Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  Max stood pensive. “For now, I think we’re good. I will support your decision to move to New York, but I need to know soon. I don’t know what we will do if you have to move this school year, but we’ll work something out. As long as I know we’re moving forward...”

  Max never brought up the issue of the my birthday present—the engagement ring, again. And I let it go as well. As we headed into the bedroom to consummate our reconciliation, I knew for sure that we were headed in the right direction.

  Fast forward many hours and an orgasm—or two, or three—later, we headed towards Columbus Circle to have dinner with Donovan and Gimpy at Milos.

  “Dinner with Donovan going to be a quiet affair? Or shall I call and tell them we won’t make it?”

  “Nothing is quiet when your Uncle Henry is around.”

  “What?”

  No question was necessary as we were the last to make it to the dinner for six. Everyone was already seated at a round table and they were having a serious conversation.

  “You’re late...as usual...” Jake made his commentary. “I take it all is right in the world of Max and Jane, again?” He gave a smug grin.

  Max shook my brother’s hand. “Yes. Thank you for the lie. Ellie’s done a good job teaching her dad the finer points of drama. You were right. I didn’t want to lose Jane.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Maybe it should be stated now, and in front of everyone, that my brother will forever be throwing me lifelines to get me out of the mess I create, created, and will create. Thank God for families and thank God for my older brother who understands what it means to love someone.

  “Emily and the kids here?”

  “They are not.”

  “Oh my gosh!!! You left Emily alone with three kids?” I couldn’t believe my brother would do this without a dire reason. “You’re actually going to sleep apart from her?”

  “I know. It kills me, but I had to be here. I’m going home tomorrow.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “Sit down,” he pulled me into a chair next to him. I didn’t know why the hell I was standing the entire time. “Uncle Henry and I are attending a medical conference and I agreed to speak at one of the seminars, long before Emily got pregnant with JR.”

  “I’m shocked you didn’t bring the whole family.”

  “Well, I was going to at first, but we’ve got a major change happening in the Reid household.”

  “Which Reid household?”

  “It’ll start with us, but will have a ripple effect with everyone else.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’re moving.”

  Whaaaat???

  August 5, 2013 The European Invasion

  “Where are you going with the kids? How can you take the kids away from all of us?”

  Max and Jake both laughed at me. “I didn’t realize you liked the kids so much—seeing as how you almost caused brain damage to one of them.” Now the whole table was laughing.

  One freakin’ near-accident and I’d have to live this one down the rest of my life. “Whatever! Explain yourself.”

  “There are a lot of exciting heart procedures and experiments happening all over the world and our hospital is doing an ‘exchange’ program with other hospitals. I’ve been asked to teach and work at the college hospitals in Europe—mainly in the London area. In return, they will send one of their heart surgeons to our hospital and this makes for a great way to learn other hospital’s innovations.”

  “Where will you be teaching and working?”

  “A day at Cambridge, a day at Oxford, and two days at the University College London and their corresponding hospitals. And then there will be occasional trips to medical schools and hospitals in the neighboring countries.”

  “With three kids, you’re going to uproot your family to do this? And for how long?”

  “Technically it’s only for the winter term, going from September to December. We’ll be home by Christmas, unless we decide to stay another term.”

  “Where will you stay?”

  “At Gram’s. Her house is big enough to house all of us, plus a few more.” He said this and looked only at Donovan. “And Roland has homes all around the major cities in Europe, so we’ll stay there when we’re away from London.”

  I kind of shook my head at this huge change. What kind of nut would move three kids under the age of eighteen-months to another country?

  “Emily’s okay with this?”

  “She’s the one that’s forcing me to go. I didn’t want to go because of the upheaval in her life, but she didn’t want me to miss out on this opportunity. It was only yesterday I made this decision. AND,” my brother stressed that last word and faced my boyfriend, “I’ve told UCL med school that I have a lovesick, soon-to-be-brother-in-law who needs to finish off his fourth year of med school apart from my equally lovesick sister who might be based in London, and they’ve offered you a spot in the school. Of course, that’s if you want to take it, and if you,” he was now facing me, “choose to transfer to the London office.”

  How did my brother know all this about me and how in God’s creation did he pull off a medical school transfer for Max? Did I ever tell you that I LOVE my big brother?

  “You know?” I asked Jake.

  “I know everything little sister.”

  “Let me remind you, Janey, that you will be in the New York office part time as well. There will be quite a bit of traversing the Atlantic Ocean.”

  Donovan jumped into this conversation. “Why is Jane moving offices? I thought you hated the New York office.” He turned to me and I had no answer for him. I wasn’t allowed to tell him what Gimpy had proposed to me, but I also didn’t want to lie to my friend.

