Page 42 of Doctor Charmer

“I left the ER in charge of Dr. Harriman. He’s a very capable physician—not my first choice, but the administration convinced me he needed a win. He’s ten years my senior, and I beat him out for the department head four years prior.” I drum my fingers against the top of the table to give myself something to do.

“Three months. What could go wrong, right?” It’s a rhetorical question, and Ivy doesn’t give me a response. “I returned, and everything appeared in order, at first.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and gather myself. Just recalling the moment brings back all the feelings. The anger. Do no harm is what we are taught. But on that day, when I found out what he had done, I nearly tested that principle.

“Someone that reports to me—a woman, a young woman, no more than twenty-two at the time…” I open my eyes and notice my hands balled into tight fists next to my plate. I push back the bile in my throat. “The very married Dr. Harriman was having an affair with her.”

I look up at Ivy’s gaze, her calculating gaze trying to decipher my reaction. “She was half his age, and he was her boss.”

“Was it consensual?” Ivy asks the logical question.

I shake my head. “But I’ve never been able to prove it.” I exhale, the frustration still evident. “I don’t think it started that way. But by the time I returned and found out, he had convinced her otherwise. Only once did she admit she felt pressured the first time, that he hinted if she didn’t cooperate, he’d get her fired. I promised her anonymity, told her if she came forward, I’d back her up, HR would launch an investigation, and he’d be the one fired.” I pause and look over at Ivy. She’s hanging on to every word but doesn’t interrupt. She must sense how hard this is for me and wants me to get it all out.

“She went to him, asking him if their relationship had a chance. Of course, he said yes. He told her everything she wanted to hear and not to come forward. Continues to fill herhead with false truths and twisted lies. She refused to file a complaint. I failed her.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Ivy says.

“It’s my department.”

“It wasn’t your department when it happened. You were overseas. This woman. You said she was twenty-two. She was an adult.”

I hear Ivy leap to my defense. I’ve said each of these justifications in my head. None of them mattered. Not when I see her at the mixers, staring longingly at the door, waiting for a man who is home with his wife. She ignores the other men her age at the hospital because of the lines Dr. Harriman spews.

“Wait a second… three years ago.” Ivy connects the pieces quicker than I expected. “At the reception, they said something about three years. The HR policy.”

I nod. “When the annual colleague fraternization paperwork circulated, I went to her and said this was the perfect opportunity to out Dr. Harriman. I told her she had to disclose the relationship. I’d make sure the confidential document leaked, and if his didn’t match hers, he’d be outed as the lying, cheating lowlife he is.”

“But that didn’t happen, did it?”

I shake my head. “He was one step ahead of me. He had already convinced her to sign it, threatening to ruin her career and get her fired if she said anything. She signed the attestation, not realizing by signing it, she was the one jeopardizing her career.”

“Oh my.” Ivy hangs her head into her hand. “That’s why you refuse to sign. You’re protecting her.”

“As department head, I have to sign and submit for my entire group. If I don’t sign, they’re not submitted for anyone that reports to me.”

“And she still works for you three years later?”

I nod. “I restructured my entire department to have some of the lab folks report directly to the ER.”

“And she works in the lab?”

I nod. Ivy doesn’t miss a thing. At this rate, she’ll have Sarah’s name soon.

“And she’s still involved with him. This has been going on for three years. How is that possible?”

I shake my head. “Last year when I came to her, she defended him. Said he told her she’s the love of his life, and he’s just waiting for the right time to leave his wife for her. She believed his sharp tongue.”

“Yeah, women fall for the charm.” She shoots me a wink with the twist of my moniker. I know she’s trying to defuse the tension with humor. It’s what she does. I appreciate the thought, but I don’t want to ever be lumped in the same thought as that lowlife.

“I gave her the option to have HR investigate, and she refused again. Signed the papers without a thought that it might blow back on her.”

“And you refused to sign again this year?”

I nod. “The last two years, we have had a different HR rep. Someone that knew me for a decade. It was easy enough to have them overlook the non-submission with a smile, a wink, and a hint that a married person was involved. She connected the pieces, the assumption that someone with my reputation might sleep with a married colleague and wouldn’t want it getting out.”

The minute I say it, I realize it’s the wrong thing to say. Ivy crosses her arms. “So it’s okay for others to believe you can destroy a marriage while despising Dr. Harriman for the same behavior. Why do you do that? Why are you so intent on not letting people see the real you?”

The question isn’t foreign. I’ve heard it throughout the years. The rare moments when I’ve had a girlfriend. A cycle thatrepeats itself—at least, it did for many years. I’d lower my barrier, show my true self, only to have them leave. They always have.

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