“Okay,” George said. He wasn’t interested, but he didn’t want to get into it with Clayton; better to let him think all was well with his clumsy efforts to fix George up. George definitely wanted to stay on the man’s good side. George saw Carlos Sanchez, the first-year that he was scheduled to supervise. It was an excellent opportunity to ditch Clayton. “Excuse me, that’s my newbie over there. Better go get him situated.”
“Go to it.” Clayton smacked George on the butt with his folder. He had once confided that carrying a folder around always made you appear busy, and even better, you could end any conversation instantly just by waving it and saying you had to go. The guy was a superb radiologist and a great teacher, George thought, but he had his fair share of idiosyncrasies.
George approached Carlos, a bright, eager Mexican American whose record George had perused when he’d gotten the assignment. Carlos had breezed through UCLA Medical School with stellar grades. With radiology being one of the more desirable specialties, all of the department’s residents had done extremely well in medical school, George included. When George first met the young man a few days earlier he’d been impressed with his eagerness. He had already read several of the main texts written about emergency imaging, but reading textbooks about what to do was one thing, actually doing it was another.
“Hey, Carlos!” George said, offering his hand.
“Dr. Wilson,” Carlos replied, grabbing George’s hand and giving it an eager pump.
“Just George will be fine. I’m about to head out but wanted to let you know I’ll see you over in the ER after the reception.”
“I’ll go with you,” Carlos said, setting down his coffee.
“No! Stay and try to meet as many of the staff members as you can! It’s important for you to get the lay of the land. See you in a few!” George headed for the exit, waving over his shoulder in a fair imitation of Clayton.
“Okay, boss,” Carlos called after him.
12
George leaned back and stretched in his chair. Carlos did likewise in unconscious imitation. George glanced at him, making sure Carlos wasn’t messing with him. Apparently not. They were in the ER’s radiology reading room, where most of the light came from the viewing monitors. They had just finished going over all the X-rays taken the night before in preparation for their conference with the ER staff. George had found three X-ray cases that had been misread by the emergency medicine residents in the current batch.
“Would you like to present the details?” George asked.
“No!” Carlos replied, shocked. “It’s my first day. I’d make a fool of myself.”
“You would do fine. But I’ll leave that up to you. If you change your mind, let me know,” George said, remembering his own reluctance to speak when he was a first-year resident.
The door opened and a shaft of daylight pierced the reading room.
“Dr. Wilson?” one of the ER secretaries called out. “Dr. Hanson is at the main ER desk and wants to see you.”
George rolled his eyes and pushed himself out of his chair. “Start going through this morning’s X-rays,” he said to Carlos.
George stood outside the reading room, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The place was packed with patients who had not been deemed true emergencies, illustrating the chronic problem caused when the general public used the ER as primary care.
George spotted Clayton chatting up Debbie Waters, the charge nurse known for being a no-nonsense taskmaster and for her excellent work keeping the ER running smoothly. On seeing George, Clayton immediately broke off and walked over to him.
“Did you meet that first-year ER babe yet?” he asked, seemingly unconcerned about being overheard. “You know, the one I mentioned earlier, from Stanford.”
“That’s why you pulled me out of the reading room?” George’s tone of mild admonishment had no effect on Clayton.
“Someone has to look out for you, my friend,” Clayton said. “It’s time you left the past behind you, where it belongs. Tell me! Have you at least laid eyes on her?”
“No, I don’t believe I have. It was a busy night last night. Lots of films.”
Extending a hand, Clayton motioned for George to be quiet and nodded toward a young woman who had just come out of one of the enclosed cubicles. She was fashion-model tall and seriously attractive in a healthy, vibrant way. Even in scrubs it was obvious to George that she had a rocking-hot body. She walked past them, tapping away on her tablet.
“Now you have,” Clayton whispered. “What a sight. Agreed?”
George turned away from Clayton and rolled his eyes. Dutifully he watched the first-year ER resident approach the main desk to drop off paperwork before taking the next clipboard from the to-be-seen rack.
“They don’t get much better than that,” Clayton said.
“She’s definitely attractive,” George admitted, although at this point he was watching Clayton, not Kelley. The man was shameless.
Clayton watched as she stopped to go over a chart. “You better get busy before some surgical resident gets all up in that. But if it doesn’t work out, I can put in a good word for you with Debbie Waters.”
“The Queen of Mean?” George was shocked. He could feel his face redden as he briefly glanced over at Debbie.
“Hey, she said she was interested in getting together with you,” Clayton protested. “And you need to get out more. I’m worried about you. You have to have some balance in your life. You work too hard. Seriously. Invite her to have a drink at the W Hotel! She likes it there. I happen to know.”
George stole another glance at her. Luckily Waters’s attention was directed elsewhere. He had always admired how well she kept the ER on an even keel even when all hell was breaking loose.
“She’s a lot of fun, even though she can be a bit bossy,” Clayton said. “She’s very entertaining when she is taken out of her element here in the ER trenches. Believe me! Work is work. Fun is fun. She’s a pistol. Don’t judge a book by its cover!”
George knew everybody was intimidated by Debbie Waters. He had seen her give more than one tongue-lashing to unprepared surgeons all the way down to janitors. She didn’t discriminate.
“Debbie would be perfect for you,” Clayton persisted. “Hell, you don’t have to marry her. Come on! I’ll break the ice.”
“No way. It’s not that I don’t find her attractive. It’s just that she’s so damn… domineering.” He realized Clayton wasn’t about to drop the subject. George added, “I’ll talk to her when she isn’t quite so busy.”
Clayton shrugged. “It’s your call.” He glanced down at his watch. “I have to get back to work. I hope to hear you made some progress on one of these young fillies soon. You need to be entertained to pull you out of your funk.”
George shook his head in disbelief as Clayton walked off. In a way it was touching that Clayton was concerned about him. He had also heard rumors that Clayton and Debbie had been more than good friends.
Despite his misgivings George was intrigued. If Debbie Waters really had said she’d like to get together, he’d be a fool to not follow up. When you worked in the ER it was best to have her in your corner.
Reaching the main desk, George pretended to look through the to-be-seen charts while watching Debbie out of the corner of his eye. As usual she was juggling about ten different tasks. As George waited to see if she would even acknowledge him, one of the orderlies dropped a sheaf of paperwork on the countertop in front of him.