Designs on the Doctor

by Victoria Pade

  So she’d agreed to meet Helen Taka-Hanson. And Nina had arranged for that meeting right then, before Ally could change her mind.

  But even trying to force herself into business mode didn’t take away the awful feelings Jake had roused in her and then left her to.

  “I did some research on you,” Helen began.

  When Nina had taken Estelle and Bubby into the kitchen to leave Ally and Helen alone, Helen had insisted that Ally call her by her first name, and had surprised Ally with how down-to-earth, warm, open and friendly she was. Sitting in Nina’s living room, Helen was dressed in a flowered sundress and sandals. Ally would never have pegged her for one of the heads of an international company.

  “I liked what I saw and heard about you,” Helen continued. “Maggie McShane, in particular, gave you an outstanding recommendation.”

  Ally nodded. “I did her Malibu house last year,” she confirmed.

  “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Maggie has agreed to have her wedding at the Taka San Francisco as a soft-opening fete.”

  “I read about that in the newspaper,” Ally said.

  “It will be a media event and of course we would want the designer to help with it from an aesthetic standpoint, in addition to designing the interiors.”

  “That makes sense,” Ally agreed.

  “Let me tell you a little about the position we’re in,” Helen said then. “Riki—do you know him?”

  “I’ve heard of him, of course, but we’ve never met. I’ve admired his designs, though.”

  “I’m glad to hear that! Because the San Francisco site is so near to opening, we’ll need whoever takes over to pick up where Riki left off and make as few changes as possible. Riki has already caused horrible cost overruns and purposely put us so far behind schedule that in order to make the opening there will have to be a lot of overtime paid out, so sticking to his plans is a must. But after that—beginning with the Kyoto site—you would be able to start from scratch with your own design concepts. I know working with another designer’s vision is asking a lot, and I apologize for it, but we’re in a bind and of course wherever your own tastes can be implemented without increasing costs would be fine.”

  Ally nodded her understanding.

  “My other sticking point is that I need someone based in Chicago. My husband, Mori, and I divide our time between here and Japan where his family home is, and it just gets too complicated for me to be working from more than two places.”

  “I can see how it would.”

  “I know you’re based in L.A., but David said there was reason to believe that you might be moving here?”

  It was still staggering to hear how far-reaching Jake’s machinations had gone behind her back—Nina, David Hanson, Helen Taka-Hanson—all before Ally herself had had any clue that anything was going on or what he had up his sleeve.

  But she couldn’t dwell on that in the middle of a business meeting, so she forced herself to concentrate.

  “My mother is aging and seems to need more help from me than she used to,” Ally said ambiguously.

  “So you would consider relocating your business?”

  “This offer would certainly be an incentive,” Ally answered.

  She knew she wasn’t being very convincing, or doing anything to sell herself or her services, that this was about the worst presentation she’d ever made at an interview, but at that point, feeling the way she did, she was doing the best she could. Besides, she wasn’t sure she was willing to move back to Chicago. Especially when it meant that she would have been so successfully manipulated.

  Helen went on to talk about how much travel would be involved in being the exclusive designer for the Taka hotel chain, and Ally assured her that traveling to her clients’ locations was something she was accustomed to.

  They discussed the kind of overall styles and themes that might come up for future projects, but Helen seemed to have no doubt that Ally’s abilities were versatile enough to vary from eclectic to traditional to whatever else might be asked of her down the line.

  Helen had already done enough investigation into her to know that not only were her artistic talents well respected and admired, but that she was considered reliable, responsible, that she brought things in on time, often under budget, and always with professionalism.

  “All in all,” Helen concluded, “I didn’t hear a single negative thing about you, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen of your work, and if you’re willing to change your home base, I think we could do business.”

  In a day full of unexpectedness, this was just one more. Ally hadn’t thought she would be offered the position on the spot.

  And she was hardly at her sharpest, so she knew it was clear that she was taken aback by that.

  But Helen merely smiled serenely and said, “I know you’ll need to think it over. I’d only ask that you not take too much time.”

  “No,” Ally said, hating how dim-witted she sounded. “I won’t. I know you need someone right away.”

  “We really do. Which was why I was so thrilled to learn that I might actually have the chance to get someone of your caliber, with your credentials and uncommon talent at such short notice. I’m just hoping it’s fate that’s made you even consider coming back to Chicago right now, when we so desperately need you.”

  Fate, destiny—it was a day full of that, too, wasn’t it?

  But once more Ally focused on matters at hand.

  “I appreciate the offer…” she said, giving herself the option of saying no right there and then. Of thwarting Jake’s grand scheme and showing him that she was not some kind of puppet with strings that he could just pull to suit himself.

  But something kept her from doing that.

  Probably her business sense again, she told herself. Probably nothing at all that had to do with Jake Fox.

  “I promise I’ll think seriously—and quickly—about your offer,” she added.

