My Forbidden Doctor - Stephanie Brother Page 0,2

have your lunch break right in front of the elevator, Carl." She sounded so incredibly bitter and upset that her voice actually cracked.

I poked my head out from behind Carl's shoulder. Eva was long-legged and gangly almost, with wavy blonde hair and a thin, wiry frame. She was shooting Carl the most venomous, awful glare humanly possible, Eva's blue eyes flashed icily as she strutted past. Swaying her hips on her heels, she chuffed a scoff at me, and alarms rang in my head.

She directed her glare at me. "You're not good enough for him."

My jaw almost fell on the floor in shock, from Eva's declaration and the sheer contempt in it. She flipped her hair with a flick of her sharply angled arm, leaving my speechless as she jabbed the elevator button. Thankfully, the doors opened immediately, and an unbelievable, breathless laugh escaped the dense lump in my throat.

"At least there's enough of me for him to decide." The snarky comeback that burst from my dry mouth earned me an audible growl as Eva stomped into the elevator. I was horrified. How could she just say that! Clenching my jaw hard, I clutched my purse straps with white-knuckle tightness. "You're just a badly drawn stick figure."

I just had to get the last word in, and I was shocked by my own nastiness the second before the doors slid shut. Huffing in affront, I turned to Carl to find him watching me with shock dragging down his handsome features. Before me, he managed to speak up, and he held up his palms swiftly.

"I am so sorry, Mel. I never thought she'd say something like that."

"She's a horrible person, and if you ever need me to help you, I will gladly."

His smile strained with a mix of emotions, and I nodded firmly– more to myself than him. Glancing at my watch, I pulled my glasses up to my eyes, and the cord holding them around my neck tickled to ease some of the tension thrumming between my shoulder blades. "I have to go, or I'll be late."

"Can I have your number, Mel?"

The request surprised me even though it shouldn't have, and I glanced up as Carl pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Please... if you don't mind?"

Chapter 2

Carl

"Well... this is awkward." Shutting the door to the patient room, I frowned when Mel stiffened, her green eyes nearly boggling out of their sockets. "I apologize for earlier, again, Mel."

"You're the specialist for my allergies?"

Sitting on the stool, I held her file in my lap as I nodded grimly. This whole building was filled with medical offices, but I was the only pulmonologist of the several GPs available to treat for allergies.

"Are you going to get in trouble? Does that mean that woman is a doctor here? Am I gonna have to deal with her taking my blood or something?"

"No— no, she's a pediatrician."

Mel seemed horrified at the thought of Eva dealing with kids.

I waved a hand in dismissal. "You won't have to deal with her. I'm probably not going to get in trouble, either. Nothing unethical happened. Before lunch, I wasn't your doctor."

"Do I need to get a new doctor? The last guy I saw didn't believe my allergies were as bad as they are because it was winter." Her freckled nose scrunched up as panic blazed in her eyes.

I shook my head firmly. Trying to keep up with this situation as it developed was almost too much, but I'd learned to handle stress over the last fifteen years.

"You should be fine, Mel. So, your allergies have been aggravating your asthma, right? That's why you're here today?" Throughout our entire conversation outside the office, Melissa hadn't mentioned her asthma. Flipping open her chart, I knew why her allergies would be the more worrying thing on her mind.

Out of the corner of my eye, she nodded, her wild, auburn hair shining under the lights of the examination room.

"Yeah. I have an inhaler, but when Spring comes, my allergies get so bad that I can't sleep or breathe or anything. I've tried almost everything. The specialist I saw a couple months ago gave me a medicated nebulizer, but it gave me an asthma attack the only time I used it."

The crease between my brows deepened as I scanned her file,

Melissa sucked in a sharp breath. "I told him I wanted a CPAP machine, but he said I was fine, and my asthma wasn't bad enough for it."

"CPAP machines aren't generally used for asthma control.