Page 22 of Sinful in Scrubs

I hadn’t been thinking.

Why hadn’t I been thinking?

I had clearly just messed up on the most epic of epic scales. How was I supposed to go to work and face him now? Oh, God, what if he expected a relationship from me?

I couldn’t do this.

I pulled the blankets over my head and rolled back over with a mournful groan. I was an adult. I was a professional. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to handle this at all. I really did feel sick to my stomach as bile lurched in my throat.

Scrambling out of bed, I rushed to the bathroom. I did not need to be sick right now. Being sick right now was not ideal. I paused, leaning against the sink counter. I ran cool tap water and splashed it over the back of my neck, scooping some into my mouth with my hands. After a few sips of water and several deep breaths, I was finally able to look at myself in the mirror.

“Get it together, Emma,” I told myself. “He’s probably as mortified and embarrassed as you are.”

I stared at myself long and hard, as if that were the same as giving myself a pep talk.

“I’ll figure it out,” I grumbled.

A long, hot shower would ease the tension building to epic proportions in my neck and back. The bags under my eyes were so dark and heavy they were more like carry-on luggage.

He had to have been as swept up as I was, to have found me attractive enough to do what we did…

“It wasn’t anything,” I told myself again. “It didn’t mean anything. It was just the release of professional tension.”

Last night had been hard, so hard—much harder than I had ever had to deal with for some reason—and Marcus had helped me get through it. That’s all it was. That’s all it was.

By the time I was done staring myself down, trying and failing at convincing myself this wasn’t the end of the world, the mirror was completely fogged up, which was just as well.

I stepped into the hot shower, scalding, the way I liked it, the way I needed it.

I spent too long under the water, and by the time I was done, my fingertips were pruned. Fortunately, my morning hours were blocked off for office work and catching up on paperwork. That meant I wouldn’t have to be in the ER—or anywhere I might run into Marcus.

Even though I convinced myself that we were professionals and that this was no big deal, I still had a bunching of nerves in my gut just thinking about what might happen if I ran into him. It wasn’t something I was ready to deal with.

Once I arrived at the hospital, I made a quick foray to the cafeteria before retreating back into my office. It seemed safer that way.

I looked up when I heard a gentle tapping on my office door.

“There you are,” Sarah said as the door opened. “You’ve been hiding all morning.”

I scoffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about. The fact that she was perceptive enough to even notice had my nerves on high alert. She did not need to know about Marcus right now.

“What’s up?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could muster.

“I just wanted to check in on you. After I heard about last night…”

My gut clenched, and my skin pricked in terror as a light sweat erupted from all of my pores.

“Who told you about last night?” I snapped.

I was ready to hunt down Marcus and string him up by his balls. I couldn’t believe he was going around telling people what we had done. I knew we hadn’t discussed the finer details, but I still would have thought he’d talk to me first.

Sarah threw up her hands. “Whoa, whoa, calm down. It’s not like everybody doesn’t already know about last night, Emma. I was just here to offer my moral support.”

I started to form the words, Why would I need moral support? when it finally dawned on me what she was talking about. I shut my mouth quickly, breathing hard through my nose.

“Right. Last night.”

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