AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, people don’t stop getting crushes just because they age. A youthful spirit will keep right at it, you know. Then it’s like a young person, stuck in an aging body. Maybe Sandy’s still a young woman at heart. Maybe she’s giving you a hard time because you look so handsome in your glasses.”
He gestures to my frames. “I see you’ve kept at it with the purple. What’s that, lilac?”
“Ugh. Yes. I ordered online, which I regret. On the website, they looked mauve.”
“And mauve is preferable over lilac?”
“Mauve is the color I wanted. Mauve evokes soft feelings: nostalgia, sentimentality. So needed, this day and age. Lilac is just boring.”
The door cracks open, and the same young nurse who nervously peppered me with questions about my mental health pops her head in. “Oh! Oh, you’re still in here,” she says to Nick. “Sorry—er, I thought you’d be…”
“We’ll be through in a minute,” Nick tells her briskly.
She closes the door, and Nick’s brows tuck together. He pauses, then turns to pull a computer on a rolling stand toward him. He’s clearly thinking about something as he clicks the mouse.
What?
The nurse?
Me?
The beige background on the screen reflects on his glasses, sprinkled with text that looks like pepper flakes. “Okay, better get down to it. Man, feels like I could talk with you for hours. But you’ve got places to be…” He clears his throat, clicks the mouse again, and then says, “Okay, here we are. Your EKG and lab results.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re shipping me off for emergency open heart surgery. Because if that’s the case I will be seriously concerned about your decision to lock me up in this treatment room for close to an hour on my own.”
“Don’t worry. We may be a little bit behind the ball here at times, because we’re small, but we take cardiac issues very seriously. You don’t need open heart surgery. What you have isa very healthy heart. Good rhythm, great blood-test results, no signs of injury, infection, or anemia.”
“So, no heart attack?”
“No heart attack.”
“Then what was that feeling?”
“I’m fairly certain that what was happening to you was a normal stress response.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Fairlycertain?”
“It’s my educated guess. As a doctor. Asyourdoctor, today. Your results point to a healthy working heart, yet your subjective report is of pain. Let me ask you this: have you been feeling stressed out or anxious?”
“Um, yes, and yes? Isn’t everyone?”
“When you’re anxious or stressed, the brain sends out chemicals. Hormones. Adrenaline, cortisol… and they affect the heart, constricting blood vessels, impeding flow.”
“Impeding flow? That really doesn’t sound good.”
“And it’s not. You need to work on reducing stress in your life.”
“That’s… that’s, what, advice? Or an order?”
“An order. From your doctor.”
“You’re not my doctor, Nick. I don’t even live in this town. I only came here because Roxie insisted.”
“I’m your doctor today, and that’s my official diagnosis and medical advice. Of course, it’s always good to get a second opinion. We ran a battery of tests, but there are always more you could get and I’d be happy to write a referral. I’m not recommending that at this point, but it’s always an option.”
“No, I mean, this makes sense. I am under a lot of stress right now.”
“If you want a referral to a counselor, I could do that, too. There are medications you could take. But from how I see it, better to try with nonmedicinal ways first.”
