“Yeah. It wasn’t just that he cheated on me. He had a wife and I was the one he was cheating on his wife with.”
“Oh. You’re going to have to explain that to me.”
“I didn’t know he was married,” she said. “I wouldn’t have even looked at him if I had. I worked second shift so we didn’t have a lot of time to see each other. I didn’t think anything of it that I never saw him much because I worked weekends too.”
She wasn’t going to admit he was another doctor. Wyatt didn’t need to know those facts. It was bad enough she was telling him what happened, but she figured he had a right to know why she was feeling the way she was.
“I can see where that might have been something. It seems to me he was good at keeping it a secret. But I’m not trying to keep anything about us a secret. That’s on you.”
She didn’t need to hear that either. “It’s not just that. You know as well as I do that there is the cliché of doctors and nurses. It’s as old as time. You’ve dated plenty yourself.”
“I get it,” he said. “It’s like a broken record. So no one is supposed to know about us at work yet my family all knows. Does your family? Is that why you asked if my mom said anything? That you don’t want them to know either?”
He sounded hurt and she didn’t want that. “My father knows. I told him tonight actually.”
“That’s something at least.”
“The funny thing is, that’s another problem. I’m close to my father. I tell him a lot. Yet I didn’t tell him this after I was at your family’s house this weekend. When he called I panicked that Maggie might have heard from your mom and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”
“Why didn’t you tell him before now?” he asked.
“I’d actually forgotten. He still travels with his job. We normally talk on the weekends, but I’ve been with you and having fun and my father and I have just been texting back and forth. It wasn’t until he called that I realized how long it’d been since we actually talked. He knew nothing about you. He asked what I’d been up to and worried I was doing all those activities alone.”
“So you felt forced to tell him you weren’t alone to not worry him?”
“No,” she said, knowing she hit a nerve and just wasn’t sure why or which one. “We are getting off the subject.”
“No, we aren’t,” he said. “This all goes together.”
“You’re right.”
“And there you are again telling me that. Maybe you should just start listening to me and stop fighting me so much,” he said, laughing.
“I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t fight back.”
“I’m beginning to suspect that.”
* * *
Wyatt was trying not to get upset over this conversation.
He called to make sure Adriana was okay after they’d left the closet.
He could have sat in that chair and held her all night. She’d even started to laugh at one point and said that her muscles felt like she’d been holding the downward dog for ten minutes straight by the time she was done. She’d thanked him and kissed him quickly, then tenderly.
He opened the door and looked around, saw no one was in the room, not that he expected that. Then he went to another door and unlocked that one, let her out the side, then he went out the main door. There was no one around either door.
Twenty minutes after that they’d both left.
He was honest with her that he’d never had a quickie at work before.
Had other women offered or hinted at wanting one? Absolutely.
But he’d always said no.
He never wanted the reputation of the doctor who didn’t take his responsibilities seriously.
He worked hard to get where he was.
He was respected by many in his field and colleagues alike.
Yet this little slip of a woman was making him lose his head like never before.
“I don’t try to be argumentative,” she said.
“But you can’t help yourself. Do you always need to be right?” he asked.
“If I always needed to be right I wouldn’t constantly be telling you that you are.”
He laughed. “Good point. So our parents know about us. I know you’re nervous and don’t want to be judged. What else is holding you back?”
“Nothing,” she said.
But he wasn’t so sure of that. It’s not that he felt she was lying to him, but just maybe not being so forthcoming with all the facts. Yet he couldn’t figure out for the life of him what he might be missing.
“And you still don’t want anyone at work to know.”
“I’m not going into work and announcing to everyone I saw Wyatt Fierce naked. I’d get all sorts of questions after that. I might even get some fan mail.”
“Not as many questions as you think,” he said, frowning, and was glad she couldn’t see his face.
“Enough. Didn’t I tell you that someone already made a comment to me that no one has ever been around you sweating outside of the bedroom?”
“Which is a total lie,” he said. “It’s not like all I did was go out to dinner or clubs with women.”
But he never did as much on a date as he did with Adriana.
“So what do you want?” she asked him.
“I don’t want you to go into work and announce it over the loudspeaker. That isn’t what I’m saying. Nor am I asking you to kiss me in the hallway or hold my hand. We aren’t in high school.”
“So you want to be able to talk and have lunch together if the situation arises?” she asked.
“Is that really so unreasonable of a thing to ask?”
“No,” she said. “It’s not. And I’m sorry if I’ve been difficult over this. It’s still fresh in my mind...my last relationship. Then what we did today. It just kind of brought it all back.”
“If I
