My Sweetest Sasha: Cole's Story (Meadows Shore Book 2) (16 page)

“Alexa sit down. I have your final paycheck,” Chet sneered. “I’d hoped you’d have a long career with us.” He studied her with beady eyes over the rim of his unflattering glasses. “I think of myself as a fair man, so I’d like to give you the opportunity to change anything in your report that doesn’t seem correct on reflection.”

“There’s nothing I want change.”

“Fine, then.” He handed her the check … and then pulled it back just as she was about to take it. “The recommendation is tough. It’s going to cause us problems for a long time. Maybe you just want to change those few lines.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I see. It’s going to cost a lot of people money. It’s going to cost me money. But I can think of one or two things you could do for me that might urge me to let you keep your job. The kinds of things you did for Harrington.”

She stood and moved toward the door, never taking her eyes off him. He cornered her, but she wasn’t afraid, the outer offices were filled with people, all she had to do was scream and someone would come running.

Chet knew this too, but it didn’t stop him from shoving her head in the direction of his crotch. “If you know what I mean.”

She lifted her knee and made contact. Not enough to have him writhing on the floor, but enough to make him jump back. Then she did something that surprised her, even shocked her. She pulled her arm back and swung it with as much force as she could muster, leaving a red imprint on his cheek. It made her hand sting, but it was the first real sensation she’d experienced since Cole left her apartment that morning.

“You are predatory scum. I wouldn’t work for you if you were the last person on earth.” She grabbed her check, slamming the door behind her.

And for the first time, she left Chet’s office without feeling the need to shower.

* * *

It took less than fifteen minutes to clear out her office. She hadn’t been there long enough to accumulate much. She’d visit her family, and make a new plan for her life. She loved Boston, but there was nothing to keep her here, and she was sure there were other cities she’d love, too. She could go anywhere. Maybe Chicago. It was closer to home, and she could see Owen more often.

She picked up the birthday card Cole had given her, and shook her head. How foolish she’d been to think they had a chance. That they could defy the odds—odds that others hadn’t beaten. She thought about what Clarisse had confided in her. About how it felt when the man you loved, the one you’d made babies with, recoiled from your touch. Alexa slumped when she remembered how Cole had wrenched his hand away from her that morning. It wouldn’t have been any more painful if he’d slapped her.

She also thought about Sue Miller’s insight, or maybe it had been a warning: “
Divorce, drug abuse, suicide, neglected children, self-loathing, and loneliness, that’s the glitzy reality of a trauma surgeon’s life.”

There was also the small matter of their upbringing, and their backgrounds. They were so very different. She was lucky to get away from him while she still could. Yes, so very lucky, she told herself as she shut her office door behind her for the last time.

On her way out, she stopped by Marcia’s desk to say good-bye.

“You don’t need to leave your job here, you know. You didn’t do anything wrong,” the older woman said.

“I took this job because I needed the money, not because I loved the idea of working for Chet. My family’s situation is better, and I don’t need to put up with him anymore.”

“I’ve learned a few things in my lifetime. No one has a right to demand sex in exchange for anything. But at work, it’s against the law. I guess I don’t need to tell you that, though, you’re a lawyer.”

Alexa hesitated. “How do you know what happened in Chet’s office? The door was closed.”

“I have my ways,” she said tidying up her desk, before locking eyes with Alexa. Were you intimate with Dr. Harrington while you coached him?”

Alexa gasped. “No! … But I thought about it,” she confessed in a small voice, averting her eyes.

“Then why are you afraid to turn Chet in? Wanting to be intimate with someone is worlds different from being intimate with them. If they got rid of everyone around here who’d imagined lying naked with a coworker—heck if they got rid of everyone around here who imagined lying naked with Cole Harrington—there’d be no one left to turn out the lights.” Marcia reached for her.

“I’m going to miss you,” Alexa said letting the older woman draw her against her large bosom.

Marcia stroked her back. “I know it seems easier to walk away and put it all behind you, child, but it’ll come back to haunt you. Mark my words. If you let Chet get away with this, he’ll forever live on in your conscience. He’ll do it again, you know he will, and the next woman might have a bunch of mouths to feed, or she might not be as strong as you. He’s got a long career ahead of him, plenty of time to cause all sorts of damage. He’ll only get worse.”

* * *

After stopping by Human Resources to file a formal complaint against Chet, Alexa went to Cole’s office to see if she could catch him between cases, but he was in the operating room, and Sherrie didn’t know when he’d be back. While she sat in Human Resources, exposing Chet, it occurred to her that she’d behaved badly too.

She’d handled the assignment very poorly, and, in truth, she deserved to be fired. Not because she wouldn’t do Chet’s bidding, but because she’d allowed her professional boundaries to become flexible, even lax. Boundaries designed to prevent this very kind of problem. She needed to clear the air with Cole, ’fess up, so she could leave with some measure of integrity. She wanted closure and a modicum of dignity before she put Boston General behind her.

“You can go back there if you want,” Sherrie said.

She nodded.

Alexa went over to the conference table where she’d sat for six weeks. It made her heart ache to be in the room without him.
You deserve it
. She pulled a blank sheet of paper from the fax machine and sat down to bare her soul.

Dear Cole,

I’m sorry I missed you. You didn’t give me a chance to talk this morning, and there are some things I need to say, too. Although I didn’t intend for it to happen, I let my feelings for you get out of hand. Maybe you did lead me on, but I led myself on too.

I’m ashamed to admit this, but I took advantage of the situation, of you. You were vulnerable, and we were thrown together day and night—I should have been more aware, more careful. But I got so carried away in my own little fantasy world that I failed to recognize the situation for what it was. It was unprofessional of me. If I had set more rigid boundaries, it would have saved you the unpleasant task of coming to my apartment this morning, blaming yourself for something that was my fault. This is one responsibility you don’t need to shoulder—it’s all mine. I’m trained to know better. I know you hate it when I apologize, but I am sorry. So very sorry.

