“My fame?” Nathan sighed. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“You really don’t know?” Maya frowned, her enthusiasm draining a little when she saw that Nathan was truly clueless. “Aren’t you on Instagram? TikTok? Anything?”
“No.” Nathan avoided social media at all costs. He was far too busy working to think about memes and reels and whatever elsepeople were doing there, and he’d never even created an account — which he acknowledged made him sound like he was one hundred years old. “Why?”
“Wow.” Maya shook her head. “All right.” She took out her phone and tapped the screen a few times before turning it to show Nathan. A video was playing, and Nathan’s eyes widened as he recognized himself. He was sitting with his young patient from the day before, Charlie, making cow jokes and playing with the puppet while he took the boy’s blood. That wasn’t the concerning part, though. The concerning part was the title: The Hottest Doctor Alive.
“Where did you find this?” Nathan asked, handing the phone back. This must be what Charlie’s mother had been doing with her phone — filming him. Without asking permission.
“It’s everywhere,” Maya explained. “See? The video already has over two million views and counting.” She pointed to a number in the bottom of the screen, and Nathan’s jaw dropped. He leaned back on the desk, took off his glasses, and began polishing them with the hem of his shirt.
“Why do you look like a bus just hit you?” Maya asked. “This is good news, Doc. You’re famous!” The idea of being famous on the internet made his skin crawl.
“No. That can’t be. I can’t believe the patient’s mother filmed me yesterday without asking permission. And worse, she put it online like this.” Nathan shook his head. “I’ll need to have a word with her at the next appointment.”
“You should thank her,” Maya said. “She’s made you famous! And everyone loves you. You should see the comments. People are asking to become patients here, trying to track you down,wishing that their doctors were more like you… It’s all really positive.”
“It doesn’t matter that it’s positive,” Nathan said. “It matters that I never asked for this, and I don’t want it now. Can you take the video down?”
Maya rolled her eyes. “No. I’m not the one who posted it.”
“Great.” Nathan let out a puff of air. This explained a lot about his weird patient interactions this morning. Olivia, particularly, must have come in looking for the “Hottest Doctor Alive.”
“You’re lucky,” Maya told him. “I’ve been trying to get a video to go viral for years, and it’s never happened. And you didn’t even try.”
“So, this is why the media has been contacting us?” He shook his head.
“Yes.” Maya slipped her phone back into her pocket. “And I still need to know what to tell them.”
Nathan sighed. It was clear that they were approaching this from very different angles, and he couldn’t understand Maya’s position at all. Why would anyone want to be in the public eye? All he wanted was to help his patients, keep his clinic afloat, and avoid undue attention. Right now, it felt like he was failing in all three objectives.
“Tell them to go away.” Nathan shook his head. “I want less attention for myself and the clinic, not more.”
“Why?” Maya seemed genuinely confused. “This is great. You’re officially the world’s hottest doctor! You have to start an Insta. And a TikTok. Everyone wants to see more of this guy.”
“ButIdon’t want that,” Nathan protested. “The clinic is already struggling with too many new patients without any of this. Hopefully, in a day or two, everyone will forget all about it.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Maya said.
Nathan sighed and put his glasses back on. Maya still looked excited, and Nathan felt anything but.
“Look, just… I want everyone to forget about this and go on as normal. You should do the same. Tell the new patients the same thing we always tell them, and tell the media I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“Fine, if that’s really what you want. I just think you’re missing out on a good opportunity here.”
“I’m okay with that.” Nathan managed a smile for her. “Let’s just do our jobs and wait for this to pass.”
“All right.” But Maya sounded a little glum.
“And send in my next patient, please. I don’t want to keep Mr. Whitaker waiting.”
“All right,” Maya repeated. She left and, a minute later, there was another knock on the door. This time, it really was Mr. Whitaker with his bad knees.
“Please, come in, take a seat.” Nathan stepped back and gestured for the older man to make himself comfortable. “How are you today?”
“Not great,” Mr. Whitaker said with a frown. “The waiting room is a madhouse. I’ve never seen the clinic so crowded.”
“I know.” Nathan sighed. “I’m working on that. But let’s talk aboutyou. How are you feeling? Have you had more stiffness in your knees?”
