The Funny Thing about Love: Feel Good Sweet Romance stories

by Laura Burton

  “What’s this?” she asked him, at the same time noticing Virginia edging closer, trying to see it.

  “It’s information for a conference that’s coming up in Manhattan,” Pat answered. “Right near my home turf,” he added with a faint grin.

  “Do you want me to book it for you?” she asked.

  “I’d like you to look at it and think about coming with me,” he said. “While the sessions for surgeons are on, there are seminars and training for practice managers.”

  Jennifer was surprised. “I haven’t been to one of these before,” she admitted.

  “They’re valuable,” Pat assured her. “When I had my practice, my practice managers went to them regularly. It helped them to run the practice more efficiently.”

  “Well, I’ll certainly consider it,” Jennifer said, leafing through the brochure.

  “Let me know soon,” Pat said. “The application closing date is only a few days away.”

  Jennifer looked up and spotted Virginia standing behind Pat, her eyes narrowed and a venomous look on her face. Jennifer decided not to ask any more questions right then.

  “I’ll let you know soon,” she promised.

  Virginia frowned as she pulled into the parking lot at the clinic. Pat and Jennifer were both already at work, even though she’d done her best to be early and arrive ahead of them. She’d been horrified the day before when Pat had asked Jennifer to attend a conference with him. What right did that uppity perfectionist have to spend all that time with him? Virginia fumed as she thought about how Pat should’ve asked her to go with him. They’d been spending a bit of time together lately and as far as Virginia was concerned, she was making progress towards her goal. She didn’t need interference from someone like Jennifer. She felt around in her bag for the little sachet of powder. It was time to take action.

  Later that morning, there was a lull between patients. Virginia came out to the reception area.

  “I’m going for coffee,” she said. “Who wants what?” She wrote their orders on a piece of paper as she went around the clinic. Everyone except Janet wanted something.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she told them as she walked out the door. Jennifer raised a hand in acknowledgment and Tanya mumbled a goodbye. Virginia smiled to herself. So far, things were going exactly how she wanted them.

  Twenty minutes later, Virginia pulled into the parking lot with a tray full of carefully labelled coffees. She smirked as she imagined what would happen next. The doctors would never look at their favorite practice manager the same way again.

  “I’m back!” she called cheerfully as she pushed open the clinic door, carefully holding the tray of coffees. She took them to the back room and set them down on the bench. “Coffees are here!” she called to Belinda, who was passing through. “Let Pat and Jennifer know.”

  “Shall do,” Belinda called back.

  Virginia took her coffee and left the room. She would just get on with her work now.

  No sooner had she left than Chris the handyman walked in. He was there to fix a light in one of the examination rooms. He took his coffee from the tray and looked at the others. It would be funny to play a prank on someone, he thought, looking at the initials on the top of each cup. Grinning, he took two lids off and swapped them, chuckling as he realized that one was coffee and one was tea. Someone was going to get a surprise.

  A minute later, Pat pulled a face as he took a drink from his coffee cup. “This is coffee!” he muttered aloud. “I wonder what happened to my tea!”

  Although he preferred tea, he decided to drink the coffee anyway, reasoning that he wasn’t going to get another hot beverage any time soon.

  Meanwhile, Jennifer was puzzled when she opened her coffee cup. She was certain she’d ordered coffee, not tea. She shrugged; a drink of tea wouldn’t hurt her once in a while; although she preferred coffee, she didn’t mind tea. It was a nice change to have something different. She sipped the tea until she’d finished it, and went on with her work.

  Twenty minutes later, Pat still hadn’t come out for his next patient. Jennifer wondered why, and went to check.

  “Pat?” she called tentatively through the door. “Are you there?”

  There was no answer, so she opened the door and went inside. Pat was sitting at his desk, head back, mouth wide open. Snoring.

