Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story

by Cher Etan

  Conrad smiled at her. “Well it’s been nine months since you joined us at the foundation and I just wanted to give you a bit of a score card.”

  Meaghan’s heart descended to her toes, “Okay.”

  “I just want to say that in all the time I’ve been working in the medical field I have yet to meet more of a natural than you. It’s not just medical knowledge; you know how to speak to the patients, their loved ones – you make them feel comfortable and cared for. You’re thorough in your work; make sure that you do things right without wasting time. I gotta say Meaghan; sometimes I’m envious of your natural ability.”

  Meaghan was speechless.

  “I…don’t know what to say,” she said.

  Conrad smiled again. “No need to say anything. I just wanted you to know that you’re doing a good job.” He held out his hand for her to shake and she took it bemusedly then he left her to her work.

  As soon as her legs could move again she fished out her phone and then hesitated. Her speed dial one was Bain, and her speed dial two was Dean (her mother was speed dial 0) and Mr Henley was four. The hospital rounded out the top five on her speed dial. She hesitated between 0, 1 and 2 wondering who she should call first. Or maybe a conference call? She shook her head and lowered her thumb, letting it fall where it would. She suppressed the sigh of relief she felt when it fell on 1. She’d really wanted to tell Bain but she knew that if her mother or Dean knew that they would be unhappy.

  “Hey babe,” Bain answered.

  “Hey there,” Meaghan said grinning brightly. “How is your morning going?”

  “Never mind me, what’s up?” Bain asked…and that was why he got the first phone call; he always knew when something was up.

  “Well, Conrad Shelley just came by to give me an evaluation on my first nine months on the job,” she said.

  “And,” Bain asked.

  “He says I’m the most natural doctor he’s ever seen,” Meaghan said not even attempting to keep the smugness from her tone.

  “Well I could have told you that,” Bain said.

  “Yes well you’re biased,” Meaghan said.

  “So go on…tell me every word he said,” Bain said. And that was the second reason he got the first phone call; he knew exactly what to say at all times. So Meaghan told him word for word what doctor Shelley had said. He exclaimed in all the right places and was as excited as she was for each sentence that Conrad had uttered.

  “That’s really great, do you wanna go for lunch later and explore what it all means?” Bain asked. Meaghan opened her mouth to say yes but then thought that Dean might have the same idea and she didn’t want to tell him – again – that she already had something set up with Bain so she said, “I’ll check back with you later on that.”

  Bain was easy with that, as expected and she hung up and called her mother.

  “Oh darling, that is so great. Though I’m not at all surprised; you were always very compassionate and also very careful with everything you did. It’s natural that it would translate into your work. I’m just so happy it fulfills you.”

  Meaghan felt a lump in her throat at her mother’s words. Bain might be good at saying all the expected things but her mother was the best at making her feel all soppy and emotional and like she needed to get home and give her a hug. She also missed her father abominably all of a sudden. She knew her mother was thinking of him too.

  “Your father would have been so proud,” she said right on cue. Having been a field medic in the American army fighting in Iraq, who’d been killed by friendly fire, this might very well be true. She was walking in his footsteps in a way, helping people who were in different kinds of trenches; surviving on the wicked streets of ghetto New York. Her mother too, as a nurse had carried on that fight. Meaghan was struck anew by the family legacy she was carrying on. What Dr. Shelley had said about her being an absolute natural seemed to take on greater significance and she fought not to let the tears fall.

  “I love you mom,” she said.

  “I love you too. Shall I see you tonight?” she asked.

  “Absolutely,” Meaghan said. It was high time she and her mother spent some quality time. It had been a while.

  She called Dean last after signing off with her mother while suppressing a twinge of guilt. Where did boyfriends rank in the space-time continuum as pertained to levels of importance in one’s life? He answered right away.

  “Hallo Meaghan,” he said very formally and she knew he was not alone. She looked at her office clock; it was 9 am in the morning which meant that he might be at work. Perhaps he was with his secretary.

