From Ice to Flames

by Hargrove, A. M.

  “Milly, I should never have told you. And you need to get some sleep.”

  Milly sounded drunk. Those pain pills must’ve nailed her.

  “I know, but I was on Facebook and saw you were on. I couldn’t help myself. He’s been seeing her for years. Years!”

  “Milly. I’m going to end this Facebook chat. We’ve been talking for an hour. You need to get some sleep.” She must’ve been talking to her sister and it sounded like she was warning her. I felt like a shit for listening in, but I was completely curious about this.

  “But Ells, after everything I tried to do, he was cheating. Cheating, Ells. And even with his … no wonder he wanted Big Dick. He didn’t have one of his own.” I let out a howl of laughter.

  “Mills, are you watching TV?”

  “No, why?”

  “It sounded like someone was laughing in the background.”

  Shit. I needed to shut up.

  “Anyway, I don’t really need to hear about the size of Harry’s peen.”

  “But it’s true. He had a baby peen.” Milly dragged out the word true, maybe for emphasis. I wanted to laugh again. “He was totally lacking below the belt, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yes, I do, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear about it.”

  “Come on, Ells, at least let me gloat about that. I think Dick made him believe people thought that extended to his own. Well, it didn’t.”

  “Okay. I get it. Your ex had a tiny cock. Can we move on?”

  “Do you think his girlfriend likes little peens? I mean she’s had to have seen it by now and how unstellar it is. I wonder if she has to use a special dildo or something.”

  I had to cover my mouth. Milly was funny as hell. I wondered if she was always like this, or if it was the pain medication making her act this way.

  “Mills, how am I supposed to know that? But I guess she must because she persuaded him to move to London, didn’t she?”

  “Yeah. I guess.”

  “Listen to me, there’s nothing you can do about it because it’s in the past. You did the right thing by beginning a new life.”

  “I guess. You don’t think it was because of … you know.”

  “I absolutely do not and don’t you ever think that! He was an asshole and that’s the end of it.”

  Because of what? Tell me!

  “I should come to New York. I don’t like the way you sound right now.”

  “No. I’m just being silly.”

  “Milly. It’s going to be fine. You’re going to be fine. I promise.”

  Then I heard her sobbing. “I’m gonna hang up this Facebook call now. I shouldn’t have called. I’m so sorry.” More sobbing. Shit. Maybe I should call her? And say what? ‘I was eavesdropping on your conversation and …’ no. That wouldn’t be cool.

  “Mills, wait. Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe you should Facetime me. So, I can see you.”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “You don’t sound fine. You sound upset. Call me when you wake up. I’m worried about your shoulder, worried about you.”

  “Okay. Love you, Ells.”

  Then all I heard was something like covers rustling and her sobbing again. She must’ve been in bed. Now I understood the abject sadness in her eyes. It stemmed from a broken heart. At least we had two things in common. Dogs and hearts that were sliced and diced, and from the sounds of things, hers definitely was not put back together.

  The buzzing alarm woke me at six. I was still exhausted from the few hours of sleep I got. My mind zoomed straight to Milly and I wondered if she was okay. Today was going to be a long day. The nanny was due to arrive at seven, so I got up and showered, then went to walk the dogs. By the time I got back, it was time to wake Wiley and get him dressed and fed.

  He was grumpy as fuck since he went to bed an hour late and he wasn’t the only one.

  “But I don’t want to eat breakfast.”

  “Sorry, dude, you have to. If you don’t, you won’t be worth a thing in school today.”

  “Yeah, I will. I can be good.”

  “Wiley, no arguing this morning. Now eat your eggs,” I snapped, my short temper getting the best of me.

  “Can I have some waffles instead?”

  “No, buddy, I’ve already cooked you eggs.”

  I sat down at the table with him to eat mine, along with downing the coffee I poured.

  “Don’t forget your orange juice and milk.”

  “But I don’t want eggs. I want waffles.”

