“Not if it’s the patient I had just before I left. I told him he could call me if it was an emergency.”
I sighed. Weren’t there doctors for this kind of thing? What sort of physical therapy emergencies could there possibly be? A cramped hip? I climbed off him and watched as he dug it out of his pocket. He made a face at whatever was on his screen. I was busy pulling my underwear back up and putting the straps of my cami back on when he answered.
“Hello?”
I couldn’t hear who was on the other end, but I could hear it was a female. I continued to get dressed as I listened on.
“Why did you still go? I told you what would happen.” He closed his lips while the other person spoke. “Okay, that’s understandable, but I don’t know why you did it after everything you said today.”
This conversation was sparking my interest, despite the timer going off in the kitchen. Fuck the lasagna. I wanted to know who in the hell Dodger was talking to.
“Well, nothing is going to get done tonight. The best thing you can do is to stay home, and let him cool off. Maybe you both can be more reasonable tomorrow morning.”
Dodger looked at me, as I leaned my hip against our dresser. I turned my head slightly, letting him know I was curious what was going on. He shook his head no, but something seemed off. Whoever he was talking to, he didn’t want to deal with it, nor did he want to talk to me about it.
“Listen, I’ll talk to you later. Now is not the best time. Yeah, something like that. Mhmm, bye.”
When he ended the call, he knew I was waiting for him to speak. Why wouldn’t he look at me?
“Who was that?”
He kept his eyes down. “Dana.”
Every person I’ve ever come across has that one thing that could set them off. That one thing that makes you go from zero to one hundred really quick. We all had a hot button that made us see red. Dana contacting my boyfriend, again during his off hours, was mine. Had the light been on, Dodger would have taken notice that my face was likely getting red.
“What? I’m sorry did I hear you correctly?”
Dodger stood up from the bed and walked toward me. I raised my hand, telling him to stop in his tracks.
“Mace, come on. I didn’t know she would call.”
“So why is she?” I crossed my arms, feeling suddenly cold.
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “She was telling me that her and her boyfriend had gotten into a pretty bad fight.”
I blinked. “Uh, okay. Two things: first, I had no clue the Hoe Bag had a boyfriend. Not sure who would want to hit that, but okay. Second, why would she feel that it’s okay to contact my boyfriend when apparently she has her own?”
“I think they’ve been having problems. She talked to me about it earlier today, and I gave her some advice. Guess she went against my advice and did what she wanted anyway, and it backfired.”
I guess I’ve went and gone stupid. This still wasn’t making sense. Or maybe it was and I couldn’t see past my own anger.
“Again, why is she calling you this late? And why does she think you even care?”
Dodger attempted to come forward and embrace me. Sorry Charlie, but the name Dana was a mood spoiler. Looks like he’d be rubbing out one on his own, ‘cause I certainly wasn’t going to. He was getting frustrated.
“Macie, I don’t know why she does half the things she does. But I’ll remind her tomorrow that she isn’t to call my cell phone unless it’s during office hours and I’m out.”
“Not good enough.”
“What do you mean, that’s not good enough? What more do you possibly want me to do?”
“Fire her.”
He flung his arms up in the arm and slapped them on his legs when they came down. “Jesus Christ, we’ve been over this. Her calling me isn’t grounds to be terminated. As much as I know you want her gone, it just isn’t. I will reprimand her tomorrow, and be explicitly clear when contact is appropriate. And if she does this again, I will consider talking to Camden about finding a replacement.”
“I can’t even believe we are having to have this argument in the first place. You do realize she that she made up a little spat with her imaginary boyfriend just to get your attention and to try and get you out of the house and running to her. Mark my words. There’s no boyfriend, Dodger. You really can’t be that dense.”
“And you can’t really have that much hate for someone that you think everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie.”
“Well, if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck . . . it’s probably named Dana, and it’s a lie.”
He faked a laugh. “This jealousy is a bit much, don’t you think? I mean, I’m here, Macie. I’m living with you. I chose you a long fucking time ago. I’m not going anywhere. It could be Christy fucking Brinkley standing naked in front of me right now, and I wouldn’t care. When will that sink into your head?”
I knew he was right, but women were women. Dana was playing hardball, and she had her eye on her target. That was Dodger. Even if it cost her job, she wanted to take him away from me. I had no idea if that ultimate goal was because she didn’t want me to have him, or because she actually cared for him. And he was oblivious to it all.
“I know all of that, and yes, it matters to me. But you don’t get the games that women play to get what they want.”
“I seem to know your games.”
I barked out a laugh. “You haven’t got the slightest clue what I’m capable of.”
“Are you trying to scare me?”
“No, I’m trying to get you to wake up.”
He was exasperated. “The guy has been abusing her, okay? She was trying to leave him and she asked me for advice. I gave it to her. She got scared.”
I’d fucking scare her. Who needed a phony abusive boyfriend, when I would gladly do it. She wouldn’t even have to wine and dine me first.
“She hasn’t had a single bruise or black eye on her.”
“Dana said he hits where people can’t see and she can cover it up.”
“Riiiight. Either the man is a genius, or she is.”
“Okay enough, Macie. I get it. You don’t believe her. I let her confide in me and maybe that was too much for me to do. I’ll speak to her tomorrow. There will be no more phone calls.”
I couldn’t even discuss this further. He was like Stevie Wonder walking into a trap, and I could only sit back and watch and hope like hell his instincts would kick in to make this girl go. For the third time he walked up to me and I simply didn’t have the energy to ask him not to.
He rubbed my arms. “Did I hear the oven go off?”
“Yeah.” I was looking down.
“Come eat, babe. I’ll make your plate, and we can watch a movie or something on TV.”
I stepped to the side and moved to the door. “I think I’m going to take a bath.”
His hopeful expression dropped. “Macie . . . I know you’re hungry.”