by Ruby Scott
than anything.
They finally came around when Cara entered her first relationship.
They made her first girlfriend feel unbelievably welcome in their home.
They adjusted with ease. Cara felt like Izzy’s parents would be the same.
What parents wouldn’t
On the other hand, the look on Terri’s face was skeptical. “Man, I
would’ve appreciated that. I’ve had a few of these myself through the years
and they have never ended well. That’s like a major red flag.”
A sigh left Cara’s lips. It was…but she was willing to look past it for
Izzy. Sometimes it took people a while to come out of the closet, it usually
took even longer when they had to admit it to their families. “Only if there’s
other red flags. I think all of her friends know about me, so it’s not like she
wants to keep us a secret from everybody… just from her parents.”
Cara felt more uncomfortable than she had in years. She was wearing a
nice pair of jeans, a white top, and a navy-blue blazer. Her dark hair was
slicked back, making sure not a single one was out of place. She was
meeting Izzy’s friends today, at the urging of Izzy. She looked at her watch,
anxiously waiting for her girlfriend to join her. She had hoped that they
would start small. Maybe meeting one friend, then another. But no, Izzy
insisted they all should all get brunch together. All four of her best friends.
Izzy assured her that it would be okay. Her friends knew she was gay,
so what could go wrong? She promised that they were all nice girls, all
were super accepting of her when she came out. “You look great!” Izzy’s
voice broke through Cara’ distracted thoughts. She turned around, visibly
relaxing when she saw her.
Izzy had on a cute yellow sundress with a white cardigan over it. Her
hair was perfectly styled in something other than the loose bun she wore to
work daily, and she had taken the time to do her makeup. While Cara loved
how she looked on a day-to-day basis, there was something different about
seeing her all dressed up. She was breath-taking.
As soon as Izzy was within her grasp, Cara reached out and hooked
her arm around her waist, pulling her close. “You look amazing.” She said,
pressing a kiss to her temple.
Izzy smiled up at her, not shying away from the public affection. That
was a good thing, right? “I think the girls are already inside, so we should
head in.” She took the lead, leading Cara inside the overly fancy downtown
restaurant. It wasn’t a black-tie type of place, but it was definitely fancier
than the places Cara usually attended.
After speaking to the hostess, she told them that the table they were
looking for was on the back deck. Izzy led the way, stepping out of the
double glass doors. There was a large round table with six chairs, four of
them occupied. In the center of the table was a large yellow umbrella,
offering some much appreciated shade for the diners.
As soon as Izzy stepped outside, the other girls squealed. Before Cara
knew what was happening, everybody was hugging and telling each other
how good it was to see them. Cara stood to the side, feeling like the odd
woman out. She didn’t know these girls; she definitely wasn’t going to hug
them.
When they all took a seat, Izzy began introductions. In order, the
brunette on her immediate right was Monica, next to her was the redhead,
Bets. Next to Bets was Eliza, who had short platinum hair and next to Eliza
was Laurel, who had thick dark hair. Cara tried to commit each name and
face to memory, but knew she was bound to forget.
The girls began chatting about life, about what was going on with
their jobs and relationships. Cara stayed in her seat, holding Izzy’s hand
under the table as she listened. She learned that Laurel was an interior
designer who was beginning to get work with celebrities. Monica was
engaged to a guy named Seth, although they’d only been together for a year
or so. Betty was a successful lawyer, working with her parent’s firm and
Eliza had close to a million followers on social media. The fact this seemed
to be her career confused Cara.
Monica was the first to turn her attention to Cara. The way her green
eyes looked at her made Cara feel uneasy. She felt like she was an animal
on display at the zoo. “So…Cara, right? What do you do? Did you meet
Izzy at the hospital?”
Before Cara could answer, Betty cut in. “Oh! Are you a doctor? I told
you you’d hook up with a hot older doctor when you started at the
hospital.” She said, jabbing her finger at Izzy from across the table.
Cara didn’t know whether or not she should be offended. Older? She
was hardly three years older than Izzy. Did she really look that old? The
questions stopped slamming into her after that, so Cara figured it was safe
to answer. “I’m not a doctor, I’m a EMT, well, a paramedic. I met Izzy—,”
She glanced over at Izzy, trying to judge from the look on her face. Did she
want her friends to know they were originally just a one-night stand? She
got her answer when Izzy squeezed her hand twice under the table. She
assumed that was no. “Yeah, I met Izzy at the hospital. I signed a patient
over to her and we went from there.”
Laurel’s nose wrinkled. “A paramedic? Is that like…an ambulance
driver?” She laughed, as if it was a joke.
Cara was a bit offended. She hoped she didn’t let it show. “I actually
went to school for two years to be a paramedic. We almost have the same
patient privileges as doctors.”
