Tex was shaking his head throughout.“My dear Mrs. Bezel, I can tell that you love your sister dearly, for you to come up with a solution like this, but I can assure you—”
“I’ll pay you!” suddenly the woman said, and took out her purse.
“Oh, no, please,” said Tex. This was simply too much.
“How much do you want? I have money. I can pay you… a thousand?”
“Please, Mrs. Bezel.”
“Two thousand? I’ll pay youten thousand… per date. Let’s say three dates at ten thousand each, that’s thirty thousand. Even you wouldn’t say no to that kind of money, would you, Doctor Poole?”
“But, Mrs. Bezel!”
“Please,” said the woman, folding her hands now in a gesture of supplication. “I’m desperate. Evelina isn’t eating, she isn’t sleeping, she’s been crying non-stop since that awful man stood her up. I’m afraid that if this continues she will harm herself.”
“Have you considered taking her to see a professional?”
“I thought I was doing that right now?”
“I mean a psychologist. Someone at whose feet she can lay all of her troubles.”
“She’s been laying all of her troubles at my feet, and now I’m laying them at yours, Doctor Poole.”
“I really can’t…”
“But I’m begging you!”
“I’m sorry.”
“She’s your patient, doctor. If she takes her own life, wouldn’t you wish that you had done everything in your power to save her?”
“Of course, but…”
“Well, then? You can save her now. It’s your duty—your sacred duty to save my sister’s life. You swore an oath, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did. But I think you’ll find that your interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath is a little… original.”
“Look, like I said, I don’t expect you to actually date my sister. I’m not crazy. I know you’re married. That you have a family. And that’s exactly why I chose you. You’re probably the only man left on this planet that my sister trusts and respects, except maybe for our dad.”
“Okay, suppose I say yes.”
“Oh, please!”
“Just supposing, I’m not saying I will do it. But what happens when after the third date I tell your sister I don’t want to see her anymore? How do you think that’s going to affect her? Another blow, so soon after the first one might very well be the final nail in the coffin of her faith in mankind.”
“By that time I’ll have arranged for her to go on a long vacation with me—far away from here. The only problem is that our cruise isn’t sailing until next month, and thirty days is too long for her to be left alone, wallowing in heartache.”
“So you want to use me as a kind of stopgap until your sister can go on a cruise?”
Emma Bezel smiled shyly.“I wouldn’t exactly put it in those terms, Doctor Poole, but yes, I want you to take her mind off things for a while. Until I can get her away from here—away from the place where everything reminds her of her failed affair with Bob Rector.”
For some reason the name seemed familiar to Tex, but then he discarded the notion.
“Look, I’m not asking you to engage in some kind of torrid love affair with my sister. Just go out with her a couple of times. Distract her. Make her smile again. Make her feel that the world isn’t all dark and gloomy. That there still are decent people living in it.”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head and idly fingering his wedding band.
“Simply be a friend to her. A doctor and a gentleman.”
“All I’d have to do is take her to dinner?”
“Or lunch. No romance involved whatsoever.” Mrs. Bezel took a deep breath, and looked willing to stake it all on one final plea. “My sister doesn’t need your medicine right now, doctor. She doesn’t need your pills. What she does need is your kindness. Your humanity. Your friendship and your compassion. And right now you’re the only person I can think of who fits the bill.” She directed another one of those pleading glances in his direction that did so much to weaken his resolve. “Please?” she added in a small voice.
Chapter 11
“So what do you think?”
“What do I think of what?” said Vesta as she took a tentative sip from her chamomile tea. She preferred hot chocolate, but her doctor, who also happened to be her son-in-law as well as her boss, had recently advised her not to consume so much sugar as it was bad for her. Also, all that chocolate made her hyperactive, which apparently was a bad thing, too. She made a face. “This stuff is probably going to kill me even faster than my regular hot chocolate.” She raised her hand. “Waiter! Hey, waiter!”
Dutifully the young man whose task it was to keep the customers frequenting the Hampton Cove Star’s outside dining room happy, eagerly came hopping over.
“Please dump this in the nearest toilet where it belongs,” she said, handing him the terrible brew, “and give me my usual.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the kid, who had yet to outgrow his pimple-faced phase, and quickly hurried to fulfill this treasured customer’s order.
Scarlett, who’d ordered her usual high-caffeinated drink, was grinning throughout the scene. “I don’t understand why you insist on torturing yourself with those herbal concoctions, Vesta. You know you hate them, and still you insist on trying them all out.”
“It’s my son-in-law,” she lamented. “He says chocolate isn’t good for me. The sugar does something to my liver, the caffeine does something to my heart and the rest isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be either. Though if I listened to him I wouldn’t be allowed to eat anything I like. He frowns at meat, cheese, coffee, chocolate, cake…”
“That’s doctors for you. Their only joy in life is to make life for the rest of us miserable. That’s why I never go to them.”
“Oh, don’t give me that. You go to them all the time. In fact you’re probably Tex’s most loyal patient.”
“I humor him. He likes to prescribe me stuff, and I like to throw away his prescriptions. That way we’re both happy.”
“You’re crazy,” Vesta said. “Now what were we talking about?”
“Bob Rector,” said Scarlett as she took a nibble from one of those miniature pastries that Tex had told Vesta were pretty bad, too. “Also known as Mr. Potato Man.”
“Look, I talked to my son and he says he’s got the thing well in hand. In other words, he told me to stay out of it.”
“And when have you ever allowed yourself to be told off by your own son?”
“You’ve got a point,” Vesta admitted as she watched the pimpled kid return, carrying a tray with an extremely delicious-looking hot chocolate.
“Extra-large hot chocolate, with extra cream and marshmallows,” the kid announced in a high-pitched voice, then placed the order on the table and blinked a couple of times in quick rapidity before asking, “Is it true that you’re Chief Alec’s mom, ma’am?” His pimpled face had taken on a dark hue. It made his pimples practically light up like so many little Christmas lights.
“That’s right,” said Vesta as she licked her lips at so much gooey goodness standing at attention at arm’s length. “Why do you want to know?”
“The thing is, ma’am,” said the kid, gulping a little, and in the process giving his Adam’s apple a thorough workout, “that currently we have a VIP guest staying with us. At the hotel,” he added to make his meaning perfectly clear, “not the dining room.”
“Is that so?” said Vesta, taking an extra-large sip from her extra-large drink and savoring the extra-delicious taste as it flooded her taste buds. Whatever Tex said, something that tasted so absolutely divine couldn’t possibly be all bad, now could it?
“The thing is, this VIP guest has expressed a desire to invite a guest to his suite—and he did. Last night. I know it’s not really allowed, but sometimes when guests ask, we provide, you know. Even though we might, um, like, frown upon the practice?”