  “Now that you’ve got your head out of your arse and have made a wise decision to go after my granddaughter, I’ll fill you in on my plans.”

  No one could ever say that my grandfather ever minced words.

  “I’m not getting any younger and now that I’m married to Estelle, I’d like to retire. And I can’t retire unless I know this firm is in good hands. Of course I have no issues with any of the partners, especially the senior partners, but I do need to make sure somebody will eventually fill my shoes.”

  “And you’ve handpicked your granddaughter, a third-year associate to fill your shoes? You know none of the partners will go for that, Roland. Even if you do own majority of the firm, the partners will not be happy.” Donovan wasn’t trying to belittle me in any way, or be mean. He was only speaking as a voice of the partners, and in a large way, he was trying to protect me and Gimpy from an all out revolt. It was true. No one would be happy with me at the helm. And even Gimpy would not flippantly offer me a partnership without the approval of all the other voting partners.

  “When I die, this firm will be turned over in equal shares to all five sons and Jake. They will sit on the governing board and David will be the spokesperson for the six of them since he’s also a lawyer. But,” Gimpy emphasized, “a larger share will be given to Jane and..,” while the rest of us knew this story and knew who belonged after the “and,” Donovan had no clue. I could tell Gimpy was wondering whether or not to enlighten Donovan. I wasn’t even sure why he was telling him this info now. Obviously something had changed in the last few days that made Donovan “go after” Laney, whatever that meant.

  “And who?” Donovan asked. “Doug? Is he switching over to law school? Or Laney? Did Ms. Mensa get into law school as well?” Our entire table chuckled.

  “You know she’s smart enough to have gotten in,” Uncle Henry butted in. “But no, Laney’s not going to law school. You still have no idea?”

  Donovan shook his head and answered, “No freakin’ clue.”

  “It’s you, you dumbass,” my brother answered and I cracked up. “How long have I been telling you to pursue my cousin? She’s beautiful, brilliant, and the bearer of shares to your law firm.”

&nbs
p; “Good one, big bro’.” I high-fived him.

  “What the hell is Jake talking about?”

  Gimpy answered the question posed to him. “I’d like for you, and eventually Jane, to be the face of the firm when I retire. Of course I’ll still be around even after I retire, but when I die, my hope is that you and Jane will lead Ascot, Ascot, and Pemberly.” Donovan looked shocked. “If Laney accepts you as you think she will, and if you become a part of the family, you will get equal shares as Jane. But, if the relationship doesn’t work out, then you get first choice to buy into those shares.”

  “Shit. Seriously?”

  “Yeah.” Jake added, “And if it doesn’t work out with Laney and you choose to buy into the company, I’ll make sure you make monthly person-to-person payments to Laney’s future husband.”

  We all laughed at Donovan again.

  “You sure you can win my baby’s heart?” Uncle Henry slapped Donovan’s back.

  “No,” Donovan became glum. “I need to unglue her from this Michael, first.”

  “So you get why I’m making the move?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Donovan was now deep in thought.

  “And when are you making your moves on my cousin? When did all this come about?”

  “The other day—I went and got everyone’s blessings to court Delaney, and I’ll be learning the ropes from Roland out of the London office.”

  “That job requires you to travel all over Europe. You won’t be staying put in London the whole time. Come up with a new game plan of wooing my granddaughter while you’re separated from her.”

  “I’ll just take her everywhere with me,” he said, looking only for Uncle Henry’s approval.

  “You can do whatever it takes, as long as you can look me in the eye and tell me exactly what you’ve been up to, every time I call and ask.”

  “Damn,” Donovan muttered. “I guess I’ll have to pull a Jake and Emily in Paris and get double rooms everywhere.”

  “Damn, RIGHT!” My uncle called out a bit too loudly.

  “Roland has homes everywhere,” I heard Jake whisper to his best friend. “Take advantage of that.”

  We all separated and I hadn’t failed to notice that Max didn’t say anything during dinner and even now, he was silently getting ready for bed.

  “What’s going on in that mind of yours?” I approached cautiously. This was one aspect of our relationship that irked me. I now thought through everything before bringing it up with Max. We’d lost that spontaneity and sense of ease where I could just blurt out what was on my mind without worrying about what he’d think. In short, I still felt guilty—whether by my doing or by Max’s.

  “Just processing all that was said during dinner.”

  “And what have you processed? Or maybe I should ask, what did you conclude?”

  “First, honest thought...? How we’d have kids with your busy schedule.”

  Shit! How does he always do this to me? His comments are out from left field. Whenever I feel like we’ve resolved one problem, there’s another larger one facing us.

  “And your answer to this thought?”

  “No answer,” was his answer as he led me to bed.

  When will we ever have an answer to all our issues?

