“I wish I was here to visit the club,” he said, allowing his gaze to climb the heights of the building. “I don’t even remember the last time I came here…but today won’t be the day I’ll pay Monsieur a visit. A client of mine has his office in the neighborhood, actually, and I need him to sign some documents ahead of the merger.”
“Business before pleasure, huh?”
“Always,” he nodded, a hint of a grin on his lips.
“Well, I won’t keep you, Tamsin,” I said as I shook his hand. “But don’t be a stranger.”
“Same goes for you,” he replied, offering me a slight nod. If he had a hat on his head, I’m pretty sure that he would be tipping it right now. I stood there for a moment, just watching him walk away, and wondered if Tamsin and I were condemned to be the club oddballs.
While most of our acquaintances were signing contracts with Consorts and using that as the building block of a real relationship, the two of us seemed more preoccupied with being successful at work than anything else. Not that it had me worried: I knew that to succeed in the medical field you had to make a few sacrifices. I just never thought that when I finally decided to take a risk and ask someone out…that I’d be flat-out rejected. Of all of the scenarios I hypothesized, I really thought that rejection was the unlikely one.
“Let go, Neil,” I commanded myself, drawing a curious stare from some of the passers-by. Ignoring them, I made my way to the car and then drove off, mechanically navigating through the traffic as I made my way back to Riverside Urology. I had a few scheduled surgeries for that afternoon, and they couldn’t be any more welcome—there is nothing quite like having a scalpel in your hand to eliminate unwanted thoughts.
And still…
I spent the whole afternoon lost in a haze, the sound of Alex’s voice wreaking havoc inside my mind: I couldn’t focus on whatever my patients said, and all the medical reports turned into gibberish the moment I laid my eyes on them. I even went as far as to reschedule two surgeries. I simply couldn’t understand why someone like Alex would say ‘no’, and that with a justification like ‘I don’t date Patrons’. Why in the world had he imposed such a rule on himself?
Alex Hughes was an attractive and successful young man, one with the world at his feet…so it didn’t make any sense for him to be limiting himself like that. Unless, of course, that had been nothing more than just an excuse.
After being done with the afternoon surgeries, I went straight to my office and locked myself inside it. The sun was already setting on the horizon, the parking lot right below my office slowly emptying it out, and the building itself felt like it was winding down from an intense day.
Running one hand through my hair, I sighed audibly as I sank down onto the chair behind my desk. I kicked my shoes off and, propping my feet up on the desk, closed my eyes for a second and tried to relax. Impossible, of course. And now that I didn’t have anything to distract me…
Suffice it to say, it didn’t take long before I had my phone pressed against my ear.
“Hello, Neil,” Monsieur answered after just one second of waiting.
“Monsieur.”
“What may I help you with?”
“Don’t you know already?” I joked. Monsieur had a sixth sense when it came to people—especially if those people were Patrons and Consorts—and I had been certain he would’ve known of my interest in Alex.
“Of course I know,” he said dryly, even though I could almost feel the amused smile I imagined him to have. “You’re calling because of Alex. He has caught your eye.”
“That he has,” I said. “I was just wondering if there’s anything I should know about him. I’ve asked him out, but he seemed…reticent. He’s not the timid type, so I thought there must be something more to it.”
“I see,” Monsieur merely said, his voice revealing nothing. He waited for two heartbeats before continuing and, in that time, I felt my heart tightening with anticipation. “As I’m sure you understand, Alex’s information is confidential. As is yours.”
“Of course.”
“But I’ll say this…I’ve known you for a long time, and I think very highly of Alex. If the two of you were to be together, I’d say fate is working correctly. As far as I’m concerned, you have my blessing.”
“Thank you, Monsieur. I appreciate hearing that.”
“Just be wary…Alex won’t be easy.”
Oh, I thought, that I know already.
“Dad?” I heard someone say, a tiny little voice that broke through the fog clouding my mind. “DAD!”
“What?” I blinked, looking from Iris to Idina. They were sitting on opposite sides of the table, and the two of them were looking at me with a suspicious expression.
“You’re distracted,” Iris laughed, twirling her fork around the pasta in her plate. “Something’s going on.”
“Yup, definitely,” Idina agreed, nodding almost too solemnly as she exchanged a knowing glance with her sister. I tended to blame their sassiness on Mike, my ex-husband, although he would just as quickly accuse me of the same. In the end, though, I thought their sassiness was a byproduct of both me and Mike.
It was funny to think that a casual encounter outside of an Edinburg pub had resulted in two perfect little girls. Just a junior doctor at the time, I quickly found myself packing my bags and moving to the States with a man whose rock-star status had just started to grow.
Even though the marriage hadn’t lasted, both Mike and I still saw the girls as the best decision we had ever made. Through the use of a surrogate we had become parents, and that created a bond that survived our breakup. In a way, we still saw each other as family.
Of course, while Mike was about to enlarge his family by getting married (even though that was still a well-kept secret), I was pretty content with the bachelor lifestyle. My club membership had always ensured my enjoyment, but lately I had grown bored with it. Casual flings and relationships that depended on a written contract no longer interested me. But, somehow, Alex had broken through my boredom and buried his hooks on me.
Either way, Iris and Idina had already seen through me.
“C’mon, Dad,” Iris insisted, smiling mischievously. “Tell us.”
“Tell you what?” I asked, even though I knew there’d be no escaping these two. If they wanted to find something out, they’d stop at nothing.
“You know exactly what Iris is talking about,” Idina laughed. “You’re never distracted, Dad, and you have that look on your face…”
“What look?”
“The look of someone who has met another someone,” she teased me, and this time I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. I was definitely not ready to share what was going on with them—especially because there was nothing going on—but they exchanged a knowing glance the moment they saw me smile.
“Busted!” they both cried out at the same time, and I just shook my head.
“Who wants ice cream for dessert?”
“We know you’re just trying to distract us,” Iris protested, but her eyes had lit up at mention of ice cream. I just laughed, knowing that I had delivered a winning blow.