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“And you think I’m one of those fancy doctors they’re after?” I asked her.
“You’re mighty fancy,” she said.
I smiled. “It would be tough to leave this hospital after everything I’ve done here. So don’t worry about that too much until we find out who this guy even is and what he wants with me, okay?”
“Alright then, have a good day,” Sarah told me. “Here’s the address to the diner he wants to meet you at for a lunch, around noon?”
“I’ll be there,” I told her on my way through the door into my own office.
I went through the notes that were sitting on my desk, checking for anything that seemed to be needing my attention right away. It was evidently a quiet weekend, and there wasn’t anything that seemed to be screaming for my attention.
I then sat down and looked over the card Sarah had given me. I recognized the name of the diner, so that wasn’t going to be difficult, but I did do some research on the man I would be meeting for this working lunch.
His name was Abraham Mardquart, and he was the CEO of the biggest medical center in Texas.
It didn’t take long for me to see what Sarah was talking about. This man was clearly a man of power and influence. There wouldn’t be much point of him being here to talk to me unless it was to talk to me about going down there. It was something I had heard from several of the other members of the hospital staff.
It was only a matter of time until someone with money and power came to find me, and everyone here was certain when that happened that I would be on my way to wherever it was calling my name. I myself had considered that happening more than once.
It was something I had talked to Nick about, and I knew a lot of people who were in the hospital expected it to happen sooner rather than later. I was a rising star among those in the medical community, and it was just a matter of time before I started having my name put out there.
At least, that’s what I was told.
The fact of the matter was that I was happy with my life here, and I had even more reason to stay now that I had met Harper and things were going so well with her. I didn’t want to just gather my things and move across the country with this newfound relationship underway.
But, this was also something I had been working toward. I had spent my life wanting to make something of myself, and ever since I had been in middle school, I had done what I had to do to become the man I was today. I was a driven, hardworking kid, and I had taken that and applied it to college.
From there I’d taken it into med school, and from there into my workplace. I knew it was just a matter of time with how much work I was putting into my life until something started to pay off for me.
But when I met Harper, I realized there were more ways than one for something to pay off for someone, and getting to know her – to possibly be her husband one day – that was more payoff than any paycheck I could possibly get from some company.
I wouldn’t ask Harper to move across the country with me. She might, but if I was perfectly honest with myself, I had to admit I didn’t even know for sure that she would do that. She had a life here, her mom here, her kids here, I didn’t want to be the one to take her from all that.
It was a big thing to consider, I knew that, and with Abraham Mardquart meeting me for lunch, I had a feeling by tonight, I would have a lot more on my mind than I did right now.
But, I didn’t have the whole day to spend on the one thing. There were several other patients who all required my attention that day, and I had to focus on them first and foremost. I didn’t know if I would move my practice elsewhere, but I did know that right now, my priority was to those who were already in my care.
I was the one with their health in my hands, and I wasn’t going to let them suffer because of the fact I was making strides in my career. Possibly anyway.
I got through the morning easily enough. All my patient visits would be in that afternoon, but I was able to catch up on the paperwork from last week and send a few text messages to Harper during the morning as well. I never heard from her during the time she was actively teaching, but that was to be expected.
She had a hands-on job, just as much as I did, and that meant that we had to focus on work while we were at work and leave it at that. We would have plenty of time to talk again when I saw her, and from the sounds of things, I was going to have plenty to talk about with her. That is, if this was even along the lines of what I suspected anyway.
Still, the morning took longer than it normally felt like it did, and I knew that was because of the fact I was anticipating this lunch I had with Abraham.
When I couldn’t wait any longer, I told Sarah I was heading out early, and I wasn’t sure how late I would be. With my earliest client coming in right at 2:30, I knew I had plenty of time to really talk about things with this gentleman before I came back to the office.
If there was one thing I wanted to make sure of while at this lunch, it was that I understood entirely what it was he wanted from me. I didn’t know if I would be able to answer all his questions about myself right now, but I was going to give this a fair shot.
It was the one thing I had been hoping for during all my time through schooling and into my career. I had been so caught up with work for so long, it was why I hadn’t settled down with anyone yet. Then, Harper came into the picture, and I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her.
It seemed like terribly unfortunate timing that now would be the time that I would finally get that promotion I was hoping for these long years. But then, as I grew older, I was learning more and more that it was the people who were in life with you that were the important things in life.
Rich people got cancer.
Poor people got cancer.
Good and bad people got cancer. It really didn’t care who you were. It would come for you just as it would for anyone else. With that in mind, it changed the way I viewed wanting to become as rich as I once had. It was more important to me now to take care of the people who were under my charge as well as cultivate the relationships in my own life rather than worry about all the money I could potentially make with this career.
