No other man had ever worked that hard and maybe she should have acknowledged that sooner. That her defense mechanism for her embarrassment and broken heart needed to be removed. She needed to go back to the person she always was before.
That everything she’d heard about Wyatt might have been true with other people but it wasn’t true with their relationship. And that maybe he was changing for her so that she should do the same for him. If they cared enough for each other…and she knew she did.
“Hi.”
She turned to look at the woman standing there. She looked familiar but Adriana couldn’t place her. She saw enough people moving around here lately and she wasn’t always that good with names and faces.
“Hi,” she said back.
“You’re Wyatt’s girlfriend, right?”
Okay, here we go. “I am. And you are?”
“Stephanie Black. I work in his office.”
That was where she’d seen her before. Probably the woman that told people she’d been in Wyatt’s office twice. “That’s nice. A lot quieter than around here.”
“It is. Kind of boring too.”
She was wondering what Stephanie wanted to say to her, but she knew it was something. It’s not like the woman looked to be someone Wyatt would date as she was probably in her forties and a little frumpy on top of it. If the woman took the stairs to her desk every day, it might be the most exercise she got by the looks of it.
“Was there something you wanted to say or ask?” she asked. Why not? The woman would at least go back and tell Wyatt and then he’d know she wasn’t hiding it anymore. He’d be thrilled she was opening up and the truth was it felt pretty freeing.
“Actually, I’d like to apologize to you. I was hoping if I did that you’d let Dr. Fierce know. Wyatt.”
“Apologize for what?” she asked. Her sandwich was handed over and she moved to the end of the line to grab some chips, a water, and pay.
Stephanie followed along and just picked up a premade salad. “Can we talk at a table or are you meeting Wyatt?”
“We can talk. He’s in surgery, I’m assuming. I don’t know his schedule.”
“I do. I mean I see it. He’s probably still in surgery.”
They both paid and she walked outside to eat. She wasn’t in the mood to sit in the cafeteria where others could hear. Saying she was dating Wyatt was one thing, letting others overhear a conversation she wasn’t sure the context of was another.
She found a bench under the tree and sat. “So what is on your mind? What do you feel the need to apologize for?”
Stephanie put her salad in her lap and opened the container. “I might have said in passing to a few people before that you’d been in Wyatt’s office months ago. And since then, others would come and ask if I knew more of what is going on.”
“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” she said. “He’s just one man.”
“Come on. I may be married but even I know he’s one hell of a guy to look at. He’s funny. He’s sweet. He makes people feel good. What woman wouldn’t want that in her life?”
“Obviously a lot of them,” she said, taking a bite of her sandwich.
“Yes. Well, he has a reputation but he is a great guy. Anyway, he overheard a nurse that had come up to the floor asking me questions and talking. I should have minded my own business and I didn’t. I tend to get pulled into the grapevine as if I’m ready to open a winery.”
She smiled. “I think most people are like that around here.”
“Yeah. Anyway, I’ve never seen Wyatt like that before. He wasn’t mad, but he wasn’t his normal self. You could tell he was annoyed and bothered and not much bothers him or annoys him. I even called him Dr. Fierce because I was so rattled and he didn’t laugh and correct me like he always does to people.”
Interesting. This obviously went back to their fight. When he told her he’d never fought with another woman before because he wasn’t with one long enough. It wasn’t just lip service by the sounds of it.
She hadn’t wanted to believe he was trying to pull one over on her saying that and it was nice to know that he was honest.
Her trust in men had been shattered, but Wyatt seemed to be helping to glue the pieces back together.
“What do you want me to do? I don’t understand.”
“If you could tell him that I sought you out and apologized, maybe he’d go back to the way he was before.”
“And how was that?” she asked.
“Laughing. Joking. Smiling. He does it with some people in the office still, but not me. He just kind of nods his head and walks by now.”
“It sounds like you need to apologize to him and not me,” she said, standing up. “I appreciate you telling me this, and that you had a part in it, but I’m not so sure I’ve got that much control over him as you seem to think I do.”
“Are you kidding me,” Stephanie said. “It’s not just that you’ve held onto him this long, it’s that you are so different than the type he normally dated.”
This time she had no control and found herself asking, “Different how?”
“Most are bragging they are with him and you’ve kept quiet until now. I mean I asked you directly and you said yes. Wyatt even said that. If I wanted to know something to ask him directly. I figured I could do the same with you. But it wasn’t just that. Everyone else has always been ditzy. Or superficial. You aren’t.”
“No,” she said. “I’m nothing like that at all.”
She walked away not only because she had to get back to work but also because her conversation with Stephanie gave her a lot more to think about.
When she got back to her floor she was waiting for
