Page 312 of The Doctors Will See You Now

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.

I gripped Scott’s bicep tighter and turned our bodies toward an exit route. He glanced down at me in confusion, but I ignored it and said, “Bye Brent,” over my shoulder with a half-assed wave.

A few minutes later, both of my hands were shoved into my pockets, and Scott and I were walking side by side in total silence, only the busy sounds of New York City foot traffic filling the otherwise dead air between us.

I glanced at him out of my periphery, and I noted the firm, hard line of his jaw and the rigid way he held his shoulders. Something was up with him, that was for fucking sure.

By the time Jane was no longer in sight, I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “What’s going on?” I questioned, realizing he was probably wondering the same thing about me.

The instant Scott realized I was no longer walking beside him, he stopped and turned toward me, and his brown eyes were still creased with the same stress and irritation they’d held inside the restaurant.

“Seriously, Scott,” I shouted. “What in the fuck is going on?”

His long strides ate up the pavement as he closed the distance between us. “Why don’t you tell me? You’re the one who appeared very friendly with the fucking mayor back there.”

“What?” My jaw dropped in surprise. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“No,” he spat through gritted teeth. “How do you know the mayor? I mean, he appeared quite fucking friendly with you.”

“Before I give you an explanation, I want to make damn sure you realize how you’re coming across right now,” I challenged. “You’re acting like a jealous boyfriend, and it’s way out of line.”

He scoffed. “No, I’m not.”

“Oh yes, you fucking are.” I stared at him, my gaze unrelenting. “And seeing as we are not in a relationship, I definitely don’t owe you an explanation about my past relationships.”