Chapter 27

Rowena

“Everything looks good here. You’re all set to go.”

I leaned back from my current patient, a brown-haired warrior with a tattoo of a tree on his arm. He was in perfectly healthy condition; his musculature was completely symmetrical, his eyesight was perfect, and his heart and lungs sounded strong and steady.

“Thanks.” The warrior hopped down from the exam table and began sauntering toward the door, right past the clipboard with the sign-up sheet that was sitting on my desk.

“Wait!” I called out, causing the warrior to turn around. “Are you going to sign your name to become an official patient?”

The warrior paused, glanced first at me and then at the sign-up sheet, then back at me and shrugged. “Nah,” he said. “I’m good.”

I sighed as I watched him go; another one of Eric’s followers, a one-and-done situation. Of course he wasn’t coming back, just like so many of the others.

They were playboys and star warriors, just as Adrian had predicted, and they were only here for two reasons: to get on Eric’s good side and to see if I was pretty enough to pursue.

“Come on in,” I called out to the next patient in the line. “Take a seat.”

The next warrior was much different: he was younger than many of the others, likely a freshman, with short cropped dark hair and soft brown eyes. He was tall, but gangly and a little nerdy looking. However, the sinewy muscles in his arms and legs gave away the fact that he did work out pretty hard.

And the swollen black eye he was sporting gave away the fact that maybe he wasn’t very good at it.

“What happened here?” I asked, immediately beginning to examine his eye.

The young warrior winced as I gingerly touched his eye. “I got hit in the face while sparring,” he groaned.

I frowned and grabbed an antiseptic wipe, which I used to clean up the wound. The warrior winced, but said nothing. Then, I grabbed an ice pack and handed it to him. “Do you get hit in the face often while sparring?” I asked.

The warrior nodded. “Yeah,” he admitted somewhat bashfully. “More than you’d think, actually.”

“How’s your footwork?” I asked. “Do you keep moving? Keep your head bobbing?”

He blinked at me with his one good eye while holding the ice pack on his other eye, almost as though he wasn’t quite expecting me to bring it up. “I mean, uh… I guess not,” he admitted. “Considering the fact that I get a black eye every other week.”

I sighed and grabbed my notepad, writing down a prescription for some ointment for his eye as well as instructions to return in a week.

“Come back to my office next week,” I said as I handed him the paper. “I’ll take a look at your footwork then. Your muscles look good, physically speaking, but you’re tall; you likely need to use a different stance while sparring, otherwise you’ll be too slow.”

The warrior took the paper and looked at me with surprise again as he slid down off of the table. “Uh, sure, I’ll come back,” he said with a shrug.

“Awesome. Sign here?” I held out the clipboard.

He smiled and signed his name on the side of the paper that was Adrian’s list. “See you in a week,” he said.

“See you in a week. And don’t spar until that eye is healed!”

I watched the warrior go with a satisfied feeling in my chest. It was only noon, and I had already seen more than twenty patients today; and as I looked down at the clipboard, I saw that Adrian’s list of return customers was much longer than Eric’s.

“Eight for Adrian,” I said under my breath. “And… Two for Eric.” I almost cringed outwardly at the sight of the short list of names on my brother’s side of the paper. Maybe Adrian had been right after all.

Top warrior playboys didn’t exactly make the best patients.

…

“Thanks for coming!” I called out to the last patient as she walked out of my office. The sun was setting, casting the tiny office in a surprisingly warm golden glow as the light shone in through the open door.

I looked back down at the clipboard and let out a small squeal.

Twenty sign-ups in total stared back up at me; sixteen from Adrian and four from Eric. I couldn’t decide whether I was more excited at the fact that I now had twenty customers of my own or that I would be going on a date with my biggest crush.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I looked up to see that both Adrian and Eric had arrived at the same time.

“Hey,” I said, holding up the clipboard. “Results are in. And—”

Before I could finish, Eric strode over to me and took the clipboard with a triumphant look on his face. I rolled my eyes a bit and watched him with my hands on my hips as he scanned the list.

And then I saw his face fall.

“Only four sign-ups?” he asked. “That’s all?”

“Yes. That’s all.” I took the clipboard back and pursed my lips. Eric stared at me incredulously, as though I had just burned him. It was clear that he wasn’t expecting to lose by such a landslide.

Upon looking over the results, the smirk on Adrian’s lips slowly turned into a smile. “It’s just like I thought it would be,” he mused, folding his arms across his chest. “I told you that playboys with ulterior motives don’t make the best customers.”

Eric frowned. “Alright, alright, Adrian. You win,” he said. “But it’s not gonna stop me from sending my followers to Rowena’s clinic whenever I can.”

As Eric spoke, he wrapped his arm around my waist tightly and pulled me close again. Despite everything, I felt myself blush. I gently leaned away and pressed my palms into his chest, pushing myself out of his arms.

“Look, I appreciate what both of you guys did for me,” I said. “I’ve got a lot of new customers now, and that’s all that really matters, right?”

“Almost.” Adrian strode up to me then. Before I could even react, he gently placed his hand under my chin and tilted my face up to meet his gaze. With his other hand, he brushed a loose strand of hair out of my eyes and tucked it behind my ear.

“Adrian—” I muttered, both from the burning sensation of his hands on my skin and the feeling of Eric’s discerning blue eyes boring into the side of my head.

“Rowena,” Adrian whispered, “will you go out for dinner and a movie with me tomorrow night?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but no words would come. Beside me, Eric continued to stare; I could feel his eyes on me, burning hot with an emotion that I couldn’t quite read. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt oddly embarrassed now to be doing this in front of my brother.

But at the same time, I couldn’t say no to Adrian. Not when I had wanted him for so long.

“I’d love to,” I responded softly.

Adrian’s lips twitched upwards with a triumphant smile. He slowly pulled away, and I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. As he stepped back, he nodded and slipped his hands into his pockets.

“It’s a date, then,” he said. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow around eight.”

“Okay.” I nodded, feeling blissfully breathless as I watched Adrian turn on his heel and stride out of the room.

But when I turned to say something to Eric, he was already gone.