Page 6 of Doctor Do-Over

“Okay. I’ll let you go. I’m going on shift soon. Ignore your brother. I love you, and I’m so proud of you.”

“Love you, Mama.” I sigh as I hang up. “I think I fell for my one-night stand,” I whisper into the phone, needing to say the words out loud.

“Excuse me. Ma’am?” Chet asks.

“Nothing.”

We pull up to the Emory Hotel. Normally, Cort checks me in to keep my identity secret, but I’m on my own since she’s currently over the Atlantic. Hotels, just like all my travel arrangements, are booked under my real name. It’s a security measure we implemented a few years ago.

I’m exhausted from the little sleep I got last night, and I don’t sleep on flights very well. As I make my way to the counter, I notice a couple of other people standing there. At first, I don’t realize they’re watching me, but then I catch a guy looking my way. He seems kind of familiar, but I shake off the paranoia. It’s probably just my mind playing tricks, fueled by the weird Snapchat messages I’ve been getting and that guy who hugged me at the New York con.

When I reach the counter, I lower my voice as I give the attendant my real name. The girl repeats it a bit too loudly. I glance around and find the man is gone. I breathe a deep sigh of relief and relax a bit.

Once I’m in my room, I take in the view of Hyde Park. Moving back to the door, I flip the bolt over the anchor to secure it. I explore the suite and notice a second door that enters through my bedroom. My brother got me an alarm because hotel locks can be bypassed. I decide to put the alarm on that door and a chair up against the other.

I can’t shake the paranoia after all the Snapchats and the guy who hugged me yesterday. He whispered that our love story would be written and hit all the lists. The creepy guy and the messages were among the reasons I was in the bar last night. I was stressing out. The person messaging me is upset that I’m changing my writing and insists that someday we’ll meet, and it will be worth writing about.

I move to the bar and reach for a bottle to pour myself a couple of fingers, but I shake my head and decide against it. I need food instead.

After a filling room service meal, I head to bed and, as usual, manage only a couple of hours of sleep before I wake up with words swirling in my mind. I love writing and can’t imagine doing anything else. When my alarm goes off, I dress in a pair of compression joint stability leggings and a sports bra, which I top with a large, baggy hoodie. I need to go for my daily walk. I don’t have Eddie to accompany me yet, but they’ll be here in a couple of hours.

An hour later, I’m walking up to the hotel when I notice a black cab pull up. The door opens, and a large blur of black and white fur rushes me. He doesn’t hit me but stops and brushes up against my leg. His big black head presses into my stomach,lingering there as if he’s trying to absorb my scent. I squat down and wrap my arms around his furry body.

“How’s my baby boy? I missed you so much, Eddie.” I stand up and see Cort standing there watching us. Eddie is named after one of my favorite anti-heroes. Cort likes to say that Eddie goes into Venom mode when someone gets too close to me.

“I can’t believe he did that,” she says. “I don’t think he likes me at all. He never cuddled with me, not even while he was hurting.” Cortney gripes, and I just laugh. This has been a running joke since she started working with me two years ago.

“He knows his mommy,” I coo down at him.

He stands at my side, and I reach down to grab the handle on his harness. Eddie has been my service dog for the last three years. I worked with a special trainer to teach him how to assist me when I faint. I have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS. I will faint when I go from a seated to a standing position because my body doesn’t control my blood pressure very well. I also have a couple of other conditions, and Eddie helps me with those too.

“Would you like me to get us reservations for dinner tonight?” Cortney asks, shifting into agent mode as she pulls out her phone. She’s dressed in a pantsuit and looks me up and down, taking in my workout gear. My curly hair is up in a messy bun. I had no time to style and blow it out after the shower I took yesterday, the one I took after sneaking out of Tanner’s suite.

Tanner and I showered together one time, and he took me during that shower. My mind chooses this exact moment to remember I need to get a morning-after pill. Do they have those here? I don’t want to ask Cort. I’ll have to look up that information when I get up to my suite.

The shower was the first time Tanner took me without a condom. Afterward, he messed up a couple more times and took me unprotected. He said he would pull out, but he didn’t. We gotlost in the heat of the moment. My core clenches when I think of how he felt bare inside me. Against the shower wall after I gave him a blow job. On the bed with me on my knees and him behind me. The memory of his cock inside me as he came causes my skin to flush and my core to spasm, aching to be filled by him again. I miss him.

“That’s some blush you got going on, girl. Give me all the details,” Cortney says.

“No.” I shake my head and turn away from her.

I wait in the lobby while Cort checks in. Once she’s finished, I lead her and Eddie onto the elevator and press the button for my floor.

“You know I won’t tell your parents if you got to bump uglies with a hottie.”

I can’t stop my reaction. My breath increases, and I bite my lip, thinking of how hot Tanner was.

“He was a hottie.” I let out a sigh and slap my hand over my mouth.

“OMG. Tell me more.”

“I met him at the hotel in New York. He was amazing.” I hear the sigh in my voice as I softly smile.

“You go, girl,” she cheers.

The elevator stops, and I show her where my suite is. She follows me inside, and I release Eddie’s handle so I can maneuver to the desk where I left my laptop open. I start to search for the morning-after pill in London when Cortney distracts me. I close the window so she doesn’t know what I’m doing.

“So, plans for dinner?” she asks as she walks toward me.

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