Page 7 of The Doctor's No-Strings Deal

“Equally badly?” Amy added.

“No one asked you,” Charlie shot back.

“Ooh, someone’s not a team player,” said Amy after swallowing a bite of her salad.

“Why would I be?” Charlie asked. “We’re all in competition with each other. I try not to get too close to my competitors. You’ll all regret making friends with each other when you’re competing for the same position.”

Megan sipped soup from her yellow cup and downed half of a canned coffee before responding. “I disagree. I think medicineis a team sport, you know? We all have to get used to working together, nonverbal communication, and things like that. It’s important, just as important as remembering all those facts from college textbooks, lectures, and seminars.”

Keith nodded along. “Yep, I agree with Megan.”

Of course, you do,Charlie thought.You’d agree with the nearest rock if it had an opinion.

Then Amy chimed in. “She makes a good point.”

And Kayla. “I agree with Megan, too.”

Fine. This was all fine. Charlie knew better than to get attached to any of his co-residents. “Okay, then,” he said in his most nonchalant tone. “Enjoy stabbing each other in the back when you finally get a shot at a fellowship. I’ll be over here watching the whole show by myself, having known from day one where I stood with all of you.”

“Well,” Megan said, that infuriating smile gracing her features once again, “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I know where you’ll stand with me. We’ll have been on the same team the whole time regardless of whether you realized it.”

“And what team is that?” Charlie mumbled, half expecting a sarcastic answer from her.

“The one that aims to save lives and improve people’s health.” She grinned wider. “You know, the real reason all of us are here, I hope.”

That shut Charlie up. It wasn’t because her point couldn’t be argued against as much as it was because she sounded exactly the way he did before his father got into his head. He had wanted to become a doctor to help people. He’d admired his father andgrandfather because they were saving lives, not because they had some grand achievements in medicine. But these days, it felt like his whole purpose was just to advance his own family’s name for the sake of his brother and any future children he may have. It was all about the glory, and that idea just didn’t sit well with the younger, more idealistic version of him — that kid who proudly announced to his father, one day, that he intended to go into medicine because he wanted to help people more than anything else in the world.

The others were still talking, but Charlie no longer heard what they said. He’d fallen into nostalgia and contemplation. He’d gone full-on existential crisis on all of them, but they didn’t seem to notice. All the better for it, he thought. Nothing mattered as much as maintaining his façade.

Dr. Ralter came to call them back to work, and they all dutifully followed him to the next few patients. This time, he split them up. Amy and Keith were more experienced residents, so they were paired off together, while Charlie, Kayla, and unfortunately Megan were stuck with each other.

They walked through the halls of the hospital, single file like ants. Charlie followed the women, and found himself repeatedly distracted by certain aspects of Megan’s figure. Somehow, he was going to have to get his attraction to her under control. He would just have to remind himself about how unattractive her personality was… or something. He frowned as they made their way into an exam room.

A young woman sat at the edge of the exam table, draped in a gown with her arms crossed over her stomach. Dr. Ralter turned to Charlie. “You have the most experience of the group, I assume,” he said. “Have at it.” He handed a clipboard to Charlie, who took it with a solemn air.

This would be his chance to show the others how a serious student participated in residency. Neither a good attitude nor warm fuzzy feelings about patients would help anyone to accurately diagnose this woman. Knowledge of symptoms and conditions was what it would truly take, and Charlie intended to prove that to them once and for all.

He picked up her file and read it carefully. “So, Ms. Cooper. You’re not feeling well?”

The woman nodded and held herself more tightly. She was young, in her thirties, a healthy weight. Her skin and nails were a good color. She didn’t look unwell outside her clear discomfort and dull eyes.

“Is this recent?” he asked.

“Just this morning,” she answered.

“Have you thrown up?”

“A couple times this morning.”

“Any diarrhea?”

The woman glanced around the room, clearly uncomfortable with her audience. But she shouldn’t have been, Charlie thought. Everyone in the room was a medical student, well acquainted with a wide variety of symptoms. She nodded sheepishly, and Charlie wrote down some notes, more to avoid eye contact with her than anything.

Then Megan chimed in. “Coming out both ends, huh?” she said with a friendly laugh. “I hate when that happens. It’s the worst, isn’t it? We’ll get you set up with something that’ll make you feel a whole lot better soon. Don’t worry. We’ve all been there.”

Charlie shot her the dirtiest look he could manage in the split second he had before anyone else in the room noticed. She was moving in on his territory, and it frustrated him. He cleared his throat and approached the patient with his stethoscope, telling her when and how to breathe.

“She’s tachycardic with high blood pressure,” he said, recalling her chart. The woman’s eyes darted around the room again, and he noticed she was picking at her fingers. “And agitated,” he added.

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