Page 43 of Dr. Off Limits

Sutton

If it hadn’t been for Gilly pounding on my door, I would have spent the evening in a beautiful hotel room in front of Netflix. I told her I wasn’t feeling well but it didn’t work. She wasn’t taking any excuses.

“We get to spend time with McDreamy. You can’t just spend the evening in your room. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

After my swim, I’d showered and blow-dried my hair, but I was in a robe when Gilly arrived.

“I’ve got no makeup on.”

“You have perfect skin. Put some mascara on. It’s all you need.”

“I’m not even dressed.”

She didn’t comment. She just put a hand on her hip. I sighed and pulled out some jeans and a t-shirt.

Gilly was dressed up in a short skirt, a skin-tight polo, and heels. I hadn’t even thought to bring anything dressy. I pulled on my jeans and a Madonna t-shirt I’d had since the salon.

“You think Jacob likes heels?”

“I have no idea,” I said, slipping my feet into ballet flats.

“He’s single, right?”

“How would I know?” I countered.

“Not for long,” she said and gave me a wink, before I grabbed the plastic key card and my phone from the dressing table and shooed her out the door.

Dinner was a buffet. Jacob and I managed to stay at opposite ends of the room with our backs to each other for at least an hour. It was all I could hope for.

“I’m going to bed,” I said.

Gilly fixed me with a stare. “No, you’re not. I simply won’t allow it. Will you, Veronica? We get no time off to do anything nice together. We’re going to have a couple of cocktails and mingle with our colleagues.”

“Cocktails sound good,” Veronica said.

“Mine’s a sex on the beach with Dr. Cove,” Sara, another one of the FY1s, said.

“I’ll fight you for him,” Gilly said.

“Who are you fighting over?” Andy came over to our table and leaned on the back of mine and Gilly’s chairs. “Because there’s plenty of me to share around.”

“I’m going to the bar,” I announced, standing. All this talk of Jacob as if he were a prize to be won had changed my mind. Maybe I wanted to see how he interacted with the likes of Gilly and Sara. Maybe he’d have to hold himself back with them like he’d had to hold himself back today at the pool. Maybe I wasn’t special and Jacob Cove was a walking hormone.

When I turned around, Jacob had already left his table. Maybe he wouldn’t even go to the bar. Why would he want to hang out with a bunch of twentysomethings he had to work with? He was probably tucked up in bed with Netflix, the way I wished I could be.

One cocktail, and then I’d be heading to bed as well.

We wandered into the bar and found Jacob sitting talking with one of the FY1s I hadn’t spoken to before—a short, Asian girl called Lucy. She was pretty. Even though I knew I couldn’t have him, and even though it was me who had sworn off all relationships, a wave of jealousy swept through me. He wasn’t going to start dating Lucy—I was confident about that much. But he would start dating someone. Eventually.

Someone who wasn’t me.

Gilly came over, asked me to order her a cosmo, and then left me at the bar as she went over to join Jacob and Lucy. There might just well be a fight over that blond beauty tonight. But neither one of them would win.

Andy let me cut in front of him.

“Can I get a cosmo and a glass of red wine, please. Andy? What would you like?”

“I’m fine. I’ll sort myself out.”

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