It's Friday night and I'm still waiting for Claire to tell me where we should meet. It's 8:45pm and we had scheduled to meet at 9pm. But right as I'm thinking that, my phone rings.
Finally. I take my coat and close the front door.
*
I'm walking down towards Don's and I have a weird feeling. My skin shudders, and a couple of impossible sweat drops go down my spine. I keep going.
*
"Hello gorgeous!" I kinda yell when I see Claire approaching me.
"Hey!! I'm sorry I kept you waiting on the phone, a last minute patient came in and we had to stabilize him, ugh," she sighs. We walk into Don's and one of the guys shows us to our table.
"No worries at all, I saw how incredibly busy you get in a matter of minutes, I could never," I tell Claire and I mean it: these guys get a text and they have about thirty seconds to get ready for hell to be unleashed, too nerve-wracking, I'd give up after... I'd give myself two days, then I would probably quit.
"The thing is that if it is something you really want to do, you get used to it pretty fast. I've always wanted to be a doctor, the first couple of weeks as a resident kinda hit me in the face, but then I accepted my new reality and adjusted accordingly. It gets easier," she says while taking off her coat and putting it on the back of the chair, "so tell me, how are things going for you, Jayjay?"
We're now both sat down on our chairs, waiting for someone to get our orders. I cross my legs, even though the movement is becoming increasingly difficult to do, I lean on the back of the chair and I intertwine my fingers, "you'll have to be more specific than that, Claire. So much is happening, I wouldn't even know where to start."
"How's work, family, love," she says with playful eyes, "you choose where to start, and don't forget the juicy parts, I'm all ears."
I only lightly snort for a second, "Oh well... Work is going great. We've received hundreds, if not thousands of orders. Did you know we had a 300 plus people gig during the last week of September? It was a wedding, such a crazy and beautiful day and it got us most of our current orders! Kels and I are actually looking for a third part time worker, it's becoming hard to do everything by ourselves and with me being pregnant... It's difficult. But so incredibly satisfying!"
"Ah right, the wedding. Dr. Melendez kept talking about that wedding for days. Shaun and I were going crazy in the OR, honestly," revealed Claire. He talked about the wedding day at work? Neil Melendez? The same Dr. Melendez that I met at the hospital? Could it be possible?
"What did he say about it? I hope only good stuff, otherwise I'll have to find someone else to help me," I joke. In the meantime a waiter arrives, I order a fruit cocktail and Claire takes a glass of red wine to kick off the night.
"He kept talking about how everything felt magical, and the amount of flowers you girls had to prepare, the photos, the ceremony...", our drinks arrive and Claire stops talking for a second, then when everything is set on the table, she raises her green eyes again and says, "...you."
"Me?" I'm in a little bit of a shock, because I was expecting him talking about the work we had done to make everything perfect, but... comments about me during work hours? No way.
"Yes, you. He must really like you: Jade did that, Jade did this, Jade said this, said that and so on, for hours girl! Shaun was so mad, I could read it on his face, he couldn't concentrate," she says giggling. I, on the other hand, can't believe what I'm hearing.
"Now I'll have to say sorry to Shaun, and will also have to remind Neil to do his job, not blabbering about the things I do or say."
"Yes, tell Neil."
I start laughing once again at her remark, "Why does everyone believe that there's something special about me saying his name?! I call you Claire and no one literally says anything about it, why shouldn't it be the same with Melendez?" I ask her.
She has no real answer except for a raised eyebrow, a huge eye roll and a sip of wine. Since she's avoiding the question, I decide to focus on her.
"And what can you tell me? Family, friends, love?" I ask mockingly, "anything good?"
"Ugh, my life revolves around the hospital, I don't have much time for anything else, to be honest... I recently broke up with one of my resident collegues, his name was Jared. He accepted a job in another hospital after a couple arguments with our superiors. He's doing fine now though, so I'm really happy for him," she kindly smiles at the table, not meeting my eyes. I take a longer sip of my cocktail and wait for her to resume, "then I don't really have anything to say regarding family and friends, my mum is God knows where, and yet manages to ask me for money every single month and I don't really have any friend, you're the first not work related person I see after work in years, can you believe it?"
"Oh heck yeah, I can and by the way, I am work related, Claire. Have you already forgotten where we met?" I tease, "anyway, the only person I have in my life right now is Kelsey, and she works for me, with me. And... She's more like a little sister, she's family. I don't have any friends either. I used to, but not anymore," I admit.
"What happened?" she asks me at the same time as she orders another glass of wine for herself and something extra sugary for me.
"A guy happened," I let the information slip from my lips and I leave it there, hanging in between the two of us.
"Whenever you'll feel ready to talk more about it... I'll be right here," Claire tells me, reaching for my hand on the table, "by the way," she says looking at my hand, "looks like you've been doing great with the arm and hand!", she exclaims.
"YES. The surgery went very well," I let her know, "my bones ache when it rains, but I'm not complaining! Also physiotherapy is helping a lot," I add. Just as I'm done saying the words I can see on her face that she has a question on the tip of her tongue, so I just ask, "what is it?"
"Neil is helping you out, right?"
"Yes, he is, Claire. And... I'm feeling like crap about it because I can completely see he is exhausted at the end of the day. You have no idea how hard it was to convince him to go home for tonight and rest."
