Page 1 of Yes, Doctor
Chapter 1
Chloe ripped the paper covering off the exam table and threw it in the trash, pulling forward a fresh one.She picked up the patient folder from the slot in the door and brought it to reception to stand in the lobby door.“Janice Wilson?”
A pregnant woman stood and ambled toward her.
“Did you leave your urine sample yet?”
The woman looked at her blankly.
She stifled her sigh.It’s only the test I have you doevery timeyou come in.“If you would please step into the restroom there, you’ll find cups on the counter, and the instructions for catching a clean urine stream are posted on the wall.Simply apply the label the receptionist gave you to the side and put it in the pass-through window for me to pick up.”
“Oh,” Janice said, looking surprised, as if she hadn’t already done this at least eight times in the past six months.“Okay,” she said, taking the cup.
Pregnancy sucks the brains right out of women.Either that, or Irontree OB/Gyn practice attracted the city’s most air-headed patients.
“Chloe, someone just threw up in Exam Room 3,” Dr.Reinhart said.“Can you clean it up, sweetie?”
She used to bristle at the endearment, which she found condescending, but Sandy Reinhart called everyone “sweetie,” including her ditzy patients, so Chloe had grown used to it.All doctors had a habit of holding themselves above the rest of the population, in her opinion, so it pretty much went with the territory.
For someone who worked in the medical profession, she had a low opinion of the people who ran the show.Not that she didn’t think her bosses were completely capable and knowledgeable about their field.She just hated Western medicine—the way doctors made patients feel so powerless, becoming the only authority over their bodies.Like when women had Cesareans or inductions scheduled based on the doctor’s availability, rather than when the baby decided to be born.She was pretty sure she’d have a home birth when the time came.But, of course, that would require a relationship.Preferably with a man who wanted to raise a family with her.And she was sorely lacking in that department.
“I’m on it,” she told Dr.Reinhart.
She steeled her stomach as she opened the door.
A pale-faced woman sat on the exam table, holding a plastic tray for any additional vomit.“I’m really sorry,” Pukey McPreggers said, looking embarrassed.
“Hey, don’t worry about it.I’ll have things cleaned up in a minute here.”
Puke was an occupational hazard at Irontree—women with morning sickness often lost their breakfasts, lunches or dinners on the exam room floors.
She mopped up the mess with paper towels, then sprayed the area down with disinfectant and wiped again in record time.
“See?No big deal.Can I get you a cup of water or something?”
“Yes, that would be great,” the woman said weakly.
“Sometimes just keeping food in your stomach can help, even though that sounds counter-intuitive when you’re feeling queasy,” she offered, giving the advice she’d heard the nurses give one hundred times before.
“I know, I totally should have eaten breakfast this morning, but everything just sounded gross to me,” the woman laughed weakly.“But I’ve learned my lesson.”
“Do you want me to find you something to eat now?A granola bar?”
“Um, sure, I’ll try that, thanks.”
“Okay, be right back.”She zipped out, knowing Ditzy Prego and her urine cup would be waiting.She found Janice standing outside the bathroom, looking uncertain.“Sorry, I had to do a quick clean up.If you’ll just follow me, you’ll be in this exam room on the right.”She ushered her in and took her blood pressure, jotting the results down on her chart, then excused herself, dashing back to find a granola bar and deliver it before putting on gloves to dip the test stick into Ditzy’s urine sample.
She rushed back to her exam room, but Dr.Drake, the man she privately referred to as “Dr.Dreamy,” had already arrived and was looking for the patient file.
“It’s right here,” she said breathlessly.“I got a little backed up with a clean up in Room 3.”She tried to ignore the piercing blue gaze with which the doctor fixed her.He had a way of looking at her that made her feel completely bared to him.As if he saw past all her cheerful, eager-to-please pretense and read her snarkiest thoughts.Anytime she inwardly rolled her eyes at patients or the doctors in his presence, she sensed his amusement.To top it off, he always seemed to guess where she was and what she was up to.Every time she tried to text friends on the job, he was the doctor who caught her.
“Thank you, Chloe,” he said, stretching out his hand.Their gazes tangled when he took the file, locking a moment too long.
She sucked in a breath before she tore them away, flustered.“You’re welcome,” she managed.As always, she turned a little stupid in his presence, his good looks and authoritative demeanor making her palms sweat.And he probably noticed that, too, since she was sure he saw through the rest.
It was Friday, which meant the two nurses and three of the four doctors in the practice cut out by noon.As the only Certified Nurse Assistant, she didn’t get to flex her time, but she didn’t mind.She liked it when the clinic was quiet—it gave her more opportunities to do her own thing while the one remaining doctor was closed in with patients.
She checked the board to see with whom she would be working that afternoon.Dr.Dreamy.A thrill of excitement zinged through her.Being alone in the clinic with him always made her knees go weak.
