The Tale of Tom the Orthopod

This is the story of meeting Tom the Orthopaedic Surgeon. 

I'm slouching around ED, fiddling with the numerous useless items that I've stuffed into the pockets of my scrubs to keep me occupied. I'm so angry about having to spend a week in ED when I could be in surgery. Convinced nothing will ever cheer me up. Then she gets carried through the door. A beautiful 6 year old girl with her forearm in the shape of a wave. Even she knows that her arm isn't supposed to bend that way. 

Ah, what it must feel like to be 6 years old. A time when weight and calories and metabolic rate aren't things that matter at all. Plus, she's thin as a rake. I'm jealous of how thin she is. How fucked up is that? The first thing I notice about a girl who has broken both bones in her forearm is how thin she is. 

The x-ray is horrific. We grimace as we look at it. That's when he walks in. Tom the Orthopod. I stare at him like some sort of idiot. He's HUNKY. And that's not a word that I usually use at all. His dark brown hair poke out of the sides of his theatre hat and he stares back at me with his chocolate brown eyes through his hipster glasses. You can tell how muscular he is, even though he is wearing shapeless scrubs. 

"Hi..." he glances at my name tag, "...Judith Marie, do you want to help out?"

I hold the unconscious little girl's arm as he reduces the fracture. The quiet room is filled with the sound of the crunching of bone grinding against bone. Slowly he massages her arm back into a straight line and plasters it in place. 

The entire time I'm thinking what it would be like to have a him as a boyfriend. And at the same time hoping that he's not standing close enough to me to see how fat I am. The bandage on my stomach itches. It covers the cuts that I did last night. I'm pretty sure I will never ever wear a bikini again because of all the scars. 

I'd been thinking that I can't ever need abdominal surgery, because I don't want any surgeon ever examining my abdomen and seeing all the cuts. 

After meeting Tom I had one of the best days ever in the gym. I ran for longer than I have for a long time, rowed 2000m and did over 100 crunches and some other upper body strength stuff. I haven't worked that hard for a long time. 

Because I want a boyfriend like Tom one day. And I don't want to ashamed and I don't want him to be ashamed of me. Someone as ripped and nice like that should have a beautiful, thin girlfriend. Shouldn't have to have some lumpy, dumpy fat girl like me. I've always talked about wanting to date an orthopod. About time I made myself worthy of one.