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I glance over my shoulder. “Paying for this? What is she? A criminal?”
“In the eyes of the hospital, she may as well be,” Tom answers. “You slept with an intern and that’s a mistake but no one can tell it to your face…”
“I believe two people already have.”
“But Ellis slept with an attending, and the man who owns the hospital at that. For the other interns, the residents and even the other attendings, that’s a crime. She’s wearing the scarlet letter, Rain, and you’re the only one who can stop all the hate. You can do that by staying away from her.”
I let out a deep breath. I guess Tom has a point. If people have been staring at me, they must have been staring at Ellis, too, and saying bad things about her and calling her names. They can’t get to me, but they can get to her. Damn it. She might be crying her eyes out again.
I turn sideways and meet Tom’s gaze. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll take care of it.”
I grab the doorknob and walk out of the room to find Ellis.
~
I don’t find Ellis in the showers or in the pit or in any of the ORs. As I look around the cafeteria, I don’t catch a glimpse of her, either.
Fuck.
I’ve been running around the hospital for the past half hour. That’s not new. Doctors usually scramble from one floor to another when they’re working on emergency. This is an emergency, same as the one yesterday. This time, though, no one seems to know where Ellis is, and I can’t tell if they’re telling the truth or just refusing to tell me because like Tom and Amelia, they resent the idea of an intern sleeping with the richest man in the hospital.
Well, I’ll just have to find her. This is my hospital. If she’s here, I’ll find her.
I head to the interns’ locker room next. Even from outside the door, I can hear the interns talking, and I decide to pause and listen when I hear Ellis’s name come up.
“Who knew that she’d be the one to get screwed by the boss? I mean, she looked so innocent.”
“Which is why you should never let looks deceive you, especially those innocent looks. It’s always the ones who you think are naive and innocent who end up being the real bitches and whores.”
“Men go for those innocent looks. They’re like puppy dog eyes. And when they find out a woman is a virgin, they start acting like dogs, like it’s unmarked territory and they have to mark it.”
My nose wrinkles in disgust at the metaphor.
“I, for one, prefer women with more experience.”
“That’s because you’re a dick who wants the woman to do all the work.”
“I don’t care what you think. What Smithson is doing is unfair.”
“You’re just saying that because Ellis got him first.”
“I don’t mind being second or third. I just want a piece of him.”
“The point here is that Ellis is not just the Chief’s pet anymore. She’s also the boss’s booty call. That means she’ll get even more surgeries, even more praise…”
“I heard some of the attending physicians don’t want to work with her. They don’t like what she did, either.”
My eyebrows furrow. What?
“But if Dr. Knight tells them to work with her, they’ll have no choice. I mean, he owns the hospital.”
“And you think he’ll do that? You think he’s serious about her?”
“If so, that’s even more unfair.”
“This whole thing is unfair. I mean, why does Ellis get to be comforted after losing her first patient? No one did anything for me.”
“I bought you a drink.”
“I meant none of the attending physicians did anything for me. And why does she get the best goods? Look at her. She has glasses that look too big for her face.”
“She has bad breath sometimes.”
“I bet she doesn’t own a single piece of sexy underwear.”
I pause as I try to recall what she was wearing last time. Definitely not lace, but I can’t say it didn’t look sexy. I was too busy kissing her all over to take a good look at it and judge it.
“And look at her boobs.”
“What’s there to look at?”
They laugh.
I glance at the ceiling and draw a deep breath. Alright, enough is enough.
I open the door. “Playtime’s over, children.”
A hush falls over the room. The interns sitting on the benches jump to their feet. A locker door slams shut.
The intern named Laura clears her throat and gives me a smile. “Dr. Knight. This is… a surprise.”
“I’ll tell you what’s a surprise,” I tell them. “Finding you interns, instead of anywhere else you might be of use to the hospital, in here gossiping about one of your own.”
The one next to Laura gives a wide-eyed look of horror. “You… heard that?”
“Our shift is over, Dr. Knight,” Laura says. “We were about to leave.”