  Fuck. I knew he’d be like this. That’s why I hated putting him to bed late.

  “Last time, dude. No eggs, no nothing. And then no dessert tonight either.”

  He dipped his head and took a bite. He liked eggs. He was just being difficult.

  “Daddy, do you think Miwwy walked Big Dick aweady.”

  “Chad was going to do that for her.”

  “Oh.”

  “Now stop talking and eat your breakfast. We don’t want to be late.”

  I packed his lunch while he finished and the doorbell rang. The nanny hugged Wiley then hustled him out the door. We all passed Chad on the way out. I didn’t have time to talk and briefly said hi. Wiley and the nanny went one way and I the other.

  The office was empty when I arrived, but a few minutes later, the new receptionist came in. I was a bit uneasy about her because she was slightly flirtatious with me. I’d discussed this with the office manager, but she assured me everything would be fine. We’d find out this morning since it would only be the two of us for about thirty minutes.

  “Are you clear on what to do, Nasha?” Her full name was Natasha, but she preferred to be called Nasha.

  “Yes. All I have to do is check the patients in when they get here.”

  “Nasha, it’s a bit more than just that. They are having surgery and their owners will be concerned. You have to make sure they are comfortable with what’s going on.”

  “But aren’t these minor things?”

  “To us, yes. To them, no. So, this is how we approach it.”

  I explained how to talk to the pet owner and how we want to do blood profiles before anesthesia. Most owners allowed us to, but a few didn’t. There was a small fee on it, but I liked to see if everything was normal before I induced a coma on their pet.

  “Then explain how long the surgery will last, only about thirty minutes for these procedures, and that we’ll call them as soon as their pet is awake. They’ll be able to pick them up after three today. Make sure if they are worried, that you calm them down and if you can’t, get one of the techs to help you.”

  “Okay, got it.”

  Then she winked at me. I wasn’t sure if it was an I’ve got this sort of wink or if she was coming on to me. So, I let it pass. I headed to the back to make sure that each of the operating rooms was prepped. The techs should’ve taken care of that the night before, but I was a bit particular in that regard.

  I went to one and it was perfect and as I rounded the corner to the next, I ran right into Nasha. What was she doing back here?

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing.” She giggled. Next thing I knew, she stuck her ample sized chest into my face. Whoa.

  “Yeah, well,” I said, as I backed away, “I need to check the other OR.” Hoping she’d get the hint, I moved away from her, but she followed.

  “Um, Dr. West, do you think you’d like to go out after work tonight?”

  Was she serious?

  “About that. I don’t socialize with the employees.”

  Her smile turned into a circle. “Oh. Why not?”

  “Because it would be a conflict of interest. You are my employee, Nasha. Besides, right now you need to be out front in case anyone comes to drop off their pet. The office is unlocked and we don’t need anyone wandering around back here.”

  She blinked rapidly. Didn’t she know that was what she was supposed to be doing? Fuck my life. I’d had a bad feeling about her, and
I was right.

  “Riiiight.” She drew the word out. “I’ll get right on that.” She turned and tried to walk out in a seductive manner. It wasn’t quite getting it, though.

  Thankfully, I heard the back door open and one of the vet techs walked in.

  “Good morning, Dr. W. You doing okay? You have a funny look on your face.”

  “No, I’m fine. Hey, keep an eye on Nasha. She may need your help today. I want to ensure she’s empathetic to the pet owners.” And not just here to hit on me.

  “No worries. I’ll help her out.”

