I Hate You, Marry Me

by Jamie Knight

I try to make myself sound all innocent, like I don’t know what’s he’s implying, but I know it’s a huge fail.

  “I’d prefer it if you were in there with me, but I’d settle for you watching,” he says.

  His voice gets lower, and I feel myself getting all hot.

  If I’m not careful, I’m going to spend every waking moment fucking this man or trying to fuck him, anyway.

  I sit up in the bed, and Robert regards me with curiosity showing in his eyes.

  Not wanting to make him suspicious about how turned on I am, I say, “All this talk of water has made me thirsty.”

  I add a smile to sweeten the pot.

  “I’m talking about taking a shower with you, and your mind focuses on the fact that there’s water in the shower?” he asks me.

  I shrug. I mean, that’s not the whole truth. All I was focusing on was the thought of water dripping off his hard body, but because I got all hot and bothered, I thought a nice glass of cool water would do the trick.

  “I can get it for you,” Robert offers.

  I put my hand on his chest to push him back down and shake my head.

  “I can do it myself, it’s fine. Thanks, though.”

  I climb out of the bed to get my drink and hopefully get my body to calm the hell down and, I guess I’m not paying too much attention because my feet get all caught up in the blankets and I take quite the tumble.

  “Ow!” I yell.

  It hurts a lot more than expected. I’m able to get my foot out from the tangle of blankets it’s in, but then Robert is by my side in less than a minute. He must have jumped out of the bed and sprinted over to me. He scoops me up, which surprises me.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him.

  “Taking you off the floor,” he grunts.

  He moves me to the bed and gently places me on top of it. Then he takes a seat next to me and kisses the top of my head before taking my ankle and inspecting it. It’s pretty tender.

  “Looks like you twisted your ankle.”

  He says it more to himself than to me, but I kind of guessed the same thing. That’s the perk – and maybe the pitfall – of training to be a doctor.

  Robert keeps moving his hands around my ankle, testing to see where the soft spots are. Something about this feels oddly familiar.

  Yeah, I’ve been hanging out with Robert almost nonstop for a while, but this doesn’t feel like something that happened over the past couple days. This is a strong sense of déjà vu that I’m having trouble placing.

  I furrow my brow and see if I can force my mind to remember and that’s when it hits me. This has happened before – not here – it was a long time ago. There was this little boy. I was playing with him at one of my dad’s auto-parts plants.

  We were running around all this old equipment – something we should not have been doing – and I fell and twisted my ankle and that little boy was…

  “Wait a minute,” I say, pulling my ankle back – a momentary lapse in judgement because it’s not like my injury has healed in the last five minutes.

  “Ow,” I say softly.

  Robert looks at me like I’m crazy.

  “What are you doing?”

  He moves to get my ankle again, but I move it away again.

  “We did know each other, didn’t we?” I ask, ignoring his questions. “Like before med school. Did we maybe meet at an auto-parts plant when we were kids?”

  Robert narrows his eyes but doesn’t say anything. He looks back down at my ankle and continues to prod it. I take his lack of answer as a no… or maybe he doesn’t know.

  “What I’m trying to say is that I think we met when we were like eight or ten at this plant. I twisted my ankle then and that’s why I’m suddenly getting this flashback because you helped me out back then and, I don’t know, but do you remember something like that, too?”

  I get my ramble out and wait for Robert to say something.

  I’m expecting him to be as equally as shocked as I am. I mean, it’s a crazy twist of fate that we ended up going to the same med school and our paths intersected so much – it’s kind of crazy.

  But instead of having the same revelation I had, Robert gets a snarky look on his face.

  “Well, it took you long enough,” he mumbles.

  He gets up after his little comment, I’m assuming to get supplies to wrap my ankle, but I don’t want to drop this conversation. While he’s sifting through the drawer, looking for the wrap, I throw a pillow at his back. I get a direct hit.

  “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” I ask.

  I’m not really mad. I just don’t understand why he wouldn’t just let me know we knew each other back then. It’s not that complicated. Maybe we could have been friends again.

  Robert comes back to and starts wrapping my ankle.

  “Apparently, you thought that I wasn’t important enough to remember, so I guess I just decided not to bring it up,” he says.

  He isn’t looking at me, and is instead taking his time to wrap my ankle. It makes me feel bad for sure. I mean, it explains why he’s been so cold towards me. I’m a little mad with myself for not putting two and two together.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you sooner,” I apologize.

  I’m not sure what else I should say to rectify this. I don’t know if I can rectify this.

  I look at Robert and he just shrugs. I feel like this is his way of showing me that he’s a little upset. He doesn’t say it – he’ll either get super mad or super quiet instead.

  “When did you recognize me?” I quietly ask.

  Obviously, it was before this moment. And that’s what he was talking about with my dad. Now I don’t have to ask him about that conversation, because I’ve figured it out.

  “The first moment I saw you,” he says.

  I can’t hide the fact that I’m shocked. I don’t know exactly what that means – the fact that he’s always known.

