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This was not a place I should be letting myself go. Not with her.
“Why are you telling me all this, Zoe?” I asked, little more bluntly than I should have.
“Huh?”
“I don’t mean to be rude, but we don’t really know each other that well…”
“Right, right. Sorry,” she said, quickly, “we’re not friends and here I am just vomiting up my life story.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not.” She shook her head. “I’ve been doing that a lot, lately. Unloading my life story on strangers like we’re friends. But we’re not friends. I know that.”
I nodded, feeling like an ass. But I knew it was the best.
I was the right guy for maybe-had-a-belly-ring Zoe to do shots with and get another tattoo with and hook up in the bathroom of a dive bar with. I wasnotthe guy to listen to her problems and help her figure out how to fix them. I wasn’t the guy who was going to help her deal with her life drama.
I was fun. Not forever.
“Sorry,” she said again.
“Don’t be sorry,” I told her. “I mean, for what it’s worth… you were probably too good for him.”
“Maybe,” she said, but she clearly didn’t believe it.
That got to me. More than it should have. More than it normally would have from anyone else.
I stood up and dusted myself off.
“Well, at least the hot water’s working again,” I assured her, hoping to lift her fallen spirits. “Small graces, huh?”
“Yeah. Small graces.”
“So…”
“So I won’t take up any more of your time, Carter,” she said, curtly. “Thanks for fixing the hot water. I’ll see you around.”
She turned and left before I could say anything else, and I stood there with my mouth opened and a half-formed goodbye on the tip of my tongue.
“Bye,” I said to no one. I could feel the words just hanging there in the air.
I tried to shrug off the strange, incomplete feeling I was left with.
But I couldn’t.
Three
Zoe
I rushed into the hospital supply closet and tore off my scrub top as fast as I could without getting vomit in my hair. I tore through the shelves looking for extra scrub tops in my size.
“Extra small, small…” I muttered, tossing away the ones that wouldn’t fit. “Ugh.”
I heard voices from the hallway getting closer and closer. One of them sounded like my coworker Mark. I didn’t recognize the other.
“I thought I saw her run in here,” Mark said, throwing the door open.
“Hey—” I grabbed the nearest scrub top and held it over myself. I spun round and saw Mark standing next to a woman wearing a black suit and a white coat. She looked like a doctor, but I didn’t recognize her.
