Free Notorious D.O.C. (Hope Sze medical mystery) by Melissa Yi, Melissa Yuan-Innes Page A

people, and more often than not,
wrist-cutting. Hey, that sounded exactly like Reena. And I shouldn't take all
the hating personally—borderlines either loved you or hated you, and I
just happened to end up on the hate list.
    For the first time, I stopped to look at
Robert, not as a pudgy medical student in a white coat, but as a human being
who was a lot more psych-savvy than I was or ever would be. "Are you
planning on doing psych?"
    He smiled, seemingly undisturbed by the
rotting food smell emanating from both the garbage can and the refrigerator.
"Does it show?"
    They say there are two types of doctors,
internists and surgeons. Internists like to pore over books and think deep
thoughts; surgeons like to act. I'm obviously a surgeon. I'd classified Robert
as an internist, but now I wasn't sure. Maybe psychiatrists are a breed of
their own.
    I threw open the fridge door to hunt for
my bottle of water. MuchMusic blasted in the background. Someone I didn't
recognize, a med student, chewed lasagna with the remote in one hand and a fork
in the other.
    Tucker was nowhere to be seen. I glanced
at my watch. Forty minutes had passed. No chance he was still in the gym.
    I chugged my bottle and chanted to
myself, I am not disappointed. I am not.
    My pager went off. Not emerg, but an
outside number with an area code 514. Who would be calling me from outside the
hospital but within Montreal?
    "Is it Nancy?" asked Robert.
    I shook my head. I could think of one
possible candidate who'd take my mind off of Tucker. I walked to the
wall-mounted phone and punched in the number, my pulse already accelerating.
    A familiar male voice said, "Hey."
    "Hi, Ryan," I said, aiming for
calm instead of eek .
    "Hard at work?"
    "Yeah. I already admitted one
patient."
    "Geez. Is that why you're listening
to Britney Spears?"
    I laughed and glanced at the TV, where
Britney managed to dance and flash her cleavage with equal abandon.
"Something like that. I actually get a lunch break when I'm on
psych."
    "Amazing. Listen, I was calling
about the thing you asked me." Mrs. Lee. Business before pleasure.
"Could I use your computer to start on the modeling? I'm leaving on
Thursday, but I've got some ideas."
    I twisted the phone cord around my
finger. Hmm. Ryan in my apartment, waiting for me to get home. Business and pleasure?   "Aren't you supposed to be on
vacation?"
    "It's boring."
    Ha. He'd rather do work for me than score
with Lisa. "I should make you do downtime."
    "But."
    "If you come by now, you can pick up
my keys."
    "Sweet."
    I wolfed down my sandwich, continually
checking my watch. If Ryan was late, he'd interrupt my family medicine clinic.
He usually had a good sense of direction, but what if he got lost in a strange
city? Or got waylaid by a petite girl with claws?
    Oh me of little faith. Not only did Ryan
page me from the parking circle in front of the hospital just over half an hour
later, but when I bounced up to him, he handed me a single dwarf sunflower.
    "Oh, Ryan." I surveyed the
orange-yellow petals and delicate stamens and wanted to kiss him in the
sunflower, if you know what I mean. How did I ever let this man go?
    Still, I had to laugh at the sheer
impracticality of me carrying a sunflower, even a dwarf one, around the
hospital for the rest of the day.
    He shrugged and smiled. "Better than
Britney, right?"
    "Much." I sniffed it. No sweet
smell, but still wonderful. I twirled it between my fingers while we stood in
the drop-off circle, inhaling exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke and smiling
like idiots.
    Having Ryan here felt like I'd clicked
back into my usual orbit. I knew those intelligent brown eyes, that straight
nose, those well-chiseled cheekbones and gently pointed chin. Okay, he hadn't
tucked his T-shirt into his khaki shorts the way he always used to do, and the
shirt was a little more fitted than in days of yore, but moving up a point or
two on the fashion scale was a good thing, right? I should probably try that
someday