Doctor’s Duties by K.C. Crowne

Chapter 22

LOGAN

Iwas plenty glad I’d pulled up a few bottles of good wine from down below. After the night I just had, I was damn sure I’d be needing at least a couple of them.

I tossed back the rest of my glass, filling it with what remained in the bottle on the coffee table in the lounge. My eyes went to the plates and the barely touched appetizers. There’d be a hell of a cleanup ahead of me – in more ways than one.

A call from Hayden buzzed in as I made my way into the kitchen. –. Part of me didn’t want to answer it. But I had an annoying night of ruminating ahead of me. It’d be good to take my mind off it.

“Yo, bro!” he said as I answered. “How’re things with the fake girlfriend?”

Looked like there wasn’t going to be any time to dance around it.

“Well, there’s some news on that front. Now, she’s my fake wife.”

There was a long pause, as if he wanted to give himself a second to process what I’d just said to make sure he’d heard me correctly.

And then he laughed.

It wasn’t the standard Hayden chuckle, either. This was a full-on belly laugh, the kind he saved for when he’d heard something really special.

“Alright, alright,” I said as the laughter finally started to die down. “I suppose I deserved that.”

“Dude,” he said. “You deserve a swat to the back of the head first and foremost. I mean, how the hell did you have Abby over for dinner and leave with her being fake married to you?”

I took a sip of the fresh glass of wine and sighed.

“Let me tell you. But it’s going to take a minute.”

“Hey, Grace took Isla out for dinner while I handled some work stuff. How about I come over? I’m bored at home, and I won’t need to do the dad thing until the girls get back in a bit.”

“Sure. I’ve got a few expensive cuts of steak about to go to waste if they don’t get eaten.”

“Man, you didn’t even get through dinner? Shit. Give me thirty, OK?”

I spent the time until Hayden came over tidying up and having a glass of wine that I shouldn’t have drank so damn quickly. By the time he showed up, I was a bit tipsier than I needed to be.

“Where’s the steak?” he asked when I opened the door.

I laughed. “Good to see you too, bro.”

He slapped me on the back as he stepped into the house. “You know I’m happy to see you too, dumbass.” Hayden poked his head into the lounge, a bit of the food and drink from the aborted cocktail hour still there.

“Yowch – walked out in the middle of it, huh?” He grabbed a bottle of wine. “Let’s eat and talk.”

“Alright. But save the laughing for when I’ve finished.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I had a couple of plates made up in the breakfast nook. Hayden didn’t waste any time digging in.

“Damn, this is good. Today was back day at the gym and meat’s, like, just what the doctor ordered. So to speak.”

“You ready to hear this?” I asked.

“Shoot.”

I went into it, telling him about how I’d dropped the bomb almost by accident when I’d had enough of her dad acting like his own daughter was nothing more than some trophy-wife-to be. And then I told him about how I’d managed to make it even worse by offering to pay for her college.

“Ouch – bad move.”

“Which part?”

“Well, all of it. But I’m talking about when you offered to cover her tuition.”

“Was it that bad?”

“It wasn’t good. From everything you’ve told me about Abby, she’s the type of woman who likes to do things for herself, right? I mean, this whole thing started because she wanted to get out from under the thumb of her parents. And there you go, telling her that you’re going to sweep in and do the same thing.”

“But there weren’t any strings attached with my help. I’d cover her tuition and that’d be the end of it.”

He leaned back in his seat and shrugged. “She doesn’t know that. I mean, I’m sure you two hit it off. And I’m absolutelysure that you’re offering to pay for her tuition because you think it’s the right thing to do. But look at it from her perspective – some guy just hooked her into a fake marriage, and now he’s offering to basically give her tens of thousands of dollars. She’s wary.”

“Then what do I do?” I slumped forward, watching as Hayden sliced off a hunk of steak, the juices pooling underneath the meat, and popped it into his mouth. “God, this is so damn strange. Never in my life have I ever had problems figuring out women. But with Abby, it’s —”

“It’s different,” he finished for me. It’s like all the old rules don’t apply. It’s like you find yourself saying and thinking stuff you’ve never said or thought before. And it’s exciting. But it’s also scary as shit, too.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”

“I’m speaking from very recent experience. This is how it all went down with Grace before I finally accepted that I was in love with her.”

“Wait, are you saying that I’m in love with Abby?”

He shrugged again, this time popping a stuffed mushroom into his mouth. “I don’t know. Only you can answer that. But there’s a damn good chance you’re somewhere along the process. Trust me – this stuff hits you hard and has you acting like a damn fool. And if you ask me, making up a fake marriage is some damn fool business if I’ve ever heard it.”

His comment had me reaching for the wine glass.

“So, I’m screwed.”

“No, you’re not screwed. But the first step here might be to accept that you’re falling for the girl.”

“And the next?”

“To come to terms with the fact that you’re probably going to make a lot more damn fool mistakes in the weeks and months to come.”

He’d given me a hell of a lot to think about. We changed the topic to lighter subjects for the rest of the dinner, Hayden showing me pictures and videos of Isla from the last week and filling me in on how things had been going in his life.

After he was gone, part of me wanted to kill another bottle of wine, and then another, until I couldn’t hold a thought in my head. But I didn’t. Instead, I got some sleep and woke up early for a run the next morning, tossing the matter over and over in my head.

I busied myself with grading and class prep for the rest of the day. When Monday rolled around, I was eager to get back into my routine. I saw Abby on campus, my heart skipping a beat as I laid eyes on her.

But she either didn’t notice me, or she didn’t want me to see that she had. She melted into a nearby crowd of students and was gone.

I was left with nothing but questions – along with a few worries right there with them.