The Love You Crave

12.

Present Day… Donovan Creed.

“This better be good,” Callie says, when I show her the device that had been resting comfortably behind Gwen’s boob two hours ago.

Gwen doesn’t look at me before speaking. We’ve already made a pact. She’ll assume full responsibility for the surgery if I don’t tell Callie what happened between us in the hallway.

“Donovan took me to meet Dr. P.,” Gwen says, “and he did a scan.”

“Dr. Pee?” Callie says, looking at me.

“Dr. Petrovsky,” I say. “The surgeon who reconstructed my face.”

She looks at Gwen. “And that didn’t concern you?”

Gwen giggles. “Donovan is gorgeous. You’ve said so yourself!”

I look at Callie. “You said that?”

“She’s delusional. Must be the pain meds.” To Gwen she said, “I thought we had an understanding about the boob job.”

“You said I needed to do it. You just told me not to let Donovan bully me into it. And he didn’t. When Dr. P. saw the scan, he said it would only take ten minutes to remove.”

“And aesthetically?”

She looks at me.

I shrug. “How would I know?”

She looks back at Gwen. “Show me.”

“Well, there’s a bandage, but Dr. P. said in twelve weeks you won’t be able to tell the difference.”

“Twelve weeks?”

Callie looks at me.

“The recovery is only two weeks,” I say. “Gwen’s referring to the scar.”

“Under my boob,” Gwen says. Then winks. “Don’t worry, sugar snatch. It’ll be fine.”

“Sugar snatch?” I say.

Callie’s eyes blaze. “I ought to kill you both.”

“Why me?” I say.

“For going behind my back on this.”

“Why her?”

“For her big, fucking mouth.”

Gwen’s face falls. “I’m sorry,” Gwen says.

“You should be. I wouldn’t repeat anything you say to me in private. Nor would I cheapen our relationship by revealing our pet names. You don’t deserve me. Move into some attic with him, if that’s all our relationship means to you.”

Gwen starts crying.

Callie watches her a minute, then looks at me. She shakes her head. “Females.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” I say. Then add, “Don’t be too hard on her. This procedure didn’t just save my life. It might’ve saved Gwen’s, too.”

Callie’s anger fades the slightest bit. “What do you mean?”

“According to Dr. P., an object like this, placed where it was, receiving electronic signals-could have had a lethal effect on Gwen’s heart. Not to mention it significantly increased her chances of developing breast cancer.”

Callie says, “I wish Phyllis Willis was still alive.”

“What would you do to her?”

“Very bad things.”

She looks at Gwen and sighs. “Men are so much easier.”

“Especially us gorgeous ones,” I say.

Callie gives me a look I’ve seen before. Staring into her eyes, I can literally see the light draining out of them. All emotion has left her face. She’s completely detached. It’s amazing how the most beautiful creature in the world can look so devoid of human warmth. This is Callie’s death face. It’s how she looks when people are about to die.

When she speaks, her tone is flat. “The day our friendship ends?” she says.

“I know.”

“Say it.”

“Our friendship ends the day I call you sugar snatch.”

She holds my gaze a full minute. It’s such an uncomfortable minute, I finally say, “I’ll never even think those words again.”

“Yes you will. You’ll think them every time you see me for the rest of our lives.” She looks at Gwen. “Thanks to you.”

Gwen puts her lower lip out, like a child who’s been caught telling a family secret.

Callie looks back at me. “But you won’t say those words out loud.”

“I won’t.”

“Ever.”

“Ever.”