Chapter 36
HAYDEN
“Hayden, wait! Hang on a sec.”
I paused in the hallway, halting my momentum. It wasn’t like Regina to stop me on the way to my next client. She also wasn’t speaking with her normal, cheerful cadence, either. Her voice was tight. Strained.
That worried me.
“Dana’s in her office,” she half-mumbled. “She’d uh… she’d like to speak to you.”
She was staring down at the floor. Not even my feet, but the floor itself.
“Right now?” I pointed to the waiting room door. “I have a one o’clock.”
“Evan’s got it. He already took him.”
My coworker turned away quickly, without meeting my gaze. This couldn’t be good.
“Fine.”
Frowning, I headed straight into my boss’s office. Dana wasn’t in her chair, she was sitting on the edge of her desk. It looked uncomfortable. But not as uncomfortable as me.
“Hi, Hayden,” she said. “Please, sit down.”
I sure as hell didn’t feel like sitting down. Especially not with her hovering over me from the corner of her desk like a gargoyle.
“What’s up?”
“Well…”
“Just spit it out, Dana,” I sighed. “I’m not sure why Evan would take one of my clients last minute, especially when I’m right here and ready to—”
“We’ve had a complaint,” Dana said quietly.
I tilted my head, curiously. “A complaint...”
“A very serious complaint, yes.”
Now I did sit down. I’d never been in Dana’s office for anything other than cross-referencing client lists, and to go over my schedule.
“A client called earlier this morning,” Dana began carefully. “According to what they say — and these are their words, mind you — you ‘touched them inappropriately’.”
I blinked through the five longest and most confusing seconds of my life.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I just said,” Dana reiterated. “Apparently you touched someone.”
“I touch people all the time!” I cried. “I’m a licensed physical therapist. Touching people is my job!”
“I know, Hayden. But—”
“How can I help people if I don’t touch them?” I bulldozed on. “I touch people all over their bodies, every single day! I guide them through exercises. I help them stretch out.”
“I know.”
“I put them into positions for—”
“This was very specific,” Dana interrupted me. “And I’m sorry, but also very serious. What they said you did, Hayden…” her sentence trailed off in a frown. “If it’s true — and I’m not saying it is, mind you — but until we investigate—”
“INVESTIGATE?”
I was numb, but also angry. No, angry didn’t even begin to describe it.
“This has got to be a mistake,” I blurted. “It can’t possibly—”
And then it hit me.
COLE.
“Oh hell no,” I seethed. “This isn’t a complaint from an actual client. This is my ex-boyfriend calling to mess with me, trying to ruin my life.”
Dana’s expression said otherwise.
“I’m serious!” I swore. “You have no idea what’s going on with him. He’s the only one who could possibly—”
“Hayden, it wasn’t a man who called. It was a woman.”
My hands gripped the arms of the chair so tightly, my fists hurt.
“Who was it then?”
“I can’t tell you,” Dana replied. “Complaints are anonymous.”
“But you told me it was a woman!” I shot back.
“I know,” Dana said worriedly, “and I shouldn’t have told you that. But Hayden, I like you. You’re a valuable asset to the clinic. You do great work here.”
Here it comes.
“But until we hear from corporate, and the investigation is conducted…”
“What?” I growled miserably. “You’re firing me?”
“No, no, nothing like that.”
“Then what?”
Dana shifted uncomfortably. “For the immediate future at least, you can’t see clients. We’re putting you on leave.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Temporary leave,” she amended. “Just until human resources can straighten out the details of…”
I was no longer listening. In my mind’s eye I could see it all: Cole, coming up with all new ways to destroy my life.
He knew my routine, my work schedule, my days off.
Hell, he’d even been here as a patient. All he had to do was get some random woman to call in; and say all the right things. Or more accurately, the wrong things.
I bolted from my seat, choking back tears.
No. No tears.
A switch flipped. Anger boiled within me.
That fucker doesn’t deserve tears.
Dana reached out for me with what might’ve been a comforting arm. I wouldn’t know. I fled from her office and stormed through the waiting room, determined to get anywhere else but here.