Chapter 11
Xander
Present Day
Today is a day of noncomplicated surgeries. I have three different operations. Charlotte and I are in the first two together.
Charlotte wins the rock, paper, scissors contest, and she chooses the nineties top hits channel. When she wins, I wink at her.
We work together well, side by side, and it’s a fun day, until my last surgery.
The last one I have on my own, and Charlotte has two more with other surgeons. When I walk into the operating room for my final surgery, I have to maintain my cool.
Damon is over at the nurse’s station, getting his gloves put on. I silently groan.
This guy is a complete asshole. He wasn’t someone I wanted to make friends with before I learned he’d dated Charlotte, and now that he harassed her this morning, he’s definitely not on my list.
Keep your head on, Xander. You don’t need to get fired over this idiot. Dr. Sear’s warning to me earlier replays in my head.
He turns around and glares at me. I step around him to have my gloves put on me.
The surgery doesn’t take too long, and I have to say I’m relieved. The guy sucks the life out of the room, and I wonder again how a girl as sweet as Charlotte could have dated this complete jackass.
The image of him touching her makes my stomach churn, and I have to work extra hard to focus on the patient and not think about him with Charlotte.
After surgery, I have some paperwork to fill out and make my rounds to some patients I’ve operated on in the last few days.
I stop in the lobby and order a few mini blueberry muffins wrapped up to go in case I see Charlotte.
Finally in the locker room, I grab my bag and go into the men’s shower area.
I clean up and get changed into fresh clothes.
When I leave the men’s room, Charlotte is backed against the locker, and Damon has her caged with a hand on either side of her face.
“Get away from me, Damon.”
“You’re a piece of work,” Damon seethes at her.
I take a picture on my phone, and a second for good measure, and remind myself I can’t hit him or touch him or I’ll lose my job. “Step back from her,” I angrily tell him as I step right next to him.
Charlotte’s head jerks toward me. Damon turns his head but keeps his hands in place. He has a cocky sneer on his face.
A group of four interns come into the locker room, and he takes a step back. “To be continued,” he threatens Charlotte and then scowls at me. “You, too.”
“What’s your deal, man?” I ask him.
He doesn’t reply, gives me another look as if he knows something I don’t, then picks his bag off the bench and leaves.
“You okay?” I ask Charlotte.
“I’m fine,” she mutters and opens her locker, but her hand is shaking.
I put my hand on her back. “Hey.”
“I’m fine.”
“We should report him. I have a picture of him harassing you.”
She shakes her head. “Let it go. He’s just mad and hurt.”
“Charlotte—”
“Xander, just drop it.” She pulls her bag out of her locker and goes into the women’s shower area.
There’s no way I’m leaving Charlotte here. He could come back, and I’m not taking any chances. I sit down in the lounge area near the door. The TV is on, but I don’t hear any of it.
My mind is racing, and I pull up the picture of Damon harassing Charlotte. I want to kill him.
Why is he doing this?
It’s a good wait until Charlotte comes out.
She’s so hot wearing leggings, black boots, and a long-sleeved hot-pink tunic.
It’s the first time, outside of my dreams, that I’ve seen her long, blonde hair not pulled up.
She’s beautiful, and my body hardens. My pulse increases, beating hard in my neck.
She doesn’t seem to notice me, goes to her locker and throws her stuff back in it, then grabs her bag and puts her coat on. When she turns to leave, she stops. “Xander. What are you still doing here?”
“Waiting for you.”
She shifts on her feet. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”
“I know I didn’t have to. I did it because I wanted to.”
She takes a deep breath, and I’m not sure what is going through her mind, but I sense she is grappling with something.
I pull the muffins out of my gym bag. “Plus, I got you these, and you don’t want them to go to waste.”
A small grin forms on her face. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
She cautiously opens the bag then one side of her luscious mouth curves up. “You bought me blueberry muffins?”
“Yep. Are those the ones you love?”
She nods. “Yes. Thank you.”
“I also wanted your opinion on surgery number two.”
“Surgery number two?”
I adopt a serious expression. “On a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst you’ve ever experienced, what do you rate the smell when we cut into the patient.”
She winces, eye twinkling. “Seven point five.”
I tap my chin, considering. “I was thinking seven point eight.”
She giggles.
Is this girl for real? She actually laughs at my sick jokes?
I stand up. “Well, I’m ready to get out of here. You done for the day?”
