Carol Works The Phones

“No,” Rob objected, “this is crazy. She hasn't got any medical qualification and anyway, she works for me for goodness sake. It’s completely out of line! There must be some other way. Can’t Carol just sign off on it once we finish? I refuse to –”

“Shut up!” Dr. Verma demanded suddenly. “I have explained the situation to you in thorough detail. This is what you get when you insist on pushing yourself into the schedule at the last minute. Yours is the last appointment of the day. Since you arrived at the last possible moment, all my colleagues have gone home. Do you think I want to be here right now? No. You will do as you’re told and be thankful that your colleague is here, otherwise I would have had to send you home. Am I making myself clear?”

Rob swallowed timidly and gave a small nod. Glancing over at Jackie, he realized to his dismay that she was snickering. His anger rising again, he said "At least tell her to put that smart phone away in her bag."

"Oh but Jackie will be using it. It is another standard requirement of this insurance company that a photographic record is also made of the full procedure" replied Dr. Verma calmly. "What ?" squawked Rob at this latest bombshell. "I've never heard of such a thing for a simple medical."

"Oh is that so ? And when was the last time you had a full medical pray ?" asked Dr. Verma condescendingly. "Er, when I was leaving school I guess" "Exactly. Light years ago. Procedures have moved on, plus the favorable conditions of the mortgage you are applying for demand more stringent methods. Don't insult Jackie's maturity and professionalism." Rob was once more silenced.

While Verma was busying herself in one of the desk drawers, Jackie took advantage to play with the settings on the camera. She was trying to determine the best color warmth for exploiting her boss. To her delight, she saw that there was Wi-Fi availability, meaning it was possible to transfer the images wirelessly from her iPhone. Amazing! she thought to herself. I can share my good fortune with Chris! She will LOVE this. Jackie, like many others of her generation, was proficient with phone and camera technology and she was thrilled that she could use these skills for both hers and Chris’ **** over their manager.

Carol meanwhile was working the phones. She knew Rob's neighbor Sandra and they were forever having trouble with his complaining. Admittedly, this family could be accurately be described as chavs and did give Rob cause for complaint. But Carol was not bothered by such niceties. Their last run in had been just the other week when he had reported the noise from her daughter's 18th birthday party to the police and one of her daughter's friends had received a caution for possession. "How soon can you get here ?" Carol asked Sandra. "It's about our mutual 'friend' Rob" she replied in answer to Sandra's question as to why she should hurry. "Yeah, yeah, I know arrogant prick. Anyway, how would you like to see him taken down a peg or two ?...like catching him in the nude ?...Dr. Verma's doing a number on him, he's rubbed her up the wrong way...yeah I know, what a surprise...just around the corner shopping ? Brilliant...Charlie's with you ? Oh fantastic, even better !" Charlie was Sandra's daughter Charlotte whose party Rob had come close to wrecking.

Back in the doctor's office, Dr. Verma found what she was looking for in the desk. “We’ll need to draw some blood,” she announced, holding up a needle and narrow tube. Rob swallowed hard. He had never been good with needles or blood. He had expected the procedure to be done, of course. However, the tone of the room and Jackie’s presence only increased his jitters. His foreboding must have been visible on his face because Dr. Verma made a big show of preparing the equipment, accentuating the size of the needle and allowing it to glimmer in the overhead light. A small smile was present on her face but her eyes remained cold.

Rob involuntarily cowered back when the doctor approached the examination table. “Hmmm... Scared, are we?” Dr. Verma sneered, “It’ll just be a little prick, nothing to worry about. Unless, of course, we have trouble finding a vein…” She grabbed Rob’s arm and pulled it towards her, positioning his palm face-up. “Hmmmm,” she said again, inspecting it, “Yes, it does seem like you have ‘difficult’ veins. It’s going to take a fair amount of poking around to find an appropriate source.”

A rather violent shiver went down Rob’s spine and he pulled away. “I told you to stop being a baby!” Dr. Verma snapped, slapping his arm. “Pathetic. You know what? I think I know how to make you behave. Strip. Now!” she commanded, sneaking a glance at Jackie that hinted she was thoroughly enjoying this.