Page 85 of The Exception

And she froze as if he’d stung her.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“What? No one’s here.”

She scooted around him and stuck her head out the door. “That you know of. Anyone could have come in.”

So much for making himself feel better. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I just got into an argument with my—”

“Trav, not thinking is not an option. I could get in trouble.”

He ran a hand over his face, suppressing a sigh. “You said you couldn’t.”

“I also said it would make me look very unprofessional.”

“Right. Slumming with an almost-paramedic.” He crossed his arms over his chest, knowing full well he looked like a petulant child.

Her lips twisted. “Wow. I haven’t heard that snark in awhile. You know it’s not like that. We’ve been over this.”

He pushed off the counter and went to the fridge to unpack his dinner. And hers. “Sonya, come on. It’s late and I checked the door. Maybe lighten up a little?”

“Lighten up? This is my job. We agreed on this.” She took the container of soup he held out, her brow creased in confusion. “What is going on with you?”

“I’m tired of being the skeleton in everyone’s closet around here.”

He slammed the door to the microwave harder than he’d intended and she flinched.

“What does that mean?”

“Nevermind.”

She held a hand up, her brown eyes wide. “No. Wait. Are we fighting?”

He laughed bitterly. “Haven’t you ever had a fight before? Sorry, maybe I should have scheduled it in your planner.”

“Woah.” She set her food down and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry you had a fight with your dad, but please don’t take your personal issues out on me.”

The microwave beeped and he pulled out his dinner. “Funny, I was under the impression my personal issues might be of interest to you since we have apersonalrelationship. Thanks for letting me know where that stands. I’m going to eat in my truck.”

“Trav, wait. I didn’t mean it like that.”

He made it to the break room door, then forced his feet to stop. If he was going to pop off at the mouth every time they argued, then he deserved the way his stomach felt right now. He turned around and un-gritted his teeth, forcing the words. “I’ll see you after dinner.”

“Yeah. Okay,” she said, looking more confused than anything. “I guess I’ll see you.”

* * *

Sonya tossed her purse and coat on the passenger seat of her car and climbed in behind the wheel. She’d made it through the last two hours of her shift managing to avoid Trav by asking another nurse to take a report from him, but that was obviously unsustainable. Not to mention, unprofessional. “This is the exact reason why you don’t sleep with your coworkers,” she mumbled to herself.

Even as she said it, guilt twisted in her chest. That was a dismissive way of describing what they were doing, but she did have a new appreciation for the timely transfers that usually accompanied these situations. At one point, she’d ducked into the women’s room to avoid passing him in the hall.

This was exactly the kind of thing she was afraid of, but Trav just needed to hold up his end of the bargain and she couldn’t understand where reminding him of that had gone wrong.

She looked down at her bouncing knee, trying to figure out why her stomach was in knots.

“You’re just anxious because of the confrontation,” she said to her reflection in the rearview. “It’s a normal physiological response.”

Or maybe she knew there was something else behind his reaction.

---