Just what the Doctor ordered

Addison’s POV Have you ever had one of those days when you woke up in the morning and should have turned over and just went back to sleep? Like you had walked under a ladder, spilled salt, had a black cat cross your path or broken ten mirrors? Where all that could go wrong does go wrong? I was having one of those days. It started when I opened my eyes in the morning. I picked up my phone and realised that I had slept through my alarm. I rushed out of bed, only having enough time to brush my teeth quickly, get dressed, scoop my shoulder length blonde hair into a messy bun, and run out the door to get to the subway to catch my train, which of course, I missed. When I ran into the free clinic where I work, a whole thirty minutes late, I find out that I had got my schedule mixed up and actually had the day off. I worked so many hours the past few weeks I didn’t know if I was Arthur or Martha. You would think after four years of undergrad, four years at med school, three years as a resident and two years working at and then running this free clinic in Brooklyn in New York, I would be used to all the long hours by now. My friends always said I was the oldest thirty year old they had ever met. But I loved the work I did. I felt like I was making a difference for those that couldn’t afford medical care. When I realised my mistake, I should have gone home, crawled back into bed, and maybe the rest of the day would have gone better. But instead, I chose to barricade myself in my office and catch up with the paperwork and charts that were piling up on my desk. When I finished my residency, I could have written my own ticket and gotten myself a high paying position at some fancy hospital. Instead, I chose to accept a position with one of my mentors from med school and try to do some good with my medical degree and help those less fortunate. What I didn’t know was that my ‘mentor’ was only talking me into the job so she could leave. Since no doctor in their right mind accepted a position with such long hours, in a dangerous area, for such little money, I had to step up and fill the empty role. Don’t get me wrong, most days I loved it, but as we have already discussed, this was a bad day. I decided to leave the clinic to try to turn the rest of my day around and surprise my boyfriend with a home-cooked meal. I took a train to my boyfriend’s neighbourhood and went by the local market to pick up some supplies for one of his favorite meals. He worked legal counsel for a big corporation in Manhattan and had been working just as many hours as I had, if not more. I hadn’t seen him in over a week. After a year together, we had just taken the next step in our relationship, he had just given me a key to his apartment, so I thought I would have a hot meal waiting for him when he got home from work tonight. I knew he wouldn’t be home for a few hours, so I had plenty of time. I smiled and greeted the doorman before I took the elevator up to his apartment, which was easily twice the size of mine and used my new key to let myself in. It wasn’t until I put the bags of groceries on the bench in the kitchen that I realised that I wasn’t alone. I grabbed a knife from the counter, thinking that someone must have broken in and walked towards the sounds I heard coming from the master bedroom. I got halfway there and stepped on something. My heart lurched in my chest as I placed the knife on the hall table, bile rising in my mouth as I found remanents of a man’s expensive Armani suit, which was definitely my boyfriend Alec’s and a hot pink dress and matching lacy bra that definitely wasn’t mine. Alec and I had met by accident last year at the coffee shop. I had run into him in my rush to get my morning coffee fix and spilled his coffee all over his suit, just like the one I was looking at in front of me on the ground. So I offered to buy him a new one and pay for his dry cleaning, but he told me that he would settle for my number and a date. It wasn’t the first time I had been hit on, and generally, I fobbed them off, but he had such confidence about him that I decided to take a chance, and we had been dating ever since. I stopped at the bedroom door, my hand on the door handle as I listened to the moaning and other sounds coming from inside. I hesitated, not knowing if I really wanted to confirm my suspicions, but I also wasn’t one of those girls who could put up with a man that cheats. I took a deep breath and opened the door, only to be greeted with a blonde hair, fake boobed, skank riding my boyfriend’s c**k. