Page 8

Chapter 7

Aria

T oday is the day Ivy arrives.

The nurses and doctors here have arranged everything, so as soon as the transport pulls in, she’ll be in perfect hands. As far as I’m aware, only her mother is coming, and they’ve set her up in a hotel nearby at the same time as ensuring she has somewhere to sleep in Ivy’s room.

When I walk past one of the patient’s rooms, one who is still waiting to be transferred to hospice, I pause when I hear a deep voice.

“Did you ever listen to the book?”

Without looking in, I pretend to read notes by the door.

“It was giving me a headache. My ears are sensitive.”

“Ah,” Tobias replies. “What if I read it to you, or are you going to argue with me about how to pronounce words again?”

The girl—Lucy—huffs. “You were saying the dragon’s name wrong for ten chapters straight.”

A smile creeps onto my face at the way Tobias deeply chuckles. Then, my eyes lift to see Gabriella watching me, her eyebrow raised.

“Did you hear me?”

Blinking, I shake my head. “Sorry. What?”

“Ivy’s plane just landed. The nurses are ready. What do you want to do? Go back to the hotel and sleep those bags off, or go for some food and catch a movie?”

“We were at the movie theatre yesterday,” I reply. “Besides, I’ll probably pass out ten minutes into the movie.”

I’m struggling to get a good night’s sleep in the hotel bed. That, and the fact I may have been doom scrolling for any trace of Tobias on the internet.

It seems my lovely assistant has an aversion to social media, because he’s nonexistent.

I don’t usually look up coworkers online, but after the potential flirting in the club and how I know when he walks into a room without looking, I’ve become intrigued.

She clicks her tongue and looks behind me. I turn to see Tobias gently closing the door, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

He must be tired too. After me and Gabby’s girl date, I came back here to look through paperwork and call some of my colleagues back in Scotland for further advice. He was in Lucy’s room–she was asleep, and he just sat there, like he always does.

If I hadn’t gone in with some coffee and asked him to give me a hand with something, I doubt he would have left. With her mother not here, she doesn’t like to be alone, and it seems Tobias doesn’t like the idea of her lying in the ward, awaiting more answers about her disease without any company.

I like his heart.

Wordlessly, he lowers his head in greeting before he goes straight to the exit. Dr. Blythe stops him with a hand to his chest to whisper something into his ear, and Tobias lifts his head with a scowl.

His jaw tenses as he replies, but since he’s gritting his words through his teeth, I’ve no idea what he’s saying, or why there seems to be tension between the pair.

“Can we at least grab food?” Gabriella asks, stepping into my line of sight. “I think burgers, or maybe pizza.”

“Pizza,” I agree. “Then we go back to the hotel and sleep. I have to?—”

“Pizza sounds good!”

Justin interrupts us, and I want to roll my eyes at the blush creeping onto Gabriella’s face. Instead of telling him absolutely not, she invites him along and tells him to meet us at seven outside a diner not far from where we’re staying.

I love her, but I might strangle her right now, along with her assistant. She needs to stop giving him “take me to bed and fuck me in every position possible” eyes. Without warning, a presence comes up behind me, and Justin grins before he opens his mouth again.

“You’re off soon, right? Pizza with the bosses?”

“Are you going?” Tobias asks me, and I pause; I’m pretty sure I’ve just turned paler than pale as I look around us.

I point to my chest. “Me?”

“I’m looking at you, aren’t I?”

“Will my presence deter you from going or something?”

He smirks and averts his eyes with a shrug. “Or something.”

“So…” Justin gestures to Tobias. “Yeah?”

A hum, and he does the same as me, staying silent while they make the plans. They invite two nurses who politely decline, leavingthe four of us going for food.

It’s going to look suspicious, right? Two scientists from Scotland going out for dinner with their assistants?

What if Gabriella decided to snap a picture and post it online? Will Ewan see?

A huge part of me dreads something like that, but there’s also a sick part of me that wants her to post, because then he’ll think I’m moving on and not sitting around with a broken heart. It’s going to be hard when I get back home. I’ve been in Jason’s life forever, and the distance is already killing me, but Ewan fucked up. I can’t stay with someone who keeps a secret like that for years and acts like they’re the most perfect person ever.

