Page 1 of Enjoying the Ride

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Posey

Wow, is she really getting another nose job?I think to myself as I peruse a patient’s file in preparation for her appointment tomorrow.

I lean over in my chair so that I can nudge my colleague, Kelly, with my elbow.

“What’s up?”she asks, not looking up immediately since she’s working through her own thick stack of paperwork.

I slide the thick file across our shared table toward her.“Mrs.Robinson is about to get her fourth rhinoplasty,” I tell her, gesturing to the photo.“This time she wants it to be—and these are her words, not mine— like a pixie fairy, round and cute.”

Kelly glances at the sample picture the woman sent in with her pre-surgery screening paperwork.

“She cannot be serious,” my friend mutters, shaking her head slowly, a look of pity crossing her face.“She’ll have no nose left!You really think Dr.Smiley is going to let her go through with it?”

I shrug.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” I whisper under my breath.“You and I both know that Dr.Smiley only cares about the money, and that means more procedures.No matter what the patient wants to look like.”

Kelly sighs as she re-clips the photo to the information sheet.“Yeah, but that lady is going to look like a creepy doll—especiallysince she just had a face lift a few months ago.Did you see her when she came in for her check-up last time?She still can’t move her eyebrows.”

I shrug.“Some people have more money than they know what to do with,” I remind my friend, closing the file and placing it onto the stack for our boss to read over before tomorrow’s appointments.“Which means they have nothing better to spend it on and therefore decide to get multiple nose jobs.”

Kelly scrunches her own nose.“Yeah, but it hurts.I meanhurthurts.Right?”

I nod solemnly, even though I have no direct personal experience with any sort of procedure, much less of the cosmetic variety.

“It does,” I agree.“But what can I say?We live in a visual world and you know women are judged by their appearances.No pain, no gain.”

Kelly merely groans.“Don’t remind me.The universe is so unfair!I wish guys had to get tummy tucks and butt lifts, not to mention Botox and taking Ozempic.Don’t even get me started on Ozempic, girl.That stuff is the devil.Still money is money, and I guess Mrs.Robinson is paying for our salaries with her surgery addiction.”

I smile, but the feeling doesn’t reach my eyes because Kelly’s right.I hate this job but again: money is money, and I need the cash.After all, I’m nineteen and pretty much alone in the world.I don’t have anyone to fall back on, and when I scored this job working as a physician’s assistant for Dr.Smiley, I didn’t have any other options on the table.Even worse, Ineedthis position because I borrowed heavily to attend a medical assistant certificate program.Now, I’m stuck.Without the job, I can’t pay off my student loans, and without the loans, I couldn’t have gotten this job.

But the truth is that I don’t mind the nuts and bolts of my work at all.In fact, I really like medicine and science, and pursuing my accreditation seemed like a good call at the time.Education is an investment in you,Posey, I kept reminding myself.It will pay off in the long run.

I still believe that adage, but the problem is Dr.Ray Smiley himself, creepiest of creepers and my boss to boot.Fortunately, I have company to commiserate with because Kelly and I started working for the plastic surgeon around the same time, about six months ago.I’d been kind of surprised when Dr.Smiley offered me this job.Even though I have some medical training, I wouldn’t have exactly considered myself the most qualified person on the market.But when he described the work as medical-related but in more of a secretarial role, I figured the offer was legit.Even more, I was super excited to finally have a decent-paying job and immediately said yes.

It only took until the end of my first day to realize that Dr.Smiley has ulterior motives.He doesn’t care at all about work ethic, attention to detail, or even aptitude.He just wants young girls that are innocent, attractive, and amenable to his overtures.

I shake my head, thinking about the first time Dr.Smiley hit on me.It was so gross, and I shudder with the memory.

I’d been working for the man less than a week, and everyone had already gone home for the day.Smiley cornered me in the filing room, claiming that he needed to show me the correct way to store documents.But instead, he tried to press me into the cabinet, his hot breath reeking of onions as his awkward bulk trapped me into a corner.

Fortunately, Kelly forgot her phone on her desk, and came back to the office.She stepped in right before things got too weird, and interrupted Dr.Smiley’s ham-handed attempt at harassment.

We’ve been friends ever since.

And suffering at the hands of Dr.Smiley ever since too.

“What’s cooking?”my friend asks, disrupting my reveries.Kelly’s a cute blonde with long curls, a ready smile, and a curvy body that Dr.Smiley ogles each and every day.

I sigh.“I was thinking how much I wish we could work anywhere but here.But the pay is too good to just quit.”

“It’s notthatgood,” she counters.“I mean, I’m not able tosaveor anything like that.Saving?Ha!That’s a pipe dream.”

I run my hand through my own wild hair—fire red and always out of control— and shake my head at her.“It’s enough for now,” I point out.“We put away a tiny bit each month.Maybe it’s not much, but we should be grateful.”

Kelly huffs.“There are bigger and better opportunities out there, Posey,” she says, her voice low.

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