Page 70 of Dr. Off Limits

Sutton

I lay back on the picnic blanket, staring up at the fluttering bright green leaves overhead.

“Champagne in the park. This is one of the most romantic afternoons ever,” I said.

“Agreed,” Parker said. “Don’t tell Tristan.”

I laughed. “I promise.”

It had been Parker’s idea to picnic on Hampstead Heath, and it was one of her better ones. “I much prefer to be under a tree sipping champagne than hanging off one, holding on for dear life.”

“We’re not trying to distract you now. I’m trying to relax you.”

“You’re a good friend.” I felt shitty that I’d not told her about Jacob. It had just happened so quickly and work was so frantic, I’d hardly seen Parker since it happened.

“That sounds ominous.”

“Does it?” I sat up. “It’s not meant to. But I do have something to share with you.”

“I hope it’s about Jacob.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

“I’m so pleased you gave in. Tell me what happened.”

I told her what had happened at the offsite and how I would go over to his place after my shift. How I’d gone to Norfolk and met his family. Jacob and I had initially said no friends or family should know, but going to Norfolk had already violated that rule. It seemed only fair that Parker should know. She was as close to family as it got for me. “He’s wonderful. Really wonderful.”

“Don’t let there be a but,” Parker said.

“Of course there’s a but. A big but.” I fell back onto the blanket.

“Surely you can let it be complicated. Or choose to let it be simple.”

“Life is never easy. For a start, he’s my boss. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I don’t want people to look at me and think I owe any of it to the fact that I was sleeping with my boss. I just want to stay in my lane and get through the next two years unscathed.”

“Who cares what they think?”

“Me,” I said. I loved Parker but she’d had opportunities in life that meant when something good happened to her, she never questioned it. Our backgrounds were very different. “And not just me, but everyone who gives me a job from now to the end of time will be wondering if I’m less good at my job because of the way I got into med school. So it’s important I don’t add fuel to the fire. I don’t want people thinking I had to sleep with the boss to get by.”

Parker groaned. “People are arseholes.”

“You know that’s what some people will say.”

“I get it,” Parker said. “But it can’t be career over if you two get discovered, surely.”

I shrugged. “Maybe not career over, but there’d be a question mark over my head. And after all the work I’ve put in, I don’t deserve that. I can’t help thinking that when it’s all over, I’m going to regret it.”

“Maybe it’s never over.”

I laughed. “What? You think I’m going to marry this guy?”

“Maybe,” she said.

I shook my head. Only Parker could say something like that. “Not going to happen. It’s all too easy with Jacob. There’s bound to be something that will derail us at some point. I just don’t know if...” Whitney’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” started playing in my head. You could take the girl out of the salon but never the salon music out of the girl. “I don’t know if the ride will be worth the fall. But at the same time...” Jacob would be at work now. Maybe he’d be in the dining room at this very moment. I’d not seen him out of the hospital for three nights and I missed him. How was that possible? He was going to come round to my place after his shift. Maybe I’d cook for him.

“But at the same time?” Parker interrupted my thought process.

“But at the same time, I don’t want to give him up.”

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