A Broken Forever(54)

The door was cracked open to allow the steam out and as I pushed the door open, Richard didn't seem to hear me. My smile grew wickedly, this was going to be a much better surprise. After discarding my clothing I went to the far side of the sliding shower door and carefully pulled it back.

Richard instantly turned to face me as I shut the door behind me.

"What are you doing in here, Sweetheart?" My shoulders shrugged as my arms wrapped around his chest, resting my cheek against his back.

"I suddenly decided I needed to take a shower." I purred against his skin, letting the water wet my hair and face.

Richard laughed, "Oh my sweet girl. What are you doing up this early?"

"I just figured I was up so I would make you a little breakfast in bed." Even just saying the words filled me with pride.

Richard took my hands from his chest, allowing him to turn towards me. "Oh honey, that is so thoughtful of you. It really means so much to me that you did that." I smiled but had a feeling there was more following what he had to say. "It's just that I have a work breakfast I have to get to." 

"A work breakfast?" I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest, suddenly wishing we were not having this conversation in the shower.

"Yeah, with a coworker of mine."

I raised an eyebrow. "What is a work breakfast?"

"I'm going with a coworker of mine to breakfast this morning to discuss some new hospital policies."

"Okay, but isn't that considered work? That could be done in a meeting with the others that need to know this information. You are legally not allowed to 'work' outside of work, even if it is just a breakfast thing."

"Yes darling, but we are just calling it a friendly breakfast, it isn't a big deal."

"Yeah but why would you even plan a breakfast at this time of day? Until you came home early, you were under the impression that you would be working much later than this."

Richard's face paled and that's when it hit me. "You didn't come home early last night because you wanted to see me. You came home because you had plans and wanted to go to breakfast with this coworker."

"Grey, of course I wanted to see you."

"That was just a side note though." I added, his reaction was unnecessary, the slight tightening of his jaw was enough. I should have known he wouldn't just leave his job for me.

"Honey, that's not it at all. I'm happy I got to see you and we really did need a nice evening like that. You just know how important my work is and she has been on vacation for the past couple of weeks. I offered to fill her in and decided that it would be better to meet in the morning, uninterrupted by the chaos that covers every inch of the hospital."

"Wait," I threw my hand up. "She, so you came home early so you could go to breakfast with another woman!?"

"Another doctor who happens to be female." Richard tried to clarify but that didn't matter to me. The blissful and passionate moments from the night before all felt like a lie. I got up, made breakfast and was going to surprise him as the ignorant fiancé that really doesn't know her fiancé as well as she thought.

"That doesn't matter. You told me you were home for me. I thought we were going to have a chance to be together this morning before I have to go to work. Turns out that even on your day off I won't even come first."

Richard looked stunned and frankly, so did I. It wasn't often that I truly complained about Richard's work. It bothered me but I knew he loved it and most of the time I was okay just being alone. It wasn't until I really needed him did I realize the importance in his eyes.

"That isn't it, you will always come first."

"After breakfast, right?" He had nothing to say back. "Are you done in here? I'd like to use the water to get ready to go to work."

"Yes, I'm done." He shimmied past me, opened the door but just before he left he turned back to me. "I'm sorry about this, Grey."

"Yeah." Was all I said as I flipped the water from lukewarm to scalding hot.

Even after making sure the person I thought was causing all the stress in my life was gone, I was realizing my other problems weren't going away. The biggest issue I had now was my fiancé's work. It made me happy that he was doing something he loved but why did I have to feel our time was sacrificed in the process. I understood having a time consuming job but I also worked more than necessary because I was filling the time when Richard was at the hospital. I no longer knew if I could stand back, smiling, as he left me alone. Or if something needed to change before we said 'I do' this October.