Page 2 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

But she was cute. At twenty-eight, she was a late bloomer. Maybe she waited a year or two before doing her med school or maybe she hadn't selected her major soon enough to be considered. It didn't show on her employee file, but it reminded me of myself. I'd gotten a late start too, and after what I went through with my ex, I imagined there were likely some personal situations involved with Dr. Chen's self-doubt.

Whatever it was, she had to work on it or she was going to be left behind. Dr. Briggs had already proven himself to me time and again, and I couldn't very well give a doubtful greenhorn a position in surgery. She had to be more decisive and quicker on her toes. I wasn't sure she was going to make the cut.

I was just starting to doze off peacefully when my phone vibrated. The urge to throw it across the room passed through my mind, but I was better than that. I had to pull it out and make sure it wasn't an emergency, though most of the time, someone would just knock on the door and wake me. This time, however, it wasn’t a coworker calling me in for surgery. The call was from my ex-wife and I knew why.

"Yeah," I said after swiping to answer and holding the phone to my ear. Things were bitter between us, but for the sake of our little girl, Leah, I tried to maintain some modicum of self-control around her. They way she decided to do an about-faceon our vows and leave me high and dry, all because she felt she deserved more time than my career allowed us to have, still hurt.

"Jack, it's Dana. I'm just calling to remind you that you have Leah this weekend and I'll be out of town. You know I can't just rush back home. I don't have a sitter, and I expect you to?—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, Dana. It's not necessary to lecture me every time I have the weekend." I kept my eyes shut, hoping this would be a quick call and I could go back to sleep easily. Dana had this annoying way of nagging me about how to parent Leah correctly. She was seven years old already, though, and I knew what I was doing.

"Yes, well I know how very little importance you put on family and the fact that your job is always more important. You should probably put a reminder in your phone so you don't forget. I can't miss this trip."

I wondered what sort of trip she was taking that was so important she could miss the weekend with her daughter, but when I had to work late or needed to get a sitter for a work event, Dana flipped out. It was an infuriating double standard that often affected my ability to work when I was needed. I always made time for Leah, and I didn't feel like my job took any more time away from her than any average doctor.

"Is that all?" I asked Dana, who huffed and sounded like she might blow a gasket.

"You don’t have to be rude, Jack. I know you're busy. I'm just saying, Leah comes first. You have to spend time with her. You can't just park her with nurses while you work. Do you understand? I'm sick of you shirking your time with her and being late. If you don't grow up and act your age, I'm going to sue for sole custody, and I have a decent shot at winning."

Her nasally voice grated on me. It wasn’t the first time she threatened to do this either, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last. Dana was always one breath away from filing the suit, and shenever did. She had no grounds. I was a great father with a great career and I was an upstanding citizen. She, however, was a drama queen who cried wolf all the time. One of these times, she would regret it.

I opened my eyes and pressed my hand to my forehead. "I always spend time with her when she's with me. You should be thankful that you get to have her all week, every week. We could go back to the judge and revisit that part. I'm supposed to have her three days on, three off, then four days on and four off, remember?" The shared parenting we had worked out three years ago when we got divorced still worked and was still the standing agreement.

I let Dana have Leah during every week, though, because Leah lived right across the street from the school, and by the time I got home from work on weekday evenings, Leah would only have an hour with me before her bedtime at eight p.m. This made sense and in my opinion was what was best for her as a child. It had nothing to do with whether she was safer or happier with Dana.

"Oh, just don't start on me." Dana huffed again, and I pictured her scowl. It wasn't hard to remember, either. Every time Leah got upset with me, she gave me the exact same expression, as if she could mirror her mother's every emotion. She spent too much time with the angry woman, and I wished I could have her full time just to help her grow up in a less hostile home.

"Just be here, got it?" Dana spat, and I closed my eyes again.

"I'll be there. Just have her ready. The less time I have to spend with you, the better." I hung up so I didn't have to hear her nasty, sardonic replies and my life could be a bit calmer. I hated how what once used to be such a peaceful and passionate relationship had become nothing but an angry feud between usalmost all the time. I didn't know how life had gone so wrong, and I didn't care to find out, at least not now.

Dana had her chance and she refused to get counseling or be patient with me during my residency. For the final year of our marriage, we hardly spoke. She found a way to engage in classes and activities every evening when I was home, and she and Leah would go out of town to visit her sister on weekends. By the time she filed for divorce, I knew it had been over for eighteen months.

I sighed and shoved my phone back in my pocket, letting my eyes rest now that the call was over, and when I was about to doze off, I heard a knock on the door.

"Dr. Thornton?" I heard, and I knew duty called.

Apparently, sleep was for the weak, but I was no weak man. I got out of bed and put my shoes back on. Someone's world needed saving, and I had to do it.

3

SOPHIA

The radio played one of my favorite songs as I drove, to which I sang along until I had to focus on the traffic. Mom and Dad did this thing every weekend where we had family dinner. For the most part, I enjoyed it. I always had a good time catching up with my little sister, though our older brothers could be annoying and brag a lot. Lately, I'd felt like the odd man out at times.

Andy and Tom were both off to great starts in their careers, a doctor and a lawyer—though Tom's specialty was medical malpractice and would forever stay that way if Dad had his say. The field of medicine was the golden sphere in my father's mind, and I'd been there to observe firsthand how upset my parents got when Tom, the oldest, tried to do something other than become a doctor. It was a mess and there were a lot of hurt feelings, to say the least, and when Tom graduated and passed the bar exam, he relented and decided to focus on the specialty to make amends.

For a while, things were pretty intense. Family dinners involved mostly arguments and Tom defending his own right to choose while Dad told stories of "how things go in the homeland." He immigrated to the States before he met ourmother, who was a nurse at the time, but later pursued her doctorate and chose obstetrics. I wondered my entire life how much of that was due to Dad pressuring her.

Overall, however, my family was happy, and I was looking forward to tonight. I hadn't seen Maylin in months. Away at college most of the year, she always made time in the summer and around holidays to visit home. I'd missed her ever since I moved out, but I had to get out. The oppressive way Mom and Dad pushed all four of us to "do better" and "be more influential" just grated on my nerves.

I pulled into the driveway and parked, noticing all five of the family cars already here. Tom's BMW was right behind Mom's Acura in the garage, and Maylin had parked on the street, leaving the spot behind Dad's Range Rover for Andy's Mustang. He was the only one of us who had a "normal" car, which always annoyed Dad. I thought it was cool, though. Better than the EV I drove to conserve gas money and help the environment. Mom and Dad paid for it. I couldn’t afford to splurge on that much.

Before I'd even gotten out of the car, I heard the high-pitched squeal of my little sister and saw her come racing out of the front door. Mom and Dad lived in a quiet neighborhood, which never made sense to me considering how loud us four kids were. But the elderly neighbors adored us and lavished us with baked goods and candy and the occasional lemonade on a hot day when we were younger and our parents were away working.

"Soph!" Maylin yanked the door open and practically dragged me out onto the sidewalk, and I left my purse on the passenger seat as she tugged me into her arms.

"May-May, my God, you cut your hair!" Her once very long brown locks had been whacked off to about four inches of hair. I wondered how Mom had reacted to that one.

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