Which was fair because I wasn’t making much sense, even to my own ears.
‘Yes. And then acted like it was nothing.’
‘Right, so he loves you.’ Alistair shrugged.
My back snapped upright so fast it clicked. ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
He frowned, staring at me likeIwas the idiot. ‘He loves you. Is that really coming as a shock to you?’
‘He doesn’t,’ I blurted. ‘It was the bet and then-’
Alistair sighed like he was talking to a child barely able to speak in full sentences. ‘Okay, let me put it this way. If I came to you and told you I’d brought a girl dinner late one night when she was working, and bought her a bunch of expensive things and talked to her every night on the phone, what would you say?’
‘That you’d gone insane.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Humour me.’
The corners of his brown eyes crinkled when he saw the realisation slowly dawn on my face.
I shook my head, heart slamming an unrelenting beat behind my ribs. ‘No. No. He doesn’t, he can’t. I’m?—’
‘In love with him too,’ he finished for me.
My eyes bulged. ‘I didn’t say that. You take it back.’
‘So you’ve not been about to murder anybody who crosses your path today simply because he hasn’t answered your texts?’
‘I told you,’ I cried. ‘I’m losing my mind.’
His hand reached over the table and gripped my shoulder. ‘That is pretty much synonymous with falling in love. Alright, I can see yer about to explode. Let me just ask you one question.’
I sat frozen in my seat, body too numb to function properly.
‘How would you feel if he never answered your message? If you never spoke to him again?’
That small crater in the middle of my chest grew even wider at that thought.
My eyes widened. ‘Fuck.’
Alistair chuckled. ‘Ay, that’s one way to put it.’
34
By the timemy shift finished, I barely stopped to say goodbye to Jean on the front desk before I was flying out of the clinic to my car. Emotion clawed its way up my throat as I drove—a tad recklessly—through the city.
How I had got through all my patients that afternoon was a mystery.
I loved him.
I loved George. No. No. It wasn’t happening. Itcouldn’thappen. He’d messed me up with his kindness and his dick. That was all.
Hot tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. I swiped at them, letting out a frustrated grunt. Inevercried before I met him. Nothing had ever affected me enough to warrant that kind of emotional display.
Since he waltzed into my life, I’d become a blubbering mess.
I swung into mum’s driveway and jumped out of the car.
My fist had barely pounded on the front door when mum opened, her smile dropping instantly.
