Impossible Glamour
Read Impossible Glamour Online
Authors: Maggie Marr
Tags: #FIC027240 FICTION / Romance / New Adult; FIC027020 FICTION / Romance / Contemporary; FIC044000 FICTION / Contemporary Women
Maggie Marr
CONTENTS
An Excerpt from
One Night for Love
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The Glamour Series
This book is dedicated to Margaret Eloise Marr
I love you and I’ve always known that you love me.
Ellen
Something was wrong. There was no good reason that I’d be called to the dean’s office during my surgical rotation. During
any
rotation. But surgery? That was particularly stress-inducing. Surgery was the residency I wanted. The residency I’d worked toward for the past seven years.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I nodded to the dean’s assistant, who waved me by her desk. My fingertips grasped the cool metal doorknob. How unfamiliar, how unusual to be in trouble. I was first in my class, honors in every rotation; med school was a breeze. Only amongst my family was I considered an oddball troublemaker, but never in school. Never academic problems. Never, before now.
I opened the door. Dean Talbot with her easy grace turned toward me, a smile on her face.
“Ellen, always a pleasure.” She waved me closer and toward a chair. No trouble there.
The problem, my problem, was already seated on the couch. The primary problem I’d faced the past two weeks was Doctor Lynn Kazowski.
“Miss Legend.” Dr. Kazowski crossed her legs and leaned back into the sofa cushions.
We’d rounded together earlier that day, then I’d watched her perform a lumpectomy. She’d made no indication that she would be present at my meeting with Dean Talbot.
“Ellen.” Dean Talbot sat on the chair perpendicular to mine. “I suggested this meeting because Dr. Kazowski has some…” Dean Talbot paused and her gaze flicked from Dr. Kazowski to me. “Well, she has some concerns.”
My heart careened in my chest.
Concerns
? In my entire academic career, no one had ever voiced
concerns
when it came to me and my ability to achieve my dreams and my desired future.
I clasped my hands in my lap. I forced my expression to remain neutral. Deep breaths quelled the adrenaline now pumping through my body. I maintained my serious yet thoughtful expression and turned my gaze from Dean Talbot to Dr. Kazowski, expecting to hear some constructive criticism. Some way in which I might secure my desired academic outcome. How I could be a better student so that she might write the glowing academic recommendation for a surgical residency that I needed and, after all my years of sacrifice and hard work, deserved.
Kazowski’s gaze, which indicated my inadequacy, landed on me. Her face was absent emotion. She was round and soft, but beneath a maternal-looking exterior was a shrewd, cold, hard, skin-slicing surgeon.
“You are incapable of achieving your dream.”
My heart fluttered in my chest, and I pulled back from her words. What was she saying? How could she possibly be telling me that all my work and studying was for nothing? I still had one more year of med school and then residency and—
“I’m certain you’ll make an excellent doctor should you garner a residency, but I’m afraid, Miss Legend, that you simply don’t have the talent to be a surgeon.”
“Talent?” I nearly whispered. I glanced from Dean Talbot to Dr. Kazowski. “I don’t have enough talent?”
Her words echoed the pathetic mantra for my entire life. I was the one Legend in my überfamous family without God-gifted talent. I didn’t have talent like the other members of my family. I did, however, have brains and a work ethic and a near-photographic memory. “It’s only two weeks into the surgical rotation. I’m first in my class and I study—”
Dr. Kazowski waved her hand as though my words, my years of work, my straight As, meant nothing when it came to my dream.
“Those things do not a surgeon make.” She lifted her shoulders. “Certainly you must have all that—the test scores, the recommendations, the grades to be considered—but just because you have the credentials to enter a race doesn’t mean you have the talent to win.”
A race? She was likening my dreams to a footrace? Dreams for which I’d sacrificed year upon year upon year.
Dean Talbot leaned forward. “What Dr. Kazowski is saying, Ellen, is that you might be better served considering a different residency.”
“A different…”
A roaring sound rushed through my head. I looked from Dean Talbot to Dr. Kazowski. What were they… I couldn’t quite understand… Were they both saying—
“What I’m saying, Miss Legend, is that in this race you do not have the talent to win.”
I closed my eyes. She was a premiere surgeon, and if Dr. Kazowski told me that I didn’t have the
talent
to make the future I desired a reality—I opened my eyes—well then, I didn’t.
“You may finish your rotation, of course,” Dr. Kazowski said. “But I won’t be able to provide you with the recommendation that I’m certain you’ll want. Nor will I be able to reach out to my colleagues that chair the necessary residencies.”
My heart stalled in my chest. Yes, those were exactly the reasons why, the very reasons she mentioned, that I’d spent sleepless night after sleepless night for the past seven years securing perfect grades and test scores so that I might convince her, Dr. Lynn Kazowski, that I deserved her favor and her recommendation.
“But…”
Her sharp gaze halted the words in my throat. I wasn’t meant to question her, this god set amongst mortals. I was merely meant to accept her edict and turn and walk away with my tail tucked firmly between my legs.