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He frowned, his eyes darkening briefly, but then he leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips. “Alright.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Becks, running her teeth over her bottom lip. “You can always just quit and run away with Alex. Caleb and I will visit you all the time.”
“I’m not going to quit,” I said firmly, though the thought had crossed my mind a few times—put in my notice before my belly started showing.
But I wasn’t a coward, and Vicki deserved to know the truth.
“It’ll be fine,” I said, walking into the gym, my eyes scanning the room while I hoped Vicki had in fact not shown up for work today.
Not that it would matter. Her absence would only buy me time; it wouldn't change the inevitable confrontation. The sooner the better. Then again, there was a strategy to catch her at the right moment. If Vicki was in a bad mood, which she often was, the aftermath would equate to Chornobyl. If she was in a particularly good mood, it would be like navigating a minefield—still dangerous, but at least I'd have a fighting chance.
There was no sign of Vicki, which meant I had at least a few more minutes to rehearse my speech:I'm terribly sorry for sleeping with your ex-fiancé and for being far too fertile for my own good. But you know, if you had just opened up a bit more, and told me about yourself, I would've known exactly who Alex was and steered clear.
“Can I be there when you tell her?” asked Becks, walking over to the patient board and erasing a few names. “I’ll be your backup.”
“No,” I said sharply, trying to resist the angsty nerves building up like a storm in my stomach. “You’ll only make things worse.”
“That hurts my feelings,” Becks said, pulling a face, and glanced back to the hallway that led to the treatment rooms. “Why don’t you go check if she’s in her office? Get it over with. Rip off that Band-Aid.”
Checking the clock above the life-size skeleton model dangling in the corner, I shook my head. “She’s probably still in the wards.”
It was nine a.m., and Vicki usually saw a patient or three in the surgical ward before she made her way back to the gym in time for her other appointments. This was why it was a massive surprise when the door swung open and Vicki’s voice rang out like a starter pistol across the room.
“Sophie, I want a word with you please.” Vicki spoke as she walked, barely glancing my way, only momentarily stopping short of the hallway when she added, “My office. Now.”
My entire body shut down. Panic was a physical force, crashing into me like a rogue football, knocking out my breath.
Becks’s eyes were wide as she mouthed, “Do you think she knows?” Her face crumbled as if she had just seen someone getting hit by a car. Given that I was on my way to certain death, it seemed entirely appropriate.
With my legs as heavy as tree trunks, my heartbeat thumping in my ears, and a sickly— not pregnancy-related—sensation creeping into my gut, I reluctantly made my way to Vicki’s office. The door was ajar.
“Have a seat,” Vicki said, her face stoic, giving absolutely nothing away. If she did know, if she had somehow found out about Alex and me, she was keeping it a secret.
I sat down, scooting the chair just a few inches back so that I was out of Vicki’s reach. If she decided to leap over her desk and claw my eyes out, she’d have to put in a bit more effort.
“I just got off the phone with Dr. Francis,” said Vicki, “and she says you tended to her daughter very well after her hip surgery.”
“I did?” I blurted, struggling to take in the compliment when I had such a big secret I needed to confess. This was not what I had expected when Vicki called me to her office. “I mean, good. I’m glad she’s doing better.”
“Well, Dr. Francis was so impressed, she was hoping you’d do a few home visits over the next two weeks to continue with her daughter’s rehab.” Vicki smiled, a beautiful smile that didn’t come often or easily. It was like seeing a rare comet streaking across the sky—brief and stunning. Too bad I was going to wipe it off her face in a minute. “Well done, Sophie. That’s exactly the kind of comments I want to hear from our doctors.” Viki's constant air of professionalism and seriousness makes me feel like I'm working with a robot programmed by the most uptight engineers
Great. Now I had to ruin the only compliment Vicki had ever given me in my three years of working under her.
When I didn’t stand to leave, especially after she had given a nod that finalized our conversation, Vicki switched on her laptop and glanced over the top of it in my direction. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said softly, swallowing hard and looking down at my trembling hands. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it?” she asked, frowning this time, her freckles clustering together.
I forced myself to meet her eyes, feeling like I might shatter to pieces under her gaze, and stammered, “When Alex came here for his back pain, it wasn’t the first time we had met. I . . . I slept with him at the seminar.”
A flush of pink suddenly crept up Vicki’s neck as if she had some skin disease. Her eyes bulged, her jaw clenched. It was obvious she was furious enough to wring my neck, but I didn't stop. The words came out like vomit.
“It’s just that I had no idea you two were even engaged. If I had known, if you had told me about him, I would never . . .” I took a deep breath in. I was speaking way too fast. “Believe me, I would never have slept with him if I’d known. But I did and I’m . . . I’m pregnant.” The last part I basically whispered.
When I finally managed to get everything out and sagged exhausted into the chair, I had barely two seconds to brace myself before the room seemed to explode in rage.
Vicki's face scrunched with fury. She picked up a stapler and looked like she might hurl it against the wall, like she might aim for my head, but then she did something far worse. She pushed back her chair, stood up, folding her arms over her chest, and glared at me so intensely that I could almost feel the heat radiating from her gaze, like her stare might burn a hole right through me.
