Dr. Fake It - A Possessive Doctor Romance

He barked a laugh. “Goddamn, doc, I never thought you’d call me.”

“I didn’t either, but you always remember a favor when you’re in my line of work.”

“Yeah, you get a lot of guys like me owing you shit?”

“I get a lot of people owing me a lot of things.” I smiled a little and looked around to make sure I was alone. “Listen, Antoine. I need help.”

“What’s the problem?”

“There’s a man I need to get in touch with, a mafia type guy named Cosimo.”

Antoine grunted. “I don’t know the name, doc.”

“Come on. You’re connected, right? You have to know something.”

“I really don’t, sorry, doc. I’m an independent contractor, you know what I mean? I work for a lot of folks. Sometimes I get mafia jobs, sure, and I do what I’m told— but I don’t meet the bosses.”

“Do you know anyone that could help?”

He was silent for a few seconds. “I know one guy you might be able to talk to.”

“What’s his name?”

“We call him Dr. Chen.”

I hesitated. “Is that for real?”

“He’s a real doctor, as far as I know. He takes on work for the mafia, you know, cleaning up their guys when they don’t wanna go to the hospital. Unfortunately, he costs a fuck-ton of money, or else we never would’ve met.”

“Can you give me his contact information?”

He cleared his throat. “I can dig it up for you. And when I do, after that, me and you are square. You understand? Whatever I send, that’s it.”

“All right, Antoine. Fair enough. Thanks for doing this.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’ll text you what I got.”

I felt a surge of hope. Maybe it was stupid, but if this was a real doctor then it might be someone I know or at least someone I can deal with. Maybe he’ll be able to help us out, or at least put us in contact with Cosimo.

“Before you go, I’m curious,” I said. “How do you have insurance? I keep wondering about that.”

“Fuckin’ Obamacare. Can you believe it?”

I laughed. “I guess I can.”

“Fuckin’ Obamacare. All right, buddy. Good luck.”

He hung up the phone.

I stared down at the floor for a few seconds, trying to process. I had a lead, even though it wasn’t a good one. Antoine would come through for me and send whatever he could—I had to hope he would at any rate. He was a thief, but hell, thieves had to have some honor.

I got up and headed into the elevator, riding it back down to continue my rounds. I thought about Erica, about her sitting in that room with her mother, and decided to try to do something nice for her.16EricaI was staring at Facebook for the hundredth time that day when Gavin came into my mother’s room. He had a bag tucked under his arm. I sat up straight and smiled at him, feeling a strange flutter in my heart.

It’d been like that ever since the night after dinner. Nothing else had happened between us, no more kisses, no more caresses, even though I’d sent him as many obvious signals as I could: walking around in skimpy clothes, leaving the door open while I got changed, even stepped out of the shower right as he came down the hall once. He didn’t take the bait though, and I could tell he was preoccupied at work.

Still, every time he came around, I felt a pulse of excitement. Not because I thought he was going to touch me, although of course I wanted it—but because the more often we were around each other, the more I realized how much I actually liked being with him. He was smart and funny and we liked all the same stuff. He was older than me, but that didn’t seem to matter to either of us. There was a strange level of comfort there, and I wanted to grab onto that, hold tight to it, ride it through the storm of my life.

“You busy?” he asked, smiling back.

“Oh, tons busy. My mom and I were just having a great conversation.”

He laughed a little. It was a morbid joke, but we’d gotten comfortable enough that he knew it was okay.

“How about you come with me for a little bit? I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“Yeah?” I closed my laptop and stood up. “I hope this is a work-appropriate surprise.”

He smirked at me and nodded. “I think it’ll be okay. Come on.”

I followed him out of the room and down the hall. Fiona waved as he passed though she was engrossed in something on her computer. I caught other nurses smiling and waving to Gavin and I had a strange pulse of jealousy, although of course it was absurd to be jealous—we might’ve bene married, but nothing about our arrangement meant he owed me anything. There was still an odd entitlement, or maybe an excitement to the idea that he was a wanted man, someone other women wanted to be around, and I had him, at least for a little while.