Page 125 of Doctorshipped
The room fills with their outbursts, everyone talking over one another saying, “Oh good!” “Woot Woot! “Let’s hear it.”
“You tricked me.”
“We only wanted you to want to share,” Laura says. “You still don’t have to if you feel uncomfortable.”
“Yes she does,” Shannon says.
These women know me so well. Force me to share, and I’d feel put on the spot. Make me feel like I’m not going to get to share, and I come just shy of begging them to listen.
I relax into my chair. “I don’t know what to say. I spend as much time as I can over at his place. Not just for tutoring. I stay for meals—sometimes I even stay past Fiona’s bedtime. I’m careful not to encroach on Grant’s time with Fiona. But, she always seems happy when I’m around. She's usually the one asking me to stay for dinner. It’s amazing—every bit of it. When Grant and I talk, he listens so attentively. He’s always giving me compliments. I don’t know. I feel like …”
I blush. All eyes are on me. It’s okay, though. These are my friends. They stood by me through Shane’s infidelity. They backed me when I swore off relationships. They’ll understand why Grant means so much to me.
“He makes me feel like a woman in ways I never knew I was missing.”
My eyes connect with Laura’s. She smiles big.
“And his kisses?” Shannon asks.
My blush answers for me.
Laura starts singing, “Ooh, Grant, your kisses are …”
And then Shannon adds a line, “Sweeter than …”
Lexi catches on, singing, “... honey. But hey, Grant, guess what?”
Em stands and shimmies her hips and sings, “He’s the grump to her sunny!”
We all laugh. Before I know it, everyone but Lexi is standing. We’re all miming like we’re holding microphones in front of our faces while we shout out the letters R-E-S-P-E-C-T and sing the rest of the song. Everyone keeps changing the lyrics to make the whole song about me and Grant.
We collapse back onto the couches laughing.
“I miss this—just being together, us girls,” Laura says.
“Me too,” I confess. “I thought the rest of you might not miss it the way I do.”
“Because you were the most adorable third wheel?” Laura asks.
“I didn’t think it would bother me when all of you found your life partners. But it’s been an adjustment.”
I look over at Shannon. She already knows.
“Oooh!” Shannon says. “We’re going to have to have a T-shirt burning.”
“A T-shirt burning?” Em asks.
“Of the third-wheel shirt. Jayme lost her third-wheel status! We’ve got to have a celebration. She’s officially one of the two tires on her own bicycle now.”
“Is it too good to be true?” I ask.
“Losing your single status?” Laura asks.
“No. The way I feel. I mean, I can’t stop thinking about him. I even miss him right now. It feels obsessive. But, according to him, he feels the same. He jokes that he’s never going to get anything done because thoughts of me distract him so thoroughly.”
My friends gush out a collective, “Awww.”
“It’s the sweetness of the early phase of falling,” Laura says. “And it’s definitely not too good to be true. I still swoon over Rob. As long as he picks up his socks.”
