Chapter 3
NATHAN
“And do you have any specific complaints?” Nathan asked.
His current patient was a young woman, Olivia, in her early twenties with straight black hair and big brown eyes that were focused directly on him.
She was a new patient, here for her first checkup, and she was…
well, a little overdressed for the event.
She wore a tight red dress that looked more suitable for an evening at a nightclub than an early morning in a doctor’s office, and her makeup was so thick that he could barely tell the real color of her skin.
“No,” she said in a breathy voice. She fluttered her eyelashes.
“Then I’ll just listen to your heart.” Nathan got to his feet and took his stethoscope, which he’d draped around his neck. As he approached, Olivia pulled the top of her dress down far enough that Nathan could see the outline of a lacy black bra, and he looked away.
“Listen to my heart,” she said in the same breathy voice. Nathan did so, still keeping his gaze turned away from the bra.
“All done.” He stepped away, back to the relative safety of his desk chair.
“Your height and weight are perfect for your age, your blood pressure looks great, your heart sounds good. You’re officially registered with the clinic now, so if you have any issues, just call the receptionist, Maya, and schedule an appointment. ”
“Is that it?” Olivia asked, her brow furrowing.
“Yes.” Nathan leaned against his desk and folded his arms. “Unless you have any questions or concerns you’d like to share with me.”
“I do have one question.” Olivia leaned forward. “Are you single?”
Now it was Nathan’s brow that furrowed. Feeling uncomfortable, he took off his glasses and cleaned them with the hem of his shirt so that he’d have an excuse to avoid eye contact.
“Yes, although I’m not sure what that has to do with your health,” he said.
The truth was that Nathan was a perpetual bachelor.
He’d had a few short relationships before, but there was nothing that compared to the importance of his practice.
And in the small town of Islingburn, there weren’t exactly a lot of single women in their thirties running around looking for love.
Most of his friends from high school were already married, many of them with a kid or two.
Even though he was only thirty-four, Nathan had pretty much given up on finding love, and that was all right with him.
Not that he was going to say any of that to his patient. Olivia was already acting strangely, and Nathan wasn’t going to do anything to encourage that.
“I was just wondering.” Olivia batted her eyelashes. “I’m single, too.”
“Okay.” Nathan nodded. “Well, it was nice to meet you, and once again, welcome to the practice. Please stop by reception on your way out to make sure all your paperwork is in order.”
Looking more than a little grumpy, Olivia jumped down from the table, put her heeled pumps back on, and left.
Nathan shook his head as she closed the door behind her.
She was his third patient of the day, but not the first strange experience.
His first patient, a local carpenter in for his annual checkup, had asked about Nathan’s cow puppet.
And his second patient, an older woman, had suggested setting him up with her granddaughter.
Before Nathan had much time to wonder if there was something in Islingburn’s water that was making everyone act weirdly, there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Nathan called. This must be his fourth patient of the day, who his schedule told him was an older gentleman whose knees had been bothering him.
When the door swung open, though, it wasn’t the older gentleman but his receptionist, Maya.
She was grinning broadly and looking a little frazzled, neither of which was unusual for her.
Her hair, which was dyed red today, was escaping from its braid, and she wore wide hoop earrings set with topaz, her birthstone.
Nathan knew it was her birthstone because, one snowy day last winter when most patients had decided not to brave the elements for their appointments, she’d given them all a lecture on birthstones and zodiac signs.
At twenty-three years old, she was his youngest employee — and his most excitable.
“You’re not Mr. Whitaker,” Nathan pointed out.
“Sorry to disappoint.” Maya grinned, putting her hands on her hips. “I just wanted to ask how you’d like to handle the influx of requests from new patients. We’ve also had a few people reach out from the media.”
Even though Nathan had cleaned his glasses only a few minutes ago, he slipped them off and started wiping the lenses again.
“We always have new patient requests — handle them the same way we always do. Tell them that there’s a waitlist, explain the priority system for chronic illness, and if they’re not able to wait, refer them to Doctor Benson in Montpelier or Lewis and Co. Doctors in Stowe.”
“Right. And the media?”
Nathan continued wiping his spotless glasses. “Why is the media reaching out?”
“I think you know why,” Maya said in a teasing voice. Nathan slipped his glasses back on and saw that she was practically bouncing on her toes.
“I really don’t.”
“Modest, huh?” She beamed. “I knew you wouldn’t let your fame go to your head.”
“My fame?” Nathan sighed. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“You really don’t know?” Maya frowned, her enthusiasm draining a little when she saw that Nathan was truly clueless. “Aren’t you on Instagram? TikTok? Anything?”
“No.” Nathan avoided social media at all costs. He was far too busy working to think about memes and reels and whatever else people were doing there, and he’d never even created an account — which he acknowledged made him sound like he was one hundred years old. “Why?”
“Wow.” Maya shook her head. “All right.” She took out her phone and tapped the screen a few times before turning it to show Nathan.
A video was playing, and Nathan’s eyes widened as he recognized himself.
He was sitting with his young patient from the day before, Charlie, making cow jokes and playing with the puppet while he took the boy’s blood.
That wasn’t the concerning part, though.
The concerning part was the title: The Hottest Doctor Alive.
“Where did you find this?” Nathan asked, handing the phone back. This must be what Charlie’s mother had been doing with her phone — filming him. Without asking permission.
