“Maybe I thought we could have a conversation like two adults?” Maybe my tone was a bit harsh, but it was probably the most serious conversation I’ve ever had in my life with a woman and she walked away. I laid it on the line and she walked the FUCK away. What did I get myself into? Relationships—too goddamn complicated.
With no response, she closed the bathroom door. I had zero practice with this shit. My instincts were to bang down the door and plead my case over and over. Then again, my argument was pretty explicit the first go round. Instead I took a deep breath to slow my pounding heart, the ball was in her court. This was her decision now. As angry as I was at what just transpired, I was even more pissed at myself for starting the whole damn episode. I ruined our morning (after a night that challenged the record books I might add) and put a strain on our relationship because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Son of a bitch. I’d always been the closed off and guarded guy and now I was open and exposed. I was questioning my change.
I paced for several minutes; it did squat. I dropped to the floor. A hundred and fifty push-ups did less. The shower water continued to beat against the tile and all I really wanted to do was strip down and join her. But I wasn’t stupid enough to think that would fly. I needed a solid hour with the bag to work out some of this energy. I glanced at the clock. I had to be at the office by nine to deal with a huge client—Fred-fucking-Flintstone to be exact, followed by a mandatory hospital board meeting at eleven. Shit, the gym wasn’t an option either. Back to being a gentleman, I used the guest room shower. How was that for irony? This whole time I thought she was only a chapter behind and slowly catching up, but now I wondered if she was reading a completely different book. Maybe a move wasn’t ever in her plan. Maybe a long distance relationship was enough for her. What the hell ever happened to ticking clocks and shit like that? Oh right, she wasn’t like every other woman. Fucking irony. We cordially left my apartment a little after eight. Before we went our separate ways, she suggested we continue our conversation tonight. I hoped for the chapter.
“How was Stowe, good powder? Blue said you brought Talia with you, seems serious.”
I stopped by Chase’s office after my board meeting.
“Yeah, it was fine, good, whatever.” I was distracted, replaying our fight from this morning. It was a fight, right? I didn’t know. I didn’t do fucking fights. My mind swirled. Are we serious? Good question. “Sorry man, got a lot on my plate. Work’s been insane, Dad seems to be getting worse, and yeah, Tal and I are getting closer.” Unsure why, I was still a little hesitant about talking about Talia with him. It was odd, but even more odd was the fact that he and Tal hadn’t seen each other yet. Especially since his wife and Talia hit it off and were occasionally texting back and forth for a few weeks now.
“His confusion more noticeable?”
“More than that. His cognitive function significantly deteriorated. He was in the wrong year, bouncing between the past and present. Happened in Vermont, in front of all of us, Maggie, my sisters, Tal. Thankfully, my nieces weren’t home at the time because Molly fucking lost it.”
“Ah shit, Ash. Sorry, man. Wish they were making better advances with the disease progression. Most of the research is still focused on early detection.”
When Chase got uncomfortable, he got all medical. My father considered him a second son, and vice versa. This blow cut Chase almost as deep. He knew better than the rest of us that research wasn’t making any difference. At least not for Dad’s case. It was too late; we’d entered the beginning of the end.
“How’d Maggie handle it?”
“You know Ma, she was upset, shaken at first, but Talia completely took over the situation and calmed everyone down. I’m not sure if we would have gotten through it without her.” It was the truth. She was amazing with my family. She was amazing, period.
“Talia?” he questioned.
I wasn’t planning on saying anything, but I blurted it anyway. “When Dad saw Talia, he thought she was Kimi. Even asked where you were.”
There was a time, pre-Lil, when I steered clear of all topics Kim with Chase (unless it was KimCore related). He’d come a long way.
“Oh wow, okay.” He seemed as shocked as we all were. “Fuck.”
“Yup.” I was done with this conversation. I sure as hell didn’t feel like fucking rehashing it. I wasn’t sure why I even brought it up in the first place. “Listen, hitting the gym later, you free to go a few rounds? Say four?”
He glanced down at his computer, clicked a few buttons. “Yeah, see you there.” He didn’t push any further. We had an unspoken understanding. He got it, he knew what it was like to beat the shit out of himself more times to count over the last couple of years.
I took the stairs two at a time, not caring that I was in my suit, and stopped on the third floor to grab a coffee from the Starbucks cart. The morning’s fiasco killed java time. I also bought Suzie the disgusting latte she loved and continued down the clinic corridor to the back staircase leading to the parking garage. I had a shitload of work back at the office—including the Flintstone deal—to bury myself under and hopefully distract me this afternoon.
Did I say distraction? At the far end of the hall, Talia tapped away, focused on her iPhone screen. I stopped mid-stride. An unexpected but pleasant surprise. She actually never mentioned where she was going this morning, but then again we said all of two words to each other after we showered. I was a dick. This had to mean she was exploring her options. Visions of our heated conversation became an instant blur, as my new focus was her ass and legs in her light gray tailored trousers, short blazer, and heels. Like an idiot, a smile crept up on my face. I passed the stairs and continued down the long corridor. It was time to make nice. I needed to apologize. I was an ass this morning.
Several clinic doors down, it dawned on me. I rarely came from this direction. I actually made a point to avoid it, but I was familiar enough to know that dermatology was the other direction and not here. My heart lurched and coffee slid back up my esophagus, burning my throat. Why was Tal standing in front of the oncology suite?
“TP?”
She spun on her heel at the sound of my voice. Her cheeks drained of all color and not in a you-startled-me way. She wrapped her arms around her waist as if she needed to support herself. My gut twisted and my appetite was gone.
“What are you doing here, everything okay?” I decided not to jump to conclusions, even though my mind was spinning full throttle.
“Yeah, fine,” she squeaked out.
I needed to know what the hell was going on. Something was so wrong. The door opened and a tall young man walked out and joined our party of two. Dressed in a lab coat he concentrated on his handheld tablet. Talia’s eyes left mine and went to his.
“Mom, you’re early.”
I turned to look behind me. There were three of us standing in a very empty hallway. My eyes snapped back. What the fuck did he just say? There was no way. His eyes were aimed directly at Talia. The burn in the back of my throat intensified to the point of fire. My pulse skyrocketed as I pinballed between the two.
“Um, Tack,” her voice cracked.
My brain raced but obviously wasn’t processing fast enough. My focus finally settled on the doctor. No, he was too young to be a doctor. Equally confused, he looked straight at me. His fucking eyes nailed me worse than a double blow to the kidneys. I ceased to breathe as the pain became unbearable. I knew those eyes almost as well as I knew my own. I was staring into them not fucking ten minutes ago. No one else in this goddamn world had those grey eyes. I stepped back, refusing to believe what I saw. Talia hadn’t budged. Her jaw was open and her eyes bulged with who the hell knew what emotion. She looked like she saw a ghost. I was pretty sure I had.