  August 8, 2013 Another Birthday...This Time No Co-prise

  So much has happened since Sunday’s dinner, I don’t know where to begin. I guess the best place to begin would be from Monday.

  The partner meeting was a lunch meeting, so I had all morning to hang out with Max, or so I thought. We started the morning with a nice little wake up call for Max. “Happy birthday,” I said as soon as I finished him off. I didn’t leave him hanging like that one time at the hospital student lounge. This time, I finished him off nice and clean.

  “Thank you.” Max said with a very satisfied grin. “How did you know?”

  “How did I know it was your birthday???” I asked surprised. “Ummm...you’re my boyfriend, I’m your dutiful girlfriend. I should know these things.”

  He smiled and pulled me back to bed as soon as I finished grabbing the large bag in the corner of the room. “Have we ever talked about my birthday? If we have, you know I don’t celebrate it.”

  “Just because I wasn’t with you for your last birthday, doesn’t mean that I don’t know when it is. In fact I have a bunch of presents for you.”

  I dumped all the presents on the bed.

  “You bought me all this stuff?” He sounded somewhat horrified now. What kind of person didn’t celebrate birthdays? “Sorry,” Max said. “I don’t mean to be such a party pooper. My mom never made much of a big deal out of our birthdays when we were younger, so I guess that kind of stuck with me.”

  “Well, as you know, we Reids make a big deal out of everything. And birthdays are a big deal.”

  “Where did all these gifts come from?” I handed him the first gift, from his parents.

  “Emily gave them to Jake, who gave them to me. Your ex-girlfriend, and my sister-in-law, collected these gifts from everyone and sent them across the country with her husband.”

  Max found my sarcasm cute because we ended up making out on the bed and of course, you can’t just make-out on a bed and have it not lead to other, more exciting activities—of the copulating-kind.

  “I don’t have to be in till noon today. I’ll make you breakfast, but won’t see you again till your birthday dinner.”

  “I have to leave in thirty minutes,” Max countered after looking at his watch. “Shit. I’m late.”

  Whaaa? “What, pray tell, are you late to?”

  “Your brother’s picking me up and I’m going to listen to him speak.” I gave him a why the hell would you want to go to a medical seminar when you’re in Manhattan, look. “Because, my precious gem, it’s your brother. I’m sure there will be many attendees, but it doesn’t hurt to have as many people fill the conference room. I’m hoping I’ll have to stand because the illustrious Dr. Jake Reid is in the building.”

  I picked a winner! This man had goodness written all over him, inside and out. “Did I ever tell you I love you?”

  “Not lately.” He frowned.

  “Well I do. I don’t know why my eyes would ever stray when I had you with me the entire time.” Now I got a bit sad and weepy. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I thought anything less of you than almost-perfect. I’m sorry I was so greedy, self-centered, and selfish. I don’t deserve you.” I started bawling, and bawling hard. It truly was a wonder why this man would love me so much when I’ve given him nothing but hell. Sure we’ve had many good days, but the bad ones were generally instigated by me.

  “Gem, stop.” He said gently and lovingly as he wiped my tears away. “You are no more flawed than I am. My theory is that if there are things about you that bother me, I assume there are lots of things about me that bother you. Those negate each other.”

  “I feel like I messed up so badly. You don’t treat me the same anymore.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’s a distance between us, an awkwardness that wasn’t there in the past. You don’t laugh as much with me, you’re uncomfortable with me, and I feel like I have to be so cautious whenever I’m with you now. I can’t spurt out my thoughts like I used to because I think you might dislike me even more.” I don’t know how I got that all out since I was crying so hard, I was doing all the crazy hiccupping, nose-running, face-a-mess business.

  Max took off his night shirt and cleaned my face the best he could. “I’m sorry if you felt all that. I won’t lie to you and tell you that our relationship hasn’t shifted. But I still love you the same, and I’m working on being comfortable with myself.”

  “I don’t understand. Do you mean you’re working on being comfortable with me?”

  “No, I mean exactly what I said. All last month, I’ve been trying to figure out where I went wrong. What did I lack? Why would my girlfriend want the attention of another
man?”

  I made all kinds of crazy noises as I cried even harder.

  “Gem, I’m not trying to make you feel worse. I’m only being honest. I don’t blame you for my shortcomings. Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to you. Perhaps I didn’t do a good job of telling you how much I love you...I don’t know. But after much thinking, I don’t have any better answer as to how I’ll hold onto you. If I seem moodier than usual, that’s what’s on my mind. It’s my own insecurities. I’m not uncomfortable with you, I don’t want there to be any awkwardness or distance between us, and you are always free to speak your mind with me. That’s one of the complexities of Jane Reid I love most. Just give me a little time. We’ll be better than before.”