Page 57 of Anatomy of a Meet Cute
“Doulas, why don’t you give the physicians a rundown on how you usually start working with a client while we get this sorted,” Sam rambled. She was fairly certain she had already sweat through her undershirt and began fanning herself. Any minute now, the entire world would see every ounce of what she’d had to drink in the last seven hours on the back of her scrubs. Even the backs of her knees felt sweaty as she looked around the room just in time to see Dr.Franklin striding toward her.
“Dr.Holbrook, if you don’t mind, I’d like a word with you.” It was phrased politely enough, but his tone left no choice for her in the matter.
“Ah yes. Um. Of course,” she stammered, feeling like she was being sent to the office for goofing off in class.
Dr.Franklin launched in without really waiting for her to get close. “Now, I know the old system and the staff shortage for paperwork processing isn’t your fault, but someone should have checked this before everybody got here. I understand that setting up this program is an enormous undertaking, but I am concerned that this hiccup is a sign of things to come.”
“I understand, sir. And I apologize. We should have had the doulas arrive a bit earlier to check their log-ins. Unfortunately, with the way the system is set up, log-in info is sent directly to the individual, so we had no way of knowing that the doula log-ins weren’t active until they tried them on the hospital’s secure network.” Sam knew her tone was a little prickly. But in a way, she thought this was his fault. While it was true that she didn’t control the network, it was also true that he did. If he didn’t want these kinds of problems, he only needed to look at his budget and then look in the mirror.
“Be that as it may, I also want you to consider staff time.” Dr.Franklin held up his hand, and Sam bit her tongue to keep from arguing as he said, “You and Grant have spent God-knows-how-many hours recruiting doctors and matching doulas, recruiting patients, and arranging this. You don’t have a full-time admin budget, and it shows. Administrative and tech needs should have gone into your funding proposal.”
“Dr.Franklin, the goal of my fellowship is to learn how to run my own research program. There will be mistakes, but I have three more years at the hospital to figure it out.” She had spent countless hours chasing this man, and now he was mad that she didn’t know things. Who was supposed to tell her if not the attending?
“You may have three more years here, but you don’t have three years’ worth of funding. I’m worried about the hospital resources. The staff time isn’t being covered by Anjo.”
“Actually, the doctors identify good candidates for the program, so that isn’t much of a time commitment on the administrative side,” Sam said, her veneer of patience beginning to crack. “And really, this is the first wave. This isn’t even the formal launch of the program. Our whole goal is to get kinks like this worked out.”
If he insisted on being in the first wave of the program, he was bound to get some hiccups. Sam narrowed her eyes at Dr.Franklin as if channeling all her frustration into a single glare would somehow communicate her point.
It didn’t. Sighing heavily, Dr.Franklin rubbed his temple with one hand and gestured around the room with the other. “That’s just it. Everyone here’s time is valuable to the hospital. We have to evaluate research programs on a variety of things, not just novelty.”
“Apparently, you aren’t considering patient care as part of the evaluation,” Sam shot back. “Sir, you say you are trying to help, but I question your dedication to helpfulness when you are trying to scuttle theprogram five minutes before our clients arrive. I think you are stuck in your ways. You took one look at Earnest and his green hair—”
“I most certainly am not. And I’ll have you know that I have been all about progressive care. My entire—”
“All right, good news, everyone!” Grant called, rounding the corner like a professional speed walker. If Sam hadn’t been in the middle of an ideological grudge match with Dr.Franklin, she would have laughed at the Olympic-level hip swivel that Grant had employed just to say he wasn’t technically running in the hospital. Picking up on whatever weird energy hovered between her and Dr.Franklin, Grant stopped short. Coming to stand between the two of them, he turned to the group and said, “I just got a hold of a few residents on break and someone on the admin team. They agreed to track down the forms and get the approvals into the system. So if everyone refreshes their browser in about ten minutes, we should be back online with full access.”
“Won’t the clients be here in ten minutes?” Dr.Choi asked. Her tone was almost apologetic as she pointed out the bad news.
“They will. And I know we promised that all of you would be out of here by now, so Kaiya, how do you think it is best we proceed?”
Kaiya took a deep breath, then smiled at the group. “A first meeting with the family is all about building trust. Let’s let our doulas do what they do best and get to know the families and their needs. That won’t require immediate medical knowledge. Once the portal is up and running, we’ll circle back about check-ins and go over how to use the messaging system.”
The doctors in the room shrugged and started saying their goodbyes. Not for the first time, Sam wished that she had Kaiya’s stage presence. Maybe then Dr.Franklin would relax instead of scowling at her like she was a plastic bag blocking a gutter during a rainstorm.
Looking cautiously between the two of them, Grant asked, “You two doing okay?”
While Sam waffled between trying to lie that they were fine and being the petty teenage version of herself and saying no, Dr.Franklin sighed, his shoulders slumping. “You know, I think we are. I was a little short with you, Samantha, and I hope you can forgive me. What you said about this being a pilot makes sense.”
“Of course. And again, I apologize for the hiccups. I think we are all a little tired. I know I was not at my best,” Sam said, digging deep to be gracious. Sure, she hadn’t been nice, but Dr.Franklin wasn’t 100 percent wrong either.
“All right then, I’ll be on the lookout for an update on how I can message Earnest. Whose hair I do like, by the way.” Dr.Franklin smiled at Earnest, whose return smile looked like the nervous grimace of a person who had seen a gator grinning at him.
“Thank you, Dr.Franklin,” Sam said, though a small part of her remained heated as she watched Dr.Franklin leave.
Grant waited until the other doctors had emptied out of the room, leaving the birth specialists to futz around with their desk setups until their clients arrived, before he turned to Sam and asked, “What happened?”
“Dr.Franklin sucks is what happened.”
Grant snorted in surprise, his shoulders shaking with laughter. “He’s just set in his ways.”
“His way is just waiting for us to fail so he can kill this off,” Sam said, feeling her teeth grind as she remembered his remarks.
“Nah, he’s just a principal administrator. He has to be discerning.”
“That is such a nice way to sayjudgmental,” Sam grumbled and crossed her arms.
“If the two of you let go of your preconceived notions, I bet he would be a good mentor to you. I know he has been really helpful to me in a pinch,” Grant said, half smiling as he needled Sam.
