Page 1 of Dr Feel Good
Snapping the folder shut, I pushed away from my desk and got to my feet, hours away from the start of my weeklong seclusion at my cabin with only the forest, wild animals, and much-needed silence surrounding me.
Whistling softly, I threw my stack of mail into my briefcase, then grabbed my coat and shrugged into it before glancing at my wall clock.
5 PM. Too late to stop at Ally’s and work out the details of our agreement. She’d just have to wait. Patience was not only a virtue but one of my requirements. Her training would begin earlier than expected. At this point, the contract was a mere formality. I’d taken her out to dinner and evaluated her three times. She’d make an excellent pet.
Without warning, my door opened, and Ian Purdue walked in. He was my best friend and an OB/GYN, with an office in the same building where my practice was located. Unlike him, I opted for a field that brought me the most money and prestige. Plastic surgery to people who would and could pay top dollar to improve themselves. I promoted high-maintenance beauty standards and a luxury lifestyle.
Originally, I wanted to be a trauma surgeon, urged on byIris, my ex-wife, until she ruined my fucking life and turned me against her and everything her type represented.
“Glad I caught you,” Ian said. “I wanted to talk to you about Kali, Felix.”
Tightening my lips, I nodded to the folder. “I’ve finished drafting her disciplinary report. Herthird,” I said with meaning. “I’m terminating her. If she ran to you, she’s really out of her mind. I don’t like gossips, and I especially hate mayhem.”
Ian visibly gritted his teeth, not a stickler for rules like me. Without law and order, chaos descended.
My family created enough of that. My hedge fund father with mistresses, bastards, and scandals. My attorney sister with six ex-husbands, no children, and a string of lovers. My CEO brother with seven children, no wives, and no morals. And my assistant DA brother with a wife, a mistress, a friend with benefits, and no conscience. Of course, I couldn’t leave out my mega-preacher mother, warped, flawed, holy, and narcissistic.
“After we cleared up her last mishap, you agreed that if Kali was written up three times in twelve months, you’d let her go,” Ian started. “She has two weeks left before that timeline resets.”
“She could have a day, and I wouldn’t give a damn,” I stressed.
“What did Kali do?”
“Scheduled three patients at the same damn time. And one,one,is a nitpicker about time and chewed me out that she had to wait an hour over her appointment time.”
Ian opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, finally settling on scratching his jaw. “Can I talk you into giving her one more chance? She must’ve had a good reason for the overbooking. I got her the job. I feel responsible for her.”
“Her ‘reason’ that two of the patients are constant cancellers doesn’t excuse her insubordination.”
“Kali can be a little flaky,” Ian said, deciding to cop to the woman’s issues. “But she isn’t unruly, your staff and patients like her, and she tries to do better.”
Turning away, I walked to the mirror on the other side of my spacious office and adjusted my tie. “Tell me you’re not sleeping with her anymore.”
“I’m not,” Ian said without hesitation. “She is very happy with the man she met six or seven months ago.”
I took my comb out of my coat’s interior pocket and neatened my dark hair.
“I want to go on vacation with no loose ends. Leaving Kali in her position definitely counts as one.”
Ian released a frustrated growl, and I sighed, meeting his gaze in the mirror.
“She has two little kids.”
“Out of wedlock and by two different men. Maybe if she’d married, she wouldn’t have such a challenging time.”
“Can you get off your fucking self-righteous soapbox for one fucking minute?”
Abandoning the mirror, I turned and faced my friend. Ian—my opposite in every way—was also my conscience, the bleeding heart who opened his practice to the morally and financially challenged. He didn’t believe in commitment; I didn’t believe in love and preferred business arrangements with defined expectations and financial rewards.
“If you insist on letting Kali go, I’m writing her a letter of recommendation,you’reproviding references, andwe’regiving her a severance package.”
“Absolutely not! She doesn’t even work in your goddamn office.”
“I can’t have an ex-lover working in my fucking office, Felix.”
If he asked me, I’d tell him he had feelings for Kali. Since I didn’t believe in love or marriage and he hadn’t asked, I kept my opinion to myself.
“Your roaming cock isn’t my damn problem. You aren’t fucking her now, so hire her yourself.”
