Page 11 of Undeniably Enemies

The stubborn, infuriating woman would too.

I walk down the hall, forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other instead of going after her the way I want to. I didn’tgo after her that night either. I would have kissed her again and brought her home with me, and I couldn’t do either of those things. Doesn’t she realize that?

I’m starting to think that damn drink wasn’t a love potion but a curse.

It’s better that she hates me. I sort of hate her right now, too.

Hate is easy. Hate is safe. Hate doesn’t have me ripping her clothes off and pinning her against a wall again. It doesn’t have me losing control or risking something I swore I’d never risk again.

So yeah. Maybe I hate Wren Fritz. And right now, I have no apologies for being a dick and making her hate me first. Thank God we don’t live anywhere close to each other. Avoiding her ’til death do us part should be easy.

4

Four years later

Bang,bang, bang. What is that noise, and why won’t it stop? Don’t they know I’m trying to sleep? It’s way too early for this crap. Wait. Shit! I shoot up in bed and scream, “Oh my god, I’m so late!” when I catch the glowing white numbers on the clock.

I pick up my phone and find my alarm going off. On silent. Because I was studying last night and didn’t want the interruption. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could I have forgotten to turn it off silent? Not today. This cannot be happening today of all days.

I catapult myself out of bed only to have my ankle snag on my sheet and send me tumbling to the floor in a heap. Like something out of a zombie apocalypse, I claw my way along my floor, kicking at the sheet to free myself from its clutches. Hoisting myself up, I tear into my closet and throw on a long-sleeved shirt and my scrubs that I had set out last night. I pee,brush my teeth, slide into my sneakers, grab my bag, and fly out the door.

“I locked it,” I tell myself, biting hard into my lip as I race down the stairs of my building. My hands tremble, and I shake them out. “Once is enough. I can’t go back. It’s going to have to be enough.” Argh! I hate this! “Oh my god!” I scream for a second time as I step outside into torrential rain that immediately soaks me through.

The weather did not mention rain last night when I checked. Could this day be starting off any worse?

“Oomph.” I slam into a hard body and fall onto my ass directly on the wet steps. Ugh. Of course.

“Wren, crap, are you okay?” Tyson pulls me back up, holding his massive umbrella over both of us, concern all over his face. “Did I hurt you? I didn’t see you. This umbrella is huge.”

I turn around and glance at my butt. It’s got two dark circles right on each ass cheek. I’d laugh—because tell me that’s not funny—if I didn’t have to go to work like this. “I’m fine. I have to go. I’m late.”

Tyson follows my line of vision and tries not to laugh himself. “Oh, girl, your ass. That’s my bad. For real, I’m so sorry.”

Sigh. “I’ll live. Maybe if I roll down the steps, I can get the rest of me that wet.”

“Don’t do that. Turn on your car’s butt heater. Here.” He hands me the umbrella. “Take it. I’ll get it back from you later.”

“Thank you!” I call back to him as I practically leap down the steps and race for the street.

“We’re getting a new neighbor,” he yells after me. “They’re working on the apartment now before they move in next week. I hope it’s someone good. Not like the last bitch.”

“Same!” I throw a hand up and sprint to my car, which I parked across the street yesterday facing the direction I need togo in anticipation of what today is. Tilting the umbrella back, I glance left only to immediately be hit with a tidal wave of water that shoots up from a passing car and soaks the front of my legs. My ass and now my legs. “Motherfucker!”

Not today!

The umbrella doesn’t want to close. My car isn’t sensing my keys that are shoved all the way down in my bag. There’s extra traffic because of the weather. I’m cold and wet and uncomfortable and pissed. I’m so pissed off. At myself, but also that this is how the first day of my emergency department rotation is starting, which was already something I was dreading despite the fact that I want a residency in emergency medicine.

After finally finding a parking spot, I make it into the emergency department, store my stuff in the locker with my name attached to it via masking tape, and pull my hair up into a wet bun while I walk out into the patient area. It’s all hustle and bustle back here, as it always is, but I don’t see any of the other students or even attendings and residents by the nurse’s station where we’re supposed to meet.

I check my watch. I’m more than thirty minutes late. My gut sinks and twists painfully. I’ve never been late a day in my life, not that it will matter when I have to deal with?—

“Miss Fritz. So nice of you to finally join us.”

My eyes close and my jaw locks before I suck in a composing breath. He’s getting a good look at my wet ass cheeks, and the urge to run is real. Instead, I force myself to turn around and face the last person I want to see, let alone be forced to apologize to.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Dr. Kincaid.”

His icy blue eyes drag disdainfully down my wet body and back up to my face. “I suppose you feel that because you’re a Fritz you should receive special treatment, is that it? That you can simply come and go whenever it suits you.”

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