I fixed my eyes on the ten.
I’d managed not to think too much about the nineteenth. I was hoping if I didn’t focus on the date, maybe I’d luck out and be a few days past it before I realized it had come and gone. It’s not like much would change when the divorce was finalized. Nick and I had been split for a year. This was just making it paperwork official.
But still.
Maybe Alexis was right and I shouldn’t be alone for it. In case it crept up and boob-punched me.
The last hour of work was uneventful. I took the only patient who came in—nobody died. But to be fair, it was just our regular, Nunchuck Guy, with another concussion, so the odds were in my favor.
I was getting ready to clock out when Jocelyn came back around.
“Hey, Gibson wants to talk to you before you leave.” Her eyes were sparkling. “This is it!” she sang. “He’s giving you the position.”
Gibson was the current chief of emergency medicine for Royaume Northwestern. He was retiring this month. Technically he’d retired almost a year ago. Alexis had gotten his job and he’d left. Then a month later she quit to move to her new husband’s tiny town in the middle of nowhere and open her own clinic, so Gibson came back.
“There’s no way the board has voted yet, so I doubt it,” I said. “But I appreciate the confidence.”
But then I thought about it, and maybe he was giving me the position.
Not one person other than me had raised their hand for it. Nobody else was running. Did they even need to vote? What else would Gibson want to talk to me about if it wasn’t this?
I made my way down the hall toward Gibson’s office, a little excited. I mean, taking on the new job was going to be a ton of work. Six days a week, eighty hours or more. But I was ready. My whole life was Royaume Northwestern Hospital. Might as well work to my full potential.
I knocked on his door frame. “Hey. You wanted to see me?”
Gibson looked up and smiled warmly. “Come in.”
He sat behind his desk, his gray hair neatly combed back. He reminded me of a sweet old grandpa. I liked him. Everyone did. He’d been in the position forever.
“Close the door,” he said, finishing something he was signing.
I slipped into the chair in front of him.
He finished his paperwork and moved it aside and gave me a full, toothy smile. “How are you, Briana?”
“Good,” I said brightly.
“And your brother, Benny?”
I bobbed my head. “As well as can be expected.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Such an unfortunate circumstance. But he’s got some great doctors.”
I nodded. “Royaume Northwestern is the best. Speaking of which, I’m excited to get started—not that I’m looking forward to you leaving,” I added.
He chuckled.
“Is there going to be a vote?” I asked. “Nobody else is running.”
He threaded his fingers over his stomach. “Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to tell you personally. I’ve decided to delay my retirement for a few more months.”
“Oh.” I tried to disguise my disappointment. “Okay. I thought you and Jodi were moving to some villa in Costa Rica.”
He laughed good-naturedly. “We are. But the jungle can wait. I’d like to give everyone some time to get to know Dr. Maddox before we put forward a vote. It only seems fair.”
I blinked at him. “I’m sorry. Who?”
He nodded in the direction of the ER. “Dr. Jacob Maddox. He started today. He was chief of emergency medicine over at Memorial West for the last few years. Great guy. Quite qualified.”
I was rendered mute for a solid ten seconds. “You’re holding off the vote? For him?”
“To give the team a chance to get acquainted.”
“To give him a leg up,” I said flatly.
He looked a little surprised at my reaction. “No, to make it fair. You and I both know these things can be a bit of a popularity contest, and he deserves a clear shot.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “You’re actually doing this. Delaying the vote so he has a greater chance at taking the position. I’ve been here ten years.”
He looked at me seriously. “Briana, I have to consider what’s best for the department. A broader pool to choose from is always preferable. There’s no glory in getting the job by default—”
“It wouldn’t be by default. It would be on merit. Ten years of merit.”
He peered at me patiently. “You know, Alexis didn’t run unchallenged. Competition is healthy. If the job is yours, it’ll still be yours in three months.”
I sat there trying to breathe calmly through my nose. It took everything in me not to blurt “They call him Dr. Death!”
“It’s just three months,” Gibson continued. “Then we vote, and I’m off to drink from coconuts on a beach somewhere and hopefully you’re right where you want to be too. Enjoy the calm before the storm, take it easy. Spend some time with Benny.”
I let out a slow, centering breath.
Gibson probably knew this Dr. Death guy. They must be friends. They probably golfed or something. This whole thing reeked of nepotism. But what choice did I have? If Gibson had decided not to retire yet, there was nothing I could do.
“Thank you for letting me know,” I said stiffly. I got up and let myself out.
The second I got in the car I called Alexis. “I hate the new guy,” I said when she picked up.
“Well, hello.”
“They call him Dr. Death. He killed seven patients today. Seven. First day.”
“Well, it happens.” She sounded distracted.
“And get this, Gibson is holding off on his retirement so the new guy can get a shot at getting the chief position. It’s total boys’-club bullshit.”
“Uh-huh,” she mumbled.
I listened for a second. Then I recoiled in horror. “Oh my God! Are you guys making out? I’m on the phone!”
She and Daniel were always all over each other. I think they only came up for air to eat.
I rubbed my temple. “Can you please toss some cold water on him and talk to me? I’m having a crisis.”
“Sorry, hold on.” She whispered something I couldn’t hear and giggled. Then he giggled.
I rolled my eyes and waited. This year was going to be my villain origin story, I just knew it.
A door closed in the background and she came back on. “Okay. I am here. Tell me all the things.”
“Okay, so the new guy is some hotshot transfer from Memorial West. I guess he was their chief over there, so Gibson wants to delay the vote so everyone can get to know him better. The guy’s a total dick, the nurses hate him—”
“Well, if the nurses hate him, you have nothing to worry about.”
“That’s not even the point! Do you think Gibson would do this if the transfer was a woman?”
I heard her pressing buttons on a microwave. “Eh, yeah. I do. Gibson’s pretty fair. I don’t picture him making this a gender thing.”
“You are supposed to be on my side.”