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When Aria handed her the notebook, Janessa read what she’d written and laughed.
“Yep. Just keep adding to it. Anything you might wonder about. Make your notes, and we’ll talk about it after hours.”
“Will do,” Aria said.
“Feeling okay about everything else?”
“Yep. It’s going fine. I think. No one has said I’ve done anything wrong. Well, except for… you know.”
“Oh yes, I know.” Janessa said with a roll of her eyes. “Anyway, the last patients for today should be coming in the next half hour, then I’ll show you how to restock.”
Aria was surprised and happy at how quickly the day had passed. She’d been worried about her first day on the job, and now it was almost over. It would be great if every day was as smooth as this one had been, but she knew better than to expect that. Instead, she’d just be grateful for the good days and try to keep a positive attitude for the not-so-good ones. And all the while hoping that the anxiety that she hadn’t managed to leave behind in Sacramento wouldn’t flare up too badly.
She continued to field phone calls, getting one from a woman who insisted she needed to speak with Gareth. His last patient had left, but Janessa was nowhere to be seen, so Aria put the person on hold, then called the extension for Gareth to see if he took calls like that.
“Gareth here,” he said as he answered, his deep voice smooth in her ear.
“Hi, uh, Gareth. This is Aria. I have someone on hold who’s insisting on speaking to you. Do you usually take calls?”
“Depends who’s calling,” he said. “Do you have a name?”
“She said Deborah Barnes.”
“Yeah. I’ll take the call.”
“Okay. She’s on line two.”
She waited for the flashing light on line two to turn steady before focusing back on her monitor.
“I’ll lock the front door,” Janessa said when she reappeared. “Then we can go to the stockroom.”
Aria began to straighten up the desk, setting the notebook with her purse, so she remembered to take it home. Janessa then took her to a small room where all the supplies were kept, and for the next several minutes, she talked Aria through what they did at the end of each day.
“So how do you feel your first day went?” Jay asked as he stood in the doorway to the stockroom. “Any issues?”
“I don’t think so,” Aria said, “But maybe Janessa is the better person to answer that.”
“She did great.” Janessa bumped her shoulder. “I said she would.”
“Yes, you certainly did,” Jay said wryly.
“Are we having a meeting?” Nora asked as she came to stand next to Jay.
“Just reviewing the day.” Janessa turned her back on the pair, directing Aria to a box of gloves while she grabbed a couple of boxes of tissues. “Grab those, and we’ll make sure that each of the rooms is well-stocked.”
Aria picked up the box, then followed Janessa to the first room. Jay and Nora continued to talk in the hallway, though she couldn’t hear what they said. It didn’t take long to make sure that each of the four patient rooms had been restocked.
“How do you find working here so far, Aria?” Gareth asked when he ran into them in the hall.
“Aside from the intense curiosity about my relationship status, it went really well.”
“You’ll get used to it.” He smiled at her. “We’ve all dealt with it. When I started working here after my residency, it was crazy.”
“We had people making appointments just to meet him,” Janessa said with a laugh. “Jay also had the same issue when he came back after business school.”
“Are there that many single people of marrying age in this town?” Aria asked.
“Oh, they don’t all live here,” Janessa told her. “Some live as far away as Florida, but their mom or grandma seemed to think they’d be happy to move back if it meant they could marry a doctor.”
