Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Seven: Coffee Runs and Showers

Chapter Seven: Coffee Runs and Showers
Rhode Island Hospital: Providence, Rhode Island

“You seem to be very off key lately.” Neal greeted a half asleep me.

“Huh? Oh sorry—its just Tony kept me up all night and—”

“Tony?” Neal’s eyes (which looked browner than usual today) reflected his quizzical mood.

“My dog.”

“Oh.”  

I hadn’t even had a boyfriend. Come on Neal.

“So how about that meniscus tear—Rodger Crane was it?”

“Oh yeah. He’s checking in for surgery tomorrow and has a high chance of being released later that day as well.” I yawned as I finished the sentence.

“You seem really tired Rei—Dr. Cruz.”

I still had to get used to him calling me that. If that wasn’t enough, my stomach was throwing a party. *grrrrrrrrr*

“And hungry too. Did you eat breakfast?” He asked, his expression now a bit more concerned.

“Yes.”

 That wasn’t exactly a lie, if orange juice counts as breakfast.

“Are you sure? Your stomach doesn’t seem to agree.”

“My stomach has a mind of its own.”  

“Okay, okay. Why don’t you hand me those 4 files over there and we can discuss the bases of the surgeries?”

“Sure thing.” I handed him the folders and we spent the next three hours discussing different patients and their surgeries.”

In deep discussion, I buried myself in filling out x-ray reports, something Dr. Reddy praised me on more than once. I didn’t notice anything and concentrated on two things—Neal’s voice which was giving me directions and my red pen flying across the paper.

I occasionally took sips of my coffee, and that’s when I finally realized that Neal had stopped talking for a while now.

He was just staring at me, chewing on his pen—like I was actually interesting. I couldn’t tell what his eyes were trying to convey… they were unreadable.

“Neal?”

“Huh. Uh, sorry. I zoned out.”

Looking directly at me?

“No its fine. You were saying?”

He continued with details about a rib surgery. Reddy was right, he was young but was totally experienced. It made me wonder what drove his to accomplish so much at such a young age. (Well 32 is young for a doctor anyway.) I mean, the fact that perfection was not achievable is what drove me. I wanted to be pretty damn close to perfect.

Maybe that’s why I disappointed myself so often.

Even though Neal was talking, he hadn’t exactly stopped staring at me. I wasn’t looking at him or anything, but I felt his gaze on the top of my head.  It caused me to be a bit uncomfortable. A feeling I didn’t usually like, but somehow this was okay.

I liked that he was mindlessly talking about ribs and staring at me.

Then again, who wouldn’t?

Uh, minus the ribs part.

“Neal?” I asked not looking up with a smile tugging at my lips.  

“Yeah?”

“You do realize that we finished the details pertaining to the surgery a while ago right? You’re just educating me on every possible known detail about the ribs now.”