“And every bank holiday. People seem to think their teeth will suddenly all fall out the minute the dentist shuts.” He flicked through a chart quickly. “The fun doesn’t stop there for me, unfortunately.”
“How do you mean?” I asked, packing away some of the sterilised tools we had used that day.
“I have the end of year audit to do tonight.” Rowan entered his office and sat down behind the desk.
I grimaced. “Is it a big job?”
He dropped a large pile of paperwork down on the desk and the drawers rattled. “Huge.”
I glanced up at the clock on the wall. It was quarter past six already, our surgery having run on later than usual, and pitch-black outside. I knew I’d be lying to myself if I said I was only offering to be a good employee, and yet...
“Can I help with anything?” I asked.
Rowan didn’t look up, but I saw his hands falter as he began sectioning out the masses of paperwork in front of him. “No, I couldn’t ask you to do that. You’ll be here too late. What time does your bus stop running?”
“Ten I think?” I shrugged. “It’s really no problem.”
“Are you sure?” Rowan smiled apologetically at me. “I’ll pay you overtime, obviously.”
“Sure.” I nodded. “I couldn’t just leave you here with all this.” I pulled another chair up to the opposite side of the desk. “So, what are we doing first?”
We quickly got into it, separating paperwork out into piles and debating what to start with. An hour or more had drifted by and yet it seemed as if we hadn’t made a dent in the sea of invoices, order sheets and consumable lists.
“Do you have the order sheet from May over there?”
I thumbed through a stack of paper before handing the document across. I tapped my pen in frustration, staring blankly down at the papers in front of me as I fought to make sense of the numbers, my brows knitted as I concentrated.
“Are you having trouble with something?” I looked up at Rowan, surprised to see him watching me.
“No, just thinking,” I replied.
“You were thinking loudly.” He smiled, gesturing towards my pen, still tapping against the desk.
“Oh, sorry,” I apologised, feeling embarrassed.
“It’s alright, I think we should take a break now anyway.” Rowan rubbed his eyes.
“Good idea.” I stretched my back. “How far into this are we?”
“We’ve probably only covered about a quarter of it,” Rowan replied, and I grimaced. He got to his feet. “Do you want anything from the break room?”
“Sure, a can of lemonade?”
He let himself out of the room, returning shortly after with two cans of lemonade. He passed me my drink and I nodded my thanks. We opened our cans noisily before settling back down to work in silence.
Eventually, Rowan sighed with relief, putting the last of the paperwork into a folder. “I think that’s it done, at last.”
I sat back heavily in my chair and stretched my arms above my head, yawning.
“Tired?” Rowan asked.
“I’m knackered,” I laughed. “What time is it?”
Rowan pushed his shirt cuff out of the way of his watch. “Almost ten.”
I groaned quietly. Maybe I was looking forward to the Christmas break after all.
“Let’s get out of here.”
