by Cee, DW
“Jane, you’re joining us, right?”
“No,” both Reid siblings answered at the same time. Jane looked offended that Jake had decided for her, even though she gave me the same answer.
“My old roommate, Allison, is coming over and we’re going out for lunch.”
“Allison?” Jake had a peculiar look on his face. “What’s she doing in town, and why’s she coming over all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. I was going to ask you the same question. She called out of the blue, asked me where you were, and when I told her you were here, she insisted on coming over right away.” Within seconds, Jane shook her head. “Oh, my gosh. You didn’t finally succumb to her wiles, did you? Jake! Did you two date? Did you sleep with her? You’re such an idiot! No wonder she kept asking about you.”
“Who’s Allison?” I asked.
Jake ignored both of us and hurried me out the door. Of course his past was not so kind, and Allison—tall, thin, and gorgeous—came running toward Jake wrapping her arms ever so longingly around my boyfriend’s neck.
“Jake! I’m so happy to see you.” I let go of Jake’s hand so he could greet his whomever she is or was.
“Uh, hi, Allison.” At this point this woman had the gall to not only hug my boyfriend, but kiss him on the lips. I was floored, Jake looked appalled, and Jane gasped, horrified. Jake quickly pushed her aside and tried to grab my hands again but I didn’t give him the pleasure.
“Hello,” Allison turned her hand out to me. “I’m Allison, Jake’s friend.” She giggled.
Ugh!
“Nice to meet you. I’m Emily, Jake’s girlfriend,” I answered as sweetly as possible. Take that! As annoyed as I was with this woman, it didn’t rival Jake’s terrified look as he kept searching for my perturbed expression.
“Jake. I rushed over here because I need to talk to you. Can you spare a few minutes for an old flame?”
At this point, I felt bad for Jake more than anything else. I decided to bow out and let them finish their conversation.
“I’ll see you at the car,” I whispered to Jake. “Jane, will I see you before I leave tonight?”
“Probably not. I’ll see you in Hawaii.” She hugged me and pleaded her brother’s case. “Please don’t be too upset with him.”
Jake tried to hold on to me, but I grabbed our blankets and wine case and went out to the car. I turned on the music and sat patiently waiting for Jake to arrive. He probably only took a few minutes to talk to this person but it felt like hours. A myriad of thoughts ran through my head, but I decided to shut it out and enjoy the rest of our day together.
Jake jumped into the car with a most guilty look. “I’m so sorry about…”
“It’s OK,” I cut him off.
“Don’t you want to know why she was here?”
“I prefer not to know, if that’s OK with you. I know you didn’t live under a rock before you met me. You’re thirty. I’m sure you’ve dated many girls before I came along. Though you only told me about Kelley. I prefer not to know what you did before us, OK?”
Jake started the car and headed north.
“Where are we going? I’m really hungry again, not to mention exhausted, after our marathon biking session.” I couldn’t tell whether Jake’s silence signaled guilt or anger about this morning’s ordeal. Not liking the silence, I decided to explain why I didn’t want to hear about Allison.
I reached over to hold his hand. “Jake?”
“Hmm?”
“Why are you so quiet? Did I do something wrong again?”
“Emily, why would you think you did anything wrong?”
“Well, generally when someone stops talking to you, it’s because they’re upset with you. All right…let me explain why I don’t want to hear about that vile woman.”
This brought a chortle out of Jake.
“When I was waiting in the car for you, I realized you were right when you said it’s not good to know too much about each other’s past. Watching her kiss you unsettled me to a point where my mind raced in all directions, jumping to conclusions about your relationship with her, past and present. Unpleasant would be a mild way of explaining what I felt.”
This explanation only brought on a guiltier look.
“But then I thought about what you had to witness on Friday with me and Max, and I decided whatever I felt this morning couldn’t have compared to what you must have felt meeting my only boyfriend of four years. So, I thought it only fair to let everything go and enjoy the rest of the day.”
His eyes expressed appreciation and we enjoyed the rest of the day at an oyster farm about an hour north of the city. It never ceased to amaze Jake how much I ate. He watched in amusement as I tried to shuck an oyster with no success. Jake also found no success trying to top oysters with the goodies that we brought. His toppings fell off the shell or slid to the side. We decided he should shuck the oysters while I created my masterpieces of oysters with caviar, oysters with mignonette and hot sauce, and grilled oysters with melted cheeses, hot sauce, and pancetta—that was the winning combination. A bottle of wine later, I needed dessert and coffee to wake me up or I would end up asleep on our picnic blanket among a crowd of people.
“Jake, how did you know Parisian macarons are my favorite dessert? I don’t think I ever told you this, did I?”
His lips curled into a most endearing expression. “You have this almost wistful look in your eyes when you talk about or see something you like.”
“That’s exactly what my mom used to tell me. While you call it wistful, she called it covetous.” I laughed. “How boring and predictable am I when you’ve figured me out this easily and so quickly,” I stated with chagrin.
“On the contrary, I find you to be the most interesting and desirable woman I’ve ever met. I can’t get enough of you.”
