Saving the Doctor Pt. 06

She had rushed away from his office door in tears before he could find her eavesdropping.

She felt him take her hand on the car seat beside her and looked over to another awkward smile. She faked one back, but even then it only felt slightly more artificial than his.

She was going to leave him. She had to. She knew that now, more than ever, it was just a question of how and when. She had told herself she would wait until after the holidays, but every day she was still with him felt like one day too many.

She wondered if he suspected. Maybe that was part of the reason for his new behaviour.

He was trying to be his version of a gentleman, she figured, but it was such a thin veneer. He had bought her flowers 2 days ago and then she was surprised when he tried to get frisky with her for the first time in a long time. She played along at first but he got annoyed when he decided she was too big to sit on him in his office chair, and instead told her to bend over his desk. When she had told him that she wasn't in the mood anymore his smile turned to petulance almost instantly. He had muttered something about a waste of fifty bucks for the flowers, and that she should take what she can get.

She didn't care enough to argue with him anymore. She was just biding her time at this point.

She made a sour face and felt like she could still taste his cock from last night. She felt disgusting for doing it but he had kept bothering her under the covers and she decided to take pity on him. He hadn't been eager to have sex with her for so long, and it was confusing that he was so interested in her now. He hadn't been interested in foreplay though. He simply climbed on top and started grunting, almost in frustration, as he fucked her, barely making eye contact. She felt used and dirty, and decided she didn't want him cumming inside her. She had sucked him off instead. He kept telling her to do this and that with her mouth and her hands, because he liked it that way. They were things she'd never remembered ever doing before though, and she felt sick thinking of how and why he might have discovered he liked it. She was in tears by the end as he grabbed her hair in his fists and came inside her mouth calling her his "little slut". Something she'd never heard him say before.

Carly pulled her hand away from his on the car seat and hugged herself, fighting off a shudder.

"Do you know if Elaina and... whats-his-name will be there?" Brent asked.

"Jon?" she said, surprised at his question.

"Yeah that's the couple."

"Umm, actually Grace told me they broke up just recently, so probably not. Maybe Jon just by himself, but I think she said he probably wasn't gonna make it."

"Hmm. That's interesting," he replied.

She frowned and gave him a confused glance, but he had already gone back to staring out the window. The question made her nervous, but not as guilty as it might have before.

She couldn't believe all the things Grace had told her about Jon and Elaina's breakup. She knew Jeff wouldn't be one to exaggerate things, but it all sounded so crazy....And exciting. Knowing he had actually done it. That he had stood up to her. That he was single now.

She wanted so badly to text him or call him and find out how he was doing, but she had promised herself she would at least wait until she was done with Brent. There was a chance he would be there tonight though. She had wanted to ask Grace if he was coming, but she couldn't fit it casually into the conversation without seeming suspicious. She was still pretty sure Grace hadn't figured anything out, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Her stomach felt queasy as the cab came to a stop. She almost didn't want to get out, but she let out a long breath and opened the door, careful not to step in the slush. It was unseasonably warm for New Years Eve and she almost felt overdressed. Brent took her hand to help her over the puddle and kept holding it as they walked up to the house. She wanted to let go and run. Instead, she rang the doorbell.

Jeff opened the door with a smile and she stepped into the noise of the party.

"Hey Carly! Oh! Hey Brent, wasn't sure if you were making it. Good to see you."

"Hello Jeff," Brent said politely with a handshake.

Carly gave Jeff a hug. "Hey, sorry we're late. Looks like quite the shindig already."

"Yeah," he smiled "Most people are already here I think, but you haven't missed much. Grace has a special bottle of wine she wanted to show off to you."

She smiled. "Can't wait."

They hung up their coats and drifted into the crowd.

Jenna spotted her and waved excitedly next to Ben.

"Heyyy!" she exclaimed, and hugged her. "Happy New Year! Good to see you again!"

She had met Jenna once more since the Christmas party, at the bar with Grace, and they got along really well. She wasn't as wild as Grace, but extremely kind and still lots of fun. Seeing more familiar friendly faces was making her discomfort start to fade.

"Hey Ben," Carly said, giving him a hug as well.

"Enjoying the Christmas break?" Carly asked Jenna.

"Yeah, it's been almost weird not having screaming school kids around me all the time," Jenna laughed. "Oh! Before I forget. This is a belated Merry Christmas." She dug into her purse.

"What? Jenna I didn't know we were doing presents. I never got you anything!" Carly said.

