"I have to go too...it was nice running in to you, Madi", Noor said, as she turned on her heels and walked off in the opposite direction to Omar, towards the children's hospital. 

Huh? What just happened here?

I thought about going after my friend, but Omar had looked pretty distraught at seeing Noor, and I had no idea why. So I decided to jog after him instead. By the time I reached him he was in the foyer in front of the elevators, and was pressing the 'up' button. 

"Omar, are you ok? You looked like you saw a ghost..."

Without looking at me, he mumbled, "I wish I had..."

"Did something happen between you two?"

As soon as I asked him that, I realized that I might actually know the answer to that question. 

I didn't even know Noor existed till I overheard some of my fellow residents joking about all the matchmaking that was going on in the pediatric residency program. When I found out that one of the couples was a desi, and the woman was an international medical graduate I had reached out to her since she was the only other Muslim, desi, female medical trainee I knew of at our institution. 

We had become quiet good friends since then. She hadn't given me all the details about how she and her husband had ended up getting married, and I hadn't pried, but she had mentioned an ex-fiancé who seemed to have received a very short end of the stick. 

Is Omar that ex-fiancé? Ouch...meeting her like this would have hurt so much...

I barely knew him, and this seemed to be a very personal issue so I thought about just excusing myself. But Omar was still just standing there looking down at his feet, even though the elevator had come and gone. 

Does he want to talk about this?

I hesitated, but he had been nice enough to ask me how I was feeling just a few minutes ago. And I had promptly blurted out my fiancé problems. So its only right that I should ask him how he was.

 "Are you her ex-fiancé?"

To which he only nodded slowly, so I asked further, "Are you ok?"

Again, he only shook his head without really looking at me. 

Ok then...What am I supposed to do now? Comforting grown men, who were not my patients, was not something I had any real skills in.

Almost as if he read my mind, he looked up at me. There was so much sadness in his eyes it almost broke my heart. If we weren't Muslims, or desi, and standing in the middle of the elevator foyer, I would have reached out and hugged him, but instead I just said, "Well...this sucks!"

His lips turned upwards in to a half-smile, and he finally spoke, "It does...doesn't it!"

Then he took a deep breath and said, "Thanks for standing here with me..."

I had not done anything at all, but if he found my presence comforting I was more than happy to be there for him. Especially, after the way he had intervened with Jawad.

We stood around for a few more minutes, during which time he told me how he had tried his best to avoid running in to Noor but had no choice other than to accept the internal medicine residency position. Somehow, I wasn't surprised that surgery had been his first choice, especially after his initial faux pas with recommending that his ER patient with food poisoning get surgery for a rare abdominal condition. Though, he had actually done quite well on his rotation after that, from what I had heard. 

"The senior resident with you in the ER was really impressed with you, by the way. In fact, I think so were all the attendings you rotated with", I told him what I had heard when we, the senior residents, were comparing notes on the newbie interns. 

"Sounds like it would be a big loss for our program if you decide to transfer out next year", I usually wasn't this generous with praise for new interns, but he deserved to feel good about himself so I didn't hold back. 

Whatever I did must have worked because by the time he pressed the elevators 'up' button again, his charming smile was back, which made me smile too.

Wait...his 'charming' smile? What the hell is wrong with me? 

Before I could chide myself for having weird thoughts about the new intern, my pager went off. Mr Andrew, our 85 year old patient who had been admitted for a heart attack, was acting 'inappropriate' with all the female staff, according to my intern's page. 

Oh Lord! 

I took my time walking up the stairs to the cardiology floor, I could use the exercise but I also wanted to think about something that had occurred to me. 

Noor was an amazing person, both inside and out. But I did wonder how she had managed to have two men so crazily in love with her. I had seen how her husband, Salman, looked at her. It was so obvious that he absolutely adored her and would do anything to make her happy. And then there was Omar, who was clearly still smitten by her even after what she had done to him. 

Will I ever find that kind of love? Or have someone look at me the way these two men looked at Noor?

