Chapter 7
SEVEN
It was supposed to be a conference with a little bit of downtime. What Kay got with her cramped economy seat on Westward Airlines was a delay of an hour and a half on the tarmac in Center City to match her stale packet of chips and a watered-down ginger ale.
The actual conference had been wonderful.
Along with the classes on Hospital Administration, she was able to fit in some sessions on the new and upcoming advances in Emergency Room medicine that almost bordered on science fiction.
One of the presenters had enjoyed her interjection about the same tech appearing on an episode of Star Trek.
No one else in the room had gotten the obscure reference, but then again, most of them were from a completely different generation of doctors where it was de rigueur to be barely seen and never heard in a conference setting.
Kay had always been the quiet type in school.
Her parents made sure to drum into her the need to be observant and a good student.
They wanted her to absorb information like a sponge but never make waves with her presence.
Understated was an understatement. But during college, she noticed that if she remained quiet, then people passed right over her, including her professors.
Speaking up was the only way that anyone paid any attention to her.
Oh, it wasn't like the squeaky wheel or anything like that.
She didn't say things just to say them, but if she had a strong feeling on something, she'd open her mouth and say it, all the while cringing on the inside.
By the time she got to medical school she was a person that her parents didn't even recognize.
On the rare occasions when they would fly in to see her for a few days, going out to restaurants was like entering the Twilight Zone. If she said a word to the waitstaff her mother would stare at her in horror and her dad would ignore her.
They didn't have to scold her for her to understand how disappointed they were in her outspoken ways.
After the first few times their visits were few and farther between.
At first, Kay had mourned the loss of their presence, but that was before she realized that she didn't have to be quiet and retiring when they were there and really, it was a pain to fit back into that mold when she wasn't that person anymore.
Then she joined the staff at Cole Medical in Center City and wondered if she'd ever really been that silent shadow or if that was just how she'd molded herself to make her parents happy.
That’s not to say that it was a hedonistic place of medical joy and laughter, but it was quite a bit easier on her true nature.
She felt like she could be herself.
On the clock.
As a doctor.
Not as a woman.
There were still a number of men on staff who were having trouble understanding the modern world where women had equal standing in the world, let alone medicine.
At least the men she dealt with on a normal basis were fairly easy to deal with and some even made her smile, like one of her friends, Doctor Roan Ashley.
They’d worked long, exhausting hours together, and had seen all the highs and lows that you get in the Emergency Room of a large Metropolitan City.
It was different when she ventured out with the ER staff, they always seemed to defer to her as a superior because of the MD after her name.
Those times got under her skin.
She wanted a damn social life where she didn’t have to worry about internal politics. Fraternizing with fellow hospital personnel was always a mine field. There wasn’t an actual policy that prevented it, but everyone understood the gist of it.
It was one thing to speak out. That was encouraged.
Communication is a must in a field as chaotic as medicine could be. But beyond that?
Don’t make waves.
Don’t make drama.
Work hard and everything will be fine.
Until she went back to her house and dealt with the silence.
At one time it had been her solace, but now it was driving her a little out of her mind.
For a few evenings she'd had Gibson there with her.
Which in and of itself had been a bit crazy. She'd never had a man in her space that wasn't a friend, and only a friend.
College? Med School? Study sessions, late night coffee binging, and bitch sessions when she'd gone through her residency.
Never once had she wanted to kiss any of those men. She admired their minds.
None of them made her think of crossing the line into a relationship or even study partners with benefits. That all seemed so... awkward.
Now, standing in one of the alcoves of Vol. 39 in the Kimpton Gray Hotel, in the middle of almost a hundred other doctors, all she wanted to do was go back to her room and go to sleep.
These were the same men who frowned at her for speaking to one of the presenters and now expected her to smile and talk. They also expected her to laugh at what they considered the appropriate times. Never mind that she had been a doctor for almost the same amount of time that they had been.
Doctor Moore had been the first one to corner her almost as soon as she’d entered the bar. There was only one word to associate her time with Doctor Thomas Moore.
Bore.
