Page 81 of Dr. Off Limits

I snapped my head up from the chopping board and realized I hadn’t heard what they were saying for the last few minutes.

“Sorry, in another world. What were you saying?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you okay?”

I nodded and continued to slice over and over and over and—

The blade of the knife slipped and caught my finger. “Shit,” I said, dropping the knife and pressing my finger over the wound.

“Sutton!” Parker said. “What happened?”

I headed to the sink. The juices of the onion made the cut sting and I bit down on my cheek to stop the tears forming in my eyes.

Parker got to the sink before I did and turned the tap. I pushed my hand under the running water and the blood mixed with the water like the closing credits of a budget horror movie. “It’s fine,” I said as I caught Parker’s eye. “The knife slipped. I’m totally fine. Do you have a plaster?”

I could tell by the way Parker didn’t respond that she didn’t believe I was totally fine.

“Have you been on the booze before I arrived?” Stella asked.

“Remind me to be sick during my surgery rotation,” I said, trying to make light of the situation.

I cleaned my wound, stuck a plaster on, and then headed back to the chopping board.

“I don’t think so,” Parker said. “No more chopping for you. I’ll finish that off. You take a seat and sip some champagne. I want to hear about your week.”

Parker and I had spoken a little less than usual this week. After I drove off from breaking it off with Jacob, I got the urge to keep driving, but given I’d hired a car and couldn’t afford the penalties, I figured I’d drop the car off and go back to life before Jacob. Except my life before Jacob didn’t include my job, so it was a completely impossible task.

“What do you want to hear about? I worked. I slept. I ate. And then I worked again,” I said.

“Did you see Jacob?” Parker turned to Stella. “Jacob is another doctor at the hospital. Total hottie by all accounts. And they’re secretly dating because of hospital politics.”

“Actually we’re not secretly dating. We’re not dating at all. I called things off.”

Parker set down her knife and stared at me, her mouth open. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I looked down at my glass. I really didn’t want to talk about this. I knew I’d made the right decision and I just wanted to skip to the bit where I felt fine.

“Gosh, I’m sorry. Had you two been dating long?” Stella asked.

“No, just a couple of months,” I replied, as my eyes filled with tears. Parker rushed over to me and pulled me in for a hug. “Don’t be nice to me.”

“I will so be nice to you. There’s no way I’m not giving you a hug. What did he do?”

I sucked in a breath, determined not to crumble. “He didn’t do anything. That’s the worst part.”

Stella topped up our champagne glasses as Parker just hugged me tight and I told her what had happened when Gilly spotted me coming out of Jacob’s house.

“You were right,” I said, my voice faltering. “It was never going to work long term anyway, so I don’t know why I’m so upset.”

Parker held me by the shoulders. “The ones you really like, really hurt. Look at the mess I was in when Tristan and I hit our road bump.”

“Except there’ll be no happy ending for me,” I said. I had to be realistic.

“If it helps at all,” Stella said. “The guy I thought was the one for me ended things. The next thing I knew, he was engaged to my best friend and... get this, he sent me an invitation to the wedding.”

“You’re kidding,” Parker said.

Stella shook her head. “And I ended up going.”

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