Page 63 of Careless Whisper

“You’re not that naive,” Mrs. D interjected, irritated. “And you’re not achild. You knew what you were doing. You were ruining a colleague’s career to curry favor from a superior.”

Agar swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”

“You will be,” Mrs. D assured him with a smile sharp enough to suture without thread. “Do you have any other questions, Dr. Graham?”

I half shrugged, not knowing what to ask. I had known what Maren had done, but having it laid out in black and white hurt my heart. A friend had betrayed me, and I had betrayed a friend—the former made me feel foolish and gullible, even dumb as Dr. Cabrera accused me of being, and the latter enraged me because I’d hurt someone who didn’t deserve it.

“Then, thank you for your time.” Mrs. D inclined her head to her door. “We’ll handle it from here.”

“Undoubtedly,” I remarked before leaving her office.

CHAPTER 23

Reggie

Imissed Elias. How could I miss a man who hadn’t been in my life?ButI missed him. I missed seeing him in the hospitalby chance, I missed seeing him when I hunted him down on purpose like a freaking stalker, and I missed the year we’d been together all those years ago, and I missed making love with him. I had forgotten how good it was between us (okay so I’d made myself forget) until what happened in the on-call room and now…I was rememberingeverything—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

When he sided with Maren that first time, I was crushed, but I had a purpose. I was going to make it and show them all.

I thought I had made it…but I hadn’t. And now, I had nothing to show for all my hard work.

I was holed up in my grandmother’s brownstone doing absolutely nothing.

I stopped counting the days. Seven had turned into ten. Then twelve. Then, two weeks blurred together in a fog of silence and the kind of restlessness that made even reading a chore.

I was merely…existing, making my family worry about me.

My parents had suggested that I come to Mexico, and I’d told them I didn’t feel like traveling. Then they’d said they’d come over, and I began to cry, blubbering that I wanted to be left alone—so they’d had no choice but to leave me alone because I was behaving like a toddler who’d lost her favorite toy.

I missed having a job I loved. Elias had ruined my life,again,and this time, I didn’t know how to get back up. I didn’t seem to have the energy for it. I had shut down.

Luther had been calling every day—twice a day. I didn’t pick up. Not because I was angry but because I didn’t know what to say.

But when he called again one morning a month since I’d come to New York, my grandmother raised a very judgmental eyebrow over the rim of her glasses, and picked up my phone.

“Hello, this is Faye Lancaster answering Reggie Sanchez’s phone.”

After a long moment, she smiled. “Hello, Luther. I’ve heard so much about you. Yes, yes, she’s here.” Pause. “Of course, she’s going to talk to you.” She heldthe phone to me, the subtext clear,talk to your fucking friend, girlfriend.

“Hello,” I whispered, tentatively, the phone on speaker mode.

“Jesus, Sanchez,” Luther barked as soon as I picked up. “Are you alive?”

“Yes,” I muttered, curling deeper into the couch.

“You don’t sound like it.”

“But I am,” I mumbled.

“She is alive but I’ve seen better looking corpses,” my grandmother said loudly.

I glared at her. She shrugged a shoulder with a “what are you going to do about it”look. I was going to do fuck all.

“Luther…ah…thanks for calling. I’ll talk to you later, okay and?—”

“I wasn’t going to push, but you should know some shit’s gone down here.”

I rubbed my temple. “I really don’t want to know.”

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