When it was necessary for the two of them to speak, conversations were short, cordial, and work related. To an outsider, it would appear that they were work acquaintances, nothing more, nothing less.
Isabella wondered if James was moving on and seeing other women. Rationally, she couldn’t argue if he were. He was a single man looking for a long-term relationship. The thought of him sharing his home—his bed—with another woman made her nauseated, though.
Isabella and James would be forced to work alongside each other for years. She didn’t know if she could stand by and watch as he found love, married, and had children, while she was still single and lonely.
Truth be told, she still had feelings for him. She still craved his touch and his companionship, but then she would immediately be filled with a sense of longing, because she knew she could never have it again.
One day, he tossed her a chart, leaving her to care for one of his patients. He told the interns to page him if they needed any assistance and then disappeared. This was usually standard procedure, but Isabella was handed a particularly challenging case.
The patient was a young patient with a genetic disorder that Isabella had never even heard of. She went to find a reference on the disease when the patient coded.
She yelled for the nurses and paged James immediately. She was his patient, so he would know how to treat her. Isabella asked the nurses for help, but they didn’t know enough about the patient’s condition either.
Usually James was quick and would take off running when an intern paged him. He had a high sense of responsibility for them and didn’t want them to kill any patients on his watch.
Isabella had to make a
decision for the patient, and soon. She was scared, though. Injecting the wrong drug could kill her in an instant. She quickly flipped through the chart, looking for some clues as to what she would do.
“We need a decision, Dr. Carter,” the nurse said.
“Just continue with resuscitation until Dr. Johnson arrives.”
Isabella looked around. There was no sign of James. She took a deep breath. He should have been here by now.
“Okay, let’s administer 1.5 milligrams of lidocaine.”
A nurse rushed off to get the drug. Isabella looked through the chart one last time.
Just as she was about to inject the patient, James finally arrived.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“She coded and I didn’t know what to give her. I’m administering 1.5 milligrams of lidocaine.”
“And destroy her already failing liver?” he shouted. “Someone get me some epinephrine.”
He carefully injected the drug into the patient and took hold of the defibrillation paddles. After a few tries, a normal heartbeat was restored.
“Thanks for almost killing my patient,” he sneered at Isabella.
“Thanks for ignoring my page,” she fired back.
He looked around the room. There were too many people around to get into a shouting match.
“Come with me,” he said gruffly, quickly walking out of the room and through the halls. Eventually, he stopped in an empty stairwell.
“I leave you alone for one moment, and you’re about to destroy the result of a very important surgery I was in on,” he hissed. “Were you doing it on purpose?”
She gasped at his accusation. She would never do anything to hurt a patient.
“Why did you wait so long to get there?” she cried. “There were no notes in the chart, and I did what I thought was best.”
“Your best almost killed my patient. You show poor judgment.”
“I suppose you’re right. I did date you, after all.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“Exactly what it sounds like. Obviously, being with you was a massive mistake.”
“So much for being professional at work.”
“I was, until you came in and started accusing me of sabotage. I would never intentionally hurt anyone.”
“No?” he muttered. “I’m not so sure.”
He walked back into the hallway, slamming the door behind him.
Isabella’s throat felt tight. She could hardly breathe. She walked back toward her patient’s room, taking short, shallow breaths.
“Hey, what’s up?” Jordan asked, spotting her across the hall.
Isabella walked faster, trying to avoid her friend. She didn’t feel like talking.
“Are you okay?” Jordan asked as she got closer.