Destroy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (28 page)

I had to agree with
Tiffany. “Yes, I can see him doing that. He actually phoned my brother–or he
got Eliot on the phone when he called the house–and asked if I was there. Eliot
told him that I would be spending the weekend at home. In fact, I was glad Jeff
had my brother on the other end of the line. He knew then that I would not be
easily accessible. Besides, if he had gotten my mom on the phone, she would
have invited him to come over, for sure.”

“But where did he get
your Omaha number do you think?”

“Probably from the admin
office where they keep the next-of-kin’s numbers and addresses in file.”

“He’s worse than a
stalker, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know about ‘worse
than’ one, but he’s certainly on the verge of stalking me. He’s persistent;
I’ll say that for him.”

“Did he phone again while
you were there?”

“Oh yes. Again, he got
Eliot on the line. But I talked to him and told him that I’ll see him on Monday
when he offered to pick me up at the airport.”

“Yes, I’d say he’s
becoming a real bother,” Tiffany concluded as she continued eating.

Jeff wasn’t moving on, he
was running on the spot and I didn’t like it, because it prevented me from concentrating
on my career or even my personal life.

On Monday morning, Jeff
was waiting for me in the park across from the hospital. Tiffany was with me.
As soon as she saw him, she told me that she’d see me at home tonight, even
though we had agreed to meet at the bar around the corner from the hospital
after work.

“Hey you,” I said to Jeff
as I neared him. “How was the weekend?”

“Don’t ask. I didn’t know
where you had gone. I thought you had given up on me.”

This was not what I
wanted to hear. His possessive trait was showing. Not good! “Well, as you can
see, I didn’t. I wanted to go and see my father. I needed to get away for the
weekend. That’s all.”

“Why didn’t you say
anything?”

“I told you why on the
phone, Jeff. I don’t have to account for my movements to anyone. If I decide to
leave on the spur of the moment, I will only tell you if my departure should
concern you in any way. Otherwise, you won’t hear from me.”

“Is that all I am to you?
Just a passing fancy? Someone to have sex with whenever you please?”

He was going too far. I
glared at him and marched away from him. He caught up with me and grabbed my
arm. I stopped and said, “Let go of me, Jeff. The day you’ll start acting your
age and the day you’ll decide to change your marital situation, then we can
talk. Before that, stay away from me!”

He released my arm but
didn’t say anything. I was as mad as a hatter. I hated to have harsh words with
anyone, but Jeff was getting a little too much for me. As I strode to the
hospital’s entrance, I saw Corey and Tiffany waiting for me in the foyer.

“If you ever wanted a
helping hand to get the message across to that overbearing jerk, please don’t
hesitate to call on us,” Corey declared.

I immediately thought of
John and Eliot. I shook my head and smiled. “Thanks, Corey, but I think all Dr.
Aldridge needs is to get his act together. He’s lost a son.”

“You mean it was his
kid?” Corey looked shocked.

“Yes, it was his son.
That’s why he’s all over the place. He’s trying to move on, but I don’t think
he’s doing it the right way.”

“If he would stay away
from Hattie, he would gain a lot of ground,” Tiffany remarked.

At that same moment, I
turned my head slightly to see Jeff come through the main doors. “Come on,
guys,” I said, “Let’s get upstairs before Dr. Kerry lists us as missing in
action.”

With a giggle and a chuckle,
we rushed into the first elevator just as its doors closed on Jeff.

“Well done!” Corey said
out loud, addressing the Elevator God. “Just in time. Perfect.”

Tiffany and I had to
smile. Corey was truly a sweetheart.

Throughout the day,
Elizabeth and I hardly spoke except when we needed to discuss a patient’s
condition or an upcoming surgical procedure. I thought I saw her dab her eyes a
couple of times when she thought I wasn’t looking. The poor woman; she was
broken hearted. I truly felt bad for her. I kept recalling how I felt when the
little boy died in my arms.
And she’s
carrying a similar picture in her mind day in and day out,
I mused. And
now, she’s losing the only person who could have made it all better for her. It
was truly a tragic situation for both of them.

When seven o’clock came
around, I could hardly believe it was that late. Lunch had even gone unnoticed.
We had to do a complete prep on a new patient. He was to receive a new liver in
the next couple of days and since he wasn’t an in-patient, we had to give him
our full attention throughout the tests. Next, one of the ER doctors called to
have us attend a surgery on an organ-donor patient who had died from a fall on
a construction site.

I had never done that
sort of organ extraction before. This was an exceptional case. We had to rush
the patient down to the dungeon and call on Jeff to assist in the procedure.
Frankly, it was a little uncomfortable to find the three of us working in such
close quarters. Yet, I managed to divorce my mind from those incongruous
thoughts and concentrate on the job in hand. Sending the organs to various
hospitals was a job in itself. We had a helicopter waiting on the roof to take
the man’s heart all the way to New York, while all of the other vital organs
were dispatched to other facilities in Washington, D.C.

In short, it had been a
long day. But I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to join my colleagues at the
bar as we planned.

They were all sitting
around a couple of tables, already drinking their second beer by the looks of
things, when I pushed the door of
Hostel
open. As soon as my butt hit the chair, Corey was up. “Glass of red, my lady?”
he asked.

“Yes, please!” I said–I
think for all the bar to hear.

As I looked around, I
immediately recall our little sexual interlude when Jeff and I spend some
twenty minutes in the washroom making love. The incident seemed to have
occurred so long ago.

“Here you go, Dr.
Williams,” Corey said, as he deposited a large glass of red in front of me;
taking me out of my reverie instantly.

Of course, the
conversation soon veered onto the subject of our organ extraction procedure.
Tiffany wanted to hear all about it.

