“Not sure about that one, but I would like to meet him,” she said.
“I think you’ll like him. I’m telling you, Raya, he’s the one. He is the one!” I beamed.
“I hope you are right,” she told me. “Really, I do.”
TWENTY-THREE
Trevor
I hadn’t yet mentionedto Harper the fact that I had had lunch with a CEO of the medical community down in Texas. I knew that would fill her with a ton of questions, and, more than that, she would worry about what that would mean for us.
With our relationship still being new and rather fragile, I didn’t want to throw any kind of stress on it that was going to cause problems. The thought of me moving just a month and a half after we started dating made me feel sick. I didn’t like thinking about leaving her up here.
What would happen if she was lonely and some other charming guy came along? I didn’t want to be all the way down in Texas and just able to talk to her on the phone when she wanted to be cuddling with someone. It was far too big of a risk for me to think about going without her.
But, I also didn’t want her to think that she was going to have to come with me, either. On the other hand, if I were to tell her that, then I felt it was likely she was going to tell me that I couldn’t stay for her, and she would want me to take it out of that fact.
It could be a mess, even if I didn’t want it to be, and I knew I had to tread lightly.
I ultimately decided it was one of those things that I would talk to Harper about when I knew more about it myself. I would think on things and see how things were going with Harper, then I would choose how to move forward with the offer from Abraham Mardquart.
The only person I talked to about the lunch with was Nick. He had heard from Sarah that I went to a lunchtime rendezvous with Abraham Mardquart, and he hunted me down as soon as he could to talk about it. He couldn’t reach me at first, not with the patients I had to deal with coming through the office throughout the rest of the afternoon, but once we were done for the day, he ambushed me on our way out to the cars.
“When are you moving to Texas?” he asked.
“I don’t know if I am,” I said. “And how do you know about that anyway?”
“Sarah.” He shrugged.
“Sarah,” I repeated as I rolled my eyes.
She was an excellent receptionist, except for the fact she liked to gossip too much, and there were some things she liked to spread around the office that she really shouldn’t be spreading. This was one of those things. I didn’t want the entire office coming at me and asking when I was going to be leaving. I wasn’t sure I even would be leaving.
And I really didn’t want Harper to hear the news through the grapevine. Now that she knew Nick, our lives were on track to becoming entwined, and there was now a chance that she could hear things about me from people who knew both of us rather than from me personally.
“You know she likes to talk, and she likes you, and she knows we’re friends,” he said.
“And she likes you,” I added. “So, of course, she’s going to tell you what’s going on in my world.”
“She didn’t tell me everything. Didn’t tell me when you were leaving or what he’s paying you,” Nick said.
“I don’t even know what he’s paying me,” I replied. “He gave me a folded piece of paper with the offer on it, and he told me to take it home and think about it, then look at it when I feel like I’m ready to really think about the offer. I don’t know if I’m going yet or not, so I haven’t looked at the paper.”
“Don’t you think you should? That might have something to do with your decision,” Nick suggested, but I just shrugged.
“The fact that moving to Texas means leaving Harper negates really any offer he could give me. Not that I want to just throw it away and not think about it. After all, my career has been heading toward this for a long time, and I know Harper would be really upset if she knew that I didn’t take the job because of her. But then, I don’t know, there’s bound to be a lot of money written on the back of this sheet of paper, and I want to know what that is.” I tapped my pocket where the note was safely stored, then I blew out some air.
“But don’t you think she would go with you?” Nick asked. “The way the two of you were the other day left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Because of the nauseating cuteness, of course, but with a bad taste all the same. I feel like the two of you might as well tie the knot now with how tight you are.”
“Come on, we weren’t that bad, were we?” I asked, actually flattered with what he told me. It was the first he had seen me with a girl and said that we acted like we were connected, not that she was really hot or that he was jealous of the way she looked.
“You were that bad and then some,” Nick said. “I wouldn’t doubt for a second that she would be happy to pick up and move with you if you told her you were going to Texas tonight.”
“But then there’s her mother,” I told him. “I don’t think Mrs. Dennis is in any shape to be moving across the country at this point in her life. She’s in remission, but a move is hard on anyone, and at her age, I would like to see her stay in remission for a while yet before I give her the clear to move anywhere.”
“But you don’t want her, you want her daughter,” Nick said.
“But I’m not going to put Harper in that position. Make her choose between her mom and me? That’s fucked up,” I said.