10. Charlie
CHAPTER 10
CHARLIE
F or the entire day following their night together, Charlie did his best to avoid Megan. It was impossible, of course, because he kept getting paired with her. The problem wasn’t that he disliked being around her. The problem was that he liked being around her way too much. He had hoped that finally going to bed with her would have relieved his tension, sated his curiosity, and let him focus on his residency for a change, but it had done just the opposite. Suddenly, she was all he could think about. He found himself smiling when he had no good reason to smile. It was infuriating. How was he going to be taken seriously when he couldn’t stop grinning like a delusional man who thought he had won a nonexistent lottery.
Megan took every opportunity to insult him, just as she should, so he couldn’t blame her for his problem. Clearly, she was doing everything in her power to be as unattractive as possible. Her hair was a mess. She wore no makeup. She looked far from rested. But to him, she was more beautiful than she’d ever been. He would find himself standing behind her, smelling his own shampoo in her hair, recalling the night they’d spent together, and trying not to long for her too obviously.
But he did long for her, no matter how hard he fought it. And no matter how hard he fought to hide it, everyone seemed to notice.
“You look pleased with yourself,” Keith said to him after a particularly boring diagnosis. “Can’t be because of that head cold we just saw. Must be something else.” Charlie opted not to answer him, so Keith changed the subject. If Keith was anything, it was conflict adverse. “Well, I hadn’t gotten to thank you for last night.”
Charlie shot him a questioning look. This had to be a joke about him sneaking away with Megan, but Charlie couldn’t seem to interpret it. “Don’t be weird,” he said.
Keith looked almost as confused as Charlie did now. “What are you talking about? You paid for our tab. We had no idea until we went to pay it ourselves. You probably should have given us a heads-up, though. We wound up spending more than we would have, had we known.”
Ah, that made more sense. Charlie scowled to hide his embarrassment. “That would be the reason I didn’t give you a heads-up. You’re all way too poor to be spending the way you do. I had to save you from yourselves.”
“Riiiiight,” Keith said. “Well, thanks anyway. It was a nice surprise.”
Then Amy’s voice accosted him from behind. “Where’d you head off to last night anyway, huh? Wherever it was, Megan was there with you, wasn’t she? I have no doubt about that.” She prodded him in the shoulder. “Come on. Out with it.”
Charlie slapped her hand away. “I have no idea where Bright took off to last night, but it wasn’t with me.” He scoffed. “Like I’d spend one unnecessary second in her company. That intolerable optimism. I hate it. She’ll singlehandedly rot every one of my teeth with her attitude.”
“Granted, she’s sweet,” Amy said with a shrug. “But sweet things don’t usually rot your teeth unless you eat them.”
Before Charlie could demand to know what she meant by that, Amy had already jogged off to the next patient, who was different from the one Charlie was going to see. They were all treating individual patients for this particular round to get used to one-on-one. Keith was still walking beside Charlie, but the way he smiled and arched his eyebrow, Charlie wished he would just go away.
“Don’t know what the hell she meant by that,” Charlie said bitterly.
Keith just smiled. “Oh, I made a bet that you do.”
“You’ll lose that bet.”
“Doubt it.”
Charlie groaned. He was hardly in the mood, but he couldn’t help himself. “Who’d you bet against?” he asked.
“No one.”
Keith’s answer baffled Charlie, who struggled to make heads or tails of it for a moment. “How did you make a bet with no one?”
“I didn’t,” Keith answered. “You asked if I bet against anyone. I just bet with them. Amy and I agree.”
“And what happens if you both win?”
Keith shrugged. “We split the pot.”
Charlie stopped walking and turned to give Keith the most scrutinizing stare he could manage at the moment. “So what happens if you both lose?”
Keith went quiet at that. It seemed he hadn’t really considered the answer.
“Who’s holding the money?” Charlie asked.
Keith bit his lip before he answered. “Amy is.”
And Charlie burst out laughing. It was a hearty laugh, nearly a whole-assed guffaw if he was honest. It was so unlike him he almost didn’t recognize the sound of his own voice. He slapped Keith on the shoulder and announced, “You got played, my friend. Ha! Tell Amy she has my respect.”
He left Keith to wallow in his own gullibility, knowing full well it probably didn’t matter whether the bet was a win or a loss. Amy never intended to give that money back. She must have caught Keith off guard when he was drunk, or maybe the next morning when he was hungover and focused on getting rid of his headache. The whole ordeal was delightful however it had played out, and it saved Charlie from looking suspicious when he failed to answer the question the bet was about.
Charlie met his solo patient feeling better than he had all day. An older man sat at the edge of the examination table dressed in a hospital gown and rubbing his arms. He was clearly cold. Charlie tried to imagine what Megan would do. Now that no one was watching him, he could let down his guard, forget about his pride for a minute, and truly work on his bedside manner. He really did want to be a good doctor, and he knew that included making his patients feel cared for. Hope was always good medicine. This was something he’d learned early on. And no matter how much he pretended not to care, the truth was, he admired Megan’s way with patients, and he wanted to learn from her.
