I’m sitting in the office at the Martyr Hospital, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.
But I can’t. I’m freaking out about Nathan and what I’ve done.
I should have listened to the warning signals my body was giving me. We have been acting different toward each other lately. If I’d just listened to my gut and taken a step back from him, this wouldn’t have happened.
I hear a familiar voice out in the hall near recovery.
I jump up and step out into the corridor, where Nathan is talking to a nurse about a patient.
His eyes come to me.
“Dr. Mercer,” I say. “Sorry to interrupt.”
“Yes,” he says as if I’m an annoyance.
“Can I see you in my office for a moment when you’re finished here, please?”
“I have to get going. I have an appointment.”
“It will take one minute,” I reply sharply.
He clenches his jaw, unimpressed by my tone. “Fine.”
I march back into my office. He can be such an asshole when he wants to be. Moments later, he walks into my office and puts his hands into his suit pockets. “What do you want, Eliza?”
“What do you mean, what do I want?” I whisper angrily.
“Exactly what I said.”
“Are we going to talk about last night?” I ask.
“Nothing to talk about,” He snaps.
“Are you kidding me? If there was nothing to talk about, why did you leave last night?”
“Because I wanted to.” He sneers.
I narrow my eyes. Nathan is never like this with me. This is the behaviour he saves for everyone else. “What is your problem?”
“You are my fucking problem.”
“Me?” I point to my chest. “What did I do?”
“Oh, please.” He scoffs with an eye roll. “You know exactly what you fucking did.”
My fury begins to boil. “And what is that?”
“Waving your half-naked ass all over my dick, and…” He clenches his jaw as if to stop himself spitting out poison.
“You were massaging me.” My eyes bulge. “It was your hands on me. Are you kidding?”
“Do I look like I’m fucking kidding? What is this? A big joke to you?”
I frown. He’s really rattled by this. “Nathan, calm down. So, we got a little tipsy and crossed the line. It was just an accident.”
“That won’t happen again.” He growls.
“You’re overreacting.”
His eyes nearly bulge from their sockets. “And you are underreacting. It’s blatantly obvious that you don’t give a flying fuck about our friendship.” He heads for the door.
What the hell?
“We’ll talk about it tonight.” I try to calm him-he’s about to have a heart attack or something.
“There is no tonight, Eliza.”
“Why not?”
He glares at me. “I need some space.”
My heart drops. “From me?”
“Yes. From you.”
We stare at each other for a moment. Something has shifted between us.
He rushes out the door. I stare at it for a moment, shocked.
I pinch the bridge of my nose. For fuck’s sake… what a disaster.
Nathan
“Nathan, this way, please.” Elliot smiles as he calls me from his waiting room. I follow him into his office and take a seat.
“How are you?” He smiles.
“Terrible.” I’ve been rattled since seeing Eliza at the hospital this afternoon.
The look on her face.
He sits down. “Tell me, what’s been happening? I take it there have been developments with Eliza?”
I drag my hand down my face. “It’s gotten worse. Everything is worse. I can’t even look at her now.”
He frowns. “Why is that?”
“Last night.” I screw up my face at the memories. “We fought, and then we went out to dinner and had cocktails.” I pinch the bridge of my nose.
“What did you fight about?”
“My jealousy.”
“We’ll come back to that. Go on.”
“We got into bed and… she just felt so good, you know? I couldn’t help myself. For two hours before that, I’d been ….” I swallow the lump of shame in my throat. “Picturing her in every sexual position known to man.” I pause for a moment. “Picturing her head between my legs… her mouth full of… me.”
“I see.”
“When I got into bed, something snapped.”
He narrows his eyes. “How did this start?”
“Her back was sore, so I offered her a massage. I shouldn’t have. I knew before I started that it was a bad idea. I knew it was wrong.”
“It’s not wrong to offer a massage to a friend, Nathan.”
“It is when the sole purpose of it is to feel their body.”
“You wanted to feel Eliza?”
I nod and close my eyes in regret. “More than anything.”
“What happened?”
“I massaged her and then…” I think back to how she felt beneath my hands, and I feel my arousal creeping in again.
Fuck. Stop it.
“Go on, Nathan.”
“We laid on our sides, and my hands were all over her body.”
“What did she do?”
“She told me not to stop.”
He frowns. “So, your fears may be unwarranted?”
My eyes flick to him. “My fears?”
“That she wouldn’t want to be sexual with you?”
“I know that I can get her to want me… sexually,” I stammer. “At least once. That’s not my concern.”
“What’s your concern?”
“That the sex won’t be what I think it will be.”