Page 79 of Careless Whisper

Later that day, when we were restocking supplies, Reggie snapped the cap off a bottle of antiseptic as if it had personally offended her.

“You and Juanita seem to be getting along,” she said tightly. It was the first thing she’d said to me that didn’t have anything to do with the clinic.

“The team here is great, Gigi. You’ve done a really awesome job.”

“She’s only twenty-four,” Reggie snapped.

“Who?” I feigned ignorance.

“Juanita,” she bit out through clenched teeth.

“Yeah! I did notice that.” Even though I’d had concerns about Juanita’s approach of making Reggie jealous, I was now fully on board.

She slammed the cabinet door shut. “Stop flirting with her.”

I blinked. “I’m not flirting with her.”

She scoffed.

“Sheis flirting withme,” I added and enjoyed how her chocolate brown eyes widened with annoyance.

“She’s a kid.”

“She’s around the same age you were when we hooked up in Boston,” I reminded her and then wondered about the good sense of provoking her while she was in the vicinity of sharp medical instruments.

“Stay away from her.”

“Why?” I looked at her perplexed and then nodded as if a sudden epiphany had struck. “Are you jealous, Gigi?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Dr. Graham,” she sneered.

I gave a nonchalant shrug. “Youbrought it up.”

“Because it’s distracting.”

“Why is some innocent flirting distracting you?”

She took a step toward me, eyes blazing, her finger aiming for the center of my chest. “You don’t get to come here, insert yourself into my life again, and act like nothing happened.”Poke. “You hurt me.”Poke. “You destroyed me.”Poke. “And I’m still trying to figure out if I even want you in the same zip code.”

I grabbed her finger in my hand. “Gigi, baby, I’m so sorry for hurting you. I hate that I did.”

“I hateyou,” she snapped and pulled her fingeraway.

“I know you don’t.” I stroked a finger down her cheek, loathing myself for what I put her through, what I let Maren put her through. “But you’re angry with me.”

“You have no idea, buddy.” She jerked her face away from my touch.

“So, if you want to make me scrub toilets for the next month, I will. You want to throw a scalpel tray at me—hell, I’ll stand still.”

“You should,” she muttered, though her eyes softened just a little…verylittle. “You deserve worse.”

“I know.”

She stormed off. I didn’t follow. I figured I’d earned her anger and then some.

My spirits rose when I overheard her conversation with Juanita in the backroom while they were sorting medical donations.

“It’s unprofessional the way you’re behaving with him,” Reggie scolded.

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