Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
LUKE
The ringing of my phone wakes me up, and I realize I’m on top of Melissa. Half on top of her, at least—I’ve got her pinned under my arm and leg—and I roll to the side, a little embarrassed. I’m a lot heavier than she is, so that can’t have been comfortable.
And yet she’s still asleep, so maybe it wasn’t so bad. I quickly grab my phone and answer the call, hoping the sound won’t wake her either.
“Carlton,” I whisper.
“Hey, man.” I recognize the voice of one of the ER docs. “You sick or something?”
“No,” I reply, as I pad out of the bedroom and shut the door behind me. “My girlfriend’s asleep.”
“Must be nice,” he says wryly, and I remember he recently split from his wife.
“It was nicer before you called me,” I joke.
“But yeah. It is.” And despite the fact that it’s six A.M. and this call means I’m probably going to have to go in again, I feel lighter than I have in weeks.
Certainly better than I’ve felt since the incident with Ethan, who’s spent the past three days alternately begging and threatening me.
But last night’s case clarified a number of things for me, and there’s no longer any question about what I have to do about Ethan.
As the ER doc tells me about a patient with a suspected bowel obstruction, I walk to the kitchen and help myself to some of Melissa’s Cheerios. It sounds like I’ll have to operate, but not immediately. I can let Melissa sleep for another half hour before I wake her up to lock the door behind me.
I’ll have to remind her to get me a key, so I won’t have to wake her the next time I have to leave early.
But five minutes later, Melissa appears, looking delightfully sleepy and rumpled. “Can I make you breakfast?” I tease, gesturing at the Cheerios.
“No, thanks,” she says, looking at me with concern. “You okay? You seemed pretty exhausted last night.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I say quickly. “Sorry again about waking you up so late.”
“Luke, it’s fine,” she says quickly. “I’m glad you did. But we have to talk about—”
The ring of my phone cuts her off. “Sorry,” I tell her, as I swipe to answer it. It’s the ICU attending; my splenectomy patient’s wound is oozing a little, and she wants me to take a look.
“I should go,” I tell Melissa apologetically. “But if I’m lucky I’ll get out by dinner. Maybe we could order something?”
“Sure,” she says. “Okay.”
I scoop up the last bite of Cheerios and put the bowl in the sink, then drop a kiss on Melissa’s forehead as I walk to the door.
She looks as tired as I feel, and I’m hit by a rush of guilt.
I woke her up in the middle of the night and again at six A.M., and unfortunately, it wasn’t to fuck her senseless.
I really hope work is quiet today, so I can take care of her properly tonight.
“What’s going on with Ethan?” Melissa asks as I pull on my jacket. “Do you really think he’ll report us? The relationship, I mean?”
I push out a sigh. “I don’t know what Ethan’s going to do, but I’ve decided to tell Drew myself. Drew’s a reasonable guy, and it’ll look better if he hears it from me than from Ethan.”
She chews her lip. “But Luke, if Ethan goes to the Medical Board . . .”
“Then I’ll deal with it,” I say matter-of-factly. “Try not to worry about it, Milly. I’ll text you later about dinner.” I kiss her goodbye and she locks the door behind me.
For once, I get the quiet day at work that I was hoping for.
The splenectomy patient’s wound looks fine to me, and I reassure both the ICU doctor and the patient’s anxious husband.
I operate on the patient with the bowel obstruction, but I don’t get any consults after that.
Even the ward rounds go smoothly, and I finish by early afternoon.
I change out of my scrubs and pull out my phone.
Much as I’d like to head straight back to Melissa’s, Drew’s coming back from his conference today, and I want to get this meeting over with.
I send him a message and he replies a few minutes later, saying he’s on his way home from the Toronto airport.
He’ll text me when he’s back at his condo.
Since I’ve got at least an hour to kill, I drive to the mall to run an errand that’s been on my mind all week. As I’m walking back out to my car, Drew texts to say he’s home, so I drive out to the Esplanade.
On my way into the building, I text Melissa.
Me: Done work, just have to meet Drew. Should be at your place in an hour.
Melissa: You’re meeting Drew today?
Me: Yeah, at his condo now. Shouldn’t take long.
I’ve been to Drew’s place a few times, but I’m still struck by the beauty of his view. His unit faces south, toward Lake Ontario, and the entire far wall of his living room is made up of windows. It’s a windy day so the water’s rough, and we’re close enough to see the whitecaps on the waves.
“Beautiful day,” Drew remarks, following my gaze. “Can I get you a drink?”
“No, thanks.”
Drew gestures me toward the kitchen table, and we sit.
“What’s on your mind, Luke?”
I’ve thought so much about what to tell him and how to frame it, but in the end, I just give him the unfiltered version. I tell him about Ethan and then about Melissa, and Drew listens without interruption until his phone rings.
“Sorry, it’s probably my grocery delivery,” he says. “I’ll just buzz them up.”
But as Drew listens to whoever’s on the other end of the line, his expression changes. “Yeah, he’s here now,” he says, glancing at me. “I’m unit 815, come on up.” He taps his phone to unlock the door to his building, then turns to me. “Did you know Melissa was coming?”
“What? No.” I push my chair back from the table and stand. “I’m not even sure how she knew where to find you.”
“She’s resourceful, I guess,” Drew says with a shrug. “And Austin told her I live at the Esplanade, that day we were running.”
“Right.” I scowl at the memory of the way Austin flirted with her. “Did she say why she’s here?”
Another shrug. “Just that she needed to talk to me.”
“Talk to you?” I repeat. “About . . . our relationship? I didn’t ask her to do that.”
