Catfish | A. Svechnikov

FIFTEEN

"I'm fine."

"Fine?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" I hadn't meant to become snarky, but the words had simply slipped out.

I didn't want to talk about yesterday.

"AJ?" He questioned in disbelief.

I shook my head, running my hands through my blonde hair anxiously, praying that Alex wouldn't pressure me anymore. I wasn't sure I had the mental strength to relive yesterday's events over and over again, but Alex was concerned and persistent, and he seemed adamant not to let awkward silence befall us.

"Is it safe to assume this is about the 'boyfriend' who's not your boyfriend?"

I had been hoping he wouldn't bring up Andrei and I found myself suddenly becoming tense at the memory of Andrei sending my flowers to the office in apology.

A part of me wanted to reach out and text him, to reconcile what had been broken last night, but another part of me was also scared at the prospect of confronting him, terrified at the idea of what other excuses he would try to shove down my throat, and utterly disgusted as the prospect of hearing more of lightly hurtful things he might have to say.

I shook my head at him, my hands writhing together as I took the clipboard in his hands away from him. Heading towards the medical reception, my footsteps echoed off the walls, and there was still a small voice in my head reminding me of all the silly things pestering me in my life at the moment. As the reception desk came into view, I joined the short line of dieticians waiting to pick up their patients, noticing how quickly it dwindled to nothing.

"Can you call back Dr. Lane and I's next patient to examine room number five?" I asked politely, sliding the clipboard across the desk so that she could look it over and ask the premeditated dietary questionary on the way back to the room.

"Sure thing," the middle-aged woman behind the counter said, checking over the details I'd handed her and taking the paper.

"Thanks."

"No problem," She said handing me back an empty clipboard, "It's a little early for Alexa though isn't it? Talking your ear off first thing in the morning."

Her words were heavy with humor as I visibly shuttered at the thought of having to deal with the troubled teen so early in the morning. The sweet girl I had been tasked with always seemingly enjoyed my company a little too much.

The woman saw my grimace as I nodded in confirmation and let out a laugh. "Don't worry, her dad brought her this morning, so hopefully she won't have too much to talk about," she said with amusement.

I smiled wryly at the thought of working here for a while longer. It might not always be the most glamorous job in the world, but it was what I wanted to do with my life. "Great, looking forward to hearing it anyways."

Depending on the type of day, Alex and I try to see all of our patients in the morning and make recommendations and get charting done early, and spend our evenings responding to emails, complaints, concerns, and reviews of the previous day's reports. Occasionally I'll attend different committee meetings such as quality, infection control, departmental, etc. And end my day following up on pending items, new consults, patient phone calls, and scheduling. The second half of my day is essentially sitting and spending my time on the phone and computer. It was a quick and easy day, it made my job more lovable.

But when our day starts with Alexa, it drags on and on forever because of the delicacy of her mental state.

The waiting room was only two hallways away, and as soon as Alexa was in sight she rushed down the hallways to meet me. I greeted her while doing quick calculations in my head after looking at the analytics on her paperwork that was handed to me.