The Doctor's In Love (Pathway Series) (5 page)

Marisol ran in through
the side door of work with 30 seconds to spare.  Her boss watched the clock and
would deduct vacation days if you were late more than 3 days.  It didn’t matter
if you were late 1 second or 4 minutes.  Marisol put her purse and cup down at
her desk and turned on her computer.  For the most part she liked her job and
she liked that she didn’t work with people.  What she didn’t like was that her
boss always tried to find something wrong with her.  It was like a weekly thing
that she had going on.  This week she had called Marisol into her office to ask
her if she had the code to the security alarm because some of the employees had
seen her coming in the back door at work after hours.  Marisol had told her
that she had knocked on the back door and Ralph, one of the nurse
practitioner’s had let her in.  Her office manager, Clare had gone on and on
about how if she had the code she needed to let her know immediately.  She had
told Clare that she didn’t have one and that she could just ask Ralph to
confirm the story if she didn’t believe her.  Clare had told her that she
didn’t need to confirm it, that if Marisol said it she believed it.  Marisol
couldn’t understand why she had gone on about it for 40 minutes.  She wondered
what next week would bring. 

Marisol knew that it
was because she was friends with a partner in the practice who didn’t like Clare. 
It didn’t take a genius to figure that one out.  Marisol was worn out from all
the accusations and backstabbing that had been going on.  She just wanted to do
her job and go home.  That’s all she had ever wanted to do.  Yeah, at first she
had gotten in on the gossip, but that had gotten old really quick and she had
stopped and started focusing on what she was doing.  She was bringing money
into the practice and that was what mattered.  She couldn’t keep up with all
the drama that was going on in the office, much less both offices.  She got up
to go into the kitchen and rounded the corner and heard Dr. Pate say “We’ve got
to get rid of her and that’s all there is to it.” Marisol ducked into the
bathroom and quickly closed the door.  She got a sick feeling in the pit of her
stomach.  She didn’t really care for Dr. Pate.  He wasn’t a Christian and made
it quite clear that he thought religion and Christianity was just an excuse to
believe in something - kind of like believing in Santa Claus.  Marisol didn’t
know why, but she thought they were talking about her.  Ever since she was
little she had these feelings and most of the time she was right on target. 
She knew her boss was after her but why now?  She looked in the mirror and
pasted a smile on her face.  She did this all the time.  She smiled when she
didn’t want to and acted like everything was fine.  Today would be no
different.  She could get through today and act like everything was great.  No
one would ever know that anything was wrong or that she had heard anything.  Marisol
opened the door and went back to her desk and acted like everything was okay. 
She was getting good at this.  However, on the inside she wasn’t doing so well
anymore.  Her phone vibrated and she looked at the incoming text.

“
We still on for
church tonight?”
It was from Summer.

 Marisol texted back.
“Yeah. 
Still on.  See ya tonight.”

Marisol laid the phone
down and leaned back in the chair.  She looked at her desk and all her work. 

“Marisol, can I see you
in my office for a minute?” Clare asked.  Marisol looked up and Clare had
already disappeared around the corner.  Maybe she shouldn’t have asked herself
what next week would bring because apparently there was more here for this week.

“Yes ma’am?” Marisol
asked as she went into her office.

“Take a seat.  I have
something I need to ask you.” Clare asked and sat back in her chair with her
arms crossed.  “I need to know if you’ve been talking with Dr. Rowe.” She
stated. 

“Excuse me?” Marisol
asked.  She looked at Clare as if she had really lost her mind.  She and Dr.
Rowe were best friends, not that it was any of her business.

“It’s been brought to
my attention that you’ve been talking to her after hours.” Clare said.  Marisol
just looked at Clare with a disbelieving look.  She felt like she was in high
school all over again.  It was amazing that she got any work done with all the
time she spent in her boss’s office.

“I’m friends with Dr.
Rowe and I don’t understand why it’s so important what I do on my off hours.”
Marisol stated quietly.  She sat there with her legs crossed at the ankles and
her arms on the chair and held very still.  She kept a controlled tone and
tried not to flinch as Claire said:

“Well it’s my business
if you’re talking about what is going on in this office to her.”

“I don’t have to tell
you this, but I’m going to – I haven’t talked to her.  Not about the office and
not about you.  I have too much work to do to worry about what goes on other
than what I do.” Marisol told her honestly.

“Well my sources tell
me that you talk quite regularly.” Clare said.

“I don’t know who your
sources are, but I can tell you that they aren’t true.” Marisol said.

“When I have several
people coming to me telling me things, I tend to believe them.” Clare told her.

“That’s your decision.”
Marisol said and sensing that the conversation was over, she got up and left. 
She went back to her desk and started working on her meaningful use data for
the physicians.  Somehow she had a feeling that this wasn’t going to end well. 
Clare wasn’t going to leave her alone.  That was twice in one week and every
time she went to one of the physicians to tell them she was being harassed, it
somehow got turned around on her.  She had started looking for another job, but
her field was lucrative and hard to get into.  She had been dealing with this
Clare issue for a while now.  It wasn’t the first time that she had talked with
a physician about her boss and what had been going on.  Her phone rung and she
looked at the number.  She got up to take the call.

“Hello?” Marisol
answered.

“Hi there, beautiful
and how’s your day going?” Josh asked.

“I’ve had worse, but I’ve
also had better.” She answered smiling.

“That doesn’t sound too
good.” Josh said.

“I just got called into
Clare’s office for the second time this week to have a heart to heart.” Marisol
said.

“Do you want me to call
one of the partners and have a talk with one of them?” He asked.

“Why would I want you
to do that?” Marisol asked horrified.

“I thought it might
help.” He answered honestly.