The corner of Drew’s mouth hitches. “I didn’t think you did.”
There’s a knock at the door, and Drew and I both walk over to answer it.
Melissa’s wearing a belted navy coat that flatters her curves and highlights her blue eyes. She looks very beautiful and very anxious, and on impulse, I pull her in for a hug.
“Hey, Luke.” She shoots a glance at Drew as I release her. “Hi, Dr. Malone.”
“Drew and I were just finishing up,” I tell her. “Can I take you out to dinner?”
“I need to talk to Dr. Malone first,” she says resolutely.
“Call me Drew,” he says easily, reaching out to take her coat. “Can I get you a drink? I have water, Perrier, or herbal tea.”
She looks a little surprised by the options, since Drew doesn’t look like a herbal tea drinker, but she asks for a Perrier.
We sit around the kitchen table, and Melissa takes the chair opposite mine. “I don’t know if Luke talked to you about me,” she says carefully.
“It’s okay, Melissa, I told him about us,” I reassure her.
“But he needs to hear my side of it.” She takes a sip of Perrier and turns back to Drew. “Luke probably told you we’re in a relationship, and it started a few weeks after he operated on my daughter.”
Drew nods, but his expression gives no clue to his thoughts.
“And I understand the hospital administrators might think it’s inappropriate for him to date a patient’s mother,” Melissa continues. “That Luke could face discipline, even have his license suspended. And I can’t let that happen.”
She pauses and takes another sip of her drink. “I understand why there are rules,” she says. “Doctors have a lot of power, and it would be easy for them to take advantage of people. But that’s not what happened here.”
“No?” Drew asks, surveying her carefully.
“Not at all,” Melissa tells him earnestly.
“You see, I fell in love with Luke when we were in high school. I, uh, needed a sweatshirt, and he gave me his. He was handsome and funny and smart, but not full of himself. Half the girls in the school were in love with him, but he chose me. And he acted like he was the lucky one.”
“I was,” I say gruffly. “But Melissa, you don’t have to explain—”
“Let her talk,” Drew interrupts.
“We broke up in university, for reasons that aren’t really relevant now,” Melissa continues.
“I didn’t see Luke for ten years, but when I saw him again .
. . well, I think it was inevitable. It would have happened regardless of how we met, whether it was at the hospital or shopping at Wal-Mart. We just fit together, you know?”
“Not really,” Drew admits, but the look on his face suggests he wishes he did. “But I’ll take your word for it.”
“And Luke tried really hard to do the right thing,” Melissa says.
“He offered to find Claire a different surgeon because we have a history, but I insisted he do it. It would have been risky to delay the surgery, and I trusted him. And after the operation I asked if he wanted to meet for coffee but he said no, because he didn’t want to take advantage of me.
Nothing happened between us until weeks after the surgery, when he wasn’t Claire’s doctor anymore. ”
It’s a well-edited version of events that makes no mention of my unsolicited house call or our late night phone conversations. I couldn’t ask for a better defense.
“And Luke’s wanted to be a surgeon since we were teenagers, and he’s good at it,” Melissa says. “He saved a woman’s life last night, and I’m sure he saves lives every day. It’s part of who he is. And if Luke’s career suffers because of our relationship, I’ll suffer too, because I love him.”
Melissa doesn’t look anxious anymore, she looks fierce. Magnificent. And mine.
She loves me.
I should stop her now, tell her that she doesn’t have to bare her soul to Drew, but for some reason I can’t speak.
“I’m willing to explain that to the hospital, the Medical Board, and whoever else needs to hear it,” she continues. “And if we have to stay away from each other for a while, to give it more time since he treated Claire—”
When I realize what she’s saying, my voice comes back quickly. “No way in hell,” I interrupt. “I already explained it to Drew. I’m not giving you up, Melissa, even if it means I lose my medical license.”
“Luke!” she exclaims. “But you can’t . . . you don’t mean—”
“Yeah, I do,” I interrupt. “It’s really simple, Milly. I love you, and I’m not giving you up for any length of time.”
“But Luke . . .” she begins. She turns to Drew, as though she’s hoping he’ll talk sense into me.
But Drew just shrugs. “I doubt you’ll change his mind, Melissa, but I think it’ll probably be fine. I don’t see a big problem with your relationship, and if there are other complaints to the hospital, or to the Medical Board, I’ll do what I can for Luke.”
“Really?” Melissa asks, as though she’s almost afraid to believe it.
“Sure. Luke only treated your daughter for a short period of time, and he never treated you. It helps that you’re close to his age, and you’ve got an education and a job—”
Melissa’s brow furrows. “Luke told you that I’m teaching?”
Drew smiles. “My niece goes to Brookline.”
“In one of my classes?” Melissa asks, looking a little alarmed.
Drew shakes his head. “Grade eight. But she, uh, sent me the link to your video.”
“What video?” I interrupt, because this is the first I’ve heard about it.
“Of course,” Melissa says, with a sigh of resignation.
Drew’s lips twitch. “It’s pretty awesome.”
“What video?” I repeat.
“Relax, man, it’s about math,” Drew says with a smirk of amusement. “But you should watch it.”
“I plan to,” I say, with a meaningful look at Melissa. “As soon as we’re done here.”
“Don’t let me keep you,” Drew says dryly.
I meet his eye as I stand to go. “Thanks, Drew.” The chief of surgery job can’t be easy, and I don’t envy him the responsibility. He’ll have to meet with Ethan, and if he can’t convince him to take a voluntary leave of absence, things could get messy.
But fortunately, that’s Drew’s job, not mine.
Right now, I need to talk to my girl.