A Heart For Business draft 2

by Alexis Blake

  Vanessa researched for health care services in the area and then called the one that came most highly recommend. She used her most professional voice, hoping they would think she was his secretary, since she obviously didn’t know enough personal information about him to pretend to be a relative.

  “I’m sorry ma’am, but we are no longer able to provide service for Mr. Carter” came the startling reply from the other end of the line.

  “What?” Vanessa cried out, feeling utterly aghast. “You’re a healthcare agency! You’re sworn to help people who are sick or injured! You can’t refuse care!”

  “That doesn’t include subjecting our employees to physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. Mr. Davis knows our policies and willfully violated them on more than one occasion. His life is not in danger, just his comfort. He knows that we will no longer be sending employees to his home.”

  Vanessa hung up the phone with a sigh of disgust, but found the same response with the next facility she called, and the one after that. It quickly became to her that her cranky neighbor had managed to get himself blacklisted from every home healthcare agency in town.

  “Well, it’s not my responsibility either,” Vanessa said with a sigh as she hung up the phone for the last time. Only she knew that he thought she was his new nurse and that he’d be expecting her to arrive that day. She decided to go over and tell him the truth, right after breakfast.

  Vanessa pulled her thick hair back into a ponytail and went to the kitchen, opening all the cupboards and drawers to see what kind of supplies she had. She was pleasantly surprised to see that it was very well stocked with top quality products. Gainscorp had truly thought of everything, they must have really wanted her.

  Vanessa pulled a carton of fresh eggs from the refrigerator, along with milk, butter, cheese and fresh herbs. Humming to herself, she cracked four eggs into a bowl and began to whip them into froth while the skillet heated on the stove.

  “Well, the least I can do is to make sure he gets a good breakfast since I’m going there anyway. That way he has at least one decent meal today if he can’t get anyone over there soon.”

  Vanessa created a perfect omelet along with sliced fruit and buttered toast and carried it across the hall on a tray. She saw two bags of groceries had been left sitting outside the door along with a bill from the delivery service. She hefted the heavy bags into her arms, balancing the plate between them, and knocked loudly on the door.

  “Come in! It’s unlocked damn it! Come in!” Came a familiar angry bark from inside.

  The plate nearly fell from the tower of bags, but she managed to balance her way through the door, somehow making it to the kitchen counter without dropping anything.

  “It’s about time you got here! I’m starving and I haven’t taken any of my pills yet!” Carter growled miserably. Vanessa recognized the sound of pain in his voice from yesterday and knew that as soon as he’d had his medication his tone would soften.

  “Good morning to you too. Here I made you something. Eggs-a-la-Vanessa.”

  She set the plate in front of him, along with all the pills he’d been prescribed to take with breakfast. Carter gobbled it down without a word, although she could see the relief and happiness shining in his eyes at the taste of the food. She wondered if his impoliteness came from the pain or just regular bad manners.

  “Coffee.” Carter demanded after a while, and Vanessa just crossed her arms and stared at him.

  “I’m not a waitress here to take orders.” She said matter-of-factly. “In fact, I’m not even a nurse.”

  “What are you talking about?” Carter asked, choking on the last bite of his food with a shocked expression. She could tell he was a man who was used to having things go exactly as he expected.

  “My name is Vanessa Imenerse. I’m a corporate executive. I just moved into the apartment across the hall. The only reason I came over yesterday was because I heard a crash, and the only reason I stayed was because I saw you really needed the help.”

  “So what are you doing here now?” Carter asked, his voice sounding terse. His face was flushed bright pink, and Vanessa wondered if it was from embarrassment or anger and correctly guessed that it was both.

  “I came to tell you that you’ll have to find a nursing agency to send someone over, but the task won’t be easy. I tried to help you by making a few calls this morning, but it seems your charming personality has gotten you quite the reputation. Good luck.”

  “What about you? Can’t you do it?”

  “I’m not a nurse; I’m an executive administer. Actually, in four weeks I might be a CEO if I decide to accept the position.”

  “Let’s hope you’re a better executive then you are a neighbor.” Carter snapped. His disappointment and fear turning him back into a sullen child. “If you don’t do this, no one else will, or are you too stupid and selfish to see that?”

  “Goodbye.” Vanessa said gently, without any indication his words had any effect on her. “Take good care of yourself and be a lot nicer to the next person who walks through this door to help you. She might not be as compassionate or forgiving as I am.”

  Vanessa turned towards the door and walked out, leaving Carter utterly alone once more.

  The hours of the morning dragged on for him. He tried to read and watch television, but nothing held any interest for him. All he could think about was his beautiful new neighbor and how much he hoped she would come back. He realized that of course she wouldn’t. Why would she? He’d been such a jerk to her.

  It had been bad enough when he’d been mean to the health care workers who had quit one after the other. He had found a perverse kind of joy in making them hate him. After all, he had come to hate himself. He couldn’t even do the one thing that had made feel like his life had any meaning; his work. Without that; he was truly nothing. Making the nurses shout out their hatred of him gave him an odd sense of joy, because he was able to hear aloud from their lips the way he felt about himself.

