Page 79 of Resisting You

Taking a breath, Frey let himself out of the bedroom, peered into the office, then the kitchen. Eventually, he found Renato on the sofa, curled up with a book on his lap. For a moment, Frey went soft all over seeing Renato in his space. God, he wanted this all the time. He really did.

And then his world came crashing down because he realized what book Renato was holding.

“Fuck.” The word slipped out a soft whisper, but in the silence of the room, it rang out like a gong strike.

Renato looked up, his expression broken. Shattered. Ruined. “You took notes.”

Frey’s throat went dry. “Look, I?—”

“You really did hate me.”

Frey had no defense. Yeah, he really had hated him. It wasn’t like some rom-com movie where he was acting out because he was wildly in love with his boss. It wasn’t a defense mechanism. Renato had been a grade A asshole so often—and he still was. Frey understood him a little better now, but there was no denying it. Not to his face. Not with the evidence right there.

“Six months ago, you contaminated everything in the OR,” Renato said softly. “I was panicking because I hadn’t realized the surgery was cancelled. I thought we were going to have another forty-minute delay.”

Frey bowed his head and let out a slow breath. He had to own all of this. “I knew it was cancelled. I was fucking with you.”

“You knew.” Renato turned the page. “Three months ago, when I couldn’t get the mouse to work and when IT came to fix it, the man was laughing at me.”

Frey hated himself. He truly hated himself. “I put tape on it. I knew you wouldn’t look.”

Renato nodded. “When the alarm kept going off?—”

“Yeah. Yes. That was me. So was the coffee incident. And all your scrubs, and your fucking socks, and your soaked sweater,” Frey said, throwing his hands up in the air. He wanted to lunge forward and grab the book out of Renato’s grasp and burn the fucking thing.

Renato huffed something very quiet, almost like a laugh. “I knew about those ones. I…those were obvious. I just didn’t realize that everything making me miserable for the last year?—”

“Was me.”

“Because I was a monster.”

Frey looked at him sharply. “You weren’t a monster. I was a dick.” But how could he say that? He’d just been thinking it.

Renato’s laugh this time was hollow and rough as he turned the page and began to read. “If you think that stitching looks good, then I’m forcing you to get your eyes examined.”

“Renato—”

“The fact that the patient didn’t bleed out in the time it took you to close her up is a miracle. You should probably join a religion to find God so you can thank him for saving you from your own stupidity.”

The resident had cried because it was her second surgery, and when Frey wrote that down, it was because he’d felt her hurt.

“There’s so many more. So many pages of me being the worst man there,” Renato said very softly.

“Please don’t say that,” he begged.

Renato set the book down on the table, then stood. He was dressed, and from where he was standing, Frey could see his phone and keys in his pocket. “I’m sorry, Frey.”

“No.” He knew where this was going, and he was prepared to beg. “We were both not at our best. You said it yourself.”

Renato rubbed both hands down his face. “I don’t want to be that man anymore.” His voice was absolutely shattered. “I didn’t think I was so bad. I thought…I don’t know what I thought. But it wasn’t this. I had no idea.”

He started to walk away, but Frey caught his arm. “Please don’t go. You’re not a bad person. This was just me blowing off steam.” And tormenting you, but he didn’t say that. They were pranks—harmless, he’d thought, but he hadn’t realized how badly he’d affected Renato until now. The man had seemed so heartless. Like nothing could bother him.

Frey had been so damn wrong.

“This shows me the truth of who I am.” He shook Frey off, and then he was gone.

Frey stood there in the middle of the room, listening to the sound of Renato starting his car and the crunch of tires on the little stones Rex left on the driveway. Headlights hit the window like they’d done before when he was waiting for Renato, only this time, they were taking him away.

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