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The car comes to a jerky stop.
“We’re here,” he says, leaning in to unbuckle my seatbelt.
My hormones go into overdrive.
Stop it. He’s your boss squared.
But he smells so yummy.
Now you sound like a cannibal. Get a grip. He—
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“Peachy.” Was that concern again? More importantly, how long was I talking to myself?
“Let’s go.” He guides me out. Then he and his personal assistant grab an elbow each and lead me into the ER entrance like an invalid.
Hey, it could’ve been worse. He could’ve wheeled over a wheelchair. Or a gurney.
Leaving me in the waiting room, my boss squared sends Ivan back to the car and goes to get forms from the check-in desk—which gives me a moment to shoot a text to Ava to let her know that I’m here.
I’ll come see you, she replies. Wait there.
Sure. I was so going to prance away before, but now I’ll wait.
Coming back with the forms, the Impaler helps me fill them out—as though my fingers are damaged. Midway, we have an argument: Instead of letting me use insurance, the very same one his company provides me with, he wants to pay for everything himself.
“I made you come here,” he says over my objections. “It’s the least I can do.”
Fine. He did drag me here. Let him pay—and I’m sure the bill will be huge enough to teach him a lesson about people’s free will.
“Fanny!” Ava is wearing her scrubs and grinning like a loon. Her eyes dart between me and my boss squared.
“I’m going to hand in the forms,” the Impaler says after I introduce them.
Ava waits until he’s (hopefully) out of earshot before she jumps up and down and claps her hands like a preschooler. “You didn’t tell me the Impaler looked like that. And he brought you here? Did the two of you—”
“Is there a private room where you can hide me?” I glance over to see how far away the Impaler is—and it’s a good thing I do, because he’s coming back.
“Not officially, but yeah,” Ava says. “First, I’ll take you for an X-ray.”
Catching the end of that sentence, the Impaler nods approvingly.
Ava quirks an eyebrow. “Mr. Chortsky, would you like to wait here, go to Fanny’s room, or come with us for the X-ray?”
I glare at her. I don’t want him anywhere near my room. Or my X-ray.
He grabs my elbow again—sending another wave of tingles through me. “I’m going with.”
Ava winks at me before she helps him lead me to the service elevator, which she opens with her hospital ID.
A corridor later, she ushers me into the room where a technician awaits. I cast a worried glance at her and the Impaler, who hang back together in the hallway.
I have a bad feeling about this, and not just because it makes me jealous. Ava doesn’t have much of a filter when she speaks, so who knows what damage she might do?
Since I don’t have a choice, I do my best to make the X-ray process as fast as possible, and when I sprint out of the room, Ava and the Impaler stop mid-word.
Does she look guilty?
