Doctor's Secret - K.C. Crowne Page 0,2
Andrew was such a…I don’t know. I never liked him.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, surprised.
She shuddered dramatically as she spoke. “He was always so weird and serious. The whole time you two dated, I’m pretty sure I saw him smile, like, once. So intense, and not in a good way.”
“And you’re just now telling me this?”
She laughed. “Babe, are you serious? I told you all the time how much I didn’t like him. But I know how it is – when you’re smitten with a guy, you don’t notice the red flags.”
“What other red flags did I miss?” I asked curiously.
She took a sip of her wine, glancing away as if trying to pick from any number of things she didn’t like about my ex. “You remember how he always made you check in whenever you went out? Like, if you were going to be gone somewhere more than an hour, you had to send him a text letting him know where you were and what you were doing.”
“That was just his way of making sure I was safe.”
She scoffed. “Total controlling behavior. Being in a relationship is about trust, and him pulling that crap was way, way more about him wanting to keep tabs on you than making sure you were safe.”
Gia continued, her eyes flashing as she remembered something else. “Oh! And how he always got weird when you talked about your job, like it was some silly little hobby you were into. I’m pretty sure he’s one of those men who thinks women are supposed to be, like, barefoot at home in the kitchen.”
“He had his good parts, though. Right?”
“I mean, he was a hard worker, I’ll give him that. But we saw how far that got you. You and your dad helped him through law school only for him to drop you the second he got a little bit of success.” She snorted, annoyed. “So much for sticking together.”
Her eyes lit up, as if something else had occurred to her. “Oh! And remember how he started that big project or whatever with him trying to find his long-lost brother who got put up for adoption?”
I frowned. “What about it?
“You were so sweet and supportive through the whole thing, and he was…I don’t know, so secretive about it. Never telling you anything about it.”
“Well, that was a private matter,” I defended, hearing the pathetic note. “I didn’t want to intrude.”
“But don’t you think that’s weird? That he had this whole other family member he found after all this time and didn’t include you?”
“Maybe it was,” I said with a shrug. “But it doesn’t matter now, does it?” I sipped my wine, knowing that every word she said was right. “I have no idea how I got into something so serious with a guy like him. No idea.”
“It’s just habit. You meet someone and all of a sudden it’s a year later and your lives are totally linked together and you can’t imagine being without them – whether they’re right for you or not.” She leaned forward and put her hand on my knee. “But look on the bright side.”
“There’s a bright side?”
“Sure! You get a chance to start over and learn from your mistakes,” she said, her positivity infectious. “Annie, you’re young and hot and brilliant and in a new town with your best friend. You’ll have your pick of guys – the hardest part’s going to be choosing which one you want.”
I forced a smile, but it hardly felt that easy. I’d dated before Andrew, sure, but it’d never been something that’d come easy to me.
“But if I want to date, it means I have to, you know, actually go out on dates.”
She beamed at me and laughed. “That’s the most fun part! You get to meet new guys, let them buy you drinks, maybe even hook up with a few of them.”
I wasn’t convinced. “Yeah, and then there’s the part where you wonder if they’re ever going to call you back, or if they’re going to cheat on you, or if they ever even plan on committing…”
Another dismissive swipe through the air. “Oh, don’t worry about any of that. You need casual and fun. No point in thinking about relationships right now.” She said the word relationships as if it were the most unappealing thing in the world. And at that moment, I had to agree with her. “Has Andrew even asked about you?”
“What do you mean? Has he texted me?”
“I don’t know. I mean, you