“Let me hear you crow.”
Chapter 14
MIA
Parker’s apartment overlooked Central Park. When we first arrived, I had no idea he lived in the most prominent area of the city. Again, I should have but I didn’t. Parker showed me around the apartment. The driver had arrived at the door with my luggage, which was definitely more than I arrived in New York with. Parker escorted me to my room that I’d be staying in for the next week. He called it a room. I’d call it a suite.
The room was amazing. He must have had a decorator. The softest lavender adorned every wall. A satiny white comforter covered the bed, which contained white, silver, and lavender pillows in several sizes and shapes. A crystal lamp with a silk white shade trimmed with crystals shimmered on each of the glass nightstands. The room was pure perfection and completely my taste in décor. That is, if I could afford it.
I could just stay in this room for the next week and be happy. I gotta video this for Chloe.
“Will this work for you, Mia?” Parker asked. “I have another bedroom if you would prefer it.”
“I absolutely love this room,” I said without looking his way. Instead, I walked to the windows to check out the view.
“Great, I hoped you would like it,” Parker said. “My sister, Murphy, usually stays in this room, so she ordered me to have you use it. Let me show you around the rest of the place before I go.”
“You have to go already” I asked almost whined
“Sorry, but I do have patients to see. Let me show you around first.”
He introduced me to his housekeeper Missy, then promptly left for work, telling me Hank, his regular driver, was available to take me anywhere I needed to go.
* * *
The puppyand I spent the first day shopping for essentials. Hers, that is. She picked a bed the size a St. Bernard would sleep in, but how could I say no after half the store watched her try each bed and then roll over repeatedly. When she found “the one,” she closed her eyes and curled into a little ball. I let her know right then that I would be choosing everything else, only to be proven wrong when she chose her favorite food dish with matching water bowl.
“Oh no,” I said to the clerk. “I think a monster has been created, or perhaps a princess.”
Maybe Princess should be her name. I can never say that to Parker I would never hear the end of it.
Parker had insisted we use the car service to get around. I really had wanted to get out amongst the real New Yorkers. I wanted to ride the subway, shove through the crowds, and hail a cab, but being dropped at the door of each store was pretty cool too. Hank, my driver, didn’t mind my desire for a slice of Ray’s pizza or a big pretzel from a street vendor. I even convinced him to join me in my fine dining.
Parker texted at four p.m. sharply to let me know he would be in meetings until eight p.m. and I should order myself some dinner because he would be eating at his meeting.
“Well, Hank,” I said, leaning forward over the seat dividing us. “I’m on my own for dinner tonight. What do you suggest I order?”
“Depends what you have a taste for,” he said. “I can drop you at the apartment and go get it for you.”
“That’s sweet,” I said, patting him on the shoulder, “but that would be keeping you much longer than Parker probably paid for.”
“Not really, Mia,” Hank said. “I’m on call twenty-four seven when he is in town, and I have to pick him up at eight p.m. So I’m all yours till then.”
“Really!” I said. “I thought you were a day service. Does he ever walk or take the subway?”
“Only the train sometimes,” Hank said, laughing. “He is a very busy doctor.”
I leaned back, laying my head against the headrest.
How awful to live in a city like this and not experience it completely. Maybe I can get him out there while I’m here this week.
“Hank?” I asked. “Can we go see the Statue of Liberty before going home?”
“Your wish is my command,” he said in a silly English accent.
I like this guy. No wonder Parker keeps him full-time.
“Then, I think I would like Chinese after that, please,” I said. “Bring me wherever you think is the best. I trust you.”