Page 78 of Clinically Awkward

“Yeah. He said he didn’t have time for whatever I was about to say because he had something more important to discuss.”

“More important than you sleeping with his sister?” Nathan asked incredulously.

“Apparently.”

“Then what did he want?” Fitz asked.

Quinton rubbed the back of his neck, looking directly at me. “He asked me to cover the clinic next week,” he said. “Apparently, Julien is taking a vacation.”

Silence.

Complete, absolute silence.

And then everyone gasped. Like at the exact same time. Like a perfectly synchronized choir of shock.

“A vacation?” Gabriel said.

“Julien doesn’t take vacations,” Nathan said.

“Julien doesn’t even take lunch breaks,” Hayden added.

“He’s taking a vacation,” Quinton repeated. “To—and I quote—‘spend time with his wife and children before they drive him completely insane.’”

I stared at him. “That’s it?” I said. “That’s all he wanted?”

“That’s all he wanted.”

“He didn’t... he didn’t ask why you wanted to talk to him?”

“Nope.”

“He didn’t suspect anything?”

“Not that I could tell.”

“He just... he just asked you to cover the clinic?”

“Yep.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again, and then I started laughing. Not a polite laugh. Not a quiet, controlled laugh. A full, hysterical, borderline-manic laugh that made everyone turn to stare at me like I had lost my mind.

Which I had because I had lost an entire night’s sleep. I had driven to the clinic an hour early. I had nearly rammed another driver off the road. I had subjected myself to Fitz’s relentless texts about “Sir Quinton Wesley, Knight of Terrible Decisions.” I’d stood in the parking lot and watched Quinton walk toward what I thought was certain doom.

And for what?

For Julien to ask him to cover the clinic while he went on vacation.

“Vivian?” Quinton said carefully. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I replied, still laughing. “I’m absolutely fine. Everything is fine. This is fine.”

“You don’t sound fine.”

“I got zero hours of sleep last night,” I said, my voice rising. “Zero. Because I thought you were going to confess to my brother and ruin everything. And instead... instead he just asked you to cover the clinic.”

“I mean⁠—”

“I almost killed someone on the highway this morning!”