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Of course. Money was practically stamped all over this guy. She shifted her feet. But there was something else. It was old-school money.
Somehow she knew he hadn’t had to work as hard as she had to get grants and loans to pursue her dream of being a doctor. In fact, she was quite sure he hadn’t had to do that at all.
She was still working to pay off her loans. Goodness knew when that would finally come to an end. But it had been worth it for her. She’d achieved her dream. Her dream of being a doctor. A good doctor—a focused doctor who did the best she could for her patients. She’d even managed to introduce a system for babies who’d been abandoned like her. The safe haven project held a big piece of her heart.
People who’d trained at Harvard probably couldn’t begin to understand that. She hated that money made the world go round. As a capable and competent doctor whose reputation went before her, Arissa had had more than one offer of a job if she’d agreed to work entirely privately. She’d also had a few very rich businessmen try and convince her that she wanted to work in their specialist clinics. It was almost as if they didn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t chase the money, and come exactly where the high salaries were.
But the biggest part of the population didn’t have a high salary. As it was, she considered her normal doctor salary to be good. She didn’t want to fold and end up working for the rich and famous.
She didn’t need the drama. She didn’t want the attention—no matter how fleeting. She was an ordinary person. And that was what she wanted to be—an ordinary person, leading an ordinary life. She’d been particularly careful not to let the media know she’d been an abandoned baby herself when she’d set up the safe haven project—she didn’t want her story to be the news. This was all about the mothers and babies of now.
She folded her arms across her chest and stared up at Philippe. Mr Old-School Money. He shook his head a little. ‘What’s wrong? Looked like I’d lost you there. Did I say something to offend you?’
She paused, trying to find words.
Philippe filled the uncomfortable gap. He looked around. ‘I’m not quite sure what services you offer in the clinic, but I’m sure my ER experience will be sufficient to give a good service. Harry told me a little of the reasons he was coming here. He was excited about a research project on healing. I’m happy to help with that too. I carried out a few research projects as part of my training.’
It almost sounded as if the guy was trying to schmooze her. And why should he? He’d just offered his doctor services for free for the next two weeks, she should be jumping all over him. But...there was just something she couldn’t put her finger on. As if there were something he wasn’t quite telling her.
Arissa’s instincts had always been good. She’d learned not to ignore them.
‘What kind of projects?’ She didn’t quite mean the way the words came out—as if she didn’t quite believe him.
But he kept his cool even though he looked slightly amused by her questioning. ‘I did one in West Africa looking at polio and smallpox vaccination, encouraging uptake. It was hugely successful. I did another in London, working at a specialist centre that diagnosed PoTS—you know, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Fascinating.’
She pressed her lips together. He’d gone from one end of the spectrum to the other. If the guy actually showed her his résumé she was pretty sure it was far more impressive than hers.
A pager started sounding at her waistband.
Oh, no.
He wrinkled his nose. ‘What is it?’
She started moving, crossing her room and grabbing her jacket and keys. ‘We need to go. We need to go now.’ This was exactly the reason she could do with another doctor. She tried not to smile as she turned her head. ‘If you want to start—Dr Aronaz—you start now.’
* * *
Philippe was slightly confused. He watched as Arissa changed her flat shoes for a pair of runners and pressed the button on her pager to stop it sounding. A pager in a community clinic? He wasn’t quite sure what that meant. Community clinics didn’t normally cover any kind of emergency service.
