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“Evelyn, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Her usually pale face was red and splotchy, and wet with tears. She sniffled, her shoulders heaving, and wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“P-please go away, Doctor Pierce. P-please.”
Even when she was in the middle of a meltdown, she was still calling him Doctor Pierce. She was either stubborn or on autopilot. It didn’t matter what she called him, though. It wouldn’t change his behavior.
“There’s no way in hell I’m leaving you sobbing in a stairwell,” he told her, and set his hands over her skirt at her knees, stroking his thumbs across the nubbly tweed that covered her thighs. “Tell me what’s wrong, and whose ass I have to kick for making you so upset.”
Her plump, pink mouth thinned into a line. “Isn’t that k-kind of the opposite of ‘do no harm’?”
Not too devastated to crack a joke then. But that probably said more about her persistent sense of humor than how upset she was.
“Yes. And I would violate the Hippocratic oath for you.”
“I appreciate the offer, but p-please don’t. I wouldn’t want you to lose your license, and honestly it’s no one’s fault b-but mine.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” she retorted, finally making eye contact. “I could be the worst human on the planet.”
“I know you well enough to know that’s not true. Being that terrible would be a full-time occupation and I know you’ve got another job.”
Evelyn’s chin trembled briefly, and then she burst into tears again. Which is when he noticed the file box behind her on the landing. The kind of file box that people put the contents of their desk in when they’d been fired.Shit. Way to stick your whole-ass foot in your mouth, Pierce.
Chapter Three
Could this day get any worse? It had been bad enough to lose her job, and Cricket hadn’t been able to clean out her cube before she started crying. She’d tried so hard to hold it in that her face had gotten all stuffy, and so hot she was surprised it hadn’t melted off.
Having a breakdown like that would mean everyone knew and everyone would be talking about her. It wasn’t hard to hear the whispers as she left the office.
She’d opted for the stairs and not the elevator even with her box of stuff because she thought she’d be less likely to run into anyone. Wow had she been wrong—regrets were being had.
Now the hot doctor she had a massive crush on was watching her ugly cry. Even though he was being so nice, it was mortifying. All Cricket had wanted to do was cry out her misery enough to be able to drive home. Once she’d made it to her apartment she could cuddle up with Bandit, sob some more, and figure out what in the name of geoducks she was going to do now.
“Oh, Evelyn, I’m so sorry. I hadn’t realized.”
Obviously not. Doctor Pierce had always been nice, no way had he made a crack about her having a job when she’d obviously just been fired.
Cricket shook her head.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she sniffed, and then yawned. Jeez, how could she still be exhausted when she was panicking this hard? But she could probably curl up on the concrete steps and take a nap right now. That would have to wait because it would be even more embarrassing than crying her eyes out.
Why had she told Doctor Pierce she didn’t know what she was going to do? Ugh, he did not need to know that. They flirted in the elevator and the lobby, he didn’t actually care about her.
She wouldn’t be able to bear it if he pretended to want to help but then melted into the fog if she actually asked him for anything. No, she wanted him to go away. It was better to do things on your own than to count on people and have them let you down. It sure as seal snot hurt less.
“It’ll be okay,” she told him, trying to be chipper but failing miserably by sniffing and then yawning again. “I’ll figure it out. You should go. Get an early start on your weekend. I guess…I guess I won’t be seeing you around anymore.”
It was foolish given that they were barely acquaintances, but the idea of not seeing Doctor Pierce anymore started her sobbing again. His handsome face, his easy smile. She suddenly regretted not ever having told him her real name. But it would be weird to do it now, and the loss of that intimacy made her even sadder.
She’d always had big emotions that her sturdy, reserved farmer grandparents and father hadn’t understood at the best of times and had lost their patience with at the worst of times. Her mom had been kinder but was still mystified by all her outsized feelings. Here she was, all grown up and still a crybaby.
It was quiet for a few seconds except for the sounds of her weeping. Maybe Doctor Pierce had listened to her and backed away slowly from this hot mess she’d become. Probably for the best so she wouldn’t get her hopes up only to have them dashed again.
Instead, she felt his thigh and hip come alongside hers as he sat beside her. Then he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in for an awkward but also wonderful side-by-side, twisty-spined hug. His arms were so warm and strong, and he rocked her a bit. It had been a long time since anyone had comforted her when she was upset. Maybe because she’d been told so many times that she was too much so she’d tried to keep her feelings to herself.
Being fired with no prospects, no money, no savings, and no one to help had been too much though, and here she was, overflowing. She could live off her credit cards for awhile, but she’d been so proud to pay them off and be able to start saving for her homestead. Now that dream was going to have to wait even longer. If she could ever get it to come true.
