If there is one thing The Pitt on HBO can be universally lauded for, it is its’ strikingly realistic portrayal of physicians in the Emergency Department at all levels, so much so that is often difficult for those who have lived that experience to watch it at times.
For this romance writer, writing and reading a story where a happily ever after is baked right in has become the perfect chaser for a day riddled with high-stakes decisions in an unpredictable environment.
For all the perfect-reads on The Pitt, one thing that struck me was the portrayal of female resident physicians and surgeons. The women that give their lives, their twenties and often their futures to the pursuit of healing others. A noble pursuit, that for a long time, was only available to men. But as women have dominated in all sub-specialties of medicine and surgery, one thing becomes increasingly clear: women still have to choose.
Every female medical student will come up against one fundamental question: how will you balance work life and family? Will you choose a less grueling sub-specialty and leave things like pulmonary critical care, interventional cardiology and every surgical subspeciality to the men who, interestingly enough, never get asked that question?
Or will you find a way to balance motherhood, family life and all the unpaid activities that fall on women’s shoulders while also working seventy hour weeks and saving lives? Will you deal with the social stigma that comes alongside missing your son’s preschool play because you’re in surgery that day and your patient’s cerebral aneurysm simply could not wait.
And that leads me to the DINK of it all…
The massive over-simplification of options above highlights two things for me. One, first and foremost, the partner any high achieving woman chooses will likely dictate how high she can soar because nothing slows a woman down quite like the dead weight of an unsupportive partner.
And the second will be her choice to have children. Living a child free life with their partner (double-income no kids; DINK) means some of those questions no longer hold.
Exploring that tension was the driver to writing Out of Her League.
A romance in which an orthopedic surgery resident has to come to face to face with the reality that not every partner is a supportive one and not every happily ever after includes children. Dr. Isabelle Mercado sees her own life as a redemption arc to her mother, whose own legacy was clipped when she chose to have children.
Fueled by the urge to make her unsupportive ex jealous, Isa recruits a world famous athlete to serve as a fake date to an over-the-top Parisian wedding. What she doesn’t expect is to realize what it means to trust others with your ambitions and reimagine your life to fit you needs, not the other way around.
