Page 60 of Time for You
“Just a bad few weeks at work,” she said dismissively.
“Nope, it’s not that,” he replied.
“And how do you know that for sure?”
“I can tell. Come on, Daph, give me some credit. I’m smart and I know you well.”
“Not that well,” she said acidly. Her stomach was suddenly roiling.
“Want to know what I think it is?” he asked, undeterred by her coldness.
“Why do I get the sense you’re telling me no matter what?”
He shot her a cocky grin. “See? We know each other well.” He laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on the table. “I think you don’t like emergency medicine as much as you thought, and you want to switch.”
Abruptly, her stomach stopped roiling. In fact, it stopped doing much of anything, because now it was on the floor. “I don’t see how you’re getting that.”
“For one thing, you didn’t deny it just now. No, don’t try now—I’m just pointing out a fact. For another thing, you always want more timewith patients, when in EM, you have to be okay without having that. It’s a core part of it, and that doesn’t make you a bad doctor, but it does make you maybe not suited to this.”
Daphne swallowed back her rising bile. “That’s not your call to make.”
Vibol’s tone softened, but only slightly. “I’m not making a call. I’m telling you what I observe. Emergency medicine is nonstop chaos and patients you don’t get to know before they’re sent somewhere else, and I just don’t think you like that.” Daphne opened her mouth to retort, but he shook his head. “Did I ever tell you my brother switched specialties?”
Vibol’s older brother was a wildly successful neurosurgeon out in Seattle and something of a legend among their group. “Wait, really?”
“He was cardiology for two years, then finally admitted he was miserable and found someone who was willing to swap places in his residency program. Meant he had to take a little longer to finish, but he said it was worth it.”
“Good for him, I guess.”
Vibol sent her a dirty look. “You see what I’m getting at, right?”
“I do, but you’re wrong, okay? I just had a few off days.”
“You said weeks.”
“Or weeks, whatever.”
“Just—think about it, Daph. If you’re not happy, you don’t have to stay.”
“I thought you liked to say that being happy is stupid, you just need to make money.”
“Sure, but that’s me. You’re different.”
Henry and Ellie joined them, slightly out of breath but grinning. “What are we talking about?”
Daphne panicked, but for once in his life, Vibol apparently decided to let her off the hook.Michelle must be really rubbing off on him,she thought, as he shrugged. “Just Daphne being unusually funny these days,” he said, and she sent him a silent thank-you.
“Aww, did our girl make a joke?” Ellie said.
“Hey, I think Daphne’s quite funny,” Henry protested, and Ellie, Vibol, and Daphne all broke out in laughter.
“That’s sweet,” Daphne said, patting his hand. “But really, they’re right. I’m not.”
“It’s why we love her,” Ellie said.
“We love who?” Michelle asked, sitting down next to Vibol and scooting her chair closer to him.
“Daphne the Unfunny,” Vibol explained.
