“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 her “Dear.” 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.
I’m doing my best to keep the agreement, even though Maria keeps popping back up.
“Let me know what you decide about my request for more money,” Maria says, heading out the door.
“Derek. 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 busy 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 always 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 in which 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 desert mesas in no time.”
“I hope you’re right,” Niles says. “Because I really don’t want to have to exercise the option to let you go, 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 the other company is 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 of the deal 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. 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.
I blink at her, wanting to say, go ahead but be quick about it. I do have other things to do today. But I don’t want to be cruel to a new employee who is clearly trying her best.
“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. The last time I saw her, she was a senior in high school and completely forbidden. But that was at least a year ago, if memory serves me correctly. “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 while slowly shaking her head. “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 never get romantic feelings and I’ve barely managed 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 hers is always going off about it, making it sound more traumatic on her that it must have been for Elizabeth Jane. These feelings must be present because I only want to care about her. Not fuck her brains out. Or let her steal my fucking heart.
I must 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 jerk off 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.