Stripped by Brenda Rothert

quickly, anxious to escape before she broke into tears.
    “Abby!” he called after her. She held a hand up as
she fled to her car, needing to get away.
     
     
    “But you never eat ice cream,” Sara said, looking at
Abby in disbelief.
    “Well, I am today. And when we finish our ice cream
we’ll shop some more.”
    Abby was still brooding inside over Chris’ rejection
the day before. Wanting a man was a very big deal for her; it hadn’t happened
in a long time. Though his hands had moved over her body in all the right ways,
there had been something more about the hunger she had felt for him. It was
like it had been building since that first lunch together, and growing more
intense. It had felt so personal to her, so intimate.
    Chris had become special to her. He was smart, warm
and a good listener. Her admiration for him grew every time she saw him working
at the hospital. People came to the emergency room during their worst moments:
upset, broken and hurting. He was reassuring and capable, healing people one at
a time.
    And what did she do for people? She got men off for
money as a stripper. He was the best side of humanity, and she was the worst.
Next to him, she had so little to offer. And she continued feeling more and
more self-conscious about him not wanting the one thing she did have: her body.
    She had decided as she pulled out of the club and
not looked back at Chris that she would ignore his calls and texts for the day.
He needed to know he had really hurt her feelings. What was bothering her more
than anything today was the fact that he’d never called.
     
    As he lathered soap around his forearms to do an
exam on a patient, Chris couldn’t help hearing the conversation between the
young couple in the room.
    “Don’t cry, baby. It’ll be okay. Shh,” the man said.
    “I’m scared, Jonathan. I want this baby so much. I
can’t lose another one. I can’t,” her voice broke as she cried.
    “No, Cara, don’t say that. Shh. You need to stay
calm, okay? Stay calm for the baby.”
    He cradled her head to his chest as she cried, and
Chris offered them a reassuring smile as he walked over.
    “Just relax while I take a look, okay?” he said. He
shifted into work mode, remembering the steps he had to perform for the exam.
It wasn’t something he did every day.
    “I’ve been thinking,” Jonathan said to Cara. “If
it’s a boy, I think we should name him after your Dad.”
    “Really?” The joy in her voice was contagious, and
Chris couldn’t help smiling. “Jonathan, that means so much to me.”
    “You’ve been so strong through this whole thing. I
love you so much, Cara. No matter what, I will always love you.”
    “Everything’s good so far,” Chris said. “I think you
were just having some implantation bleeding, which does happen.”
    Fresh tears flowed down Cara’s face, and Chris’
heart went out to her. Her head dropped against her husband’s chest with
relief.
    “Thank you,” Jonathan said, tears welling in his
eyes.
    Chris nodded at him as he finished the exam. He had
never been envious of a happy couple, but he was feeling a twinge of …
something. The love between these two people was palpable, and he couldn’t help
thinking of the empty apartment he’d be going home to. The look of pain on
Cara’s face when Chris had entered the room had made him think of Abby, and how
hurt she’d been the day before. He hated that he’d been responsible for it.
    He had thought of calling her, but he didn’t know
what to say. He wasn’t going to apologize for not fucking her then and there.
That was exactly what most men would have done without a second thought. Chris
had been thinking about her feelings instead of his own. Sex always led to
attachment, and he didn’t want to create that with Abby when they could never
have a relationship.
    But as he looked over at Jonathan wiping tears from
his wife’s cheek with his thumb, Chris realized that some things went beyond being
right or