Sincerely, Dr. Cruz

Eight: Cherry on Top

Chapter Eight: Cherry on Top
Reina’s Apartment: Warwick, Rhode Island

I had to admit, the past two days were boring at the hospital without Neal. He had four major surgeries lined up, and so I was stuck analyzing reports with Dr. Fordham for two days and conferring with multiple little kids that had broken something in their bodies.

But I did get to leave at 5:30, which was waaaay better than 11:30 on normal nights.

Then again, I would much rather be doing something rather than mindlessly watching Food Network. Not that my cooking skills needed perfecting or anything. I made a mean casserole.

I remember when I was little, my mom used to always say that casserole sounded like an old person word, but she had no idea why.

I’m sad to say that I know why.

The good news was that Travis called yesterday (he got a new phone), and he confirmed that he would spend the weekend of the 22nd of August with me.

Ugh, I still had a month.

Oh, and then Jaya called me and told me that she talked to Monica (her sister) and Raj (her brother-in-law) about dinner. I told her the evening of the 22nd was fine. We would have dinner that day no matter what.

Oh did I tell you, she’s ceased all complaining about working with Marge? No, not because of the cookies (although she did seem quite happy about those). It was because she was dating Armando now. Not that I cared, he wasn’t my boyfriend or anything. Then again, he was cute.

I was rather ecstatic for Jaya though. I couldn’t fathom why, but Armando had been out of mind for a good week now.

That’s when I realized that Jaya was still talking to me.

“Reina!”

“Crap I did it again. Sorry Jaya. What were you saying?”

“Can I bring Armando along for our huge dinner? You, your brother, Armando, Monica, and I. Unless you want to bring along another person as well?”

“You know what Jaya, you and Armando are happy right? So why are you asking me for permission to bring him along. Do it. And it’ll just be my brother and I. I seriously doubt romantic involvement that close in the future.”

“I love you Reina you know that?”

I pretended to flip my hair even though she couldn’t see. “I know you do. How have your parents taken Armando?”

“Surprisingly, they’re really cool with this whole intercultural dating thing. Then again, they might also just be strong believers in reverse psychology. They think that if they let me date him I might get bored and leave him on my own.”

“Well I hope not.”

“Either that, or they’re tired of hearing about how idiotic all my past Indian boyfriends were.”

“That too.” I said, holding in laughter.

“Okay, now there’s one serious problem I have.”

“What’s that?”

“I am in dire need of a dress that isn’t blue and suits my stinking skin tone.” Jaya said as she drastically sighed. “What about you? What are your choices in dresses?”

“I don’t actually own one.” I said sheepishly thinking of all of the dresses I had from when I weighed fifteen more pounds.

“GREAT! OMGEE REINA YOU NEED TO GO SHOPPING WITH ME AND MON PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!” I could picture Jaya jumping up and down like a little girl, and amusing that may sound, dress shopping absolutely did not.

“I wish I could, but I kind of already promised my mom.” I said, hoping she wouldn’t catch my lie. To be sure, I said. “I’ll still go with you guys if you want, minus the hype of trying on dresses.”

“That’s perfect!” Jaya said still enthusiastic.

“Details later?” We both said at the same time, causing us to giggle.

“Yeah.” We said, at the same time again.

“We spend too much time together.” Damn it.

“Jinx!”

“What are you doing?”

I instantly sat up in my chair, eyes wide. “Jaya is that Armando?”

“Yeah.”  She said sheepishly.

She may hate me for this, but I don’t care. When was I going to ever do this again? She was my only unmarried friend. Kat had Todd, Travis had Lena, and Trisha was married to Gerard. “OKAY BYE JAYA LOVE YOU AND USE PROTECTION.”

“REINA!” She shrieked as I hung up, laughing.

After finishing my fit of laughter, I walked into my room and turned on the light my closet out of curiosity. I had two dresses that I bought towards the end of medical school. They should still fit right?

I went to the bathroom, kind of wary about the idea of wearing a dress anywhere. I slowly slid off my shirt, and checked the size out of curiosity. It was a small, but that was because of my height.

I did the same thing with my jeans, which were loose but a size four.

Then I tried on this knee-length black dress with an open back, revealing my rather bony shoulder blades and this mole that I was actually proud of because it reminded me so much of Marilyn Monroe. Yeah, I know, hers was on her upper lip, but when I was little my father used to get a marker and make a dot on my lip where Marilyn Monroe’s would have been and told me it matched the one on my back. Basically, it was the only fond memory I had of my father.

Sigh. Oh, the mole and my arrow tattoo too.

No, it wasn’t a stupid direction arrow. Like those arrows you use in archery or when you draw those stupid hearts with arrows through them? Yeah, those arrows.

Realizing that I had the dress on and zipped on now, I looked in the mirror and cringed. My legs looked like they swimming the skirt of the dress and the top was way too loose. If I let go of the collar, you could basically see my almost non-existent breasts and my pink lace bra. I took the dress off and made a decision.

I stepped on the scale, the first time in almost a year since I lost 15 pounds. I was 130 pounds after losing weight. Taking a deep breath, I looked down at the scale.

119 pounds.