“Hello there, Mr. Stacy. You’re looking a little chilly today. Are you cold?” It felt fake, but the patient nodded, and Charlie went to the nurse’s station to collect a blanket for him. He brought it back and handed it to the gentleman. “No sense in sitting in the cold while I’m not examining you, right?”
The patient answered his questions and allowed himself to be examined when he needed to. He showed Charlie a mark on his arm that looked nicely rounded and red. “Is it cancer, doc?”
Charlie smiled and shook his head. So many people jumped straight to cancer that it seemed like half his job was going to be convincing patients they weren’t, in fact, dying. “I believe we’re looking at a little ringworm here.”
“A worm?” The patient looked almost as horrified as he would if he’d been told he did have cancer.
“It’s not really a worm, Mr. Stacy. It’s a fungus, usually comes from indoor sports mats or handling stray cats. A little antifungal cream and you’ll be good as new.”
The old man sighed. “Ah, that’s a relief, doc. Thank you.”
“No problem at all. Now, we do need to talk a bit about your blood pressure. It’s a little high.”
“Always is when I go to the hospital,” the man assured him. “I have the old white coat anxiety, you know.” He scratched the gray stubble on his chin. “You seem nice, though. You seem like a trustworthy fellow.”
Charlie forced another smile, but found it was a touch easier the second time around. “Well, thank you kindly, Mr. Stacy. That means a lot.” He thought a moment, despising the very idea of vulnerability, but he decided to risk it. “I’ve been told my bedside manner leaves something to be desired, but I’m trying to work on it.”
“Balderdash!” Mr. Stacy said, waving Charlies concerns away. “I think you’re doing just fine. Are you a new resident, then?”
“I am. About a month in to be exact. It sounds like you’re a regular here.” Charlie made an effort to keep up the chitchat while he filled in his patient’s file.
“Well, when you get old like me, that starts to happen.” The old man laughed. “You go from bars to diners to hospitals. And they all get to know your name. I’ll put in a good word for you, son. Don’t you worry. Your bedside manner is top notch, I say.” The patient stood and gave Charlie a pat on the arm.
“You’ll have to tell that to my competition. She’s convinced I’m a monster, but I can’t deny she has a talent for working with people.” He paused and considered the truth of what he was about to admit. “I think I could learn a thing or two from her, to be honest.” Then he leaned in to whisper, “But don’t tell her I said that. I’ll never live it down.”
“Looking to impress the girl, are you?” Mr. Stacy gave Charlie a quick wink and started to get dressed. Charlie wanted to tell him he could wait until the doctor had left, but the old man seemed indifferent either way.
Anyway, he’d given Charlie something to consider. Was it really Megan he was looking to impress? The concept of making someone else proud was not new to Charlie. He’d spent most of his life trying to impress his own father and brother, but he’d never found himself interested in impressing someone outside his immediate family or those who could have an impact on his career. Showing off in front of your attending was one thing. Worrying about what a fellow resident thought of you was something else entirely. It felt like a weakness, but somehow, Charlie didn’t really mind.
The way he started to look at it, Megan was good in an area he could stand to improve in. Looking to her as an example of how to put patients at ease — learning from her, in other words — was no different than asking a superior student to be your study partner in college. As long as the end goal was to outmatch that study partner, there was no shame in taking note of their strengths and using them to your advantage. That’s what he was doing, of course. He was using Megan to his own advantage.
“You’re falling for her, aren’t you?” the old man said under his breath.
Charlie snapped out of his distracted thoughts and looked up at his patient. He’d been sitting on a stool in front of the computer, mindlessly entering information when his patient had dropped that bombshell on him. He automatically shook his head. “Impossible.”
Mr. Stacy was carefully buttoning his shirt with his arthritic hands. “Listen, young man. I’ve been around the block a few times when it comes to love, and I can see it from miles away. You may be the expert on fungal infections, but I’m the expert in matters of the heart. You’re falling for this competition of yours.” He smiled to himself and gave a quiet chuckle. “The heat between you must be intense. Competition can really bring out the intensity in any relationship.”
Relationship? Ridiculous. “We don’t quite have a relationship between us,” Charlie said. “It’s more like a war.” He laughed.
“All the better for that intensity.” Mr. Stacy finished buckling his belt and patted Charlie on the arm one more time. “You’re in denial, kid, but your eyes get that far-off look when you talk about this girl of yours. I know that look. Used to get it myself whenever I talked about my late wife. It’s different from plain old attraction because it includes a certain level of respect. You admire and respect the woman. You’re attracted to her. You enjoy her company, even if it’s war, to use your own words. That adds up. Believe me. That adds up to love.”
There was no point in arguing with the man, even though Charlie knew, without a shadow of doubt, that he was wrong. Well, maybe there was a shadow of doubt, but it was a sliver of a shadow really. Barely even a shadow. Dappled sunlight, maybe. Partial shade. Barely enough to help in a heat wave.
Charlie cleared his throat and said goodbye to his patient with a quick thanks for the life advice. The man had to be wrong. Because falling in love with his competition would seriously hinder Charlie’s performance. War was war. It necessitated ruthlessness. He couldn’t be ruthless to someone he loved. Could he?