CHAPTER 121

JULIANI came in, the sour taste of the dinner still in my mouth, and Enzo was on the couch with the TV on low like he’d been waiting without wanting to look like he was waiting. He sat up as soon as he saw me and his face did that soft worried thing it does when he thinks I’m hurt and haven’t said so yet.“Hey. There you are. I was starting to think you’d gone straight to bed at the hospital or something. How have you been? How was the rest of your day? Did you eat?”“I’m fine.”It came out flat. I put my bag down and went to take my shoes off because if I stood there looking at him I was going to have to perform a better version of fine, and I didn’t have one.He got up and followed me, not crowding me exactly, just close enough that I could feel him wanting an answer I wasn’t giving. “Okay. You’re fine. You just walked in here sounding like you’re not fine at all, so forgive me if I’m not buying it. Talk to me. Please. You’ve been somewhere else all evening and I can see it on you.

CHAPTER 122

ENZOThe door shut and something in my chest went tight and stayed that way, a real physical ache I kept trying to breathe through while I stood in the kitchen replaying the whole stupid fight and coming up with nothing that made me look good. I’d asked if there was somebody else. I’d told him I wasn’t just a body he used. I’d told him to get out. He’d looked at me like I’d reached into the worst part of him on purpose, and then he’d left, and now the apartment was too still and I couldn’t decide if I was furious at him for walking out or furious at myself for giving him a reason.I went down the hall because staying in the kitchen meant staring at the spot where he’d picked up his bag, and I ended up in his room without really choosing it.The bed still smelled like him. I lay down on my back and pulled his pillow over and breathed it in, which I would have mocked anyone else for doing, and I did it anyway because it was the closest I could get to him without calling and starting the

CHAPTER 123

JULIANI woke up to Enzo’s messages stacked on my lock screen and I read every one of them twice before I put the phone face down on Kai’s coffee table and didn’t reply. I was already sorry, and I still couldn’t type anything back because the second I opened the thread I could hear last night again, him asking if I wanted someone else, me walking out, both of us saying things we couldn’t take back. I got dressed for my shift feeling like I had left everything unfinished on his kitchen floor and then gone to sleep on someone else’s couch like that was a solution.The hospital did not help. I kept dropping easy things, answering a beat late, standing in the supply closet longer than I needed to because if I stood still I could hear myself insisting I was fine. Alex noticed before the second hour was over, because of course he did.“All right,” he said, bumping my shoulder as we left a room. “Did you have a fight with your boyfriend or something?”I looked at him. “Yeah. How did you know

CHAPTER 124

JULIANI was halfway through night rounds when my phone vibrated with a short message from Charlotte asking if I was free to stop by her call room in neurosurgery. I finished the last set of vitals on the ward, signed off the notes, and took the long corridor over with a paper cup of hot coffee in one hand and a small packet of cookies in the other because I knew she’d still be awake and probably hadn’t eaten anything solid since the afternoon. The hospital was quieter at this hour, the overhead lights dimmed in places, and the only sounds were the distant beeping of monitors and the soft squeak of my shoes on the floor.I knocked once on the call room door and pushed it open when she called out. Charlotte was sitting on the narrow bed with her back against the wall, a textbook open on her lap and a highlighter in her hand. She looked up and smiled the moment she saw the coffee.“You’re an actual angel,” she said, closing the book and reaching out. “I was about to start chewing the pa

CHAPTER 125

JULIANI finished the last round just after six, signed off, and walked out into the pale morning light with my bag over my shoulder. I let myself in, dropped my keys in the bowl by the door, and went straight to the bedroom. Enzo was not there yet. I stripped out of my scrubs, pulled on a clean t-shirt, and fell into our bed. Sleep took me fast.I do not know how long I was out before the mattress dipped behind me. A warm body settled against my back. I knew the shape of him even half asleep. I pushed back into Enzo without opening my eyes, felt his arm come around my waist, and drifted off again with his breath against the back of my neck.When I woke the second time the room was brighter. Enzo was still asleep, one arm thrown across the pillow, face turned toward me. I watched him for a minute, then eased out of bed so I would not wake him. The kitchen was quiet. I started coffee, pulled eggs and bread from the fridge, and set a pan on the stove. While the oil heated I stood there

All Chapters of Addicted to my Stepbrother : Chapter 121 - Chapter 125

CHAPTER 121

CHAPTER 122

CHAPTER 123

CHAPTER 124

CHAPTER 125