Dirty Little Bastard

11

"Have you seen the paper?" Cherry asked me as I sat down at the round table in a nearby cafe in which her, Linda, Elise and I had agreed to meet for a quick lunch.

"I barely had time this morning for coffee, so no," I let out a small laugh and shook my head, shrugging my jacket off onto the back of my chair.

Linda's eyes stayed down at the table in front of her, while Elise looked almost uncomfortable.

"You and Theo are on page six again," Cherry told me, and my happy mood plummeted through the ground as I froze to stare at her.

"Excuse me?" I managed out, now feeling like everyone was staring at me, and not just the three women at our table.

Just then the waiter arrived with menus and Cherry requested today's paper from him. I was nervous to see what it was this time, and didn't pay much thought to what lunch I'd get.

It didn't take long for the waiter to return, and I was quick to mumble out a thank you and grab the paper. My brows furrowed when I found page six. Theo and I were both on it, but not together.

It was a short article type of writing with two photographs attached to it. One of Tim and I during our lunch date, a picture which the teen guys had taken, and the other photo was of Theo, arm wrapped around a blonde, long legged, beauty as the two excited some club.

'Theo Black's mystery woman is no more, both now moved on' was the title and I groaned. I didn't even bother reading the article, and instead inspected the photo of him and the woman.

They were walking towards a car, I presumed, him telling her something and her in the middle of a laugh. The short embroidered red dress she was wearing showcased her model-like body. When I read the small caption underneath their photo, I frowned, not knowing why.

According to the writing, she was some American model who'd flown out all the way to see him to whatever small town in the country he was training in. It had been yesterday evening, on his day off when he had wanted to meet up with me during the day, but I had been too busy at the hospital.

The way he was holding her close to him seemed like they were definitely more than friends. I had Tim, so why did I feel a tinge of jealousy?

Theo had been so keen on meeting me, yet when I'd said no, he had found someone else to spend his free night with. I was such a hypocrite, but maybe I did like him a little?

"It's best like this, anyway," I cleared my throat before folding up the paper and handing it away, "he and I would never work. He's too much in the eyes of the public."

"You seemed pretty into him that one morning... after he'd stayed over..." Elise reasoned, sending me a small smile. I laughed quietly, almost in a sad way. I couldn't stop thinking about Theo, for some stupid reason.

"Let's not get into that. We had sex once, that's it," I shook my head, smile widening.

We ordered and had a nice lunch together, not speaking one more word about Theo, even though we were all most likely thinking about him and that American model.

From what I'd gathered with a quick glance at the article, he had brought the woman over to his hotel room for the night. I didn't know how to feel about it, or if I even had the right to have an opinion concerning any of it.

__

"You know next weeks Monday is a very special day to you, Scar," Elise winked, looking up from the horoscopes section in the paper she had decided to read as we drank coffees after our lunches, still at the same table in the cafe.

I raised my brows at her, a small grin tugging at the side of my mouth, "you know I don't believe in that stuff, babe."

"You don't need to," she shrugged, Linda rolling her eyes playfully beside her, "just wait until Monday."

"What's my lucky day, then?" Linda questioned, sarcasm laced in her tone. Elise didn't seem to mind, and instead scanned the newspaper page.

"Today, actually," she gave her a bright smile, now setting the paper down in front of her and sipping her latte.

"Well, I'm having lunch with my three best buddies, how lucky am I?" An overly sweet smile painted Linda's lips, and we laughed.

"You never know, something exciting might happen, it's only lunch time now," Elise replied with a small shrug, "the universe works in mysterious ways, even for little bitches like you."

Linda laughed and Elise grinned, all of us knowing she hadn't meant it in a rude way.

__

After lunch, Linda and I walked arm in arm back towards the hospital.

"Are you really not bothered by this whole Theo thing?" She asked, knowing me all too well.

I sighed, "I don't know. I have no right to be, we aren't anything serious. I just— with the way he was wanting to go on a second date once he got back made me feel like he... I don't know."

"I get what you're saying, Lettie. If you want something more with him—"

"That's just the thing," I cut in, trying not to sound too frustrated, "I don't know if I do. I've only been on one date with him and here I am being labelled his 'mystery woman' across every bloody media platform... his lifestyle isn't for me."

"Yeah, I could never imagine you with someone as famous as him... besides, even if he is a great person and you like him, there's no point in having any involvement with someone who sleeps around a lot," she spoke, and I held myself back from defending Theo. He wasn't someone who just slept with every woman he came across, it was more than obvious.

"Oh, don't give me that face!" Linda laughed, leaning into my side, "I didn't mean it as in a 'he's a fuckboy' type of way, just that can you really trust him?"

I simply gave her a small smile and nod, wordlessly promising to think about it.

Right as we were walking up to the front doors of the hospital, Linda squealed and removed my arm from hers. I watched with confusion as she ran a few steps forward and crouched down.

"A tenner!" She stood up again and turned to me with a grin, holding a ten pound note in her hand, "I guess today is my lucky day, would you believe it?!"

We both burst out laughing, and she ended up giving the money to a little kid leaving the hospital in a wheelchair with a lolly.

When we were changing back into our scrubs, preparing to assist Dr Stanley in surgery, I happened to check my messages.

From: Theo: Have you already seen it?

I didn't reply, protecting myself more than anything.