“Exactly what I just said,” Dana reiterated. “Apparently you touched someone.”
“I touch people all the time!” I cried. “I’m a licensed physical therapist. Touching people is my job!”
“I know, Hayden. But—”
“How can I help people if I don’t touch them?” I bulldozed on. “I touch people all over their bodies, every single day! I guide them through exercises. I help them stretch out.”
“I know.”
“I put them into positions for—”
“This was very specific,” Dana interrupted me. “And I’m sorry, but also very serious. What they said you did, Hayden…” her sentence trailed off in a frown. “If it’s true — and I’m not saying itis, mind you — but until we investigate—”
“INVESTIGATE?”
I was numb, but also angry. No, angry didn’t even begin to describe it.
“This has got to be a mistake,” I blurted. “It can’t possibly—”
And then it hit me.
COLE.
“Ohhellno,” I seethed. “This isn’t a complaint from an actual client. This is my ex-boyfriend calling to mess with me, trying to ruin my life.”
Dana’s expression said otherwise.
“I’m serious!” I swore. “You have no idea what’s going on with him. He’s the only one who could possibly—”
“Hayden, it wasn’t a man who called. It was a woman.”
My hands gripped the arms of the chair so tightly, my fists hurt.
“Who was it then?”
“I can’t tell you,” Dana replied. “Complaints are anonymous.”
“But you told me it was a woman!” I shot back.
“I know,” Dana said worriedly, “and I shouldn’t have told you that. But Hayden, Ilikeyou. You’re a valuable asset to the clinic. You do great work here.”
Here it comes.
“But until we hear from corporate, and the investigation is conducted…”
“What?” I growled miserably. “You’re firing me?”
“No, no, nothing like that.”
“Then what?”
Dana shifted uncomfortably. “For the immediate future at least, you can’t see clients. We’re putting you on leave.”
My shoulders slumped.
“Temporaryleave,” she amended. “Just until human resources can straighten out the details of…”
I was no longer listening. In my mind’s eye I could see it all: Cole, coming up with all new ways to destroy my life. He knew my routine, my work schedule, my days off. Hell, he’d even been here as a patient. All he had to do was get some random woman to call in; and say all the right things. Or more accurately, the wrong things.
