Her eyes search my face as she hugs me goodbye. I’m sure I look like hell; I’m exhausted, and I’m dreading having to confront Ethan today. I’ll have to report what happened last night—there’s no way around it—but I intend to talk to him about it first. I owe him that, at least.
“Don’t work too hard,” Melissa murmurs.
“Never,” I quip.
“Want to come back tonight?” she asks. “You never got dessert yesterday.”
“I thought I did,” I reply, thinking of the way she looked on top of me.
She blushes. “I meant the apple crisp. There’s still lots left. You could come for dinner again.”
“Okay.” It’ll give me something to look forward to during a crappy day at work. “I’ll text you.”
I stop at my condo to shower and change before heading back to the hospital. Ethan’s not in the call room, and I’m thankful I took his car key. At least I don’t have to worry he tried to drive home last night.
On my way to the surgical ward, I send him a text saying we need to talk. He doesn’t reply immediately, but as soon as I get to the ward, I see him come out of a patient’s room. He’s not alone; his resident, Dr. Ashley Lau, trails after him, along with a perky young woman who’s probably a med student.
“Luke,” Ethan says with a smile. His eyes are still a little red, but I’d guess he’s sober now. “Thanks so much for helping me out last night. I was just telling Ashley, I’mpretty sure I got the stomach bug she had a few days ago. It was brutal, wasn’t it, Ashley?”
Ashley nods. “Yeah, really rough.”
Ashley’s the resident who was supposed to be on call with me on Monday, but called in sick. For a minute, I wonder if Ethan really did have the flu last night.
“You feeling better?” I ask him.
“Yeah, much. It was one of those twelve hour things.”
No. I’ve heard of the twenty-four hour flu, but not the twelve hour one. There’s no way this was a virus. It’s a pretty good act, but he’s trying too hard.
“We just saw last night’s patient,” Ethan continues. “He’s doing really well. You did good work.”
“Thanks.” I rack my brain for a way to get rid of Ashley and the perky med student. “Ethan, can I get your opinion on a case?”
“Yeah, sure, Luke.” He gestures to Ashley and the med student. “Let’s go to the nursing desk, guys.”
“Privately,” I add quickly. “It’s a VIP patient. We can go to my office.”
“Sure.” Ethan’s clearly irritated, but he must realize I’m not going to back down. “I’ll be back soon, Ashley.”
“Thanks again for covering last night,” he says, as we walk down the hall toward our offices.
“No problem.”
“I’d be happy to return the favor, cover a night for you.”
“Thanks.” That won’t be happening anytime soon, but there’s no point confronting him in the hallway.
When we finally reach my office, I lock the door behind us. There’s only one chair, so we both stay standing.
“You need help, Ethan,” I say simply.
His brow furrows in feigned confusion. “I had the flu,Luke. You know, fever, puking, dehydration? It happens to all of us.”
I pull his car key out of my pocket and watch his eyes widen. He clearly hadn’t realized it was missing.
“You were drunk, Ethan.” I hand him his key. “You have a problem with alcohol, and you need to take a leave of absence?—”
“Luke,Ihad the flu,” he says defensively. “And Kevin couldn’t hold the camera straight, which made the nausea worse. But I would have been fine, and Nick shouldn’t have called you. He was just pissy because he didn’t think we should operate in the first place. He wanted to ask radiology to put in a drain.”
