Page 9 of The Plan

I almost object, simply because it’ll be easier for her to see me today, but it’ll be harder for me if I object, so I don’t say anything and give her a nod.

August asks if he can stay, and I immediately say no, but then Vidia looks over at me. “Of course you can, August,” she says, still holding my gaze.

“Little shit,” I mumble, and she flips me off before walking over to the other side of the room. She ties a thera-band up high to one of the equipment machines, then picks up a baseball.

She looks at me like I’m an idiot, and I wait for her to say something because I know it’s coming. “Well, am I the one who needs therapy, or you? Get over here.”Oh, I think I know who of the two of us needs a therapist.I open my mouth to respond, but August stops me, clearing his throat as he shakes his head.

I bite my tongue and let out a huff before walking over to her. She puts the ball in the band, and I take it from her, holding the ball while keeping it in the thera-band. She tells me what I need to do, but I don’t start and just stare at her instead.

“Is there a problem?” She crosses her arms like shewantsthere to be a problem.

“I’ve already done this.”

She stares at me like she doesn’t understand.

“With Dr. Miller… During my first month of PT?” It’s pointless that she’s making me do this again. I only have a month before the game, and there isn’t time for this.

“Do I look like Dr. Miller?”

“Unfortunately not.” I give her a smile, and she returns it with a bored look before walking over to her desk. She writes something down, then rips the paper from the notepad and walks back over to hand it to me.

“What is this?” It looks like a phone number and address, but the zip code looks like North Carolina.

“That’s Dr. Miller’s information since you would rather see him as your doctor.” She walks away, and I almost don’t stop her until August sends me an urging look.

“Wait, Vidia.” I let out a breath, and she turns back to me. I don’t say anything else, and I definitely don’t apologize. Instead, I do the pointless exercise she asked me to waste my time with.

Once I’m done with that, we move on to a different exercise, one I haven’t done, and it actually feels a bit challenging. After about forty-five minutes of biting my tongue to not reply to her comments, we’re finally done.

“Remember, all of this would be for nothing if you don’t decrease your stress.”

I let out a scoff. “So spend less time with you. Got it.”

She squints her eyes at me, and I falter at how familiar she still feels. I find myself unable to pull my gaze from her.I haven't seen her do that in so long.I look between her honey-brown eyes, and it’s like no time has passed. I can’t believe she still does that. I feel my smile grow at her little fake angry face.

“Less stress on your injury, asshole.” And just like that, the moment is gone as she snaps me out of my thoughts.Not a fake angry face—got it.

“Stress on my injury, stress to my fucking brain, all the same, isn’t it?”

“I can give you a brain injury, and it’ll all be the same.” She closes the distance between us, and a smirk grows on my face at her spitfire.

“Oh, yeah?” I take a step toward her, and even with her heels on, she onlyjustpasses my shoulders. I lean over for her so we’re at eye level, and she still doesn’t back down. We’re so close that I can feel her cool breath against me as we hold each other's gaze, both too stubborn to pull apart.

I look between her eyes, golden brown as ever, and she doesn’t even blink, not wanting to lose whatever game we’re in. “I’m getting a weird sense of déjà vu, Vid.” I feel a smirk playing on my lips as I keep my voice just above a whisper, and I take another step forward, right between her legs.

She falters slightly with my leg between hers and takes a small step back. The distance quickly stops our lips from grazing, and I feel her suck in a breath in surprise.

August quickly makes his way to us and pushes me away from her. “Okay,” he says, as chirpy as ever as he breaks us apart, but neither Vid nor I break eye contact. “It was a great session. I think we can leave before you two kill each other.”

“I’d like to see him try.” She somehow glares at me harder, and I chuckle at how seriously she says that.

“I think you forget you’re a 5 '5, one-hundred-and-twenty-poundgirl.” I can bench three of her, yet she stands here and confidently thinks she can kill me. Vidia couldn’t kill a fly even if she was twice my size.

Before she can respond, August is escorting us out. “It was great seeing you, V. Enjoy the rest of your day. Tell Hazel I love her.” We’re out of her office in a few steps, and I shake her off. I’m not letting her get to me.What happens here stays here. Don’t let her ruin your day.

“Nice to see you two are still madly in love.” I stop in my tracks and turn to August. He sees the look on my face and then nods a few times before shutting up and walking ahead of me.

These next few weeks are going to be a field day. Yay.

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