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“Would you like coffee, Misha?” Gareth asked. When she said yes, he handed her one of the mugs he’d poured, then grabbed another one.
Once they were all seated at the table with their preferred drinks, Gareth said a prayer for the meeting. This was the first meeting that his parents weren’t present at since Misha had started to work in the clinic. It felt like things were settling down, returning to normal.
“So,” Gareth began. “Any concerns?”
“Is everything going okay with you, Misha?” Janessa asked. “The patients are treating you well?”
“Yep,” Misha said. “Although I’ve never had this much curiosity about my relationship status. Even my mom hasn’t been as interested as some of these patients.”
“We should have warned you.” Aria grimaced. “It was the same for me when I first came.”
“The interest will wear off,” Janessa assured her. “Helps to get a boyfriend.”
“Yep,” Aria agreed.
“Why don’t you have one then, Janessa?” Misha asked.
“Haha.” Janessa took a sip of her coffee. “I haven’t found the guy that interests me enough to give up my freedom.”
“Yeah. It’s so hard being tied down,” Aria said with a laugh. “So terrible.”
Janessa rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”
Jay was so glad that things had worked out for Aria to stay, not just for the clinic and Gareth, but for Janessa as well. The two had a close friendship that was important to his sister. She had other friendships, but for some reason, what she had with Aria seemed to be closer to the type of relationship she shared with Charli, the sister she was closest to.
“I’d like to have a discussion about the Saturday clinic,” Gareth said. “Misha, I know you had some interest in perhaps committing more of your time to it.”
It appeared that Misha had been giving it some serious thought as she laid out her ideas for what she’d like to see happen with the clinic. Given she’d only been there a few weeks, Jay was surprised that he didn’t chafe more about the changesshe wanted to see, especially since they’d impact the budget, which was his focus.
“My main concern is from a personnel standpoint,” Gareth said. “We have two nurses on rotation at the moment, as you know. I don’t think we can afford to have Janessa out of the clinic for a full day during the week, and it’s also not fair to ask her to work six days a week.”
“We’d have to find someone who only wants to work one day a week,” Janessa said. “I don’t know whether Betsy is interested in working every Saturday or not. I suppose we could present it to her and see what she says.”
“I don’t mean to come in and start demanding changes,” Misha said.
“You’re not,” Jay assured her. “The free clinic is an important part of what we do here. Mom and Dad have always done what was necessary to keep it running, and they have both said that they’re pleased you’d like to devote your Saturdays to give it more time and attention.”
Misha’s smile at his words was small but indicated her pleasure at his comments. Jay had no idea why she was so passionate about it, but it boded well for the clinic.
Nora had questioned it at first, but since her participation in it had been written into her contract, she’d had no choice but to fulfill her responsibilities there. Once she’d accepted it, she hadn’t complained much about it, which had been good.
Misha, however, wasn’t just accepting her responsibility there, she was embracing it. The free clinic was clearly something she had a strong interest in, and it was good to see.
“Will it be an issue if I’m only taking appointments four days a week?” Misha asked, directing the question to Gareth.
“It shouldn’t be. When Nora worked her half day in the clinic, she would take Monday morning off. We managed the appointments without too much hassle.”
“I’m grateful that you’re willing to consider this change,” Misha said, leaning forward with an earnest expression on her face. “I’ll do whatever you need to make it a success.”
Gareth smiled at her. “And we’ll do what we can to make it a success as well.”
Jay admired the passion Misha displayed when it came to the free clinic. It spoke to her character even more than the work she’d done for them so far. It was a passion that his parents displayed when it came to their work as well.
At times, he struggled to not feel jealous that he didn’t feel that kind of passion for his own work at the clinic. It wasn’t that he hated what he did. In fact, he actually did enjoy it. There were definitely worse things he could be doing with his life.
The only thing he was truly passionate about was coaching basketball at the high school. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something that lasted year-round, and it couldn’t be his full-time job. Being coach at the high school would require coaching sports he wasn’t necessarily as passionate about.
“Okay. Anything else we need to talk about?” Gareth asked.