I felt blood rushing to my cheeks. “That’s only because I’m the one girl who hasn’t jumped into bed with you on the first date.” I saw blood rushing to his cheeks as well.
Waiting out a delay on the runway at SFO, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Jake pulled up the armrest, placed his arms around my waist and had me snuggle into his chest. I could never tire of this sense of being desired. Drifting into unconsciousness, Jake kissed the top of my head whispering three words that gave me goose bumps. Perhaps I was only dreaming.
Chapter 5 Max’s Regret
The phone rang way too early for my liking.
“Hello?” I answered, annoyed.
“Emily. You’re back. Where were you yesterday? I tried calling you all day.” It was Sarah, probably calling for a minute-by-minute recap of my date.
“Sarah! It’s awfully early to be calling. What time is it?”
“Get up! It’s 6:00a.m.”
Was she kidding? 6:00a.m? “I just got to bed a few hours ago. Leave me alone.”
“I’m coming over right now. I got you some coffee.”
Sure enough, the doorbell rang within minutes. Ugh. I pulled on a robe, slowly brushed my teeth, and washed my face before answering the door. Sarah was dressed to go to work and ready to attack if I didn’t start talking.
“Tell me everything!”
I tried to be vague, because I was tired and wanted her to leave so I could go back to sleep, but that was wishful thinking. I had to give her every detail of our trip from start to finish.
“All right. We flew out of Burbank airport and landed in SFO. Jake rented a car, and we had lunch at my dream restaurant up in Napa.”
“Seriously? How did he do that? Didn’t he just dream up this trip three nights ago? He’s good! Wait, what’s that on your neck? That looks heavy. That’s not an engagement ring, is it?”
I started walking toward my bedroom threatening to go back to sleep. “OK, I won’t interrupt,” begged Sarah. “Continue!”
“We ate lunch, drove to his apartment in the city to rest, and then got ready for dinner and an opera.”
“What? He has an apartment up in San Francisco? What did you do there?” Her expression turned suggestive.
“Sarah! You know that I didn’t have sex with Max during our entire four-year relationship. You know that I feel strongly about waiting till I get married.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You and your virtues. I don’t know how you can hold back when you have someone as gorgeous as Jake in an empty apartment.”
“Anyhow, his sister, Jane, was in town as well, so we got ready and had dinner with her and saw Carmen. After a nine-course lunch and a four-course dinner, I think I have officially gained back the weight I lost after my breakup with Max,” I kidded.
“So, then where were you yesterday? Did you spend Sunday with Jake as well?”
I paused, knowing that Sarah was about to assume the worst. “I stayed up north all weekend.”
“You what?” Her eyes bugged out. She knew I had never spent a night with anyone other than her. “You slept with Jake?”
She would jump to insane conclusions. “Sarah, I stayed in their apartment, but slept in Jane’s room with Jane.”
“Oh.” Her excitement deflated faster than a popped balloon. “So you told Jake about your ridiculous pledge to stay a virgin?”
I nodded my head yes.
“What a buzzkill. He must have loved that piece of information about you.”
“Yeah, at first I thought that he was OK with it, but I soon saw a whole other side to Dr. Reid. Inside this well-respected doctor who showers me with attention, lives a five-year-old who pouts when he doesn’t get what he wants and gets upset quite easily. I found it adorable.”
The conversation that ensued covered why I had a very expensive ring on my neck, and how Jake and I were going to give this relationship a chance at a future.
Sarah looked at me as though she wasn’t sure she believed my earnest attempt at a new relationship. “I know you really like Jake, and Charlie and I are happy you’ve moved on, but can you honestly say that you are over Max and that you can seriously date Jake? Jake obviously thinks a lot more of you than you do of him.”
“He told me that he really likes me and I like him just as much. I’m going to try, Sarah, to completely let go of the past and to start loving again. I had such an amazing weekend with him.” Without a doubt or any pretense, I believed I could start anew. Sarah didn’t buy it.
“Peter told me you and Max never made it to the bar Friday night. What happened to you two? Where were you?”
“We went and had dinner. Thanks to you, I didn’t eat that night. I can’t believe you did that to me. How can you call yourself my..."
Sarah cut me off. “OK, OK. I’m sorry. Back to dinner, what did you two talk about?”
“Max asked about Jake and I asked about him and Jennifer. He apologized to me for breaking my heart, and reassured me that he loved me very much when we were dating. He said that I was his world or something like that.” I spoke with much skepticism.
“Charlie told me yesterday that Max and Jennifer broke up.”
My head spun. “What?”
“That’s what I heard. He broke it off after being with you on Friday, so we thought maybe you two were back together.”
“Sarah! That’s crazy. You know that I’m seeing Jake. I have no thoughts of getting back together with Max.”
Sarah eyed me curiously. Still she wasn’t convinced.
“You’re such a liar. I still see the hurt on your face whenever I bring up Max.”
“Yeah, it still hurts, but I’m over him. I want to be with Jake. I really like him. I feel so at ease with him. With Max, I was always on edge, you know that.”
Ding dong.
We looked at each other, wondering who would come by so early in the morning. We both walked over to the door, and to my delight, it was Jake.
