The restaurant is a great place for a date.

I think we were eagerly plucking the fleshy morsels from the mussel shells when the topic of weight came up.

“I gained a lot of weight during my intern year,” she said, popping another mollusc into her mouth.

I cocked a skeptical eyebrow. Now finishing up her intern year, she was my medical student when I was an intern.

“You don’t look like you have,” I commented. The natural conclusion followed: “And, anyway, you don’t look fat.”

She laughed. “My clothes know,” she cheekily replied.

Her notes on patients in the hospital have floated across my eyes over the past year. Over two years ago, I taught her how to write concise assessments and plans on her patients. She still uses that template, down to the signature “FEN” (”Fluids, Electrolytes, Nutrition”) that precedes the patient’s code status.

“Maria was the reason why I wanted to go into internal medicine,” she recently explained to a fellow intern. Her confession is amusing, since I am not an internal medicine resident and yet, still became her mentor.

The topic of conversation drifted to The Enigma of Boys as we shared a piece of tiramisu.

“You’re a smart, beautiful, and accomplished woman,” I said. She was already rolling her eyes at me. “What? It’s true. Don’t settle for any guy—you want someone who is going to treat you right and not take you for granted. You want someone who is worthy of you.”

She nodded.

“And people are the most deceptive during courtship,” I continued. A smile of recognition crossed her face; she began to nod enthusiastically. “They want to make an endearing impression and will do just about anything to ensure that. After a while, they’ll let their underwear hang out—”

“—and soon, they’ll be farting in front of you,” she concluded.

“Yeah… and it takes work for that magic to continue. And that’s why it’s even more important that you don’t settle for just any guy—you want someone who is going to value you even beyond courtship. You’re worth a lot and you should be treated that way.”

“Yeah,” she said, mindlessly keeping the tines of her fork between her lips. “You’re right.”

She removed the fork from her mouth, smiled brightly (and what a smile it is!), and announced, “I can’t wait to fall in love! I hope it happens soon.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Me, too.”

(Part of the ongoing Relationship Series.)