Page 39 of Love Sick

“Oh gosh,” I say, laughter breaking through my tears. “Was she okay?”

He waves a hand. “She was fine. We joked that I gave her ass a chemical peel. But what I’m saying is that this is the same thing. If there’s talk of a scandal, your name always gets thrown in the mix.”

“I don’t even date! I haven’t in years.”

His eyes widen a fraction. “Why not?”

I blink several times at the computer monitor in front of me, its blurred light fracturing into starbursts. My voice shrinks, and my shoulders slump. “I—the last time—he broke my heart.”

No. He shattered my sanity.

The clammy sensation of his sweat from the last time we slept together still sometimes phantom-clings to my skin. I didn’t come—I rarely did—but he did, and his breath fanned over my skin, an invisible stain, as he stared at me.

“I love you, Matt,” I whispered, smiling at him.

“I can’t do this anymore, Grace. It’s like fucking an ice queen.”

The worst part is that I begged him to stay. He’d promised me forever. Told me we’d get married. Made me sacrifice for him.

The things I did. The things I let him do. Just so he wouldn’t leave.

I hated myself.

And he left, anyway.

Because I’m cold in bed.

Asher pulls me from my thoughts. “I proposed to a girl last year.”

My head spins, and not even the tears can mask his sad smile. “What?”

“She laughed in my face and left me for a cardiologist. They’re getting married this spring.”

I touch his arm. He chuckles, covering our moment with good humor until we’re both chortling.

“We’re a couple of messes,” I say.

He shakes himself. “Life is messy.”

An hour later, my phone buzzes.

A picture from Julian lights up my screen. He holds someone else’s badge reel in his disturbingly alluring hand. It reads Bitches Get Shit Done.

Julian:Found this

Julian:Made me think of you

Julian:But if you ask me

Julian:Daniel Halliwell is the bitch

A watery laugh hitches in my chest, and I go back to work. So hedoeshave a light side, after all. Who’d have thought?

* * *

The next day, I enter the resident lounge and find Daniel sporting a black eye. I turn to Asher, asking what happened with a pointed raise of my eyebrows.

He shrugs and gestures toward Julian eating his lunch in the corner. “Here’s what I heard—”

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