All the juniors and the rest of the registrars were squashed in at the back; some had seats, but most were standing, or perched along the thin tables against the wall.
Lou breezed in like she owned the place and reached in between a couple of consultants, nonchalantly taking two cups and a couple of pastries. She then sauntered over to the coffee cart to fill both the cups. Meanwhile I scurried to hide in the back, perching precariously on the end of one of the tables. The consultant standing up at the front of the room next the projector cleared his throat.
‘Nice of you to join us, Dr Sands, but as far as I’m aware you are working in Elderly Care currently,’ he said. He was a stocky, grey-haired man in a crisp suit with an unmistakable air of authority. His tone was formal, but I could tell that he was fighting a smile.
‘Oh, you know me, Dr Williams,’ she smiled at him. ‘Can’t get enough of those echo pictures, thought I’d get a quick fix before my ward round.’
He raised his eyebrows, and then levelled his gaze at me. ‘For the benefit of those who werenothere at the start of the meeting, I will repeat that all new trainees need to report to the office after we’re finished here so they can be allocated their consultants.’
My face was burning, and I could feel the room’s eyes turn in my direction whilst I ducked my head. Lou had squashed up next to me on the table. She handed me a coffee and a pastry, and squeezed my hand.
‘Medical genius, no intimidation, remember?’ she whispered in my ear, and I gave her a weak smile.
Once Dr Williams continued his lecture, everyone stopped paying attention to me, and I felt free to scan the room. I was just looking around the table of consultants, wondering who I would be allocated, when I felt the hairs at back of my neck stand up. I looked at the far end of the table opposite me, and my breath caught in my throat.
A pair of gorgeous, and familiar, blue eyes were staring back at me. My mouth dropped open in horror. I heard Lou emit a small squeak and realized that I had her hand in a death grip.
‘I’m sorry, Frank,’ she whispered in my ear. ‘I just couldn’t tell you; you wouldn’t have slept for a week. He was appointed a few months ago.’
‘Jeepers,’ I muttered, tearing my gaze away from his and looking down at my shoes.
‘For Christ’s sake, Frankie, if ever there was a time to drop an f-bomb or two it’s now.’ My continued lack of profanity was a constant source of annoyance to Lou, but I thought that she more than made up for it. ‘Look, you probably won’t have to see that much of him anyway; it’s a big department.’
On the way to the secretaries after the meeting, I kept replaying Lou’s words in my head, praying that I could indeed avoid him. The other new trainees seemed to know their way around better than me, and most were already friends, making me feel even more like the new girl.
The cardiology secretaries all sat together in a huge office. Seeing as Dr Williams was the head of the department, his secretary was in charge of allocating us to consultants and our on-call rotas. She looked pretty frazzled and harassed as she gave us each of us a huge binder with all the relevant information for our new role (no doubt the changeover was taking its toll on her). I wasted no time in riffling through to see who my consultant was. My eyes closed in resignation and a wave of nausea hit me.
Of course.
Dr Longley.
‘You alright?’ I opened my eyes and saw a petite girl with long red hair in front of me, looking at me with a concerned expression. ‘You look like you might hurl or something.’
I forced a smile. ‘I’m fine. I just hate first days.’
‘I know,’ she agreed, ‘and that meeting scared the bejeezuz out of me. If he’d picked on me to answer I’d have peed myself. I couldn’t even make out the bloody ventricles on those echoes.’
My smile was genuine now; here was a girl after my own heart. ‘They all just look like different variations of cats squirming around in a black bag to me,’ I replied, and she let out a high-pitched giggle before I saw her eyes widen, fixed on something over my shoulder.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up again, and when I turned I was confronted by an expanse of broad chest, clad in a light blue, wrinkled shirt. I looked up slowly, noting the hint of chest hair visible at his open shirt collar, tanned throat, lightly stubbled jaw, and finally those amazing blue eyes, which were staring down into mine. I stepped back quickly and he frowned at me.
‘Dr Rossetti?’ he asked, obviously having been directed my way by the secretaries.
Great. I wasn’t surprised, but it still hurt that he didn’t remember me at all from uni. Then again, the night he humiliated me and called me frigid, he didn’t know who I was either. He’d thought I was a fresher for goodness sake.
‘Frankie,’ I replied quietly, sticking out my hand for him to shake. I felt a blush creep up my cheeks as he enclosed my small hand in his big warm grasp, and quickly snatched mine away as soon as I could without being blatantly rude. He frowned again, and I realized that I might not have pulled off that manoeuvre without more than a hint of rudeness.
‘Okay, Frankie, looks like you’re with me,’ he said, offering me a tight smile. ‘I’m Dr Longley and my registrar is Dr Hadid, he’s waiting for you on CCU. I’m in the cath lab this morning so I’ll catch up with you both later.’
He sounded stiff and awkward and he looked like he couldn’t wait to get away from me, which seemed weird. I mean, I could still be shy, but I rarely madethatbad of an impression. I also noticed that he didn’t suggest that I call him Tom, and I decided that was just fine: the more formal the better.
‘Great, have a good morning of, um …’ Gah! I was such a freak. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what they did in the cath lab. ‘… stenting!’ I finally said with relief, ‘and stuff,’ I finished lamely.
‘Right,’ he replied, and I noticed that his face was a little softer and his rigid tone had slipped slightly as he continued: ‘and I hope, Frankie, that by the end of the six months echoes might look a bit less like cats in a bag.’ With that he nodded to the now salivating secretaries, and strode out of the office.
Bloody brilliant. Five minutes into working for him and I had already demonstrated my idiocy twice.
Oh well, moving on.
