Читать книгу The Pregnancy Project - Victoria Pade - Страница 12

B ecause Ella was the add-on to the alternative medicine study, her appointment with Dr. Kim Schwartz was scheduled as the last for this and every other evening that treatment was to be administered.

By the time she was finished and in the process of putting her clothes back on, she could hear the sounds of the soft-spoken Chinese doctor, her assistant, and Marta the regular office nurse saying good-night and leaving for the day. Ella assumed that meant that only Jacob would be left, and that unnerved her slightly.

Would it be the awful Jacob or the not-awful Jacob?

There was no way of knowing, since she hadn’t so much as seen him tonight to judge his mood, or to predict what his response to her might be after Friday night.

So of course she felt uneasy about the idea of leaving the examining room to find herself alone with him now. It was perfectly reasonable. It had nothing whatsoever to do with having ended up enjoying herself on Friday night. Nothing whatsoever to do with having thought about him almost nonstop since he’d left her in the parking lot. Nothing whatsoever to do with the niggling eagerness she’d discovered in herself every time she’d thought about this office visit and seeing him again. No, it was just that she couldn’t be sure what she’d be faced with when it came to him.

Once she was dressed she checked the small mirror on one wall to make sure her mascara wasn’t smudged and no stray curls had escaped the scrunchee at her crown. Then she grabbed her purse off the massage table that had replaced the exam table to accommodate the acupuncture, and opened the door.

Jacob was out in the receptionist’s area, all right. Across the hall and down several feet, sitting with one hip on the corner of the desk, looking at something in yet another file.

Because the door hadn’t made a sound, he didn’t seem aware that she was standing there—although if tonight was anything like the beginning portion of Friday night, he could just be ignoring her. But she opted for giving him the benefit of the doubt and for a moment used the opportunity to take in the sight of him.

He was dressed much as he had been both times she’d seen him before—tan slacks, a multicolored plaid shirt and brown tie beneath a sport coat. He looked freshly shaven and it occurred to Ella that if that was the case, it surely didn’t have anything to do with her. He probably had another meeting tonight, she thought.

Or maybe even a date.

Why the idea of him having a date disturbed her she didn’t know. But she did tamp down that disturbance by reminding herself this was a purely professional relationship. With a man who was more often unlikable than likable. So regardless of what he had planned for the remainder of the evening that had prompted a second shave, she would just say good-night and leave.

And ignore that sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach when she imagined that he was merely waiting for her to get out of there in order to pick up some other woman to take out on the town….