Don’t Fall for the Doctor by Lacey Bolt
Chapter 27
Ashley’s phone buzzed as she stepped onto the inpatient unit of the hospital. Her heart skipped a beat. She stopped midstep and dug through her purse until she found her phone. She bit her lip and tried to ignore the tingling in her chest.
She grabbed her phone and accepted the call without looking at the caller ID. Don’t sound too excited. Play it cool. Be calm.
“Hello?” She cringed. She didn’t even recognize her own voice.
“Ashley, I need you to come to work now. When can you be there?” Gwen’s voice bellowed out from her phone.
Her heart stopped fluttering. “I can’t work today.” She looked around the hallways. Was Gwen in the hospital?
“Ashley, I wouldn’t call you if I didn’t need you to work today. Cancel your plans if needed. Steve didn’t show up for work, and I don’t have anyone to cover his shift in the inpatient unit. Come to work today or I’ll consider this your two-week notice.”
Ashley’s hand started shaking. Could Gwen do this? Could she actually fire her over this? It wasn’t like she was on the schedule to work. She glanced around again. She could risk telling Gwen that she wasn’t coming to work, but she was already in the hospital, and there was no way to know if Gwen was also here. If she refused and then ran into Gwen on her way out of the hospital, there was no way she’d have a job tomorrow.
She squeezed her eyes closed and gritted her teeth. “I’m already here. I’ll start work in five minutes.”
“Fine.” Gwen hung up without even thanking Ashley for agreeing to work today.
There was only one thing left to do. Ashley opened up her texts on her phone.
Michael, I’m stuck at work today. I have to cancel our plans today. Sorry.
She waited a few minutes but there was no response.
* * *
Michael picked up his phone for the tenth time and started writing a text before deleting it, again. He should be glad that Ashley canceled their plans for that afternoon. That was what he wanted. He wanted the space and distance to focus on his work, not on her.
So why couldn’t he even think of a response to her text? Thanks for letting me know—too casual and cold. I’ll miss you, are you free tomorrow?—too strong, that would scare her away. When can I see you again? I’m dying for another kiss—too truthful and desperate.
This was his chance to mess things up with her. If he really couldn’t have a relationship, he could say something that would definitely scare her away, and then he could go back to his normal life, where he just focused on work and nothing else got in the way. Or, he could be a jerk and make her angry enough that she refused to give him another chance. But even thinking about that made him feel sick to his stomach.
Did men even spend this much time agonizing over what to text someone? He stood up and started pacing in his office. Since when did he have so much trouble figuring out how to communicate? He could sit in front of a patient and explain a complicated heart problem in basic terms, but he couldn’t figure out how to talk with the woman who had taken over his thoughts.
He walked over to his open office door and closed it firmly. If she was in the hospital today, he was not going to leave his office until he left for home. He wasn’t on-call this weekend, so there should be no reason for him to go into other parts of the hospital. He could stay in his office, do his work, and not run into Ashley.
He picked his phone up again and texted her. Ok. Last night was nice. I’ll call you later this week. It was a good text. Not too distant, but not committing to anything.
He turned off his phone and went back to his computer.
Hours later, he looked up from his work. The sunlight was fading. She must have left work by now. He left his phone on the desk and tightened the laces on his running shoes before leaving the office to race up and down the hospital stairs again.