  We sit quietly for a moment, and he finishes wrapping my ankle. Then he props it up on some pillows and finally looks at me. I can’t quite read his face, but I still feel like he’s hiding something from me.

  What it is? I have no clue.

  At the very least, learning about how we actually first met explains a lot of those things he was saying to my dad, but then there’s… there’s that other thing… I know that maybe I shouldn’t bring this up right now, but I can’t stop myself.

  “Did you, um… When you were talking to my dad, did you – were you telling the truth about what you said to my father? I mean, did you – or have you really loved me ever since we were kids?”

  I barely get that sentence out. I’m crazy nervous because I have a lot invested in his answer. More than I should, given our… circumstances.

  I’m waiting for Robert to say something, but he keeps quiet. He’s back to looking at my ankle and he’s kind of stroking it over the wrap.

  I don’t think he’s going to answer me, and I’m not going to make him. It would have been nice to have an answer. It would have been more than nice, but I’m obviously not going to get satisfaction regarding that today, and it’s okay.

  I’m about to tell him to forget about it, but, then, Robert moves closer to me on the bed. He takes my hand in his, playing with my fingers ever so slightly.

  He finally looks into my eyes again, and I think he might answer this time, but instead, he kisses me. I feel his hand wrap around me and bring me against his body as the kiss deepens.

  I take in his scent and moan into his mouth. For now, I can forget about getting my questions answered. I just want to focus on Robert’s body on mine, which is the only thing I need.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Savannah

  I wake up the next morning and find Robert asleep next to me. I’m glad I’m able to get up earlier than him, because then I get to see his peaceful face in the morning.

  I don’t spend too much time staring at his face, since I need to get ready for the day, so I get mys
elf out of bed, but when I try to stand up, I fall down because my ankle is obviously still tender. I just had my own lapse in judgement.

  My fall to the ground wakes up Robert and he jumps out of my bed and to my side.

  “Don’t tell me you hurt your other ankle,” he sarcastically says.

  I shake my head, making a face at his little joke.

  “No, I just forgot that I probably shouldn’t be walking on my ankle is all,” I respond.

  He looks at me like I’m an idiot and then he helps me back up, so I’m sitting on the edge of the bed. He goes to his closet and pulls out some crutches.

  “Here, you can use these for now.”

  I’m surprised he had crutches just lying around, but I’m also grateful.

  This way I’ll be able to keep the weight off my foot. I get myself up and use the crutches to move around the room. Robert watches me.

  “I think we should go to the hospital, just to be sure everything really is okay and that nothing gets worse. A couple of x-rays would be a good idea,” he says.

  I shake my head.

  “I’m fine. I’ll just walk around on these for a couple of days and then I’ll heal up nicely,” I tell him.

  He makes a face consisting of a frown that shows me his displeasure with my plan.

  “Come on, Robert. You did a good job with the wrap, so I’m sure there won’t be any problems there, and we need to find Nicole today to see if Landon got to her. I think that’s top priority,” I insist.

  I open my eyes wide, hoping that he’ll agree with me and drop the whole hospital business. He’s probably right, and I should have a full-fledged doctor with fancy equipment look at my ankle, but I’m just jonesing to get a start on this business about us getting wrongfully expelled.

  Robert rolls his eyes.

  “Okay, we can skip the hospital… for now, but if it starts to hurt more, we’re going, okay?” he says.

  I nod, pleased with the fact that he’s agreed to my plan, but also happy that he’s so worried about me.

  We get ourselves together for the day and take a cab to campus. I have most of Nicole’s schedule memorized, so I know where we can find her. We station ourselves outside one of her classes and wait for it to let out.

  “Do you think this is going to work? What if she has nothing to do with it?” I ask.

  ’m feeling pretty nervous. This could be a real shot at getting back into our original med school. I had completely given up on that happening but, now, I’m thinking that it might be an actual possibility. I don’t want to screw this up.

  “Let’s just take this one step at a time. I’m sure everything will be fine,” Robert reassures me.

  He’s probably right. I just need to keep a level head and I’m sure we’ll get through this without too many problems.

  We wait quietly for a little bit and, during that time, I keep sneaking peeks at Robert. He didn’t actually admit that he loved me last night. He didn’t even answer the question.

  I know I did a bit of a mess up by not recognizing him sooner, and I feel really bad about it, but there’s nothing I can do at this point.

  But I don’t think I’ll be able to get Robert’s words to my father out of my head— nor his weird behavior, either. I’m just not sure how to ask him about it without him totally dodging the question.

  It doesn’t take too long for Nicole to make an appearance once class lets out. She doesn’t see us immediately, though.

  Robert gets to her first since I’m on these damn crutches. Her eyes go wide when she sees us, but nothing really seems out of the ordinary.

  “Robert, Savannah! What a surprise,” she greets us.

  Her brow furrows.

  “What happened?” she asks when she sees my crutches, sounding concerned.

  “I fell out of bed. It’s not a big deal,” I tell her, shaking it off.

  I don’t really want to talk about my injury, but I want to get to the meat and potatoes of why we’re here.