  “Good,” Helen countered, standing then to signal that the interview—however casual—had come to an end. “I’m going to have to get going, I’m due for a conference call in half an hour.”

  She raised her voice enough to be heard in the kitchen, and Nina, Bubby and Estelle rejoined them to say goodbye.

  Ally stayed in the background for most of that.

  Because while she had just received a flattering review and the best job offer of her career, for no reason she could put a finger on, she was wrestling with those tears all over again.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Estelle had barely waited until Ally was behind the steering wheel to ask.

  They were just leaving Nina’s place and Ally thought that keeping herself from crying had hidden the fact that she was upset. Apparently it hadn’t.

  Still, she said, “Nothing’s wrong. I just have a lot to think about.”

  “Something happened while I was at lunch. Something with Jake,” Estelle persisted. “You were all smiles over him coming to the house, but since I got back you’ve had the mopes. Did you fight with him?”

  “Yes,” Ally said. Denying it seemed useless.

  “Nina said it was Jake who got you that interview with that hotel bigwig this afternoon,” Estelle informed her.

  Ally sighed. “It was his idea, yes.”

  “You didn’t want it?”

  “It wasn’t my idea.”

  “Does everything have to be your idea?”

  Ally tried to maintain her calm in response to her mother’s familiar critical, challenging tone. “No, everything doesn’t have to be my idea. But when it comes to my job, my career, my future, my family and where I end up living, I think I should be considered and asked how I feel about things before anything gets started.”

  “Your family,” Estelle said, picking out that single item on Ally’s list. “Does Jake have ideas for me?”

  “As a matter of fact he does,” Ally confirmed. Then, under her breath, she added, “He has ideas for all of us.”

  Este
lle ignored that. Instead, she said, “Nina hinted around that there’s things going on with you and Jake. I know what I’ve seen—I’d say there is, too.”

  “Not anymore,” Ally said decisively.

  She didn’t feel as decisive as she made it sound, though.

  “Nina said that for you to take that hotel job you’d have to live here,” Estelle continued. “Do you want to live here again?”

  “That’s one of the things I’m thinking about.”

  “Because you don’t really want to live too close to me. I understand that. But I wouldn’t bother you—if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  Ally took her eyes off the road to glance at her mother, feeling guilty for ever giving Estelle the impression that she didn’t want to be bothered with her. “I’m not worried about that. Living closer to you would actually work out better for both you and me.”

  Estelle seemed surprised by that answer. “I know I’d like it better,” she admitted as if it was difficult for her to say it.

  That was a surprise. “You would?”

  “I see the way Bubby and Nina are together. It’s nice. I wonder if we could have that, too. If I could make up for things I said and did that I shouldn’t have.”

  “That would be nice,” Ally said quietly.

  “So what’s complicating things, if it isn’t that you don’t want to move back here?” the older woman asked.

  “It’s just…complicated, that’s all.”

  “You wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to be with Jake?”

  It really must have been obvious that something was going on between them.

  “Jake can be pushy. And manipulative,” Ally said, her own frustration with him bubbling to the surface. “He makes up his mind, he decides the way something should be done, and that’s it! He barrels in and tries to force it to be done that way.”

  “He can be strong willed,” Estelle agreed. “I know he was driving me crazy about all that medical business before you came. I guess he was right, but still—”

  “His way isn’t always the only right way. And he butts in to things he doesn’t have any business butting in to.”

  “Like your work,” Estelle said.

  “Yes, like my work.”

  “So you wish he wouldn’t have gotten you that interview today.”

  “Not without talking to me about it first.”

  “If you don’t want the job, then why did you even go talk to that woman?”

  “I didn’t say I don’t want the job. Jake just had no business doing what he did and making such grand assumptions.”

  “And that’s what made you mad at him?”

  “Yes.”

  But it felt so much bigger than what her mother was reducing it to. Especially when she wasn’t merely mad at him, when she’d turned down his plans for a future for them together, when she’d ended things with him…

  “So get over it and make up with him and stop moping,” Estelle decreed.

  That sounded like the old Estelle, and Ally responded in kind. “Can you just this once be on my side?” she shouted.

  She felt rather than saw her mother slowly pivot her head in her direction. She knew the glare she would face if she looked at Estelle, so she kept her eyes on the road and merely did what she knew would be required.

  “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to talk about this.”

  But of course that wasn’t enough to keep her mother from pursuing it. Although when she did she again shocked Ally with a kind, patient, motherly tone of voice.

  “I’m always on your side, Alice.”

  Ally did glance at her mother now because she couldn’t believe the lack of anger. Of recrimination. And her mother’s expression matched the tone—she honestly wasn’t outraged by Ally losing her temper.

  “This is just complicated,” Ally repeated. “It’s probably better not to talk about it.”

  Estelle respected that and returned to looking out the windshield.