  My schedule consisted of four male puppies that had to be neutered, three females to be spayed, three dentals—which required anesthesia—and I had a growth removal on an eleven-year-old dog. I worried about those because when a dog got up in age there was a good chance it was cancerous. Unfortunately, when I got in, I really didn’t need a pathology report to tell me. The way the tumor had grown, extending into the soft tissue and muscle, I was positive it was malignant. Benign tumors were usually encased, had clean edges, and were easy to remove. This bastard was invasive and a mother to get out. I didn’t want to leave it though. I knew what this dog would face if I did. She was a very healthy mixed breed with no other issues, so I just went for it. Luckily, during my training, I had spent some time with a specialist who did nothing but surgical oncology, and he always recommended to go for complete removal in cases such as these. When I was in there, I took a lot of tissue samples for biopsies, along with a couple of lymph nodes.

  By the end of the day, I was exhausted. Today was my late day—I work late one day a week until seven. It was seven-thirty when I got home to an eager son who wanted to play with his dad. The nanny left and thankfully had fed Wiley. We played with the dogs, I read him a story after his bath and it was his bedtime.

  After I ate some dinner, I crashed. Right before I fell asleep, I vaguely remembered that maybe I should’ve given Milly a call. But then I didn’t wake up until my alarm went off.

  The next morning, I was walking my dogs and passed Chad.

  “Hey, sorry I didn’t have time to talk yesterday. It was a crazy day.”

  Chad laughed. “Not a problem. I have those sometimes too. Everything okay?”

  “Fine. You?”

  “Yeah, except yesterday, I had to practically break down Milly’s door to wake her up. Those pain pills really knocked her out. She needs to stay off those things.”

  I huff out a laugh. “That bad, huh?”

  “She was a complete disaster when she finally opened the door.”

  I didn’t want to explain that it was more than the pain pills, so I shrugged. “Maybe her shoulder was really hurting.”

  “Yeah, it must’ve been. But, I gotta go, man. I’ll see ya.”

  Now I really felt guilty about not checking on her. I would make it a point to do so tonight.

  Chapter Nine

  Milly

  My head was splitting wide open. It was difficult to determine what hurt worse—that or my shoulder. I should never have looked up Harry on Facebook last night. That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Ever. Okay, maybe it ranked second right next to trying to work my marriage out. I still couldn’t believe that he’d been cheating on me all that time. Another sob burst out of me, but I clapped my hand over my mouth to stop it.

  Standing in front of the mirror, I cringed at my reflection. The person who stared back at me wasn’t recognizable. My hair looked like a nest of squirrels lived there and had been procreating for quite some time. And my eyes—yeah, I was rocking the whole raccoon look. No wonder Chad gaped at me when I finally opened the door. Poor guy had gone Casper on me as he stared at the wild woman from the woods. Christ.

  I needed to pull my shit together because I had a ton of work to do today. Snap to it, Mills, Ellerie’s voice came to me. That’s what she would say anyway. Stiffen your spine and pretend everything is fine. Never let the world know you’re dying on the inside. As soon as Chad got back with Dick, I would hop in the shower and get ready for work. I was not going to lay around here and feel sorry for myself one extra minute. No sireee.

  A couple minutes later, the buzzer went off and Chad was back.

  “You know, Dick is really great.”

  “Yeah, he is.” Dick gazed at me with his pitiful eyes. “Hey, you train dogs, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Could I change Dick’s name?”

  “You could, but it would really confuse him. I wouldn’t recommend it.”

  “Oh, dang.”

  “However, I do recommend training classes for him. He’s very smart but lazy. He only listens when he wants to.”

  “He’s spoiled.”

  “I realize that. But with a few sessions, you could get him on track.”

  “I’d like that, Chad. But right now, work is super crazy. In another two months, my schedule will be much better, so I can set something up then.”

  “Good. I’ll see him this afternoon and you tonight.”

  Chad left and I got ready for work. When I arrived, Ava was all over me like butter on bread.

  “What in the world happened?”

  After I explained, she wanted to know why I hadn’t called and whether or not I took advantage of my hot neighbor.

  “No. I … I …” Then I burst out sobbing.

  “Oh, my God. What happened? Was he rude to you? Did he treat you badly?”

  I frantically waved my hand, shaking my head. I didn’t want her to think that about Hudson.

