“Keep your head up. I don’t think anyone’s going to mention it to you. Try not to think about it, and maybe it will blow over.”
“Do you really think this will blow over?”
She pursed her lips, thinking of the best answer to give. “Honestly,” she said after a long pause, “I don’t know. All I know is that our work doesn’t stop when we have personal problems. Patients will continue to get sick, regardless of whether we’re going through a crisis or not. You’ll be okay, but you should probably talk to Chad as soon as possible to figure out what the hell happened.”
“I will,” I said, accepting her hug. “Thanks.”
I left the lab and walked back down the hallway toward my office. Maria was right—I still had a job to do and I couldn’t let anything get in my way. There was a mountain of paperwork on my desk that I had to get through, so there was no time to freak out.
Chad Brent was not going to embarrass me again. He may have taken control in the bedroom, but I was going to take full command of my career. Whatever petty games he was playing, I was not going to be a part of it. No, one night of fun was not going to end my career.
Chapter Thirteen
Whitney
My office was silent as I scribbled away at charts, writing notes and looking up medical histories for my patients. I figured that if everyone at the hospital was too nervous to approach me, I would at least get some quality work done.
I sent a text to Ted, wondering if he knew about the videos. I really hoped that he didn’t, so I wouldn’t have to find out that the guy I was dating was a scumbag who was in on the plan the whole time. I asked him if he had any idea about what was happening at the hospital, and then I set my phone in the corner of my desk.
I thought about looking for Chad right away, but despite how furious I was with him, I knew I couldn’t look him in the eye. It was too painful to see him. He had betrayed my trust and I felt stupid for ever thinking that he cared about me.
When it came to lovers, trust was something I couldn’t negotiate on. I could date a guy who was a little messy, or late, or underachieving. I could even hang out with a guy who wasn?
?t conventionally attractive if I like his personality. I wasn’t very picky when it came to me.
But, I couldn’t have a relationship with anyone I didn’t trust. Whether that meant that he wouldn’t cheat on me or intentionally do something to hurt me, I needed that trust to feel comfortable. After everything I experienced this morning, I lost all faith that I could ever be in a relationship with Chad.
Disappointment would be putting it mildly. Since I met him, I had been searching for reasons we could make things work between us despite everything that stood in our way. First, it was sharing a workplace. Then, it was sharing parents. Hell, it even went so far as sharing me with his friend. There were so many reasons I should have avoided him at all costs, yet I knew that the chemistry between us was too good to throw away. But now, that wasn’t enough to displace the fact that he’d recorded us having sex and leaked it around the hospital. That was unforgivable.
Within the solitude of my little office, I completely forgot that my workplace employed a few people who didn’t give a shit if I felt uncomfortable or not. While doctors and nurses gave me a wide berth to deal with the awkwardness, my mother and stepfather had no qualms about busting into my office.
“Whitney,” my mom hissed, shutting the door behind her once she and Paul were in the room. “We’ve just heard some very troubling stories. Can you explain yourself?”
I took a deep breath and set my reading glasses on the desk, rubbing my temples. The stress was giving me a headache.
“What have you heard?” I asked wearily.
“We saw the pictures,” Paul said softly. My stomach turned.
“I haven’t even seen any of this,” I whined. “What makes you think that’s me?”
“For God’s sake, Whitney,” my mom exclaimed, “don’t you think we know what our own children look like? I’m absolutely horrified at what we saw and what was described to us.”
“What did you see?” I pried. I hated the thought of them seeing even a second of what went on in that room, but I was still curious.
“If you must know, you were on top of Chad and were touching Ted,” my mom choked out. I had never seen her look more uneasy in her life. Her jaw was clenched so tightly, I was afraid her molars would crumble under the pressure.
I felt sick. These were probably the last two people in the world that I wanted to know about my sex life. What made it worse was that it involved their son.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said, pressing my palms into my face. “I didn’t know that Chad was recording it. I’m so humiliated, I can’t even stand it.”
“It doesn’t really change things,” my mom said. “I’m sure that everyone’s seen it by now. This is serious, Whitney. You can’t be having relationships with coworkers like this.”
“Really?” I scoffed. “Because if I remember correctly, the two of you got married just a few days ago.”
“That’s different,” Paul said.
“How?”
“Because we kept things quiet,” my mom answered. “We didn’t display what we were doing in the privacy of our own homes for the whole hospital to see. We got married. There’s nothing scandalous about that.”
“But I didn’t want this to be public,” I cried. “Do you really think that I was okay with that?”