“You never order dessert,” Richard, the restaurant owner, said. He interrupted Noah’s thoughts when he brought out the package of take-out food. “We have some delicious selections. How about I throw in some tiramisu on the house just so you can try it?”
“Thank you, but no,” Noah said. He doubted Ava would want it, even though she could certainly get away with it, considering the amount of exercise she did every day in her workout room. Noah didn’t feel the same about himself. With as little aerobic exercise as he got, he was lucky he hadn’t put on significant weight.
“Perhaps next time,” Richard said graciously, handing the credit card receipt to Noah.
Noah walked quickly up the hill to Louisburg Square. Now that he had the food he was in a hurry, and not just because he wanted the food to be hot but because he was even more eager than usual to see Ava. Earlier that afternoon they had practically collided with each other, with him pushing into the PACU and her coming out. At first both had been horrified, but when no one seemed to notice since it happened frequently to other people, they had both found it like a bit of slapstick comedy, since they’d been trying so hard to avoid each other.
Noah pushed the doorbell and in the far distance could hear the phone inside the house. The next thing he heard was the door lock clicking open. He’d learned that at any phone extension in the house it was possible to see who was at the door and then release the lock.
Once inside, Noah kicked off his shoes and took the main stairs down to the kitchen. Ava was busy setting out place mats, flatware, and napkins at the countertop table. To Noah she looked as fetching as usual, this time in sweatpants, a mock-neck tank top, and bare feet. Her hair was damp and her skin was glowing from a recent hot shower after her workout.
While Ava opened a bottle of wine and Noah unpacked the take-out food and put it on plates, they had a good laugh about their near collision at the PACU entrance that afternoon and how they’d both panicked.
“It’s a good thing Janet Spaulding didn’t see us,” Ava said, still giggling.
“It’s amazing how she seems to know everything that goes on in the OR,” Noah agreed.
Once they had started on their meal, Ava said: “I hate to bring up a sore subject, but have you spoken with Dr. Jackson?”
“Not yet,” Noah admitted.
“Any reason why?” Ava questioned. “The M&M is coming up quickly. Only three more work days before it’s here.”
“The same reason I put off talking with Dr. Mason for the last M&M,” Noah said. “I’m a coward.”
“I can understand,” Ava said. “It could be almost as bad as talking with Dr. Mason. He is not as narcissistic, but they share some of the same personality traits.”
“I know. That’s the reason I’ve put off having the meeting.”
“But it is important to know his mind-set,” Ava said. “I’d like to know if he’s still mad.”
“Me, too,” Noah said. “Have you heard anything from Dr. Kumar to make you think that Dr. Jackson complained to him?”
“Not a thing.”
“Okay, good,” Noah said. “I think his threats to talk with our bosses was just his venting in the heat of the moment. Dr. Hernandez hasn’t said anything to me, either. Best-case scenario is that Dr. Jackson realizes some of the blame falls on his shoulders. If that’s true, we are in a far better position than with Dr. Mason.”
“We need to find out how he feels to plan your presentation,” Ava said. “When do you think you will be talking with him?”
“Now that you’ve reminded me, I’ll try to do it tomorrow.”
“I hate to be pushy, but it could be important.”
Eager to change the subject, Noah said, “The first time I was here, when you were showing me your fabulous computer setup, you said something interesting after admitting how much you enjoyed social media and how much time you spend doing it. You said it’s allowed you to learn more about yourself than if you’d done psychoanalysis. Were you being serious?”
“I was very serious.”
“You also said that you would be willing to explain it to me sometime. Is this a good time?”
“As good a time as any,” Ava said. She sat back in her seat. “First, why I enjoy it so much? That’s easy. It fills a social void, which binge-watching Netflix doesn’t do, although I do that sometimes, too. I’ve already explained why I prefer not to socialize with colleagues—you excepted, of course. Since my work is so encompassing and I’m invariably out of town consulting or traveling when I’m off, I know almost no one here in Boston. Online, I have an entire complement of so-called ‘friends’ always waiting, probably a lot more varied and interesting than if I had acquaintances here in Boston who would undoubtedly be as busy as I am and unavailable when I was available. The online world is so much bigger than the invariably parochial real world, and it is always there, never sleeping and never too busy. And best of all, when you have had enough for whatever reason, you just click it off, no muss, no fuss.”
At that moment, Ava’s mobile phone filled the room with its raucous sound. After checking to see who was calling, she excused herself and went out of earshot to take the call. It was a typical interruption that Noah had learned to expect but hadn’t learned to like. While she was away, he thought about what she had said and wondered if he would rely on social media as much as she if he had as much free time as she did. She averaged a typical 40-hour-per-week schedule, whereas he averaged somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 hours per week at the hospital, far more than he was supposed to be doing.
Noah toyed with his food but didn’t eat, preferring to wait for her return. Unfortunately, this episode was longer than the usual. When she finally reappeared thirty-five minutes later, she was appropriately apologetic. While they microwaved their food to rewarm it, she explained that one of her major bosses at the NSC was all uptight about an article coming out in the Annals of Internal Medicine the following week. This article, similar to but larger than others that had come out since 1992, would be reporting on a study of almost a half million people over a decade that multivitamins and dietary supplements failed to show any benefits. Perhaps even more damning, it would state that megavitamins had shown a paradoxical increased risk of cancer and heart disease.