“Did you hear me when I said this encounter was going to go on the record against Mia Parker, the hospital lawyer?”
He sneered at me. “You’d let her do that to Mia?”
I shook my head. “Eli, you’re doing it. When are you going to take responsibility for your own fucking life?”
He glared at both of us, and then at me. “You use this against Mia and you’ll be sorry.”
“Are you threatening my client, Mr. Parker?”
“It’s a promise,” he said and then left.
Victoria sat down and started eating. Me, I needed a moment to get my shit together. I sat and downed my drink, lifting my hand to signal the waitress to order another one.
“You’re not really going to use that against her, are you?”
She looked up from her lasagna. “My job is to represent you, so yes, I’ll use whatever I have to. I’d like you to tell me who is here in this restaurant since they’re witnesses to his outburst in case we need their statements.”
“I don’t want to fuck up Mia’s—”
She studied me for a moment. “Is he right? Do you and Ms. Parker have a thing going on?”
I shook my head. “We had a thing in the past. Now we just work in the same place.”
“She’s the hospital lawyer. Her responsibility is to the hospital, not you.”
“Which is why I have you.”
“What was that about the mother? Does the hospital have something on you I don’t know about?”
I was thankful when the waitress showed up with my second drink. The last for the night, unfortunately.
“No. He blames me because it’s easy. She was in a car accident, and he thinks I should have treated her. But she was like a second mother, so the other doctor on duty did. I think Eli’s just pissed because I was the one by her side instead of him when she died.”
“He also doesn’t like your past with his sister.”
“No. I can hardly blame him for that. I do feel a bit like I betrayed him.”
“So, what’s with you and his sister? Does she blame you for the mom too?”
I shook my head. “No. She and I were close, but she was in grad school and I was in my residency when we were together. After we graduated, she went her way and I went mine.”
She looked at me with scrutinizing eyes that I suspected made her scary on the stand. “Now she’s here. And it sounds like it’s against the rules for you two to see each other. If she’s broken that policy, you’d have—”
“No.” I hoped I looked nonchalant. Instead, I was sick. I didn't want to lose my job, but I didn’t want to take Mia down trying to save it. If I thought I was weak already, the idea of outing Mia made me pathetic.
“So, if I invited myself to your place, there’d be no reason for you to say no?”
I jerked in surprise. “Ah … no.”
She leaned forward, close enough that I could smell her perfume. “So how about it. We’d be out of the prying eyes and eager ears of your neighbors.”
“To work?” It was strange how discombobulated I felt that she was hitting on me and I wasn’t taking her up on it.
“Or whatever. I don’t have to be in the office until after noon tomorrow.”
I took in her sharp, smart blue eyes, full pink lips, thin body with a nice set of tits, and couldn’t believe I wasn’t already escorting her out the door. “I’m okay with working, not with whatever.”
She sat back with a smirk, and I wondered if her moves were a test. A test that I just failed.