I frowned, trying to remember. “I’m not sure. But I think you guys are both right. I think I need to try to bring more of myself into the relationship.”
“Exactly. You can’t really blame him for not knowing you if you never tell him who you are.”
“Right.”
“And he should know who you are,” Ryan continued, leaning his head on mine. “Because you’re a pretty kick-ass girl. Even if you totally bruised my ego about men.”
I laughed, and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
For a moment, we sat in comfortable silence, watching our friends. Chris and Ashley were sitting together at the far end of the table. She was even tipsier than I was, her face flushed, clearly happy, as she sat on Chris’s lap and gestured widely at a co-worker.
“You’re running low there,” Ryan said, pointing down at my beer. I glanced down and saw that he was correct; my glass was nearly empty. “Want me to get you a refill?”
“Naw,” I told him, patting his arm. “I’ll stretch my legs.”
As I stood, I felt the room sway ever so slightly.
“Drunker than you thought?” Ryan asked, grinning at me.
“Sitting is deceptive.” I steadied myself and headed to the bar, where the bartender was clearly rushed off his feet. Figuring it might be a minute, I hopped up onto a bar stool to wait.
“Having fun?” Elliot asked, sliding onto the stool next to me.
“I am.” I smiled at him, a feeling of general well being settling over me. “There’s nothing like a good bar with good friends.”
“Very true. Whatcha drinking there?”
“I’m actually not sure,” I told him, glancing at his glass. “I just ordered whatever Ryan got. What was that?”
“The Porter. It’s fantastic, you should try it.”
“Aren’t porters really dark?” I scrunched up my nose. “I don’t think that’s my thing.”
“This one has a bit of a chocolate flavor,” Elliot said, winking. “I know how you feel about chocolate-flavored drinks. I have not forgotten the Mudslide Extravaganza that was your last birthday.”
“That’s a nice change,” I murmured, without thinking.
“What?”
I looked up at him, realizing I should have kept my mouth shut. “Uh, nothing. Just, you know, nice that you’re recommending something because you know I like chocolate. Instead of just because you think it’s good.”
Elliot looked at me for a moment. I had a feeling he wanted to say something, but the bartender appeared at that moment to take our orders. I decided I would try the Porter, and Elliot was right. Even though it was a tad more bitter than I usually went for, I could definitely taste the chocolate. It was delicious.
“So what’s new with you?” I asked as we sipped our beers. “I feel like I never get to see you anymore.”
Elliot shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. “Not much. The store is pretty busy, which is a good thing. But I’ve been having trouble filling the afternoon shift, so I’m working a lot.”
“And how are the Birdwatchers?”
“It’s the Adventurers Club,” he said, shaking a finger at me. “Which you totally know.”
I grinned. “Sorry. Have you guys been having fun? What was it last weekend—a study of field mice?”
“You are just so funny, Emily Donovan,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. “If you must know, we went rock climbing. And had a really good time.”
“I’m sure you did. So, are there any outdoorswomen in this group of yours? Any prospects there?”
Elliot’s ears colored slightly. “Uh…yeah, actually. There is this one girl.”
I stared at him, feeling surprised for some reason. In the two years that I had known him, I had rarely heard Elliot talk about any girl. I had to admit, it threw me.
“Wow,” I said. “What’s her name?”
“Heather. She’s…well, she’s nice. And we have a lot in common. We’ve gone out a few times.” He seemed to be having a hard time meeting my eyes.
“That’s great, Elliot.” I was aware of a little hollow feeling in my stomach, which made no sense at all. It wasn’t like I should be jealous of a friend meeting someone—didn’t I have the most perfect boyfriend? Even if he had been a little baby about me coming out with my friends.
“How about you?” Elliot asked, finally looking at me. “How’s it going with Greg?”
“Oh, great,” I said, making my voice bright. “He’s wonderful. We had a really nice time on our trip. He even bought me this amazing bracelet. It was totally gorgeous, and way too extravagant.” I knew I was babbling, and I forced myself to stop. Elliot just nodded and turned back to his beer. We each sat in silence for a moment, drinking.
“Wanna do a shot?” Elliot asked finally, breaking the tension that had seemed to settle over us.
“Sure,” I said, grinning. “You pick.”
Elliot waved the bartender over and ordered us each two shots of Jameson. “Holy, hell,” I muttered, staring at the glasses in front of me. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”
“You can always back out,” Elliot said. “I promise not to judge or ridicule you.”
“Nice try.” I picked up the first shot and held it up to clink against his. “Ready?”
Elliot nodded, and we both downed our drinks. The whiskey burned like fire down my throat, and I gave a huge shudder. Elliot laughed next to me. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I told him firmly. “I finished it, didn’t I?”
“That you did.”
The atmosphere seemed to lighten a little after that. Elliot started talking about great whiskies he had tried over the years. I had forgotten how good he was at telling stories. He could somehow make you feel like you had been right there with him. Before long, I was laughing at the antics of people that I hardly knew. By the time we had the second shot, my buzz had deepened and I was feeling warm and happy.
