Chapter Ten
The email from Gabriel in his inbox had been staring back at Reid all day, unopened.
It wasn’t fair to ignore Gabriel. Especially when all he’d done was exactly what Reid wanted him to do, really.
He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t throwing mixed signals at the guy.
The thought of reading whatever Gabriel’s email said was too much, though.
Reid knew it didn’t say ‘hey, sorry that was so sudden, but I think we should date’ or anything like that. It probably said sorry, but then went on to say that Gabriel was going to find another therapist.
Reid wouldn’t have gone back to the same guy he’d kissed out of nowhere and then run away from. Not in a million years. So he didn’t expect Gabriel to, either.
He had to open the email. He couldn’t just leave it there unread forever.
Reid’s stomach swooped as though he’d missed a stair as he clicked on it, his eyes closing reflexively so he wouldn’t have to face whatever Gabriel had to say straight away.
No matter how much he didn’t want to handle this, though, he had to. Ignoring it and hoping it’d go away wasn’t an option.
Reid took a deep breath, forcing himself to open his eyes.
As predicted, it started withI’m so sorry.
To Reid’s surprise, though, this wasn’t a goodbye. As he read, he realized that Gabriel was asking for forgiveness.
I don’t expect to find a better therapist than you, and while I realize you might not want to continue treating me, I’m not above begging. I swear it won’t ever happen again.
The thing was, Reid still didn’t understand why it had happened at all.
He could admit to himself that he’d been hovering over Gabriel, too close for too long, just because he liked being close to him, but… Gabriel was supposed to be straight. He’d gone from giving no hints that he was attracted to Reid to kissing him.
Although…
Looking back, Reid could see a hint or two. When they’d run into each other on campus, when Gabriel had come in for the appointment where he’d been in tears with pain. Tiny hints, things Reid had brushed off as just being Gabriel’s personality.
Not what helookedfor, but then… Gabriel was straight. He wasn’t intentionally flirting, so it had been harder to spot.
Reid couldn’t help but feel like heshouldhave spotted it, though. He felt responsible for this.
Was it more unprofessional to refuse to see Gabriel again, or to continue to treat him knowing what had already happened?
Reid knew the answer to that—it would have been a lot better to refer Gabriel to someone else—but that wasn’t the answer he wanted.
Besides, he knew Gabriel’s case. If he sent the poor guy to someone else, Gabriel would have to break them in all over again. And if he didn’t connect with them, he probably wouldn’t listen to their advice, and then he’d never get better.
At least, that was how he was justifying this to himself.
He wouldn’t have been the first medical professional to have a thing for a patient, and he definitely wasn’t going to be the last. Besides, he had an email where Gabriel fully admitted that he was in the wrong, so if anyone ever questioned him on it, he had proof that this wasn’t on him.
Not that he expected Gabriel to do him any harm. He didn’t seem the type to hurt anyone.
He seemed incredibly guilty, and Reid wished he could tell him that it was okay, or that he wasn’t totally opposed to doing it again with a little more warning.
He was going to keep treating Gabriel, though. There was no point in pushing him away.
Don’t worry about it,he started an email back to Gabriel.These things happen, consider it forgotten.
He wasn’t likely to forget it for a long time, but Gabriel didn’t need to know that right now.
