Page 146 of Velvet Corruption

“I know,” he said. “But we didn’t know that at the time. You were so scared I had to talk to the doctors alone and you know my Spanish sucks.”

I smiled, despite myself. He wasn’t being snarky. He still sounded scared too.

“Your Spanish doesn’t suck.”

“Tell that to your mom. I can still hear her making fun of me in my head,” he said.

I started to relax. Started to believe he was going to let it go.

His expression changed. Tensed.

Then his gaze landed on my throat again before he spoke. “If he choked you, Ruby, we can still report him. If he went too far…”

“What?” I asked, trying to process what he’d just said.

“The bruises on your neck are so bad,” he said. “If it started as a thing you were both into and then it went too far…I mean, you told me how many of those cases you had to drop as ADA.”

"Julian, I can’t—this isn’t—I don’t want to talk about this,” I said, because I had no idea what else to say. He was so worried about me.

And for what? I could never tell him the truth.

“It wasn’t a good night. But I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“I mean it,” I said, hating the silence.

Julian exhaled slowly. “If you change your mind, I’m just…I didn’t want to tell you like this, but I started to see someone and she’s actually in charge of the ER at General. She’s an administrator there. You want to see someone, you just let me know,” he hesitated. “If you need anything else…”

I latched onto the the shift in conversation like a lifeline.

“It sounds like you like her,” I said quickly.

He studied me for a beat before answering. “I do. She’s sweet,” he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m waiting to see if things get more serious before I introduce her to Rosie.”

“Okay,” I replied.

“I think I can skip prep today,” Julian said. “I mean, I’m as prepared as I’m going to be for this shitshow. Why do they pay me so much if they never listen to me?”

“I never listen to you and I don’t pay you anything,” I said, nudging him playfully with my shoulder.

He laughed, nudging my shoulder back. It felt normal for a second.

Then he sobered again.

“Oh, speaking of. Do you need money for the window guy? Not the, uh, guy. The actual repair. He did repair it, right?”

“Yes. Don’t worry about that.”

“Okay,” he said. “But if there is anything else I do need to worry about, you’d tell me, right? If not for my sake, for Rosie’s?”

I bit back the angry retort I immediately thought of.

“I would never do anything to jeopardize Rosie’s safety.”

“I know,” he said. Quietly. Seriously. He got up, brushed himself off.

Then, just before he turned to leave the room, he looked right at me.