  Jennifer shook her head, trying to clear it after a long and trying day. It had proven impossible to awaken Pat; the other doctors had come to check on him, and after a thorough examination, had concluded that he was simply asleep. They had wheeled his office chair through the door to the examination room, then pushed and shoved and heaved until he was lying on the examination table. Jennifer had found a pillow for his head and Belinda had covered him with a blanket. Someone had checked on him every fifteen minutes, and each time, found him sleeping peacefully.

  But Pat was the least of their problems. Jennifer had called each one of his patients, some of whom had been waiting months for their appointments, to tell them that he had been suddenly taken ill. It had been a nightmare as she’d tried to reschedule them for appointments in the next week or two. Their schedule would now be tightly packed for the next few weeks, instead of having small breathing spaces here and there. And that was assuming that Pat had no emergency surgeries he had to attend to.

  At the same time, she’d been really worried about Pat. Why would he suddenly fall asleep? Why was it so hard to awaken him? Each time they’d tried, he’d smiled or mumbled something, and had gone right back to sleep again.

  “Why is this happening?” she asked Carl after she’d checked on Pat during the afternoon.

  “I’m not an expert in this field but it looks to me as if he’s taken something,” Carl replied.

  “Taken something?”

  “Yes, either knowingly or not.”

  “Are you saying he has a drug problem?”

  “No. But this kind of sleeping is not normal. It’s most likely chemically induced. Perhaps when he awakens, he might be able to tell us more. But for now, all we can do is keep an eye on him.”

  Pat stayed asleep until late afternoon. Jennifer was beginning to wonder if someone would have to stay at the clinic with him to keep watch on him.

  “Hello sleepyhead,” she greeted him when she finally noticed his eyes opening as she checked on him. Her fingers were on his pulse and she was counting his breaths. His pulse was strong and steady, and his hand was warm.

  “Where am I?” he asked groggily.

  “At the clinic,” she told him. “Hold on a minute. I’m going to get Carl.” She made her way quickly to Carl’s room. “Pat’s awake,” she told him, and he hurried down the hall behind her.

  “What happened to you?” Carl asked Pat, who was still lying on the examination table, his eyes half-closed. “You’ve been asleep all day!”

  “Why was I asleep?” Pat asked, still groggy and puzzled.

  “We were hoping you could tell us the answer to that question,” Carl answered. “What do you remember last?”

  Pat was quiet for a moment. “My brain is all foggy,” he said. “I can’t remember anything clearly. But I do remember drinking coffee. It was supposed to be tea.”

  Jennifer and Carl looked at each other. They hurried out to Pat’s desk, where, true to form, the empty coffee cup was still sitting. Jennifer picked it up and handed it to Carl.

  Carl looked at the almost-empty cup. “I think we might have this analyzed,” he said.

  Jennifer was thinking. “Something peculiar happened to me, too,” she recalled. “I ordered coffee, but I got tea.”

  “So … someone mixed them up,” Carl muttered. “Which means that if someone intentionally spiked the coffee with something, it might’ve been intended for you.”

  “What if Pat took something himself?”

  Carl looked around behind him to make sure Pat hadn’t followed them out of the examination room. “I think it’s unlikely,” he said. “Pat has never done anyt
hing like that while he’s been at work here. And if he does have some kind of habit, it’s unlikely that he’d take enough of his substance of choice to cause this kind of reaction. He has to function at an important job, after all. I think it’s more likely that he’s the victim of a prank gone wrong or someone with a grudge. And perhaps he wasn’t even the intended victim.”

  Jennifer shivered at his words. Who would want to make her fall asleep for an entire day? And why?

  Chapter 8

  “Well, it’s been an eventful few weeks at the clinic,” Pat said as they pulled onto the Interstate to head to the conference.

  Jennifer shook her head. “Who knows what will happen next,” she said.

  “I hate to think,” Pat replied. “What else can go wrong?”

  “Someone has certainly been up to mischief,” Jennifer replied. “First, there was the incident when someone put Eszopiclone in your coffee.”

