Page 29 of Healing Her

Maria’s face fell. “Okay, can you at least stay in California? So you’re only a quick plane ride away? San Diego’s not so far.”

“I’ve applied to a few more, and yes, some in California, but I can’t exactly just turn the Mayo Clinic down flat.” She reached over and took Maria’s hand. “I’m going to go visit them at least one more time.”

Maria sighed. “I hate this. You were only seeing her for a few weeks! How can it be so bad so fast?”

“I guess… Maria, I just deserve better than being treated like a dirty mistress. Maybe the love Nina and I had spoiled me. Or honestly, maybe it educated me. If I’m not being heard by my partner three weeks in, at my age, do I really have the time to wait for another grown woman to figure out how to regulate her emotions and handle her work-life balance?” But saying it like that made her wince. “That was harsh.”

“You were saying how you felt. It must have been really weighing on you.”

“To say the least,” Jen admitted. “Oh, but it really stinks! I like her so much…” She sighed and began to pick at her cuticles.“But I mean, that’s part of the problem. I definitely felt it getting serious fast. And if I break it off with her but stay here, I’ll be so tempted to fall back into it and keep getting my feelings hurt because I can’t stay away at this point.”

Maria’s eyes opened wide. “That serious in such a short amount of time?”

“Apparently.”

They sat in companionable silence for a bit. Maria plucked a Lindt truffle out of her stocking and nibbled at it. “This does feel a bit like you’re running away,querida.”

“Well, that would be because Iam.” Standing up, Jen began to pace the room. “I am well aware.”

“I’ve never known you to back down from a challenge,” Maria went on, and when Jen whirled to glare at her, her face was smooth and bland, as innocent as a baby bunny as she popped the rest of her truffle into her mouth.

“I am protecting my peace,” Jen gritted out between clenched teeth.

“Coward,” Maria shot back, succinctly. “Nina would hate to see it.”

“I like to think that Nina would hate to see me in emotional distress, Maria.” She inhaled deeply and pulled herself to stand up straight. “I’ve got to go clear out my office. Even if I don’t accept Mayo’s offer, I’m leaving here, I might as well make it easy on myself.”

“Jen…”

“I’m flying out day after tomorrow for the last round of introductions. Don’t worry. I’ll visit you when I come back and I’ll keep you updated.” She summoned a weak smile for her friend and headed for the door of the room. As she approached, she heard the clatter of heeled shoes, and realized that the nurse had left the door slightly ajar.

Someone had been listening.Ashley?

Cautiously, she opened the door and peered up and down the hallway. She could hear footsteps disappearing down a corridor towards the elevators. There was no way she could run fast enough to see who it might have been before they got on the elevator.

Well. Ashley was going to have to find out about this eventually anyway. Though it didn’t exactly leave Jen with a good feeling that it might have been like this.

20

Tears blurred Ashley’s eyes as she speedwalked to Elaine’s office. How had she fucked things up so badly that Jen wanted to leave? She’d barely gotten to California. They’d hardly started their relationship, if that’s what it was. And yet things were so bad that Jen was running off to Minnesota?

Elaine looked up in surprise as Ashley burst through the door of her office. “Ashley? Good heavens, what’s wrong?”

She hadn’t even sat down in one of the chairs in front of Elaine’s desk before the impending tears began to flood their way down her face. “Elaine, I…”

“I’veneverseen you so upset.” Grabbing a box of tissues, Elaine came around the desk and sat in the neighboring chair. She dabbed at Ashley’s face with one of the tissues. “What’s going on?”

“I messed up,” Ashley wept, feeling like she was really, truly crying for the first time in her life. “With Jen. Elaine, I’m such a mess.”

“Jen? Doctor Colton? You mean…” Elaine sat up straight in her surprise. “When did this start? I had no idea.”

“A few weeks ago.” She took the tissue from Elaine, who was sitting very still and blinking and had stopped dabbing at Ashley’s tears. She folded the damp tissue in half and held it up to her eyes to catch the tears, hoping to stop her makeup from being entirely ruined. “I didn’t tell anyone. Which is a problem.”

Elaine shook herself and sat back with a frown. “You’re allowed to keep your personal life personal. It’s rather encouraged here, actually, you know that. And I’m sure Jen knows that, she’s a professional.”

“There’s keeping things personal and then there’s making your more or less girlfriend drive you to your car every morning so you can drive separately to the hospital andignore her all day.” The look of horror on Elaine’s face at that was a twin to the one that City had sported just a few days ago. “See! See, that’s messed up. I understand that now.”

It took a moment for Elaine to blink and recover herself. “Well, it’s good you understand. But can’t you go apologize to her? Talk to her? I’m sure you can work it out, a pair of intelligent women like yourselves.”

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