The Doctor Who Has No Closure - Victoria Quinn Page 0,96
walked into his office, like I always did, to go over the patients coming in and his schedule for the rest of the day.
He sat behind his desk, already looking at the scans for his first patient of the day.
I approached his desk until I stood in front of it, holding my notebook. “I rescheduled those follow-up calls for after our last appointment of the day…if that’s okay.”
He kept his eyes on the screen. “That’s fine.”
“Dr. Frankworth called a couple times. Wants you to give him a call back when you get a chance. I told him you were busy and that phone call probably wouldn’t happen until after hours.”
He shifted his fingers to his keyboard and made some notes on the patient’s chart. “I’ll get to it when I get to it.”
“Alright. And then—”
He turned back to the scans, not once making eye contact.
“Dex?”
He ignored me.
“I’m sorry…did I do something?”
“No.”
I was getting really fed up with his behavior, especially when he didn’t give me the courtesy of an explanation. “Then can you explain to me why you’re being the biggest asshole on the planet?”
That got his attention. He shifted his gaze to me and looked at me for the first time.
I knew I should tread carefully, but my anger was getting the best of me. I’d gone out of my way to care for him yesterday, and he’d chosen to treat me like a fucking dog. He’d never been that cruel to me, not even when we first started to work together.
“It’s not you.” That was all he said, as if that were a sufficient answer.
“Then tell me what’s wrong—”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we have a full roster of patients to see today, follow-up appointments we have to squeeze in because I was unavailable yesterday, so I don’t have the time or the headspace to deal with this shit. Do your job. Or is that too goddamn hard for you?”
I stepped back like a gust of wind hit me in the face. “Is it too goddamn hard for you not to treat me like shit? Fuck off, Dex.” I walked to the door, unable to keep my emotions under control. I gave him a look over my shoulder before I stormed out. “I’m sorry about whatever happened to make you behave this way, and I know it’s not the real you, but don’t expect me to put up with it. Because I won’t.”
We worked through the day, and I could see Dex was a little different was his patients. He was attentive and comforting, but he didn’t have that extra little quality that made him stand out from the rest. Whatever was eating at him was still gnawing at his insides.
When his last patient was done, he had his virtual follow-ups with patients, called about everyone on the call sheet, and by the time he was finished, it was almost seven in the evening. I got him dinner even though he should have been finished with the day and set it on his desk.
He didn’t look at me or say thank you.
I would normally wait until he was finished for the day before I left, but I wasn’t going to sit around when he didn’t even want me there. I could have found something else to work on, but I didn’t want to be in his presence any more than he wanted to be in mine. I grabbed my purse and coat and prepared to leave.
He left his office and walked out in his hoodie and jeans, his satchel over his shoulder.
Ugh, bad timing.
He didn’t walk right past like I assumed he would. He stopped in front of my desk and looked at me.
I came around the desk and stepped into the lobby. But instead of giving him my full attention like he silently commanded, I just walked off to the elevator.
“Sicily.” He didn’t come after me. He stood his ground and waited in the lobby.
I should have just walked away because he didn’t deserve my attention, but even at my angriest, I couldn’t just ignore him. I turned back around and walked up to him, staring him down furiously, expecting an apology to fly out of his mouth before anything else did.
He stared at me for a while before he spoke. “I’m sorry.”
“Better be.” I gripped the strap of my bag, still fuming on the inside.
“You didn’t deserve to be treated that way, regardless of my problems, and I am sorry.”