Page 32 of What are the Risks
With an amused roll of her eyes, Ruby fell back against her bed, her hair fanning across her pillow. “My upcoming roster is crazy.I’m spending the whole month as an attending theatre nurse to an anaesthetist.”
“That sounds intense.”
“It will be. Usually you need at least a full year of experience for something like this, but the head nurse recommended me.” For the first time today, Ruby’s eyes filled with something other than gloom. “I’ll be assisting the nursing team that currently work with the anaesthetist. It’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m excited.”
The thought of standing beside an anaesthetist while a surgeon cut open a person had me shuddering. Ruby confused my grimace for disinterest, her cheeks reddening slightly.
“Sorry. I’m boring you.”
“You could never bore me, Rubz. I could happily watch grass grow with you and it would still rank in my top ten moments of the year.” I nestled into my pillows, getting comfortable. “Tell me more.”
Over our friendship, Ruby had patiently listened to me drone on about football – I liked talking things through. As high school graduation had neared, I’d spoken to her non-stop about colleges, going over every pro and every con of every option. I wanted to be the person she came to for a change.
“The reason they’re pushing me into it early is because I’ll need to apply for a first-year position soon. And if that’s intraoperative nursing, then I’d need to enrol in a program that corresponds with a postgrad degree. But there are only a select few of–”
She stopped mid-sentence, her attention focussing intently on something in my background.
It took me a moment too long to realise the shower had turned off. My reaction times were below average today.
Gretchen was standing in the open bathroom doorway, a towel tied around her chest and her wet blonde hair dripping water down her steaming shoulders.
Ruby cleared her throat. “Sorry, Wheels. I’m being a cockblock. I’ll let you go.”
“Wait, Rubz. Don’t–”
Too late. The screen reverted to my wallpaper, which was a picture of Ruby and me from our high school homecoming. She’d gone tothe dance with Noah, but I’d snuck in this picture with her. She had a printed copy on her nightstand back home.
Setting my phone down, I rolled to face Gretchen. “That was–”
She dismissively waved off my explanation before dropping the towel. My eyes widened in surprise before automatically roaming over her body. Everything was toned and taut, from her bouncy tits to her tight ass. I vaguely recalled spanking that ass last night and thinkingshit, that’s hard.
Reaffirming my memory, as Gretchen rounded my bed, I could make out faint marks on her ass cheeks.
“I don’t care who it was, all that matters to me is riding you one more time.”
While my hazy brain hadn’t fully rebooted, my dick had, and it was springing to alert.
What better way to start the new year.
“Then climb on, baby.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Naughty-good-girl
Ruby
Things hadn’t improved since New Year’s Eve. It was like Noah and I were in completely different time zones, but we couldn’t even use that excuse because Miami and Columbus shared the same one. We hadn’t FaceTimed once since he’d left, and we’d only spoken on the phone a few times.
Over the years, our petty arguments had never dragged on like this, not even when we decided to go to different colleges.
To distract myself, I’d thrown myself into work the past few weeks, picking up extra shifts whenever I could. But now I’d just started a four-day break, and I’d already wasted an hour doom scrolling.
Tori had just posted a mirror-selfie of her latest insanely stylish outfit to Instagram. I double tapped the screen then continued scrolling until I came across Bri’s latest post. It was a carousel of pictures from New Year’s Eve. They’d been taken before we left for the bar, so mine and Noah’s smiles were still genuine in each one.
He’d found his way back to the booth before midnight, but our new year’s kiss had felt more like an obligation than something he wanted to do.
Pushing my glasses up the bridge of my nose, I refreshed my feed for the one-hundredth time. I was too tired to even consider thethought of wearing contacts. After that back-to-back-to-back work run, my eyes were burning from exhaustion.
