Well, fuck her.
“Dr. Myers!” Janet calls out to me in the parking lot, jogging up with her cup held away from her scoop-necked blouse and slacks. “Did I do something wrong?”
I whirl on her, because I am sick and tired of sleepless nights and missing Caden more every single fucking day.
“Don’t give me that fake innocence, Gilroy. I see you. I didn’t for a long time. You’re that good! But I’ve been paying close attention lately. Done some digging, too. You purposefully undermined Cocker’s chances since the two of you began in the program.” Her mouth opens to speak but I bite off the chance. “You were sneaking around and working with patients who were under Cocker’s care in order to beat him to the work, prescribe treatments—”
“It’s called winning!” she snaps, voice louder than I’ve ever heard it. “I want to be at the top!”
Getting in her face I hiss, “You don’t get there by walking on your team. You forced him to look over his shoulder when he should have been looking at his patients! You had your own! This is about the health of those people, not your damn career, which will be a lonely, failed one if you keep this shit up.”
Janet bursts away from me with quick strides to her car, so fast that coffee spurts out the tiny hole in its cap. She ignores it.
Normally I’d take a deep breath.
Calmly walk to my car.
Blare Mozart.
Go for a little Zen.
But fuck that.
Sometimes you must take a motherfucking stand.
I am literally running after her, hot liquid spurting onto my hand, too. “Gilroy!” I jump in front to block her path. “That is not how we run our hospital. If you wanted to prove yourself, you be an excellent doctor and your performance will take you up. Do you think I undermined people, snaked around the place to make them look bad, in order to get where I am? Because I can assure you, the idea never occurred to me!”
Janet’s glaring with fire in her nasty eyes. Stepping past me, she gets in her car. I watch as she drives away.
As I huff to my Audi, I’m grumbling aloud, “Under all those brains she’s stupid! Has she no concept of how success lasts? Of how to be happy?!!”
CHAPTER 34
ELIZABETH
T hree months after Caden left Atlanta Hope when I hear my phone vibrate with a text.
I no longer jump at these.
On Christmas I did.
On New Years Eve, I worked all night and tried not to hear the celebration. Pretty easy to do when the E.R. is packed with drunks on crazy behavior.
Now it’s mid-January when I dig the thing out as I’m walking to the OR, and read:
Liz, how ya doin’? Still like your handsome doctor or has that faded?
Rolling my eyes I type out a reply to Gwen with my thumb.
Not faded. How are you?
Fine. Busy. Life, work, same old.
Me too.
I’m asking because I think he might feel the same.
I stop cold, corridor humming around me. My reply is sent as soon as I regain the ability to function.
What makes you think that?
Staring at the phone, my heart is punching my ribs. She doesn’t reply right away. No help calming down until I hear, “Dr. Myers, we’re ready for you.”
I blink, and walk in to soap up. My phone vibrates on the shelf where I left it, but I can’t open the screen now. It’s not until after I sewed up the patient that I can read it. Working on that man steadied my hand and I’m calmer than I was when I finally peel off the gloves and walk back into the corridor, reading as I move up the hall.
The nurses have been after him. I was biting my nails wondering how to eventually tell you he’d become a slut—but that never happened. He’s snubbed every single one of them. Even Arya and she’s drop-dead gorgeous. One has to wonder why, right?
I freeze to re-read Gwen’s text. Give it one more skim as the tiniest seed of hope springs in my heart. Swallowing excitement I look around and blink at my second-home, the one that has not been the same since that smirk left.
CHAPTER 35
C ADEN
Dr. Rivera closes her locker. “Hey Cocker, some of us are grabbing beers over at Sweetwater.”
I blink at the name since one of our craft breweries in Atlanta shares the same. “Yeah?”
“You should come. You’re off shift tomorrow, right?”
“I am.” Blinking to my bag, I sling it over my shoulder. “Sure, yeah. I’m in.”
Happy I accepted, her eyes brighten.
Pinkett and Bowers exchange a look.
I guess they’ve been wondering if I’d ever come out with them.
Bowers says, “All work and no play,” as he zips up his jacket.
Locking eyes with me as he pulls on a fresh shirt, Pinkett agrees, “You’ve been acting like you’ve got something to prove.”
“I do.”
They drop it, returning to their easy conversation. The four of us walk out together and find two nurses waiting by the front door—and by their expectant faces and cute outfits, they’re coming with.
Even prettier in civilian clothes, Arya smiles upon realizing I’m with the group, but she plays it cool.
I’m no dummy.
I know she’s interested.
Her vibe has been unmistakable.
When I went home for the holidays, she was disappointed. When I stayed for New Years Eve and tried to lose myself in the work of the busiest time of the year, her shift magically got changed to that night and she was handing me tools.
As we all walk toward Michigan Avenue, she and her friend Cindy talk, but it’s distracted. They’re thinking about me. I keep my gaze ahead as I discuss the shift with the other doctors.
Rivera, Pinkett and Bowers had a boat accident today while I assisted a coronary artery bypass grafting.
These first three months have been invigorating where work is concerned. I’m learning a lot and there’s no Janet here to stress me
