The Secrets She Keeps

Some secrets are meant to stay that way. My life is full of secrets. Some I keep from my mom and dad. Some I keep from my best friend. Others I keep from everyone. But every waking moment is a reminder of one or another of my secrets. It’s all I can do to get up, go to work, care for my patients, and try to manage the best I can. No one tells you that hiding the truth will eat you up from the inside out almost as bad as a horrible cancer. Don’t worry about me, I cope. Sometimes I shop. Okay, I shop a lot. Sometimes I get comfort of another kind. From men. Mostly strangers in bars. Only a couple of times a year, though when things get really hard. But I made a big mistake. Too much rum at a luau and the next thing I knew, I was waking up next to my co-worker, the very uptight New England to California transplant, Dr. Lucas Tucker. Suddenly going to work is just another place where I have to keep more secrets. Unfortunately, Lucas isn’t built like me. He wants to know me and all my secrets. He says he’ll love me no matter what. I want to believe that. But if he finds out what I’ve done, he’ll think I betrayed him and I’ll have lost the one person who accepts me as I am.