AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That made Kayla laugh. “I swear, derm recruits by board scores and glamour shots.”
“Who would trust a dermatologist who had bad skin?” Eliza said. “So, we’re settled. Dinner party it is.”
“Right.” Kayla asked, ever the helpful sister, “Do you need me to do anything?”
“Not really. The caterer is going to do the heavy lifting. This’ll be nice and worry free for us. We could use a good relaxing meal with all our friends and significant others.”
“Oh. Then I’d better check with Daniel to see if he can come.” Kayla sounded like she hoped he’d find a prior engagement.
“Tell him to plan on next Sunday evening.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Kayla hedged.
“No worries, though maybe you should call him right now to be sure,” Eliza took her dish towel away. “I can finish these while you do that.”
“Right.” Out of excuses, Kayla retreated to make whatever awkward phone call was necessary.
Eliza hummed as she dried off the dishes. Once she had a stack, she took out a list from her utility drawer.
It had a full guest list, including various clarifications on diet, preferences, and Eliza’s notes. As medical student Nora Borenstein-Perez had told the ethics committee during Angela’s hearing over her relationship with Michael, MetroGen had its call schedules online. For anyone willing to wade through the massive list of names, one could locate the calls of attendings, fellows, residents, and medical students.
This particular Sunday had no one on call, and even more, the dinner party would occur immediately after Steadman handed off his daughter to his ex-wife.
Which would guarantee he arrived at her house in the best possible mood.
Other than him, Stella and Alex would attend. There was a note on the page about hiring a babysitter for baby Alexis… and a comment reminding Stella to let Alex talk about how much he loved being a dad and his world revolving around Alexis as much as his little neurosurgeon heart desired.
Eliza hummed her way down the list.
Cardiology fellow Dr. Angela Perkins and her new husband third-year medical student Michael Harper were a given. The next logical step was to invite the rest of Michael’s medical student team, Nora Borenstein-Perez and Raj Patel. Nora could bring her husband, and the caterer would arrange a matching kosher meal to be delivered from Cleveland Heights.
Raj Patel was single, though Eliza was fairly certain he had options. He was quite popular with the nursing staff, and one of them would jump at the chance to be present at what promised to be an exciting dinner party.
Daniel Steadman wouldn’t have forgotten his public loss of his temper on this particular group of medical students—all before Angela and Michael’s relationship was exposed.
“Why are you humming, Mom?” her seventeen-year-old son Scott Jr. asked, having come down from the second floor.
She folded up the paper. “Nothing. It wasn’t humming.”
“Sure it was. You were doing your humming thing again.”
“What humming thing?”
“The humming thing you do when you’re planning.”
“I’m planning a dinner party. It’s no big deal.”
“No. You have the look Dad called your troublemaking face. He used to say the face and the hum meant trouble,” he protested, sounding very much like his father.
“I don’t cause trouble. That’s Auntie Stella. What brings you down here?” Eliza deflected.
“Emma says her fourth favorite elephant needs fixing.” He handed her a much-loved elephant who had a tear on the seam of one leg and a fallen off tail.
Eliza traded out her list for her sewing kit from the utility drawer. “I can fix this, no problem.”
Scott wasn’t fooled and scanned the list. “Why are you having a dinner party?”
“To have dinner.” She threaded the needle, selecting gray thread.
