Page 12 of Not My Finest Hour

“We can’t be seen together. It’s bad enough that Wesley saw you, but we need to get you out of here before anyone else sees us.” Justin peers around, looking for what? I don’t know.

“What are you talking about? I’m here to do a job. That’s all.”

“This isn’t where I wanted this conversation to happen, but I need you to understand where I’m coming from.”

My stomach twists in knots. Something tells me I’m not going to like what he’s about to say. “You’re making me nervous. Whatever you need to say, just say it, and put me out of my misery.”

His eyes meet mine, and he holds my gaze. “Dahlia, I loved our night together, but that’s as far as it can ever go.”

“What? Why? I thought you couldn’t wait to see me again,” I say, clutching onto that fact for as long as I can. Someone who couldn’t wait to see me again wouldn’t have stayed silent when I texted him last night. But someone who wanted to end things would, probably hoping I would get the hint after a while and stop trying to contact him.

“Ididwant to see you, and if things were different, I still would. But with the way things are right now, a relationship between us can’t happen.”

“What the hell do you even mean by that?” I say, raising my voice because I’m tired of him beating around the bush.

Justin’s gaze darts around the room to see if anyone heard my outburst, but luckily (for him), we’re so far removed from everyone, no one heard. “You’re a patient, and technically, I’m a doctor at the clinic you go to.”

“So what?”

“It’s unethical. I have access to sensitive information about you, and that puts me in a position of power.”

My head cocks to the side. “What are you saying? You’re going to use my medical history against me?”

Justin’s eyelids snap open. “No! Absolutely not. Once I figured out it was you in the room, I didn’t look at your file. I didn’t want to know that much about you because there might be stuff in there you don’t want me to know.” He runs his hands through his hair, gripping the roots ever so slightly, clearly frustrated by this situation. “But that’s exactly what I’m talking about. I have access to your file, so I could look at it if I wanted to, or if I needed to in the event of a medical emergency. And dating a patient goes against our code of ethics. I can’t risk Dr. Tarltoneverfinding out about us. I’d be putting my entire medical career in jeopardy before it even gets started.”

“But it’ll be several years before I’m back there again,” I say, as though that simple statement has solved everything. As long as my Pap test comes back normal, I don’t need to go back for a few years.

“You don’t know that. And by then, I’ll be a doctor in the practice which would still put us in the same predicament.” Justin sighs heavily. “I really hate that it has to be this way, but I don’t see another way around it.”

I swallow down the rock-hard lump in my throat.I will not cry here. I will not cry here,I keep telling myself, hoping like hell that it’s working. I will not shed tears for the only other man I’ve had in my life besides Alain. It was just one night. But why does it hurt so damn bad? “Okay. I guess that’s it then. You won’t hear from me again,” I say with my chin up, feigning bravery.

“Dahlia, I’m so, so sorry.” He reaches out to touch my hand, but I pull it away before he can make contact.

I turn away and find the nearest exit. I came here with a job to do, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to sit through that seminar knowing Justin is near.

“You’re home early,”Fern says when I walk through the door. She takes in my somber expression and bolts off the couch, reaching me before I set down my purse. “What happened?” She takes my hand in hers and leads me over to the couch. Sensing that I might need them, she plucks the box of tissues off the sofa table and sets them on one of the cushions. She takes a seat opposite me.

“I saw Justin at the seminar tonight,” I say, barely getting those words out. Tears well up in my eyelids, and I dab them with a tissue before they can fall down my cheeks.

“And I’m guessing it wasn’t a good meet-up?”

I shake my head. “He doesn’t want to see me again.”

Fern clutches her chest like she can feel my heartbreak. “Why not? I thought you two had hit it off.”

“Wedidhit it off. But he says it’s unethical since he’s going to be a doctor at that practice. He can’t date a patient.” I blow my nose with a satisfying honk and discard the used tissue on the couch. To get ready for any more tears that may follow, I grab another tissue and keep it in my hand.

She nods in understanding. “That makes sense. Hedoeshave access to a lot of very private information about you. And if it were me, I wouldn’t want to be with someone who had access to that. It sounds like he’s doing this to protect you.”

“Funny, because the whole time he was talking, it sounded like he was only looking out for himself,” I say, my words laced with bitterness.

Fern raises a brow. “What do you mean?”

“He kept talking about how he couldn’t risk Dr. Tarlton finding out because of their code of ethics. And that he’d be putting his entire medical career in jeopardy before he’s started it.”

“He’s put in a lot of years to get to where he’s at now, and he’s almost reached the finish line. It’s not easy putting your career at risk for a relationship, and he probably thought it was better to end things now before you guys got really serious.” Fern speaks like she knows all about the struggle between choosing your career and being with someone you love. Because she does. I remember the struggle she went through when Brett started working at the same place she does. Her workplace has a no-dating policy, and they put everything on the line because they felt their love was worth the sacrifice.

I sniffle a few times, then dab my nose with a tissue. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side.”

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