  “Then what? Oh, my God. Did someone die?”

  “No,” I said, hiccupping the remains of my sobfest. She handed me a tissue so I could take care of my nose business. “I’m sorry. I’m just a silly mess today.”

  “Seriously? You are one of the most take-charge women I know. I would never consider you a silly mess. What the hell happened?”

  My head was already throbbing. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Ava. It was that even talking about it would probably bring another round of tears, which was the last thing I wanted. “I fell down and injured my shoulder. It’s made me more than a little frustrated.”

  “Are you sure that’s it?”

  I lifted my good shoulder and let it drop.

  “I’m gonna let it go for now, but we’re eating lunch today. I don’t like seeing you like this. I’d hug you, but I don’t want to touch that arm of yours.”

  I cringed at the mention of it.

  Then Ava asked, “Are you sure you should even be here today?”

  “You know how swamped we are. If I don’t clear my list for the day, I’m in trouble for the rest of the week. With only six weeks to go, I can’t afford to lose a day.”

  “Let me know if you need help. I’ll gather the posse around if you do.”

  That actually brightened me up. “How will you accomplish that, might I ask?”

  “I have my ways.”

  She left and I got to work. The morning flew by, but my biggest obstacle was the caterer. He refused to deal with Linda.

  “Clinton, it’s not my job to handle that.”

  “I won’t work with her. She won’t return any of my calls, I can’t get any answers from her, and if I don’t get quick responses when I need them, it puts me in a terrible position. I need to know how many people you’re planning for the set up for each seated area. I have we need twelve rounds of eight. Then she called and said it changed to twenty. That’s fine, but now I need a confirmation because I need to switch the layout. Only there’s a problem. Linda won’t call me back.”

  I could feel his fury through the phone line. What the hell was wrong with her?

  “Fine. Let me make a few calls and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Thank you very much, Milly. I have to say, if it weren’t for you, I would’ve dropped this event. And I’ll also tell you, this will be my last year if I have to work with her again.”

  “Thanks for letting me know that. I’ll pass that information along.”


  Fuck my life. This isn’t even part of my job and now I have to spend this time again, dealing with Linda’s shit.

  There was only one person I knew to call, and I dreaded making it.

  “Holloway.” His crisp, clear voice made me dread this even more.

  “Um, Glenn, this is Milly Fremont.”

  “Milly. What can I do for you?”

  “I hate making this call. I honestly do. But I have a huge issue and don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Go on.”

  “Clinton called again. He refuses to work with Linda anymore.”

  “Did he say why?”

  “Yes.”

  Glenn chuckled. “Are you going to keep me in suspense?”

  “I’m sorry. This is very uncomfortable for me since she’s not my direct report.”

  “Milly, if there’s a problem I need to hear it. We set the office up there so there wouldn’t be a clash with employees. If someone isn’t doing their job, I need to know about it. I suppose that’s what this is about?”

  “Yes.” I let out a sigh. “He said this would be the last year he’d do the event if he has to work with her again. Apparently, she won’t return any of his calls. And as you’re aware, we’re getting down to the eleventh hour.”

  “Why isn’t she returning his calls?”

  “No idea.”

  “Is she in the office today?” he asked.

  We had a very liberal office policy. As long as you did your work and got your job done, no one really policed you.

  “I haven’t seen her, but then again, I’ve been inside my own office, getting things done.”

  “Hmm. Let me call her and set up a time to meet. This is unacceptable since Clinton has been our caterer for the past six years and gives us incredible rates. If we lose him, I’m not sure what we’ll do.”

  “Yes, sir. If you need me, I’m going to lunch in a bit, but I’m here all afternoon.”

  “Thanks, Milly. I’ll probably see you then late afternoon.”

  “Great and thank you, Glenn, for handling this. It’s quite awkward as you can imagine.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Over lunch, Ava and I discussed what happened.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if they got rid of Linda,” she said.