Page 77 of Clinically Awkward

Everyone turned to look at me.

“Right,” Fitz said slowly. “Sorry, Viv. Didn’t mean to⁠—”

“I’m fine,” I blurted. “I’m just—I’m fine.”

I wasn’t fine. I was the opposite of fine. I was standing in the lobby of my workplace, watching the man I—No! Not going there. Not now.

“He’ll be okay,” Gabriel whispered. “Julien’s not going to kill him.”

“He might maim him,” Nathan said.

“Nathan.”

“I’m just saying! Julien’s very precise. If he’s going to maim someone, he’ll do it right.”

“That’s not helping,” I said.

“Sorry.”

We fell into silence.

Thirty seconds passed.

Then a minute.

Then two.

I was going to lose my mind. Actually lose my mind.

Right there in the lobby, surrounded by four doctors who were supposed to be helping but were instead planning Quinton’s funeral like it was a done deal.

“What do you think he’s saying?” Nathan asked.

“Probably ‘I slept with your sister,’” Fitz said. “Short and to the point.”

“Or ‘I have feelings for Vivian,’” Gabriel suggested.

“Or ‘Please don’t kill me,’” Hayden added.

“Can we stop—” I started, and then the door to Julien’s office opened.

Everyone froze as Quinton stepped out.

He looked confused. Not angry. Not devastated. Not like a man who’d just confessed to sleeping with his best friend’s sister and lived to tell the tale.

Just... confused.

“Well?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Quinton looked at me, then at Fitz. Then at Gabriel, Nathan, and Hayden. “I never got the chance to say a word,” he drawled.

Silence.

“What?” Fitz said.

“I walked in,” Quinton continued, still looking bewildered. “Sat down. Opened my mouth to talk. And Julien just... he cut me off.”

“Cut you off?” Gabriel repeated.