Me After Meeting You

“Your grandparents aren’t here yet.” Nancy wiped the tears of laughter off of her face.

“They’re late. Do we need to wait for them?” Ian responded indifferently, his voice detached.

Amber had some more time to look at him now. Ian was indeed expressionless, his handsome face as apathetic as still water.

She raised her eyebrows slightly upon seeing that Nancy was blinking rapidly at her. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To get food with us.”

“Oh.” Amber helped her teacher up and then followed along somewhat confusedly.

***

Ian’s grandparents never showed up, so it was only the three of them at the dining table. Ian was reticent and it was mainly Amber and Nancy doing the talking during the meal.

But just as the waiter served the last fruit platter, he did say something. “Remove it!”

The waiter hesitated, Amber and Nancy stopped talking.

Ian pointed at the platter a little impatiently. “What are you thinking, plating the fruit in such an ugly fashion?”

The waiter, Nancy and Amber all looked at the platter. Quite honestly, the fruit platter was plated beautifully, with care and precision. The platter consisted of half a honeydew carved into the shape of a flower, which was then filled with a variety of vibrant fruits, it was a natural piece of art.

But Amber quickly noticed that on that platter was a lopsided cherry tomato, the likely reason for Ian’s distaste. As expected, this person has a very serious form of OCD.

Nancy did not seem to find his behavior unusual and waved at the waiter with a smile. “Take it away, will you?” And, as if nothing had happened, she turned to Amber. “Keep talking about that patient from just now.”

Amber continued explaining, “Her family invited a spirit medium to purge all the ghosts from their house, claiming that she must have been possessed. During the ritual, the girl was badly scared and in her panic, accidentally killed her grandmother. When I saw her during my daily rotations, her condition had already reached a very severe state. She firmly believed that someone had cut her head off and that she was a headless corpse.”

Amber was talking about one of the patients currently in her care, one with a serious case of Cotard’s syndrome, colloquially known as the walking corpse syndrome.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Nancy responded, “This is truly a classic case of Cotard’s syndrome. It’s a very rare illness in this country. How do you plan on tackling it?”

But before Amber could respond, Nancy’s phone rang. Amber heard her say a few words into the phone, before saying to the group, “Something urgent came up at the office, I have to go.”

Amber stood up. “Let me walk you outside.”

As a doctor, there were always sudden, unexpected situations, especially in the psychiatry department when patients illnesses flared up, most people wouldn’t be able to handle them. Amber wasn’t bothered by Nancy’s sudden departure, only thinking about how she might be able to help out.

But Nancy stopped her. “It’s fine, my assistant is coming to fetch me and there are enough people on the scene already. You should stay here and enjoy a nice meal with Director Ian.” She then looked over at Ian. “You’ll help me take care of Amber, won’t you?”

Ian, indifferent as usual, replied, “That’s fine.”

Nancy smiled and patted Amber’s hand. Before long, Nancy’s assistant had arrived and Amber was walking Nancy to the door. By the time she returned, Ian had already put down his chopsticks. “Are you full?”

Ian nodded.

Amber retrieved her jacket that was draped on a nearby chair. “Then, let’s go as well.”

She kept thinking about what Nancy had mentioned. In general, patients that could alarm even her teacher were quite remarkable and she very much wanted to observe her teacher in action.

However, Ian didn’t move. His distant gaze, as if covered in a thin layer of frost, landed on her face.

“It seems that you’re really quite unaware.” He sneered. “Did you think that your teacher really had an emergency? Or why my grandparents said that they would come, but never showed up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Their actions were all premeditated.”

“Premeditated?”

Ian looked at her and couldn’t help but ask, “How on earth did you become a psychiatrist? This is a blind date in disguise. Could you really not tell?”

Amber was at a loss for words. She coughed violently to break the awkwardness. “Hem, I didn’t know.” She had thought that the reason behind her teacher introducing Ian to her was for something important, like helping her raise funds for a grant she was writing.

Ian’s face remained expressionless and Amber felt a bit embarrassed. “Sorry, I really didn’t notice Professor Nancy’s plan.”

Nancy had been single her entire life so Amber had never imagined that she would try to be a matchmaker for her.

Ian snorted lightly. “It’s fine.”

His knuckles rapped on the table as he continued, “You still haven’t mentioned how you planned to deal with that patient of yours.”

It seemed like he had really taken an interest in the subject. Amber thought for a bit, sat down again and started outlining her rough plan. “Patients suffering from Cotard’s syndrome generally find social interaction difficult, but can often be savants in their personal areas of interest. I’d like to have her start doing personally interesting activities. That way, she can immerse herself in her fantasies and I can slowly help her accept reality using her fantasies as a medium.”

“I’d have imagined that you would start by restraining her or locking her up.”

“Unless it’s absolutely necessary, I don’t support severely restricting patients in general.”

“How confident are you of curing her?”

“Doctors can only be fully confident in patients who firmly aim to get better.”

Ian remained silent for a while, before finally asking her, “Would you sleep with one of your patients?”

“Hm?” Amber didn’t understand.

Ian’s tone was as tepid as if he were discussing the weather. “What if you accidentally got into bed with your patients?”