This weekend was chaotic, with Sloan and I trying to juggle our shifts, all while having a relationship. It still doesn’t feel real. None of it. Not a single minute I spend with Sloan. After only a few short months with the man I am head over heels in love with, everything seems to be falling into place.
Sloan has two more days as the Residency Program Director, so close to no longer being my direct supervisor and teacher. That is, until I walk through the door and get cornered by a woman in a navy pinstripe pants suit.
She has a look about her that screams business, which makes my stomach tighten at the thought. “Dr. Roberts,” she says, extending her hand to me in front of the nurses station.
“Yes, that’s me.” I shake her hand, the nerves causing me to tremble.
Who is she and what does she want?
“I’m Susan Connelly from human resources. I need to speak with you in private. Can I have a few minutes of your time?”
If only I had a few seconds to prepare myself for this conversation. This has to be about Sloan and me. But how did they find out? Ever since we decided to solidify our relationship, we stuck to our agreement not to have sex in the hospital. We even distanced ourselves from each other more than normal.
“Of course,” I mutter, saying a silent prayer that I can make it through this meeting without messing u
p my relationship with Sloan.
His career means everything to him, as does mine, and now that I know him on a more personal level, I also know how important being a doctor is to him. How important it is to me to be a doctor. This hospital is both of our lives. I have to cover for him. There’s no way around it. He promised to lie for me, do whatever was necessary to keep our secret.
I follow behind Susan, as if I am walking down the plank to my execution, about to take the plunge. We take the elevator up to the fourth floor in silence, which works in my favor, because I am so anxious that the nerves bubble up in my throat, choking me. I’d waited for this moment from the first time I had sex with Sloan in the hospital. After finally getting our acts together, it’s a bit of a shock to have it come bite us in the ass now.
When I walk into the conference room with Susan, I gasp at the sight of Sloan at the end of the long table, confirming my suspicions. He seems unfazed, with an unreadable expression on his face, as he tugs at his open lab coat and pushes it out at his side. As always, Sloan looks sexy-as-fuck and so comfortable in his skin that he puts me at ease. His eyes tell me that he has this situation under control. We have a way of communicating without using words.
“Take a seat, Dr. Roberts.” Susan points at the chair next to Sloan and sits on the opposite side of the table. “We have a lot to discuss.”
A chill runs through me just thinking about what will happen next. We knew what we were doing was wrong and that we could get caught at any moment, yet we kept doing the wrong thing because deep down it felt right. And I stand by that decision. While our dirty sex in an on-call room was cheap, it wasn’t meaningless. Now, we both have more than what we had bargained for at the beginning of this relationship.
I never thought I would end up with a man like Sloan. A small part of me had envisioned myself with a man who would run after the kids while I worked at the hospital. But my life has changed since I met Sloan. He flipped it upside down and now there’s no turning back. We changed each other, and by doing so, we started to build something real, something worth protecting.
My instinct to fight gnaws at me, as I sit next to Sloan and wait for our punishment. There’s no way we are getting out of this room without at least a slap on the wrist. Susan flips through a folder in front of her without a word. She doesn’t move an inch until the door to the room opens and the doctor who Sloan choked steps inside.
Sloan’s jaw clenches at the sight of the man who would have done who knows what to me had Sloan not come to my rescue.
“This is bullshit,” Sloan hisses under his breath and balls his hands into fists on his thighs.
Susan looks at the bastard who takes his place next to her, the man staring across the table at us. “Dr. Hart,” she says, turning to face Sloan with her hands folded in front of her on the table. “Dr. Sully is accusing you of sleeping with Dr. Roberts in the on-call room. As you are aware, these are serious allegations that violate hospital policies. Have you had sexual relations with Dr. Roberts?”
Sloan grinds his teeth together, glaring at the doctor as if he’s about to leap across the table and rip out his eyeballs. But when he speaks, his voice is level and with more control than I had expected, though I should have known better. “The allegations are true.”
My mouth opens shock, his comment taking me by surprise. What the fuck is he doing? I stare at Sloan in horror of what he has done. Our reputations will be trashed once the staff get wind of this. Nothing in the hospital, even sensitive matters like these, go unnoticed. We will be the talk of Penn General by lunch. Fuck.
Susan gasps at Sloan’s confession, and so do I, because I am in shock by how forward Sloan is about our relationship. I had expected him to deny the charges and fight back against the man who would have done awful things to me if given the chance. What about our careers? What the fuck is Sloan doing?
“I see.” Susan uncrosses her hands to sink back in her chair. Her eyes travel between us, as if deciding how to handle the situation. “So, you don’t deny having sexual relations with a surgical intern who was under your direct supervision while you were both on the clock.”
“Ava and I are a couple. We are together. But we were not having sexual relations during our shifts.”
At least he lied about that part. This situation is awkward enough without having to talk about all the fucking we did while we were working.
“Dr. Sully has made several reports to our office. He claims you choked him in the on-call room on the third floor of this hospital two months ago. On several occasions, Dr. Sully has witnessed the two of you leaving the on-call room with your clothes and hair messed up. He even indicated in his report that you were holding hands a few times.”
“What he thinks he saw and what actually happened are two different things,” Sloan says, matter-of-fact, sitting up straighter in his chair. “We were using the on-call room to change our clothes. The night I allegedly choked him, Ava brought new scrubs to me since she was off for the evening and was not expected in the O.R. until the morning. I spilled coffee on my scrubs. It’s that simple. Dr. Sully saw me leaving the room in my cap and mask, on my way to the operating room to observe a procedure. I was in a rush. When I reached the elevator bank and saw that Ava wasn’t behind me, I went back to see if there was a problem, and that’s when I found Dr. Sully sexually harassing my girlfriend. If I hadn’t come back to save her, I have no idea what would have happened to her. The person you should be investigating is this resident and not the interim Residency Program Director.”
“It’s my job to ask questions and determine if there is any wrongdoing,” Susan says. “I can’t speak to what you saw Dr. Sully doing with Dr. Roberts, and I have no physical proof as to what you and Dr. Roberts were doing together in the on-call room.” She turns to look at Dr. Sully and says, “Do you have anything to say for yourself in regards to the allegations that you were harassing Dr. Roberts?”
“I did nothing wrong,” he says with fire behind his words. “I went in to the on-call room to get some sleep before my next shift, and I found Dr. Roberts alone, right after she had finished having sex with Dr. Hart. I told her she was in the wrong place and to leave, but I never laid a hand on her. The allegations are nonsense. I’m a doctor, not a pervert.”
“That’s a lie,” Sloan growls. “You have some nerve reporting a situation to HR when you were the one who was in the wrong.”