He’d droned on and on about his own practice and how he was so glad that he’d never been sucked into working in an Emergency Room. When he’d come up for air after the fourth story of his latest heroism in diagnosing a bone spur or some such ailment, she’d excused herself to get a drink.
And he'd curled his lip at that.
A drink!
In a bar!
How novel!
Never mind that he had one in his hand. Whatever the drink had been, it was watered-down with the condensation turning the napkin he held under the glass into a shredded mess.
She’d only managed another foot or two when she was suddenly stuck between two doctors this time.
Doctor Smith and Doctor Jones.
She couldn’t remember which was which if her life depended on it.
Both men were the same height.
Had the same coloring.
And if they didn’t have different last names, she would have sworn they were twins.
One was a thoracic surgeon and the other a spinal surgeon.
By the time they stopped making jokes about how they were so good at their craft that they could probably do surgery on both sides of a person at the same time, she was ready to drink a double. One serving for each ridiculous man.
And then, just when she’d extricated herself from that mess and found a table to sit at and get off of her feet, another doctor slid onto the same banquette bench with her, effectively caging her between the table and his rather forceful presence. She’d resigned herself with going thirsty.
He even folded his far leg over the near one to make it impossible for her to crawl over him to freedom.
The doctor, dressed in a suit coat that was likely a size too small, held out his hand. “Hello there.”
Smiling, or at least she thought she was, she grasped the tips of his fingers in a shake and pulled her hand away before he could get a better hold on her. “Hello.”
He looked at his empty hand and back at her face for a moment before he realized that he’d gotten all he was going to get in the way of a handshake.
Kay had a vague hope that he’d get the picture and move on.
Right.
Ha Ha.
The world was laughing at her in her head, and she wondered who she had ticked off to get hit with this kind of karma. She wasn’t all that much of a superstitious person, but she didn’t break any mirrors, nor did she walk under ladders.
Maybe it was something she’d done in a past life or something. What did they say in that Indigo Girls song?
“So, I see that you’re single.”
Kay stared at him, wide-eyed and stunned. “What?”
He gestured at her hand. “No ring.”
“What does that have to do with the price of eggs?” she wondered aloud.
“Eggs?” He shook his head. “I’m not an OB/GYN. But I do know how all of that stuff works down there.”
His gaze was more of a leer, and she knew she really needed a drink before she socked him in the eye.
He continued on. “I mean, you could be engaged, but then I would see a lighter skin ring around your finger. That wouldn’t mean that it’s a deal breaker though.” He leaned in and almost touched his shoulder to hers. “I mean, I’m not from Chicago. Are you?”
Someone stopped on the other side of the table and cleared their throat. Kay looked up and saw a waiter with a harried but pleasant expression on his face. “Good evening, folks. Sorry for the wait but wow, it’s busy in here. May I get you two some drinks?”
Kay sat up and stared at the waiter like he’d come down from heaven on a cloud. “Yes! Thank you.”
As the waiter started to explain the exclusive craft cocktails available at Vol. 39, the doctor beside her cut him off. “The lady will have a Cosmo, and I’ll have another Scotch.” He waggled the glass back and forth as if the gesture itself would refill the glass.
The waiter’s smile looked pained, but her captor didn’t seem to notice… or even care to notice.
“Hop to! Come on!” He even tossed his credit card on the man’s tray with a larger-than-life wink.
The waiter tried to interject and looked at Kay.
She shrugged in surrender.
She had no interest in making the waiter suffer the other doctor’s wrath and really, a Cosmo would be fine. It wasn’t her drink of choice, but at that point ANY drink would hit the spot.
As the waiter disappeared, the oblivious doctor started in again.
“You haven’t asked my name,” his grin was beaming, “so I’m guessing that you know me from the awards ceremony at the last conference.”
“Uh,” she weighed her options and came up empty, “actually, I wasn’t at the last conference, my coworker Doctor Ash-”
“Well, it’s perfectly fine,” he simpered, “I can just introduce myself to you, privately.”
Oh god, no.
He leaned his arm against the high back of the banquette bench and lowered his voice to a raspy almost-whisper. “I’m Doctor Macmillan. Doctor McMichael Macmillan.”
“Doctor. McMichael. Macmillan?”