Maybe there is actually something wrong with me

I thought I was falling in love with Jawad, but then we had that big fight when he had come to Chicago, and ever since then we had avoided talking on the phone. But today, out of the blue, he had called saying that he really wanted to make things right. That he had realized how important I was to him, and that he wanted to have a future with me. And then he brought up the fact that our parents would be devastated if we broke off our engagement. 

That last part, I knew was true. My parents, content with the fact that their older daughter was engaged, had already started entertaining proposals for my sister. She checked all the boxes required to be a highly eligible bachelorette in our culture; she was in her early twenties, was fair skinned like my mom, had light hazel brown eyes, thick and naturally straight hair, and she hadn't a chosen an insanely busy career which kept her away from outside life for almost 80 hrs a week. It wasn't hard to see why everyone thought that she would make a perfect wife. And I also knew that my parents were very worried about her getting married before me. As if that would mark me as unmarriageable material. 

Ugh...why do I do this to myself? 

I was a successful, well-liked and respected physician working at one of the best hospitals in the world. So many people would kill to be in my place. 

Why do I then care what I look like, or what other people people think of me? And why in the world am I bringing poor Noor in to my insecurities and self-pity?

By now I had reached Mr Andrew's room, and a couple of red-faced nurses and the intern were standing outside whispering amongst themselves. 

"Hey guys, alright...give it to me...what did he do?"

Apparently, he had called one nurse his baby mama, and told the other one that he wanted to be her sugar daddy, and then he tried to set up the male intern with his 82 year old wife. 

"But you know what...he has been doing other weird things too. He asked me for soup earlier in the day and when I bought it for him, he kept saying 'get these chicken nuggets away from me' and then he kept asking where I was hiding the Russian diamonds", one of the nurse reported. 

It sounded like he was getting delirious and maybe was disoriented to where he was. He had not shown any such symptoms when he got admitted with a heart attack. The two most common reasons that came to mind, were either a stroke or a urinary tract infection (UTI). It could be due to medications as well, but we hadn't really changed much on his medication list in the past few days. 

"A UTI?", the younger nurse asked in a surprised tone, "How are his brain and bladder connected?". 

"A UTI causes increase in certain proteins that cause inflammation in the bladder and sometimes kidneys. That is the body's way of fighting the infection. But then it is thought that those same proteins can travel to the brain via the blood supply and cause mild inflammation in the brain, which in the elderly can lead to disorientation"

Sure enough, when we tested the patient for signs of a UTI he fit the criteria and I asked the intern to start Mr Andrew on antibiotics. When I went in to see him, and inform him of what we had found he initially nodded along as if he understood everything. 

Then with a broad grin on his face, said, "You are so beautiful...like an exotic princess"

I burst out laughing, which probably confused him more. 

Well...at least my 85 year old disoriented patient thinks I am beautiful!

Omar

"Are you her ex-fiancé?", Madi had asked in a lowered voice. 

I nodded silently, and yes, I was not ok. 

I wasn't even sure why I kept standing there, even when my elevator came and the doors opened. Maybe it was because I just needed someone who wouldn't judge me, and Madi just seemed like that kind of a person. Or maybe I was hoping that some of her self-confidence and composure would rub off on me, so I wouldn't feel like such a fool for having all these emotions for a married woman.

And I am glad I stayed because when I looked at her and saw her eyes, full of warmth and understanding without a hint of pity, and her genuine smile when she said 'Well...that sucks', I instantly felt calm. 

Even when I told her about my pathetic attempts to stay away from Noor, she only listened instead of telling me how sorry she felt for me, or how despicable it was of me to have these feelings for a married woman, or that I should get over her and move on. 

Instead, she told me about how the senior resident and attending thought I had done a great job during my ER rotation. I don't know whether she just made all of that up or if it was the truth, but either ways her words had pulled me out of a deep, dark slump for which I was really grateful to her. 

As I got on to the elevator, she smiled at me again and I realized that even though this was only our third meeting, I felt like I could trust her. 

I mean, how can you not trust someone with such a genuine smile?

Taking out my phone, I looked up my schedule for the next few months. I was hoping I would be on with her during one of my rotations. I was sure she would be a terrific senior resident. 

Oh, look at that...I am on call with her in the medical ICU next month...cool!

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