I felt slightly annoyed when my cell interrupted us, but my happiness doubled when I saw the name on the screen.
“Brooke!” I shouted happily into the phone. “I miss you!”
“Wow,” she said drily. “Just how drunk are you?”
I giggled. “Oh, I’m a little bit drunk. It’s Ashley’s birthday, you know. And we are having a parrr-ty.” Next to me, Elliot started to laugh, and I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Where are you?”
“We’re at the Brewery. Do you know they have deep-fried Twinkies here? Doesn’t that sound amazing? It should, because it is.”
“Emily,” she said patiently. “Try to pull it together. I have news.”
“Oooh,” I said, clapping my hands together, which caused me to drop my phone. Elliot, still laughing, picked it up for me.
“Brooke?” he said. “This is Emily’s friend Elliot. She’s a little tipsy right now.”
“Give me that,” I said, swatting his arm. “Brooke!” I yelled loudly. “Brooooke!”
Elliot handed me the phone, smirking. “Control yourself, you lush.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m better,” I promised. He handed me the phone back, and I held it up to my ear.
“Who was that?” Brooke asked. “He sounded sexy.”
I giggled, picturing Elliot that night at the party in his black shirt and dark jeans. Hell, even tonight he looked pretty damn good in a crew neck sweater, the white of the button-down underneath contrasting with his tanned skin. Must be from all that time outside being nature boy. I shook my head slightly, trying to get control.
“You know Elliot,” I told her. “He works next door.”
“Oh yeah, vitamin man,” Brooke said, her tone appreciative. “Not bad.”
“What’s the news?” I asked, impatient.
“Oh, yeah. So, there was a little fire at the inn yesterday.”
“A fire?” I yelled, practically falling off my barstool. “Are you okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” she said calml
y. “We stopped it before it really damaged much. But we had the fire department come in, and it turns out we have some wiring issues.”
“Oh, no,” I muttered. Brooke would just be approaching the busy tourism season in northern Michigan. She so did not need these kinds of problems.
“Apparently it’s nothing all that major, and they can fix it in a matter of days,” she went on. “But it means we have to close up for a while. Which in turn means I don’t have to work. And since I don’t have to work…”
“Are you coming down here?” I yelled, and this time I really did fall off the stool. Elliot caught my arm before I could hit the floor, and pulled me back up, rolling his eyes at me. I mouthed a silent thank you as Brooke answered.
“Yup! That is, if you’ll have me.”
“Oh my God! Brooke that would be awesome! I miss you so much!”
On the other end of the line, my best friend laughed. “I miss you too, you crazy drunk. Now make sure you ask Ashley first, I don’t want to impose on her.”
“I will, but I know she won’t mind. Oh, this is gonna be awesome. When can you come? I’ll try to get some time off. We can go out and drink and watch movies and stay up all night talking…”
“Take a breath,” she instructed.
“Right, sorry. I just really miss you!”
Her voice softened. “I really miss you too.”
After I hung up, I turned to Elliot, unable to keep the smile off my face. “My best friend is coming to visit!”
“I gathered,” he said drily. “That sounds exciting. Are you guys close?”
“So close,” I said emphatically. “She’s like my sister. You’ll love her, she’s the best.” Suddenly, it felt like the whole room was spinning. “Ugh,” I said, putting my hand to my head. “Maybe I’m too excited.”
“Let’s move back over there, and I’ll get you a water,” Elliot said, taking my arm and pulling me down from the stool. He led me back over to the long table and deposited me on a regular chair. It felt better to be a few inches closer to the floor than I had been on the stool. “I’ll be right back.”
I watched as he headed over to the bar for my water. Such a nice friend, I thought.
“Hey, Em, you have a minute?” I looked up and saw Michael sliding into the seat across from me.
“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Not too much,” he said. “I just wanted to run something by you.”
“Shoot,” I said, trying to focus my eyes. I’d definitely had one too many drinks. Wordlessly, Elliot appeared at my side and pushed a glass of water toward me. I grinned at him gratefully.
“Okay, so you know how I told you Sam was considering selling?”
“Yeah,” I said, eyeing him suspiciously. “And you said you would tell me right away if it turned into anything serious.”
“Well, yeah,” Michael said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think it just got serious.”
“Wow.” I pushed the water away, my head reeling. What would happen if the clinic was sold? Was I about to lose my job? “Why is he selling?”
Michael shrugged. “I guess the company wants to focus on retail right now. Apparently they’re doing really well with the supply stores, and they want to expand, but they don’t think they can do that with the nursing placement center and the clinics. So they’re going to unload.”
“Crap,” I muttered, suddenly feeling a hell of a lot more sober. “What’s going to happen?”
“Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Michael leaned forward across the table, his face serious. “The clinic is probably going to get purchased by the same type of bullshit company that only cares about the bottom line. People who wouldn’t know the first thing about PT best practices, you know?”
“God, you’re really cheering me up here, Michael,” I muttered.
“What would you say about working for someone that does know PT?” he asked. “Someone with experience who’s willing to try new things and put the patients first?”
“I would say, sign me up,” I said. “But where are we going to find someone like that?”
