Page 44 of Doctor Daddy

“Everything all right?” I asked.

“We’re leaving.”

“What happened?” I had heard almost everything, but I wanted Brooke to know that I cared.

She brushed past me and then Angela did as they stepped out of the room.

“I’m sure my mother will tell you all about it from her point of view.”

She didn’t even give me a chance to say goodbye.

20

BROOKE

Isat on my bed, staring at a pile of scrubs that needed to get put into the laundry. I didn’t want to go to work, I didn’t want to see Mark. I didn’t know if he was going to be at work today, or if he took another few days to stay at the lake house. My parents wouldn’t be home until midweek.

This past weekend had been hell. I had to sit there and watch Mark flirt with Mimi and bite my tongue. I couldn’t tell her to back off. I couldn’t tell him to stop looking like he was putting in an effort, he was supposed to be with me.

But that was something we weren’t sharing with others. It sucked.

And then on top of everything else Mom was on my ass about getting to the lake in time. At first, I honestly thought she just wanted me to hurry up and relax. But that wasn’t it at all. She wanted me there to work. Angela and I arrived in time to “help with dinner.” Which was Mom-speak for doing all the work so she could have a cocktail with Mimi.

My feelings for Mimi were something completely different. I wasn’t her kid, and I resented her treating me like a child. When she wasn’t treating me like a kid, I was the help she was ordering around.

I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Fortunately, Angela had my back and was willing to leave with me.

And now it was Monday, and I had to get ready. I didn’t want to. I wanted to roll over and go back to bed. I felt so sluggish and defeated. With a resigned sigh, I got up, found clean scrubs, and got myself ready for work. I counted my blessings that I did not see Mark all day.

Any blessings that were keeping me going evaporated the next day.

“Excuse me, could you tell me what floor Dr. Mark Bryant— oh, Brooke it’s you. I didn’t recognize you looking all professional with your hair back like that. Don’t they let you wear makeup?”

My stomach clenched with every word that Mimi spoke. She was condescending. I had makeup on, just not very much. Hell, I hadn’t worn makeup while up at the lake. Then again, she had commented on it that time as well. I did not like that woman. I was tempted to send her up to the wrong floor.

“Aren’t you a little old for an appointment with Dr. Mark?” I really wanted to say something way more out of line than that already was. I wanted to say something like throwing her legs up in the stirrups and showing off her pussy wasn’t going to get his attention.

She tossed her hair and laughed. “Oh, you’re so funny. It’s not that kind of appointment.”

I told her the floor and gave her a fake grin. I tried not to glare at her back as she waited for the elevators.

I wanted to kiss the little old lady who occupied all of my attention when I caught a glimpse of Mimi walking out the door with Mark. She trailed her hand along his upper arm. They didn’t stop to say anything to me, and Mark hadn’t tried to catch my eye.

I felt weird. Was this heartbreak, or was I coming down with something? I suddenly felt woozy. I made it to a trash can in time. I must be coming down with something.

“Hey, Terry,” I started as soon as she picked up the phone. “I think I need to go home. I’m throwing up.”

I got to leave early. No chance of seeing Mark when he got back from his lunch date.

The next morning, I called in sick and stayed in bed. Mom and Dad hadn’t come home yet, so I had to make my own chicken noodle soup. I decided to look up my symptoms. I kept throwing up. I didn’t actually feel bad other than that. Did I have an ulcer, or something worse?

According to the internet, I either had cancer and was going to die at any moment, or I was pregnant. I couldn’t be pregnant. We were careful. Mark used condoms. I was more likely to believe that I was going to drop dead from some rare stomach cancer than I was possibly pregnant.

I was pretty crap when it came to tracking my period. I expected it to be there, and then it was. Or it showed up within a few days, or it showed up before I realized it should. I really hadn’t thought about it. And I didn’t have any records to look at to see if I could figure anything out. Maybe it was time to look into one of those tracker apps for my phone?

I slurped down the canned chicken noodle soup as I continued to look up information. There was no way I was pregnant. However, condoms failed at an alarming rate, and I was showing several signs.

“Fuck.” I tossed the bowl of unfinished soup in the sink and headed back upstairs to get dressed. I couldn’t eat anything else until I knew for certain. I made it to the drug store and back in record time. It took more time to wait for the results than to buy the test.

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