Rhodes General

Chapter 6

"Seriously, I need to duck out for the night. I have a shift that starts bright and early and I'm wasted."

"Not you too Marcel. And here I thought we were going two against one with Connor here." I said grumpily as Marcel got up and wore his jacket. I looked at the shots of vodka and sighed defeatedly. Marcel and I had gotten into a competition with Connor at the bar to see who could hold their cool even while drunk but it was looking like Connor would win this one.

"No! Don't give up. Beat him at all cost! Let me know the final score in the morning. Goodnight." I watched him leave before turning back to Connor.

"Now it's just you and I, ready to give up?" I said lowly. He smiled as he gulped down a shot.

"Yep. I have surgery in the morning, I can't risk getting drunk."

"Well, that was easy."

"One of us needs to be the voice of reasoning. That would usually be you but something's up with you tonight."

"I'm fine." I gulped down my final shot and put on a fake smile.

"No you're not. This wouldn't have anything to have to do with your conversation with Grace, would it?" I smiled and kept my head low as I played with the rim of my shot glass.

"I'm fine Connor...seriously." I raised another glass to gulp down but he collected it from me.

"You're a doctor, you know better than to drown your sorrows in alcohol. Tell me what's bothering you?"

"Do you want to leave this place?"

"What?"

"Like leave this bar. I'm getting tired of this place."

"An offer I'm willing to jump at, but now you're using sex. Why won't you just talk to me about it?"

"Because I don't know what to say!" I noticed a couple of eyes on me and I calmed down. "I don't know what to say about my conversation with Grace because while a huge part of me knows that she's wrong, a small part can't help but feel like she's right."

"Don't do this to yourself..."

"Seriously Connor. I know I work hard, I do. But there are people who work harder than I do and they haven't gotten the opportunities I've gotten. Maybe my family name hasn't been as useless as I would like. Maybe I've actually been living off my family's name."

"I tried to break you multiple times but instead, you broke me and all it took was one conversation with Grace? Damn." I gave him a weak look and he understood my mood. "There are things we can't change, no matter how hard we try. You will never be able to change who you are or how people like Grace will view you. But you get to control how you react. How you let their words affect you and much more. You're in control of all that Nat, don't ever forget that. I work in a hospital that is literally named after my family but every day, I walk in there, do my job and ignore all my naysayers. You work hard, it's high time you cut yourself some slack. Besides, I'd like to think that I'm the only person who's allowed to break your spirit."

"Thank you. One day, maybe you'll let me advice you like this."

"Maybe." He gulped down the last shot and smiled at me.

"Now, do you want to get out of here?" 

"My place or your place?"

"Definitely my place." He hopped off the bar stool, grabbed his coat and helped me get off.

"Lead the way." We got into his car and zoomed off to my place, which wasn't even far away from the bar. I would just come pick up my car in the morning before work. We said nothing to each other until we got into my apartment. As soon as the door closed, he slammed me against the nearest wall. This was why we were here. There had always been this tension since day one and we tried to turn that tension into hate but that didn't work so....