Just the Highlights

Eli: A Dinner Party/Just the Highlights (144)

As the end of medical school grew nearer, my classmates and I grew more and more anxious. We had spent all of our undergraduate programs trying to get into medical school and now we were spending our last year of medical school trying to get into a good residency program. To help us get into those residency programs we turned to our professors who had the power to introduce us to their friends that were heads of hospitals and stuff like that. The ideal place was somewhere we liked enough, and liked us enough, that we would still have a job there when our residency ended.

Like everything, impressing our professors were easier for some than others. I had killed it in medical school, if I do say so myself, but I had no clear prospects for my next step. I had a few professors that liked me enough to help me out, but they weren't high up enough to really help me get a job. The professors who could do that didn't like me very much. They were older men and women, highly respected in both New York and the rest of the country in their fields, but they had sticks up their asses. I was regarded as a frat boy who had decided to become a doctor on a whim. I was a medical Elle Woods.

So I jumped at every chance to impress them. There weren't many opportunities but I took advantage of every one. They may not have liked me but they at least could acknowledge that I was determined.

One particular opportunity, however, seemed like my way in. One of the professors, the ringleader of that particular group of professors, was throwing a dinner party. It was less of a dinner party but instead a cocktail party. They only called it a dinner party so people would think there was actually food when it was really only people mingling and eating tiny appetizers. But I wasn't about to turn that chance down.

But if I was going to go, I had to do this the right way. When I had RSVP'd to the professor he had made a comment about how I might dressed and who I might bring to the party. Apparently he was convinced that I would show up in boardshorts with a hooker on my arm. Did he think I was stupid? Probably. I already had a fancy suit that I was going to wear but I still had to find a date. If I showed up without one people would just say I was here to grovel but if I brought one I would look stylish. I hope. I just had to find someone who wouldn't mind going and would be able to charm the intellectuals.

That's when I realized it. I'm not sure why I didn't think about going with Julie before, I guess I was kind of stupid, but once I had realized it I was already planning everything out. Not only would it be the perfect way to impress my professors, it would also help me with my own troubles. Ever since she had come to New York I had felt a bubbling of my old feelings for her coming up. Only, now that we were adults, it was all the more terrifying. This dinner party would be a nice way to test out if we connected in a couple-like way.

I was not prepared for what would actually happen.

 "Julie, hurry up!"

"I'm coming! Keep your pants on."

"We're going to be late."

"No, we're not. See? I'm ready."

"..."

"What?"

"Wow."

"Wow yourself. You ready? We don't want to be late."

"Yeah... Um, yes! Let's go. There's a town car waiting downstairs."

"A town car? Fancy."

"Only the best when I'm trying to impress people."

"Me or your professors?"

"Both. Here, let me get the door."

"Aren't you a gentleman."

"Don't pinch my cheek. It's demeaning."

"Oh shut up."

"Here are some flowers, milady."

"Thanks."

"I know I was probably supposed to bring them to the door, but I forgot. But I think I get points for getting pretty ones."

"You do. And don't worry about it."

"You know how you can thank me..."

"And you just ruined it."

~~~

And now the six updates covering one night begins ;)