“But do you make as good money as a doctor? Izzy has expensive
tastes you know and she likes her long-haul holidays.”
“No, not as much as a doctor.” She gave a wry smile knowing full well
they knew the answer before it left her lips. She glanced over at Izzy,
hoping she was going to say something…but she didn’t. Her mouth was
closed, and she was smiling, laughing with her friends. Cara felt entirely out
of place. She wanted to melt into the ground and disappear.
“Well,” Eliza said with a shrug. “it’s a good thing Izzy’s going to be
making good money. She’ll be able to keep up the lifestyle that she’s used
to.”
Izzy nodded a bit then, muttering a “Yeah,” in response to her friend’s
comments.
Betty hit them with the next question. “So, have you met her parents
yet? They adore Izzy.”
Before Cara could answer, Izzy stepped in. “No they haven’t been
introduced yet. You know what it’s like my hours are like crazy! Any you
know I’ve not officially said anything to them about being gay. The right
time has just never come up. It’s not like it’s a big thing.”
“Oh! I thought since you actually have a girlfriend now you would
actually tell them. Didn’t you always say you would when things got
serious between you and someone? Or was that just an excuse?” Eliza
almost seemed to be smirking as she asked the question.
Izzy’s cheeks flushed. She was clearly uncomfortable with their
questioning, just as Cara had been moments earlier.
“Well, we’ve only been
dating a few weeks. I don’t want to get them involved just yet.”
After that, the questioning stopped. They ordered food and Cara
listened as they all chatted about their lives. Never once did any of Izzy’s
friends seem interested in her, nor did Izzy try to make her feel included.
She ate in silence, listening to them giggle and laugh. It was awkward. Cara
couldn’t remember the last time she felt like this. It was almost as if she was
back at high school, sitting with the cool girls at lunch, but they didn’t want
her there.
When she finished eating, Cara excused herself to go to the restroom,
where she just stood and looked in the mirror. She was trying to calm down,
trying not to worry. Those girls made her feel like she wasn’t good enough,
something she had never felt with Izzy before. They made her feel like Izzy
was too good for her, like she was some untouchable princess.
And Izzy didn’t stop them. She didn’t tell them the questions were
too much, she didn’t stand up for her. She just sat there, listening to them
hound her with questions. It was enough to make Cara wonder… was she
ashamed? Was that why she didn’t tell her parents yet? Did she not want
them to find out about her because they wouldn’t approve? No. Izzy had
said that she hadn’t had many relationships before. She clearly was just
naïve when it came to this type of situation.
Cara pulled herself together and left the bathroom. Just as she stepped
back onto the deck, she heard the girls talking about her…again.
“All I’m saying is she isn’t the type I thought you’d date. It isn’t like
she is your equal?”
A piece of Cara wished she would have stepped out a moment later
so she could have heard Izzy’s answer. Instead, they stopped talking when
Cara took her seat. Izzy just looked down at her plate, refusing to meet
Cara’s eyes. Another hour or so of small talk and the brunch was over.
Everybody hugged and made promises that they would see each other
again soon. They promised to text and keep each other up to date on their
lives. They turned to Cara and gave her a small wave goodbye, making her
feel like even more of an outcast. They had said it was nice to meet her, but
she highly doubted they really meant that.
ELEVEN
When the four girls were gone and it was just Cara and Izzy remaining,
Cara realized she couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I don’t think I like your
friends much.” She admitted as they walked hand-in-hand to where they
parked.
Izzy looked up at her, eyebrows raised. “I know they can be a bit
much but they mean well. We’ve all known each other since we were at
prep school.”
Cara couldn’t buy that, she really couldn’t. Maybe if it had been just
one question that rubbed her the wrong way, she could write it off as a small
misstep. Instead, there were multiple. They continued to talk about her after
she had left the table. Who knew what they said that she didn’t overhear?
Hell, who knew what Izzy responded. “Do they? They have a really weird
way of showing it.”
Izzy stopped walking, letting go of Cara’s hand. She turned to look at
her, “Look, I know they overstepped but you’re the first person I’ve really
dated that they’ve met. They have my best interest at heart, I know they do.
They will come around. Just give them time.”
Cara sighed, running a hand through her hair. Who cared if she
messed it up? She wasn’t trying to impress anyone anymore; maybe she
shouldn’t have tried in the beginning. As soon as they heard she wasn’t a
doctor, their mind was made up about her. “They made me feel like I was
trash, Izzy. They made me feel like I wasn’t even good enough to be around
you, and you didn’t say a thing, and that is what made it worse. How would
you feel if you’d been me?”
