But it was okay. It was fine. Ir wasn’t like the job had long-term prospects. The end had been coming no matter what. He had just made it…definitive. It was fine.
When she got home, there was a letter of recommendation in her inbox. For God’s sake, he sure hadn’t waited long to sever their last tie.
To Whom it May Concern:
Windsor Smith served as my personal assistant for the past three months. As a surgeon with an extremely demanding clinical, academic and administrative schedule, I relied heavily on her exceptional organizational skills, judgment and intelligence, all of which she consistently exhibited throughout her employ. She handled complex scheduling, confidential medical and professional correspondence, travel logistics, as well as high-level coordination with hospitals, academic institutions, and professional organizations, always with efficiency and professionalism. I found her to be a person of deep integrity and a strong work ethic, and she has my unequivocal recommendation.
Sincerely,
Lorenzo Santini, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief of Special Surgeries at Mass General Brigham Hospital
Distinguished Professor at Harvard University Medical School
Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
She wondered if he’d asked ChatGPT to write it, since it was so impersonal. Then again, so was he.
Even as she had the thought, she felt a little ashamed. He was not impersonal. She knew that, maybe better than anyone. The image of him fresh from the Charles flashed like a razor. Was she crying? Shit. She was crying. She stomped around her tiny house for half an hour, opening and closing cupboards before finally going to bed with four Dateline podcast episodes in the queue to soothe her battered heart.
She felt calmer the next morning. The pragmatic child of Gerald and Ellie Smith had things to do. A résumé to polish. Rosie and Robbie’s wedding in two weeks. Her house could use a good scouring. She had another session with Joyce, Lorenzo’s disorganized neighbor, in Boston.
He’d been so angry. Hurt, really, but also so angry. Had she really been so wrong to urge him to talk to his family? Maybe he was right. She didn’t know them.
She did, however, feel like she knew him. The man who had so capably looked after her when she’d run into Mitchell at Logan Airport. Who had kissed her in the elevator, who had jumped into a river to save a little boy and then gone back to the hospital and saved someone else’s life. He was a man of few words, but God, the words he had said mattered so much. The soft ones and the hard ones.
Her heart ached. He was right. Her advice had not done anything but upset his parents and disappointed him. What did she know? She was the invisible one, after all. She’d never brought that up during a family dinner. Why had she thought Lorenzo should?
Maybe because it mattered to him so much, whereas she was pretty okay with her role.
And also…maybe she wasn’t as invisible as she’d once thought. Quieter, maybe. Less of a drama queen than Addie and Robbie, less brilliant than Harlow and Lark, but she’d never felt unimportant. She knew she was loved.
Maybe Lorenzo didn’t. Maybe that was the difference.
After the Smith family had done a similar joy-explosion at Lark and Dante’s news, Winnie waited a few days, then drove down to meet Lark after her shift in the ER. They went to a little pub near Hyannis Hospital, one that offered half-pound cheeseburgers and fried pickles, a place Winnie was sure Lorenzo would never visit.
Her sister was waiting for her. They hugged, ordered their burgers, talked about how Lark was feeling, how they were both so excited to see their nephew at the wedding, and how long Grandpop’s best man speech was.
And then, as they ate their delicious and unhealthy meals, Winnie got to it.
“Lorenzo fired me.”
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry! He’s not easy to work for, I’m sure.”
“Actually, he was pretty great. I loved the job, and he was a very good boss.”
Her sister took an enormous bite of her bacon and blue cheese burger. “So what went wrong, honey?” she asked thickly, cheeks bulging.
To her shock and horror, Winnie felt tears sting her eyes. “I, uh…I pushed him a little. To talk about his feelings and tell his family that he wished he felt closer to them. Because he’s a little stunted, as you know, but underneath, he’s…more.”
“I always thought so, too,” Lark said with a kind smile, then eyed the uneaten half of Winnie’s burger. “Are you going to finish that?”
“No, no, go ahead.”
Lark lunged. “Sorry, I’m starving. I swear, I eat seventeen times a day.” When Winnie didn’t respond, Lark said, “So why did he fire you?”
Winnie looked at her plate. “I told him he should get out of his own way, in a nutshell. That he could do better with people if he wasn’t so afraid of rejection.” Like it had been any of her business. “And he didn’t like that assessment. I should’ve stayed in my lane. I don’t blame him.”
