Elaine took the floor again. “Do we have a majority agreement?” She asked, staring down at Heather at the end of the table.
“Yes,” Steve said immediately.
Heather squirmed, and Heather exchanged loaded glances with Marcus Kinkade, but in the end, “Yes,” Heather said, quietly, folding her own portfolio shut.
Anna managed, but only just, to contain her shout of triumph.
With handshakes and polite farewells, the meeting broke up and people began to file out of the room. Soon enough, only Anna and Elaine were left. “You did an excellent job,” Elaine said, smiling in approval. “Thank you.”
“Victoria didn’t deserve to be the fallout in some weird crusade by a penny-pincher,” Anna said with a shrug that was much more casual than she felt. “I did my job. I would have done it for anyone.”
“While I do believe that,” Elaine replied lightly as she gathered her papers and files together and tucked them into her briefcase, “I also think your personal interest in Dr. Ellis was motivational.”
Anna stilled, and suddenly found her hands to be deeply interesting. “I suppose that’s possible.”
To her surprise, a hand touched her arm, and she looked up to see Elaine smiling with what could only be read as encouragement all over her face. “Anna. You’re free and clear now. You won’t be part of our evaluations or Victoria’s care going forward.” Her gaze turned questioning. “You are going to do something with that freedom, aren’t you?”
“She doesn’t really want to talk to me right now,” Anna confessed, all her elation from the successful defense ebbing away. “There was an argument.”
Elaine smiled. “A smart girl like you, I think you can work out a way to resolve that.” She patted Anna’s arm. “Don’t let the chance at a good thing pass you by.”
With that, she picked up her briefcase and left the room, and now it was only Anna, standing still under the harsh lights and deep in thought. Did shewantthis chance at a good thing?
Yes, she thought she did.
But how could she get Victoria to listen to her? She still hadn’t heard from her, and her instinct to let Victoria come to her when she was ready was less cocksure than it had been two days ago. Should she try to reach out instead?
Anna didn’t know what to do. But she knew who might. She just hoped Esme would be at the Indigo Lounge tonight.
13
VICTORIA
“You should come out with us tonight.” The offer from Ashley came so casually, dropped as they were shedding their surgical gowns in the scrub room of OR 2, that Victoria almost accepted it on autopilot.
She was so distracted lately.
“No,” she said instead once the words registered. “No, thank you. I know you’re going to that Blue Lounge place, and I’m not in the mood for noise and dancing tonight.”
“Indigo Lounge,” Ashley corrected. “I can’t believe you’ve been a queer woman living in LA this long and you’ve still never been to the Lounge.”
“I have so,” Victoria protested. “That one time with you something like five years ago.”
“So you’re overdue a fresh visit, and tonight’s perfect. It’s not a dance party night, there’s a little concert. Singer-songwriter stuff, pretty lowkey.” Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Ashley tapped at it. “And she’s British. Lucy Spraggan, Jen loves her.”
That piqued Victoria’s interest. “Oh, yes. I’m familiar with her. I didn’t know she was in the States.”
“Well, she is, and performing tonight at the Lounge. So.” Ashley stuffed her phone away, eyebrow raised. “Will you come with?”
It wasn’t like she had anything better to do, and at least the music would be good and also not too harsh a brush against her frayed nerves. “Yes. All right. Why not. Do we need to buy tickets?”
“No, we just need to get there early to maybe get a good seat so we can eat and enjoy the music. You won’t remember, but the food there is so good.”
“I do remember that, actually.” She really did. It wasn’t often that she ate cheeseburgers at all, being a heart surgeon. So she certainly did remember when one was as transcendently good as that one had been. And the spicy chips. Yes. Actually, this would be a very nice evening out and a good distraction from… Victoria couldn’t help but let out a big sigh that earned her quite the odd look of concern from Ashley.Anna. Oh, Anna.
She’d regretted her harsh words the minute she was out of Anna’s office, but didn’t dare turn back. She needed to calm down and think; and she really did want to get away from the hospital and clear her head before the procedure she had scheduled that evening. So she had spent a couple of hours indulging in some serious retail therapy at the Beverly Center. Her new Ferragamo sandals had not fixed her Anna problem, but they wereverypretty.
It had been several days now, and her damnable pride had still not allowed her to bend and reach out to Anna. Not yet. She’d had a couple of emergency sessions with Cameron to help her down the road to accepting and understanding that Anna really did have a professional obligation to keep the threat to her job from her. And of course Anna would have wrestled with wanting to try to tell her anyway, she knew that. Anna detested dishonesty, she knew that too. It would have eaten her up inside,and of course she would have hated having to keep it from Victoria.
