Lazarus stood up from the seat, and he looked at me like he wanted to strangle me, though I couldn’t imagine why.“I’ll be waiting for you at the hospital when you get off work.If you send me a text when you’re on your way, I’ll let the front desk know to be expecting you.”
“I deleted your number before my feet even hit the sidewalk that night,” I informed him.“So, why don’t you just let them know to be expecting me around six.”
His chin went up, but he didn’t argue with me about it.“Fine.”
Nothing more was said as Lazarus walked out of my office, leaving me irritated as hell.
Chapter 6
Lazarus~
I was nervous, and that was saying something.After having spent the last twenty years dealing with the mentally disturbed, you’d think that nothing would phase me anymore, but when I had returned from that disaster with Elisabeth, Bodhi Salmen had greeted me with a smile, already aware that Elisabeth had agreed to meet him this evening, and a cold slither of dread had danced down my spine, and I hadn’t been able to shake it all fucking day long.
I was also self-centered enough to replay my conversation with Elisabeth over and over in my head, and I hated how she had called me Russ when she had called me Lazarus all night that night.Now, growing up, I hadn’t been a fan of my first name, and truth be told, I still wasn’t because it was too biblical for my liking.However, Elisabeth had said it with such reverence during our night together, and so hearing her call me Russ so dismissively was fucking with me.
You’re the one who fucked up, remember?
Having known Elisabeth for years, I hadn’t ever imagined that we’d end up in bed together because she’d always behaved so professionally, and she had also come across as a bit aloof.However, we’d both been attending a conference in town, then afterwards, we’d met at the bar for dinner, and after one thing had led to another, I had reserved a room at the hotel, and Elisabeth had spent all night making me glad that I’d been born a man.
Then, like a certified jackass, I’d been holding the woman in my arms when I’d begun questioning her choice of patients, judging them as crazy because their afflictions had come with a side dish of religion that I’d never been interested in or could quite comprehend.So, instead of commending her for treating the most difficult of mental disorders, I had insulted her, and I’d never had a woman leave my bed so fucking fast.
She had also refused to answer any of my calls or reply to my numerous texts afterwards, and if anything could be said about Elisabeth Batya, it couldn’t be said that the woman didn’t know her own mind.There’d been no second chance with her, and it didn’t matter that my chest still ached whenever I thought about that night or how I fucked up so badly.
Just then, my office phone buzzed, and when I hit the intercom button, our swing shift receptionist’s voice came through the speaker.“Dr.Copeland, Dr.Elisabeth Batya is here to see you,” Deidra announced.“You said to buzz you as soon as she arrived.”
“Yes, thank you,” I replied, my heart beating a little bit faster.“I’ll be right there, Deidra.”
With the building being a five-story state-of-the-art structure, it had taken me a full three minutes before my feet hit the lobby, all the doctors’ offices located on the fourth floor.The top floor was for the hospital’s administration, the third and second floors were where our patients were housed, and the first floor was the lobby, cafeteria, intake rooms, maintenance, security, and things like that.
When I walked into the lobby, I found Elisabeth reading our mission statement as she waited for me, and from knowing her for so long, I knew that this was the first time that she’d ever been here.I also knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t impressed with fancy, so while this place really was high-tech and sleek-looking, she obviously preferred that fortress where she worked.
“Lissa, thanks for coming,” I said, greeting her.
She turned that hazel gaze my way, saying, “I said that I would.”
Okay.
