Chapter 74: Board meeting

DEACON

"These board meetings are boring as hell, aren't they?"

The woman who was sitting in the chair alongside mine had been shifting subtly toward me for the past twenty minutes. I'd been trying to ignore it-and her-but now she was upping the ante by whispering in my ear.

I didn't care to engage in a muttered conversation like we were in junior high, so I only offered her a quick, tight smile and leaned back in my chair, hoping she'd take the hint. The treasurer was giving her report, and I did my best to focus on the numbers.

Board meetings were not my favorite part of practicing medicine, but they were a necessary evil-or at least they had been since I'd approached the board about building an oncology wing at St. Agnes almost five years ago. I'd had to convince the board that the wing was needed and possible. I'd had to show that I could spearhead the effort to fund its building and its continuation. Tonight, though, I wasn't sure why I'd been invited-a fancy way of saying c