4. Zaire
Ihung back while the rest of the team hurried out to get a start on their weekend so that I could speak to Dr. Patton about Tabitha in more detail. After agreeing that being patient was the best approach with the young woman that I first saw in the psych hospital years ago ready to end it all, even she mentioned Nala’s reaction while in the meeting. Her eyes held concern and something else I couldn’t identify.
“How are things going between you and Dr. Jackson?”
Dr Patton moved deliberately around her desk covered in tons of paperwork and textbooks. I was amazed that this woman could keep track of not just managing her staff, and the building’s needs, but continuing a caseload as if it was her only responsibility. When I asked her about it once, she smiled and said, “This is my calling and when you are called, you answer and do so in your most eloquent voice.”
I followed in behind her but stayed close to the door to ensure the conversation remained brief. I still needed to wrap up my notes before I got out of there to head to the gym. I was also considering responding to a “wyd” text from someone I met at the gym a few weeks ago. She wasn’t Nala but I was a man and I needed company from time to time. My dick was begging for me to do something because the golden hand wasn’t hitting like it needed to but I didn’t want to be with just anyone. I wanted her.
“Everything seems cool.”
I caught a flash of a smile before she swallowed it. She nodded and sipped from her black water bottle. After a drawn-out moment she pinned me with a serious expression. I felt like I was in the hot seat and had no idea why.
“Is that how it seems to you, really, Dr. Booker?”
“Sometimes, I admitted.” She waited for me to continue and I contemplated my approach.
It wasn’t unusual for Dr. Patton to get my thoughts on new hires, but this was the first time she challenged my assessment and I did understand the reasons for it. It was clear to anyone, that Nala wasn’t exactly warm to me, and everyone was warm to me, hot actually, but I didn’t exactly ask for that. Something about me had always been likable and I wasn’t going to fight that as long as boundaries weren’t crossed.
Under normal circumstances, I might have been completely transparent with Dr. Patton and shared how much I thought Nala hated my guts and also how she challenged me almost every day. Not only that, how resistant she was to the use of cannabis as a treatment option, though that was no secret to anyone at this point. However, maybe it was my blind loyalty to her or maybe because I licked her pussy until she creamed in my mouth just 200 feet away from Dr. Patton’s office door—whatever it was—I didn’t want to reveal the tension or that I acknowledged it existed between Nala and me. Not yet.
“I think she’s still adapting to how we do things around here but that’s nothing a few more months with the team won’t help her with.”
“Maybe you could help her with it too,” she said. I thought of all the ways I wanted to help Nala adjust to me, but I knew that wasn’t what Dr. Patton was referring to.
“I’ll see what I can do on the trip.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “See that you do.”
I nodded and turned to go back to my office.
“Oh, and Dr. Booker…”
“Yes?”
“Use unconventional methods. That seems to help you make breakthroughs with your patients. Nala may need a bit of that too. Now get out of here and take advantage of the early dismissal like I’m going to do.”
Her smile held a hint of mischief that I wasn’t sure how to interpret. I went back to my office, but each step made me more upset at Nala’s reaction and my insistence to keep things peaceful with her when Dr. Patton was looking for the truth and it was anything but peaceful between us. My relationship with Dr. Patton had always been positive, and even though the rumor was I was her favorite, I happened to know she could go hard on me when I got hard on myself. Working in her clinic motivated me to help my community more than my previous job at the psych hospital so if anyone deserved to know what was up, it was her and yet I kept that to myself knowing it wouldn’t assist me with a twofold mission: help Nala see the benefit of working together with me and also the benefit of taking my dick.
Seriously though, even though I was serious as a muthafucka about that, Nala’s response made me feel as if I wasn’t valued in her eyes. But I needed to push that away as much as possible because first, she was an employee who needed me to help her feel welcome, and two, as I admitted earlier, I liked her. A lot.
Her office door was cracked when I approached it. I took a deep breath before pushing it open and finding her seated behind her desk.
“You didn’t have to seem so bothered by us going on this trip together.”
She looked up from her laptop and peered over the black-rim glasses she wore for computer work. I found it interesting that we both wore glasses at least for part of our day. Me for reading and her for her computer work but hers seemed to fit her perfectly and only make her more provocative which I’m sure she didn’t realize. Even now with her look of irritation, it was clear she was working at it and I didn’t care because I saw through it. God, she was gorgeous. So smart, so sexy, and irritating as fuck.
“Who said I was bothered?”
My laugh sounded brittle even to me. There was a part of this game we were playing that bothered me more than anything else. It was the denial aspect. We’d already been halfway down the road together which meant I knew her enough to know that her asking to not be the one to attend the conference with me and instead putting up Tricia as an option had everything to do with her conflicted feelings about us. That wasn’t debatable and yet that’s how she wanted to play it.
“Really? You want to play this game with me, Nala?”
“I’m not playing any games, Dr. Booker. I only wanted to know why she would want me to go of all people. Besides, you probably could think of a million reasons you don’t want me at this conference.”
I didn’t hesitate to respond. “Not one.”
She paused. Our eyes held for a moment, and I smiled to myself when I saw her succulent breasts rise with her deep breath. Yeah, she wasn’t ready, but she was getting there.
“Be that as it may,” she said curtly like we were strangers and not two people who enjoyed some evening delight in the closet down the hall, “if Dr. Patton wants me there, I’ll be there. That’s all there is to it.”
“Cool. So, there’s no problem?”
“None at all.”
For some reason, the lies coming from her pretty lips were beautiful to me. I let her have each one because they told me what she truly wanted. Me.
“Good. You should head out of here. It’s starting to get late, and Raheem had been told he could get off at four at the latest. You know he was happy about that, so he asked me if was I okay with locking up and I said yeah but I had no idea that you were still here.”
I gave her a hard glare which she of course ignored with a wave.
“That’s fine. I’ll be okay getting out of here like I always do.”
Was she crazy or stupid? It had to be one or the other.
“No, that’s not how this works. There’s a reason certain protocols are in place and you leaving before he leaves is important for ensuring your safety. We’ve been through this before, Nala. Don’t force me to report you for breaking protocol this time.”
She snatched her glasses off her face as if that would put me in my place. Woman, glasses on, glasses off, I’ll fuck that scowl off your face. That’s what I wanted to say but I didn’t. Whether she wanted it or not, she had to ask me for it. I wasn’t easy. Not anymore.
“Not you of all people, lecturing me on protocols.”
If I were being truthful, this push and pull between us never made sense. I liked her, period. But she treated me like I had done something wrong to her and I never had. Plenty of others got some of my worst behavior in the past, but she wasn’t one of them.
“What’s your problem?”
She stared back at me with an attitude that spoke volumes. A mix of lust and contempt peppered her beautiful face, and I could see the lust winning even as she held on for dear life to whatever grip she had on denying us what we both wanted.
She was infuriating and even so, I wanted to have her pinned against the wall, her desk, the floor even. Anywhere I could have my dick deeply inside her dripping wet pussy.
“I don’t have a problem. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some notes to finish.”