~*~
Jesse’s stomach lurched at the sight of Nick leaning casually into the beautiful blonde at his side. Of course he would have a date. Hadn’t Emma told her he had several girlfriends?
She just wasn’t prepared for the sight of Dr. Nick Armstrong in a tuxedo. He looked devastatingly sexy. Sexy was too small of a word to describe him, really. Sexual, predatory, those were better words. It seemed she was always reaching for the right word to describe him. He was not a man easy to define.
His tuxedo was clearly custom made for him. It fit the width and breadth of his powerful frame perfectly. She felt her limbs tingle with awareness.
His blue eyes burned with an intensity that was becoming familiar to her. Or was her imagination playing tricks on her? There was tension coiled in his posture. He looked like a Black Panther ready to spring. She caught herself stiffening involuntarily at the thought.
“She’s dreadful.”
Jesse dragged her attention back to Nick’s charming sister with an effort.
“Nick’s date? She looks lovely.” Jesse felt woefully underdressed and plain next to the gorgeous blonde woman.
“Well she’s not lovely. She’s a gold digger hoping to land Nick and live the high life.”
Jesse forced a short laugh. “Is she aware of the going salary at Brighton General?”
“Oh, Nick has plenty of money. He’s a whiz at investing. In fact he’s one of the major donors for tonight’s fundraiser.” Claire smiled warmly at Jesse’s surprise. She hadn’t missed the look that passed between her brother and Dr. Jesse Holbrook, and the rigidness in the woman’s posture told Claire something was very much up.
“So you’re married?” Claire asked innocently.
“Eh, no—divorced.” Jesse shifted her full attention to Claire, giving up trying to catch Nick and Noel on the dance floor.
Claire looked delighted. “I insist you tell me the whole story.”
Jesse found herself relaxing as she relayed a thumbnail sketch of her life up to the present. Claire proved to be a good listener and Jesse found herself liking the other woman tremendously.
“If you’re originally from Brighton then you went to high school at Brighton High?” Claire was digging shamelessly.
“Oh yes, then I left to go to college and medical school, after that I spent four years out of the states. I got married to Wayne Holbrook two years after high school.” Two long years of waiting foolishly for a man she had meant less than nothing to.
She wondered at the troubled look that crossed Claire’s face at the mention of her husband.
“Wayne Holbrook? The quarterback?” For a brief moment it seemed to Jesse as if Claire was going to say something more, but then she let it go and sat for a moment thinking.
“So we must have been at Brighton High around the same time. Nick graduated from there twelve years ago and I graduated nine years ago.”
Jesse nodded. I came to school late senior year so I didn’t get a chance to meet many people. The words echoed in her mind. Why was it that every word from that night was etched in her memory?
She struggled to stay focused on Claire’s words as she searched her memories of Nick from high school. It wasn’t the first time she had done it. It was a fruitless endeavor. She simply didn’t remember him. It had been a class of over two hundred, but how could she have missed him?
She hadn’t even noticed him. He had probably thought she was a snob and only noticed the kids she ran with. Well, there was a certain amount of truth to that. Embarrassment washed over her.
“You ran in different circles, I imagine.” Claire said gently. Jesse’s thoughts must have shown on her face.
“Nick and I transferred in the year our father died. It was the end of Nick’s junior year. It was a tough time for us and I don’t think Nick socialized very much. You could have easily missed each other. He joined the navy and then went on to Yale.” Claire’s face showed the pride she felt in her brother’s accomplishments.
Yale.
When she thought of Wayne and his decision to follow in her father’s footsteps and get into politics, she suddenly felt sick to her stomach. A realization hit her. Good grief, she had spent her years after high school trying to distance herself from her father’s vision of her, but she had married a clone of her father.
Wayne.
She was so deep in thought about him, it took her a moment to realize that it was in fact her ex-husband, Wayne Holbrook heading across the room towards her.
What a nightmare. But of course, she should have realized that wherever the movers and shakers of Brighton would be, he would be.
Claire glanced in the direction of Jesse’s gaze and her eyes widened. Quickly, she put her hand on Drew’s shoulder, whispered something, and they vanished to the dance floor.
Wayne continued his relentless walk towards her, his eyes focused on her with determination.
Jesse sighed.
She had known the day would come when she would have to mingle with her ex on a social level, but she had hoped it would take longer than this. She stood to face the music and to head him off from the table.
When he saw her heading towards him he stopped and waited for her. Together they began walking to the other side of the room.
“No phone call? Not even a heads up that you were back in town? Nice, Jesse.” He looked pissed.
“Wayne, we’re divorced,” she said flatly.
“That was a mistake. We should never have rushed into a divorce.”
“It’s been four years.” She kept her voice low. She’d be damned if she was going to get sucked into a scene. Not that Wayne would let it get that far. His image was too important to him.
Sure enough, she watched as he forced himself to relax. The charm started coming out in spades. In a detached way, she could see that he was still a very handsome man. But his blonde good looks and slick style no longer had any power over her. He smiled warmly at her.
“Dinner. Let’s do dinner,” he said decisively. “We can discuss things over dinner.” Then he bent his head and murmured into her ear, “You know that nothing would make your parents happier than to see us reconcile. I’ve changed Jesse. I still love you. We were good together.”
