“That’s the guy,” I say.
“Who?”
“His name is Dax, and he is ‘the’ guy.”
She touches my shoulder and says, “Girl, you have some explaining to do.”
I laughed and quickly told her that he was a patient from the ED last night, and I told him I would be here.
He approaches me as I’m recounting last night and stands only inches apart.
I look at him and say, “You found me.”
He grabs my hand lightly and looks me in the eye. I feel the same sparks I felt yesterday. I know now that I didn’t imagine them. He brings my hand up to his chest.
He looks at me hard and says, “Now that I’ve found you, what am I supposed to do with you?”
I pull a loose strand of my hair and place it behind my ear. “I guess we’ll find out,” I tell him as I lead him to a chair under the shade.
ChapterSix
Liv
We sitand chat like old friends. The conversation flows easily, and I laugh at his witty sense of humor. His friends come over, and he introduces me to the other guys, Eric and Theo. I remember Jameson from the ED.
“So Dax was a good patient last night?” I ask.
“No, but then again, I’m not the nurse he wanted,” he says with a wink.
A blush immediately rushes to my face. Thankfully Dax takes pity and pretends not to notice my embarrassment. He just shrugs his shoulders in agreement.
“That’s true,” he agrees.
My other girlfriends hang around with us, and the guys all talk to them. Even my guy friends from high school are friendly toward them and engage in usual topics of conversation like sports and work. Brodie is the only one avoiding the group. That’s more than okay with me. My anger is still running high. I’ll chat with him in a bit. Some of our group goes to play volleyball, and I get up too. I spot Brodie, his back to me, talking with a couple of girls, and decide it’s better to get this over with. It’s better to chat with him before the drinking happens. I tell Dax that I’ll catch up with him in a bit. He goes off to the group of friends and says he’s going to freshen up his drink. As I get closer, I begin to overhear their conversation.
“I don’t want to talk, Alexis,” Brodie says curtly.
She reaches out to grab his hand, but Brodie pulls back. “Well, that sure didn’t stop you last night. But then again, there wasn’t much conversation going on.” She lifts one eyebrow at Brodie, almost willing him to deny this in front of her friend.
My brain catches up to the scene, and I realize the girl in front of him is the one from the video. My body freezes, feet immobile in the sand. She shifts slightly when she doesn’t get the attention she was hoping for and continues trying to persuade him.
“I suppose we didn’t talk much, though,did we, baby? I’m totally okay with that.” Her hands reach up to touch his shoulders before gliding down his arms. Brodie flinches at her touch but just shakes his head.
“Last night was a mistake, Alexis, and I’m sorry I led you on.”
“A mistake?” she counters, sounding confused and slightly agitated.
I attempt to unfreeze my stupid feet and head back before they spot me, but my movement catches Alexis’s eye. Recognition crosses her face. She knows who I am, but how?
Holding my eye, she steps closer to him and purrs into his ear, “Well, I guess we gave each other multiple mistakes last night, huh, Brodie.” With that, she winks at me.
Brodie follows her line of vision to see me watching the exchange. He goes to reach for me, motioning for me to stay, but I start to run away.
“Liv wait,” he yells and begins to run after me.
For some reason, I stopped. Anger flowed through me. This isn’t how I imagined this conversation going, but it’s unavoidable now.
Alexis looks at me and snickers, “Enjoy, my sloppy seconds…and thirds.” She flicks her long back hair over her shoulder and saunters off. She looks like a tan, cosmetically enhanced barbie doll. Very plastic and artificial with about as much personality.
