Page 26 of Doctor Daddy Dilemma

“Are you kidding? These things go to print this week and next. Work for hire, honey, you signed a contract. You know they belong to me now.” He held his hand up and flicked his wrist, gesturing for me to leave his office as my heart was breaking into a million pieces.

I’d had enough. I never told my ex off after he hurt me. I couldn’t very well tell Lex off, though that article coming out would definitely show him what I thought of him. And until now there had never been a chance for me to defend myself to my boss, and I was an exploding bomb ready to tear anyone and anything around me to shreds.

“You are a horrible, nasty, hateful man. You treat women like they’re your objects to use and manipulate. You lie and insult and…and… Ugh!” I was so mad none of the words I wanted to say would come out, but the tears sure did.

I stormed out of the office, slamming the door so hard the wall shook. When I looked back, I saw a crack across the pane of glass and Mr. James standing to his feet shouting. Luckily for me, the room was soundproof, so while I had to look at the red, bulging face again, I didn’t have to hear what he said at all. I was too upset to stay and listen anyway.

Amy was waiting with my computer bag in hand and tears in her eyes. She embraced me as soon as I walked into her cubicle where for only a second, I let her hold me and I shed a few tears.

“What will you do?” she asked, and I knew deep down she was hurting for me too. She knew my predicament. I’d told her everything when she came over for a girls’ rom-com night.

“I don’t know. I think I just need time to think.”

“You can stay with me and?—”

“No,” I said, interrupting her. I didn’t want to disrupt her family. “I’ll go home to El Paso. Stay with my parents for a while.”

None of this seemed right or fair, but maybe it was for the best. Lex was wealthy enough to hire a personal investigator to track down my parents, or me for that matter. It didn’t matter where I went, if he wanted to find me he would. I just didn’t think after reading my article exposing his horrible behavior, he would even want me at all, and the way I tied that to his upbringing would only anger him. I never gave specific details but there was enough there that the hungry paparazzi goblins would feast on that and do their own digging now.

“You sure you don’t want to stay?” she asked, and I backed away and shook my head.

“He’ll just come looking here, Amy. I have to go. Don’t worry. I’ll keep in touch and we’ll make it a point to visit regularly. Okay?” I hugged her one more time before collecting my things and saying goodbye.

I apologized to the new guy, though it didn’t make sense how they could hire a new guy when they were letting staff go, but that wasn’t his fault. And I looked back over the newsroom one last time before carrying my things out the door to head home.

Yes, this was definitely a good thing, I decided. A clean break all at once meant I could go home with no regrets. I lived life to its fullest here, and it was time to try somewhere else.

I just hoped my parents saw it that way and didn’t pity me too much.

20

LEX

After giving Charlie the weekend to cool off, I thought she’d have responded by now, but she hadn’t. I didn’t even try to count how many times I’d called her, though I limited my messages to twelve total. After that, she got the point and I was certain I’d only dug myself deeper into the hole—whatever hole that was.

My plane touched down in Tampa at three in the afternoon, on time. I’d have flown in sooner, but I had a surgery this morning that couldn’t be rescheduled. The rest of the afternoon and evening were mine, and I could cancel everything for tomorrow if I needed to. My plan was to show up wherever Charlie was and force her to talk to me. If she still wanted to cut ties with me after that, I would respect it, but I needed to know why—what I’d done.

I hopped in an Uber and headed toward her apartment hoping she was home from work already. It was early, but Mondays were short days for her usually. They were also the day her articles were printed, which meant the final installment of the exposé would be printed today. The work did little to bolster my reputation, but I knew that would be the case from the beginning. The entire reason I went along with the story idea was to humor her and help her career, which I hoped I had done.

And of course, I’d done it to be able to spend more time with her, get closer to her. Now all of that was on hold. It was obvious to me there was a major disconnect and I wasn’t happy leaving it this way. I hadn’t ever found out why other women just walked away uninterested, but I wasn’t about to let this time slide. I had to know what I had done wrong.

At Charlie’s apartment building, I knocked on her door and waited, but there was no response. The day’s edition of the Register lay on the doormat obscuring the brightly colored floral design and part of the word Welcome stenciled in bright pink lettering. The first time I saw it, I wondered how anyone would like something so gaudy but after getting to know Charlie so well, I knew it matched her bright, happy personality to a T. Now I wondered why I ever questioned the choice.

My heart was heavy. I couldn’t even knock on her door without feeling the soul-crushing weight of loss. My heart belonged to her now, and I hadn’t even gotten a chance to tell her exactly how smitten I was. The rock that had burned a hole in my pocket was now the lump in my throat that refused to budge.

With a fairly clear idea that she wasn’t home, I decided my next best bet was the paper. I’d never been in the building, but I had picked her up a few times for lunch. I was certain they’d know who I was when I walked in, especially given the story she’d been writing about me. I hated to put her on the spot at work, but sitting here at her apartment sounded like torture and I was already in my head enough about this. I had to get it over with.

So, I hired another Uber and fifteen minutes later I was on my way to the Register. The Uber driver wasn’t even shy about chatting me up either, talking the entire way despite my one-word answers and gruff tone of voice. It was like he was on a mission to make me cheer up or something, and when it wasn’t working he only dug in deeper to try harder.

When the car stopped and I climbed out, I was three shades of red and honestly in no shape to have this conversation. I knew I’d blow my lid. I was a hothead with a bad temper, and she was the eternal ray of sunshine on a cloudy day that reflected off of every silver lining. I had to remind myself of that when I even thought of how upset and hurt I was over this. Charlie had a very good reason for doing what she was doing; I just didn’t know what it was yet. She was a good, honest person, not the monster my broken heart was painting her to be.

I headed into the building and up to the third floor. I remembered hearing her talk about the view from the newsroom window on the third floor, so it was my best bet. Luckily for me, there was no one at the reception desk when I passed through; perhaps they’d gone home for the day already. So there was no one to stop me or ask me why I was here.

Wandering off the elevator, I passed a few younger people locked in a discussion about proper punctuation and wondered if they knew where Charlie was, but I didn’t stop to ask them. I didn’t want to risk being questioned as to why I was here. I charged ahead, walking right into a massive room full of cubicles. I could see right across the top of the chest-height portable wall units. The place was mostly empty, but I did see a few folks standing around. I headed toward them, determined to find Charlie and put an end to this.

As I approached the staff, one woman in particular looked up with shock scrawled across her face and mumbled something to the man she was speaking with, then rushed toward me.

“Mr. Hartman… I mean, uh, Dr. Hartman. What are you doing here?” Her curly hair dangled in her eyes and she pushed it off her face, looking flustered. She glanced around and then focused on my face.

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