Page 34 of Fighting a Riot

I sighed. “Just a run-in with Mia. She said some things…”

“What kind of things?” Trixie asked.

It would be easy to keep Mia’s comments about the Riot to myself, but I was curious to hear Trixie’s perspective. “She said I’m getting involved with the mafia on two wheels of all things.”

She barked out a laugh. “Ha! That doesn’t surprise me. Mafia. She wouldn’t know a mafia on two wheels if they drove through her bedroom.”

“But the members are one-percenters aren’t they?”

Trixie shifted in her seat. “Yeah, but not like they used to be. Most of the time they stay on the right side of the law.”

I shot her some side-eye. “Most of the time?”

She waved a hand at me. “Yeah. Most of the time. Now what other shit did she spew at you?”

A small smile pulled at my lips. “Then she had the audacity to tell me she hoped my appointment went ‘well.’ It’s hard to say what’s more insulting, how fake her words sounded or how insipid the words were. Nothing about this appointment can really go ‘well,’ you know?”

Trixie shook her head. “Don’t let that bitch get to you.”

I nodded. “I’m not letting her get to me, but at the same time I like to understand why people do things. But, heck if I can wrap my mind around why she’d throw me a bachelorette party if she was busy having sexy times with Destin.”

Trixie parked her car outside the doctor’s office. “You’re asking the wrong woman. I held out for a long time with my man. A very long time, so it took me a while to recognize that I wouldn’t stand for being second-best. But what that skank did… that’s settling for being second best, since she took him right after he broke things off. That shit doesn’t just happen, she had to be waiting in the wings. So I really got nothing on why she’d do that shit.”

I tucked my phone into my wristlet and unbuckled my seatbelt. “Me neither.”

Trixie squeezed my forearm. “The better question is, what about Yak?”

I leaned my head back. “What about him? There’s nothing happening there, Trixie.”

She laughed. “Right. I’m tabling this until after your appointment, but you need to recognize. I’m not buying what you’re selling.”

Unlike my first appointment, this one ran excessively long. I’d shown up early to do the paperwork. About ten minutes after my appointment time, a nurse called me back to an examination room. There, Trixie and I waited for forty-five minutes before a different nurse came in and took my vitals.

From the look on her face, I suspected other patients were giving her a hard time. As she secured the blood-pressure cuff on my arm she said, “I’m sorry about the wait. Dr. Loring is thorough with his patients and doesn’t like to leave any questions unanswered.”

It was nearly two-thirty by the time we climbed back into Trixie’s Camaro.

I shut my door and buckled up. “I’m so sorry that took so damn long, Trixie. I should just take an Uber back—”

“Stop it. I figured your first appointment would run long, but it didn’t. I said this shouldn’t take long, but Roll pointed out I had no way of knowing that. He’s cool. It’s all good, woman.”

I nodded. “I still feel bad.”

She shook her head as she backed her car out of the parking spot. “That woman had it wrong. It isn’t that the doctor likes to answer every question, it’s that he likes the sound of his own voice. He could have cut that so much shorter.”

I nodded, though, I actually liked how detailed the doctor had been.

“Do you have a third doctor to see?” Trixie asked after a while.

“No. I left it at two. I’ll talk to my Mom before I make a decision, she actually went through breast cancer treatment when I was a kid.”

Trixie jerked her eyes toward me and back to the road. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. But she made it through, obviously. It’s odd though, she thought I should set up three doctors also. I just feel like it’s overkill.”

“All this stress, I need a Big Mac, Nora. I know you want to get back to the office, but I need to eat. What do you want?”

I chuckled. “You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’d love a cheeseburger Happy Meal.”

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