Page 28 of Degrees of Innocence
“Do you need anything from me in the next couple of days?” he asks before kissing my lips lightly.
“No, you’ve done an excellent job of participating and challenging the status quo, and it’s helped keep the focus on the patients.”
He pulls his cell phone out scowling at the message. “Excuse me for a moment, Katarina,” he says clearly irritated. “Sid, this is Chase. What’s happening? No, absolutely not. Why don’t you take the team over and get prepared for the long haul? I don’t think given their current position the negotiations will be as quick as we’d hoped. Let me know once you arrive and are settled in.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Hopefully soon, Baby. Don’t stay up too late working,” he says, kissing me good night before departing.
I finish drying my hair and call in an order for room service before settling in at the dining room table to work on the project. After a short while the telephone on the bedside table rings and I walk into the room to answer it.
“Hello, as part of our commitment to customer service I am calling to confirm that you’ve ordered room service and to verify your meal choices,” the man on the other end of the phone says.
“Yes, of course. I ordered the blackened tilapia salad with lime vinaigrette dressing, on the side,” I say.
“Thank you for taking the time to verify this. Would you care to add anything else to your order this evening?”
“No, I believe that will be all, but thank you for checking,” I say.
“It should be delivered within the next ten minutes then,” he says before we disconnect and I return to the work at hand, totally engrossed until a knock on the door pulls me away from my thoughts.
I open the door and two men wheel a stainless steel cart into my room and place a dome shaped plate on the dining room table, along with a silver bucket of ice cradling a bottle of wine. I recognize the bottle. “I don’t think I ordered wine,” I say to the waiter.
“It is compliments of the house for participating in our customer service efforts,” he says, pouring it into a glass that has been placed on the table.
“How did your team know I like this wine?”
“It’s our job to know what you’ve ordered and we tailor our service accordingly,” he says.
“That certainly was not necessary, but thank you,” I say, as they wheel the silver tray out of the room and close the door. The wine is delicious and an excellent accompaniment to the salad that is loaded with crisp romaine, blackened tilapia, cucumber, red onions and sweet ripe tomatoes. It takes a couple hours to finish the facility details and I decide to have another glass of wine as I review some of the material related to our project. After another hour passes, my mind wanders to what Chase is doing.
I curl into bed realizing that I still know so little about him and what he does for a living. Contract negotiations at all hours of the night and it didn’t seem as though they were going well. I try to take my mind off of him and skim an article that addresses the issues surrounding so many of the critically ill. They are staggering: affordability of medication, access to care at the time they need it, transportation, communication breakdowns between different care groups and the list goes on. I am just finishing up an analysis of emergency room data and volumes when I hear a message come through.
Message:Still working?
Reply:Just finalizing a little data in case questions arise tomorrow.
Message:I’m sure you have everything you need. You should rest!
Reply:Bossy and overbearing?!?
Message:Indeed.
Reply: Are you done working now?
Message: Unfortunately we will be here for some time. Sleep well.
In the morning, I feel less than rested having thought about the importance of the event decisions throughout the night. I jump into the shower letting the water invigorate and wake me up, slowly resigning myself to getting out and wrapping up in one of the oversized towels while I decide what to wear.
Swoosh…
Message:Good morning... I have a conference call this morning so will meet you there. Also, have another one during lunch and at the end of the day.
Reply:Anyone ever tell you that you work too much?
Message:Actually, no.
Reply:We’ll have to discuss this behavior. I may need to punish you for this!
