Truths Unveiled - By Kimberly Alan Page 0,11

really happy for you. Every goal you set, from the time you were a sixteen-year-old, you accomplished.”

It warmed Pam to hear his compliment. At the same time, she wanted to disappear. She’d acted like such a lovesick puppy over him back then. She hoped he didn’t remember some of the crazy things she’d done to get his attention.

Let’s close that door, she told herself. Back to the present. “Thank you for making the suggestion. The whole situation came as quite a shock at first. Chicago General offered me a job just minutes before I learned that Marlene left there to become the director here.”

“You’re welcome, but like she told you, she planned to call you anyway. Believe me, you’re that good.”

Pam felt her cheeks burn. She speared a mushroom from the sauce covering her filet mignon. On paper, he was right. She’d earned the highest credentials available at this level of her profession. Still working on the threshold of life and death on a daily basis, there were always those nagging doubts. If only she had done this procedure. Maybe she should have done that one instead. She constantly questioned herself. Constantly wrestled with feelings of inadequacy.

God gave her a gift. She’d realized that years ago. Yet, at times it felt more like a curse. There was still so much she didn’t know. So much that was out of her reach. Out of her control. How could she be sure, really sure, when she lost a patient, whether it was God’s will or her own ineptness that caused that straight line on the heart monitor?

“Do you think you’re at all interested in the job?”

Pam wiped cracker crumbs from her mouth with the cloth napkin and settled back in the chair. “I haven’t received a formal offer yet.”

“Fair enough. You haven’t opened the folder Marlene gave you. So presume it’s offered. Will you take it?”

Truths Unveiled

Truths Unveiled

Chapter Eight

No, Pam’s inner voice responded. Yet she found her mouth glued shut.

Tom’s mouth formed a straight line. “Well, at least you didn’t say no. Just tell me this?”

“Shoot.”

“Are you hesitating because of me?”

Pam nearly gagged. Of course it’s because of you, she almost blurted out. Then corrected herself. No, it wasn’t entirely his fault. But she still marveled at the bottomless pit of the male ego. Did he really think she would turn down a fantastic professional opportunity because of a little crush gone bad when she was a teenager? If so, he’d be right, of course. At least partly. But she’d never admit it aloud.

She bit back the sarcasm and the impulse to roll her eyes. No. Other reasons made her want to turn down the offer. And though Tom hadn’t mentioned them, she expected him to know what they were.

“I thought we made a really good couple back then,” he continued when she didn’t answer. “Was I right?”

That statement took Pam by surprise. Yes, she did too. At the time. But only until she found out about the extent of his relationship with Susan Murphy. At that instant, Pam’s entire fantasy blew up in her face.

With that memory in mind, Pam’s thoughts rewound back to that one fate-filled night. She was at a cast party with a bunch of students from the high school. They had just finished the opening night of their senior class play. Hanging out in a cast member’s basement, they rehashed their performances and reminisced about their antics at Middleton High.

Moving there during her sophomore year had been a difficult adjustment. While living in Boston, Pam rode with the ambulance squad, volunteered in Boston General Hospital’s emergency room and took science classes at one of the colleges as part of a special program. Middleton had no such program. Nor did it have public transportation to get her to the area hospital to volunteer. For her, it was a very lonely time, even when she joined Hopewell’s rescue team. Then she met Megan Fitzpatrick.

Originally from Philadelphia, Megan had moved to Middleton in junior high. Like Pam, her father had been transferred there. Quickly, they became great friends and together they muddled through.

In June of her senior year, with graduation swiftly approaching, Pam’s one hundred class members seemed to join together. Most of the cliques had dissolved and overall, they became a unified group.

A handful of the class knew Pam and Tom were dating. It was okay with them. To their knowledge, Tom had never dated a student before, so it wasn’t as if it was a yearly pattern for