"Oh I know, but I told you I was getting into knitting and things kinda spiraled out of control..."

"WAY out of control," Ben interjected with a laugh.

Jenna swatted him lightheartedly.

"So I made you this!" Jenna excitedly pulled out a blue knitted beret.

"Ooooo, This looks really good" Carly said honestly. "I can't believe you made this."

She tried it on.

"Hey that looks nice on her honey!" Ben said with a proud smile.

"Yeah it suits you" Jenna agreed.

"What do you think Brent?" Carly turned her head playfully to the side, at least making an effort to involve him.

Brent seemed to be making the most painfully polite smile.

"It seems to fit," he said simply.

She forced herself not to sigh and roll her eyes.

"Hi Brent I'm Jenna, I don't think we got a chance to meet at the Christmas party," Jenna said invitingly, offering a handshake.

"Oh right, sorry I forgot that," Carly said. "Brent this is Jenna and her husband Ben, he's a pathologist, and she's a teacher, they're both friends of Grace and Jeff."

"Yes I figured as much," he said shaking their hands briefly.

"What do you do Brent?" Ben asked.

"I'm an engineer."

"Nice. Where do you work?"

"...At the college," Brent said after a brief hesitation.

Ben looked confused for a moment, but was interrupted before he could clarify.

"OOOooo LA LA! Ma Cherie! J'aime la beret! C'est tres magnifique!" Grace exclaimed as she barged past Brent and gave Carly a huge hug and peppered kisses on her cheek while Carly giggled and eventually had to push her off.

"Pepe le pew much?" Carly said with a playful shove.

Grace raised her arm "I dunno Jenna smell me am I good?"

Jenna giggled and sniffed "Yeah girl, you're fine."

"Speaking of fine..." Grace said. "Like the way those blonde locks come down from under that beret. With that dress. Like ugh! Fashion magazine cover. Right there."

Carly blushed, "Did you make her one too?"

"Yeah! Yours looked good too Grace," Jenna reassured her.

"Psshhh. I looked like a highland dancer," Grace said dismissively.

Carly shrugged, "Sounds cute to me, I kinda want to see it."

"Maybe later," Grace winked. "Where the fuck's your drink?"

"Hadn't quite got there yet, I was slowly making my way over."

Grace sighed, "Absolute dogshit drink service in here. Who's running this party?"

Carly giggled.

"C'mon, I got a bottle of wine with your name on it." Grace said, leading her away from the others and into the kitchen.

...

"Mmmm. God, that IS good." Carly said, looking at the label before she put the wine bottle back in the fridge.

"I KNOW right?" Grace agreed. "So... Brent came I see," she said with a smirk.

"Yeah... he was strangely eager to. It's whatever," Carly shrugged.

"How are you guys?" Grace said more quietly.

Carly took another larger swig from her wine glass and gave Grace a pained stare.

"Another chat for another time?" Grace asked, reading her face.

"Yeah. Thanks," Carly said.

Grace gave her a sympathetic squeeze on the wrist. She hated seeing that look from her, even though she treasured having such a supportive friend.

"OOO! Rob brought somebody!" Grace said excitedly, changing the subject.

"Oh. Good for him," Carly said casually.

"No you don't understand, he's been super single for as long as I can remember. Like, occasional one night stands and never anything the least bit serious," Grace said. "And like, he'd never admit to it, and this town isn't super homophobic, at least compared to some places, but I think he's always been kinda nervous to be too open."

"Yeah, I'd understand that. I can only imagine," Carly said.

"But he's been seeing this guy for a bit now and... yeah. I almost dropped my drink when he walked in holding hands with him. They're super cute together."

"Awesome," Carly smiled.

"Christmas with the kids was good?" Carly asked.

"Yeah, they had a blast at their Grandma's. SO much fucking STUFF though, every year they get more spoiled I swear."

Carly laughed and looked at the pictures of them on the fridge sitting on Santa's knee. She had told Brent earlier in the month that she wanted to stop trying to get pregnant. At least for now. She was pretty sure it was for good....At least with him. Even looking at their cute faces in the pictures she felt zero regrets. Brent hadn't seemed to care very much.

"Hey Grace! Party's filling up, I'm impressed!"

Carly turned to see a tall, sporty woman she hadn't met before.

"Yeah it is. I think it's pretty much everyone we invited, even a few surprises," Grace replied, with a wink at Carly. "Dara this is Carly by the way, I don't think you've met."