"I see... I've heard he asked Dr. Lim to take you as her patient, I didn't really connect the dots about his decision until now, well it makes sense."
I gulp down my Shirley Temple and ask, "oh please, enlighten me. He mumbled something about it, but I really didn't understand a word." That's only partially true, but having another competent person fully telling me the 'why' a doctor would do that is important.
"Well... I don't know how much you know about transference, but to me... It sounds like he was afraid you could develop some fake feelings, or even the other way around, wo he developing something for you. By not being your doctor anymore, you two can be whatever you are and see where it goes."
"Oh," I say, "he... Forgot to mention all of that." I keep quiet for a couple of seconds, my eyebrows are furrowed because I'm overthinking about Claire's words, I'm trying to read in between the lines, but it just doesn't make any sense and what's worse is that doing all of this, is giving me a headache, so I decide to just stop ruminating over something I have no control of.
I see Claire shaking her head as if wanting to clear her thoughts and then she says, "I probably just confused you even more than you already were, I'm sorry."
"Oh, no, no. Don't you worry about that, it's just..." that I don't need hope? Goodness, I need to stop.
Bee, be happy.
"It gives me a new perspective, that's all. Thank you," I declare.
We both finish our drinks, then Claire suggests we get out and go somewhere else, so we pay our drinks, take our coats... I go to the restroom in order to empty my bladder... And then we head out.
We are walking down the sidewalk when Claire asks me, "Have you decided her name yet?"
Surprisingly enough, this is the first time I'm asked the question. Normally it's one of the most popular ones to ask a pregnant woman, but not in my case. For a moment I let myself dwell in the memories.
I was 8 years old, my mum was making dinner and I was just a curious child.
"Mum, was Jade the first name you thought of when I was born?", I asked her. I was sitting on the kitchen counter, drinking orange juice while watching her baking a pie.
"Oh dear," she exclaimed, "you always have the most curious questions for an 8 year old, you know?!" She took off her baking gloves, set them aside and sat on one of the kitchen stools, "No, Jade wasn't the first option," she said while letting out a sigh and looking directly at me.
"So... What was my name at the beginning?" I pressed her into telling me.
"Beatrice, my love," she finally admitted, "just like your grandma."
"Do you miss her, mum? I can't imagine ever living my life without you", I mumbled with tears starting to form in my eyes.
"Very much, little bee. Very much. But I have you and thanks to you," she said while putting a finger right on my heart, "I don't think about it too much and I don't miss her as much. You help me in ways you can't even imagine."
The memory warms my heart in this cold night, I smile and then turning my head towards Claire I say, "Beatrice."
"That is a wonderful name, can I ask where does it come from?", she asks tentatively.
"It was my grandma's name. My mum's side, of course. I don't know my father's family," I let her know, "My mum wanted to name me after her because she had died just a few months before I was born, but then... she changed her mind and called me Jade, so I'm gonna call her Beatrice. Bee for short, just like my mum used to call me."
Claire smiles at me with that big big smile of hers and says, "That is absolutely amazing, Jay. A wonderful story to tell."
We arrive in front of another pub, one that I've never heard of and laughter can be heard from outside. Claire turns to me, "Shall we go in?".
*
We ended up watching two people improvising a comedy show on a little stage and then once they were done and we all had some time to stop hysterically laughing, a karaoke night began and of course we had to sing a couple of songs, just a couple. Okay maybe something like six or seven, but hey, the public kept asking for more, we couldn't simply let them down. I think it was because of Claire's angelic voice, althought she said that our two singing voices together were fantastic. We were leaving the stage when we had to decline two drinks that some guys had bought for us: Claire had to go home and rest, given the fact that she was on duty the next day, and... well I am pregnant and definitely not drinking any alcohol.
"My goodness, I didn't know guys were also into pregnant women," I chortle.
"The shock on your face just made it better, I swear I couldn't stop laughing," she roars.
"Yeah, well, that was a first for sure!" I say, then she suddenly stops laughing her lungs out, and sniggers, "Not really a first, but okay."
"What do you mean by that, speak clearly I don't need riddles in my life, please," at this point I'm basically begging for a clear answer.
"Well, Jade... what I told you earlier should have already cleared your mind, but in case it didn't... A doctor that we both know is kinda trying to hit on a pregnant woman, or maybe he doesn't know what he's doing, but that's certainly the ultimate goal, maybe he doesn't know that yet himself tho," she says, stopping right in the middle of the street and inclining her head on an angle, she repeats, "maybe he doesn't know that yet." Claire says that as if she's more like talking to herself rather than to me.
"So you're suggesting... that Neil is flirting with me?!" I bust out laughing, "now this is funny."
"You know what's funny and what will be even funnier?" she asks me.
"Tell me, I'm curious."
"It's funny the fact that you two won't just accept reality, but it'll be even funnier to see how you're gonna react when you'll be looking back to moments like these, once you've realized everything."
I furrow my brows, and stay silent.
*
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Author's comment:
Hello beautiful people! Here is another chapter... With a new feature! What do you think about these fake texts images? Do you like them? Shall I incorporate more of them or not? This was just a test, so if you don't like them.. You won't see them anymore! Just let me know :)
Thank you for your likes and support.
Love,
DD