Doctor’s Duties by K.C. Crowne

Chapter 21

ABBY

Lexi poked her head back in after a few minutes of silence.

“Um, OK – so I know this might not be the best time. But if the Whittington’s aren’t going to be eating any of the food, do you guys mind if I grab a plate? I’m kind of freaking starving.”

I forced a smile. The evening had been a disaster, but that wasn’t Lexi’s fault.

“Go for it,” I said. “Eat it while it’s hot.”

Logan nodded, glancing over in her direction for a moment.

“Great. You guys should eat something, too. Fighting with parents is really calorie depleting, you know?” She offered a smile before ducking back into the other room.

“OK,” said Logan. “Give it to me straight - how badly did I screw up?”

It wasn’t an easy question to answer.

“Well, you screwed up majorly by not telling me this insane plot before dropping it on my parents. What the hell was that all about?”

“It slipped out when they brought up the thing about me being your professor.”

“It slipped out?”

“Yeah.” He calmly reached forward and picked up his wine, sipped it, then set it back down. I did the same – booze was, in that moment, totally essential. “I realized your parents might start poking around, asking people at the school if they knew I was seeing one of my students. I figured that if we were married, they’d be less likely to do that.”

He had a point.

“What would happen if the school were to find out?”

“It’s hard to say. It’s my last year before retirement, so that would cut me some major slack. But still, you are one of my students. It’d be a scandal, even if we were really married.”

“What about this class with your associate professors?”

“That’s an option. But it won’t be up and running until later in the semester. For the time being, you’re going to have to drop out of my class, or we’re going to have to keep this marriage or relationship or whatever it is a secret.”

“Well, it’s definitely not a marriage, that’s for sure.”

“But it’s more than a one-off thing,” he said. “Once it becomes a two-off, I’m pretty sure you have to come up with a different name for it.”

I was still pretty pissed at him. But that managed to get a smile out of me.

And as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. There was no sense in pretending that this thing between us, whatever it was, was some simple fling. I liked the guy – a lot. Truthfully, when he dropped the bomb that we were married, it was kind of, well, appealing. I could imagine a heck of a lot worse things than being wed to a man who actually gave a damn about what I wanted.

“Well,” I said. “You’re right about one thing. We are something. But going from ‘something’ to ‘fake married’ is a lap that I most certainly was not planning on when my parents came over for dinner tonight.”

“I know,” he said, getting up with his glass of wine in hand. “The idea just came out of nowhere. But as soon as I said it, I knew it was the right call to make. Think about it. Your parents aren’t going to be happy, but they are going to stay off your case about you marrying someone that they choose. And they’re definitely going to be leaving you alone when it comes to telling you what to do. If there’s one lesson they learned tonight, it’s that you’re going to do what you want, no matter what they say.”

I sipped my wine, giving the matter some thought.

“I guess you have a point,” I said. “My parents probably are going to leave me alone when it comes to the subject of my future now. Guess all I had to do was drop a bomb into the middle of our relationship to make it happen.”

He pursed his lips for a moment. There was something on his mind – something I could sense he wasn’t sure if he ought to say.

“What is it?”

“It was your dad. I know he’s your father, and I don’t think it’s good form to trash talk someone’s parents.”

“But…”

“But, when I heard him talking about you like that, acting like just because you’re his daughter that it’s his right to tell you what to do, suggesting that because you’re a woman you’ve got no destiny other than to be some rich man’s trophy wife…it pissed me off.”

He went on.

“You’re a hell of a student. And more than that, you’ve got passion and drive, a real desire to do some good in the world. I get the pleasure of meeting some amazing doctors-to-be in my line of work, and ones like you are hard to come by. You’ve got an amazing future in front of you. Damn shame your own parents can’t see that.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks. I appreciate that. Hard to find many people in my corner these days.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to get through this. But if you need me to pay for your college, I can. Least I could do after what just happened.”

“No, Logan,” I said, standing up. “I don’t want to go from having to rely on my parents paying for my college to somebody else. And to be honest, I’m still upset that you pulled me into this plan without consulting me first. We’ve got a real disaster on our hands, and I have no idea how we’re going to get out of it.”

“We’ll figure something out,” he said. “And we can do it together.”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But for right now, I need some time alone so I can figure out how to even begin to navigate through this.”

He opened his mouth to speak but appeared to think better of it. I appreciated his kind words. But he’d also proven tonight that, just like my dad, he was fine with making decisions about my future without my say.

“Take the time,” he said. “I’ll be here when you’re ready to talk about it.”

Maybe I was out of line, but in that moment, I didn’t want to see him or my father or anyone else who wanted to tell me what to do. I gave him one last look before turning and leaving the room without another word.

Moments later I was in the kitchen. Lexi was there, a plate in front of her with a giant steak on it, a whole opened bottle of wine close at hand.

“What happened?” she asked, her eyes going wide as she realized that something else was wrong.

“We need to go. I’ll tell you about it on the way home.”

“You serious?” She sighed. “OK, then it’s a to-go kind of dinner.” She popped the cork into the wine, dropped a pair of steaks into a Ziplock bag, and packaged up a few slices of cheesecake. “Alright, I’ve got everything we need for you to tell me all about it. Come on!”

We left out the back and were soon in Lexi’s car. And as I watched Logan’s house disappear in the distance, I worried I might’ve just cut out the only person who was offering me a lifeline out of the mess I’d made of my insane life.