“Good morning, Beautiful.” He planted a long kiss on my lips. Sarah tried to make her presence known and break us up, but Jake wouldn’t let go.
“Hello?” Sarah protested.
Jake looked up from my face and answered, “Hey, Sarah. What are you doing here so early?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“What are you both doing here at this hour?” I tried to sound annoyed.
“After having spent an entire weekend with you, my girlfriend, I was going through withdrawal.” He tried to kiss me again, but the phone rang.
“Goodness, it’s Grand Central here today. Sarah, can you answer that for me, please?”
“Hello?” We heard from afar.
I continued my conversation with Jake. “To what do I owe this unexpected but much-appreciated visit? I’ve never seen you so soon after a date. I thought maybe I wouldn’t see you again till we landed in Hawaii.” I laughed, knowing this was our reality.
“I missed you after dropping you off last night. I thought I’d come by and see you before I started my day. What’s your schedule like today?”
“Absolutely nothing is on my schedule today. This is the life of a school teacher on vacation.”
“You want to come to the hospital and have lunch with me?”
I eyed him suspiciously, knowing that he had no set lunchtime.
“Oh? What time?”
A chuckle ensued with no clear answer for a lunch time, but many more kisses to all parts of my face and neck followed. Sarah halted our embrace as she yelled over, “Max and Peter want to know if you want to have lunch with them around noon today?”
My eyes gleamed with mischief, while his shot daggers at the thought of me being back together with Max.
“Well, Dr. Reid? Lunch today? I’ve got another offer on the table. Can you match that?” I smiled at his perturbed face.
“No. Go ahead and have lunch with your ex. I don’t know when I’ll get out of surgery.” Even with a churlish demeanor, Jake was still endearing.
I hugged him and said, “I thought I might see another one of your tantrums. Don’t worry. I promise I won’t allow Max to run over and kiss me like you allowed Allison to do. Go save another life, Dr. Reid. Stop by after work, if you like.”
He glowered at my snide remark concerning Allison, then lit up at the prospect of us seeing each other later, but quickly turned glum at the thought of me spending the day with Max. We said good-bye and he left for work.
Sarah had told the guys to meet for lunch near her work so that she and Charlie could join us. Today was shaping up to be a more eventful day than I had planned.
“By the way, Sarah, I’m leaving for Hawaii on Monday. You and Charlie want to house-sit for me? I’ll be back Thursday morning.” Once again, I went into long details with my best friend about Jake and the Reid family. She seemed quite impressed.
“We’d love to house-sit. It gives me a chance to be with Charlie for four straight days.” I didn’t want to know what was going on in that mind of hers.
“Use the guest bedroom, OK? No funny stuff on my bed.” This provoked a pillow fight I was not ready for so early in the morning.
When Max offered to pick me up and take me out to the Westside to meet Peter, Sarah, and Charlie, I hesitantly agreed. Being with Max made me nervous all over again, but for different reasons. Though I knew Jake was the only man in my life, I was still unsure where Max fit, if he fit at all. I got in the car and Max eyes immediately landed on my new necklace.
“What’s with the albatross on your neck?” he rudely referred to my ring.
My face scowled in answer to his obnoxious question. After a bit of silence, Max tried to ask me questions about inconsequential things like what I was doing for Christmas and New Year’s, but as soon as I reminded him that I was going to Hawaii with Jake, the awkwardness reappeared. Feeling jittery, the conversation stopped for the rest of the ride.
When we got to the restaurant, our friends were seated already. We all said our hellos, and everyone’s eyes locked on to my pendant.
“Did you get married and
forget to invite us to the wedding?” Peter questioned.
Max sharply answered, “She won’t say. I’ve asked already.”
Charlie too was curious about the necklace. “You going to explain why you’re wearing a wedding band on your neck?”
“OK. I’ll explain,” I answered exasperated. “Jake gave this to me Saturday to make our dating official.”
“What does that mean?” Peter asked.
“Jake wanted affirmation that we were boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“If he buys you something like that when asking to be your boyfriend, what will he get you if he’s asking to be your husband?” Sarah wondered.
I saw a bothered look on Max’s face and a worried look on Peter’s. The two of them exchanged some message I chose to ignore.
“Let’s order,” I exclaimed, breaking the mood.
Everyone loosened up once our ring conversation was forgotten. It had been a long time since the five of us had sat down for a casual meal, and Max and I eventually relaxed and started chatting like good friends again. We planned out our trip to Vegas, and Peter told us that he would take care of all the hotel arrangements. We deliberated on whether or not to allow Peter to make the sleeping arrangements but since none of us wanted to do it, we let it be.
In the middle of lunch, I received a text from Jake that made me laugh.
Are you done with lunch yet? You did keep your promise concerning Max?
I understood his text but decided to make his life a bit more difficult.
What promise? I didn’t make you or Max any promises, did I?
Yes, you did. You weren’t going to allow him anywhere near you.
Well, he picked me up, drove me to lunch, and is now sitting next to me. Does that break my promise to you?
Emily! This isn’t funny. You’re torturing me.
I’m not the one who kissed another woman in the middle of our weekend together.
I thought you said you’re going to let that one go. I promise! I didn’t kiss her back.
