Page 32 of The Game

“I’m not going to leave you here.”

I took his hand. “We’re only twenty minutes from the gym. You go, and I’ll get a taxi when the meal’s finished. There are still people I want to talk to.”

“I know. I’d never make you leave.”

He was visibly so torn.

I gave him a reassuring smile. “I’m not going to disappear into thin air just because you’ve taken your eyes off me for a minute. We’re allowed to be apart for four hours. It’ll barely be two until I’m there.”

He took a breath, urgency adding to his visible emotions. “I want to extend our time. Past the point when you return to work. I don’t want you to leave me.”

My heart ached. Across the table, a woman from paediatrics called my name. Beyond her were another two consultants who would be my peers. I wanted time to say hi to them all.

Quickly, I kissed Malachi. “Go. We’ll talk more later.”

He swore but lifted from the table, kissed me again, then said goodbye to the people I’d introduced him to. The moment he was gone, all eyes were on me.

“The surgeon and the MMA fighter. How on earth did that come about?” the paediatrics doctor asked, wide-eyed and flush-cheeked.

Multiple heads swung around in interest at my answer.

There was no way I was giving them the real story.

A few long conversations later, I was done and waiting for my taxi. The driver Malachi sent picked me up, and we set out across the city.

I’d had a couple of glasses of champagne after dinner, but I rarely drank for good reason. It made me emotional.

The further we got from my old life with my hospital team, the more wobbly I felt. That was the life I knew. One of hard work and dedication with little outside of it. Over the course of almost a month, I’d changed beyond recognition, at least to myself. I needed a balancing view.

I pulled my phone from my clutch and dialled Annie.

My best friend, my closest friend for years, who’d been at my side through the loss of my aunt and through all the struggles of university, picked up. “Oh, hello, Emmeline.”

“I wanted to talk to you. First, to apologise for changing our dinner plans, but also to tell you what’s going on with me. About Malachi.”

“The fighter. Right.”

She’d read my messages then. Just hadn’t responded outside of cancelling the dinner altogether.

I launched into an explanation of the game, briefly, and expansively on how incredible a time I was having with Malachi. I ended it with, “I want you to meet him. He’s important to me.”

A long pause followed. When Annie spoke, her tone was loaded with disbelief. “You met this man in a violent game where he got to beat down other men in order to claim you. Do you get how messed up that sounds? I’m so sad that you chose to go there.”

“The game was rough, but look at what we’ve found.”

She snorted. “I know you’ve been together for almost a month, but look at how it started. It was entirely random that he picked you. He could’ve caught any of the girls in there. I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t special to him. He got a kick out of besting his competitors. That’s all.”

“How can you say that? You don’t even know him. We connected?—”

“You’re in denial. These few weeks, no doubt filled with sex and a break from your ridiculously hard job, are a honeymoon period. It isn’t real. Wake up, Emmeline. This can’t end well. It won’t. What do you even really know about this man? Nothing that he hasn’t told you himself, which is a very shallow view. I offered you a sensible, hardworking man who would’ve made good husband material.”

My hand tensed into a fist around the phone.

“Stop,” I breathed.

She didn’t. “No. You need to hear this. You chose wrong, and it’s going to come back and hurt you. People are gossiping. They wonder how the hell you hooked up with this guy.”

“Who is gossiping, exactly?”

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