Page 54 of Embrace
When I glanced at Greg, he was smirking. “That was tactic. It didn’t work. You left with the wrong guy.”
I did a double take. “You mean I left with my boyfriend.”
“A boyfriend is not—”
“A husband. Yes. You said that already. And that might be part of your belief system, but it’s not part of mine.”
“Did you shower with him? I know you were with him earlier. He wears this cologne. I can smell him on you.”
I sniffed one of my shoulders then the other. “Cologne?”
“Oh, that’s a good sign,” he said, cheesing.
“What’s a good sign?”
“You don’t know how his cologne smells.”
“Maybe it’s not cologne you’re smelling.”
“It’s cologne.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Ask him. Call him now. Let him know you’re with me.”
I shook my head like a rattle. “Enough about Jake… I mean Asher.”
Greg sneered at me as if my blunder was the reason why he believed Asher and I would never go the distance. However, he was wrong. I would never judge Asher for seeing how it felt to live as someone else. It was a bold move, and frankly, I wished I’d thought of it.What would it have been like to be Raine Waters or Rose Redd instead of Penina Ross? Would either of those women have become a surgeon?Both sounded like stripper names, and I wasn’t stripper material.
“What about you, Greg?” I asked, thankful that we were almost at our destination.
“What about me?” he asked.
“What happened between you and your last girlfriend?”
“Ha,” he said, quickly turning to look out the window. “Girlfriend? I don’t do girlfriends. I’m the dope who goes straight from meeting them to asking them to marry me then calling off the engagement. But you, you’re a different caliber of woman.” He faced me, and even though I wouldn’t look at him, I could feel his eyes undressing me. “I’d follow through with you. We’d get married and move to Vermont. We’d own an apple farm, raise five kids, all of which I would definitely have a lot of fun impregnating you with.” He sucked air between his teeth, and through my peripheral vision I saw him grab his package.
I couldn’t believe him. My mouth couldn’t close, and words wouldn’t form. I couldn’t even unpack all he had said. But there was something I had to say. Miss Nice Doctor had to be locked in a cage, and stern and professional Dr. Ross had to be released.
“Greg, you’re making me uncomfortable with your level of flirting. I mean, impregnating me? I’m your doctor and may be your surgeon. Do you want me to help you with your brain? Or do I assign you to another doctor and keep the fuck away from you?”
I forced my eyes to remain on the road as he sat quietly. Anticipation hung in the air.Is he going to respect my wishes or not?I glanced at him after I turned in to the parking lot.
He was nodding thoughtfully.
“What’s it going to be?” My tone remained stern.
“First of all, I didn’t know ‘fuck’ was in your vocabulary. I like it. Secondly, I understand. I’m coming on strong as hell because I know there’s no beating Christmas. But fuck, I wish I had taken you from Rich when I had the chance. He didn’t deserve you. We’d be married by now.” He said that as though he actually believed it.
“No, we wouldn’t be married.”
“What?”
“We wouldn’t be married.” I pulled into a parking space next to the entrance.
“Why do you say that?” He sounded disappointed.
I put the oversized SUV in park, turned off the engine, and made sure we kept steady eye contact. “Because I’m a surgeon, Greg. I’m not a woman who gives birth to five kids and lives on an apple farm. You’re infatuated by my looks, and that’s okay. If that’s the kind of man you are, then that’s who you are. But once you learned who I really am, how inaccessible someone like me can be, and how I will always choose my career over all the shit you want out of life, you’d run away from me like your feet were on fire.” And that I was one hundred percent sure of.