  Pat groaned. “That was awful! I got a terrible headache the next day. And it left a metallic taste in my mouth that lasted for nearly a week! Everything I ate tasted like silver spoons!”

  Jennifer giggled. “Metal ice cream,” she said. “Yummy!”

  “Nothing takes the taste away. I’ll never try that stuff on purpose!” Pat exclaimed.

  “And the worst thing is, we never did figure out who did it,” Jennifer mused. “The villain is still on the loose.”

  “What about the person who hid the jelly in your handbag?”

  Jennifer shuddered as she recalled reaching into her handbag, and poking her fingers into the mass of jelly hidden inside. She’d screamed, and everyone had come running. It had been a harmless enough prank, other than having to buy a new handbag. But she could still recall the sensation of the cold, shivery, slimy mound closing around her fingers, and the instant feeling of horror it produced.

  “And then Belinda fell victim to the salty water in the cooler,” Pat recalled. “Whoever is up to all these tricks is clever. They’ve evaded detection so far.”

  “Let’s hope the clinic is still standing when we return,” Jennifer agreed.

  She was looking forward to a couple of days away. They were staying in a mid-priced hotel in Lower Manhattan with views over the city; it felt like an adventure. Jennifer was a homebody who preferred to take vacations with family or friends, which meant that it didn’t happen very often. It was difficult to find a time that fitted in with everyone’s schedules. So even though this was a work trip, it almost felt like a vacation.

  It would be good to put the clinic and its troubles out of her mind for a couple of days, Jennifer thought. Despite Pat’s assurances that it was just a prankster having a bit of fun at everyone else’s expense, Jennifer was concerned that there was something more serious behind the spate of mischief. She hadn’t told Pat about her suspicion that he was not the intended victim of the spiked coffee. Pat had laughed at the unfortunate incident.

  “It was just a prank,” he’d said. “I’ve played plenty of them in the past. Whoever did this got me a good one.”

  Pat put on some easy-listening music and the miles passed quickly. They talked of general matters, never becoming too personal. Jennifer had made up her mind to keep her distance after Virginia arrived on the scene and Pat seemed content to keep things strictly professional. Jennifer figured that Virginia’s arrival had made things too awkward to continue the friendship they’d enjoyed before her arrival. It was even possible that Pat was actively seeing Virginia again. Jennifer was disappointed but pragmatic; it was better to be disappointed now than heartbroken later. Besides, the warning from Sarah was still fresh in her mind, although she had seen no evidence of philandering. She would certainly be on her guard during this work conference. The last thing she wanted was a broken heart.

  “Look at Madam Thundercloud,” Janet whispered to Belinda as Virginia stalked through the clinic.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Belinda whispered back.

  “I’m guessing she’s angry because Jennifer went with Pat to the conference.”

  Janet buried her head in her computer as Virginia stomped back, wincing as a pile of folders crashed onto the desk.

  “I’d hate to cross her!” Belinda exclaimed, looking meaningfully at the door that had just slammed.

  “Poor Pat,” Janet giggled. “Not only was he married to her, now he has to work with her!”

  “So do we,” Belinda said sardonically. “And Pat isn’t here to be our human shield!”

  “If they’re divorced, what does it matter if Pat spends time with someone else? I’m sure someone said it was Virginia that ended the marriage.”

  Belinda shrugged. “I can only assume that Virginia wants something from him,” she said. “I don’t think she’d be kind to anyone who got in her way.”

  “I hope Jennifer is aware of all this,” Janet said. “She could get burnt if she gets too close to that volcano waiting to erupt.”

  “I’m sure she is,” Belinda replied. “Jennifer is smart. Besides, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that she and Pat are anything more than colleagues.”

  “You’re right,” Janet conceded, “although when he first came here, before Virginia arrived, I thought there might’ve been something between them.”

  The door opened again with a bang. The two women hid their grins and studiously peered at their computer screens. This was getting interesting. Who could tell what Virginia would do next?