"Hi! I'm a physio, I work a lot with Grace," Dara said with a smile.

"Hi," Carly said, shaking her hand.

"She's talked about you, how did you guys meet?" Dara asked.

"Oh, well I'm a pharmacist and I work at the hospital sometimes."

"Yeah, but we actually met through Jon a while back," Grace said.

Dara suddenly perked up. "Yes! The guy you were telling me about. Where is he? You need to introduce me!"

Grace sighed, "Cool your jets hun, I got bad news."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, turns out he came with a new girl on his arm already."

Carly suddenly felt sick as she listened silently.

"You told me he was single!" Dara whined.

"He WAS! I swear I had no idea till Jeff suddenly told me this afternoon he was bringing someone. I don't know how she swooped in between last week and now, but here she is. Sorry, I tried."

Dara sighed, "What's her name?"

"Tabitha."

Dara rolled her eyes.

"Hey, come on. Don't be a sore loser. If I'm being honest she seems kinda sweet. Plus he's a really good friend and he just got out of a fucked up engagement with this crazy bitch, and if she helps him move on, she's all good in my books," Grace said.

Carly tried to tell herself to keep it together, but she felt like her guts were going to rip in half. She felt dizzy and braced herself against the kitchen counter, and sipped her wine to distract herself and to cover her face.

Jeff walked in with Brent following behind.

"So yeah man, we got all kinds of beer in the fridge, or if hard stuff's more your style it's in the cabinet over here."

Brent nodded and shuffled over to the cabinet.

"Hi Dara," Jeff said.

"Hey Jeff. I tried your beer, they keep getting better and better," she smiled.

"Thanks!" Jeff clinked his bottle with hers and turned to Grace. "Did you give her the bad news?"

"Yeah," Grace said with a regretful smirk.

"You told him our plan??" Dara said, playfully offended.

"I wanted him to know what was up. I thought he could put in a good word for you!" Grace laughed defensively.

Jeff chuckled, "Yeah even Rob's taken tonight."

Dara scoffed, "You know I still haven't forgiven you for letting me ask him out. That was so embarrassing!"

"You didn't get to see the look on your face though. It was just so worth it," Jeff laughed.

Dara punched him lightly in the arm.

"Hey so we were thinking of getting some games going. Ben's chomping at the bit. Does that sound okay?" Jeff asked.

"Yeah totally" Grace said, and the three of them drifted back into the living room.

Brent slid in beside Carly with his drink. "Hi honey. Enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah," she lied.

"We could try out one of these... games if you'd like," he said with a tight smile.

Carly stared past him at the wall. "Yep. That's kinda the plan."

He looked around the room lazily.

"Honey can you watch my drink? I'm gonna head to the bathroom," Carly said.

Brent looked annoyed. "Sure. You're not avoiding me for some reason are you?"

"What? No I just have to use the bathroom, just... Mingle, or whatever."

She turned away into the dining room.

Suddenly, there he was.

Jon was caught up in a conversation with a few other people but he noticed her right away and after seeming to be as stunned as her for a second, raised his drink and nodded, turning back to his conversation. She could see the scar on his ear, suddenly making all of Grace's stories seem that much more real. She felt an urge to go hunt Elaina down and strangle her for hurting him. He looked good though. He was wearing a well-fitted brown sweater. Soft and hug-able. Someone had beat her to it though...

A pretty little woman was leaning against him with her hand wrapped around his arm, looking proud and excited to be with him. She was so petite. Barely coming up to his mid-chest. Her face wasn't jaw-dropping gorgeous, but she had a cute, innocent look to her. She was wearing a pink light blouse with a wide neck falling over one shoulder to show a red bra-strap. It cascaded over her perky tits down to her tight jeans molded over her skinny, toned legs.

It was bad enough he was seeing someone else already, but did she have to be the literal opposite of her? Carly felt like some lumbering beast walking by in comparison. She quickly averted her stare when Tabitha glanced her way, and continued on to the bathroom.

Five minutes later she finally willed herself to stop crying, wiped her tears away, and let out a shaky breath, looking herself in the mirror. She was trying to decide how stupid it might be to make herself vomit and tell Brent she was sick and needed to go home. She half-felt like she needed to anyway. She closed her eyes and slowly settled herself down.

You can do this. Just woman-up and go and face them all. Brent doesn't control your life, and neither does Jon. Get back out there and have fun with your friends. He doesn't get to ruin your night. Neither does she.

