Whitewash High Ch. 36

"Nothing like teasing him though. Got to keep him on his toes," she thought to herself, fresh, clean water running down her hands at the sink.

After cleaning up and changing, she headed to the break room to rest before the inevitable next emergency. A couple nurses and doctors were sitting around with the same idea, shooting the breeze as she walked in.

"Sometimes I wonder if it'd be easier out in the sticks. A small town practice," one of the nurses mused. "An easygoing life. I bet it'd be less rushed than here."

"I bet you'd get bored after the first week, taking care of hangnails and skinned knees," another nurse quipped.

"You'd need to find a doctor looking for the extra help first," one of the doctors chimed in. "They tend to work solo, or hire a secretary."

"I could do that. I'd be overqualified though," Nurse One said.

"Overqualified and a pay cut," Nurse Two stated.

"How about you, Dr. Rai, small town life fit one of your exceptional talents?" the doctor asked.

"Those hangnails would be out in ten seconds or less, that is for sure," she joked, trying to lighten her mood.

"Not everyone is cut out for small town life. Everyone knows your business, and people stick out like a sore thumb. Safer though. Sometimes if I didn't think I was tied down here to the city, I'd open a practice in the middle of nowhere so I don't have to worry about gun wounds all the time. Gun owners in the rural areas tend to hunt animals not humans," the doctor stated.

"What is stopping you from picking up and going?" Maya asked, curious.

"Wife and kids, and the insurance costs. Those are the killer. At least with all the hospital red tape I'm covered through them, but I'd be doing it on my own out in the sticks. As a surgeon that can get hefty when just starting out. Maybe if I was in my 30s again and had the energy to build something up from scratch."

"It does take a certain personality to want to live on the frontier," Maya replied.

"Awww, shit," the doctor suddenly interjected, looking at his phone. "Quinn is out again. Looks like I'm going to need to call my wife. How has Quinn not been fired yet? This is getting dumb at this point."

"Not enough staff so the admin needs to put up with it," Nurse Two answered.

Maya walked in the staff room with a small hop to her step getting a chance to relax and enjoy some friendly banter. Now, she felt annoyed knowing exactly what the other doctor felt. Another long night of burning the candle at both ends. Without realizing it, her mouth opened up before her mind could shut it down.

"I'll talk to the admin about Quinn. It isn't right or fair."

No one managed to open their mouths to reply before Maya's feet carried her out the door as quickly as her mouth opened it. Something inside her snapped. Night after night of high intensity, life or death surgeries, and everyone knew why this doctor kept playing hooky. At this rate the term should be hooker.

Marching straight to the administrator's office, Maya stood in front of the secretary's desk.

"I need to see Dr. Weston," she told the secretary.

"I'm sorry, he is in meetings all afternoon. I can fit you in later in the week," the secretary politely replied.

"I need to see him now about something important. It cannot wait," Maya insisted.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Rai, he is legitimately busy. I can leave a message for him."

"Tell him the moment he gets free, I want to see him immediately."

Maya walked off in a huff, now past annoyed and into pissed. Instead of going back to the break room, she walked to the elevator to head up to the roof again. All her jumbled thoughts started bubbling over.

She managed to have Nik to bare part of her soul to, to get some rest and relaxation from the bullshit experienced in the hospital. With Dr. Quinn out for another night for whatever made up reason to get out of work, it only made Maya crave the weekend to come quicker. Right now though, as the elevator doors opened up to the nice breeze atop of the hospital medevac roof, Maya had to settle for fresh air to calm her nerves.

"This is getting dumb," Maya said to herself, leaning on the railing. "What am I doing here spinning my wheels? Stupid administrators not keeping the staff in line. It is getting ridiculous, everyone else has to suffer. Is this why I fell hard for Nik? Instead of turning into an alcoholic, I found a no-strings attached fucktoy to relax?

Nothing is going to fuck up the weekend. If Quinn is not back, tough. I can't become a medical martyr or else I'm going to go insane. One breakdown is enough for one lifetime. I still feel humiliated I cracked like that."

Running a hand through her hair a few times, Maya sighed then sucked in a long, deep breath of fresh air. One long, slow drag to help calm the nerves more. The problem was she knew there would be more emergencies tonight, more surgeries to perform. This was not a her problem but a staffing problem. Everyone from doctors to the janitors were frayed, on edge from a lack of sleep, lack of reset time, lack of just getting to not go on code red for a night.

She shouldn't complain. On one hand, the average person does not know the politics and bullshit that goes on behind the scenes in a hospital or doctor's professional life. Patients only care about being seen at the snap of the finger, healed immediately, and if not completed in record time it is not good enough. Yet it gets offset by the high pay cheques those patients are completely envious with.

Ever since sleeping with Nik, and being pulled into his world, she wondered why teachers put up with all the same sort of shit but for one-sixth the pay scale. Physical, verbal, emotional abuse from parents and students, in any other job, any other profession, it would not be tolerated. Can anyone imagine going into an office where one of the employees refused to do their job, always turned up late, and swore at the boss? They'd be out on their asses at the snap of a finger.

How did he do it, Maya wondered? How did Michelle handle it being a woman, no doubt getting sexually harassed by her hormone raging students? Or Valerie, needing to deal with the cops and lawyers daily with all the fights, violence, threats, and other nonsense society put up with. From the outside looking in, schools were increasingly becoming a jungle in the cities, leading to the streets becoming more violent. At least she'd never go out of business in this environment.

Taking another deep breath, Maya kept leaning against the rail, looking out at the horizon. Calm, peaceful, serene, small moments of tranquility above the concrete trappings.

"What is it about him that got me hooked? Hot guys walked through the office doors before. Bad boys took their shot in the middle of exams. Horse hung brutes asked me out. What has me thinking about him when I get a free moment? What has me putting up with him sleeping with three other women too? Nix that, I'm not putting up with it. I don't even think about it. Will it be the same if the workload settles down to a boring crawl? Will it intensify? How dumb is this? I leave a high-powered job because I wouldn't put out to rich patients, and now here I am falling for a patient. Good job, Maya, I'm sure my sister would be proud. A white man to boot. It'll go over great."

The last few sentences were drenched in extreme sarcasm, so much so that the densest individual on the planet could understand it. Maya imagined the look on her sister's face introducing him. Surprise! I'm fucking a white man. A lot of Indian women talked and gossiped about the prestige of being with a white man, raising the socio-economic ladder historically by siding with the colonizer, but like many things in life, not in my backyard would slap Maya in the face. It is okay to be envious and jealous of others, until one of your own succumbs to temptation.

Lost in thought, it helped clear Maya's head of hospital politics. Short-lived, she felt a vibration in her pocket. She did not need to look at it. Another patient called into emergency. One more deep breath then she turned, walking back towards the lift. Back in action doing what she did best.