Divorced! Now what?

Chapter 15

Theo POV



My day could not have started any better, or maybe it could, if I was game enough to take her back to bed after I saw she had no panties on. I felt it was an invitation of some kind, but I did not act on it. Worried I may have read the signals wrong. I know women can give off mixed signals, or maybe my wishful thinking could be way off in reading it as a positive signal, or maybe being a man, not in the dating game for a while, did not read the right. Either way, I did not take her back to bed, regardless of how my body reacted to her reaching up for a cup and exposing herself to me. 

We had a nice breakfast together, and she went back to her penthouse to do whatever she had planned for the day. I headed off to work. Work consisted of two simple surgeries and ward rounds.

'Morning Doctor.' One nurse who had tried more than once to get a date with me greeted me with her flirty voice, giving me a seductive look, or so she thought. To me, she looked like she needed some laxative or two. The way she leaned forward and squirmed as if she had something stuck between her legs. 

'Morning, can I have Mrs Gavin's chart.' I never asked with a please, not to this nurse. She would take that as an invitation to talk and rub up against me. Nope, this nurse I treat at arm's length. Two nurses are persistent, and both get my cold shoulder each time. I have never dated staff and have no intention of doing so now. It was not a written rule, just one I thought would be best when I had seen so many doctors and dated a nurse, and when it ends, it is not very pleasant to work with for a while, either a good nurse leaves, or the doctor does, or the place gets rather uncomfortable till they both can move on. Nope, that is not for me.

According to my assistant, I have a skip in my step, and that puts a smile on my face.

'Morning, Mrs. Gavin, how do we feel today?' I asked this kindly old lady. She had surgery a week ago, and being diabetic, the healing had taken a little longer; according to the nursing staff, she had been feeling weak and not eating enough. I thought she was eating just fine. The staff expects an older person to eat like the young, and that is only the case sometimes.

'Fine, when do I go home?' Now, that is music to my ears. When a patient starts asking me to go home to me, that is a clear indication she is on the mend, unless they are at death's door, which this woman certainly is not.

'If you keep behaving like you are now, we can get you home next week with some home help. How does that sound?' I asked her as I looked at her wound, which was finally healing nicely.

'What happened last night, doctor?' She replies, taking me by surprise.

'What makes you think something happened last night?' I asked as I made some adjustments to her medication on the chart.

'You have a glint in your eye that was not there yesterday.' She boasts a cunning old woman.

'I had yesterday off from my work schedule and had a day relaxing; I went to an art show and had a lovely meal with a friend,' I replied, deliberately not mentioning it was with a woman.

'Is she a nice woman? Or one of your sisters?' She asked. How this woman knows so much about my private life is not a surprise, considering she is one of my mother's closest friends, and if I told her anything, it would be back to my mother before I would have finished checking on my next patient. Then, Mother will corner me with a phone call to take the lady to Sunday lunch or dinner so they can check her out. Bethany is not yet ready to be taken home to meet the family. She has too much going on in her personal life to suddenly be put on my mother's radar as a possible candidate for wife material. I am not going to submit our blossoming friendship to that kind of scrutiny and have her run from me.

'Just a friend, nothing more.' I replied, looking at her straight in the eye. It must have been enough, as she did not push the subject any further.

'Good that you have taken time to relax with friends. Now, can I get out of here or not? She pushed again.

'Not. You can stay a little longer and enjoy my fine company since you seem to think I need female attention, and you are a female; your company suits me fine. I smile warmly at her, and she has the nerve to huff at me, which causes me to chuckle as I walk out the door and a nurse walks in; I hear the nurse chirp.

'Shower time.' In a too-sweet voice for my liking.

'Can I take a bath instead? I feel like a long soak.' I did not hear the nurse's response, as I was too far away by then, but I am sure Mrs Gavin would have gotten her way in the end.

The rest of the day went by in a blur as I did the rounds, checked up on tomorrow's surgery list, and met with the two major candidates. Nothing could take the smile off my face, and it seemed to go by very quickly. I can thank the previous night for that. 

Then it was pizza time. Standing in the pizza shop looking at the choices, I had failed to ask what Bethany liked as a topping and if I should buy garlic bread. In the end, I purchased way too much food, but the company was great again, and I did not push for a repeat of the night before. I felt we needed to take it slowly, or she might get too attached for the wrong reason. I was worried I would be a rebound guy and be put in the friend zone. I was not sure how I felt about that. I have seen how women can be when they have been hurt deeply. I do not want to be a temporary fix for her. I like her and wouldn't mind spending more time with Bethany and finding out the real her. Mum always said if the girl is the right one, you will know, and right from the moment I bumped into her, I felt a connection, a feeling that I wanted to investigate, and I hoped the connection was not that I found a wounded bird that needed my aid. My sister said I seemed to find the damaged ones, and then I would get hurt in the end. 

The morning saw me out the door early. In an emergency at work, a heart attack victim was rushed to our private hospital, and some high-ranking man needed urgent surgery, and I was the one requested. 

The surgery went on for eight hours. He was a mess, and I was surprised he had survived at all. He was going to need a lot of aftercare and a change of lifestyle. I did the rounds and checked on the two surgeries planned for today. One was postponed till tomorrow, and the other had to be done, so another four hours of surgery, and my day was done. I headed home exhausted, showered, ate a leftover pizza, and headed to bed.

Chapter 16 - Divorced! Now what?