  Neither of them spoke for about half a mile.

  Then her mother said, “You and Jake. I thought you were like Mitchie and me. I thought it was nice that you found each other.”

  Once more, surprise caused Ally to look at her mother. “What made you think that?”

  Estelle shrugged. “That’s just what it seemed like. First the fighting and you didn’t like him—like Mitchie and me. Then a little at a time you started to like him, he started to like you. Then there was him spending last night—don’t think I didn’t know about that.”

  Ally flinched. “How?”

  “I got up at five-thirty this morning to go to the bathroom and I looked out front and his car was still there. Then lo and behold, it was gone an hour later when I got up for the day. I wasn’t born yesterday. And you better not be doing that with just anybody. You better have strong feelings for him and an eye to a future.”

  Ally decided against making a comment.

  “I want you to be happy, Alice,” Estelle said, in a gentle tone Ally had never heard. “I like Jake and he deserves to be happy, too. You could be good for each other.”

  Not given the way she was feeling at that moment…

  “So what if he was bossy?” Estelle reasoned. “You must’ve stood up to him and set him straight. You want somebody who can think for himself, don’t you? Sean had to have his family around to make a committee decision out of everything. You wouldn’t have that problem with Jake.”

  “Even without one, Jake is still all about family,” Ally muttered.

  Her mother heard it anyway. “Only, you’d be Jake’s family, so you’d come first. Not like with Sean.”

  They’d reached home and Ally pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.

  But Estelle was obviously not finished saying what she had to say because as they walked to the house, she picked up where she’d left off.

  “And I’ll tell you another thing—if you think you aren’t going to have to fight some fights with any man, you have another thought coming. That’s what men do. They come in and think they have to rule the roost and solve all the problems. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s a pain in the neck. But just because the idea was his instead of yours, don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. You like that man or you wouldn’t be moping, so no matter what he did, fight for whatever you need to fight for and get over it.”

  “It isn’t that easy,” Ally said.

  “It isn’t if you’re making it harder. But here’s what I think—for me, being happy was being with Mitchie. And unless I’m seeing things, I think for you, being happy is being with Jake. The rest you can work out if you just aren’t stubborn.” Estelle clasped Ally’s arm in a warm, comforting squeeze and smiled sympathetically. “Now go to your room and think about it.”

  Her mother’s touch brought tears to Ally’s eyes, but Estelle’s words made her laugh. Her mother was sending her to her room as if she were a child who merely needed a time-out to think about what she’d done wrong.

  But she did need a time-out, so once she had her mother inside, Ally went out the back door and climbed the steps to her apartment, where memories of Jake waited.

  Wonderful memories of him the night before. Not so wonderful memories of him from this afternoon.

  All of them hard to bear now.

  Unless maybe—difficult as it was for her to believe or admit—her mother was right.

  Chapter Fifteen

  After leaving her mother in the house late Wednesday afternoon, Ally opened her windows, turned on her fans, kicked off her shoes and flopped down on her neatly made bed.

  Then she thought again about Jake and how they’d spent the night in that bed and she bounced back up as if it were made of thorns.

  Instead, she went to the sofa.

  Sitting sideways—feet up—gave her a view of the bed and that wasn’t much better. But she didn’t have the energy to move again, so she stayed where she was. And moped.

  Yes, her mother was right
about the moping. But was she also right about everything else? Ally asked herself.

  Historically, her mother had never considered Ally’s problems to be as serious as Ally had considered them. So Ally was accustomed to her mother reducing and diminishing what was important to her and didn’t generally take Estelle’s views to heart.

  But this time?

  This time, if her mother was right…

  Only, she wasn’t right about it all, Ally thought defensively. Everything did not have to be her own idea. She’d used suggestions from the decorators who worked with her, she’d used ideas from her clients. She wasn’t upset and angry with Jake merely because the job with Taka Hotels had been his idea rather than hers.

  It was the going-behind-her-back, the arranging and planning for her entire future without even asking her opinion.

  A future that—ironically—she might end up with anyway if she took the job with Taka Hotels and moved back to Chicago.

  Great, now she was going back and forth in her own head as if she were arguing with her mother.

  But it was true—she had gone to the interview. She had been offered the job. And it was a great opportunity that could put her back here where she could avoid sending her mother to assisted living—all the things Jake had outlined.

  Without the parts that had included him…

  Unless she did as her mother had encouraged her to do.

  Again with the back-and-forth.

  But her mother’s words echoed in her mind just the same. Get over it—that had been Estelle’s edict. Get over being mad at Jake, get over what he’d done without even consulting her, get over it.

  And if she did, maybe she could have those other parts of the future that included him…

  “And then what?” she challenged herself out loud. “A whole life of him telling me what to do, when to do it and how to do it the way he has been since day one?”

  Because he had even given her orders the very first time she’d spoken to him, before they’d so much as set eyes on each other.