Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
MAGNOLIA
After eating lunch alone at the park—a turkey and provolone sandwich I’d brought from home—I walked back into the clinic ready to work. Nurse Betsy was gone for the afternoon, driving her husband to the optometrist. I could hear Dr. Adams and P.A. Markson in separate rooms, attending to patients.
Room one had a blue flag flipped out, which meant that the patient needed their vitals taken. I grabbed the computer cart, checked the chart of Maeve Coleman—a fifteen-year-old girl experiencing stomach pains—and gave the door a light knock before pushing inside.
“Good afternoon,” I sang softly.
Sitting on the exam table, decked out in head-to-toe black, Maeve was the poster child for all things emo. Black nails, a black lip ring, and jet black dyed hair.
Her mother was the opposite in soft pastels, blond hair streaked with gray. She looked stiff and a touch irritated. Maybe they’d gotten into an argument before I arrived?
I smiled, hoping to ease the tension. “I’m Maggie, and I’m going to take your vitals, if that’s okay.”
Maeve recoiled, eyes darting to the floor, hands trembling against her knees. I glanced at Mrs. Coleman, trying to understand what was going on.
She seared me with her stare. “We had one request,” she gritted out. “No med students. No nurses. Just Dr. Adams. Is it that hard to follow directions?”
“Oh…” I said, confused. “I’m so sorry. Normally, they put a sign up on the door if that’s the case.” It wasn’t that I was trying to pass the buck, but no way would I have walked in if I’d known.
The woman shook her head, lips pressed in a bloodless line.
“She has POTS, which causes severe anxiety. I swear, y’all don’t care about your patients at all.
Last time it was that blond kid with the mullet.
” That would be Topher. “Now it’s you. Is Dr. Adams just letting any old hooligan up in here now? ”
Hooligan? I blinked. I couldn’t even jaywalk without feeling guilty.
Her arm slid around Maeve as if she needed protection from me. “C’mon, sweetie, we’re going someplace that has its act together.”
I stepped back, letting them pass, heart in my throat. “It was just a simple misunderstanding,” I followed them from the room. “I promise the people here at Seddledowne…”
The words lodged in my throat as Dr. Adams exited exam room two. One look at Maeve and her mother, and his smile disappeared. “What’s going on?
“What’s going on is that your med student can’t read simple instructions.” Maeve’s mother jammed her pointer finger at the door of exam room one, where, sure enough, there was a bright red octagon-shaped sign hanging from the handle that read No Student. “Not sure how she got into med school.”
“Maggie?” Dr. Adams’ nostrils flared ever so slightly.
“U-uh,” I stammered, trying to hold it together. “That wasn’t there before.” It wasn’t. I checked.
He sighed. “Yes, it was. I put it there myself.”
Maeve and her mom looked between us, not knowing who to believe. “It doesn’t matter,” Mrs. Coleman said. “We’re done.” She stomped toward the exit, Maeve in tow. “Please have our records sent to Dr. Torres’s office in Honeyville.” Then they were gone.
Dr. Adams stared after them, an angry blush creeping across the top of his bald head.
“I’m s-so sorry,” I choked.
He looked mad enough to break something. “They’ve been coming here for a decade. It took years to earn Maeve’s trust. You and Topher managed to destroy that in less than a month.”
My instincts screamed to stand up for myself.
The sign hadn’t been there when I entered the room.
I was certain. But the first rule of being on rotation is that you don’t question your attending.
Not if you want to pass. “What can I do? Do you want me to go apologize again? Maybe if we give them some time to calm down—”
“Forget it. She’s more protective of Maeve than a hen with one chick.” He shook his head, hands on his hips. “I hope you know I just lost an entire family of patients. Seven of them. I might lose their extended family too.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. I was one wrong breath away from collapsing into tears.
“Just…get your crap together. I don’t know the last time I had a med student make a mistake this big.” He strode away muttering, “Hate to have to fail her.”
It felt like I’d been punched in the kidneys.
Hands shaking, I went the opposite direction, exiting through the staff entrance.
I jogged down the sidewalk, grateful no one was in the parking lot, and let my head drop between my knees.
I would give myself one minute to cry before pulling myself up by the bootstraps and made sure I didn’t make another mistake the entire time I was here.
But how can you fix a mistake you didn’t make?
Suddenly, a car door shut, and footsteps slapped against the blacktop. “Magnolia?” Bowen called, voice tight, jogging toward me.
I quickly wiped my nose on my sleeve and stood, turning away. “I’m fine,” I murmured, but the tremor in my voice betrayed me.
He got in front of me, hands gripping my shoulders, eyes probing as if he could pull the truth straight from my mind. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
I looked at the ground, letting my hair make a shield between us. “I’m okay. Today’s just…a lot.”
He pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, and a pocket of peace swelled in my chest. No. I could not let him be my comfort.
I stepped back, wiping my eyes. “I’m fine. Really.”
He looked a little hurt and like he didn’t know what to do with his hands. He jammed them into his pockets. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Is someone bothering you?” he asked, his tone suspicious.