“It’s everywhere,” Maya explained. “See? The video already has over two million views and counting.” She pointed to a number in the bottom of the screen, and Nathan’s jaw dropped. He leaned back on the desk, took off his glasses, and began polishing them with the hem of his shirt.
“Why do you look like a bus just hit you?” Maya asked. “This is good news, Doc. You’re famous!” The idea of being famous on the internet made his skin crawl.
“No. That can’t be. I can’t believe the patient’s mother filmed me yesterday without asking permission. And worse, she put it online like this.” Nathan shook his head. “I’ll need to have a word with her at the next appointment.”
“You should thank her,” Maya said. “She’s made you famous! And everyone loves you. You should see the comments. People are asking to become patients here, trying to track you down, wishing that their doctors were more like you… It’s all really positive.”
“It doesn’t matter that it’s positive,” Nathan said. “It matters that I never asked for this, and I don’t want it now. Can you take the video down?”
Maya rolled her eyes. “No. I’m not the one who posted it.”
“Great.” Nathan let out a puff of air. This explained a lot about his weird patient interactions this morning. Olivia, particularly, must have come in looking for the “Hottest Doctor Alive.”
“You’re lucky,” Maya told him. “I’ve been trying to get a video to go viral for years, and it’s never happened. And you didn’t even try.”
“So, this is why the media has been contacting us?” He shook his head.
“Yes.” Maya slipped her phone back into her pocket. “And I still need to know what to tell them.”
Nathan sighed. It was clear that they were approaching this from very different angles, and he couldn’t understand Maya’s position at all.
Why would anyone want to be in the public eye?
All he wanted was to help his patients, keep his clinic afloat, and avoid undue attention.
Right now, it felt like he was failing in all three objectives.
“Tell them to go away.” Nathan shook his head. “I want less attention for myself and the clinic, not more.”
“Why?” Maya seemed genuinely confused. “This is great. You’re officially the world’s hottest doctor! You have to start an Insta. And a TikTok. Everyone wants to see more of this guy.”
“But I don’t want that,” Nathan protested. “The clinic is already struggling with too many new patients without any of this. Hopefully, in a day or two, everyone will forget all about it.”
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Maya said.
Nathan sighed and put his glasses back on. Maya still looked excited, and Nathan felt anything but.
“Look, just… I want everyone to forget about this and go on as normal. You should do the same. Tell the new patients the same thing we always tell them, and tell the media I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“Fine, if that’s really what you want. I just think you’re missing out on a good opportunity here.”
“I’m okay with that.” Nathan managed a smile for her. “Let’s just do our jobs and wait for this to pass.”
“All right.” But Maya sounded a little glum.
“And send in my next patient, please. I don’t want to keep Mr. Whitaker waiting.”
“All right,” Maya repeated. She left and, a minute later, there was another knock on the door. This time, it really was Mr. Whitaker with his bad knees.
“Please, come in, take a seat.” Nathan stepped back and gestured for the older man to make himself comfortable. “How are you today?”
“Not great,” Mr. Whitaker said with a frown. “The waiting room is a madhouse. I’ve never seen the clinic so crowded.”
“I know.” Nathan sighed. “I’m working on that. But let’s talk about you. How are you feeling? Have you had more stiffness in your knees?”
For the rest of the day, Nathan did all he could to keep things running smoothly while forgetting about his newfound fame, but it was hard.
Most of his patients, especially the younger ones, wanted to talk about the video.
A few tried flirting with him, like Olivia had, and a few others wanted to take pictures with him.
He had to stop one patient from taking a video of him without permission.
His staff was behaving strangely, too. The nurse who was working today, a young man in brightly colored scrubs named Thomas, joked that he needed to buy a pair of glasses like Nathan’s to look more like the “Hottest Doctor Alive.” And Maya popped in a few more times to tell him that local news channels and a few PR managers really wanted to talk with him.
Nathan didn’t want any of it. Over and over, he told everyone to just go back to normal.
When he finally finished with his last patient of the day, he was exhausted and in a bad mood.
He drove home, barely noticing the flourishing green June leaves on the trees around him or the way the fresh air poured in through the window.
At his house, he found three balloons attached to the mailbox with a sign that read, Congrats to the Hottest Doctor Alive.
Glancing around, he untied the balloons, took them inside with him, and popped them each with a push-pin before throwing them away.
He had no idea who had sent them, but he didn’t appreciate the reminder of the disaster his life was turning into.
Usually, after work, Nathan would go for a hike, head into town for dinner at JJ’s Diner, or read on the porch. Today, though, he sank onto the couch and dug out his laptop. He searched for a while for a way to take the video down, but it didn’t seem possible.
Nathan didn’t want this. He didn’t want to be famous.
He didn’t want to have his clinic overrun by patients.
He didn’t want to look at the finances and remember that the clinic was struggling anyway, since many patients couldn’t afford medical care without his reduced rates.
He wanted to be like his father, hardworking and caring, but only known in Islingburn, where no one was a stranger.
Half accidentally, Nathan clicked on the video and watched it again. What should have been a sweet moment with a young patient was turning his life upside down, and he hated it. He wasn’t the Hottest Doctor Alive. He was just doing his job.
“It’s fine,” he told himself out loud, shutting the laptop. “In a few days, this will all pass, and life will be back to normal.”
Despite the confidence with which he spoke, the words sounded hollow, even to his own ears.