Page 4 of Doctor Frost

Staff differed from patients. They all had the same feelings toward him I did. At least that was what they told me. I’d brought him up to Connie, the head RN in the hospital. She worked in the emergency department and there had been a couple of times I’d helped out there after a run-in with him. She’d listen and sympathize but then would be different to him in person.

It always blew my mind how no one stood up to him, either. He’d bark orders at them, and they would just do as they were told. Only when it came to me, he was way worse. I would not cower from him like the rest of them, which was why I’d blown up at him. It honestly hadn’t surprised me I’d finally lost control over myself when he wouldn’t come and speak with that sweet woman who spent over an hour crying on my shoulder. In my mind, it wouldn’t hurt the man to show some sort of compassion once in a while.

“My god, what did you do?” Charlotte whispered under her breath as she slid into the seat across from me.

“What? Why?” I questioned, wondering if maybe he had changed overnight and became human.

She blew out the breath she was holding and looked over at me. “That man was more than unbearable today. If you think he’s cranky on a normal day…” She looked up at me, her eyes wide. “He was hellish today. So, whatever you said to him last night pissed him off.”

I looked down at the menu in front of me, still trying to decide what it was I wanted to order as I thought about everything I’d said to him last night. Thank God Charlotte hadn’t been there to witness it.

“I stood up to him. It wasn’t anything that didn’t need to be said, except, well, except for the fact I may have oversteppedwith my words when it came to his personal life. But, honestly, Charlotte, the man deserved it.”

“You what? You mean you actually talked back to Doctor Frost? Like while you were working, and you brought his personal life into it?” she questioned, her eyes widening with disbelief.

I nodded.

“What did he say?”

“He said nothing. The man was actually speechless for once, and you should have seen the look on his face. It was like he didn’t care at all about what I was saying.”

“I bet he did.”

“I’m telling you, it fell on deaf ears.”

“Maybe at the moment, but not afterward. I think whatever you said stirred something inside of him. I’ve never seen him act the way he did today. He was worse than ever. He even lost it with Sawyer and Connie.”

Here I’d hoped what I said would have struck a chord and turned him into the opposite of what he was. Instead, from the sounds of it, I’d made it worse.

“I probably should have kept my mouth shut, but honestly, when he wouldn’t go see Mrs. Jackson, I guess that was my breaking point. Honestly, that wasn’t really the last straw, it was the fact that she had nothing bad to say about him at all. She sat there thanking him for changing the one medication, praising him for being an amazing doctor. The woman is dying, she was upset and scared and had a pile of questions. Her doctor refused to see her, and here she is upset as hell, of course, thanking a man who couldn’t care less. It just pissed me off.”

Charlotte nodded in understanding. Then looked up at me. “Are you afraid of facing him tomorrow?”

I shook my head. What was there to be afraid of? He’s a grumpy, uncaring asshole. I only called it like it was.

“No. I’m sure he’ll be his usual charming self toward me tomorrow, like always.”

I could see all the questions lining her eyes, maybe even a hint of worry. She looked at me and bit her bottom lip.

“What is it?”

She let out a sigh. “Aren’t you afraid he may fire you?”

I thought for a moment and then shook my head. “No, I think if he were going to do that, he would have done it last night after I told him I questioned how his significant other could stand to be around him.”

“Amelia, you didn’t.” Charlotte looked at me with horrified eyes.

“Damn right I did. Like I said, I lost it. I couldn’t take his lack of caring any longer.” I shrugged, just as my cell phone vibrated against the table. I glanced down to see an email from Doctor Frost requesting my presence at a meeting tomorrow. I shoved my phone over to Charlotte and showed her the email. She bit her bottom lip as she read the message and then looked up at me, concern flooding her face.

“Well, all I can say is good luck with that tomorrow.”

I’d shownup to work early because of the meeting. Instead of finding Dalton in his office, it was empty. I figured he was running late, and instead of dwelling on it, I went about my morning calling his patients to schedule their upcoming appointments.

Dalton still hadn’t arrived by ten thirty, which I thought was odd, but again I wasn’t going to worry about it. Instead, I grabbed my things and was about to head down on my break when the phone rang. It was Sawyer, one of the head ER doctors,requesting my help in the emergency room, which I happily volunteered for. If it meant getting out of this meeting with Mr. Grumpy, I was in.

I stopped and grabbed a coffee and bagel and then made my way over to the emergency room. The ER was crazy and looked like a bomb had gone off inside, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. I placed my things behind the nurses’ station, and that was when I saw Dalton. He was dealing with a patient over in the corner.

I sat down and took a bite of my bagel, waiting for Connie to give me some instruction. Not only was Connie my direct boss, but she was also Eastport General’s gossip queen.

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