The Doctor She Always Dreamed Of by Wendy S. Marcus Page B

that you’d taken back the referral.”
    â€œThere’s something shady going on there, Con.” Kira planned to get to work very early on Monday morning to review all of Sheila’s cases.
    â€œI don’t doubt it.”
    â€œIs there really a problem with one of our patients or is Sheila just making trouble?”
    â€œI don’t know. For whatever reason, she said she’s been trying to get in touch with you and couldn’t reach you. So of course she called—”
    â€œMr. Jeffries,” Kira finished, the mere mention of the man’s name causing a twinge of discomfort in her chest.
    â€œHer boyfriend.”
    â€œWe don’t know that for certain.” But most everyone in the office suspected. If the last CEO, the one who’d promoted Kira, hadn’t been in his seventies and happily married, Sheila would have probably tried to seduce him for a promotion, too. She was just that type of person.
    â€œHow do you think she knows how to get in touch with him outside of work?” Connie asked. “Do all the case managers have his private phone number?”
    No. They didn’t. “How did you find out what’s going on?”
    â€œMr. Jeffries called Alison to cover your on call for the rest of the weekend. She called me to see if everything was okay.”
    Alison, the Director of Utilization Review, a nice enough woman, but rigid and by the book. Also a nurse, she and Kira split administrative night and weekend call duty. Since Alison had a husband and two young children, the split was around Kira: eighty percent of the time and Alison: the leftover twenty percent, which wasn’t such a big deal because usually on call duty was very quiet, more of a formality than a necessity.
    Kira leaned her shoulder against the wall and twisted the curly black phone cord around her fingers. “This is bad.”
    â€œYup.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œFor what?”
    â€œFor making you worry,” Kira said. “For giving Mr. Jeffries a reason to fire me so he can finally promote Sheila, which means come next week you’ll likely be working for her.”
    â€œNo way in hell that is going to happen. I’ll quit.”
    Connie needed her job just as much as Kira did. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems.”
    â€œRight,” Connie said, trying to sound positive, unconvincingly so. “He can’t fire you for one mistake.”
    No, technically he couldn’t. But according to Mr. Jeffries, she’d been making lots of ‘mistakes’ lately. In his mind a ‘mistake’ consisted of any course of action he did not agree with. And he’d been sure to document each infraction. Forget the fact he wasn’t a registered nurse and had no training in case management. “I’m going to have to call him.”
    â€œOr,” Connie countered. “I won’t tell anyone I tracked you down and you can show up to work Monday morning like nothing happened. What? You couldn’t reach me? Why in the world not? I had my cell phone with me the whole time.”
    Kira smiled again. “Nice try.”
    â€œWaiting might give him a chance to cool down.”
    Probably not. “You really believe that?”
    Connie didn’t answer right away. “Look, he’s going to yell at you either way, so why not enjoy a weekend completely off duty and deal with all this on Monday?” Connie said. “I have this number in my phone now in case I need you. When are you coming home?”
    Kira glanced into the living room to see Derrick standing by Daisy’s hospital bed, holding her hand, talking quietly. He was so gentle with her, so caring, such a good son. Kira felt kind of bad for being so hard on him.
    â€œProbably tonight.” Although with Krissy home and on call no longer her responsibility, Kira saw no reason to rush. Seeing how much Derrick’s