She laughed in disbelief. “You married her.”
They both knew the ‘her’ in question.
“Divorced now. We’ve both made mistakes, Jesse. What was I supposed to do? You filed for divorce and vanished,” He worked on mustering up an expression of misery, but didn’t succeed.
They had reached Wayne’s table by this time, and great, of course he was sitting with Thorndike, the main contributor to the fundraiser. She gritted her teeth as Wayne introduced her around the table in a proprietary way.
She turned to leave after the introductions, desperate to get away.
“Dinner?” Wayne’s voice was overly bright. Checkmate. He knew she wouldn’t embarrass him in front of the table. So she merely nodded at him. She would fight that battle another day.
She hurried back to her side of the room with relief and sat down. The dance floor was just emptying of all but the slow dancers as a romantic ballad started. The conversation with Wayne had taken all of one song. It had felt like an entire album’s worth.
Jesse watched as Nick and Noel returned to the table. Victor Lopez extracted Noel smoothly from Nick, his eyes gleaming with appreciation for the blonde. “May I have the pleasure?” Jesse watched Noel react to the man’s obvious admiration by giggling and allowing herself to be spirited away.
She found herself alone at the table with Nick. Silence stretched for several moments. She sensed he was angry. It was a subtle awareness of how he held himself tightly and that giveaway muscle jumping at his jaw.
“Drink?” He motioned the waiter over with a gesture.
“White wine please.” She had avoided drinking so far, but a glass of wine suddenly had appeal. She was feeling like a teenager again.
“Whiskey, neat. Two.”
He held up two fingers and the waiter nodded.
Nick looked grim again. “Don’t look so scared, I’m not going to bite your head off,” he said roughly.
“That would be a first,” she said stonily.
He laughed. “I guess I deserved that.” His eyes turned smoky as they glided over her bare arms. The air sparked with awareness curving between them.
“Ever have that absinthe?”
It took Jesse a moment to understand the words, but then she shook her head no, aware that she was blushing and furious at herself.
“Whiskey?”
Again she shook her head no.
He took the drinks the waiter offered but instead of handing her the glass of white wine, he slid one of the whiskeys over to her.
“Care to cross one more thing off of your bucket list? Or have you forgotten it?”
She sat there for a moment staring at the whiskey and staring at the man in front of her. Maybe if there wasn’t anger coming off of him in waves she would have drank it. She was tempted; especially after that little chat with Wayne. But she hadn’t created the bucket list so many years ago to prove anything to anyone.
In fact, she had created it to prove things to herself and to find things out about herself. Although she hadn’t completed her list yet, she was damned if she was going to do any of the youthful things she had hoped to accomplish as a reaction to pressure or fear. So instead she pushed the whiskey back at him.
“For the record, I’m not afraid of you. But you’ve made it very clear how you feel toward me.” Jesse sat stiff and unyielding.
“Have I?” His eyes were veiled.
She watched, surprised when he tossed back his whiskey in one swallow. She left her wine untouched. She sensed the tension coiled in him and waited.
“Well Jesse...if I may call you Jesse.” His tone was deceptively casual. “I think you’re probably an excellent doctor.”
“And?” She could feel more was coming.
He looked directly at her. “You are a perfect match for Wayne Holbrook. I think you will play at being a doctor until he rises far enough that he can give you all that your rich daddy senator gave you growing up. I think that the girl with the bucket list didn’t stand a chance. She wasn’t real.”
She sat there in silence, waiting for and dreading the next words out of his mouth.
“You are still exactly what you were in high school. A carbon copy of all the princesses in the world that have no idea what living is; no room for bucket lists in your life, princess. Like I said, a perfect match for Wayne Holbrook. And, quite frankly, not a good match for getting your hands dirty at Brian’s clinic. Why don’t you just give up now and spend your days shopping while your husband works the crowd?” His last words were said in a sneer and in such direct contrast to his smooth, polite appearance that she almost laughed.
But she didn’t feel close to laughter. She realized two things at once—first, Nick thought she was still married to Wayne. Of course he did. Her last name was the same and he had seen her talking to him. Second, the little sliver of hope she had denied, that came to life everytime she saw his face had just been snuffed out. This man in front of her disliked her with an intensity that hurt. Hurt a lot.
“You’re wrong,” she whispered. Horrified she realized that tears were threatening to flood her eyes. Quickly she looked away. In the distance she saw Wayne laughing at something Thorndike said to him.
Wayne. Nick. Her father.
Suddenly she felt a surge of anger. They all thought they had her figured out.
She turned slowly back to Nick as she was vaguely aware of the ballad ending and people heading to the table from the dance floor. She reached for the whiskey and drank it in one swallow, proud of the fact that she only coughed slightly. Anger and her bucket list went perfectly together.
Through gritted teeth she said, “My bucket list, you bastard. My life. My choice. You don’t get to say who I am or what I am. You don’t know me, at all. I will not leave the clinic. The end.”
She grabbed her purse and stalked off.
Write On Press Presents: The Ultimate Collection of Original Short Fiction, Volume II Page 45
