Choosing Us (Pierced Hearts Duet #1)(44)

There was this certain vulnerability to him that I felt in the space between us. However, just as quick as it emerged, it was gone. Whatever it was had me questioning what I believed about him in the first place. The emotional attachment I felt for a man I had only just encountered was as overpowering and controlling as everything else had been up until this point. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, which only made me even more confused.

More cautious.

More curious about him.

In that place and time, all I craved was to see him smile. To catch a glimpse of the man I’d only stared at in photos. He seemed as though he was a walking paradox of contradictions. I was seeing the side of him that everyone saw, but there was something else under his allure.

All I knew was, I liked it.

I wanted more.

I needed more.

The uncomfortable silence hammered all around me, tearing into my insecurities that this was a bad idea. I shouldn’t be in this hospital. I shouldn’t be feeling anything for him other than what I was supposed to. Only adding to my plaguing emotions.

He was my employer, nothing else but that.

Right as I took a step in his direction, longing to hear his answers to my relentless questions, I heard him snap, “What the fuck is this?” in a sharp masculine tone, stopping my descent forward.

It was only then I realized there was a woman standing in front of him. Her stunned appearance mirrored mine.

“Why were these patients’ charts on my desk?”

“Dr. Pierce, I thought—”

“I don’t pay you to give me your thoughts, Miranda. I pay you to do your goddamn job. If filing these patient’s charts is too hard for you, you shouldn’t be working in my hospital.”

I jolted back as did she, never expecting him to say that.

What an asshole.

“Dr. Pierce, I was just doing—”

“Doing what, wasting my time?”

“No, that’s not—”

“I don’t have the time to do your job and mine. Last I checked I have MD after my name, I save people’s lives. This is my life and you’re fucking it up by being incompetent. It’s simple, all I ask is for you to file the charts, stay out of my way, and do the job you were hired to do. Now, are you capable of that?”

She nodded, practically in tears. “Yes, Dr. Pierce.”

“Good, now repeat after me… I will not try to help in any other way but doing my job. If I can’t do that, because I don’t know how to follow protocol, then I will get fired and become someone else’s incompetent pain in the ass.” He looked down, writing something in the chart in front of him.

“But, Dr. Pierce, if you could just let me explain—”

“For Christ’s sake!” He slammed the chart shut and threw a pen onto the counter, making both of us jump back. “There is nothing that could explain why I walked into my office to find a stack of charts on my desk that should have already been filed.”

“I-I-I—”

“Don’t start with the tears. I don’t have time for that either. Do your job, or I’ll find someone who can.” He abruptly threw the charts at her, making her scramble to catch them before they hit the floor.

My mouth dropped open, and just as I was about to intervene, his RN did for me.

“Aiden!” she chided, walking up to him.

“Don’t start, Renee. I don’t have time for your bullshit either.”

She nodded to the woman with a look of gratitude to walk away, and she did exactly that.

Renee turned to glare at him, like this wasn’t the first time she’d done so. “You need a break. You haven’t slept in two days. You’ve been on call for longer than that. And don’t get me started on the last time you ate. You can’t go on like this, Aiden. It’s not healthy or fair to anyone, including your patients. Remember the time when everyone used to mean something to you?”

I narrowed my eyes, contemplating what she had just said.

It wasn’t just his kids he was neglecting?

“Bailey wouldn’t have wanted this for you.”

His fists connected with the counter, not startling her in the least. “Don’t you ever say her name to me again. Do you understand me?” He eyed her up and down, backing away in the opposite direction of me. Quickly spewing, “I’m the doctor, you’re the nurse, Renee, know your role in my hospital.”

My eyes widened as did hers.

Before she could reply, he spun and walked away, leaving us both there shocked and dismayed.

“Wow,” I blurted too loud, causing her eyes to connect with mine. “I-I-I-yo-yo-yo…” I immediately started stuttering, unable to form words. My tongue getting twisted with my Spanish dialect.

“I’m so sorry you had to see that.” She deeply sighed, embarrassed. Shaking her head for me. “He wasn’t always like this. I know how that sounds after what you’ve just witnessed, but trust me … he was the kindest, sweetest doctor, man you’d ever meet. I won’t make excuses for him, but circumstances change people. The hospital knows what he’s going through since his wife—”

“Code blue! Code blue! All available medical staff to room 521-bed A. I repeat, we have a code blue in room 521-bed A,” the speakers in the hallway went off. “Shit! I have to go. It was nice to meet you, Camila,” she concluded, running off in the same direction as Dr. Pierce.