Page 5 of Careless Whisper

She’d come into my office after the M&M conference. “You don’t believe me?” she asked, tears running down her face.

“You killed a man, Reggie,” I shouted at her.

“I didn’t, Eli. I…didn’t. I told her to check on him, and she said?—”

“Don’t make this Maren’s fault. Own up. Grow the fuck up. Honestly, as a nurse, you’re a fucking disgrace. And I don’t know what I was thinking fucking an immature girl like you. Maren is an exemplary doctor.”

She had cried. “Eli, I didn’t make a mistake here. If I did, I’d be the first toadmit to it. I?—”

“Maren told me what you said to her.”

“What?”

“She and I broke up a year ago, Reggie; you didn’t have to go after her career because you’re fucking insecure.”

She looked at me, confused. “What are you talking about?”

I sighed wearily. “Maren told me, Reggie. I know.”

“Know what?”

“That you threatened to ruin her career and tried to do exactly that. I…you disgust me.”

She took two steps back from me, and for a moment, I did believe her. But I knew Maren, had known her my whole life—I wouldn’t be swayed by pussy no matter how great it was.

“I never said anything to her,” she whimpered. “I didn’t, Eli.”

“Reggie, get the fuck out of my office, and if you’re smart, you’ll stay away from me and this profession. I’m sure you’ve been told you’re fired from Stratford. You’ll be lucky to work in Boston.”

“Eli, don’t do this,” she pleaded. “I love you and?—”

“Get the fuck out, Reggie, and have some self-respect. You were just a fuck—we weren’t in a relationship. You think I go around fucking women I care about in supply closets?”

It was a lie, but I wasn’t going to be weak when it came to her. We had been in a relationship. The best I’d ever been in. Damn it! Why couldn’t she be what she’dshown me? Honest, intelligent…someone with integrity…instead, she was just the kind of person I despised.

“Someday, you’ll know.” She wiped her tears. “When you do, Eli, don’t expect anything from me.”

“Reggie, all I expected from you was pussy…and I don’t want that anymore.”

The woman I’d seen in my office was nothing likethatReggie.

This one didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve.

This one didn’t have that laugh, the one I’d fallen in love with—rich and honest.

This Reggie barely smiled.

There was a painful distance about her. She had a reputation, I’d found out—Ice Princess. Cold and competent in the OR. Nothing rattled her. I definitely didn’t. But she had turned me inside out.

I exhaled sharply and scrubbed my hands over my face, willing the memories away.

My hospital phone buzzed against my hip.

A secure message from the ER flashed across the screen:CODE STEMI – 43 y/o male – unstable. Requesting cardiac consult. ETA 3 min to Trauma Bay 2.

“Shit,” I muttered, already moving.

“Dr. Graham,” came the overhead voice a moment later. “Cardiology consult, Trauma Two. Dr. Graham to Trauma Two.”

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