Page 25 of Thank you, Next

Lexi shrugged. “Keep tabs on her.”

“You think I have time to follow her around?”

“You had time to come here and harangue an old lady about it. Or did you also come to make me lunch?”

Will sighed, knowing that this conversation had done nothing except renew Lexi’s hopes that he and Alex would fall into each other’s arms.

And then he went to see what Lexi had in her fridge.

ELEVEN

Alex was frustrated. She was starting to think that her extremely negative view of relationships might actually be a problem. Even though Brody was mostly full of shit, he might have had a point about her needing to look inside herself for answers.

But now her curiosity was piqued, and she wouldn’t be able to stop looking at her past in order to divine how she might avoid going wrong in the future.

Today she was talking to Lyle, the dentist she’d dated after rushing Lana’s oldest to his office after Lana’s youngest had hit her in the face with a baseball bat while Alex was babysitting. It was the last time she’d offered her babysitting services—partially out of guilt and partially because the anxiety of being responsible for a hurt child almost gave her a heart attack.

Alex and Lyle had dated for a month. He was shorter than Alex, but he had perfect dark, shiny hair and the nicest smile that money could buy. They’d had fun together, and she truly wasn’t sure why they’d broken up. Instead of dropping in on him unannounced, she’d made an appointment with him for a cleaning. Asking him for a life update—finding out why he’d married his dental hygienist less than a year after they broke up—wouldn’t be hard if it was part of idle chitchat.

She realized her mistake when she saw that the dental hygienist he’d married was still his dental hygienist and would have sharp implements next to her gums.

“Hi, I’m Gina, and I’ll be cleaning your teeth today?” The woman standing in front of her was nothing like her—a bleached blonde with subtly fake boobs and a voice that went up at the end of her statement so that it sounded like she was asking a question. If someone had asked Alex to guess the woman’s name, she would not have guessed Gina. She would have guessed Karen or Kayleigh or Kylie. Alex would put money on Gina owning a Pomeranian. Guessing from the color of Gina’s scrubs, her nails, and her lipstick, Lyle currently had a lot of pink things in his house that he might not have bargained for when he got married.

Gina didn’t recognize her name, so Lyle had probably never mentioned her. Alex was disappointed by that, even though they’d only dated for a month. And Lyle had probably never thought about her after they broke up. Alex was likely nothing more than a fond memory—if that. The fact that Lyle was one of the few guys Alex thought could have turned into something more lingered with Alex as Gina carefully and methodically removed plaque from her teeth. She was really quite skilled, and Alex had been a little nervous to go back to the dentist for a cleaning after so long.

“I really think you should get an electric toothbrush,” Gina said after Alex spit out the last of the tooth polish. “It will keep your teeth cleaner between appointments.”

“I’ll do that,” Alex said, flashing her a brilliant smile.

Gina returned the smile, and Alex decided that it didn’t matter that she hadn’t mattered enough to Lyle to mention her to his new wife. It was hard to find a hygienist who was both great at her job and didn’t make you bleed, and Alex wasn’t letting her go.

“I’ll just grab the doctor.” Gina made for the door. “There are a few spots of concern that I want him to look at.”

Alex’s stomach fell. She’d planned to come here and ask uncomfortable questions, not have uncomfortable dental work done. The reason she hadn’t been to the dentist for a couple of years was that she was afraid of having work done. She didn’t like pain—well, no one liked pain, but Alex went to great lengths to avoid it.

Maybe that was why she’d never had a successful relationship. She bailed before anything got too painful. When she thought about it, it didn’t actually seem like a terrible strategy. She still got to have sex and have companionship when she wanted it, but she didn’t have to deal with the pain that her clients did when things inevitably failed.

And they always failed. Even though Gina was a delightful woman and a great dental hygienist, there would come a day when Lyle looked at her and wouldn’t see that. He’d only see someone who caused him pain. Or Gina would look at Lyle that way. And either they were going to be the people who could look at each other and bear the pain, or one of them would be trying to get an appointment with her.

Most people couldn’t live with the pain and took the escape hatch of divorce.

Alex was thinking about how that was the ultimate in job security when Lyle walked in. Even though their relationship clearly wasn’t significant enough to mention, his face told her that he hadn’t forgotten about her completely.

“What are you doing here?” His voice told her that he wasn’t happy to see her. In fact, the tone of the question made her question whether the windows were open, because he looked like he might like to throw her out of one.

“Having my teeth cleaned?” For the millionth time since she’d started tracking the movements and marital statuses of her exes, she questioned her own intelligence. Who did something like this? And why was she doing it?

Part of her didn’t want to know the answers. She knew that trying to figure out why she was only lovable in small doses and for the short term in a romantic sense was really stupid. She should have taken Lana up on her offer of a referral to a psychologist.

“Did you say anything to her?” Lyle looked over his shoulder to ensure that no one was lingering outside the exam room. Then he closed the door. “You didn’t tell her anything about us dating, did you?”

“No.” Alex crossed her arms over her chest and tried to look as intimidating as possible while reclined and wearing a bib. “Why would that be such a bad thing?”

Lyle scoffed at her and reclined her seat even more. “Open wide.”

Alex didn’t follow instructions. She might follow the law, but she didn’t always do what she was told. “Why would she care if we dated?”

“Believe me. You wouldn’t have wanted her to put sharp implements anywhere near your gums if I’d told her what you did to me.”