“Luke, on the other hand, is no fun anymore,” Austin complains. “He doesn’t want to do anything without Melissa, or talk about anything other than Melissa. And he’s always got this goofy look on his face, like he’s thinking about?—”
Luke crumples his napkin into a ball and throws it at Austin.
Austin catches the napkin before it hits his cheek. “Unprofessional behavior, Luke,” he complains. “And in front of the department chief, no less.”
I roll my eyes at Austin. I get this sort of joking a lot, and it’s gotten old. I never wanted to be the department chief; I’m a surgeon, not an administrator. And I definitely never wanted to be the one policing the behavior of the other members of my department.
“What, you’re not going to do anything about this?” Austin persists. “Luke threw a napkin at me!”
“I can’t do anything without a written complaint,” I tell him. “Fill out an incident report.”
“Fuck, Drew, I don’t even know what that is.”
“Send me an email, then, to the hospital address. I’m sure Alexandra could use a good laugh.”
“That’s her name?” Luke asks. “Your new assistant?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a good name,” Austin muses. “Maybe I’ll swing by your office, ask her about the lunch idea?—”
I crumple my own napkin into a ball and hurl it at Austin, and watch with satisfaction as it bounces off his nose.
“What was that?” Austin asks, in mock outrage. “I thought you were supposed to be a role model, Drew?”
“I am a role model,” I tell him. “I’m hoping to start a trend.” Maybe if everyone starts throwing napkins at Austin, he’ll stop teasing people about their girlfriends. And their admin assistants.
Luke stands from the table and yawns. “Late night,” he explains sheepishly.
I wonder if he was working last night, or if he suffers from insomnia too. If he ever loses his focus in the OR.
“Something keeping you up at night?” Austin asks Luke with a smirk. “Orsomeonekeeping you up?”
Luke rolls his eyes at him. “Shut up.”
“He moved in with Melissa,” Austin says with a shrug.
Right. Luke doesn’t have insomnia, he has a girlfriend. And Austin wasn’t wrong—Luke does look a bit goofy. He’s been with Melissa for over six months, but he still has the moony expression of man in love. And the satisfied look of a man who’s getting regular sex.
Unfortunately, that’s never been my experience with relationships. I’ve only ever lived with one woman—Elyse—and that seemed to mostly involve regular nagging. Elyse complained about the amount of time I spent at work, and the amount of time I spent working while I was at home, and the fact that I wasn’t ‘spontaneously romantic.’
Elyse wasn’t wrong—I was never spontaneously romantic, probably because I wasn’t in love with her. The whole thing felt like a lot of work; more work than my job, ironically.
I finish my lunch and wash the Tupperware and cutlery, then walk to my office to take the lunch bag back to Alexandra.
As I walk down the hall, I pull out my phone and reread the text she sent me yesterday.
Alexandra Parker (assistant).
It’s cute that she added ‘assistant’. As though I might forget who she is.
SEVEN
ALLY
On Friday, Dr. Malone and Celine are in the outpatient clinic, so I have the office to myself. I offered to come and help Celine work the reception desk, but she said she didn’t need me. She was reasonably polite about it, though, and I think she’s warming up a little.
By nine-thirty, I’ve finished my work for the day. When all you have to do is bring your boss lunch and clear his inbox, you’re left with a lot of free time. Dr. Malone was right about his emails; a lot of them are pretty ridiculous. This morning there was one from an ENT surgeon complaining that the doctors’ lounge smells like burned popcorn. I told him to fill out an incident report.
