I walked into my OR to find the surgical team streamlining their work to perfection as usual. Dr. Chi was my attending, and today we had a scheduled bypass that shouldn’t keep me, the patient, or his family, waiting for long. The patient was healthy and had followed all my diet and pre-op plans perfectly. All of the monitors were displaying precisely what I wanted to see, and after going over Mr. Knox’s charts, I couldn’t find an issue with anything. All the x-rays, exams, and bloodwork came out nicely, and now it was time to clear up these arteries and get this man safely into recovery.
“I see Jen has you hooked up to the good stuff, Rick.” I smiled over at his nervous expression. “Thank God you showed up, or you’d be missing out on it.”
He smiled as most of my patients did once I worked to loosen them up in such an awkward environment. “Good to see you again, Doc,” he said in a slur.
“Dr. Mitchell, Mr. Knox,” the anesthesiologist acknowledged us both. “We’re on the countdown.”
“Best part,” I assured him. “Get some rest, and I’ll get to work. We’ll see you in a bit, Mr. Knox.”
While the anesthesiologist team worked to assure Mr. Knox was under, I walked over to my team. “Doctor, the patient is ready, and all vitals are looking great,” my charge nurse, Patty, informed me.
“Great job, team. Now for the most challenging part of the operation,” I started while going over the surgical tools I’d be using, ensuring everything was placed in the order I preferred. “Who’s picking the music? It’s my turn, isn’t it?”
Everyone in the room chuckled, especially the interns who were learning that I ran a clean surgical room, but also had peculiar rules I enforced.
“I believe it finally is your turn, Jake,” my attending said, feigning annoyance.
“Better than your—” I paused, “What the hell is it you listen to?”
Dr. Chi was working on his side of the patient’s prep. “If you don’t appreciate my jams, Jake, then you don’t deserve to know what it is.”
I rolled my eyes. “All right, my phone is hooked up to the room. We’re letting James Hetfield sing us through this surgery.”
“Metallica?” I heard a male voice ask from behind me.
“The new intern has yet to learn what keeps me motivated while I stand over a patient for four hours,” I said, placing my scalpel and nodding toward Dr. Chi for confirmation of beginning the operation.
“I love the band, Doctor,” he added, to which I smiled while going to work. “I was just curious as to why a metal band while performing surgery.”
“Chi, care to inform the new intern how my OR works?”
“I think he’ll catch on.”
The music started, and my mind focused solely on the heart that needed repairs. Chi and I worked flawlessly as a team. Truth be told, I was shocked when he bowed out of being Chief of Cardiology. The man was the best, and he was the only man I’d trust to cut me open and take care of business if I were ever in a situation to require it.
“I need procedure time in, please?” I asked for the time, knowing I was prepping to closed up, and Mr. Knox would be in recovery in less than an hour.
“Three hours, Dr. Mitchell,” one of the interns informed me.
“No calls out to the waiting room today, folks. Mr. Knox is almost buttoned up and good to go.”
Two hours after surgery, I glanced up at the clock from my office desk. I had to text Ash before I completely forgot to inform her about my prior engagements.
Jake: Hey angel, I have to meet up with the guys tonight. Going over business shit with Jim. You want to meet up at the hotel, or will you finally let me fuck you in that house?
I smiled at the one dumb fantasy I had because I knew it was off-limits. It’d only been a few days since Ash blew my mind surfing, and I couldn’t get enough of her. Every night, we’d met at the hotel, and I wasn’t playing the boyfriend’s hanging out at my house shit this week. I was in a constant state of craving more than just sitting next to my girl on the couch. I longed for her closeness and was seriously considering fixing these living arrangements. Damn hotel and the elevators were getting old.
Ash: I’m still at work with a last-minute client. You can head over to the house, and no, we’re not having sex in the bedroom or the backyard.
Jake: What happened to my daring girl?
Ash: She has brains and knows her dad. Text or call when you’re done. I’ll be home late anyway.
Jake: One day, I’m getting my way with this.
Ash didn’t respond, but it was fine. I knew what expression she wore, and I was hornier than hell for her now. When she was all business and shit with me, was a total turn on—that combined with her sexy eyebrow arch, and it was over. I had to pull it together and get over to Kinder’s to meet up with the guys. I needed a scotch anyway. It was the perfect way to loosen me up so I didn’t attack Ash when I walked into her house tonight.
A knock at my door pulled me out of my thoughts about tonight. “Come in,” I said, finishing up packing my bag.
“Doctor, do you have a minute?” one of the interns who was placed on my surgical team last week asked.
“Elizabeth?” I said, glancing at her scrubs for her name. “What brings you to my office?” I asked, concerned by her expression.
The petite blonde’s face was dangerously familiar to me. Shit, she was at the party on the yacht. What the hell is she in my office for?
She ran her hand over her swollen abdomen, her small frame revealing she was pregnant. “We need to talk. I didn’t know how and when to approach you with this, but after being transferred onto your team, and you obviously not remembering me, I knew this all would be difficult.”
“What would be difficult?” My heart was beating wildly out of control as the beautiful woman who approached my desk sat down as if she’d already had me by the balls. “I’m not sure I’m following. I’m a direct person, Elizabeth; please just tell me why you are here.”
