Page 50 of Love Sick

She moves to the IM intern, lifting the weight from my shoulders.

My only saving grace is the fact that Rebecca, the girl who never gives up, isn’t on service this month. Doesn’t stop her from texting me every day, offering “help.” I thought I was clear when she tried to kiss me that we were better as friends, but to her,friendsmust mean dates and sex and eventual marriage with lots of babies.

She sent me a meme this morning of a cat in a white coat captioned, “You’ll be fine. Just run a cat scan.”

I might hate cats.

I’m looking forward to Group Therapy tonight.

The IM intern and I admit eight patients each before the night team arrives. That afternoon, I inform a patient’s son his mother will need an MRI in the morning, and spend no less than forty-five minutes witnessing the guy’s rant about the price of her hospital stay.

“I’ll have to take out a second mortgage to pay for all the bullshit tests you want to run. You get some sort of kickback for all this? You’re just scamming us for money, aren’t you?”

I stare, speechless.

This is wild. A million things rush through my head.

The loss of my twenties.

The half million dollars in debt.

The obscene work hours.

The UTI probably forming in my bladder.

The exposure to communicable illnesses.

The constant threat of litigation.

And he thinks I’m scamming him for money?

Nah, bro. I scammed myself.

One day, some little boy will tell me he wants to be a doctor when he grows up, and I’ll beg him to be an electrician instead.

That evening, I speed walk away from the hospital, then take refuge in The Strokes blaring through my truck speakers.

I arrive at Mico first and order a Mambo Taxi, rubbing my tired eyes while I wait. When I open them, my gaze locks on Grace at the hostess stand. She smiles at the woman before heading my way, settling into the chair across from me. Her blue Vincent scrubs are miraculously blood free, a rare accomplishment for her.

My drink arrives and the server who’s been checking her out for months smiles. “Mambo for you too, Grace?”

She nods with a beautiful smile she’s never thrown my way, all twinkling hazel eyes and flushed cheeks and bright teeth.

What would it take for me to earn that smile?

“He knows your name?” I ask when he leaves.

She fires aduhlook at me. “He knows all our names. We’re here all the time.”

I lean my elbows on the table, cocking my head at her while she stiffens. “I will pay off your student loan debt if you can prove he knows my name.”

Taken aback, she starts to say something when our phones ding. A text from Kai brings my screen to life.

She frowns. “Kai’s not going to make it. He’s stuck at the hospital.”

I lay my phone face down on the table. “And then there were four.”

“How’s IM?” she asks.

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