“What are you doing here, Maria?” I ask, as soon as I’m in the lobby. “Part of our agreement was that you stay away.”

“That’s exactly what I’m here to talk to you about,” she says, her eyes boring into me.

Damn. Those chocolate brown eyes shining off her olive reflection are part of what made me have to have her so bad that I would risk what I had built to sleep with her. But we were supposed to have an understanding. She’d approached me with the idea. Even though we’d worked together for a long time and I was her superior, we’d just be together once and it would be all be fine. She told she was moving away soon anyway, to be with her mother in St. Louis, to help take care of her because she was ill. So it wouldn’t be like I was her boss anymore. It would just be for one night of passion.

Of course, I upheld my end of the bargain. But I guess I’d given her such a good night that she wanted to extend it into many more. That’s the problem— I’ve never found anyone worth connecting to and doubt I ever will. A lot of these women are gold diggers who don’t say that up front but instead show their true colors after the deed’s been done. My mom died when I was young and my dad met a gold digger like that, who took him for half of everything in the divorce, after she ran away with some pretty boy actor.

I’m not going to let that happen to me. I try to make a deal with these women and they seem to be all into at first. But after once or twice everything changes. Once they get a whiff of how much money I have, they think that’s what they want, but then they get my cock— I’m not trying to brag but a lot of women have said it’s the best they’ve had— and they’re hooked. It’s like I’m a drug they can’t quit. And it’s turned me into a liability.

“Our agreement,” Maria continues, reminding me just how much of a liability. “I don’t really know if it’s fair.”

“Well, you already signed it,” I tell her, for what has to be at least the third time.

I look around and see that the only patient still waiting in the lobby is my 4:45 appointment, Mr. Jefferson, and he’s over ninety years old and nearly deaf as a doorknob. Still, I lower my voice, just to be safe.

“That money is already in your bank account,” I tell her. “And in case you’ve forgotten, it’s quite a lot.”

She bats her eyelashes and shakes her tits at me, but those tricks don’t work on me anymore. Especially since I paid her to go away and she’s still here.

“Perhaps I want more,” she says, with a wink.

“Too bad,” I tell her, getting frustrated now. “I’ve already given you way more than you were entitled to, which was a big fat nothing. You signed a relationship disclosure form, remember?”

It was true. Part of her allegedly brilliant plan to sleep with me without either of us risking anything was a disclosure form she’d signed agreeing that she and I were in a sexual relationship and that she wouldn’t sue me for any damages should the relationship end. Therefore, I didn’t owe her any money. At least not technically.

After she went back on her word, asked me to move to fucking Arizona with her and starting threatening to sue me when I said no— correction, I said, “Hell no, are you out of your fucking mind? Arizona is 2,000 miles away and an average of ten degrees hotter, not to mention this was supposed to be a wa’am ba’am thank you ma’am kind of deal, not a ‘let’s move to suburban desert Utopia for the rest of our lives together kind of deal”— my partners stressed that we were on shaky legal ground and reminded me of one of the important rules of business: avoid lawsuits, if possible. Plus, I felt kind of bad for her because obviously she got a little too attached and felt like I was breaking her heart when I had only ever meant to bang her and move on.

So I paid her, quite handsomely I might add, although it’s chump change compared to being stuck with someone so gaga over me that she’d extort money out of me, for the rest of my fucking life. Yet here she is, still wanting more.

“Maybe I don’t mean more money,” she says, curving an eyebrow at me in what I know is her attempt to be sexy. But she really just looks desperate at this point. “Maybe I mean I want more of your big, hard…”

“Ahem,” someone says, clearing his throat, and I look at the open door between the doctor’s office portion of the building and the reception area to see Niles Stanton, one of my business partners and fellow doctors here at the practice, glaring at me. “Derek, do you need me to take Mr. Jefferson, since you are obviously pre-occupied?”

I turn back to Maria.

“No,” I tell him. “Maria and I were just finishing up.”

Although that’s the same thing I’d said a couple weeks ago after I shot my cum over her back. I felt I was marking my temporary territory and moving on. But apparently she took it as some kind of declaration of love and or some age old ceremony wherein I supposedly claimed eternal ownership of her.

“I’ll let you get to your patient, Dear,” Maria says, with a slight chuckle. Niles raises an eyebrow at me, even though I think he knows as well as I do that Maria is in some fantasy-land pretend relationship in her head, and that I’m not still with her. That would go against the agreement I made with my partners when they let me stay on— get rid of her, for good. And don’t do anything else that’s risky.

“Let me know what you decide about my request for more,” Maria says, heading out the door.

“Can I see you in here for a moment?” Niles asks.

I nod to Mr. Jefferson and say, “I’ll be right with you, good sir.”

He smiles at me and holds up a small magazine.

“Take your time. I’m just perusing your Readers’ Digest here. Thanks for keeping such entertaining material in your waiting room, Docs.” 

“You’re welcome,” Niles says, smiling at Mr. Jefferson. “Anything to keep our patients happy.”

