Grumpy Doctor

“Hello,” she said. “You’re Lori Court, right?”

I nodded and forced myself to smile. I glanced at Dr. Hood, and I saw recognition bloom across his face, as a smarmy smile spread over his lips.

Oh, great. He knew my cousin, which almost wasn’t fair—I wasn’t close with Rees. He was my dad’s sister’s kid, and I saw him once or twice a year growing up, but he was a decade older than me, and ever since he became insanely wealthy, he sort of distanced himself from the family.

“That’s right,” I said.

“My name’s Dr. Gina Holt, head of the Surgical Department, please call me Gina, it’s lovely to meet you.” We shook hands and she beamed at me. I got a sense of warmth and kindness, which was a nice contrast to Dr. Dickhead over there.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said.

She stepped into the office, slipping past me, and stood looking down at Dr. Hood. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, Dr. Hood, but there’s been a change of plans with the new residents this year.”

“Let me guess, I’ve been assigned this lovely young woman.” He gestured at me like I was some kind of statue.

I had to bite back an angry retort.

“That’s right,” Gina said. “I know you’ve been the exception for a while now, Piers, but that ends with this round.”

He made a frustrated face. “If this is about Nil Tippett—”

“It’s not about any patient,” she said, cutting him off, her tone sharp. Something was happening there, but I wasn’t sure exactly what. There was definitely subtext I was missing, and I wondered how much that was going to affect my life.

It didn’t feel great, getting thrown into a situation where I was already feeling self-conscious and out of my depth, but suddenly I realized that it was worse than I could’ve possibly imagined. At least this wasn’t about me—that was a small consolation, but it helped take the edge off the sting.

“Then what’s it about, Gina?”

“It’s about you finally pulling your weight around here. We’re a teaching hospital.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Pulling my weight. That’s bullshit and you know it. You haven’t given me a resident because you haven’t wanted to pull your best surgeon and prized possession off the market for any amount of time. This little intern’s going to be a distraction, you know that, right?”

“You will be professional,” Gina said through clenched teeth. “Have some respect. You were in her shoes once.”

He smirked and tilted his head. “And you were a great mentor, Dr. Holt.”

Monica stepped closer to him. “You will take her on. You will teach her what you can. And don’t make me have this conversation with you again. Do you understand?”

He spread his hands. “I guess there’s nothing I can do about this then.”

“I guess not.” She turned then and looked at me. “Sorry you had to see that. Dr. Hood will be a very good teacher once he gets his head out of his ass.” She strode past me, out into the hall, and disappeared, leaving me alone with the dickhead once again.

He looked at me and stroked his chin, looking almost thoughtful. “So your dad is Rees Court then, right? The rich board guy?”

“Cousin,” I said. “He’s my cousin.”

“Figured.” He shook his head. “That’s how you ended up with me. But joke’s on him. I’m a shit teacher.”

“I can see that.”

He laughed, but it didn’t remotely happy or amused. “Let’s not kid each other, all right? You don’t want me as your attending, and I sure as hell don’t want some inexperienced leech looking over my shoulder while I work. So how about you go request a transfer and we can be done with this game?”

I didn’t know what it was about him. Maybe it was the smug look on his face, or maybe it was what Monica had said to me in the hallway: do you have any clue how many people want to work with Piers Hood? I could guess all those people didn’t realize he was a total bastard—but even still, there must’ve been a reason he got away with not having any residents, and if people knew who he was, then he must’ve been very, very good at what he did.

Which meant he had the most to teach me here.

I wanted to be a surgeon, and not just any chop jockey. I wanted to be the best at what I did. I had good hands and I graduated top of my class from a great medical school. Even if I felt nervous and insecure, I knew I had the ability to do good things.

And my cousin had placed me with this jerk for a reason.

I wasn’t backing off. If he was as good as he seemed to think he was, then I wanted to learn everything he could do and more. I wanted to be the best, because that was the only way I could get ahead. Surgery was dominated by men, and I was always working from a position of weakness in the field simply because I was a woman. It pissed me off, and the more I stood there looking at his smug face, the angrier I got.