You’ve dedicated your life to taking care of everyone around you, to carrying everyone’s baggage—I hope with all my heart, with every part of my being, that someday you’ll meet someone who you’ll let take care of you. Someone who you trust to carry your bags.

Alexa

She dried her tears, and used the back of her sleeve to wipe the ones that had rolled off her chin onto the table. Alexa left the folded note on his chair where she knew he’d find it.

* * *

Cole got back to his office shortly after four-thirty. He’d thought about her all day. The lack of sleep had made him foggy and put him in a bad frame of mind that morning. He acted impulsively. Why had he gone to her apartment? What had he been thinking? There was no way he was letting her go. He was too much of a selfish prick for that.

He picked up the folded note from his chair and read it twice, propping himself up with a hand against the wall after the first time he read it. What she’d written sounded like a final good-bye.

Cole raced over to Risk Management, hoping to catch her before she left for the day. He tried her phone on his way over, but it went straight to voicemail. He lengthened his stride and made it across the hospital in record time.

“Hey, Dr. Harrington. You in trouble again?” asked Marcia.

“Not today, but it’s early still. I’m going back to say hello to Alexa.”

“She’s gone.”

“Maybe I’ll leave her a note.”

“She’s not coming back.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. “Do you mind if I go back to her office?”

“I don’t mind.”

He walked down the hall like a man headed for the gallows. Her office would be empty, and the emptiness would creep into his soul, saturating it with a darkness that only she’d been able to chase away. The light from her smile always lifted his mood. It filled his soul, nourishing him, until there was no room for sorrow. In that moment, he couldn’t imagine how he’d survive without her.

He held the doorknob longer than he needed to, knowing she’d been the last person to touch it, hoping somehow he would feel her warmth there, but the steel knob simply jutted from the door, cold and mocking, yielding no comfort.

The corner where he’d first seen her standing on her head was barren, and the few personal touches, like Owen’s picture, were gone. He thought he caught a lingering whiff of grapefruit in the air, but it was probably just his imagination taunting him.

He sat in her chair, needing to feel some connection to her. Even if it hadn’t been for his sheer stupidity that morning, he’d made it too easy for her to say good-bye. He was conflicted, and he’d moved too slowly. He should’ve made love to her at Meadows Shore—wholeheartedly accepted what she offered. Instead, he’d taken for granted that she’d be around, that there would be another time, a better time. A time when he had something more to offer her.

But there were no perfect moments in life. Timing was rarely ideal, and those who foolishly waited for elusive perfection were likely to be left with nothing, for life often intervened, snatching people and opportunities right out from under you. He was an idiot. Life had already taught him that lesson, but he’d disregarded it, tempted fate, and now she was gone.

He left her office dejected, with only himself to blame.

“She wasn’t here long, but I’m going to miss her too. That girl was like a ray of sunshine in my day, always finding the good in things,” said Marcia. “I can’t believe they fired her.”

“Fired? What? I don’t understand.”
God, he was an arrogant son-of-a-bitch, thinking she’d left just because of him.

“Probationary period, they don’t need a reason. But I’m thinking the report on you wasn’t to Chet’s liking.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“He gave her a chance to amend it, but she refused of course, because she’s not pond scum like him. He accused her of having an intimate relationship with you, but the words he used to describe it weren’t very loving. He even offered to let her keep her job if she’d use her mouth on him in an intimate way, and he didn’t use any loving words then, either. I think he may have put his hands on her, but I can’t be certain about that part.”

“Did she tell you that?” He wanted to put his hands on Chet and wring his neck, right after he pounded his face into the floor.

“No, she didn’t need to, I heard it myself. Apparently Chet doesn’t like you much, and his friend Donald Green doesn’t like you either.”

“Donald Green, the Chief Medical Officer?”

She nodded. “Said if they didn’t dirty you up, you’d be the next Chair of Surgery, and you’d be a bigger pain in the ass than Tom Hagel. Make their lives a living hell, maybe even cost them an end-of-year bonus or two. Imagine that! In all my time here, I’ve never heard of anyone being called a bigger pain in the ass than Tom.”

She looked up at him. “So whatcha gonna to do about it, my friend?”

“Before or after I strangle Chet? Is he in his office?”

“And what’s that going to accomplish?” She shook her head. “Not a darn thing, except get you into more trouble. You forget about Chet for now, and march yourself up to the president’s office. Tell him his CMO doesn’t like you, and was plotting with an asshat from Risk Management to bring you down. That he hates you so much he let a snake slither all over that nice little midwestern girl.” She shook her head.

“I’ve been at this hospital for more than fifty years. Started out as a candy striper … remember when we had those cute little girls dressed in their red and white pinafores?”

He nodded.

“I’m about to retire soon. I’ve been almost everywhere in this place, but I’ve never been in the president’s office. You tell him I heard everything, and I’d love to talk to him about it, you hear me? Might as well go out with a bang.”

Cole nodded, his brows furrowed. “How do you know all this?”

“You know that fancy new phone system they’re installing, the one everybody complains about being a waste of money?”

“Yeah.”

“Well it takes some getting used to, that’s why people don’t like it. And Chet isn’t a genius.” She wrinkled her nose and sniffed loudly. “He’s always haranguing me for one thing or another, but he forgets to disconnect the system when he hangs up. It doesn’t disconnect automatically like the old one. All I have to do is pick up the receiver and press this button, and I can hear everything in his office, clear as day. If he weren’t so busy trying to destroy people, he’d notice the light on his phone. I don’t listen all the time, don’t have time for that. I just listen when it seems important.”