“Yes. I’m all caught up on my paperwork. You want a ride back to your hotel?”
“Sure. If it isn’t any trouble?”
She shakes her head. “It’s on the way.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I go to grab her bag.
“What are you doing?”
“I was going to carry your bag for you.”
Her eyes widen. “That’s nice, but we’re at work. Let me carry my own bag.”
“Okay.”
We walk through the hospital and into the parking garage. When we get in the car, I put my hand on her leg.
She freezes then turns toward me.
“Why is Damon harassing you?”
Charlotte turns to look out the window, as if there’s anything interesting in the garage.
“Charlotte, tell me.”
Taking a deep breath, she looks back at me. “He says he saw us at Club D. He assumes I cheated on him.”
“Nine months ago?”
“Yes.”
“But you had already broken up with him.”
“I told you that this morning. I’m not a cheater,” she snaps.
“I didn’t mean to insinuate anything.”
“I’m sorry,” she says.
“It’s okay.” I pause, then say, “So he saw us at Club D? In Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“And am I to assume we were having a pretty good time?” I wiggle my eyebrows.
She blushes. “You’ve assumed right.” Then she pauses. “Damon saw us leave together, too.”
“It’s not his business what you do either inside or outside of work. We should report his harassment to HR.”
She shakes her head. “No. He’s hurt. Let it be. He will stop.”
“Charlotte—”
“Xander, can you drop it? Please. I have enough on my mind without dealing with an HR investigation.”
Enough on her mind. I’m assuming she means our situation. I squeeze her thigh, realizing my hand is still on it. “Okay. But if he keeps it up, we won’t be able to avoid it.”
“He won’t. It will be fine. I’m sure he was having a bad day and will realize tomorrow he’s been a dick and apologize.”
I don’t expect he’ll do that for one minute, but I don’t argue. I slowly remove my hand from her thigh.
“Thank you.” She starts the car.
We drive for a while. I inhale her flowers-after-the-rain scent and peek at her from time to time. “By the way, you look really nice.”
A sexy blush sweeps across her face, and my dick throbs against my zipper.
“Thanks. So do you.” Her blue eyes stare into mine briefly then focus back on the road.
“You have plans tonight?”
“Nothing special.”
“Wow. So you look this hot when you don’t even have plans?” I tease but am not joking. She’s smoking hot.
Her blush deepens. “Ha, ha.”
I lean closer to her. “I’m serious. You are smoking hot.”
“Stop it.” She elbows me, but her face lights up.
“So, what do you do when you don’t have plans?”
“What do I do?”
“Yes. What are you going to do all night?”
She shrugs. “No clue. What are you going to do all night?”
“I’ll go for a run. That’s my excitement.”
She tightens her grip on the wheel, to all appearances, concentrating on the road.
“Do you want to hang out?” I ask.
She freezes, sitting up straighter.
Crap. I’ve overstepped the boundaries. But what are the boundaries here? I’m in over my head. I like this girl. I really like her. But I still have feelings for another woman, and that isn’t fair to her.
I’m about to retract my offer when she says, “Okay. What do you want to do?”
Make you cum at least a dozen times and cry out my name all night. Shit, Xander. Stop it.
“I don’t know what there is to do here, and especially on a Tuesday night.”
She laughs. “What time do you have to be at work tomorrow?”
“Same as today.”
“Me, too. Why don’t we keep it low-key?”
“I’m good with that.” I drum my fingers on my thighs, trying to hide my excitement about spending more time with her. “How do we keep it low-key around here?”
“Why don’t you go for your run and come over after. I’ll order dinner, and we can play Scrabble.”
“Scrabble?”
“Medical term Scrabble.” She pulls up to the hotel.
Grinning, I lick my lips. “I’m pretty good at that.”
“So, you’ve said.”
“Okay, text me your address when you get home. I’ll text you when I’m on my way.”
“Deal. But fair disclosure, I’ll kick your ass.”
“We’ll see about that.” I lean over and kiss her on the cheek, once again automatically doing it.
She inhales sharply, turns her head toward me, and our lips are inches apart.
I hold myself back from crushing my lips into hers. “I’ll see you tonight.”
She bites her lip and nods.
“Thanks for the ride.” I get out and walk into the hotel as guilt, excitement, and lust all rush through me. I spend the next hour with Billie and Charlotte’s faces in my mind, fighting my demons and still not able to remember anything that will put the puzzle pieces of my mind together.