Let Gabriella rub it in his face.

Do I care?

Not enough to cancel and go to the hotel myself.

Twenty minutes of us being at the pizza place, and Justin has been the one to talk the entire time. His voice drones on and on and on, and Gabriella eats up every word while Tobias glances at me when he thinks I’m not paying attention.

Sitting diagonal from me at the table, he fidgets, his middle finger tapping, his knee bouncing, and I wonder if he’s a smoker like my mother and needs a cigarette. Her nicotine withdrawals always end up with her yelling at my dad every five seconds, eating her weight in food, or doing exactly what Tobias is doing right now.

“How did you two meet?” Gabriella asks Justin, and it grabs my attention–I’ve wondered this too, since they’re polar opposites in every way. Their friendship makes no sense.

“Met in a therapy group when we were teenagers,” he replies, nudging his elbow into Tobias, who scowls at him like he wants him to fall off a cliff and die. “His dad got him a job at the hospital and, being the great best friend he is, he got me in too.”

“Stepdad,” Tobias corrects.

“Whatever. We live close to each other, so he’s kind of stuck with me forever. Did you know he has three motorbikes in his garage?”

I frown at the random information.

“I crashed one of them, and he beat the shit out of me. Remember? You broke my arm and kicked me down your apartment stairs.”

Huffing, Tobias stands from his chair and doesn’t announce his departure as he heads straight for the bathroom.

“He’s quite moody,” Gabriella says. “Does he loosen up when he’s drunk?”

“He doesn’t get drunk. Think I’ve witnessed him drinking twice, and both times, he went home early and didn’t speak to me for weeks.”

My phone buzzes in my lap, my heart skipping a beat when I see who the message is from.

TobiasWork: He never shuts up.

Me: Neither does Gabriella.

TobiasWork: Want to ditch them?

Me: They’d end up on ‘missing’ posters all over the city.

TobiasWork: That's a risk I’m willing to take.

Me: They’ll never let us leave.

TobiasWork: Give me 5.

Justin heads to the bathroom after reading a message on his phone with a furrowed brow. I assume Tobias told him to meet him out back to beat him up again if he tends to hit his friends.

The entire time they’re gone, Gabriella makes a list of the pros and cons of sleeping with her coworker, and whether she can trust herself not to get attached to Justin if she does.

While she talks, I have butterflies–not because she has talked herself into her fling, but because Tobias wants to sneak away from them with me.

The confused feeling is making me want to drink until my mind is obliterated, but since I can’t handle hangovers and I’m too "professional", I’m going to stay sober this whole work trip.

My phone vibrates in my hand, and it’s ridiculous how quickly I flip it over and cut off Gabriella.

TobiasWork: Pretend you need the bathroom.

I frown and look up, not seeing him anywhere as Justin winks at a waitress and heads back to us.

Me: And go where?

He doesn’t reply. He goes offline, and I chew my lip, glancing at my friend and the way she’s fluttering her lashes at Justin, looking at him like she wants to devour him.

“I’m going to jump to the bathroom too,” I say, and neither respond to me, too deep into their eye-fucking to pay me any attention.

And just like that, I slip my jacket on and push through the exit to the coldness outside.

“Let’s go,” a low voice comes from behind me, cleaning his glasses with his spectacle cloth and putting them on. “They won’t notice our absence until they’re done fawning over one another.”

“You noticed that too?”

“Justin is like that with everyone, if you want to let your friend know he’s not husband material.”

I giggle as we cross the sidewalk and slip onto a path running along the side of the promenade. “Gabriella isn’t much for romance and relationships either.”

“What about you?”

My eyes widen as I look up at him. “Oh, um…”

He smirks and stares at the water while we walk. “Was that inappropriate?”

“If I say no, will you make me answer you?”

“Depends,” he replies. “I’m not going to end up in a fist fight because I’m walking with someone’s girl, am I?”

“I’m very much single, so I doubt that. Plus, this is just coworkers walking away from our other coworkers nearly screwing in front of us.”

He snorts. “Yeah. I guess so.”