When the server went away, Jody looked at me, his expression softening.
“I was surprised to run into you,” he said. “I heard you left for school and didn’t think you were going to come back.”
“The plan wasn’t to come back,” I replied. “It just sort of happened that way. I had some offers in other places, but my mom is getting older, and I wanted to be close, y’know? Not too close. But just close enough that if something happened, I wouldn’t have to rearrange my entire life.”
“Is your mom in poor health?” he asked, furrowing his brow.
I shook my head. “Not at all,” I said. “I would say she’s probably stronger than ever, actually. She retired and is now traveling the world.”
“Wow. Who’d have thought?”
“Right? The company she worked for is a tourism one and she has a ton of perks and stuff saved up, so it costs her practically nothing,” I replied. “She has asked me to go with her, but I have too much work to do.”
“Don’t you live comfortably enough to just… travel?”
I thought for a second. “I earn enough money, yes, and I’m one of the lucky few who managed to get through med school without having to get into tons of debt, but… I don’t know. I feel like I should be helping people now, you know, with the skills that I have.”
“So you feel like this is something you have to do.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I asked. “I worked so hard to do this. I want to help people. I really do.”
He smiled. “I always thought you were a bit of an ambitious automaton,” he said. “It’s nice to see that you are using your ambition to help people.”
“I figure I can go traveling later.”
“When?”
“When I retire,” I replied. “If I retire, maybe.”
“So you still have goals.”
“I’ve never stopped,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. “What about you? Is Jody Banks changing the world?”
“I am not changing the world. Hell, I’m not changing anything. I can hardly change the garbage bag once I take the trash out.”
“Things aren’t that bad, surely?”
He bit his lips, sighing as he leaned back on the seat. “They aren’t good.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Once again, we were interrupted by platefuls of food being placed in front of us. The food smelled amazing and it wasn’t until my stomach grumbled that I realized how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten very much for the entirety of my shift, which happened when things got a little hectic in the ER. At night, it was easy to lose track of eating, even if it meant that I felt a little fainter than I would have otherwise. I normally ate a few nuts for some protein, but I had completely forgotten about it.
Because of Jody. And because of the people he had walked in with.
After talking about the food for a while, I took a bite of the pancake and smiled at him. “You were right,” I said. “This was a good idea.”
“See? I do have good ideas.”
I shook my head. “What else do you have good ideas about?”
“Breakfast,” he replied. “I’m also really good about choosing places to hike, if you ever want to go for a hike.”
I shook my head. “Are you asking me out?”
“Constantly,” he replied. “Is it working?”
I laughed. “You never give it a rest, do you?”
“I’m pretty stubborn,” he said.
“Regardless, you might want to take it easy on the exercise for the next few days,” I said. “You’re probably not seriously hurt or anything, but it’s very important that you rest.”
He twisted his lips. “Got it, doc,” he replied. “I’ll follow your orders.”
“That’s a new one,” I said. “So are you going to tell me what is going on in your life?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he replied. “I don’t know where to start.”
“How about with high school?” I said. “Actually, start with college. I noticed you were riding the train for a bit and then you just… stopped. I never saw you again and I wasn’t sure why.”
“Oh,” he said. “I had to drop out.”
I furrowed my brow. “You didn’t finish school?”
“No,” he replied, waving his hand in front of his face. He stuck a forkful of food in his mouth and chewed slowly as I waited for him to say something else. “I tried. It just didn’t work out.”
“I thought you’d be going to a four-year college,” I said. “Weren’t you on track for a sports scholarship?”
“I was,” he said. “I got scouted and everything, but things weren’t that simple. I was feeling pretty depressed and things were kind of weird at home. My parents’ marriage was imploding and they finally decided to get a divorce when I was going to go to college, but it never ended up happening, so I was there, front row seats to watch their dysfunction blow up in everyone’s face.”
“So you didn’t get your scholarship?”
“I did,” he said. “I mean, I was there for all of a month or two. But I was underperforming massively so I decided to medically withdraw. It was a lot of pressure on an eighteen-year-old who didn’t know what
