“A… a good friend.”
“Like a friend you fuck?” Chase wiggles his brows.
“Or a friend youwantto fuck?” Logan shoots me a wink, and Lulu elbows him in the ribs.
A friend I think I want to spend the rest of my fucking life with.
“I don’t know!” I run a hand through my hair. “Just… Don’t scare her off, okay? Everyone needs to be cool.”
Everyone is absolutely not going to be cool.
“Wait, do we know her?” Zoe demands, laser-focused. “Because we’ve seen you talk to exactly three women in the past five years.”
“And one of them was Betty,” Logan adds, mentioning Lulu’s old eccentric neighbor. “Who’s seventy and calls youDaddy Rat.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Respectfully,” Jake pipes up, “you don’t justinvite a womanto brunchunless it’s serious.”
“It’s not—” I scrub a hand over my face. “It’s… new. Ish.”
“Ish?! Okay, now I’m invested in several things, including an identity and a timeline.” Zoe rests her chin in her clasped hands, mimosa forgotten, eyes pinned directly on me.
“Ohhh,” Logan drawls, thinking he’s cracked the code. “Is it that physio? The one Viktor’s into, too?”
Tamara nearly chokes on her coffee. “What? Yourphysio?”
“She’s very bendy,” Chase offers, like that’s helpful.
Zoe gasps and points at me. “Yes! You’ve been flirting with her during all your rehab sessions, haven’t you?”
“I wasn’t flirting with my physio,” I snap.
“Oh my god, itisher!” Lulu shrieks. “You’re all grumpy about it, which means you like her, you big slut!”
“It’snotHeidi,” I say firmly, looking around the room.
“Well, who else is there? What about the receptionist at the clinic?” Tamara says. “The one who glares at everyone and moons over Dr. Moreno.”
“Or,” Zoe adds slowly, her eyes pinning me, “itisMoreno.”
“JesusChrist,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose. I let the silence sit long enough to make them squirm, then exhale. “It’s Carina Park.”
There’s a beat of stunned silence, and I watch as their mouths fall open, eyes darting amongst themselves across the table.
Zoe slaps her hands on the table. “DR. DOOM!”
“You’re fucking Dr.Doom!?” Chase nearly drops the syrup.
“Wait,” Lulu whispers. “She’sreal?”
“She’s cominghere?” Eli’s voice goes up an octave, which never happens.
“But—I thought shehatedyou,” Jake says with a frown.
“She did.”
Charlie blinks. “She’s the surgeon who made you take out your piercings, right?”
