Alpha Billionaire Series

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Good morning," I said as I walked into the building and approached the information desk. I made eye contact with Brooke, she immediately turned away from me.

She had somebody standing at her desk, so I didn't pursue it. The entire elevator ride up to my office, I couldn't help but wonder what that look had meant. Ever since the weekend at the lake she hadn't been returning my texts. She hadn't smilec at me once when I saw her in the mornings.

I wasn't sure what I had said or had done, and she wasn't being forthright with why she was ignoring me.

I met my morning appointments, nothing unusual there, and took advantage of a cancellation, to get down to her desk before the lunch rush. Hopefully, I could have a minute of her attention between the last patients of the morning, and the exodus of medical workers leaving for lunch all at the same time. I stood by quietly as she dealt with a few patients.

I couldn't help but notice she looked tired. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail that looked like it had barely been brushed. She had taken minimal effort with her makeup. Something she always excelled at. Not today. Now that I thought about it, not all week. She had dark circles under her eyes and she wasn't even offering patients her usual smile.

Once no one else was waiting for her attention, I expected her to turn her smiling face to me. Instead, she completely ignored me and picked up her telephone and began speaking to someone, it sounded like her manager. I wasn't sure.

“I need to get off early,’ she said. “I'm not feeling well. Okay, thanks." She hung up the phone.

“You're not feeling well?” I asked. “Are you alright? Is that what's going on here?”

She didn't look at me. She leaned over, pulled something out of a drawer, picked up a water bottle, and put up a little paper sign on the counter portion of the desk. The sign said, “will return shortly," in neat block hand lettering someone had writtey with a black marker. And then she left.

“Brooke!” I followed after her.

She completely ignored me and began walking faster. In two quick strides, I was by her side. I slipped my hand around her upper arm and pulled her to a stop, making her turn to face me.

“Brooke, would you give me a minute?”

She closed her eyes and pursed her lips. She took a deep breath before she began speaking. “Take your hand off my arm, or will call security and tell them that you are harassing me.’

She stared at me long and evenly. I dropped my hand from her arm, uncertain of what had just happened. I wasn't harassing her. I was trying to speak to her, and she was ignoring me. That wasn't like her. The second my hand was off her arm. She turned and began walking away. I took a step to follow her.

She spun on her heel and pointed at me as if she had caught me doing something bad. There was a lot of indignation in tha finger. “One more step and I'm calling security.”

I stopped moving and held my hands up in defeat. “Okay, okay."

I started to slowly back away. I still didn’t know what exactly was going on. Or why Brooke was so upset. Whatever it was that was going on with her, I figured she needed some time to cool down.

I stopped at her desk a few days later. “Miss DeBoise," I started.

She closed her eyes and looked as if the fact that I was talking to her caused her physical pain. She slowly pivoted and looked up at me.

“How can I help you, Dr. Bryant?”

I hated that tone of voice. I hated her calling me Dr. Bryant. She had never called me Dr. Bryant. I had always been at least Doctor Mark, and then just Mark. I felt the change in her reception of my presence like indigestion, vaguely uncomfortable ir my gut.

“Could I have a moment of your time to talk about this?” I asked. I absentmindedly tapped on her desk.

She looked up at me completely blank, as if she had no clue what I was talking about. There was no play of emotion on her face. She was a completely different woman from the Brooke I had been enjoying my time with.

“I don't think there's anything to discuss. You've made your decisions.”

“What decisions?” She wasn't making any sense.

At that moment the phone rang, and she turned to answer it. I hung out at her desk waiting for her to get off the phone. She had suddenly been inundated with a rush of patients. I didn’t want to stand around looking desperate. I decided I would try again later.

Later meant shifting my appointments around so that I could be there based on her schedule. It meant leaning on her car waiting for her to get off work in the middle of the afternoon.

She saw me leaning against her Toyota. With a shrug, she turned and started to walk in the opposite direction.

“Go away!"

“Brooke!” I ran after her. “Please, give me a minute”

She stopped, let out a heavy sigh, and then looked at me.

“Thank you," I gave her a slight bow with my hand on my chest, that was mostly just a tilt of my head.

“You have my attention for sixty seconds.”

I couldn't believe what she was saying. Was I on a timer? “What is going on?" I asked.

“I think it's clear what is going on, that you are continuing to attempt to talk to me while I do not want to talk to you,” she said in very clipped tones.

“Why are you so upset with me?”

She sighed and stared down at the ground between us. She crossed her arms. She wouldn't look at me. “Mimi happened.” “Mimi, your mom's friend?” I didn't understand what she had to do with any of this.

“Yes. You were a little too friendly, I think, up at the lake house.’ When she lifted her gaze to me, her eyes were blazing with anger.

“What are you talking about, Brooke? I was just being friendly. I hadn't done anything more than participate in conversation: and attempt to direct her attention to Howard. He was interested, not me.”

She sneered and shook her head. “That's not what it looked like. It's not what it felt like."

“What part of me trying to get you to sneak off, made you think I was paying too much attention to Mimi? I was there as your parents’ guest. I had to participate in their activities. The few times I did try to talk to you, you pushed me away. If anyone has a right to be irked at how the weekend went, it's me.”

“I don't think so, Mark. You were just as condescending as the rest of my parents’ friends were to me and Angela.’

It was my turn to stare at her. Had we been at the same lake house at the same time? This was coming out of nowhere.

“You and Mimi were too chummy. I didn’t quite get the sense that you were not interested. Especially not when she showed up here and had an appointment. She made sure to stop by my desk and emphasize that she was here to see you. Isn't that, against some kind of ethical standards? You know, dating a patient? It's kind of gross, don't you think?"

Was she calling my professional ethical behavior into account here? She was taking whatever had crawled up her attitude a little too far.

“That's not what happened. Yes, I had lunch with her. Your mother strong-armed me into it"

“I think I understand why you wanted to keep us a secret. And I don’t want to play that game anymore. I deserve better, don’ you think?”

“I don't know what you are talking about.” She made no sense at all. “Are you even listening to me?” I stared at her dumbfounded.

“No, you don't think I deserve better. Because you didn't treat me any better. You wanted to keep me in the dark. You wante to keep me in that janitor’s closet. Because that's all I was good for. Hmm. Now, do you mind stepping away from my car so that I can leave, before I have to call security?”

I held my hands up and backed away slowly from her car. I didn't know where any of this was coming from. I definitely needed to regroup before I could address this misdirected sense of indignation that she had.

Ishook my head as I watched her get in a car and drive off. This was one of the reasons I hadn't told anyone who I was. dating. Now, I didn’t have to mention that we were over, and I was completely in the dark as to why. Maybe dating a younger woman hadn't been the best move on my part.