Page 194 of The Doctors Will See You Now

With stiff posture and narrowed eyes aimed directly at me, she was the hunter, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I was her prey. I honestly had no idea why I was on the receiving end of her ire, but I didn’t have the brain capacity to figure it out. The oil was hot and ready, and I had a whole bucket of other fish to fry. Scott had obviously had lunch with Brent—my ex, Brent. The fucking mayor, Brent.

Jesus Christ. What is happening? What business does a goddamn reality show doctor have wining and dining the mayor of New York City?

Shocked and nearly at a loss for words, his name shot off my tongue before I could stop it. “Brent?”

Always a fucking smarmy bastard, Brent flashed his notorious smile directly at me like we didn’t have a ten-ton pile of shitty past between us. It was the smile that had fooled everyone into believing he was a man of character and morals. The smile that had led his political career toward success. That stupid politician’s smile that had gotten him elected mayor of one of the greatest cities in the world.

“Nice to see you, Harlow,” he said. His words oozed friendly cheer, but I knew his soul, and it was too fucking black for real pleasantries. Past lover or not, he was no friend of mine.

I watched as Brent leaned in and in, coming toward me like an out-of-control car. I used every mental voodoo trick I knew to pump the fucking brakes, but even that failed. Twisted wreckage and the hollow sound of a rolling rim were the only things I could hear as he pressed his lips to my skin at the intimate place where my lips met my cheek.

Hell, he might as well have just stuck his tongue down my throat.

I wondered immediately what he was trying to prove. Or screw up. Brent didn’t know how to make an uncalculated move.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Brent was the ex. The one who made me realize long-term commitments were not for me.

He had a long-standing record of fucking up my life—our relationship was proof of that. He had started out as my college boyfriend, the man I’d once considered sweet and kind, the man I’d counted on, the man I’d loved, and he had turned into someone who wanted control over me, over every aspect of my life, over everything.

Somewhere along the line, when I was busy trying to make something of myself, secure a future worth something, he had changed from someone I’d admired to someone I despised. Still despise, actually.

The instant Brent’s lips left my skin, nausea burrowed itself inside my stomach and shot up my esophagus like a fucking rocket. It took all of my mental strength to fight the urge to vomit onto everyone’s shoes and across the floor of Jane.

Fuck, is it hot in here?

Discreetly, I fanned my heated cheeks and stepped away from Brent. I needed distance. And space. And possibly, a getaway car.

With Scott’s eyes watching me the entire time, and the unknown woman practically seething in her stilettos, there was enough awkwardness and tension in the room to choke everyone in the restaurant.

God, I could imagine the way Brent had shown affection toward me only proved that, at one awful point in my life, we’d known each other on a more than just friends level. It most likely appeared pretty fucking god-awful to an outsider, especially Scott.

“How have you been, Low?” Brent asked and reached out with one of his slimy hands to rub down my arm. Instantly, I flinched away from his touch.

“I’m fine,” I said with a brittle smile and then met Scott’s eyes for the second time since I’d stepped into Jane. He looked irritated, and I would’ve had to have been blind to miss the rigidity in his posture and the stress lines creasing the corners of his normally relaxed and jovial eyes.

“You don’t want to ask me how I’m doing?” Brent asked, and my eyes met his again. Cocky, confident, and fucking manipulative. That was all I saw when I looked at this man.

“How are you, Mr. Mayor?” I questioned without one ounce of care in my voice. Because I didn’t care. This man was the absolute last person on earth that I cared about. And I’d always considered hate a strong word, one I generally tried to avoid, but my feelings toward him felt a hell of a lot like hate.

He grinned. “I’ve been really good.”

Of course, he likes me calling him Mr. Mayor. I’d done it mockingly.

As always, he was confidently at ease with himself and the situation despite my visible discomfort. What a fucking narcissist. “Although, I do think it’s been too long, LoLo,” he added, the sound of his nickname for me sparking a renewed roil of nausea. “We need to catch up soon.”

“That’s great,” I answered and ignored his suggestion—or was it a demand?—that the two of us engage in a friendly powwow like we were just the best of buddies and our relationship hadn’t ended disastrously.

God, he was still a prick. Which was exactly why I needed to get the fuck out of Jane and this awful situation as soon as possible.

“Well, it was great seeing you, Brent, but…” I paused and looked toward Scott. “We better roll out of here or else we’ll be late,” I lied, and Scott’s brow furrowed in confusion. “For that thing with my dad,” I added. I honestly had no real excuse for why we needed to leave, but I just knew we needed to fucking leave.

“Oh, how is your dad, LoLo?”

Fucking LoLo. I ground my teeth. If we didn’t get out of here soon, I wasn’t going to have any molars left.

“He’s good,” I said and wrapped my arm around Scott’s bicep. “Sorry to rush out of here, but you know how my dad is about punctuality. He’s not too tolerant with tardiness.”

Brent quirked a questioning brow in my direction, but I just smiled back at him like I wasn’t the world’s worst liar at that moment. We both knew I was lying. My dad might have been a stickler for being on time, but I had never in my life made it a point to comply. I rolled on my own schedule, Bill Paige’s wrath or not.