Izzy’s nose wrinkled. She hadn’t been thinking of it like that. She’d
always cut her friends a lot of slack, but she hadn’t thought this through and
that was now obvious to her. Was she just that naïve? She looked up at Cara
and took her hands.
“I’m sorry.” She said, honestly. “I should have told them to stop. I
just… I’ve never introduced them to someone before. Plus, if my friends
are that bad… my parents are going to be ten times worse. Can’t it just be
practice?” From the look on Cara’s face, she could tell that the answer was
no. Izzy sighed, “I’m sorry, I really am. In the future, I won’t allow anyone
to talk to you like that, no matter who they are to me. But you don’t need to
worry. My opinion about you didn’t change. You’re more than good enough
for me. You are way more than I deserve.”
Cara sighed. She couldn’t stay angry when Izzy was looking up at her
with those big, round blue eyes. She genuinely believed that she just didn’t
know better. She reached down and wrapped her arms around Izzy’s waist.
She pulled her close, pressing her lips to her forehead. She stayed like that a
moment, holding Izzy as she calmed herself down.
“It’s fine.” She finally said. “I guess I just really wanted to make a good
impression on your friends, not look like a loser. I mean, I know I’m not
one, but they made me feel like it. But… as long as you still like me and
they didn’t make you change your mind; I think I’m okay.”
Izzy smiled up at her before leaning in and kissing her. It was a light
peck, something soft and hopefully comforting. “I will never not like you.”
She promised.
Honestly, Izzy felt guilty about how her friends ended up treating Cara.
At the time, she hadn’t seen a problem with it. She remembered grilling her
friend’s boyfriends with similar questions. Although she didn’t remember
getting so detailed about how much or how little they made. As long as her
friends were happy, Izzy didn’t care about money. She should have shut
things down when they kept asking Cara about money, she just hadn’t
realized at the time.
She tried to push that out of her mind, hoping to focus on work.
Things between her and Cara had felt okay when they parted this morning,
but she was still worried that deep down Cara was still hurt over it. She
checked her phone, finding no text from Cara, and stuffed it back into her
pocket.
She was with Sara again today. She was beginning to wonder if Sara
was going to be her permanent attending. She had softened up on Izzy a bit,
no longer berating her for small mistakes, but that was weirder than
anything. She ruled the hospital with a heavy hand. Everyone feared being
called to her office… except Izzy. She had complained to Jack about it
earlier, about how she desperately wanted to learn from someone other than
Sara. He had just laughed and told her; “She’s the Chief for a reason, Izzy.
She clearly knows what she’s doing. Just roll with it.”
So that was what Izzy was trying to do, just ‘roll’ with it. She popped
her head into Sara’s office. The place was crystal clean. The wall was lined
with certi
ficates that the hospital had earned under Sara’s lead, Izzy did note
that there were no pictures of family. Sara’s desk was clutter-free.
Everything had a proper place. That was something Izzy had learned while
working under Sara – the woman was probably the neatest, most organized
person that she had ever met.
Sara looked up from her desk before Izzy even spoke. If Izzy was
being honest, she was pretty sure she saw the smallest of smiles grace her
lips. “Good morning, Frost. Do you have our patients for the day?” There
was a pause. “Come inside. Don’t stand in the doorway like you’re
unwanted.”
Izzy managed a polite smile before she stepped inside. “Good
morning, Chief Dev – I mean, Sara.” She pulled out the small tablet that the
surgeons used to keep track of their patients and their records. “Today we
have a stent on Mr. Lee and,” As soon as Izzy’s eyes scanned over their
next surgical patient for the day, she couldn’t stop herself from sighing.
“Another stent on Mrs. Rojas.”
Sara turned her attention away from whatever paperwork was on her
desk and focused it solely on Izzy. “What was that sigh for?”
Izzy wanted nothing more than to write it off. She wanted to tell Sara
that it was nothing, but the truth was… Izzy couldn’t hide the truth. “I…
uh… I don’t know. I’ve been having some qualms about whether
cardiothoracic surgery is where I should be.” She admitted. Just saying the
words out loud felt such a relief. She was sure people like Jack suspected
she wasn’t happy in her choice, but she’d never spoken those words before.
She had told Cara that she had had no choice and Cara questioned her if she
was going to be happy, but Izzy had never freely admitted that she wasn’t
sure if her heart was in it.
She expected Sara to yell at her for wasting her time, to put her on
suspension until she figured things out. Instead, Sara’s features softened.
“Frost, I can’t tell you what to do. If you’re unsure about cardio, though, we
can sit down and look at other long-term options for you to explore. If you
want to stick it out though, we can make that work too.”
Izzy couldn’t remember what it felt like to have a real option when it
came to her specialty. She had been entirely convinced that emergency