Then he pulls me into the reception area where Trisha is busying answering the phone for last minute callers trying to schedule appointments for the next day, which they won’t be able to do. Smaller town family practices are also so full there’s a waiting list. That’s part of what makes owning a chain of them such a great business model— there’s never any wasted time where we’re not making money.

“Derek, what are you thinking?” Niles explodes to me, as soon as we’re out of earshot of Mr. Jefferson, which isn’t a hard feat considering his range of capable hearing distance. “You told me you were taking care of this.”

“I am,” I tell him, rubbing my temples. “I’ll just throw a few more grand at her and she’ll be off to the mesas in no time.”

“I hope you’re right,” Niles says. “Because I really don’t want to have to exercise the option, but you seem to be almost begging me to do it. You know the new company won’t put up with any of these shenanigans you always get yourself into…”

“I know,” I tell him, hoping he’ll stop harping on it.

This fall out between Maria and I couldn’t have come at a worse time. My business partners and I are in the middle of making a deal with another company to expand our chain practice model into more states. But they’re in the due diligence phase and they want to make sure everything is legit. I don’t think that firing my nurse after fucking her would be something that they would consider “legit.” My business partner agreement with Niles and the other doctors gives them the option to cut me out for behavior that would harm their interests, and I’m determined not to let them do that.

“It won’t be a problem, Niles, I promise,” I tell him.

“Okay, then I’m going to go home and pretend I didn’t just overhear our former employee talking about the...”

He trails off, obviously feeling too awkward to continue.

“The size of my cock?” I ask him, grinning.

Damn it.

If it weren’t for the size of my cock—and my desire to pleasure women with it—I wouldn’t even be in this mess. But I still can’t help but brag about how big it is, especially to my old pal Niles. Even though he’s mad at me right now, I know he appreciates my sense of humor in every situation.

Sure enough, he shakes his head but he’s slightly smiling.

“Joke all you want, but just follow through with keeping your word for once,” he says, “and make sure you take care of this.”

Niles  nods to Trisha and I’m about to tell her goodbye before following him out but she’s on the phone so that seems rude of me. As Niles leaves, I hear Trisha say, “Umm, I’m really not sure. Let me ask him,” I figure it’s a good thing I’m here.

“Dr. Monroe, I’m sorry to bother you once again,” Trisha says sheepishly, putting a hand over the phone.

“It’s okay Trisha,” I tell her. “It’s already been one of those days, so tell me what’s up. I don’t see how anything could get much worse no matter what it is.”

“It’s just…” she says, searching for the right words.

“Shirley Suttell is on the phone,” Trisha continues, looking apologetic once again. “I don’t really know her, but she sounds kind of crazy. She’s asking if she can bring her daughter in for some sort of purity exam.”

She shakes her head.

“I mean, I know that’s insane,” she says. “So, I’m going to just tell her we don’t do that sort of thing.”

“Hold on,” I tell her, thinking of Shirley, but more accurately, of her daughter Elizabeth Jane. “How old is she?”

“Let me check her chart,” Trisha says. “Oh here it is. She’s nineteen.”

“Okay,” I tell her. “Well I think she’s talking about a pap smear.”

“Dr. Monroe,” Trisha insists, crinkling her nose at me. “I really don’t think that’s what she’s talking about.”

“It’s fine,” I tell her. “I think it is, but in any event we’ll sort it out when she gets here.”

When I think of the prospect of seeing Elizabeth Jane again, my cock stands straight up to attention But so does my heart. Which is ridiculous, since I don’t have romantic feelings and I’m barely manage to escape from my last attempts at a no- strings- attached relationship. 

I guess I’ve always had a soft spot for Elizabeth Jane while also— now that she’s nineteen— having a hard on for her. I tell myself that any feelings I might be getting only stem from paternal-like instincts. I’ve never had a child— never wanted one— but poor Elizabeth Jane was abandoned by her own father and that crazy mother of her is always going off about it, making it sound more traumatic on her that it must have been for Elizabeth Jane. It has to be that I only want to care about her. Not fuck her brains out. Or let her steal my fucking heart.

I have to think about something gross— the thought of soon checking Mr. Jefferson’s bed sores to see how they’re healing, which is definitely one of the downsides of having a family practice— to get my cock to settle down and behave. Too bad there’s no such quick fix for my heart.

I’ve known Elizabeth Jane for a long time. I can’t believe Little Lizzy is all grown up. I imagine how she must look now, and I can barely take it any longer.

“See if she can come in tomorrow,” I tell Trisha.

“Tomorrow?” she looks shocked. “But you don’t have any openings…”

“Well, then shift things around and make one,” I tell her. When she looks hurt, I add, “I’m sorry, Trisha. It’s been a long day and I need to get home. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

I just want to go play with myself and think about what I wish I could do to Elizabeth Jane . I can’t believe her mom wants me to check her virginity. But, like Niles just said, a doctor’s job is to keep the patients happy, right?

What crazy Shirley Suttell wants, she’ll get. Even though she probably has no idea how much I want it too. Nor does she have any idea how anxiously I'll be waiting to see Elizabeth Jane tomorrow— which feels like months away as I go to see my last patient of the day.