Page 188 of Nobody's Girl

Eden leans in close to me as he watches the doctor’s hand very near to my left breast. Doctor Baker moves the stethoscope a bit closer to my breast and Eden clears his throat.

My doctor steps back, removing it from my chest and placing it on my back. “Take a deep breath for me, please, Alyssa,” he says. and I do as he’s asked as I watch Eden bird dog my physician.

What is wrong with him?

“Everything sounds good. The MRI results were sent to me this morning and they look good. No damage done,” Doctor Baker informs me.

“That’s good to hear,” Eden says with a sigh.

“So I can go back to school tomorrow then?” I ask.

Incredibly, instead of looking at me, my doctor looks at Eden. “You’ve been the one with her the most. What do you think?” he asks Eden.

“It’s better for her not to attend.  There’re only a couple more weeks of school anyway. She’s done with her actual school work. Write the excuse for the remainder of the school year,” Eden orders.

“Wait one minute,” I interrupt the dictator. “First, how do you know anything about my schoolwork? Second, I feel fine and maybe I want to go back to school.”

The doctor gets out a pen and begins writing on a pad of paper. “No, Alyssa, Mr. Fontaine is right. If there’s no academic reason for you to go back to school, I see no reason to risk your health. If you were to get dizzy for even a second and fall again, I would be held responsible for your injuries. You wouldn’t want me to get into trouble, now would you?” he asks me with a smile.

“Of course not, but I feel fine and you said I’m okay.”

Eden places his hand on my chin and he pulls me to look at him. He’s so damn close to me. “Alyssa, do as the doctor says. You don’t want to get him in any trouble.”

This is insane!

“I suppose I have no choice in the matter,” I say as I concede defeat.

Eden smiles at me. “Where your health is concerned, listen to your doctor, princess.”

Damn, damn, damn! What the hell is this?

The doctor turns back to us. “I’ll call the school and tell them her situation. Once I fax this excuse over, there will be nothing else you need to do. Take good care of her for us,” my doctor since I’ve been born tells Eden, leaving me dumbfounded.

They shake hands again. “I will. Her health is excellent, thanks to you. Great job, Byron,” Eden says, making my mouth drop open.

Did he call him by his first name?

The doctor exits the small room with a wave to me. “Goodbye, Alyssa. See you soon.”

“Eden, how the fuck did you know his first name?”

His expression is one of disgust. Putting his finger to my lips in a gesture for me not to speak, he says, “Alyssa, my princess, please do not allow that language to pass through those precious lips again. It’s beneath you to speak filth.”

If I wasn’t embarrassed by his reaction to my use of profanity, I would yell some other nasty things at him. “Okay, sorry. I’ll re-phrase that. How do you know his first name? I don’t even know it.”

“Your mother told it to me,” he says as he lifts me off the exam table, running his strong arm around my waist and taking me out of the small room. “Now tell me where you would like to go and have lunch.”

“I’m not allowed to go out anywhere with the male species until I turn eighteen, Eden, sorry.”

At the car, he opens my door and as soon as I sit down he reaches across me to fasten my seatbelt. Pulling the sunglasses I had propped up on the top of my head, he puts them back on my face, then puts his back on. His movie star look is complete.

“I’ll call your father and get his approval,” he says, closing my door and walking around to get in.

“Good luck with that,” I say, pulling down the visor to check my reflection.

Before Eden can get in the car, a tall, leggy, blonde woman walks up to him. Her skirt short and her hand extended, she says, “Hi, I’m Lacey Patterson. I’m a realtor here and noticed your exceptional vehicle. I’ve never seen it around town before, nor yourself. Are you new?”

What the hell is this woman doing?