But that only made things worse. I could not handle him being his perceptive self, figuring out why my heart was breaking when the rest of the world was oblivious.
Couldn’t handle him being my friend today and then changing his mind tomorrow. That was his specialty.
“Hey,” his voice dropped. “Was Billy a jerk to you? Topher?”
“I have to get back inside. Thank you for checking on me.”
His cheeks heated, so I gave him a brief smile before walking away.
I went to bed early that night, but I couldn’t sleep. A knot had formed in my stomach and, no matter what I did, it wouldn’t relax. That sign hadn’t been on the door. I knew it hadn’t.
I got up early the next day, determined to make it a perfect nine-hour shift. But the same thing happened. There was no sign on a door where one should’ve been. And again two days after that. Thankfully those patients were much much understanding. Dr. Adams? Not so much.
I overheard him telling Markson I must’ve slept my way into med school. There was no other explanation if I wasn’t ‘smart enough to read a simple sign.’ Not sure how someone sleeps their way into med school, but it hurt to hear nonetheless.
The next Monday, Topher stood at the staff entrance, arms outstretched, blocking my way. He crooked a mischievous grin. “What’s the password?”
Password? What kind of childish nonsense was this?
“I can’t do this today.” My head hurt from crying so much last night. I needed the ibuprofen stowed in my locker. “I have to get inside and get going.”
“Just as soon as you tell me the password.” He clicked his tongue, eyes smoldering. “Here’s a hint: it’s the correct answer to the question, Will you have lunch with me today.”
Was he for real? He wouldn’t let me inside until I agreed to go out with him?
“Are you five?” I exhaled through my nose, temper at its boiling point, and it wasn’t even eight a.m. “Grow up. I said no.”
He had the nerve to smirk. “Wrong. Try again.”
I stared at him, chest heaving. “No. No. No. The answer is no now, and it’s going to be no tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that.” I threw my hands up. “It’ll be no until the day I’m done here.”
He licked his bottom lip, eyes scanning my face in a way that felt way too personal. “You know, if you don’t pass your rotation, you’ll be right back here for eight more weeks,” he said, flirty and deep, like that might be a good thing.
“There’s zero chance of that happening,” I said. “I’m going to ace this rotation.”
“Ace?” One brow arched. “Not according to my dad.”
My fists clenched and my heart pounded.
His hooded gaze raked over my chest, making me wish I could knee him in the groin. But that would require me getting close enough to touch him, and I was never doing that.
“Eyes up top.” I snapped my fingers in his face. “Or you and I are going to have a problem.”
“Oh, we already have a problem. I’m tired of playing this game of cat and mouse,” he purred hungrily. “Now stop playing hard to get and tell me the password.”
“Move out of my way. Now.”
His lips quirked at the corners, fighting back a laugh. “The password.”
I glared at him. “Here’s the password: Over my dead body.”
“Wrong. Try again.” His eyebrows bobbed. “I can do this all day.”
My gaze flashed to the front of the building. We were strictly forbidden to come through the patient’s entrance. Billy made that clear the first day I started. He said it looked unprofessional. But I couldn’t do this anymore.
Topher caught me glancing in that direction. “Don’t want to give Dr. Adams another reason to dock your grade.” The way he said it…
Every muscle in my body locked up. “It’s you.”
“It’s me, what?” He smirked.
“You’re the one who keeps taking the ‘no student’ sign off the doors.” It all made sense now. My teeth clamped together and I’d never wanted to do someone physical harm in my life before but I did right then.
“No idea what you’re talking about.” He leaned in, eyes greedy. “I think your head is in the clouds because you’re constantly thinking about being with me. The only way to clear your mind is to give in to this.” He gestured at himself like he was some kind of prize.
“I’m going to tell your dad,” I threatened. “And report this to my clerkship director.”
He snorted. “If I were trying to sabotage your rotation and you reported it to my dad, he wouldn’t believe you. And you’d end up having to repeat family medicine.” He chuckled like he thought I secretly liked this. “But if you give me the password, I’ll make sure whoever is doing it stops.”
I stared at him, hands shaking…because he was right—though I’d never tell him so.
I didn’t have time for this ridiculousness.
Definitely didn’t have the emotional bandwidth.
I needed to put everything into undoing the damage he’d already done and into the SHELF exam I had to take at the end of this rotation.
His head tilted, studying me. “Is there something wrong with you? Do you not like guys?” he asked, like that was the only possible explanation.
“You know I was Prom King, right?” I did, because he still bragged about it to anyone who would listen.
“Star QB.” Of a losing team. “Salutatorian of my class.” Cheated his way through high school. At least those were the rumors.
“This isn’t high school anymore,” I said. “You’re an adult now, and it’s time for you to grow up and learn that you can’t manipulate people into getting your way.”
But he still didn’t move.
So I marched back down the ramp, around the building, and through the front door.
Marissa glanced up from the registration desk, brow furrowed. But the look in her eyes told me she understood and she wouldn’t say anything.
Unfortunately, just then Dr. Adams walked into the reception area and saw me through the glass.
He glowered and huffed, “Magnolia!”