Page 34 of Clara Knows Best

“Your first appointment is at eight,” she informed him, and hung up.

“Great, thanks,” he said to no one, tossing his phone onto the passenger seat.

He ended up driving through McDonalds and eating in the parking lot. His mood was pretty sour by the time he entered Romeo Family Health just behind Yoli.

It was not improved by Clara’s bubblegum pink dress and matching heels, or Yoli’s ear-splitting wolf whistle.

“Girl, this is your best look yet! Whole internet about to lose its mind!”

“Aw, thanks, Yoli. I’m actually going to post it tonight with my other Valentine’s Day outfit ideas. Oh, Jesse, the hospital left a voicemail for you.”

“Thanks,” he said shortly.

“My niece wants to go to that high school dance on Monday,” Yoli told Clara energetically as she removed her coat and scarf. “She’s begging me to chaperone.”

“I’ll do it with you,” Clara said. “Maybe I should make the STEM kids go, too.”

“You still don’t have plans yet?”

“Nope.”

“What are the men about?”

“The men are a little cagey this week.”

“You know what, I bet DeWitt Petty doesn’t have plans yet either.”

“Maybe I’ll give him a call,” Clara said, and they shared a laugh.

Peak humor.

Jesse went into his office and shut the door. Of course, he could still hear their conversation.

“Why don’t you ask You-know-who to be your Valentine?” came Yoli’s stage whisper.

“I asked him to karaoke last week. Turned me down flat.” Clara, of course, did not bother to lower her voice.

“But he still showed up, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. Maybe he and I could go to a nice restaurant and stay on opposite sides of the room all night. Oh, wait, therearen’tany nice restaurants.”

“Okay, he doesn’t sound very fun,” Yoli allowed. “But let’s not give up just yet. What about that new guy you were telling me about at the feed store? The one with the tats?”

Several seconds of silence passed.

“Oh, you mean the hardware store. Ed What’s-his-name’s nephew.”

“Yeah, the Marine,” Yoli said, warming up to the idea. “Why don’t you stop by there at lunch? I think we need some new light bulbs.”

“Seems kind of desperate,” Clara hesitated.

“I’m not saying you have to throw yourself at him. Just walk all around the store in that pink outfit. He’ll come to you.”

Clara laughed. “I’ll think about it.”

Jesse was glad when the first patient entered the waiting room and the gossiping behind the desk had to stop for the day.

He saw ten people before noon, four of them sick with the flu. He noticed for the first time that the hand sanitizer stations were accompanied by hand lotion stations, and used both.

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