Page 24 of Aftershock
Like a missed opportunity.
4
LILITH
As soon as Alaric is out of earshot, Hope pipes up, “I’ve got this.”
“Got what?” I whisper while a customer taps her phone to the screen.
Thirty percent tip. Generous.
Still nowhere near Alaric’s level.
Those five hundred dollars he tipped me were too much. Especially since I hadn’t earned them.
If anything, I was the least customer-service oriented I’ve ever been in my life. I stared for too long too. Blushed. Flirted.
Yet despite everything, I pleased him.
The tall, handsome doctor who smelled like expensive cologne andmine.
Hope arrives with the customer’s coffee, offering it to her while sing-songing, “Get out of here, Lilith.”
“Not yet. The shift change…” My excuse sounds weak even in my own ears.
I don’t want to stick around.
I want more of Alaric.
Truth is, I’ve been wanting more of him since I started working here yesterday, and other than that one glimpse up until now, I’ve gotten nothing.
I hadn’t caught a glimpse of him in the hospital, no matter where I searched.
Even when I went to his apartment building last night, the lights in his window were off. Assuming he was resting, I didn’t try to sneak in and risk waking him.
His absence had me more restless than I ever was during those seven years in Maine.
Doesn’t matter that I’ve been carrying his boxers in my hoodie pocket wherever I go. That I stole a second pair and stashed it under my mattress.
Knowing he was so close yet out of my sight had been hell.
Then he came to the counter. His eyes narrowed as he ate me up with his gaze. His jaw clenched.
His entire focus was on me.
I wasn’t his patient or a wounded kid anymore.
I was a woman he stared at as if he couldn’t get enough.
So, yeah, no wonder I don’t sound convincing in the slightest.
“If anyone asks, I’ll say you got your period and had bad cramps,” Hope says while grinning at the next customer. “Trust me, it’s fine. Go get your man. Or watch him. Whatever works.”
I’m so stunned by her words that I don’t say a thing. I just watch as the order ticket pops up and start putting it together.
“Thanks.” Accepting the tray full of an egg sandwich, napkins, and soda, Hope slides it over to the customer. “Here you go, sir,” she says, then whispers, “Lil, you’re obsessed with him, and it’s obvious he’s into you too. Why are you still here?”
Holy shit, she really means it. Hope isn’t just okay with me stalking my doctor. She brought it up and is actively enabling it.
