered in the last hour, from cold seawater to a boiling hot shower.
But this touch was different. Soothing.
Who was I turning into? Some kind of lovestruck fool who tried to kiss a girl he shouldn’t be pursuing?
All I knew was as long as everything went according to plan, I’d collect a check from Opal Serenity large enough to cover three months offline, during which Daphne and I would set offfor California and wherever else our hearts took us. I just needed to survive the social media jungle for a few more months until summer.
I’d been doing this for a long time. I could get through it alone. That knowledge wasn’t enough to stop my stupid heart from insisting it wanted her there, though.
After a minute, Macey lowered my ankle back to the duvet. “Dr. Macey says you’ll be all right, but you have to rest it for real this time.”
First of all, Dr. Macey had no medical credentials.
Second, despite that fact, she was right.
Thank God I was someone who could laugh at his misfortune.
“Does Dr. Macey have some medicine to share with her injured patient?”
She rolled over and rifled through a small bag on the nightstand, pulling out a pill bottle. “I have Tylenol.” She held the bottle just out of my reach when she rolled back, this time even closer to me. “And…”
Then she leaned forward to press her lips against my ankle. “A kiss to make it better.”
In past moments like these, with Macey being close and flirtatious, I’d shut down. I’d been with plenty of women, sure, but none who I felt really saw me for me. Or, rather, that they even cared to see who I was under the fame.
But now, I felt more at ease.
“All my past doctors have been slacking,” I joked. “I guess I’ll have to keep coming back to you.”
She grinned. “Sure, but don’t ask me where I studied.”
I took the Tylenol from her, popped two in my mouth, and dry swallowed.
A comfortable silence descended upon us. We weren’t even touching, but I felt the touch of her presence everywhere.
“Who’s going to take care of you when Dr. Macey is gone?” She pulled a face. “I’m going to stop referring to myself in third person now.”
“I take care of me.”
I felt more than saw her turn her head toward me. “What about your other friends?”
Friends.
“Don’t have many of those,” I said bluntly and turned my head to face her. “I prefer not to keep people too close.”
Her gaze was steady and unblinking, as inescapable as if she had pinned me to the bed. “Why?”
I gave my typical speech. The one I’d reminded myself of over and over these last few years.
“Because they never stay,” I said. “People are like Instagram followers. Most will either leave or decide to dislike you at some point, so there’s not much of a point cultivating new relationships.”
She hummed, but it was a dark sound. “That’s a tragic way to view people.”
“Most people only care about being seen with me instead of actually being with me,” I said, then added, “Better to let them leave before you get too close and get hurt.”
