“Hurley also has a full head of hair, Alison,” I point out. “I thought you went for bald guys.”
“That was last year. This year I’m into hair. And I wouldn’t mind running my fingers through those locks of Hurley’s. Yum, yum.”
She laughs again. “I know but I just can’t help it. That guy makes me crazy. Don’t you think he’s gorgeous?”
“He’s okay, I suppose.” I utter this with great nonchalance, trying to look bored. No way am I going to let Alison know that I want to rip her eyes out.
“Okay? Just okay? You must be in shock over this David thing, Mattie.”
“Whatever.” I let my gaze drift off into the crowd, the perfect image of indifference.
“Well, I’ve got a date with Mr. Gorgeous next Friday night,” Alison says.
“A date?” I screech, my head whipping back around to her. So much for indifference. “With Hurley?”
“Yup. I can’t wait.”
Man, how I want to wipe that smug smile off her face. “Where is he taking you?”
“I don’t know. Dinner somewhere. If I’m lucky, it will be at his place.” She wiggles her eyebrows a few times and gives me a little nudge with her elbow. And suddenly I see it in my mind: an intimate little dinner for two with Alison and Hurley making goo-goo eyes at one another over a candlelit table. I feel like crying.
“Oh, look,” Alison says, pointing across the room. “There’s the mayor. Photo op! Gotta run.”
She disappears into the crowd while I try to obliterate the image of her and Hurley from my mind. I remind myself that I am here for a reason. I have people to see, things to find out, doctors to talk to. I scan the room, searching out the faces I need as I tap into my knowledge of the surgeons.
Table talk, as OR chatter is sometimes called, can range from golf techniques and the latest film releases to last night’s episode of
In the past, my insider knowledge has led to some awkward situations when I found myself sharing a social circle with the other wives. But I played my role well over the years, listening but never blabbing. This only strengthened the surgeons’ trust in me, and with that trust came more knowledge.
Consequently, I am currently armed with enough ammunition to do some serious damage to several of them. It is ammunition I am holding in reserve, only to be used if I’m desperate to get them to talk to me. For I can’t be sure how they’ll treat me now that I’m no longer an insider.
I move three names to the top of my mental list, two of them, Mick Dunn and Arthur Henley, because I know they have slept with women other than their wives. The third name on my list is Sidney Carrigan’s. While I’m not aware of any infidelities on Sidney’s part, the mere fact that he has piles of money makes him a likely target for any investment scheme Karen might have cooked up. Plus, I feel that Sidney, more than any of the others, will still talk to me. We’ve always gotten along extremely well.
Sidney is in his early fifties, tall and slender, and has avoided the paunch some of his contemporaries have succumbed to. His hair is dark but graying at the temples, his features strong and patrician. His family money is evident in his impeccable manners, the expensive cut of his suits, and his air of confidence and privilege. He rubs elbows with the rich and famous on a regular basis and rumor has it he is even close friends with Steven Spielberg.
Yet despite all that inherited privilege, Sidney is a pretty down-to-earth guy. Down-to-earth for a surgeon, that is. There’s a reason so many of them are thought to have a God complex. Slicing, dicing, or simply holding someone’s heart or liver in your hands can seriously mess with your ego. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah, plus an unwavering and massive ego to cut open living, breathing people and muck around in their insides.
Sidney has all that and more. But there is this easygoing affability about him that seems to soften those traits. He hasn’t always been that way; apparently he was something of a hellion during his twenties and thirties. But when Gina came onto the scene, Sidney settled down.
Despite her local fame, Gina remains something of a mystery, a fact that seems to only enhance her cachet. No one knows anything about her background or her family. She simply appeared at Sidney’s side when he returned from a two-week trip to New York and, a month later, they were married. They have remained childless in the twelve years since then and I’ve never been sure if it’s because they can’t have kids or because they made a conscious decision not to.
I search the room for Sidney and spot him over by the bar schmoozing with the CEO of a large manufacturing company that is located just outside of Sorenson. I plaster a friendly smile on my face and move in. Halfway there I realize that I probably should have gone to the ladies’ room first to make another adjustment on my panty hose; they are slipping lower with every step I take. But just as I am about to turn around to do that, Sidney sees me.
The CEO moves off and Sid quickly breaches the distance between us. “Mattie!” He gives me a quick hug and adds, “The prodigal nurse returns. It’s really good to see you. How have you been?”
“Good, Sidney. Thanks for asking. You?”
“Doing just fine, thanks.”
“You look a little tired,” I note, observing the bluish circles under his eyes. I think I see something dark flit across his face, but it is there and gone so fast I can’t be sure.
“Long night last night,” he says with a smile. “I was on call. You know how that goes.”
“Sure do.” Knowing my time in the spotlight of Sidney’s attention is likely to be short, I decide to plunge right in. “Damn shame about Karen Owenby, isn’t it?”
“An awful thing,” he says, shaking his head. “I hope they catch who did it soon.”
“Me, too. I’ll bet it’s really disrupted things over at the hospital, eh?”
“It sure has. That and the fact that David’s surgeries are subject to last-minute cancellations at the whim of the local cops. But then I guess you probably know all about that already, particularly since I hear your brother-in- law is defending him.”
I nod. “Yes, Lucien’s been keeping me informed. Hopefully, it will all work out soon.”
“Will you? You and David, I mean.”
“Will we what? Work out?”
Sid nods.
“I don’t know, Sid. I don’t think so. Things have gone too far.”
“He made a dumb mistake, one I know he’s come to regret. He’s a good man, Mattie. I don’t know why the cops are hassling him, because there is no way he did this. I’d stake my life on it.”
A curious choice of words. And what does it say about the future potential for my marriage if Sid has more faith in David’s innocence than I do?
“So,” I say, deciding to fish, “were you in on that investment thing with Karen? I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen with that now.”
Sidney looks puzzled for a second, then a dawning awareness hits his face. “You mean that thing with the medical supply company? I didn’t get in on that. It sounded a little too edgy to me and I don’t really need the extra cash flow.”
I have no idea what he means and am about to ask when a voice behind me interrupts.
“Hello, Sidney. Mattie.”
It’s Robert Calhoun, the hospital’s CEO. Beside him is Gina. “I found your wife over in the corner charming the socks off a half dozen men,” Robert says to Sid with a wink. “So I thought I’d return her to you.”
Gina rolls her eyes at me and it is all I can do to choke back a laugh.
“There’s something I need to discuss with you, Sidney,” Robert goes on. “If you can spare me a moment.”
“Certainly.”
“Ahem,” Gina says, leaning up and giving her husband a peck on the cheek. “While you guys talk business, we girls are going to have a little chat of our own. Try to stay out of trouble, you two.”
With that, Gina links an arm through one of mine and steers me away. So much for my time with Sidney.
