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“Natalie, did you finish reading that new study I emailed you earlier this morning?” I poured myself a cup of coffee in the break lounge one morning. “If you’re interested in learning more, I can pay for you to take the course online, if you’d like.”
She sat still at her table, slowly slathering a bagel with cream cheese.
“Natalie?” I stepped closer to her. “Natalie, I know you hear me talking to you.”
“Good morning, Nurse Johnson and Doctor Clemons!” Natalie waved at them as they entered the lounge. “How’s the day so far?”
They said “Pretty good,” and “Mine’s okay,” at the same time.
“Good to hear.” Natalie took a bite of her bagel and stared straight past me.
Annoyed, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tapped on my inbox — hating that she was actually staying true to her email-only communication with me.
I sat down at the table across from her and typed an email.
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Subject: New Study/Course
Did you finish reading that new study I emailed you earlier this morning? If you’re interested in learning more, I can pay for you to take the course online, if you’d like.
PS — How much longer are you going to keep this shit up?
—Dr. Ashton
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Her phone buzzed against the table and she swiped her screen, typing a message right back to me.
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Subject: Re: New Study/Course
Yes, I did finish reading that study. I truly enjoyed reading it — thank you, and I would definitely like to take the online course.
PS — As long as it takes for you to treat me like your resident (or your friend) again. Boss-employee relationship or not, I don’t appreciate the way you talked to me.
PSS — For the record, you are, BY FAR, the most unprofessional doctor I have ever worked with in my career.
—Dr. Madison
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Subject: Re: Re: New Study/Course
I’ll pay for it as soon as I get back to my office and forward you the login information. You can start taking the course next week.
PS — A friend wouldn’t have stood me up at the last minute without giving me a reason. Boss-employee relationship or not, I don’t appreciate the way you stood me up.
PSS — You haven’t worked in this field long enough to actually have a “career.”
—Dr. Ashton
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Subject: Re: Re: Re: New Study/Course I can start taking the course when I feel like it ... And the only reason I stood you up — a VERY, VERY GOOD REASON might I add — is because I didn’t want to start my new job with the weight of previously sleeping with my boss on my shoulders. I didn’t want to have the memory of being beneath you in your bed every time we worked together here ...
—Dr. Madison
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Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: New Study/Course You really need to work on your use of CAPS LOCK. You’re emphasizing all of the wrong words. And for the record ... IF you had actually shown up, you wouldn’t have had the memory of being beneath me in my bed at all.
I would’ve had you on all fours ...
—Dr. Ashton
THE RESIDENT
New York, New York
Natalie
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I now regret ever saying that working in a private practice was less challenging than working in a hospital. This was, by far, much harder and I was struggling for the first time in my career.
I’d foolishly thought that my first few weeks were a blueprint of what I’d be doing for the rest of my residency — simply shadowing Dr. Ashton or another doctor for a few months at a time and taking tests here or there. But the second the program coordinators sat me down in a private boardroom and laid out more of the program specifics and how it was about to change, I realized I was in over my head.
Mondays through Wednesdays were the days I spent with Dr. Ashton, the tension between us growing hotter and more explosive by the second. The lustful energy was practically palpable each time we shared the same room. It was becoming so obvious, that in the middle of our last session with a woman who was suffering from misplaced anger issues, she stopped mid-speech and looked at both of us, yelling, “Jesus! Would the two of you just fuck already?”