“You might remember me from the club close to five months ago?” She continued to massage her stomach, and I was now going to lose everything in my stomach. “Liz? Don’t you remember that night?”
I felt the blood leave my face. I wasn’t a fucking idiot. She was here to tell me she was pregnant with my child. What the fuck was happening?
“You told me to call you Mitch—”
I held my hand up. “Stop,” I said in a low whisper. “Why. Are. You. Here?” I questioned curtly and wanting her just to come out and make her claim and completely fuck up my life.
“Well, if it helps, I first met you when you spoke in San Francisco as our keynote speaker.” She smiled while I remained paralyzed, my memories returning to the night I fucked this chick after I saw Ash again for the first time since San Francisco. This person was just another woman I’d fucked to get Ash out of my head, and now, she was most likely here to pull Ash out of my life. “I’ve followed the news,” she shyly spoke. “I was more than a little shocked when I saw that one of my childhood best friends, Ashley, was—well, as the media is stating, the woman—”
“Ashley and I are in a serious relationship,” I said, my voice lethal as I listened to this woman relate herself to Ash. “If you have a point, I need you to get to it immediately.”
“The night after we went back to your place, do you remember any of it?”
“It’s all slowly coming back to me,” I spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m sorry if I treated you insensitively; I’m no longer that man. I also can assure you that if I knew you were anything closely related to working with me, I would not—even in a drunken state—have taken you home and had a relationship of any kind with you.”
“I’m pregnant with your baby,” she said, tears spilling down her cheeks.
My lips were parched, and my tie was suddenly a noose around my neck. I gathered myself to speak. “I’m going to be as polite as I possibly can, given it’s been five months since I made the mistake of taking anyone back to my place. Five damn months since I learned quickly that I needed to end that ridiculous life, and you want to come in here out of the blue and say that I’m the father of the child you are carrying?”
“Your decision to change your lifestyle doesn’t change this. I didn’t know how to tell you. It’s why I requested to be on your surgical team. I felt if you and I got to work together and know each other, you’d accept the news better.”
What kind of demented human being thinks like this? And she wants to be a heart surgeon? My career, her career, my fucking life—everything hung onto the way I responded to this woman alone and in my office.
“I can assure you that was not the best way to go about informing me of this.” I stood and motioned for her to as well. I needed her out of my office, and Jim’s little meeting was about to become an entirely different discussion tonight. “We were together once, and we used protection. I just—I can’t do this right now. I must request that you are moved off my surgical team and over to another hospital for your internship. I do hope you also understand that lawyers will be involved, and I cannot discuss anything further with you regarding this matter. I—yeah. I can’t do this.”
“You don’t remember that night or me,” she seethed. “If you did, you would know that you didn’t use protection. I don’t blame you for that because I was a willing party. Safe sex or not, I wanted it too, but because of that, I’m pregnant. This is your baby, and all I have to say is that you are such an asshole.”
“Call me what you want. Believe what you want. I remember that night. I have never had unprotected sex with anyone. You might want to go through your memories to ensure it wasn’t someone else. I will need paternity tests run, and I will also put your reasons for transferring onto my surgical team on record. Right now, I must ask you to leave my office. My lawyers will be in touch with you to discuss this matter further.”
She stood, gave me the darkest look she could muster, and then I watched as she stormed out of my office like a spoiled child—not a broken woman who should have reacted so much differently if the man she believed was the father of her child spoke to her like this.
I leaned against my desk, gripping it tightly and breathing long slow breaths, trying to calm everything in my body down. What the fuck did I do now? Was she really Ash’s friend? What could be the fucking chances?
I calmly and lethally stared at my phone. “Call Jim,” I ordered the phone.
“What’s up, Jakey?” he asked.
“My life is fucked,” I answered. “We need to talk serious shit tonight. Find a different place, a quiet place. I’ll go to your fucking house. I’m in no condition to be in public.”
“Jake,” Jim’s voice was riddled with concern. “Slow down. What the hell happened? Is it Ash?”
“It’s worse than that,” I said with some whine in my voice I never knew I had.
“Okay. What happened?” Jim maintained his calm authority. “It’s Jake. We’re heading to my house. Close the tab, Collin,” I heard him say, the men already at the club.
“Some chick I took back to my place before Ash and I got together…” I was being brought to my knees in fear as I was saying it all out loud. “Fuck, Jim, it’s one of Ash’s friends. The crazy bitch transferred to my surgical team last week to get to know me better. She was on my goddamn yacht—”
“We’re on the way to my place, get your ass over there,” Jim said.
“She’s claiming I’m the father of her kid,” I finally said, wanting to collapse at the sound of my words.
“All right, then,” Jim said, always fucking chill even if a bomb blew up in his face. “We’ll talk about this at my place. Calm the fuck down, or I’m sending you a driver.” He paused. “Jake, can you drive?”
“I can drive,” I answered.
“Okay, traffic is a bitch, so take side streets, and I’ll see you in thirty. Are you going to talk to Ash about this?”
“Not until I know it’s fucking true.”
“Good point. Get to the house. I sort of wondered if this shit would pop up with all the media. It may be a false claim.”
“It is a goddamn false claim,” I snapped.
“All right. Get your ass out of there, and we’ll talk about it when you get to the house.”