She touched up her hair and straightened her dress. She ran her hands over the fabric.

Screw comparing yourself to Tabitha, you're in the best shape you've been in a long time, she told herself.

The blue dress had a modest neckline but clung to her in ways that she might not have been comfortable with even a few months ago, but she felt like she was more confident in showing herself off now. She hadn't really lost much weight from her time at the gym, but there was much less sag to her now.

...At least she had been more confident until a few minutes ago.

She took another deep breath, walked out of the bathroom and found Brent with her drink.

Rob waved hi and she led Brent over to chat. He introduced them to Chris, his new boyfriend. He seemed really charming and Carly thought they looked great together.

Brent looked very uncomfortable however, even though they weren't showing any outward affection. She knew he wasn't openly homophobic, but there was some level of it inside him that crept out every now and then. She wanted to elbow him and tell him to be more polite, but didn't want to draw attention.

Chris was a respiratory therapist and surprisingly they hadn't met online, like most people these days, but actually through their work in the hospital. Rob was a radiologist, and even though they rarely crossed paths they had started conversations, which turned to lunches together, which turned into more.

Ben came over and told them to come join a game on their table. Rob and Chris headed over and Carly followed. Brent seemed hesitant and she reminded him he had said he wanted to play. She honestly would have preferred to play without him, but she was annoyed that he seemed to be trying to avoid Rob and Chris.

They had settled into their spots, waiting for two more. Carly was distracting herself by analyzing the game pieces and heard a high-pitched voice.

"Ooo lets try this one it looks fun!"

It was Tabitha, leading Jon by the hand towards them.

"Yeah perfect, we were waiting for two more!" Ben said.

Jon seemed to slow down when he made eye contact with Carly, but Tabitha pulled him eagerly to the table and they sat down.

"Hey Carly," he said, "Good to see you."

His voice was normal, but she thought she caught a hint of pain behind his eyes.

"Hi Jon," she said, trying to do a better job at looking normal, but feeling like she failed.

"Tabitha, this is Carly and her husband Brent," he said politely.

Tabitha gave an excited hello and shook their hands.

Carly gave the best genuine smile she could muster, and wondered when the pain would subside.

Brent put his hand on her back and moved closer to her. She couldn't decide if he was actually feeling affectionate or simply sliding further away from Chris. Tabitha held her hand around Jon's bicep and giggled at the game cards with him.

Carly felt like she was in hell.

Ben explained the game. They had to collect cards to build the most powerful robots, each card being a different component or attribute, and as the game progressed you could challenge other people's bots to a war and take some of their stuff if you won.

It was easy enough to get the hang of it. At least she thought it was. Brent kept asking her questions, and seemed to think every rule and new attribute was ridiculous, and seemed incapable of seeing any humour in it. She had wished she could just pretend he wasn't there, but it was impossible.

Tabitha was sitting beside Jenna and they had started a friendly chat. She knew it was irrational, but she couldn't help feeling irritated by it. She wanted to tell them to shut the hell up and play the game, and she knew she was a bitch for thinking it. She wished she had more reason to hate Tabitha, but she would have to settle for just trying to ignore her too. Jenna complimented her on how toned her arms were, and asked her about her workout routine. Tabitha explained she didn't go to a gym but had an elliptical and did a lot of calisthenics with an online class. Brent nudged her and muttered that she should try that instead. Carly said nothing, and just wanted to slink away and die. She noticed Jon giving him a dirty look after the comment, and felt reassured and embarrassed at the same time.

Rob made the first challenge to Ben and his robot ended up winning. Everyone cheered and Chris gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek in congratulations. Brent cleared his throat as he did it, and Carly tried to glare at him, but he wasn't looking at her.

The game progressed on, and Carly had put it off for a while but was clearly in a position to challenge someone's robot. She decided to target Tabitha.

She was much better ranked, and thought it would be an easy win, but they ended up tying and having to roll again. Everyone was playing-up the suspense of having to do a second roll. Unbelievably, Tabitha rolled high enough that Carly ended up losing. She slammed her fist on the table in frustration and swore, as everyone else erupted in cheers and gasps of disbelief. Brent put his hand on her shoulder and acted embarrassed for her, telling her it was just a game. Ben laughed and said he was glad she was getting into it. She turned red, having not meant to hit the table so hard. Tabitha turned to Jon and smootched him on the lips in victory, as Carly watched them out of the corner of her eye, trying to focus on her cards.