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Wonderful.
He felt like he was about to swallow his own tongue from rage when he finally made it inside—half an hour late, which meant he had exactly six minutes to check in with the nurses, check in with whoever his anesthesiologist was, and then scrub in.
He wanted to die. He hadn’t felt this terrible since he was in med school, running off caffeine, prayers, and weekend hangovers.
“Morning,” one of the nurses called out.
He gave her a death glare.
“Your resident is waiting for you,” she said.
Fuck his life. Fucking fuck his entire useless life.
Turning the corner, he found his patient looking a little sleepy with a small grin on her face. She was younger than most of his hip replacement patients, but her condition had worsened so drastically over the last year that they were at the last resort. She’d been admitted three days before with an infection, but her fever was down, and her vitals were strong.
“Good morning, Maria,” he told her.
She smiled at him. “Your mama’s name.”
He snorted, trying for a smile though it felt impossible. “Indeed. Have you seen anyone yet?”
“Pretty guy with hair.” She made a swirl on top of her head, and somehow, he knew that meant Frey. “Maybe I should give him my number.”
“That would be terribly unethical,” he told her, his tone flat. He felt a totally irrational pulse of jealousy, which he quickly swallowed down.
She shrugged and smiled, turning her face into her pillow. “He won’t mind when I can walk again.”
“Mm.” Renato checked her chart one last time, then turned to see the resident waiting. God, had he looked like such a little fetus when he was first starting? The man looked like he could have been in high school. Renato’s gaze locked on his badge. He was wearing a surgical cap in the photo. Fuck’s sake. “Dr. Chase.”
He preened like all the residents did when they heard their titles. Eventually, the word “doctor” would start causing an eye twitch, but he had several years before he was burnt out. “Renat—Dr. Agosti,” he said.
Renato bristled, glaring. The only person who ever got away with using his first name was Frey, and only because Renato refused to engage him on it. But hearing it, some of the others had started trying to get a little bold, and he was not having that.
Dr. Chase pinked. “So…is the surgery delayed, or…”
Renato pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. I was running late, but there won’t be a delay. It might be a good idea to focus on your job instead of policing me this morning.”
“I was just?—”
“You could be scrubbing in and making sure the OR is prepped,” Renato went on. “Instead, you’re screwing around out here like you have nothing better to do.”
Dr. Chase hurried off without another word, and behind him, Maria laughed. Renato shot her a small smile, then headed to scrub in before he could run into anyone else—namely Frey. He just couldn’t this morning, and he hadn’t seen the nurse’s name on the OR schedule, so maybe he was getting lucky.
He passed by the break room and smelled coffee and ached.
“Why do you look like you’re about to go feral?”
Renato turned at the voice behind him and saw Ajish there with a raised brow. He was in his lab coat, which meant he wasn’t with Renato in the OR—a disappointment, but it was fine. He shrugged and sighed.
“My espresso machine is broken, I had shit sleep, I dreamed about my husband,” he added a little more softly, “and my parking space is somehow under construction.”
Ajish’s face fell into a confused frown. “Your parking space? That’s odd.”
Renato assumed he hadn’t seen the cones put up when he got in—likely before Renato had managed to get there. “I’ll check into it later. I have a hip replacement happening…well, now.” He didn’t give his friend a chance to respond, hurrying away as fast as his caffeine-deprived body could take him.
The withdrawals were already making him cranky, and he was about to snap.
It took Renato longer than usual to change as all of the scrubs appeared to be missing, and he ended up having to flag down a medical assistant who managed to track down the cart. He did his best not to blame anyone for it—God only knew what was going on—but he was reaching his honest breaking point.