  “Hi. Can you talk right now?” she asked.

  “Er, I actually have a meeting but can I call you back?” he asked.

  “Yeah okay,” Meaghan said stretching her mouth in a smile as if he could see her.

  “Okay,” Dean said and then there was an awkward silence.

  “Yeah so bye,” Meaghan said.

  “Talk to you later Meaghan,” he replied and hung up.

  Meaghan leaned back in her chair and sighed; well…that was why he was last. She turned to her work files, picking up the first one and studying the patient history.

  She was hard at work, dealing with the distraught mother of a young boy who had just been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma when she glanced to the side after catching sight of a familiar profile. A tall man wearing an expensive gray suit was strolling down the corridor toward her. He drew the eye of every red-blooded female that he passed, maybe a few of the males too. Meaghan stopped talking abruptly and even the distressed woman she was speaking to looked up briefly. Meaghan turned back to her and led her gently back to the waiting room. Her son was undergoing tests to measure exactly how extensive the cancer was and it would take a while. Meaghan called for an orderly to get the mother some coffee and then pressed some pamphlets into her hands so she could educate herself.

  “Do you have someone you can call to come wait with you?” she asked.

  The mother shook her head sadly. “It’s just me and Jeremy,” she said.

  Meaghan squeezed her hand then straightened up turning to the shadow she could see on her right.

  “Hey,” Dean said quietly, hands in his pockets.

  “Dean,” she replied and moved to go past him, leading the way to her office.

  “Janice,” she told the receptionist, “Five minutes break before the next patient?”

  Janice nodded agreeably. Was there a knowing look in her eyes? Meaghan couldn’t quite tell. Dean was more or less a fixture in her life these days but he didn’t usually drop in in the middle of the day.

  “What’s up?” she asked as soon as the door to her office was closed behind her.

  “This is me returning your call,” he said smiling.

  Meaghan stared in stupefaction. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure our phone signal still works.”

  Dean laughed. “Yeah I know but you sounded like you wanted to tell me something important and were disappointed that I couldn’t talk so I wanted to come down and look you in the eyes as you told me…whatever it is.”

  Meaghan continued to stare. “You’re serious?” she said incredulously.

  “Yes I’m serious. Okay and I had a site meeting not far from here so I thought I’d take a detour,” he continued.

  “Ah. That makes it all far less disturbing,” Meaghan said.

  “So? What did you want to tell me?” he asked.

  Meaghan opened her mouth and then closed it again. Now that he’d come all this way, she felt like she should maybe have something much more significant to tell him about than some positive evaluation. She felt quite awkward in fact and braced herself for his disappointment.

  “Well you see, this morning Conrad Shelley came to see me,” she began.

  “Oh? What did he want?”Dean asked all hostile vigilance and Meaghan remembered that he did not like her boss for simply being potential competition, which he would never be in a million years but D
ean couldn’t seem to get that.

  “He wanted to give me an evaluation of my performance since I started working at the foundation,” she said looking at his lapel rather than into his deep green eyes.

  Dean leaned back on her table one leg bent and the other stretched to balance his weight. “And?” he asked sounding like he was ready to explode if Dr. Shelley had said one wrong word to her.

  Meaghan told him everything Dr. Shelley had said. He listened silently, intent green eyes trained on her face, taking in not just what she was saying with her mouth but also her body. When she finished he reached out and took her hand in his.

  “What can I say? It sounds like it's everything you ever dreamed,” he said.

  “It is and yet it’s something I never expected,” she said eyes shining. He was watching her intently as if taking in every single particle of her being. “All I ever hoped for, dreamed of; is being a surgeon. If I was lucky, I would be a good one; a successful one. But to have this doctor that I respect so much tell me that I’m the most natural doctor he’s ever seen…” Meaghan shook her head, lost for words.

