She was the sort of woman who people just... adored. She was smart and funny and beautiful. Wherever she went, people gave her what she wanted, and she'd gotten by on that for her whole life.
Apparently, the only reason she'd agreed to marry me was because she knew I worked hard enough to support us both and would be busy enough not to notice what she was getting up to.
"She was mad," I said after a bit, feeling compelled to tell Dan the whole story. "When I said I was thinking about scaling my hours back at the hospital to spend more time with her."
He frowned. "Why the heck would she be mad about that?"
"Because it would mean less time for her to screw around, I guess. Less time when she could be spending my money and not giving a shit about me."
Dan winced and sighed, going for the bottle to slosh more into my glass. "Well, you're better off without her, then," he said.
"Am I?"
"Yeah. You don't need someone who doesn't love you or respect you dragging you down. I know it hurts now, but time heals all wounds and all that. You've just got to stop thinking about it. About her."
"Easier said than done," I muttered. "She was... I loved her."
"I know, but she wasn't worth it. You're on vacation now. This is the perfect time to unwind and figure something else out. Take some time for yourself, hook up with a local. Whatever you want to do. Don't make yourself more miserable over her. Then she wins."
I sighed. It still sounded ambitious, but I could understand where he was coming from, and I knew he had my best interests at heart when he said it.
"I'll think about it," I said.
Dan spent some time after that doing his best to distract me. He told me stories about the people he worked with and about the affair one of the managers at his office had been having with one of their clients that had blown up in both of their faces.
He wasn't a small man, but the whiskey was going to his head with the way he was drinking it, and he ended up nearly falling out of his chair, laughing at one of his own jokes.
Britt came to rescue him after a bit, shaking her head. "Sorry, Logan. Let me get his dumb ass to bed. Or at least somewhere where he won't hurt himself."
I waved a hand. "It's fine. He's having fun."
"At least it's fun for him, I guess," she muttered, hauling him up and out of the room.
I sat there for a moment longer before taking the bottle of whiskey and my glass and heading out to the porch.
I'd say this for Greece, it was beautiful. The weather was nice, and there was a warm breeze coming off the ocean. The porch was screened in enough that there weren't any bugs to land in my drink, so I sat there on the swing, looking out into the darkness, heart a little heavy and my mind turning things over.
For the first week or so after Jasmine had left, I'd wondered what I'd done wrong. I tried to be attentive and kind, tried to give her everything she could possibly want.
I knew now that it just...never was going to be enough for her, but that didn't make it sting any less that she had just walked away when she realized I wanted to have an actual relationship with her. Four months on, and it still fucking hurt to think about.
I knocked back the rest of my drink in one go, wincing at the burn, and leaning back on the swing with a sigh.
My whole life had been planned out before me, and I was completely on track. Finished medical school, jumped through all the hoops, landed a job at my top choice hospital. Maybe my bedside manner was lacking at times, but I was damned good at my job otherwise. Jas had come along, and I'd been willing to rearrange things to slot her into my plan, something I'd never dreamed of doing for anyone.
And what did I have to show for it? Now there were gaping holes where she'd ripped herself out of the picture, and I didn't know how to fill them.
Sitting outside moping wasn't the way to move on, though, so I went to pick up the bottle to take it back inside and maybe drag myself up to bed. One good thing about vacation was I was catching up on all the sleep I'd been missing out on while I put myself on call every night to avoid the realities of sleeping alone.
At least I could enjoy sleeping again.
Before I could walk inside, a light laugh drifted up the steps to the porch, and I turned to see Elise and Jason heading up the beach towards the house.
I frowned. It was late enough that I hadn't expected anyone to be out, and it was clear those two were flirting or something like it.
I didn't know Jason personally, but I'd heard things about him.
Apparently, they didn't see me standing there in the dark.
