5. Ashley
5
ASHLEY
T he cafeteria was busier than normal today, filled with an overabundance of people here visiting patients or stopping in for a snack between procedures. I sat across the table from Dr. Andrews who kept to himself for the most part. I hadn't really attempted to build a rapport yet, though I'd been here for a few weeks. Jack was adamant that I would be the one to figure out what was going on because he fully believed one of his interns had set him up. I wasn’t sure, but I had promised to help, so here I was, buddying up to Michael on my lunch break when I'd much rather have been sitting with Jack in his office.
I'd been working on how to strike up a conversation when he said, "So, what's the real reason you're a late bloomer?"
Dr. Michael Andrews was a third-year resident under Jack, and from what Jack had told me, the man had helped on some serious procedures. He was skilled and intelligent, maybe just enough so to pull off something a little sneaky or underhanded. But from what I'd seen, he was also compassionate and warm, not the sort of man who would physically harm a patient to subvert his boss's career.
"A lot of people get a later start on their dreams, you know?" I didn't feel right lying straight to his face. Covering for Jack was one thing. I'd fibbed to my dad a lot. I never felt great about that, but the dynamic between a daughter and her father was very different from the relationship between two doctors at the office.
"Well, you seem to know your stuff, so I'll give you that." He took a bite of his sandwich, and I took my chance at prodding too.
"What about you? What got you into medicine?"
Michael finished chewing his bite and washed it down with a sip of soda as he shrugged. "I guess I failed at astrophysics?" The wry smile he shot me made me laugh. He was funny too, which was something a lot of doctors couldn't stake a claim to. Most doctors were intellectual by nature and as such were less humorous and more serious.
"Funny, but honestly… Do you like it? Helping people?" I picked at my burger. It was tasteless and dry, but it was food.
"I actually do. I chose this field because the human heart fascinated me as a kid. I was good at surgery, and so the specialization is just the next step." Michael seemed genuine, his reply heart-felt. Now was my time to really dig in and get to know how he felt about the team.
"What about Dr. Stewart? Do you like him?" I feigned innocence. For all he knew, I was asking because I was new to the job and wanted to find out what my coworkers thought about Jack. He didn't know the ruse being played out under his nose or the lie I told Sam. Though, I'd heard some rumors floating around about Jack being married now, which made me smile every time I heard them.
"Boss? He's great. I've done a lot of surgeries with him. He's taught me a lot of things. I'm really happy here. I even asked to come back for year four to finish the specialty with him because I think he's the best." Michael furrowed his eyebrows. "You don't like him or something?"
"Oh, the opposite. I think he's really smart too… I just meant his personality." I pushed the burger away and folded my arms on the table. "Do you like him as a person?" If he asked the same thing, I'd have a hard time answering honestly because I more than liked Jack. I had such a strong desire to do really bad things with him, it was making me want more than that with him now.
"Yeah, Jack's great." It was the first time Michael broke professional conduct. "We've been golfing a few times. He's sort of like a mentor, even outside of work. I'd consider him my friend, but here at work, we keep things professional."
It sounded to me like Jack and Michael were closer than I thought, probably more so in Michael's mind than Jack’s, but definitely not hostile.
"Wow, it sounds like Jack is pretty great." Saying his name out loud to a coworker felt oddly gratifying. I wanted the world to know I was closer to Jack than met the eye too, but that would be risky considering we weren't just friends. I didn't know what we were, but I couldn't get booted from the job before I helped Jack solve the mystery.
"Yeah, he is. Like I said, I'm really happy he's my boss." Michael stacked his things on his tray and stood. "I'll catch ya later. It was nice chatting."
I smiled. "Yeah, it was nice."
He wasn't as big of a jerk as his first impression led me to believe. The joking at my expense last week was in poor taste, but I could see now that it was more like hazing the newbie and not anything personal. I liked Michael, and I didn't get any bad vibes from him at all, so if one of Jack's two interns was guilty of meddling, I didn't think it was him.
