She stands up, gathering up her items scattered over her table. “I hope I hear from you. It’s always nice to have more medical professionals get what they deserve.”
“That’s very sweet of you to let me know,” I say, accepting a firm handshake before she marches out the door.
“Who was that?” Priya’s back, slathering on hand sanitizer. She always keeps a big bottle in her backpack.
“Oh, a real estate agent,” I say, holding up the red card. “She said she might have a lower-income slot in one of the new apartment complexes downtown.”
“Your luck is turning, baby!” Priya says, ever the optimist. “You’ll get that place and it’ll be nicer than mine, I’m sure.” She’s offered to let me stay with her more than once, but while her apartment is beautiful, it’s filled to bursting with her husband, his mother, her mother, and a cousin going to NYU.
“Yeah…” I tuck the card into my wallet. “A miracle would be nice.”
***
Herniorrhaphy - hernia removal surgery.
Chapter Two
In which Lady Luck is avoiding eye contact.
Ava…
While my luck might possibly be changing when it comes to accommodations, it has not improved at the hospital.
When I check the surgical schedule, I see I’ve been assigned a radical nephrectomy. I’m feeling cautiously excited until I see who’s performing it. Kidney removal surgeries can be anywhere between one to seven hours, but any amount of time on this procedure is going to be too long because the surgeon is none other than my slimy ex-fiancé.
Knowing him, I’m sure he requested me.
Bastard.
Sure enough, after I scrub in there he is. Dr. Kevin Sinclair, reading through the surgical notes and radiating Smug in a cloud so thick and toxic that I can’t believe he hasn’t killed the poor patient.
“Ava, just in time,” he chuckles heartily. He has two residents attending him and they nervously chuckle, too. “I’ll let you work very closely with me on this procedure, I know you haven’t had much experience in Urology. This will be good for you.”
“I’m always happy to learn something new,” I smile sweetly before pulling my mask up. The room is bustling with surgical staff, lights shining down brightly on the patient and the low, soothing buzz of the monitors. I’ve always felt alive, sharp, and focused in this space, and now I’m forced to share it with the man who broke my heart and humiliated me.
How did Ieverfind him attractive? Kevin is in his mid-thirties, handsome in that overbred, blue-eyed, boarding school way. His blond hair, currently hidden under his surgical cap, is already thinning, which gives me great joy.
When he first took me under his wing, I was thrilled to have an important surgeon take interest in my career. The occasional cup of coffee moved to lunch and then dinners and before I really knew what was happening, he was presenting me with a garish diamond ring in front of a crowd of cheering friends.
“Mr. Martin Chen is a fifty-five-year-old man with a history of kidney disease in his family,” Kevin narrates. “Today, we’ll be removing his left kidney in its entirety and…”
Helovesthe sound of his own voice.
“It’s important to be certain the incision is not too…” Blinking, I try to pretend I’m paying attention. Kevin is looking at me and not the patient until I widen my eyes meaningfully, casting at glance at poor Mr. Chen.
I’d rather give a hundred prostate exams than stand next to this insufferable prick for the next several hours, but Lady Luck is clearly avoiding eye contact and I’m stuck listening to him drone on about his family’s summer house in the Hamptons and his upcoming medical conference where he’ll be speaking because he’s such a fucking groundbreaker in testicular cancer and why can’thehave testicular cancer because in a just world…
Focus. Focus on the patient.
Three hours later…
“Good work, everyone!”
I jump slightly because Kevin shouts it right in my ear as I’m closing up the patient. Still, my hands don’t slip and I finish the last few stitches carefully before stepping back.
“Not the tidiest job,” he muses, looking over my handiwork. This is a lie and he knows it, but his residents cluck like they can’t believe I’m allowed in a surgical theater. “But I’m sure your handiwork will improve.”
“You’re so kind, Dr. Sinclair.”
