The Doctor Who Has No Closure (Soulless 10)

“Dex, what’s wrong?”

“Please go.” I looked at her again. “I just want to be alone right now.”

She stepped forward. “You know you can tell me anything—”

“Please get out of my apartment.” The more compassion she showed, the more I hated myself for being a dick, so that made me a bigger dick. “Now. If I wanted to talk to you, I would have called. I don’t.”

She flinched like I’d just stabbed her between the ribs.

I couldn’t stand there and watch her linger in my apartment, so I turned down the hallway and entered my bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for the sound of the door to close.

It was a long time before she did that, several minutes, but eventually, the door clicked to my place.

And then I knew she was gone.

21

Sicily

Something was seriously wrong—and I had no idea what it was.

I wanted to ask Cleo, but taking advantage of that relationship felt wrong and it would just piss him off more. I wanted to go to Daisy because she might know, but again, that was a violation of his privacy.

But it didn’t seem like he had any intention of confiding in me.

He turned into the biggest dick I’d ever seen, and I didn’t have a clue what could have possibly happened to make him that angry, to lash out at me when the last time we were together, we were in bliss.

He came to the office the next day because he was too dedicated to his patients to blow it off, regardless of the travesty he was experiencing. And when he walked inside, he ignored both Andrea and me.

So, he was still furious…about whatever happened.

After I let him get settled for a couple minutes, I walked into his office, like I always did, to go over the patients coming in and his schedule for the rest of the day.

He sat behind his desk, already looking at the scans for his first patient of the day.

I approached his desk until I stood in front of it, holding my notebook. “I rescheduled those follow-up calls for after our last appointment of the day…if that’s okay.”

He kept his eyes on the screen. “That’s fine.”

“Dr. Frankworth called a couple times. Wants you to give him a call back when you get a chance. I told him you were busy and that phone call probably wouldn’t happen until after hours.”

He shifted his fingers to his keyboard and made some notes on the patient’s chart. “I’ll get to it when I get to it.”

“Alright. And then—”

He turned back to the scans, not once making eye contact.

“Dex?”

He ignored me.

“I’m sorry…did I do something?”

“No.”

I was getting really fed up with his behavior, especially when he didn’t give me the courtesy of an explanation. “Then can you explain to me why you’re being the biggest asshole on the planet?”

That got his attention. He shifted his gaze to me and looked at me for the first time.

I knew I should tread carefully, but my anger was getting the best of me. I’d gone out of my way to care for him yesterday, and he’d chosen to treat me like a fucking dog. He’d never been that cruel to me, not even when we first started to work together.

“It’s not you.” That was all he said, as if that were a sufficient answer.

“Then tell me what’s wrong—”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we have a full roster of patients to see today, follow-up appointments we have to squeeze in because I was unavailable yesterday, so I don’t have the time or the headspace to deal with this shit. Do your job. Or is that too goddamn hard for you?”

I stepped back like a gust of wind hit me in the face. “Is it too goddamn hard for you not to treat me like shit? Fuck off, Dex.” I walked to the door, unable to keep my emotions under control. I gave him a look over my shoulder before I stormed out. “I’m sorry about whatever happened to make you behave this way, and I know it’s not the real you, but don’t expect me to put up with it. Because I won’t.”

We worked through the day, and I could see Dex was a little different was his patients. He was attentive and comforting, but he didn’t have that extra little quality that made him stand out from the rest. Whatever was eating at him was still gnawing at his insides.

When his last patient was done, he had his virtual follow-ups with patients, called about everyone on the call sheet, and by the time he was finished, it was almost seven in the evening. I got him dinner even though he should have been finished with the day and set it on his desk.

He didn’t look at me or say thank you.