  “Mary!” Jennifer exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you!” She hugged the older woman; Mary had been a great friend and mentor while Jennifer was still a young nurse.

  “Look at you, you look great!” Mary said, standing back to look at her.

  Jennifer touched Pat on the arm. They were standing in the foyer of the conference theatre complex while people milled around during a break. Pat turned to her.

  “Pat, this is my friend, Mary,” Jennifer said.

  Mary looked at him in surprise. “Dr Pat!” she exclaimed. “It’s been a long time!”

  “Do you know each other?” Jennifer asked.

  “We worked together for a while,” Pat replied. “It’s good to see you again, Mary.”

  They caught up on each other’s news for a while, then Pat spotted someone he wanted to talk to.

  “Excuse me,” he said. “I want to catch Dr Alexander before he disappears again. I’ll see you after the next session, Jennifer.”

  After Pat had gone, Mary turned to Jennifer. “Are you here together?” she asked.

  “Yes, I’m the practice manager. He thought I should come along, so I’m here.”

  “He’s such a nice man,” Mary said. “You’re really lucky to have him there. I’d probably get my heart broken if I were twenty years younger!”

  “I’ve been keeping it strictly professional,” Jennifer said. “A friend warned me that he’s a womanizer, and I don’t want a case of heartbreak.”

  “A womanizer?” Mary asked in surprise. “Who told you that?”

  “Sarah. My friend, Sarah Harris.”

  Mary was silent for a moment. “Have you heard the other side of that story?” she asked.

  “No, is there one?”

  “Sarah doesn’t mind a fling here and there herself,” Mary answered. “I worked with her, and saw her indulge in several. One of them was married. And one of them was Pat.”

  Jennifer sucked in a breath.

  “Well, she tried with Pat,” Mary clarified. “Most men gave in to her charms rather easily. But not Pat. He wasn’t the type to cheat on his wife, even though I later heard that she’d cheated on him.”

  “But why would Sarah tell lies about him?”

  “Ever heard of hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?”

  “So, you’re saying … that she made up a story to hurt him?”

  Mary nodded. “I saw her do it to another doctor who refused her as well. But on that occasion, she accused him of sexual misconduct towards her. It hurt his career and reputation.”

&n
bsp; “That’s awful!” Jennifer exclaimed. “I had no idea she was like that. Why would she do something like that?”

  Mary shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “A sense of power, perhaps? It doesn’t matter why. Just don’t trust anything she tells you about Pat.”

  “I won’t,” Jennifer said fervently. “Thank you for telling me about this. I’ve had a lot of doubts about Pat because of what Sarah said.”

  “That was her intention, no doubt. But you can rest assured that Pat is a good man. He has integrity.”

  As Jennifer said goodbye to Mary and prepared for the next training session, she felt a burden ease in her heart. Pat was the good, kind person she thought she’d seen in the first place. She would believe the evidence of her eyes before she would listen to any more gossip from people with grudges.

  Pat whistled as he loaded their luggage into the Ranger.

  “That’s a sound I haven’t heard in ages!” Jennifer exclaimed as he got in beside her.

  Pat grinned. “Hey, do you know what you get from a cow that’s been in an earthquake?” he asked as he started the vehicle.

  “This sounds like another one of your jokes,” Jennifer said. “You’d better tell me.”

  “A milkshake!” he exclaimed triumphantly.

  Jennifer laughed. “You’re back!” she said. “I’ve missed you,” she added quietly.

  Pat looked at her, his blue eyes serious. “It’s taken me a while to get my head around working with Virginia,” he said. “It hasn’t been easy.”

  “And how are things now?”

  Pat sighed. “I can tell that she wants something from me, but she hasn’t said what. She’s never mentioned the reason our marriage ended, even though she made a big deal out of talking it over when she first arrived. When I finally did agree to talk to her, she talked about everything else but that. I had to conclude that she just wanted my attention, but I still don’t know why.”