Mortal Danger

sometime in February.”
    The room had suddenly become very quiet. She looked up at him, and he wouldn’t meet her eyes at first. And that was so unlike him.
    John Branden said softly, “I need to say something more.” And suddenly this man who was usually so verbal, sometimes spewing out words almost faster than she could understand them, was tongue-tied. When he finally spoke,he stuttered and stammered. It was strange for Kate to see him almost unable to get a sentence out.
    “Say it,” Kate said, half-dreading, half-hoping she knew what he was talking about.
    “I can’t.”
    Maybe he didn’t want to keep her as a patient. Maybe she had assumed too much, and he was going to dismiss her and send her to someone else. They had formed some kind of a bond in those eight weeks, but she wasn’t sure just what it was. Friendship, certainly. She sensed that he felt closer to her than he did to other patients, but that could just have been wishful thinking on her part.
    “Just say it,” she said again.
    He stood up and walked around his desk. “I think I’m falling in love with you,” he blurted.
    Now she was speechless and felt stupid when she finally said, “But you’re married.” It was the kind of response a schoolgirl would blurt out.
    He moved toward her and gave her an extremely chaste kiss. He massaged her shoulders and kissed her hair as he shared some of his fantasies about her. He asked if he could call her, and she couldn’t bring herself to say no. Despite her common sense, her heart and her ego soared.
    Kate Jewell was stunned. She hadn’t expected this. She had been steeling herself for just the opposite. She actually knew very little about him, and he still wasn’t her physical type—but she was drawn to him. It was a ridiculous situation. His wife, who rarely smiled, and who seemed disenchanted with her husband’s charm, sat just beyond the examining room door. His two pretty daughters were in and out of the office.
    They all seemed to be a solid—if not particularly happy—family, in business together, comfortable with each other, acting out whatever scenarios they had established years before. Now John told her that he had been unhappy in his marriage for years. He said that he and Sue were very close to separating and would probably do so after the holidays. Sue spent so much money on frivolous things, she had put on so much weight, and she insisted on drinking Pepsi—which was anathema to a staunch nutritionist. They had been on divergent paths for a very long time, he said with some sadness in his voice.
    Kate hadn’t thought about loving John in her real life—or his loving her. She knew a lot of women had crushes on their doctors. She liked him and felt safe in his presence. She had hoped that their friendship and conversations might continue. She knew there would be an empty place in her life if she couldn’t see him anymore. He had never touched her inappropriately, not until now. She trusted him, and she would miss him if she should choose to walk away because of those bright red warning lights now exploding in her brain. She doubted she would ever find such an easy relationship with any man again.
    She didn’t realize how dangerous her combination of emotions could be.
    Kate had to admit—if only to herself—that she had fallen in love with John, all unaware.
     
    Right after John’s declaration of love, Kate flew an all-nighter to Boston and back. As passengers slept, she had a lot of time to think. She’d always trusted her own extrasensory perception, and, for over a month, she had felt strongly that she finally was about to meet her soul mate. Was it John? No, he’s married. But he’s unhappy. No, he has a wife. But she doesn’t complement, fulfill, or complete him.
    But I, of course, could, she told herself.
    Every woman in love with a married man believes that her relationship is “special,” that no one else feels as she does, and that her being with him isn’t really illicit because the two of them are in love and there are extenuating circumstances. And, with rare exceptions, they all get hurt when they learn that their romance isn’t special at all. There is a predictable progression, but it doesn’t seem predictable to someone caught up in it. Kate had seen it happen to fellow stewardesses and other friends, and she was cautious. An affair with a married man wasn’t something she had ever planned to have. But she was on a slippery slope.
    When