  Dean squeezed her hand smiling into her eyes, “It's vindication.”

  “Yes…vindication, validation…it's…everything,” she told him.

  He smiled at her and nodded, “I get it.”

  “You do?” she asked searching his eyes for any hint of prevarication or pandering.

  “I do,” he said.

  Meaghan smiled as she remembered why she loved him so much, and why he was even a factor on her space-time continuum.

  “I love you so much,” she said.

  Dean smiled at her, “and there is my vindication; my validation.”

  Meaghan pushed him lightly on the chest. “You’re such a sap,” she said with a side smile. “Now go get to your meeting.”

  “Yes ma'am,” Dean said leaning forward a little bit to meet her lips.

  “You want to have lunch with me? Celebrate?” she asked him suddenly.

  Dean smiled, “I’d love to. Pick you up at one?”

  “Yes please,” Meaghan said stepping back out of the way so he could pass.

  “See you then,” he said opening the door to her office.

  “Bye,” she called and looked at her watch. They’d been in her office eight minutes. She leaned out to catch Janice’s eye so as to let her know she could send in the next patient. As she was waiting for them to come in she quickly texted Bain to tell him that lunch was a rain check.

  *****

  The site meeting was actually at Hallets Point with Bain and Conrad Shelley. It was the potential site for a recreation center that the Wesson Foundation was interested in building for Dr. Shelley’s Queens Foundation. After hearing Meaghan go on and on for months about the work that they did and the people that they helped and keeping in mind that his foundation was on the hunt for a new project to support; it had seemed like the perfect marriage. However he hadn’t wanted to tell Meaghan about it because he didn’t want to be the boyfriend who threw money around in an attempt to impress his girl and maybe, she might think he was trying to buy her way into a promotion or whatever it was doctors got. And he didn’t want anyone else to think that Meaghan had tried to strong arm him into doing this for her own benefit. He really hoped that this project wasn’t the reason why Meaghan had got a good review from Conrad. He did mean to ask him about it though. If he was being totally honest, one of the reasons he’d chosen Dr. Shelley’s foundation was to keep an eye on the man. Not that he would admit that even under pain of death. It was his dirty little secret.

  Bain was the architect on the project because Conrad had met him at La Trattoria with Meaghan at one of their ubiquitous dates there. They’d hit it off and when this project was proposed, Conrad had said he knew just the architect to take it up. It helped that Bain was willing to work at cost but Dean still didn’t have to like it. Still, they managed to keep a civil tongue in their heads for these meetings and things were going smoothly. Surprisingly Bain had honored his request not to tell Meaghan about the project just yet. He had a feeling it was because of some simpering romantic notion of his but Dean was not about to complain.

  Bain was already at the site when Dean arrived, hard hat in place as he had an animated conversation with the foreman. Dean stepped out of his car and walked toward them, meeting Conrad midway as he came out of the makeshift office with a hardhat and a second one slung across his arm. He handed this one to Dean with a smile of greeting and they both went up to see what the issue was that Bain and the foreman were discussing with such energy.

  *****

  Meaghan took the train home that evening after having to actively dissuade Dean from coming over to pick her up. She reminded him that they had a date with a museum the following evening and therefore he should take the out she was giving him and go do something fun. She passed through Mr. Henley’s garage just to say hello and remind herself again of the good ol’ days when she used to do his accounts for five dollars an hour. He tended to also count the hours when she was just hanging out in his office reading a book or doing homework so it racked up to quite a bit of time. Mr. Henley was lounging outside his garage leaning against the wall. Meaghan wanted to chide him on how smoking was really bad for his diabetes but refrained. After all, he’d managed to live this long without her monitoring his health for him so she wasn’t going to start now.

  “Hi Mr. Henley,” she called.

  “Oh hi Ms. Sunshine. Have you come to help me with the books today?” he asked smiling through the smoke.

  “You want me to look through the books for ya?” she asked.

