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“No. I wasn’t hired to manage things. Though she did meet with me and Ivy today about ordering supplies. Ivy takes care of that for all the sisters, but she wanted me to be aware of what was going on now too. It’s not the best time of year for Rose to be out and she is stressing.”
“Is there any good time to be out when you’re a business owner?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. But you asked what Rose and I do and there are a lot of pieces that can’t be done at the plant. More expensive pieces. Or things that need to be completed at the shop. Custom pieces too. They get a lot of custom orders online and Rose and I do them. Though it’s not a big area, Rose has a huge following and people travel for her work too. Just like patients with doctors,” she said, laughing.
“You’re right,” he said. “I was in New Haven all day.”
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know that. I just knew you had surgery today. I thought it was locally.”
“Nope. I have rights to many places. People travel to me.”
“It just means you’re good,” she said. “I know that personally.”
“Are we talking from a work perspective or something else?”
“Well,” she said. “You did a great job with my best friend, but I was talking about us yesterday.”
He grinned. He needed to hear that today. It was sad in his mind that this might be the first time he’d smiled all day long.
“It was a great day,” he said. “I slept like a baby last night. I’m in bed early for me tonight too.”
“Really?” she asked. “When do you normally go to bed?”
“I’m lucky if I’m done working by nine. Sometimes I’m still up doing my notes until midnight. There aren’t enough hours in the day and because I practice in a smaller area, there are fewer doctors and I’m on call for emergencies at the hospital. Bigger hospitals have more staff and more people on call.”
“More patients too,” she said. “So I’m sure it’s about the same.”
“Yes,” he said. “It could be. I’ll be experiencing more of it the first of the year.”
He wasn’t sure why he decided to tell her and wondered if he just felt like he could say anything to her.
Then he wondered if it was more that he wanted to make sure she was aware that his schedule was nuts. Didn’t his father tell him to make sure if he found the woman he wanted that he put the effort in or at least made sure she was aware of his career?
If she was trying to keep this a secret from her roommate, that limited their time even more. But he wouldn’t push her either.
He had to be flexible and not rigid, as his sisters had told him enough in life.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Are you transferring there?”
He wasn’t sure if there was sadness in her voice or not. It was hard to tell with her voice so quiet.
“Just one day a week in the office there,” he said. “But that means I’ll probably be there one day a week operating too, but not always. They are figuring it out. I don’t do the scheduling. I’m already there multiple times a month as it is. It’s just not always a full day. Sometimes I do a surgery or two there in the morning and then come back and do them here in the afternoon.”
“I didn’t know that,” she said.
“I normally only have three surgical days unless there are emergencies. Again, not all full days and I’ll see patients before or after if that is the case. So my guess is one full office day at Lawrence and one in New Haven.”
“Are you happy about that?” she asked.
He wasn’t sure why she asked that question. “I guess. I haven’t thought much of it. It’s part of the job.”
“I know,” she said. “But it’s nice if you are happy to be doing it too.”
This was why he needed someone like her in his life. “I never thought of it that way.”
“You should,” she said. “I know you love what you do.”
“How do you know that?” he asked.
