Gullible me

Earlier this week the pulmonary attending told me he was taking the current fellows and resident (that's me) to breakfast at Pancake Pantry before work. He said to all meet there around  6:30am. Later that day, I asked the fellow about it.

Me: Hey, about breakfast tomorrow. Is that for real?
Fellow: Huh?
Me: I mean, everyone's really gonna be there, right? Or is it a joke on me by the fellows? Like, hey, let's all tell Beth to be at Pancake Pantry super early, and then no else shows up!
Fellow: Ha, ha, ha. No, it's real. He does this every month.

I showed up promptly at 6:29am, and everyone was indeed there. Breakfast was delicious.

I told you that story to tell you this one. Clinic was a real doozie today - payback for the >40% no-show rate over the last few weeks. So I texted my fellow just after 5:00pm.

Me (text): Clinic crazy. Just finished w/ last pt. Writing notes, but call if I need to come back.
Ring, ring.
Me: Hello?
Fellow: Hey, Beth. I'm glad you called. We had a pretty quiet afternoon, but we actually just got called about this guy with big lung nodules.
Me: Oh, ok.
Fellow: He's got RA [rheumatoid arthritis], so we think it's probably just rheumatoid lung.
Me: Hmm. Wow.
Fellow: I was gonna see him, but we thought you might want to instead since it's a rheum thing. So how about you run back from clinic and see him real quick. Then maybe present to Dr. E in an hour or so? I mean, since you got out of clinic so early.
Me: Uhh, ok. (pause in which I gather the strength to put fake perkiness in my voice) I can head back over right now.
Fellow: I am so messing with you.
Me: Oh thank goodness because I would NOT have been able to feign interest for another hour!
Fellow: Ha! You did a good job of faking interested just now. Ha! No, we had a really light afternoon. I just wanted to mess with you.
Me: So Pancake Pantry was real, but this was not.
Fellow: You got it. Have a good weekend. See you Monday.