CHAPTER TWO
HARRY
“You'll call me, right?” the tight little blonde asked as she stood in the doorway of my apartment.
“Of course, darling,” I said, giving her a quick kiss as I patted her ass, nudging her out the door. “I just have to get ready for work. The life of a surgeon and all. I'm very busy. No rest for the wicked, as they say.”
Her face fell, almost as if she knew that I had no intention of calling her and this was goodbye.
“I really like you, Harry,” she said, hesitating in the doorway. “And last night was amazing.”
“Yes, it was,” I said, glancing at my watch.
I wasn't lying about needing to get to work – I had a complicated surgery scheduled for that morning. Maybe I shouldn't have gone out and bagged Miss Blonde Bombshell the night before major surgery, but I found that sex often helped me relax; put me in a calmer, mellower mindset. It was a release in more ways than one. But maybe I should have made sure the woman I picked up to bang wasn't so needy. And I never should have let her spend the damn night.
“How about before I go, we make plans for this weekend, huh?” she asked, hope in her eyes.
God, she was already so fucking clingy after one goddamn night! What would she be like a week from now? A month from now? I’d rather shoot my dick off.
“I'm not sure what I'm doing this weekend yet, I may be out of town,” I lied. “So how about I call you, Shannon?”
“My name is Shanna,” she said, her smile quickly fading.
“That's what I said, wasn't it? Now seriously, I can't be late for surgery prep,” I said.
I quickly ushered her out the door, and was losing my patience in the process. Why couldn't she seem to take a damn hint? I was a busy man, and being clingy was no way to win me over.
Shanna turned and walked out the door, muttering to herself about how I was a jerk or something even less flattering. Not that I cared. She was a pretty, young thing, and she had proved to be a good distraction last night, but I wasn't down to see her again. Maybe if she hadn’t have laid there like a plastic blow up doll while I did all the work, I might have fucked her again. Hell, I might have even fucked her a few more times.
I walked through my living room and took the stairs up to my bedroom, checking the time again. I was going to have to hurry if I wanted to make it to the hospital in time. I had a super complex heart surgery and I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. My staff needed to be properly prepped and my patient needed to see my face before the procedure. I wasn't one of the best in my field for nothing.
Making sure I looked nice and professional with my hair combed and my face freshly shaven, I stepped out the door and walked to my BMW in my garage.
It was going to be a long, tedious, and stressful day in the operating room, but how many people can literally claim they saved lives for a living?
Add that to the pay and the fringe benefits – like blondie, or any number of women who couldn't wait to fuck a doctor – and it was all a pretty nice lifestyle. I really couldn't complain.
ooo000ooo
“You really ought to get yourself a nice girl, Dr. Pemberton,” Betty said.
Betty was my cardiac nurse and had been in the medical field almost as long as I'd been alive. She was, hands down, the person I trusted most by my side in surgery. No one could handle the pressure like she did, and she often knew what to do before I even said anything. That's why we made a great team. She anticipated my moves perfectly and worked together like a well-oiled machine.
I loved having Betty my side – even when she sometimes acted like my mother.
“I don't have time to date,” I said, laughing.
We'd finished with the surgery – another one for the win column – and I was filling out the mountain of paperwork in my office. Betty sat across from me, chatting as we unwound.
“Not seriously at least. My schedule here keeps me busy,” I continued. “Besides, most of women I meet are so needy – they couldn't handle dating someone like me. My work comes first and most don't seem to understand that, or be willing to accept it.”
“Which is why you're a good F,” Betty said, her smile crinkling the corners of her mouth. “But one day, you're going to wake up and realize you're missing something, Harry. Trust me on that.”
Betty was staring at the plaques on my wall. Diplomas, awards, and a lifetime of achievement all hung neatly behind me.
She spoke to me from her own personal experience, I was sure. She often told me how she regretted not getting married and having children of her own, saying that her job had been the only thing in her life for so many years. There she was, in her sixties, and work was all that she had.
“I have plenty of time,” I said, closing the patient file. “I'm still only in my thirties.”
“Yeah, that's what I said too,” she said with a wry grin. “And then one day I woke up a senior citizen. Time goes fast, Harry. A lot faster than you might think.”
“Come on now,” I teased. “Things are going great with Robert, I thought?”
“Yes, they are,” she said. “Terrific. Never thought I'd meet a man who could keep up with me. Albeit, he is a decade younger than I am.”
“You're only as old as you let yourself feel,” I said.
“Is that why you still chase after the twenty-year-old girls?” she asked, a smile on her lips but a serious look in her eyes.
“See? You get it,” I said.
“I'm just holding out until you decide you're interested in older women,” she said, smiling and winking at me.
“I'd just break your heart,” I said. “And that is the one thing in this life I'd never, ever want to do.”
“Ain't that the truth,” she laughed. “I may be old, but I'm not stupid. I know a heartbreaker when I see one.”
She knew me well, that was for sure.