Brain Games

36. Lies

"I knew it!" Ashlee gasps, shocked and ecstatic, but she's quick to reel it in after seeing the look on my face.

I knew the I knew it speech was coming after I told her about Brad and I hooking up for months now.

We're currently sat at her small kitchen table, two glasses of wine between us as I continue to tell her everything.

Well, not everything.

I start with med school, detailing the vicious rivalry Brad and I had since day one and how we decided to continue it throughout residency by creating the Brain Games. Then, I fast forward to the first time we hooked up in his car in the EBS parking lot and went back to my place after. I vaguely give details about the rest of our hookups and tell her how I found out he was my next door neighbor.

Her mouth forms a surprised O. "Wait, Brad's also the one you slept with the night Mateo stood you up? He was the hot neighbor you were talking about?" She lets out a stunned laugh, amused I hid the fact that it was Brad from her. "Oh, you're good," she muses, giving me a pointed look over the rim of her wine glass, taking a sip.

My cheeks heat up and I clear my throat before continuing to tell her about my time in the OR with Dr. Larson, about how he interrogated me and belittled me and my parents. I haven't had time to talk to her until now since I didn't see her Friday after the surgery, because Brad and I had to go home right after our shift to pack for this weekend.

Ashlee sneers, taking another sip of wine. "What a prick. I always knew he was a sexist, racist jackass. I heard he doesn't even address women as doctors, he just calls them by their first name because he doesn't think they deserve the title."

I ponder that for a moment, realizing not once has he called me Dr. Harper. The few times he ever did speak to me, he called me Delilah.

"Like I told you before, Harper, it's not a competition anymore."

"One; its Dr. Harper. Two; the Brain Games? What about that?"

He gives me a slow, sharp smile. "Dr. Harper, the Brain Games came to be because you're too stubborn and competitive by nature to call a truce, and I had to keep you interested in me somehow."

Dread immediately floods my belly, realizing Brad was doing something similar. More times than not, he would address me as Harper instead of Dr. Harper, needing to be prompted to do so.

My stomach churns uncomfortably, and I can't help but think like father, like son.

"No offense," Ashlee interrupts my thoughts. "But I'm honestly shocked he ever let you into his OR in the first place. The only woman allowed in his OR is some scary looking nurse well over fifty who probably doesn't have a feminist bone in her body, and that's only when there's no other male nurse available."

I take a large sip of wine. "Because Brad made a deal with him," I mutter bitterly.

Her face pinches in confusion. "What the hell? How..." she trails off, boggled.

I let out a laugh, already starting to feel lighter with more alcohol in my system. "Get this, Dr. Larson is—" I stop myself, unease mixed with alcohol rolling around in my stomach. "A close family friend," I settle on, unable to tell her the whole truth.

As much as I want to rat him out, scream his secret from the rooftops, it feels... wrong. Despite everything that's happened, I can't find the heart to tell her the full truth, a truth that isn't mine to tell. A pang of guilt forms in my chest at telling her as much as I did.

Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "No way. No wonder he had the balls to talk back to Dr. Larson," she says, recalling the time we caught them having a heated exchange in the hallway. "And a deal? What deal?"