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“Thanks, Jarmen. And please, call me Eliza, or Liz, or Liza.”
Dr. Lewis had been old school and had required the staff to refer to him in a more formal fashion, but Eliza was new school. She didn’t mind if her patients called her Dr. Young, but her co-workers were another story.
She picked up the phone and pushed the button that was lighting up. At her offices in Oklahoma City, all of the calls were routed through on the computer. The front desk communicated with everyone on a chat that would pop up on the screen. But here they were still using intercoms and landlines. There were computers, but they were probably ten years old and the programs were all outdated, upgrading them was #115 on her spreadsheet. As well as transferring all of the patient files into a computer program instead of the paper system they were using now.
She placed the receiver to her ear and used the name that she’d always called her friend growing up, that now happened to be her actual title. “Hello, Dr. Sloan.”
Becca Sloan was her oldest friend. Eliza had grown up next door to the Sloan sisters. Haley was the oldest, next was Krista, then Jessie and Becca was the youngest. She and Becca had not only been friends because they were the closest in age, but they’d also bonded over what they’d wanted to be when they “grew up.” Becca had wanted to be a doctor since she was in elementary school, after being hospitalized for a rare form of strep throat. And Eliza had wanted to be a dentist since she’d gone on a field trip to the dentist the same year. Dr. Lewis had shown them X-rays on a lightbox and dental tools, explaining and demonstrating how they worked. He spoke so passionately about his profession. Then he sent them all home with a bag filled with a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss. For some reason that trip had stuck with her and Dr. Lewis had seemed more like a rock star to her than the local dentist.
Becca shared her passion for medicine, her overachieving ways and had graduated from Stanford School of Medicine in six years instead of eight and had just completed her residency. She was doing better in the love department though. She was marrying their childhood friend Brian in less than a month. The three of them had played together as kids and honestly, Eliza had never thought there was anything between the two of them, and apparently there wasn’t until a few years ago.
“Hello Dr. Young. How is your first day going?”
Eliza looked at the clock on the corner of her computer screen. Eight fifty-eight a.m. “Well, technically the practice doesn’t open for two minutes, but so far so good. Why didn’t you call me on my cell?”
“I tried, it went straight to voicemail. I figured you forgot to charge it.”
Shoot. She grabbed her phone off of the desk and saw that it was indeed dead.
Growing up, it’d been a running joke in her family that she was the absent-minded professor. Her dad used to say that she’d forget her head if it wasn’t screwed on. She’d always gotten good grades, excellent in fact, she’d graduated from high school, college and dental school at the top of her class. But she was constantly misplacing and forgetting things. Which was why she’d started making lists. Unfortunately, “charge phone” was not an item on her spreadsheet.
Becca continued, “I’m calling early because I wanted to snag you for dinner tonight. Haley will be there as well as a resident I work with. I’d love to see you if you don’t already have plans.”
It was sweet of her friend to think she’d already have plans, but that was so not the case. Growing up Eliza hadn’t really run with the popular crowd. At least she hadn’t until Neil Holmes had asked her out the summer before their sophomore year. He was the big man on campus and she’d been accepted into the “in” crowd by default. She seriously doubted any of the people that even remembered her would actually care that she was back. “I got into town yesterday. I don’t have plans.”
“Perfect!” Becca exclaimed. “How does The Plate at seven sound?”
Eliza pulled up her schedule and saw that her last patient was at five. “Sounds good.”
“Great, see you then.”
“See you then.” As Eliza set the phone back in the cradle it hit her that she was really back.
She was in Harper’s Crossing. A place that she’d avoided as much as possible since she left for college because she was scared that she would run into Neil or worse, his identical twin brother Nate. From what she’d been able to discover after a little light Facebook stalking, they were both back in town.
Neil had never left. He’d stayed in Harper’s Crossing after high school, opting not to go to college. He’d gone to work for his dad’s real estate business. From his posts it looked like his life hadn’t changed much since high school. He partied. Hard. And did the bare minimum work that was required of him.
Nate was the opposite. He’d graduated two years early from high school and left to attend MIT. She hadn’t seen him since he left for Massachusetts. But she’d known that in three years he’d earned his Master’s degree and then joined the Army. He’d completed Ranger training and had quickly risen in the ranks. After six years of service, he’d moved back home to Harper’s Crossing. He worked as a cyber security specialist at Elite Security and he was rumored to work as a consultant for the CIA in cyber terrorism, but as far as she knew he’d never told anyone that, it was just small town gossip.
She’d met Nate on the first day of freshman year in human physiology. Nate was shy, brilliant and cute. Really cute. She’d had a huge crush on him from the moment he’d been assigned as her lab partner in Mr. Hawkins’ classroom. There were so many times that she’d thought he was going to kiss her, or at least make some kind of move. It was a constant stream of mixed signals. He’d do an incredibly thoughtful and grand gesture or drop these amazingly sweet compliment bombs and after they detonated she’d wait in anticipation for something, anything, to happen, but nothing ever did. His face would remain blank and that would be that. But, she always believed that one day that would change. She’d worked up this whole fantasy world where he’d confess his undying love for her and they would ride off into the happily-ever-after sunset together.
In fact, when Neil originally asked her out the summer between ninth and tenth grade, she’d said yes because she thought it was Nate. It hadn’t been until he pulled out his jersey that she realized that she’d just agreed to date Neil Holmes, the star quarterback of the football team.
That was something that she’d never admitted to anyone.
At first, when she realized her blunder, she planned to just go to the movies anyway to save herself from the embarrassment of having to explain the mix-up. But, Neil hadn’t made it easy to do that. He’d made her laugh and since he looked exactly like his twin brother, he wasn’t too hard on the eyes. One date turned into two, two turned into three, a month turned into a year and a year turned into three. Over the time that she and Neil were together she’d thought that her crush on his twin brother was gone. That is, until that fateful night at Whisper Lake on her eighteenth birthday when a Freudian slip changed everything and the reality of her true feelings came crashing down on her like a piano in a cartoon.
“Dr. Youn…sorry, Eliza.” Jarmen smiled widely as she knocked on the open door before entering. “Your nine a.m. just called and said that she couldn’t make it, her daughter is sick with a cold. But, we filled the slot with an emergency call we just got with a loose crown. She should be here in about fifteen minutes”
Since she’d agreed to take over the office she’d been in contact with the staff from Oklahoma. This transition was only going as smoothly as it was because Dr. Lewis had such a strong team working for him. They were making the metaphoric passing of the baton as seamless as possible. Eliza was stepping into a well-oiled, well-run machine. Her life may have fallen apart, but she was all about silver linings and if you looked up silver linings in the dictionary, a picture of her new staff would be there.
“Great.” Eliza looked up at the pretty brunette who had worked for Dr. Lewis for the past five years but then she realized what she’d said. “I mean, not great that the crown is loose, but glad we were able to fit her in.”
A knowing grin spread on Jarmen’s face as she crossed the room and handed Eliza a manila folder. “Here’s Mrs. Holmes file, in case you want to look it over—”
Eliza’s stomach dropped like a lead balloon and a sense of dread swept through her.
“Mrs. Holmes?” she repeated over the large lump that had just formed in her throat as she silently prayed that she’d misheard the patient’s name.