“That would make it
worse not better and then I’d be accused of having 2 doctors on my side.” She
said.

“Okay, well I guess
that won’t work.” He said.

“I better go.  I’ll
call you later Josh, ok?” Marisol said.  They said their goodbyes and she hung
up.  She better get back inside before she got in trouble for that also.

Josh looked at his
watch and then at the yard.  He wasn’t a fan of yard work.  As a matter of
fact, the last time he had done yard work he had come face to face with a wood
spider.  A barn full of wood spiders to be exact.  He had gone into his barn to
get out his lawn mower and he had walked through the doorway and a spider had
dropped on his head.  He had shaken it off onto his shirt and when he had looked
down he had seen a baby wood spider.  He had brushed that thing off so fast and
then he had turned on the light.  He had seen what he’d thought were hundreds,
but was probably only a third of that crawling around.  He had run out of there
going mach seven and he had called an exterminator.  In the end, he had wound
up burning down the barn and building a new one.  He wasn’t ashamed to admit
that one of the reasons he had become a doctor was because he was better with
people than working with power tools.  He might just save the yard work for
another day.  It’s not like it was going anywhere. 

When Josh had talked to
Marisol on the phone he had heard how disheartened she sounded about her job. 
It could be a tough place to work when your boss didn’t like you.  He could go
behind her back and call one of the doctors, but if she found out – she’d have
his head.  That would be a bad idea.  She had made it clear how she felt.  He
would respect her wishes and let her handle it.  He had made a decision last night
before he went to bed that he would surprise her and meet her at church
tonight.  He wanted to check out Pathway Church also.  He’d heard good things
about the church and seeing as he was free, he wanted to be there to support
Marisol any way he could.  He was looking forward to seeing her again, even
though he’d just seen her last night. Even if it was just seeing her at church
he could handle that.  He could just sit beside her and be there for moral
support.  Yep, that was what he would do.  He had it all planned out.  Now he
just had to hope she didn’t mind.  He really thought he could spend the rest of
his life seeing her day in and day out and not get tired of it.

Marisol told Summer she
would meet her in front of church outside.  She was nervous about going and it
had taken forever to get ready to go.  She looked at her watch and then got out
of her car.  She waved at Summer.

“Hey girl, you didn’t
chicken out on me.” Summer said smiling.  She was Marisol’s complete opposite. 
She had short brown hair and brown eyes and stood around five feet six.  She
had on 3 inch boots and towered over Marisol tonight. 

“No, I didn’t chicken
out.  Could you get any taller with those boots on?  I look like an oompa
loompa beside you for heaven’s sake.” Marisol said laughing.

“Weren’t they in that
cartoon with the singing rats?” Summer asked.

“No that’s Cinderella. 
I’m talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Marisol said.  “How have
you not seen that even though you’re only ten years younger than me?” They walked
into the church together and were greeted at the door. 

“I have to sit on the
end because I don’t like sitting in the middle.” Summer said. 

“That’s fine with me. 
That way when they say to hug your neighbor, I can go to the restroom.  I don’t
do hugs.” Marisol said and Summer leaned over hugged her jokingly.  Marisol
tried to avoid the hug and they heard someone clear their throat.

“Is this seat taken?” A
deep voice asked.

“Josh?” Marisol asked. 
“What are you doing here?”

“I thought I’d come and
support you.” He said and took his seat beside her.  “Hi I’m Josh Maddox.” He
held his hand out to Summer.

“Summer McLeod.  Nice
to meet you.  How do you know Mari?” Summer asked.

“I work with her. 
We’ve known each other for years.” Josh said.

“We just reconnected
this week.” Marisol said and she would have said more, but church had started. 
Praise and worship was really awesome and Marisol had enjoyed it.  When they
would have said hug your neighbor, instead they said turn around and tell your
neighbor “what’s up?”  Marisol had decided to hold out going to the bathroom. 
The rest of the service had been really good and she had decided that she was
going to go back.  After the service, Marisol and Josh walked Summer to her
car. 

“Thank you for inviting
me.  I loved the service.” Marisol said.  Summer gave her a hug.

“I know you don’t hug,
but that’s just tough.  I’m proud that you walked through that door.  It took a
lot of courage for you to do that.” Summer stated.  She got in the car and
waved at the both of them and pulled out.

“Why didn’t you tell me
you were coming?” Marisol asked.

“I wanted to surprise
you and give you some support.” He said.  He took her by the hand and walked
her to her car.  “How did it feel tonight?”

“Like being home. Just
like being home.” Marisol said.

That night, when
Marisol got home she talked with her parents and they were excited that she’d
had a good time and that she’d decided to start seeing Josh.  Her mother had
told her that it was about time that they had gotten together.  Her mother told
her that she had run into Josh weeks ago and he had told her about his divorce,
but had sworn her to secrecy.  She had promised and had told him that he had
come at the perfect time.  She told her parents goodnight and had turned in
early.  She was looking forward to going to work tomorrow.  She was going to
try and put the past in the past.

That next morning at
work when Marisol got to work she was in a great mood.  She had decided that
whatever happened she was going to make it work with Josh.  She was going to
put her best foot forward with Clare and work on their relationship.  She
didn’t like the fact that her boss always thought the worst of her and always
wanted to find things wrong with her.  Today, she was going to talk with her
and clear the air. 

“Good morning Mindy.”
Marisol said.

“Morning Marisol. 
Happy Friday.” Mindy said.

“Isn’t it though?”
Marisol asked.  She went to the kitchen and made some coffee and then went back
to her desk.  Her desk looked like a bomb exploded.  There was never enough
time in the day for her to finish her work.  Today was a half day and only 2
doctors were here, so she should have some time to talk to Clare.