“Hello, yourself,” he croons.
I feel a dipping sensation in the pit of my stomach like I just sped over a bump in the road at a hundred miles an hour. My dad used to call this experience “belly ticklers.” While he never went too much over the speed limit, he went fast enough to give us a thrill.
“I had a wonderful time last night,” I tell him.
“Me, too. But that’s not why I’m calling.” He sounds upset.
“Are you okay?” I ask, worried he’s having doubts, too.
“We have two doctors out sick, which means that instead of having a day off, I need to pull a double. I won’t be able to do our shoot or go on our date. I’m really sorry.”
“I’m disappointed,” I tell him. “But you have to do what you have to do.”
“It looks like I might be living at the hospital for a few days,” he says. “Would you mind going through the pictures we have, and cobble together enough looks for a calendar?”
“I’d be happy to,” I tell him. “In fact, I’ll go ahead and lay it out and put in the order. That way you don’t have to worry about approving anything.”
“You’re the best, Finley. Thank you so much.”
“Call me later, if you get a chance,” I tell him.
“I will,” he promises. Before hanging up, he says, “I can’t wait to see you again.”
I snuggle back under the covers. As my morning has just opened up, I don’t need to rush into work. Maybe I’ll study for my driving test. After that I’ll think more about what my mom said. As much as I want to listen to her and just go for it, I’m still not sure that is going to be in my best interest.
I feel another pros and cons list coming on …
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
THOMAS
I feel terrible about lying to Finley; no one called in sick at work this morning. But something significant did happen, and I’m going to need time to figure out how I’m going to respond to it.
My alarm had just gone off, and I was about to get out of bed when my phone rang. I thought it might have been Finley, which is why I didn’t bother looking at the caller ID before answering. It wasn’t her though. It was the CEO of my old hospital.
As soon as I said hello in my sexiest voice—which I’m sure threw him for a loop—I heard, “Thomas, this is Randolph Collins. How are you doing out there in Wisconsin?” Wisconsin is said as though synonymous with the wilds of the Yukon Territory. Which in fairness to a New Yorker, it kind of feels that way.
Randolph Collins is the last person I expected to hear from, and it knocked me sideways for a moment. I told him I was fine, which of course is not the complete truth. But there was no way I was going to tell the CEO of my previous hospital that I might have made a mistake by leaving them.
The next words out of his mouth were a complete shock. “I’d like to make you an offer, Thomas.” When I didn’t respond right away, he went ahead and made me that offer.Chief Medical Officer at my old stomping grounds.It’s a position I had hoped to get by the time I was fifty. And it was being presented to me fourteen years ahead of schedule.
I listened to Randolph’s complete pitch, full-on with details of a sizable salary increase and enhanced benefits. I didn’t say no. Instead, I told him I’d have to think about it. Which is what I’m currently doing.
Returning to New York means going back to an extremely hectic life. But the thing with being chief is that it’s a largely administrative position. I’d still get to weigh in on treatments, but I wouldn’t be seeing patients myself. I’d be the guy who made sure everything ran the way it was supposed to, from daily operations, quality patient care, and crisis management, to more mundane areas like the budget. I’d get to have all my fingers in the pie so there would be no chance of getting bored and even less risk of burning out by doing the same thing on repeat.
Had this offer been made before I left New York, I probably would have never moved to Wisconsin. But I did move, and then I met Finley.
It’s outrageous to think I would turn down my dream job for a woman I’ve only been on one date with. Complete lunacy. But I don’t feel like she’s someone I just met. She feels like she’s been in my life forever. Most accurately, she feels like someone whoshouldbe in my life forever.
The angel on my shoulder says, “There’s no accounting for love, Thomas.”
The devil on the other side shouts, “You don’t love her! You’ve only been on one date. This is your dream job, man!”
Back to the angel: “Love is wonderful and mysterious, and it does not come around every day, Thomas.”
The devil flipped her the bird in response.
I remember how I preached to Finley about taking things one step at a time. And while I still believe that in theory, the problem is that I now have more impetus than ever to go home.
