Tracy met her gaze but remained silent.
“I couldn’t imagine life without him.”
“Does he—?”
“No. I haven’t said anything to him yet. Last night, he came by my house sometime after one. He was having a hard time coming down from the experience, and frankly, so was I. We talked for almost an hour about what we’d gone through, just letting our feelings out. Mainly we kept on rehashing the situation, saying the same things again and again until we finally ran down like a train engine out of steam. A couple of times he seemed as though he wanted to say something more, but each time it was like he hit an emotional wall and clammed up. And I couldn’t bring myself to tell him what I was feeling, either.”
“I see.” Tracy shoved her salad aside. “Well, do you want some advice?”
Kelly shook her head. “Not really. I just had to share this with someone I could trust to keep my secret.”
“Well, I’ll give you my advice, whether you want it or not.” Tracy paused to drink deeply from her iced tea. “Tell Mark how you feel.”
Kelly felt her stomach twisting. She didn’t want to hear this. “But what if he doesn’t feel the same way?”
Tracy shrugged. “Only one way to find out. You know what your feelings are. Dollars to donuts, Mark hasn’t examined his own. The only way to help him do this is to tell him what you discovered last night.”
“But—”
“I know. He may not feel the same way. But you need to let him know where you stand, so he can figure out how he feels. You’ve got to make this a two-way street.”
Kelly looked down at the almost-untouched sandwich on her plate. She knew Tracy was right. But another factor that no one had mentioned—the elephant in the room, so to speak—was Mark’s dating Dr. Anna King. How serious was that? How foolish would Kelly feel if she told Mark how she felt, only to have him say that he had feelings for Anna.
Maybe Kelly did need to make this a two-way street, but what if she discovered that she’d missed a directional sign and was on her way to a head-on collision?
Medical Judgment Page 28
