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He said nothing, just stood there watching me.
“Did something happen with a patient?”
“No.”
“Okay, you’re weirding me out. What’s wrong?” He almost looked angry.
“How could you not tell me one of your job offers was from Dr. Marshall?”
I blew out a breath, not at all prepared to deal with this. “Because the offer was confidential.”
“So you’re actually contemplating taking a job at my practice.”
I didn’t care for his tone. Did he not remember I’d originally come to help the practice out of a bind? At his own instigation? “Whether I do or not has nothing to do with you.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Jesus. Get over yourself. You brought me in, and I’ve done a good enough job that the head of the practice extended an offer to come on full-time.”
“We had a deal. A deal which was set to expire when you left.”
“You make it sound like I lied. We had a deal about our physical relationship, not about my career options. It’s a job offer. And if I ended up taking it, I would hope you’d be professional enough to get over it.”
He pinched the bride of his nose. “Did you know about the merger too?”
What the hell was he talking about? “What merger?”
“The one in which Dr. Marshall has invited a small practice of doctors to join us. In-home care will be headed up by Dr. Redmond, who evidently specializes in providing care to big celebrities.”
“I had no idea.”
“Dr. Marshall didn’t tell you about his plans?”
“No, he mentioned he wanted to switch focus from elderly care to a younger patient base, but he didn’t mention a merger.”
Shit. Judging from his expression, he was irritated I hadn’t said anything about his latest comments. “Please understand the position I was put in.”
“What I understand was it was a mistake to bring you in.”
I inhaled sharply, swallowing down the sting. “You don’t mean that.”
“You were supposed to end your commitment here in another ten days.”
“Look, I’m sorry for not telling you what Dr. Marshall said about his vision for in-home care and for not disclosing the job offer, but he asked me not to.”
“Are you taking the job in San Fran?”
“No. It didn’t work out.” As much as I would have loved to tell him all the details and how heartbroken I was about it, I realized it didn’t matter. The mere idea I might stay in Los Angeles past our agreement had triggered him.
This was over. And it hurt like hell.
