They saw him and stopped, then changed the subject way too fast, making it obvious he was the topic of conversation. “Ladies. Anything you want to ask me?”
He wasn’t one to put people on the spot, but now he was really starting to understand why Adriana wanted to keep this private between them.
In the past few weeks they’d had lunch a few times, once in the cafeteria, the other times walking around and talking.
They’d never held hands. They’d never talked about plans outside of work where other people were around. They’d never kissed.
And she sure the hell hadn’t come to his office again after being confronted over being in it twice before.
It didn’t matter, everything she wanted to prevent was happening anyway and it was the first time in his life he was really feeling that his behavior was causing him to be judged in a way he couldn’t control or change.
He felt the need to defend not only her but also himself.
“No, we’re good,” the nurse said. She’d flirted with him plenty and he hadn’t been interested. He didn’t take out every woman that sent a smile his way and he was learning that was where a lot of the cattiness came from.
“I think you’re more curious than you should be. If you want to know, just ask.”
“Are you seeing Adriana Lopez?” Stephanie asked him. She was more upfront at least, but he’d worked with her a few years.
“Does it matter if I am? It seems regardless of the answer I give you two, you’re going to form your own opinion and talk about it when I’m not around.”
He kept his smile in place when he really wanted it to fall. When he wanted to get mad and be firm. Maybe that was what he should do, but then wouldn’t it give them more food to chomp away at and get stuck in their teeth? For once he wasn’t sure of the right thing to do and didn’t want to tick Adriana off either.
“You’re right, Dr. Fierce,” Stephanie said. She didn’t normally call him Dr. Fierce either, which told him he got his point across.
He left the office for the day. He was done and needed to just get away from the gossip and shit that he never paid attention to before. Or if he did, it never bothered him in the past.
Instead of going home he drove to see Drake. He didn’t often go to his father’s business. He normally didn’t get out of work on time. But today he wasn’t scheduled late and he was leaving.
“Hey,” Drake said. “What brings you here? In your scrubs too. Normally you shower and change before you leave.”
Shit. He’d been so ticked off over what he’d heard that he hadn’t thought straight and just walked out the door before going to the locker room to shower and change. His clothes were still in his locker.
“I guess I’m distracted. I’m glad I caught you, as I know you aren’t normally here. I would have been stuck talking to Jade then. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Of course,” Drake said. “Shut my door and come in.” He was rubbing his hands together. “I feel like you’re coming to the big brother for some advice. This might be a first from you.”
“It probably is. I normally have everything covered in life.”
“Or you don’t care enough if you don’t,” Drake said. “So my guess is this has to do with your new girlfriend.”
“Yeah. Help me out here. You work with Kara. How do you do it? Or how did you do it before everyone found out?”
“That I can kind of help you with. But the truth is, if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll call Kara in so she can give it to you from a woman’s perspective.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Let me hear it from you first.”
“It’s easier for a guy. Or it was for me. First off, I didn’t care if people knew. I knew what I felt for her whether she wanted to admit it to anyone or herself. But this is my family firm and no one was going to say shit to me about it. Or give me shit. You don’t have that luxury.”
“No. But I’m not worried either. It’s not like that. I’m not doing anything to jeopardize my or her job. I’d never do that and neither would she.”
He pushed it away from his mind the one time they’d had sex in the call room. They were just waiting around to be officially dismissed. No worries and no one they needed to be looking after, nothing they had to be doing. They could have been napping just the same.
“I know that. I think that with her too,” Drake said. “So what happened today to have you distracted when you normally aren’t?”
“She doesn’t want anyone at work to know we are dating. If I count back from when I started to show her around—which she did admit was really dating—then it’s been almost two months. She wants it quiet but we do walk around the grounds on lunch if we have a break together. If we see each other we talk but nothing about plans outside of work. No personal contact at all. That is off limits.”
Drake laughed. “Sounds just like Kara. Remember, women are judged more harshly than men when it comes to workplace romances. Especially with your reputation, which I’m willing to bet she has heard brought up a time or two.”
“She has. And when I was leaving my office to shower and go home I overheard two women talking about Adriana and me. They didn’t use our names, but I know it was us. I confronted them and the one actually asked me if we were dating.”
“What did you say?”
“That it didn’t matter what my response was, that I’m sure they were going to say what they wanted about it anyway.”
“Wow. Even with
