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“Yes, I am,” Aria said. “But I’m definitely not ready to mingle.”
The woman grinned. “Well, when youare, you just let me know. My son would treat you really well.”
If Aria had a dollar for every time someone had said a variation of that to her that day, she’d be able to treat Janessa to dinner.
“It’s going to be awhile,” Aria warned her. “I’m already dealing with lots of changes in my life, so I wouldn’t really be able to give a relationship the attention it deserved.”
“Well, now I think you’d be even more perfect for my son.” The woman pointed a finger at her. “You keep him in mind.”
“Mrs. Whitmire,” Janessa said as she came up behind Aria. “Do you want to follow me back?”
“If I have to, I suppose,” the woman said with a wink at Aria. “I was enjoying getting to know my future daughter-in-law.”
“I thoughtIwas your future daughter-in-law,” Janessa said.
Mrs. Whitmire waved her hand. “You’ve been dragging your feet, sweetie. You snooze, you lose.”
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Janessa said, then shrugged. “Oh well. My loss is definitely Aria’s gain.”
“I agree,” Mrs. Whitmire said as she followed Janessa down the hallway leading to the exam rooms.
Aria wasn’t sure if it was the small town or that specific clinic, but there were certainly some interesting people coming in for appointments. She wondered how long it would be before they got used to her and stopped trying to match her up with the single men in their lives. Maybe she should ask Janessa about that.
“I need you to print off a requisition for some lab work.”
Aria looked up to see Nora standing at the end of the desk. As her words registered, Aria frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t know how to do that yet. I believe Janessa mentioned that the doctors usually print those off.”
“Ididmention that,” Janessa agreed as she reappeared. “Because that’s what the doctors do. You know that, Nora.”
“But she should know how to do it if she’s going to be working here,” the doctor said.
“I agree. However, this is Aria’sfirstday here, so we’re concentrating on the aspects of the job that she is completely responsible for. I’ll get around to teaching her about the requisition print-outs next week. You’ll just have to continue to print your own. Like you’ve been doing since… um… you started working here?”
“Is there a problem?” Gareth asked as he joined them.
“Nora wants Aria to print out her requisitions,” Janessa explained. “I told her that’s not what we’re dealing with today for Aria’s training, especially because it’s something the doctors usually do.”
“But she needs to know how to do it sooner rather than later.”
Gareth turned to Nora. “Janessa is responsible for training Aria. If she says that she’ll teach her that later, then she’ll teach her that later. You can print your own requisitions. Just like I do.”
Nora’s eyes narrowed at Gareth before she spun around on her high heels, her white coat flapping behind her as she walked back down the hallway.
“We need to hire a new female doctor, Gareth,” Janessa murmured. “She barely tolerates me, and you’re my brother. She’s going to treat Aria even worse.”
“I know, but we haven’t found a replacement yet. In the meantime, we just have to deal with her.”
A patient approached the desk, so Aria turned her attention to her while Gareth and Janessa carried on with their whispered conversation near the hallway. Now she was wondering what the deal was with the other doctor. She needed to start a list of things to ask Janessa once they were away from the clinic.
She had to admit it was nice to see Gareth coming to Janessa’s defense. Nora hadn’t thought so, though. That had been clear.
After dealing with a couple of phone calls from people wanting appointments, Aria flipped to a new page in the notebook Janessa had given her and jotted down the non-work-related questions. Well, they were related to work, just not to her job.
“You okay?” Janessa asked when she appeared a few minutes later.
She smiled up at her. “I’m fine.”
“We’ll talk about that situation later.”
