The Doctor Who Has No Ambition (Soulless 9)

He released a quiet breath before he turned his head to look out the window, his expression blank but his eyes pained. He held that position for a long time, looking into the night as if I weren’t there anymore.

Watching him made me realize I was missing a piece of his puzzle, that there was more to him I’d never noticed before. Cleo asked me to work for him if she could convince him to go back to his practice, but I just assumed she was invested in everyone she cared about. Now I wondered if that wasn’t the case. “She’s more than your boss, isn’t she?”

He turned back to me, to look at me head on.

And that was when I saw it—those features and the hint of a smile that I’d seen in another face.

“She’s my mom.”

I felt a quick moment of humiliation that I processed in private, thinking about what I’d confessed a few days ago. I’d even told her that Dex was hot…like an idiot. She seemed cool with it, but it was still a bit embarrassing. “Why did you keep that a secret?”

“She didn’t want people to suspect nepotism.”

“But if you grew up in that building…”

“Matt is the only one who knows because he’s worked with my mom forever. Everyone else is relatively new.”

When Tony screamed at Dex and me, and Cleo put him in his place, I realized that really was a mama bear coming out with teeth and claws. I remembered the way she would smile at Dex in a special way, the way he would run over to help her with anything remotely heavy so she wouldn’t have to carry it. “That’s sweet that you guys are so close.”

“Yeah…” He dropped his gaze again.

“You quit your job because of her.” It started to make sense now. Cleo’s sadness, along with her husband’s, came from Dex’s decision to leave the building.

“Yeah.” He grabbed his beer but didn’t take a drink. “When I quit medicine, I asked if I could work with her. I wanted an easy, stress-free job. Dad said no, but my mom caved. I enjoyed the job. I enjoyed spending more time with my mom. I enjoyed seeing my dad every day when he came home from work.”

Now I knew exactly where Dex got his hotness from because Cleo’s husband was one good-looking guy. He had to be in his fifties or sixties, but he looked like he was in his thirties. It was amazing how you could preserve your youth if you worked hard at it. And it didn’t look like he got Botox or plastic surgery.

“But they’ve always been disappointed in my decision to leave my field.” He swirled the beer in his bottle, his elbow resting on the table. “It’s always been a source of tension. Then my father crossed the line a couple weeks ago. We haven’t spoken since. I left the job because I realized I couldn’t see either one of them regularly.”

When I looked at our interactions in retrospect, it was obvious how close he was with his family. They were a tight-knit group. It was heartbreaking to think that had changed permanently. “What did he do?”

He stopped swirling his bottle and looked at me. “Some woman emailed me and asked me to operate on her husband. I informed her I was no longer practicing medicine. She went to my dad’s office and somehow convinced him to ambush me in their condo. She sobbed her eyes out and pleaded until I agreed to take his file.” He dropped his gaze and looked at his beer. “It was just a betrayal…”

I couldn’t believe he’d told me because he’d always been so private, but now that we weren’t coworkers anymore, there was no reason to keep his life a secret.

“We got into a fight…” He shook his head. “Said a lot of bad shit. But I’m just so frustrated that my father won’t accept my decision. He’s never going to accept me as I am until I do what he wants.”

I didn’t offer an opinion or advice on the matter because I didn’t know any of them well enough. I just sat in silence and let him vent his pain.

After a long silence, he turned his pretty eyes back on me.

I stared back, seeing a man so handsome that he took my breath away all the time.

“You have nothing to say?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t think it’s my place to have an opinion. But I’m happy to listen to you.”

He stared at me a little longer as if surprised. “My siblings like to shove their opinions down my throat.”

“Well, that’s their job,” I said with a light chuckle. “They wouldn’t be siblings unless they did that.”

“True.” He took a final drink until the bottle was empty and pushed it aside to the edge of the table. He turned quiet and contemplative again, staring at the surface of the table and then across the bar like he wasn’t looking at anything in particular, just staring.