“I don’t need long.” In three long strides, she was at the chair and pulling Anna to her feet, pen and notepad sent tumbling down to the floor. Anna was giggling as Victoria tilted her chin up for a long, lazy kiss. “I missed you.”
“It’s been two days.” But Anna was still smiling as Victoria pulled back, still holding her lovely beaming face in her hands. Good Lord, but she did enjoy looking at her.
“Two excruciating days. Can you come over tonight?” She held her breath.
But Anna just kept grinning sunshine bright. “And I’ll come prepared with a change of clothes. You can have me all night.”
“Exactly what I wanted to hear.” Victoria bent to kiss her again, deeper, more hungrily. But the creak of the brass doorknob turning startled them both, and Victoria leaped back as quickly as she could, immediately composing herself.
Anna wasn’t so easily calmed, her fair skin still flushed bright pink as Kathleen eased the door open. “Dr. Monroe, your next patient is here,” she advised quietly, glancing between them with open curiosity. “Shall I wait five minutes to send them in?”
“I only need two. Dr. Ellis was just leaving.” Kneeling, Anna picked up her notebook and pen and stepped over to put them on the table by her chair.
Victoria took the hint immediately. “Indeed. Thank you for your time today, Dr. Monroe, and for the referral to Dr. O’Shea.”
“You’re very welcome.” When Anna turned around, it seemed she had managed to get herself back under control with an admirable swiftness. “Perhaps I’ll see you around.”
“Perhaps.” With her back to Kathleen, Victoria was able to wink at Anna, getting her flustered all over again before Victoria turned and left the office, slipping past Kathleen with a nod.
As she left, she remembered she hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Anna if she’d known about the impending evaluation. Well, fine. Anna wasn’t her therapist anymore anyway. But Elaine would be on the evaluatory panel, no doubt, so she’d make a fine source of information.
It took Victoria a ridiculous number of days to pin Elaine down for a meeting. If she didn’t know better, she would almost swear that the woman was actively trying to avoid her.
But surely not. Surely?
At last, she cornered the Cardio chief at her desk in her office, slipping in and shutting the door behind her with a decisive click. And Elaine did indeed look cornered, her blue eyes wide as she whipped her head up to look at Victoria. “Dr. Ellis.”
“Elaine,” she said pointedly. “Have you been avoiding me?”
“Don’t be absurd.” The words were sharp, but Elaine still looked hunted.
Victoria huffed in disbelief. “You look like you think I’ve come to disembowel you!”
“I do not.” But the statement was overly firm, as though Elaine were trying to convince them both she believed it. “Dr. Ellis, I have a heart transplant to scrub in on. Timing is crucial.”
“I only have one singular question for you, and it’s just silly that it’s taken the better part of this week to pin you down to askit,” Victoria said, shaking her head. “Elaine, Dr. O’Shea says my evaluation is coming up very soon. Within the next few weeks. I’ll have only been in therapy a couple of months, isn’t that fairly early to clear me… or otherwise?”
Elaine was fiddling with objects on her desk, picking up a paperweight and putting it down, shifting an ink pen from one side of her big desktop calendar to the other. Her hands touched on her stapler, a medical journal, her mobile phone, moving and adjusting each one. “I would have thought you’d have liked to get this over with sooner.”
“Don’t deflect.” The flitting and twitching was making Victoria more suspicious by the second. “Elaine, sit down. Stop. None of this is like you, tell me what’s going on.”
With a gusty sigh, Elaine did sit down, and gestured for Victoria to sit down as well. “The problem is Marcus Kinkade.”
Victoria frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t know the man.”
“Count your blessings for now, because that’s not going to last long.” Elaine spread her hands out over the scribble-filled calendar on her desktop. “Marcus Kinkade is the Director of Surgical Services.”
Oh, now the name did sound familiar. But… “I don’t really see what he’s got to do with me?”
“Well, everything.” Elaine gazed at her frankly. “He’s a man who thinks in dollars. You cost a lot of dollars. And you haven’t been performing up to standard.”
Again, Victoria frowned. “Plenty of surgeons go through rough patches, they get sorted out.” When Elaine’s expression softened into something very like sympathy, Victoria put two and two together, sat straight up, and blinked. “Wait. No.”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“Yes,what.” Victoria leaned forward. “Say it out loud. Be clear.”
“I’m afraid he’s making contract termination noises,” Elaine said, dragging each word out with a nearly tangible reluctance. “He’d love to find an excuse to cut you loose.” She looked down at her hands, and picked up a letter opener, set it aside. “Steve Sundstrom and I have been able to fend him off for a bit, but…” She bit her lip, picked up her mobile phone, and set it aside next. “With Dr. Monroe transferring your case to Dr. O’Shea, I’m afraid he smells blood in the water, Victoria.”