My phone rang and I pulled it out to look at the time. I still had a few minutes left of my lunch break, and seeing that it was my dad calling, I decided to answer the call. We hadn't spoken in a few weeks, so this check-in was overdue. Dad was a worrier, something I never quite understood, but I appreciated that he cared.
"Hey, Dad," I said, pinching the phone between my ear and shoulder. I started to stack my own trash on my tray so that when the call was over, I could make it back to my rounds on time. "What's up?"
"Ashley, you haven't called in a while. How are things going?" He sounded breathless, like he'd been out for a run or something. Even at his age, he liked to stay fit and active.
"I'm great, Dad. Just busy. Jack works us like dogs." I chuckled as I thought of how light of a workload I really had. I could handle more than two patients at a time, but in keeping with the ruse, Jack had given me the smaller load to free up my time for "investigating". It played well for the others too, since I was supposedly very new to this and had a lot of learning to do.
"I played golf with Jack on Saturday.” His words hung in the air as if questioning me. Jack and Dad golfed all the time, maybe even with Michael, now that I thought about it. It wasn't news to me, so for Dad to bring it up meant he had a point.
"Yeah? How'd that go?" I asked, taking the bait. If he was going to believe things, at least I could guide his beliefs so he didn't come right out and accuse Jack of something. Jack wasn't a good liar at all. Even when he rejected my flirtatious advances, I could see he wanted me.
"He was acting strange every time I asked about you." Dad's tone was accusatory, so my mind scrambled to think of something to say, but before I came up with anything he asked me directly. "Do you know what's going on? Why would he act so strangely?"
I wasn't as flustered now as I had been on the yacht, but being reminded of that night with Jack did make me blush. "I'm sure he is just worried he'll let you down. He told me you asked him to watch out for me. He probably takes that responsibility seriously." I sighed hard, letting Dad hear some of my real emotion so he'd buy the lie. "I'm a big girl, Dad. I don't need Jack to babysit me. I'm not a kid anymore. I'm thirty."
"I know," he said, sounding somewhat repentant. "I did ask him to keep an eye on you. You're all I have, sweetheart."
I smiled at the sweet way Dad always cared for me. "I love you, Dad. I'm gonna go. I have to get to rounds. Next time you play golf, don't give Jack a hard time."
Movement across the table caught my eye, and I noticed Sam sitting down, plopping his cooler pack on the table in front of him. My stomach turned as I realized he'd parked himself there just to annoy me again, which meant chasing him off two weeks ago hadn’t worked. He was working some new angle, and I hoped he heard me talking about Jack to my dad.
"Love you, baby girl."
"Love you too, Dad," I said, before hanging up. Sam's eyebrows went up.
"Daddio? How's the old guy doing?" Sam and my dad never got along. Dad told me he was a loser from the beginning, but of course love is blind and I never saw it until it was too late. And Dad fully supported my decisions and feelings right up until the end. I should have known better.
I stood and slid my tray off the table as I put my phone into the pocket of my lab coat. "Dad's doing well." I would have turned and just walked away, but Sam butted in again.
"Where's hubby at today? Not having lunch in his office like normal?" So Sam had been keeping tabs on us, which meant he really was trying to pick apart our story.
"He went out. I had lunch with a coworker.” I took a step back and felt my chest tighten. Sam wasn't going to let this go, either. He was going to follow me around and push my buttons until I cracked.
"Hmm… Well I hope next time Dad and Jack go golfing, they get along better." Sam winked at me, and my cheeks burned.
I turned and stomped off feeling frustrated and embarrassed. How much of that conversation had he overheard? And why was he eavesdropping on me? I had to tell Jack about this new development and make sure our stories were straight. And we had to talk about Dad too… and maybe a few other things, like the fact that I was so distracted every time he was in the room, I couldn’t work. I didn't want to make mistakes because of this attraction I had to him, but it wasn't going away.
Maybe the best thing for us to do was to bang another one out and hope the crazy lust simmered down a bit, at least until we had sniffed out the root of his problem. Otherwise, someone was going to notice what was going on—Sam, my dad, the hospital board—and when they did, there would be questions.