“You’re going to be bullheaded about this?” she asked. “I’m new here. Can’t you put yourself in my shoes? Already one of your somewhat exes was giving me crap—however sweetly.”
She had a point. “We can compromise. We won’t talk about dating or the things I want to do to you in the bedroom, but I’m not ignoring you. We can still talk like we’ve been doing for now. And if we can have lunch together there is no reason not to. You’ve already told plenty of people we were just friends.”
He held his breath while he waited for her response. “Okay. We’ll start that way. Slowly. Not every day either.”
Dodged that bullet. He refused to be hurt that she wanted to keep what they had a secret.
That maybe he wasn’t good enough in her eyes but was afraid to say it.
Hadn’t he felt that enough in his life when he was trying to be the center of attention? When he was trying to show everyone he had what it took to do his job. That he was a good friend. That he could be a good boyfriend.
Yet, he always had to fight to not be alone.
24
Held Out
So, it shouldn’t have come as any surprise that two days had gone by at work and he hadn’t seen or spoken to Adriana during the day.
At least he was able to talk or text at night. Since he was on call for two weeks in a row, the first week for her too, they hadn’t done much more than text last night when he got home from a surgery. Why couldn’t she have been the nurse called in?
Nope, it didn’t always work that way, as some surgeons had their own staff they wanted and nurses were only called in when they were short staffed or more surgeries than scheduled were happening.
At the end of the day on Thursday, he was getting sick and tired of not seeing her. He’d almost felt like she might even be avoiding him on purpose and he needed some advice.
“Hey, got a minute?”
Sam looked up from where he was typing his notes. “Sure. Surprised you’re still here. Did you get held up? You normally run out the door if you can.”
“I’m on call for two weeks. I tried to swap out the weekend of your wedding, but the best I could do was swap weeks.”
“Yikes. Two weeks in a row. That has to be driving you insane,” Sam said when Wyatt walked in and sat down. It normally did.
“Somewhat. I don’t mind. I can get by on little to no sleep and it’s not like I’m called in all that much. It’s just knowing I can’t really commit to much in case I’m called in.” Which meant sitting around more than he liked.
“And what is it you want to commit to?” Sam asked, leaning back in his chair.
Wyatt got up to shut the door, then sat back down. “Can I tell you something without it going any further than this room?”
“Of course you can. You look troubled. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. Not really. So Adriana and I are dating.”
Sam started to laugh. “Dude, you’ve been dating for weeks. That’s nothing new.”
He smirked. “I finally got her to admit that. Sort of. I guess I should say that it’s more than going out and doing things on the weekend now.”
“Ah. So you’ve had sex. Damn, what’s that, almost a month with someone without making it into the bedroom? That might be a record for you?”
“You would have held out for Dani,” he said.
“And I did. Not a month, but more than normal.”
“See, you get it.”
“No. I don’t get it. Not unless you tell me more. Are you saying you see some kind of a future with her? It’s been a few weeks.”
“Did you know in a few weeks with Dani?” he asked and wondered why he was voicing these things right now.
“Good point. I knew something, but not everything. It takes time.”
“I know she frustrates the shit out of me.”
Sam started to laugh. “You’re a little like Drake in that most stuff doesn’t bother you. At least in terms of the female variety.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So you’ve come to your older cousin for advice?” Sam asked. “I feel honored.”
“Ass.”
“What has you all twisted?”
“She doesn’t want anyone to know at work. You know, but you’re family and you won’t say a word. She wants us to keep our distance and not even talk while we are here though.”
“That’s kind of harsh after you’ve been rolling around in the sheets with her,” Sam said.
And in the shower, then the couch after dinner. He kept that to himself. Sam didn’t need all those details. “My feelings exactly.”
“What is her reason other than not wanting to be lumped into the same category as the other women you’ve dated here?”
“That’s her reason,” he said.
“It’s a legit one but still harsh. She doesn’t want you guys to even talk? You’ve been talking for weeks.”
“That’s what I said. It’s not like I’m going to grab her ass when she walks by or push her against the wall and kiss her.”
“But you want to.”
“That goes without saying,” he said. “But I’ve never done that at work. Not with anyone. I may date, but I’ve always been professional at work.”
Sam lifted his eyebrows, opened a drawer and pulled out three mini balls and chains. “Professional?”
“That’s different,” he argued.
“I’m sure there are more in this office too that I’ll be finding for weeks. At least it’s not as bad as the glitter bombs. Every once in a while I still find some of it and it makes me shudder.”
“That was a good one. Admit it.”
“Easy for you to say,” Sam said. “You weren’t walking around all sparkly and having people laugh and point it out.”
One of his better jokes for sure. “Anyway. Back to me and my problem.”
“I’m trying to figure out what