“You know, when Dr.
Roberts came back from the dungeon, he said that it was mind-boggling. He said
that you and the two Aldridge’s had been working so well together that it would
have been worth making a video out of it.”

“It didn’t feel that way,
I bet,” Gerald suggested.

“It must have been
difficult for three surgeons to work on tandem like that,” Lisa, another intern
noted.

“I don’t know,” I said.
“You remember when you guys watched me obeying Dr. Elizabeth Aldridge the other
day? Well, it was a good thing that she put me through that little exercise,
because today, I knew exactly what she wanted me to do and when. We actually
didn’t much care for what Dr. Jeff was doing across the table. He was doing his
own thing. But, he was not missing a beat either.”

“How are those two doing,
anyone knows?” Gerald asked, his eyes traveling around the tables.

“Yeah, there are rumors
floating about the place that they had a fight the other night. You heard about
that?”

All eyes were on me.

“Yes, I have. I was right
outside the locker room door when they were having that famous argument. They
have lost a son and it’s hard for both of them to find a way to cope with the
loss.” And that was all I wanted to say on the subject. I couldn’t give them
any more explanation than that. Nor did I want to put my private life under my
colleague’s scrutiny.

Corey was good enough to
change the subject by relating a story of what happened to him that weekend. He
had gone skating with some friends when a girl literally fell into his arms.
They both tumbled to the ground and had a good laugh, which led to Corey asking
her on a date. He passed his phone around for us to see what the lady looked
like. She was a knockout! Truly, Corey hit the mark (or was it “the ice”?) with
that one.

As we were talking,
Tiffany pulled on my sleeve and jutted her chin to the door. Jeff came in and
sat at the bar. I raised my gaze to the ceiling. Fortunately, my companions
hadn’t noticed him.

Obviously, he had seen
me, although I had my back to him as he came in. A few minutes later, and not
to make it too obvious to my friends, I got up under the pretext of getting
another drink for Tiffany, Corey, and me. Lisa told me that she wouldn’t have
another one. “Two’s my limit,” she said, giggling, “Otherwise, I’ll be nursing
a hangover for the whole day tomorrow.”

As I walked to the bar,
Jeff got off his stool. For a moment, I thought he was going to leave. But no,
he went to the jukebox and slipped a couple of coins in the slot. The song that
came on was a 70’s tune–typical disco.

When he returned to the
bar, Corey was beside me. “Let me take those to the table,” he said. I nodded
and took my glass of wine.

I was about to turn
around and follow Corey when Jeff tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Would
you like to dance, Dr. Williams?”

Good
God,
I thought,
the
guy is not giving up, is he?

“Alright, just the one
dance, yes, why not,” I said, putting my glass down and taking his extended hand.
Of course, Corey led my friends in a round of applause as they watched us take
the first steps on the dance floor.

Corey,
you’re going to pay for this!
I said to myself as Jeff
and I began dancing. He was a fantastic dancer. I am not bad myself, but could
he ever lead? Wow! I was all too impressed.

But the gleefulness of a
few moves disappeared swiftly when Dr. Elizabeth Aldridge walked into the bar.
As soon as Jeff turned and saw her, he brought me close to him and kissed me. I
tried moving away but he had me firmly wrapped in his arms. There was no way I
was going anywhere.

From the corner of my
eye, I saw Elizabeth stare at the two of us. I felt my cheeks burn with shame
and alarm. I pushed Jeff away from me and glared at him. I then strode to the
table, grabbed my coat and bag, and marched out of the pub without a word to
anyone.

Elizabeth had already
gone. I saw her car speed down the street toward the next intersection. I
watched her, hoping she would stop for the red light. I exhaled a sigh of
relief when she did. When I was sure she was on her way home, I turned around
and made my way across the street to walk through the park. Of course, Jeff was
right behind me.

“I don’t want to speak to
you or hear a word from you,” I yelled at him as I turned my head to him.

He caught up with me.
“Please, Heather,” he pleaded, grabbing my arm. “I had to do what I did.”

“You what?” I stopped.
“Are you saying
you had to humiliate me
in front of my colleagues and friends?
” I was flabbergasted. “Of all the nerve!”

“Well, it’s true. And I
am sorry.”

“Is that all you’ve got
to say? I don’t believe this! How could you?”

“I had to do it, Heather.
Elizabeth told me I wouldn’t have the guts to make our affair public. She said
I was a coward and a liar.”

“And you chose tonight,
in front of
MY
friends, to
demonstrate how wrong she was? You’re incredible!”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated
quietly.

“You know, Jeff, in my
eyes you’re not even a coward or a liar, you’re an idiot! You want everyone’s
admiration and praises for everything you do, but all you manage to obtain is
their spite and disgust. It’s not what you do that’s disgusting, but how you do
it.

“If Elizabeth dared you
to make our affair public, why didn’t you do it in a manner that inspired
respect for me and for you? My friends will have no respect for you. They will
think the same as I do; that you’re a fool for treating your wife the way you
do and for treating me with similar contempt.”

“Okay, I said I’m sorry.
I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how you would react. This morning you
told me that until I resolve my marital situation, you wouldn’t talk to me. So,
I just had to force the issue–that’s all.”

“You were caught between
a rock and a hard place; is that what you’re saying?”

“Just about, yes.”

“Okay, I’ll accept that.
I even understand what you tried to do. But you’ve hurt your wife to the point
of no return now. Do you realize that?”

“I didn’t want to do it.
You know that as well as I do. But she pushed me into a corner and I bucked.”

“Again, I understand what
you’re saying, Jeff, but you need to understand what I am going to ask next: I
do not want to talk to you for as long as you’re not divorced. I will not mind
working with you, but once we come through the doors of that hospital, you go
your way and I go mine.”