  “If you have the time,” Mr. Henley said.

  “I always have time for you Mr. Henley,” Meaghan said.

  “Wonderful. Come by later after your mom has gone to bed. I acquired something you’ll be jazzed to see,” he said looking pleased with himself.

  “Which album?” she asked stopping to lean on the wall next to him.

  He looked at her with a twinkle in his eye, acknowledging that she’d got it in one guess. “AC/DC, Back in Black. First edition.”

  “Seriously?” she exclaimed in excitement.

  “Seriously,” Mr. Henley confirmed nodding his head.

  “Tell you what, I’ll do your books for you if you play it for me while I work,” she said.

  “Deal,” he agreed holding out his hand to be shook.

  Meaghan went off to her house to see her mother, looking forward to dinner. Her mother could cook. Amanda Leonard was waiting for her as she came through the door.

  “Meaghan? Is that you?” she called from the kitchen and Meaghan hurried in that direction pulled by the delicious smells emanating from there.

  “Hey mom,” she called as she hurried.

  Amanda turned to look at her with a delighted smile as she walked in.

  “Well look whose here,” she said.

  Meaghan spread her hands out. “Ta da! Mommy I’m home,” she sing songed.

  Amanda opened her arms and Meaghan came into them.

  “I feel like I haven’t seen you for three years,” Amanda said.

  “I know mom, I’ve been MIA what with the job and the boyfriend…I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. You’re supposed to leave your parents behind,” Amanda said.

  “Never,” Meaghan replied vehemently. Amanda chuckled and went back to her stirring and Meaghan pulled out a chair to update her on everything in her life.

  *****

  After dinner she went over to the shop to visit with Mr. Henley and do his books. The garage bay was full of muscle cars and ‘Back in Black’ was blasting from the speakers. Meaghan walked in with a smile and greeted the various mechanics as she passed. A group of beat boys were clustered near one of the cars, talking and laughing loudly and drinking beers. Sometimes it happened that neighborhood boys would use the garage as a hang out. They thought it was cool and Mr. Henley wasn’t averse as long as they didn’t cause any troubl
e.

  She took the stairs up to the office and knocked slowly. She could hear voices inside and wondered if maybe Mr. Henley was dealing with a client.

  “Come in,” he called in his hoarse voice, affected by all the nicotine he’d consumed over the years.

  She opened the door ready with her professional smile and it dropped off her face when she saw who was in the office with Mr. Henley.

  “Dean,” she said in surprise.

  “Hey Meaghan,” he replied.

  Chapter 12

  “What are you doing here?” Meaghan asked Dean who was sitting at Mr. Henley’s desk with his feet up.

  “I called Jefferson here and he told me that you might be coming by later and that I was welcome to come by and wait,” Dean said.

  Meaghan almost asked who Jefferson was but realized in time that Mr. Henley’s first name couldn’t be Mr.

  “Oh, so you came to hang out at a garage I may or may not have come to just on the off chance?” she asked Dean.

  “There really was very little risk that you wouldn’t come. After all you promised Jefferson right?” he said.

  “Mr. Henley. I promised Mr. Henley,” she replied supremely uncomfortable with the familiarity. Her mother had always emphasized respect for older folk and that included not calling them by their first names as if they were age mates. Mr. Henley had always been old to her, even when she was very young.

  “Anyway, the point is moot because here you are,” Mr. Henley said standing up. He pointed toward a pile of books.

  “There is your work, waiting for you and if you perk your ears up you will hear the sounds of For Those About to Rock blasting through the speakers. Very apropos don’t you think?” he said.

  Meaghan saluted him and he smiled back and then left the office to them.

  “Wow, you really can’t resist me huh?” she teased.

  “I can resist you; I just don’t want to,” Dean replied smiling. He picked up one of the accounting ledgers and leafed through it.

  “Hey! I’m supposed to do the books not you,” she protested pulling it out of his hands.