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed through my gritted teeth. Alec jumped, pushing the girl off him and pulling up the sheets to cover himself, “Babe, what are you doing here? You were supposed to be working late. This isn’t what it looks like.” I rolled my eyes at him, “I got my work schedule mixed up, so I thought I would come to surprise you with dinner. Guess I didn’t think that that would involve a show too. I’m a doctor, Alec. I’m not stupid. We are done. I never want to see you again.” I stormed away from the room, trying to stop the tears that were welling in my eyes and grabbing my keys and removing his key off my keychain, throwing it on the counter before heading to the front door. I wanted to be as far away from him and this place as I possibly could. However, Alec had me spun around and pinned to the wall before I could get the front door open. He was bare-chested but had thankfully put some boxers on. “Addie, please, I’m sorry it was a one-time thing. I promise it will never happen again.” “Hey!” The blonde called out as she started putting on her clothes, “You call the past three months a one-time thing?” I glared up at him. At 6’1, he had a good four inches on me in the height department, but I wouldn’t let him intimidate me. “You’re so full of s**t, Alec. I’m surprised that it's not coming out of your mouth. Do you honestly think that I’m going to believe you? I’m not giving you a chance to do it again. We are finished. Now let me go.” I struggled to get out of his grip, but his fingers were clutching my arms so tightly. “You’re not going anywhere until we talk”, He demanded. But I didn’t stop struggling, which seemed to piss him off. He took me by surprise when he suddenly let go of one of my arms and raised his fist in the air. The next thing I knew, that same fist was brought back down as it connected with the side of my cheek. The right side of my face felt like it was on fire. “You son of a b***h”, I seethed before lifting my knee with as much force as I could until it connected with his testicles. I breathed a sigh of relief when he let go of me to clutch his package. It only took a quick shove from me, and he fell to the floor. I spun around quickly and got the hell out of there as quickly as I could. I walked in the direction of the subway, wanting to put as much distance between him and me. I still couldn’t believe that he had hit me, he had never seen like the type before, but now that I had seen that side of him, I wouldn’t make that mistake twice. When I got to the subway, I realised that I wasn’t ready to head home, so I walked around for a while before deciding to go into a local dinner warm up a little. The weather was really starting to cool down now that the sun had set. I chose a quiet corner booth in the back and gave the waitress a small smile as she poured me a cup of coffee and a glass of water. She gave me a worried look, “I hope you didn’t let him get away with that, sweetheart. They’ll never stop if you don’t hold them accountable.” At first, I was confused about what she was talking about and saw her eyes drop down to my cheek. “Oh, can I just get some apple pie, please?” I was trying to subtly let her know that I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I didn’t want any pie, but if it got her away from the table, I would try anything and thankfully, she took the hint and left me alone. I pulled out my phone, ignoring the dozens of missed calls and messages from Alec and opening my camera app, flipping the camera so I could see my face. I swore silently in my head as I studied my face. Alec had got me good. I should have examined the damage before now because I would have understood the looks people were giving me. A bruise was already forming over the length of my cheek. The higher I looked, the darker the color got, leading up to my cheekbone, where the skin was split and bleeding. I grabbed a napkin off the table, dipping it into the water glass before wiping the blood away. From what I could see, the wound wasn’t deep enough to require stitches, so that was at least one bonus I could treat myself at home. Closing out of my camera app, I scrolled through the messages Alec was sending me. They started apologetic but then got mean and abusive. I wasn’t going to dignify them with a response. I drained the remainder of my coffee, leaving behind the entire piece of pie and a generous tip before heading back towards the subway and taking a train back to my neighborhood. Where I lived wasn’t as nice as the doorman apartment where Alec lived, but it was cozy and all mine. New York wasn’t the cheapest place to live, especially on the salary I was earning. So when I was looking for a place to live, I couldn’t believe it when my loft came up for rent. It was in a half-decent area, a clean, relatively safe building, and the price was perfect. As I rode the elevator up to my loft, all I wanted to do was crawl into bed with my dog Molly, a tub of ice cream and watch really bad reality tv. But unfortunately, when I got to my apartment door, all my dreams were dashed as I saw my smashed in front door. I swear I needed a do-over day.