  As the sun grew high in the sky Carter Davis became acutely aware that he was hungry and that his pain medications would be wearing off soon. He did the exercises the doctor had shown him to strengthen his muscles and help his ribs and organs heal, knowing that he would need to gather the strength to take care of himself now.

  Gritting his breath against the inevitable pain, Carter took a deep breath and prepared to try and get out of bed. Just at that moment the front door opened and in swept Vanessa, holding a tray of sandwiches in one hand and his mail in the other.

  “Oh, thank heaven it’s you!” Carter said, and his eyes shining with relief.

  “Well, that’s a much better welcome than any of the others I’ve received so far.” Vanessa smiled, and Carter couldn’t help but notice how the whole room seemed to light up when she did. She set the food and mail down on a tray in front of him and began to open the bottles of pills that had been prescribed for noon and set them on his tray.

  Carter tucked into the food immediately and said sullenly “I didn’t think you were coming back.”

  “Neither did I, but lucky for you I was just coming back from a walk around the neighborhood when I saw the mailman struggling to fit all your mail into your overstuffed mailbox. He was about to take it all out and return it to the post office, so I offered to bring it up to you.”

  “And the mailman just handed over all my private mail to some stranger?” Carter growled.

  “Well, I may have indicated that it was my mail by flashing my key for our floor. My thumb just accidentally covered over that my address is for apartment B, while yours is for apartment A. At any rate, you’re welcome for the effort. I could have just let him take all to the post office and you could have found some other way to get your mail.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. Thank you for my mail and for this lunch. You should be a professional chef instead of an executive.” Carter said sincerely and Vanessa instantly forgave him his rudeness. It felt good to have someone compliment her cooking.
It was a hobby she truly enjoyed and took great pride in doing well. Her ex-boyfriend Trevor had never appreciated it, much like the words monogamy or respect. He was always telling what she should wear, who she should talk to, and what clothes she should wear. He hated her job at Winn Inc. because he couldn’t control her there and resented every moment she was at work. He gave her an ultimatum to quit her job or they were through, so she broke up with him, but even then he kept calling her. It was part of the reason she was eager to leave Chicago and start someplace new. She wanted to be free to devote herself to her career without being harassed by a man she never should have gotten involved with in the first place. She had a feeling New York was the perfect place.

  When Carter had finished eating Vanessa took the plate back from his tray, “Well, you managed to get two meals out of me today, but that will be all. I’m leaving now. It will be up to someone else to take care of the rest.”

  “That someone will have to be me.” Carter said quietly. “I was always a jerk, but ever since the accident I’ve become a first class asshole. I can’t say I blame the agencies for refusing to take me as a client. I’m just lucky you were willing to give me second chance today. Thank you for everything. I mean it. You’re a good person.”

  “You’re welcome.” Vanessa smiled. He wasn’t as bad a guy as he pretended to be. Trevor certainly wouldn’t apologize for being a bossy jerk. She could tell that Carter Davis wasn’t inherently mean spirited; he was just in a lot of pain right now. She sat by his bedside and asked “So, what happened to you anyway?”

  “Well, it’s a long story I’d rather not get into.” Carter said. He liked her and didn’t want to bore her with his sad tale, but then he realized if he refused to talk she would leave and he really wanted her to stay.

  With a boyish grin he said, “Suffice to say, I was a workaholic jerk who was paying more attention to the company’s bottom line than I was to the road and wound up in the hospital for a few weeks with a bunch of broken ribs, and now I’m stuck here at home every day. I’m struggling like hell to get the doctors to release me back to work before they hire someone to replace me, but at this rate it’s not looking good. Everyone tells me I’m lucky I wasn’t killed in the crash, but without my career it feels like I died anyway. It’s why I’ve been such a jerk to everyone. I’m sorry.”

  “Believe it or not, I get it.” Vanessa said with compassion in her warm eyes. She reached out and set her hand on top of his in a gesture of support. He liked the way it felt, and let his fingers intertwine with hers; brown and white mingling together perfectly.

  “I know what it’s like to have nothing else in your life beside your career. I’ve worked my ass off my entire life to get to where I am today and I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished, but it’s all I have. Whenever I try to have a boyfriend they don’t understand my devotion to my career and get jealous of the time I spend at work. The last one I had said he got lonely when I was always at work and used it as excuse to cheat on me. Now, I’m vacation for the first time in my life, and I don’t have anyone to spend it with. Without my work, I’m just lost.”

  Carter sat up in bed, his blue eyes sparkling with interest. “How long are you off work?”

  “I’ve got a month and I want to take full advantage of it; but I don’t have the first clue how to relax. I was up this morning at 6:00a.m. unable to sleep another wink.”

  “Forget sleeping! You’re in New York! The Big Apple!” Carter cried out. The excitement in his face made him looking even more handsome than before. “You need to get out there and see everything this city has to offer! Don’t sit around being a couch potato like me. Here, I’m going to take you on a guided tour and show you all the best places in town!”

