Blood not draining but pumping with rage.
I go home to grab more things throwing my bag onto the bed which misses hitting the bedside table but knocking her lucky gold pineapple to the floor, smashing it into pieces. Fuck! The sound echoes in the room, and my reflex is weak, unable to save it. I know I’m hurting, but I am not a fucking idiot. Despite my heart wanting to hate her, I know what this pineapple means.
I finishing packing my things and then find a Post-It note and pen writing on it ‘I’m sorry’ and picking up the pieces and leaving it on the bedside table.
I leave it all behind—the memories of us—and head back to Isaac’s.
I throw myself into work that night, the only thing I can do until the texts roll in, all from her.
Zoey: I don’t understand this break.
Zoey: Nothing happened with Slater.
Zoey: Please, Drew, I love you.
Zoey: I’m heading home now. Please come home tonight, so we can talk properly.
Zoey: YOU’RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE FOR SMASHING MY PINEAPPLE!!!
I should have responded there and then that I’m many things but an asshole isn’t one of them. I’m not thinking clearly, and my head has to be completely and one hundred percent on my job. I can’t afford another almost mistake. This is my passion—what I was born to do—so for tonight, I have to ignore that we’re on a break, and she probably ran to him because I supposedly smashed her pineapple.
And that’s night one.
Night two—I’m driving myself insane taking a sleeping pill so I can rest during the day and be able to work at night. I have turned back into jealous Drew, and my thoughts spawn from the devil as I imagine him touching her. It takes every ounce of self-control not to go down to her office and beat the shit out of him. Again, I’m not that guy. I’d done it once before with Jess when he tried to win Zoey back and learned my lesson rather quickly.
It doesn’t help that Raine switched her shifts to the same as mine. I avoid her as much as possible, afraid I will cave and tell her what happened. Thankfully, she been dumped with admin work, and I’ve busied myself in the ER.
Night three—Calm, rational Drew has creeped out slowly. I thought long and hard about our relationship. I need to trust her. My life depends on trusting her. So, she’s with him. And although it hurt me that she lied, if there’s nothing more to it, then why should I give up the best thing that’s happened to me?
Night four—The night I open my email and find an invoice from the wedding venue. I almost fall off my chair when I see the thirty-thousand-dollar bill. The anger screams at me, and I want to call her, tell her no fucking way, but know I have to calm down. The pressure’s on, and the wedding is less than three weeks away.
We aren’t even together!
Night five—I’m no closer to resolving my mixed emotions. One minute I’m desperate to tell her I should have trusted her, and the next, I have that image of him touching her back so comfortably that it makes me think of what they did in his apartment. What else he might have fucking touched that belongs to me.
But things take a turn for the worse tonight.
It starts off with a pile-up on the bridge which results in a family of five being rushed to emergency. The mother’s in critical condition which we’re able to stabilize but had to fly the youngest child to another hospital. Thankfully, she has only minor injuries.
It’s somewhere just after midnight when Troy comes bustling through the doors with a very panicked Mia breathing in and out. She’s only thirty-four weeks pregnant but is showing signs of early labor. Troy’s of no help, the helpless fucker equally as panicked. I grab one of the wheelchairs and call the nurse to take them up to delivery. I specialize more in ER and cardiology rather than maternity but tell them I will check in on them soon knowing first labors are usually long.
I attend to a guy who has accidentally drunk mouthwash during his sleepwalk thinking it’s water, which ended with stomach cramps. It’s shortly after, I find out that Mia gave birth. It turns out their baby girl just wanted to get out fast. She’s a precious little thing. I spent some time with them before I have to get back and finish my shift.
***
It’s sometime after eight in the morning when I run into Raine at the main desk.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she says, bluntly.
“I’ve been busy.”
“At avoiding me. It’s okay. I’m a big girl. I get it. You’re marrying the love of your life.”
I briefly pause lifting my gaze only slightly before continuing the paperwork in front of me. “I don’t know if that’s happening. We’re on a break.”
“A break as in to cool down? Or a break as in break-up?” she asks with inquiring eyebrows.
“I don’t know anymore,” I admit, reluctantly.