“You’ll have this book done in no time at this rate. Your fans will be so excited.”
I didn’t have a social media account and didn’t accept fan mail, so I wasn’t sure what kind of fans I had. I didn’t even put my picture on my books because I wanted to be recognized for my work, not my face.
I closed my laptop and drank from my beer. Whenever my writing session was over, we tended to have a conversation. Even though she was free to go, she chose to stick around for a bit.
“Can I ask you something?”
I nodded.
“When Bryan gave you that card last week…what did it say?”
I didn’t have anyone in my life I shared those kinds of details with. Ryan and my friends never asked because they didn’t know about them to begin with. The day-to-day stuff wasn’t the content of pillow talk. Actually, I never really talked to any of my lovers. It was all flirting, fucking, drinking, stuff like that.
When I didn’t answer, she turned to me.
I got so lost in my epiphany that I nearly forgot about her question. “His father wrote a short thank-you note, said he was really optimistic about the results. And his mom…said thank you for potentially saving her life and keeping her son in school.”
Her eyes softened on such a deep level that the emotion was written all over her face. “That’s sweet.”
“Yeah…” I grabbed the card out of my satchel because I’d never removed it. I handed it to her.
She smiled at my gesture then opened it to read it herself.
I leaned back into the chair and drank my beer.
Her eyes softened again when she closed it. “I hope for the best.”
“Me too.”
She set the card on the table. “Has your father discussed it?”
I shook my head. “HIPAA.”
“Sorry?”
“It’s a patient confidentiality thing. He can’t discuss that stuff with me, and honestly, it’s none of my business anyway.”
She nodded in understanding.
“My dad has always said that medicine only goes so far, and there’s a natural order to the universe he has no control over. When it’s someone’s time…it’s someone’s time. But he really thinks in ways other physicians don’t, and he tries things other physicians would immediately dismiss. If there’s a way to help someone, he will find it. So, Bryan’s mother is in the best hands—and that’s not because I’m biased.”
She watched me with her soft eyes. “It makes sense that you’re brilliant since he’s also brilliant.”
I drank my beer.
“And it sounds like he’s passionate about his professional for the right reasons, which is also something you inherited.”
“That’s not an inheritable trait, but it’s definitely something I’ve adopted as well.”
“What’s he like?”
If this were six weeks ago, I would tell her to mind her own business, but I didn’t mind sharing things with her as much now. When she’d told me I was in a different mood because of my writing, I realized she was right. I was definitely more open-minded, not nearly as guarded, not so pessimistic. Her questions didn’t seem intrusive or sinister. She just wanted to know more about me, as a friend. “He’s…a little different. He’s extremely brilliant, but as a result, he really struggles to communicate with people. It’s like pulling teeth. My mom gets it, so they communicate well, and he and I communicate well because I’m a lot like him in a lot of ways, but I think I’m a little better since my mother was average.”
“Was?” she asked.
“She passed away a few years ago.”
She looked even more confused and had to take a few seconds to gather her next thoughts. “I’m sorry, I’m confused… You speak about your mother being both alive and dead at the same time.”
“My birth mother is gone. When I talk about my mom, I’m referring to my stepmother. But she raised me since I was five, so I consider her to be my mom. I had a much better relationship with her than I ever did with my birth mother.”
She studied me, like she could sense by my tone that I didn’t want to talk about that further. “So, you’re more balanced than he is.”
I nodded. “I understand social cues better than he does, have friends when he doesn’t really enjoy socializing at all, so I have a higher level of social intelligence. But we’re really close because of our traits.”
“And your siblings?”
“He’s close to them too, but since I’m the oldest, I think it’s different with us. My siblings are half siblings, actually.”
She nodded like she understood. “So, he works here in the city?”
“He does rotations at different hospitals, but his research facility is farther outside of Manhattan.”
“And your mom, is she brilliant too?”
“In her own way. She has an extremely high level of social intelligence, so she can read people easily, understand their needs, has an impressive level of intuition. She doesn’t have a formal education, but she’s got street smarts, I guess you could say. That’s why she and my dad go together so well, because she is the perfect person to understand him. If he were with another brilliant person, I don’t think they would necessarily connect.”