Page 295 of Dark Love

“Ms. Fleur, it’s nice to see you again.” The doctor shakes my hand, but his eyes go to Maverick.

“It’s nice to see you, too.” That isn’t actually a polite falsehood. “This is Maverick Steele. We’re together now.”

The doctor shakes Maverick’s hand with only a slight tremble, which is impressive considering the murderous glare he’s receiving.

“So, are you ready to go over the details of your breast reduction surgery and schedule the procedure. Or do you have more questions?”

Maverick’s eyes bulge out of his head. “You aren’t having your breasts cut off.”

My poor guy can’t handle life. “Yet,” I finish for him. “I’ve decided to wait until it’s medically necessary, but I’d like to make arrangements for the therapy you and my mother were talking about to help build up my muscles and avoid it for as long as possible.”

“What are you talking about, cutting off your breasts? The only reason women cut off their breasts is if they have cancer. Do you have cancer? Because, Dahl, cancer is something you should definitely have mentioned. I don’t want you going through any step of that alone.”

The doctor clears his throat. “Breast reduction surgery isn’t part of cancer treatment. Those usually involve reconstruction, not reduction. Ms. Fleur is here about a strictly cosmetic procedure. At some point, due to her body shape, it will become a medically recommended procedure, but that might be years away.”

What do I say? How do I explain all it means to be a woman with naturally large breasts? A woman who hated them so much, she planned to cut them off rather than look at them again in the mirror.

“We’ll get you set up with some physical therapy. And readdress this issue in the future.” The doctor stands up.

“Thank you,” I whisper before the doctor walks out.

“We’re talking when we get home.”

And my good day just ended. “You’re going to need s’mores.”

Maverick takes my hand in his and squeezes it. “Whatever this was all about, nothing is scarier than thinking about a moment without you.”

Will he really mean that after I come clean?

***

Maverick pulls me to the couch as soon as we step inside his place.

“Shouldn’t we go to the library? Or maybe get some blankets?”

“Talk. Because I need to know why the woman I love was contemplating cutting off her breasts.”

“Reducing them. I wasn’t cutting them off completely.” Though I have thought about it a time or two when things were really bad.

“Dahl.”

“Your stern face is cute.”

“And your attempts at distraction aren’t working.”

I am brave.

I am brave.

Small steps are hard, but I am brave enough to take those steps for a better life. “Promise me you won’t think less of me.”

“Less of you? You’re talking to a man with blood on his hands and you're worried about me thinking less of you.” He stands up and walks away. “Yourmother threatened me… She talked about you living through enough and told me I better not hurt you. Is all of this what she was referring to?”

Mom told him my life was hard. “Probably. But it was all of my own making. Can you believe the worst thing that ever happened to me was by my own hand?”

“There’s something worse than being drugged in my bar.”

That should have been the worst day of my life. “You saved me. There was no one there to save me when I ruined my life. Instead, they decided to record it for posterity.”

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