Page 31 of Dr. Do-Right
“O-okay…” I stuttered. He studied me, like he wanted to make sure his point sunk in. “Alright. I’ll stop feeling bad.”
“Good. Good.” His eyes went hazy. Even though he was looking at me, I got the feeling he wasn’t fully present.
“Do you want to talk about it? It seems like this is starting to really weigh you down.”
His head shook. “No. I actually don’t want to think about this at all. I want to have lunch with a beautiful woman and think about other stuff.”
I hesitated. He hadn’t shared any specifics of what was going on with his clinic. The building around us was beautiful. It was still being renovated, as the plaster dust and constructionequipment could attest to, but shaping up. I could visualize it—the cozy, classy atmosphere would put people at ease here. A place of respite. Self-reflection. It seemed like it was all coming along fine. All the workers moved like a well-oiled machine. Adam had winked at me from his desk out front.
Nothing seemed like it was on fire, but every night this week, Mal had come home with knots in his shoulders, tense until I could get him to wind down.
Still, if he wanted a break, I could provide it. I held the takeout bag up. “I’ve got the lunch and the woman. What do you want to talk about?”
I squeaked when he swept me off my feet and hauled me up against his desk with a smile.
Friday
Mal drew the line at Siggy sleeping in the bed with us. He said he’d waited too long to have me all to himself to share me, even with the dog. Plus, Siggy wasn’t house-trained yet. I conceded both points were valid, even though I hated to miss out on his warm puppy snuggles.
On days I didn’t go to work before the sun came up, Mal took Siggy down to the apartment courtyard to do his morning business, then let him wriggle into bed with me.
Yesterday, Siggy and I had snoozed together in the Egyptian cotton sheets for a few hours after Mal had gone to work, taken a long walk around the city, and then hung out on the balcony for most of the afternoon.
An almost perfect day, really. Just missing Mal. And Sonia. I hadn’t gone this long without her in a long time. It didn’t help that I’d had to sprint back down to our apartment twice this week to return her FaceTime calls. I couldn’t risk her getting suspicious, not when she’d only been gone for two weeks.
Mal and I would start soft-launching our relationship with her soon. Like he’d said, pictures together, maybe a mention of a dinner out on our group thread. Every time I thought about it, my heart sank like a stone, the familiar, guilty feeling roiling in my stomach. That queasy sensation doubled whenever I realized that sometimes, I was too caught up in Mal to feel guilty, at all.
I could only hope that when all this went down, she’d be understanding. Angry, at first, probably, but…hopefully she’d come around. I couldn’t think about the alternative.
Mal softly lifting Siggy out of his crate had woken me early. The thought of my best friend, and the potential consequences of my actions with her brother, had kept me from drifting back to sleep.
The bedroom door opened, and Siggy wiggled into bed next to me, as he had yesterday. Today, though, Mal slid back under the covers, too. He gathered both me and the dog in his arms.
“Hey, Dr. Do-Right. You gotta work today.” I reminded him, turning to snuggle deeper into him, Siggy burrowing between us. Maybe we could squeeze in a few more minutes like this. Our little family.
“Mmmm, what if I just don’t?”
I laughed, tracing the sprinkling of hair on his chest. “If you don’t go into work, who’s going to look pretty in front of the camera? Those TikToks don’t make themselves, you know.”
“Sure, but as someone very wise and gorgeous and fucking sexy once told me, ‘what’s the point of having your own business if you can’t play hooky?’”
I pulled back, laughing when Siggy squirmed in between us to rest his nose on the pillow. But Mal wasn’t laughing. His eyes crinkled at the corners in a hint of a smile, but he looked too serious to pull it off.
All week, he’d come home with a weight pressing on him. He tried to hide it, but I could tell how much this move was taking a toll on him. Maybe even his business.
“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” I ran my fingers across the lines etching his forehead. He avoided the question and my gaze by ducking to nuzzle his face into my shoulder.
“Mal?”
His breath blew hot against my skin, and sounded like surrender. “I’m just tired, Ri.” His nose brushed back and forth over my skin. “Everything is so up in the air. I just…want a break. Even if it’s for a day.”
When he finally looked up at me, his dark lashes framed pleading eyes. “I don’t wanna go to work.” He pouted, but that quiet resignation still hung around him like a thundercloud.
“Things are really that bad?” Malachi Dobrev never gave up. On anything. Even if it was only for a day. He’d be the first to tell his patients that they needed to practice self-care and slow down if they needed it, but his fatal flaw was his dogged determination to save the world, or die trying. I’d never seen him like this before.
“Just…things that need time. Things out of my control.” His forehead pressed into my shoulder once more.
I shuttled my fingers through his hair. “My poor little perfectionist. Finally found something you can’t manage into submission by sheer force of will?” I teased, hoping to get a smile out of him. His only response was to press a kiss against my skin. I waited another moment, my fingers gliding through his hair.