“You’re looking at him.”
I stared at him for a minute, not understanding. Suddenly, it dawned on me. “Oh my God,” I gasped. “You? You want to buy the clinic? Oh, Michael, that sounds totally amazing—”
“No, no, no.” He held up his hands. “Not just me. Us.”
“Us?”
“Us, as in me and you.”
I gaped at him, speechless.
“I think that sounds like an awesome idea,” Elliot said fiercely. “You guys should totally go for it.”
“Why me?” I asked, still shocked by Michael’s suggestion.
“You and I are the best therapists in that place, hands down,” Michael said. “I have experience running the practice, but you are key with those patients. I’ve never seen someone as good as you, I mean that, Em. You have, like, a sixth sense about what they need.”
I felt my face color with pleasure. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elliot grinning at me broadly.
“Thank you,” I stammered.
“I don’t want to do this by myself,” Michael went on. “It’s way too much work for me alone. But I think the two of us could be a really good team. I think we could make the clinic into exactly what we want. A little smaller, a lot more patient focused—”
“More emphasis on preventive care,” I added, starting to feel excited.
“Exactly.” Michael pointed at me. “See, you know what needs to be done. You’re the best partner I could think to have.”
“Michael, I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to decide anything,” he said. “Just think about it.”
I sat in silence for a moment, but found I couldn’t contain myself. The idea of owning and running the clinic was just too exciting. “What would we need to do?”
“First, obviously, we would need some capital. Which would mean a loan. I have some savings I’d be willing to put down, but we’ll need quite a bit more than that.”
My mind flashed immediately to my own savings account, the money from my mom that I’d saved for all these years. I had always imagined I might buy a house with it, or pass it down to my own kids. But if it could help me to own my own practice….
Michael was still talking. “To get a bank loan, we’d need to go in with a good business plan. I don’t have a whole lot of experience with putting that type of thing together—”
“Brooke,” I said immediately. “Brooke could help us. She’s a whiz at business stuff. And she’s coming into town next week.”
Michael nodded, looking happy. “So, you’re on board?”
My mind was rushing, my whole body felt feverish. I was so excited, I could barely sit in my chair. But I forced myself to take a deep breath. I’d had a lot to drink tonight and was in no shape to make this kind of decision on the spot. “I should talk it over with Brooke and my dad first,” I said. “When do we have to decide by?”
“We have some time,” Michael said. “They haven’t made the final decision to sell yet. From all accounts, it’s a done deal, but they’re still studying the market and having meetings.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Then I’ll get back to you ASAP.”
Michael grinned at me, and raised his glass. I smiled back and clinked mine against his. “I want in on this,” Elliot said quickly. I looked over at him and found that he was still grinning from ear to ear. He seemed so excited, and I realized that was for me. He was happy because he could tell that I was happy. I felt a surge of affection for my old friend, and I raised my glass to toast with him as well.
Chapter Twenty
I was worried Greg might still be grumpy with me, but when I told him about Brooke coming in the next day over lunch, he seemed pretty excited.
“We should throw a party,” he said. “A chance for our friends to all meet. What do you think?”
“That sounds great
,” I told him. See? I told myself. Look at what a great boyfriend you have.
“This actually works out nicely,” he continued, pulling out his Smartphone to open his calendar. “I have to be out of town on business this week. There’s a conference in Chicago. So it will be nice for you to have your friend with you while I’m gone.”
I felt a little annoyed that he hadn’t mentioned anything about his trip, but I was too excited about Brooke to care very much.
“Should I plan the party while you’re gone?” I asked.
“You don’t need to do that.” He shook his head and started punching the keys on his phone. “I’ll let my secretary know right now. She can handle everything, and you can just spend time with your friend.”
It wasn’t until after I was back home that I realized I hadn’t said anything to him about Michael and the clinic. I had already called Brooke back to tell her about it, and she promised to meet with both of us to give her opinions and advice. I had even called my dad already, and he seemed very excited for me (or, at least, as excited as my dad ever got). I decided not to try to analyze the reasons why I hadn’t felt compelled to tell Greg. It was probably just an oversight.
By Sunday night, I was so excited for Brooke to come that I parked myself in front of the living room window so I would have the best view of the street below. It had been way too long since I had seen my best friend.
“She’s here!” I finally squealed as I saw her familiar Ford pick-up pull into the parking lot of our building. Brooke had had that truck since we’d been teenagers. Even though she was making pretty good money these days, she saw no need to get rid of it. “It’s classic, Em,” she would always say. “Practically indestructible. Why would I give that up?”
Watching it pull in now, I couldn’t even sit still. I ran out of the apartment and down the stairs, throwing open the front door of the complex just as she opened her own door. “Brooke!”
She saw me running for her and laughed, jumping out of the car to pull me into a big hug. We had never been the touchy feely types, so I hid my genuine need to feel her arms around me with a big production of pretending we hadn’t seen each other in years.
“I can’t believe it’s really you!” I cried, sniffling loudly into her shoulder.
In Search of a Love Story (Love Story Book One ) Page 16