  “Hold on! You’re on bed rest, remember?” Vanessa held out her hands in a halting gesture.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll stay in bed. We can do the entire tour by camera phone. I’ll guide you where to go and you can send me a picture of yourself at each location, so it’s like I’m there.”

  Vanessa arched her eyebrow at him with mock skepticism. “You want me to give you my cell number after the way you’ve treated me?”

  “Please?” Carter begged. “It will be the closest I’ve come to getting out of this apartment in weeks! It will be fun, I promise. It will be my way of repaying you for helping me. You can’t leave me with this debt on my conscience.”

  “Okay.” Vanessa said with a playful smile.

  Chapter Four

  Vanessa and Carter spent the whole afternoon together via their cell phones, as Carter led her from one terrific place to another. She’d made sure he had all the medications and food he needed within arm’s reach before heading out into the city, and he made sure she had the time of her life. He guided her through Manhattan and the Burroughs and showed her the best place to get an Italian soda, watch an off-off Broadway performance, eat the best hot dog, and listen to the best live music. She hated to admit it, but he really did know a lot about the city. He led her to places she never would have found on her own, apart from the traditional tourist traps, but still quintessential New York. It was the most fun she’d had in a long time.

  Carter wasn’t sure, but he thought he might be having an even better time than Vanessa, if that were possible. It had been years since he’d taken time off just for fun. He felt like he’d found a kindred spirit in Vanessa. She was hard-working, driven, and successful; so much so that she had never taken the time to play tourist in the very city where she lived. It wasn’t uncommon amongst New Yorkers to live their entire lives never enjoying the many sites the city had to offer, it just never occurred to Carter that Vanessa wasn’t a New Yorker. She was educated, sophisticated, strong, and straight-forward, with just enough of a quirky sense of humor to keep things light.

  He wanted to the tour he sent her on to be as fun and unique as she was, and was pleased that she enjoyed the same things that he did. He just wished he could have actually been by her side, laughing along with her instead of just hearing it on the phone, although the pictures she was able to send were the next best thing. By the end of the day, they were both exhausted but happy.

  “This day has been great, but I think we’d better call it night.” Vanessa said into her phone, as she emailed Carter an image of herself standing in front of the Brooklyn Bridge with sun setting behind her. “You sound like you need your rest, and I know I do. I’m going to go home now and soak in a nice hot bath.”

  “Well don’t stop the tradition now. Send me a picture of that too.” Carter joked. He knew she was right though. He wasn’t used to so much activity and his healing body was desperate for sleep, even though his heart and mind wanted the day to last forever.

  He could hear Vanessa’s smile over the phone as she quipped “Nice try, but I don’t think our relationship is quite ready for sexting yet.”

  “Yet? So there’s potential that someday it might be? I’ll take that!” Carter said enthusiastically, and they both laughed. It felt good to laugh. It had been a long time since either one of them had felt carefree and able to be silly with someone. With Trevor, their relationship had been all about him bossing her around and her arguing with him about it. They’d never had any fun together. She realized now how much she missed that feeling and didn’t want to let it go now, although she had too. It would be foolish to let Carter overexert himself now that his body was finally on the mend.

  “Goodnight Carter.” Vanessa said softly into her cell phone.

  “Will you come over tomorrow?” he asked. His voice sounded desperate even to himself, but he didn’t care. He really wanted to see her again. It had been a long time since he’d had so much fun too.

  “If you’re a good boy.” Vanessa promised and hung up the phone.

  ***

  True to her word, Vanessa came to see Carter the next morning, and every day after that too. A true bond of friendship formed between the two of them, and they spent long days together playing board games, w
atching television, and just plain talking.

  She told him about her childhood growing up poor in Chicago, her time at Harvard, and her years working her way up the corporate ladder. He told her about his privileged childhood attending private schools and the job that had been handed to him on a silver platter by a boardroom full of his daddy’s best friends, and how dissatisfied it made him feel.

  “The jobs become so empty to me, and yet it’s all I have, so I keep pushing to work harder and be better hoping that will make me feel fulfilled.” Carter confessed. “I wish I could just walk away from the whole company, but then I’d be throwing away everything I’ve ever worked for.”

  “I’m just the opposite.” Vanessa told him. “Work is where I get all my feelings of satisfaction. No other aspect of my life makes me has happy and fulfilled; especially my personal life.”

  She told him then about all her ex-boyfriends who had never understood her ambition and had been threatened by her success, including the last one. Relationships for her had always come down to a choice between love and work and so she’d always chosen work.

  Carter told her about the string of women he had dated but how he had never felt any true connection with any of them. They loved his corporate image as some hotshot executive, they didn’t care that it didn’t really make him happy. They didn’t want to know about his dreams or disappointments, they just saw dollar signs.

  “I just want to find someone with whom I can really be myself, like when I’m with you.” Carter said, looking deep into Vanessa’s eyes. He leaned forward, fearing that Vanessa would pull away, but to his delight she didn’t. Drawn in by his vulnerability, she closed her eyes and leaned into him too and their lips met in a gentle kiss, full of tenderness.