AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I startle, quickly wiping the drool from my lip, then cleaning up the mess on the counter as I mumble an awkward ‘good morning’.
Smooth, Karli. So smooth.
I’m still mad at him.And I’ve still also kind of got the hots for him.Because just when I was starting to think that we could actually make this whole roomie-friendship thing work, he goes and gets me all hot and bothered in the supply closet, messing everything up.
Okay, fine. It’s not fair to put all the blame on him. Yes, I was sending him the signals. Yes, I was flirting a teensy, tiny bit. Or maybe a lot. But I didn’t expect him to act on it! We both know what’s at stake if Felix even suspects anything is going on between us.
“I, uh, appreciated your peace offering from last night,” he says with the slightest smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
I keep my face neutral and zip up my lunch bag. “Did it help?”
“A bit, actually.”
My heart thrums.Even though it really, really shouldn’t. “Good.” A smile tumbles across my lips despite my best efforts to suppress it. “Ginger is an ancient natural remedy for headaches.”
“Oh, okay. Didn’t know that.” Mason smiles back. “That’s interesting.”
Our eyes hold, and with those brown irises staring at me like that, I start feeling the dangerous magnetic pull that got me in trouble in the first place.
Mason seems to feel it, too. He quickly shakes his head, backing away one step at a time. “Well, anyway, thanks.” He turns and moves toward the stairs. “I’ve got to grab a shower. See you at work?”
I nod. “See you at work.”
My chest thumps, my stare trailing after him and his fine, tight man-butt. Are doctors even allowed to have asses like that?
All I know is, I am absolutely, positively not at all comfortable with the fact that Mason and I are coworkers now.I’m not sure if I’m woman enough for the task.
As if being roommates and having to share space with that perfect face and those perfect arms and that perfect man-butt isn’t overwhelming enough.
Pretty sure someoneup thereis conspiring against me.
20
MASON
“Can I get the pink one, Mommy? And can we get glitter markers? I want my friends to sign my cast with glitter markers! Please, please,pleeaassse!” The excited six-year-old bounces about on the examination table as the intern helps her select the cast I’ll be placing on her arm today.
I offer the bright-eyed girl a smile as I back out of the room. “How about you guys take a few minutes to decide on a color?” My gaze turns to her exasperated mother. “I’ll be right back.”
Closing the exam room door behind me, I lumber toward the front office to grab lab results on the little girl’s broken arm. She may be excited now but the poor kid’s going to be a basketcase when she realizes all the things shewon’tbe able to do having to wear a cast all summer long.
I hear Karli’s voice the moment I step into the hall. Just the sound of it does something to my chest. Because now I’m thinking about the way she whimpered in shock when I pushed her against that shelving unit and kissed her in the supply closet.
What is wrong with me? Have I completely lost my mind? When did my life become a scene from a hot mess Thursday night medical drama? What part ofyour best friend’s little sister is off-limitscan’t I understand?
In any case, I hate how awkward things are between my roommate and me now. I’m supposed to be smoothing things over with Karli, so that we can make this weird fucking living arrangement work. Not making things worse by continuously coming onto her like a perv. But that seems to be all I’m capable of these days.
I wonder if she’s even half as messed up over this as I am. With that girl, who the fuck knows what she’s thinking? Last night after work, she was biting my head off for kissing her again. But this morning in the kitchen, she was ogling me like she wanted me for breakfast. More than she wanted that lumpy green smoothie she was whipping up.
I don’t know anything anymore. I think I’ve got whiplash.
When I get up to the front, I realize that I’m the only one obsessing over our situation. Actually, Karli’s not thinking about me at all. In fact, she’s twirling her hair and making googly eyes at the guy who’s currently hunched over her reception desk.
It’s some asshole I don’t recognize. A patient, I’d presume, judging by the bulky medical boot on his foot. With his letterman jacket and stiff gelled hair, he looks like a high school jock who doesn’t realize he got fast-forwarded seven years into the future. But I don’t care about what he’s wearing. It’s the overly obnoxious flirting and grinning he’s carrying on that’s got me seeing red.
Karli’s behind the desk, reading to him from the health and nutrition journal sitting open on the tabletop in front of her.
“Say that again.” The guy grins down at her, his smug, punchable mouth quirked up on one side.
