Surprise Delivery(60)

I slide the clipboard back to Cindy and give her a nod as I walk away from the station to check up on my next patient.

“Excuse me, Doctor Clyburne?”

I turn around at the sound of the man’s voice and am surprised to see Brad Walker walking toward me. There’s a strange expression on his face that sends a cold spike of fear straight through me. My immediate thought is that something is wrong with Alexis or the baby.

Alexis and her baby were discharged from the hospital a couple of weeks ago and since then, I haven’t had contact with her. I’ve thought about reaching out a few times, but I always stop myself. It’s not my place. She’s not with me. She’s got a new life, a new man, and a new baby. There’s just no room for me in her world anymore.

“Brad, is everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” he says.

“Is there something wrong with Alexis?” I ask. “The baby?”

A shadow passes across his face, but it passes quickly. Brad stands there staring at me with something like contempt upon his face. I’m guessing he’s still upset about what happened when I ran into them on the street. Hell, in his place, maybe I would be too. I can’t deny that running into Alexis and looking into her eyes again set my heart on fire. The connection between us, even for that brief moment, had been as strong as ever. Both of us felt it and I got the feeling Brad did too – which was what led him to be such an asshole that night.

As he stands here before me, his expression grim and his body tense, as if he’s prepared for a fight, I can’t help but think this has something to do with that.

“What can I do for you, Brad?”

“You can start by staying the hell away from Alexis,” he hisses.

I’m doing my best to maintain control of myself – the last thing I want to do is get into a fight with Alexis’ boyfriend. But it’s not an easy thing to do when you know you’re better for somebody than the person they ended up with, and that person is in your face, growling at you in righteous indignation, even though you haven’t done a damn thing to deserve it.

“I haven’t seen her since she was discharged, Brad.”

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, his stance softening – slightly. “Look, I appreciate you saving her life and all of the top-notch care you gave her –”

“I was just doing my job.”

“And I know you two have some kind of history together, though she’s never been real specific about it,” he continues, his voice tight. “It was just more than obvious the night we ran into you out on the street that it still means something to her.”

Yeah, it still means a hell of a lot to me too. And if not for a twerp like you getting in the way, we’d be revisiting that history and enjoying each other again. I wouldn’t be wandering around here like a ghost. Even though I got what I wanted – a rotation back in the ER – I’m not happy. The work is exciting, but life is once more a little dull around the edges and lacking that vibrancy I’ve been searching for.

A vibrancy I felt in Syria, but one I also feel in Alexis’ presence.

“Yeah, we do have a history together –”

“History is better left in the past, Doctor Clyburne,” he interrupts. “That’s where I’m asking you to leave it. In the past.”

I give him a wry smile. “Look, Brad, I’m not sure what has you so wound up today, but I can assure you that I’ve not done anything to bring that history to the present,” I tell him. “Like I told you, I have neither seen, nor talked to Alexis since she was discharged.”

He runs a hand through his hair again and shuffles his feet. He’s upset, I get that much. And for whatever reason, he’s focusing his anger on me.

“Has something happened?” I ask. “Did you and Alex –”

“That’s none of your goddamn business,” he snaps.

His outburst draws the attention of a nurse pushing one of her patients in a wheelchair by us. She shoots me an expression of concern, but I give her a subtle shake of the head, trying to tell her there’s nothing for her to worry about. She casts a look at Brad once more before continuing on her way.

Brad finally looks up at me. “You know, life was so much better when you were over in Syria,” he continues. “I never had to hear about you, think about you, and I sure as hell didn’t have to listen to Alexis talk about you. You were just – gone. A non-thought, a non-consideration.”

I get a small prick of satisfaction knowing that Alexis still thinks about me enough to talk about me – one that only intensifies knowing how much it bothers Brad here. Yeah, I can be a little petty sometimes.

I understand what he’s saying, though. Being compared to an ex is going to be tough for anybody. It’s going to suck, I get that. And then having that ex drop back into somebody’s life, perhaps reigniting all of those old feelings – yeah, that is going to suck even more. So, from that standpoint, I can almost sympathize with Brad. Almost. He’s a prick and I don’t like him – and I personally think Alexis made a terrible choice – so he doesn’t get any of my sympathies.

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” I tell him. “But, that’s not really my problem. I’m just living my life, doing my job, and I’m not interfering in your world.”