Classic Move

“Lynn, why don't you grab those charts and meet me in the exam room.”

Something about Connor's uncomfortable face told me he wasn't expecting Danielle. Or maybe he wasn't expecting me to run into her so soon in the day.

After shaking my hand Danielle stood back up and watched the awkward exchange between Connor and I. He stood still as I gathered the charts sitting on his desk.

“Oh, uh, okay...” I looked up at him, then her, then back at his desk. "I'll just, uh, get going.”

What should have taken me a couple of seconds to do seemed more like minutes. Every time I looked up they were both just staring at me. Danielle, in a sympathetic way, and Connor in a, “hurry the fuck up” kind of way.

“It was nice meeting you!” Danielle smiled as she held onto her Starbucks coffee cup.

I smiled back at her before I walked out of the room. As I was shutting Connor's office door I could have sworn I heard him releasing a heavy breath of relief.

I stood in the empty hallway and leaned my back against the wall. My head rolled up and my eyes were looking at the ceiling. Oh my God, I whispered to myself.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and walked into the first exam room.

There was a little girl, 8 years old according to her chart, that sat on the patient bed. Her mother sat on a stool next to her.

“Hi, my name is Lynn.” I stuck out my hand for the girl's mother to shake. “I'm interning with Dr. Cassidy. He'll be here in just a moment, but before he does I'd like to update some of your daughter's information if you don't mind.”

She agreed and we went through her recent history. We were shortly interrupted when the little girl shouted, “Dr. Cassidy!”

Connor entered the room with a wide grin and open arms, ready to be embraced by the little girl. He squatted down to her level and asked, “What's wrong, princess?”

Without thinking I responded, “She's presented with a red itchy rash that is proceeding....” I looked over her chart as I spoke.

“Lynn” Connor turned his head back and stopped me. “I was talking to Alexi.”

The girl's mother silently giggled. I felt my face burning. I clenched my lips and took a step back. Usually when Connor asked what was wrong, that was my cue to fill him in. But, today I was so flustered I hadn't even realized he was addressing the patient and not me.

You idiot! I thought to myself. Why would he call you princess?

I stood quietly as I watched Connor go through the remainder of the visit. When he was finally finished he reached into the pocket of his white coat and pulled out a dum-dum lollipop. Alexi excitedly took it from his hands and then said to me, “I like Dr. Cassidy because he gives me candy!”

I smiled at her and responded, “Oh yeah? Well I like Dr. Cassidy too” My eyes protruded out of their sockets. What was going on? Why wasn't I thinking today? I mumbled over my words and tried to fix my sentence. “...because he's a great doctor!” I was totally imagining face-palming myself.

Connor paused for a moment before he continued talking to Alexi's mother. Once he was done I opened the door to let them go out to the front desk. Connor stayed behind in the room to finish charting.

I stood in the doorway unsure of what to say. Was I suppose to acknowledge the awkward moment(s) or ignore them for both of our sakes?

“Hey” I walked back into the exam room. Connor turned around and I had a quick flash back to the last time Connor and I stood in this room. It was the night I confronted him, and we ended up making out on the patient bed.

I looked like Raven when I gasped and shook the vision from my head.

“Are you okay?” Connor asked. I wasn't sure if he meant in that moment, or the whole morning.

“Yeah, yeah...” I shook my head and began walking backwards out of the office. “I'm fine.”

Once I was out of the room I snapped myself around and ran right into Danielle and her coffee. It spilled everywhere, including the white chiffon top she was wearing.

She gasped as she looked down at herself. “Ohhhhh my gosh I'm sooooo sorry!” I covered my mouth in shock.

Connor had seen the whole thing and quickly came to Danielle's side. “Are you okay?” He asked her as he grabbed a napkin and helped her clean up.

“I'm fine.” She said as she tried to pick up her coffee cup.

“Let me help you.” I bent down and grabbed it for her. We both knelt down at the same time causing our heads to bump.

“Ow!” we cried at the same time.

Danielle laughed and I looked up at Connor. Either she was a very very chill girl, or laughing was her way of calming down.

“Lynn” Connor sighed. “I think we should call it a day.”

I stood back up. “But, we've only seen one patient.” He gave me a look and I knew I wasn't kidding anyone. I was relieved he asked me to take the rest of the day off. It was getting worse by the minute and I couldn't risk seeing how it ended.

“Okay” I nodded my head and walked into his office to grab my bag.

It was still early in the morning so I decided to swing by Jonah's office. There was some sort of writer's meeting going on as they all sat around a large squared table.

“Hey babe” Jonah said as he stood up from his chair. “We're just finishing up. Help yourself to some breakfast.” I looked over to the side where there was two tables filled with bagels from H&H and other breakfast goodies.

I grabbed a bagel and lathered it with shmear as I waited. Jonah reviewed over some notes and called an end to the meeting. The room filled up as everyone stood and walked around.

Jonah weaved through the crowd and came over to where I was standing by the food table. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. “What's wrong? Aren't you suppose to be working today?” He grabbed my wrist and brought it up to his mouth so he could take a bite of the bagel that was in my hand.

“Yeah, I was suppose to be until Connor made me take the day off.” I said in a dramatic whisper.

Jonah looked around wondering why I was being quiet since the room was almost emptied now.

“Did you two get into it again?” He asked before taking another bite.

“No” I shook my head. “It was weird because he was actually being nice this morning.” I looked at Jonah's hand that was still holding onto my wrist as he ate. “Why are you eating my bagel? There's a million more on the table.”

“But this one's so good.” He said with another bite.

“Even though I was a couple of minutes late he was still being sweet and then all of the sudden this, like, bombshell comes walking into the office. I mean, I hate to admit it but the girl was flawless. So she walks in and gives him a kiss.” Jonah's eyes widened. “Like, I'm talking about a messy wet kiss. If I wasn't there I'm sure something else would have happened...”

Jonah laughed. “That's so awkward. She didn't even acknowledge you were in the room?”

“Well, I'm sure the two of them aren't suppose to be together because after Connor told her I was there they stood a good distance away from each other. The whole situation was awkward Jonah! I had to stand there and gather files as they both watched me. They obviously wanted to bang each other but couldn't cause I was there.”

“So he sent you home?' Jonah asked confused.

“No, he sent me home because I kept fumbling in front of a patient and when I tried to escape out of the room I ran right into Connor's new lady friend and spilled coffee all over her.”

Jonah's gasped and a few seconds later bellowed over laughing. “Oh my God, that is such a classic Lynn move!”

“Jonah this isn't funny.”

He took a few seconds to catch his breath. “It's okay, Lynn.” He stopped himself from laughing again, “take it as a good sign. If he's with someone else at least it means he's over you.”

“I guess, but it doesn't make it any less...Wait a second...” I looked at Jonah, who was just about to take another bite. “Does that mean you were over me when you went out with Kylie?”

“Huh?” Jonah looked around and forced a bigger bite of the bagel into his mouth. He started mumbling and pointing to his mouth as if he couldn't talk and walked out the room like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.

I rolled my eyes and laughed.