  “We actually came here to see you. Robert and I had a few questions,” I say.

  Nicole looks between the two of us.

  “What did you want to ask me about?” she inquires, sounding nervous.

  “It’s about the day of the test, the embryology test,” Robert jumps in. “We wanted to know if anything could have happened to our tests… if they could have been altered in any way… since you were the one who took them up.”

  Nicole laughs nervously and shakes her head.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I gave the professor your tests after taking them from you guys. Nothing happened,” she tells us.

  Clearly, Nicole is hiding something. She’s way too anxious. I quickly glance at Robert before taking over.

  “We won’t be angry with you if you tell us the truth. We think that Landon is somehow responsible for this whole thing. I know that if you helped him at all, it’s because he made you do it. We just need the truth,” I plead with her.

  If Nicole doesn’t have anything to tell us or refuses to talk, we’re back to square one.

  “I don’t…”

  “Please, Nicole. We want to get our lives back on track and, if we’re going to do that, we need your help.”

  She takes a deep breath and takes a few more seconds to look between the two of us. I can see the internal struggle she’s having, and I hope that she decides to tell us what she knows.

  “Okay,” she says.

  It looks like she’s going to come over onto our side.

  “Landon did approach me. He wanted me to switch out the tests with others he had given me, that had the same answers filled in on both tests. I said no at first, but then he said that if I didn’t do it, he’d fire my dad – and he wouldn’t just fire him, he’d make sure that he couldn’t get a job with anyone he does business with,” Nicole confesses.

  I know as well as she does that that’s not an idle threat by Landon. He has a lot of pull and being on his bad side would not be a good thing.

  Nicole’s mom has cancer, so I don’t know where their family would be without a secure job to pay the medical bills. I can’t say I blame her for giving in to what Landon wanted her to do.

  Nicole starts crying, and I hobble over to comfort her.

  “I’m so sorry, Savannah,” she says. “You’re my friend, and I got you kicked out of school. I know how much this all meant to you and – I should have at least told you. You’ve always been resourceful. Maybe you could have figured it out, but I was so scared, and I thought it would just be easiest to do what he said.”

  She’s on the verge of tears and I don’t want that.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t worry. Landon is manipulative. It’s not your fault that he got to you.”

  I’d never really, truly hated Landon. I don’t like him, and he’s annoyed me to no end for years, but due to our history as childhood friends, I’d tried to look on the bright side when it came to him.

  He’d never roped my friends into anything until now, though. He’s hurting people I care about, and I’m not going to let him get away with it.

  “Why did he want me to get kicked out?” Robert asks.

  Robert wasn’t even on Landon’s radar before – as far as I knew. He’d have no reason to want to hurt him in any way.

  “He didn’t. He didn’t really give me specific instructions. He just wanted Savannah to get caught for cheating, so I just chose you because you were sitting next to her that day,” Nicole admits. “I’m sorry, Rob.”

  So, Robert was just collateral damage. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse. He got dragged into drama that was in no way relevant to him and, now, he’s deep in the shit.

  I can see him getting mad and there’s nothing I could really do to stop that, since it’s completely justified.

  “You need to tell the dean what you told us immediately,” he says.

  Nicole gets a panicked look on her face.

  “I can’t. I don’t have any
proof that Landon planned this whole thing. What if they kick me out?”

  That’s a valid fear for her to have. I’m certain that Landon made sure to cover his tracks, but he must have slipped up somewhere.

  “Did Landon ever have you come to his office?” I ask her.

  Maybe if we can get someone else to physically place her there – which would be weird, considering that Nicole and Landon don’t have a relationship – it could open the door for people asking him questions.

  “Did someone see you talking to him?”

  “I did, but I was there to see my dad first. No one would have looked twice at me being there,” she says.

  Shoot! That’s probably why he chose Nicole.

  “Is there anything else you can tell us that might help?” Robert asks.

  Nicole takes a second to think.

  “Well, the day of the test, Landon met me on campus and he gave me the fake exams,” she finally says.

  So, that was the ‘business’ he was taking care of that day, I think. No wonder he was being so shady about what he was doing on campus.

  “You know what, I’ve got a friend who works for Landon. His name is Seth and he just started, but the two of us go way back and I’m sure he’d be willing to help us,” Robert mentions.

  I know we’re dealing with a lot right now, but the fact that we’re going to be meeting a childhood friend of Robert’s has got me a little excited. Maybe I can get some more details about how he was, growing up. Obviously, that’s a secondary mission, but one that’s at the back of my mind.

  “What are you going to ask him?” Nicole asks.

  “We can see if he can ask around and see if someone saw the fake exams being made. He knows how to be discreet, so we shouldn’t have a problem. The only thing is…” Robert trails off.

  “It’s not the greatest lead?” I ask.

  Robert nods.

  Seth is new to the company, which means he probably doesn’t have access to privileged information. But it’s what we got, and we’ll have to work with it. Hopefully it’ll end up giving us more information that we can use.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Robert