It’s close enough to the truth. I’m not about to admit to the part where I spared enough time to suck Luke’s cock. She stares at me for the longest moment of my life, while I curse myself for not inventing a family emergency or something.
“At least you’re honest.” She finally chuckles. “I admire that. Most people would have invented an emergency.”
She reaches into her drawer and pulls out a form, handing it to me.
“It’s all pretty straightforward. The thing I want you to focus on the most is that last question. Convince me why I should choose you for this project.”
I nod and stare down at the application, my heart racing. This could set me up. This kind of thing on my résumé would put me ahead of everyone else for that fellowship next year. But it’s more than that. The idea of working alongside someone who has made such a difference in the world of fertility is just too incredible to believe.
“Thank you.”
I turn around and start walking out, still staring at the papers in my hands.
“What did you say your name was?”
My heart skips a beat as I turn around. I smile at her.
“Laura.”
“Well, good luck, Laura,” she says.
#
I’m still thinking about the project when I leave the hospital. I walk out to my car and unlock the door, sliding into the seat. My heart races as I reach into my bag and pull out the application. I read through, right to that last question. It’s a thousand-word, essay question, asking why I want to specialize in fertility.
Wow, that is such an open-ended question.
I stare at the words, not sure how to approach it. I could keep my response professional, or I could try and entice an emotional reaction from her, by going into the more personal reasons as to why I want this. But I want to win this because she thinks I deserve it, not because she feels sorry for me.
I put the application back in my bag and click in my seatbelt. Just as I’m turning the key, my phone rings. It’s Becca.
“Yo. Remember me?”
“Becs, I’m sorry.” I wince, because there’s no denying it. I’ve been a bad friend. “Work has been flat out and then—”
“When you’re done with that, you’ve been flat out under Luke?”
I can’t help but laugh with her as she chuckles at her own joke.
“God, I’m hilarious. What are you doing tonight? Want to catch up over dinner?”
“Would tomorrow night work for you instead?”
Tonight is one of the few nights where both Luke and I are going to be home at a respectable hour, so I wanted to make the most of it—especially being that it’s a Saturday.
“Sure. Come over here if you like. I finish at four, so any time after that.”
“Great, I’ll see you then.”
I hang up and text Luke. A smile creeps onto my face at the idea of spending time with him.
Me: What time are you finishing?
Luke: Seven. Why?
Me: I figured it it’s about time you took me out on a date. You know, impressed me, that kind of thing. Make me put out.
Luke: It’s a little late for that isn’t it? But seriously, I don’t impress you? Is there an emoji for a broken heart? I’ll fix this. Leave it with me. Be ready at eight. I’m going all out, baby. I’ll text you when I want you to come downstairs.
I bite my lip and smile. He amazes me every day, and I’m pretty sure he knew it. I was just sick of our relationship being sex and smiling at each other at work. I know it comes with the territory of having the kind of jobs we have, but I still want more. I want everything.
I head home, driving past Matt and Annie’s on the way. When I see their car, I pull in behind it and get out. Annie waddles to the door when I knock. She smiles and waves me inside.
“Oh, thank God. Get in here and take my mind off this monster,” she complains. “And I don’t mean the child. Your brother…” she shakes her head and sighs. “You can settle the argument.”
“What argument?” I giggle, walking inside.
“Down the hall, in the nursery. Go. You’ll see. He says I’m insensitive, but tell me that thing isn’t hideous.”
“That thing I spent the last three weeks creating as a surprise for you,” Matt hollers from the nursery.
“Yeah, well you shouldn’t have,” she roars back.
I walk into the nursery, not sure what I’m going to find. I stop in my tracks and stare at the wooden crib that Matt is proudly standing in front of. Although crib is a generous term for this thing.
“See? Go and tell Annie how great this is. Tell her that she should be happy that she has a husband who actually wants to do shit around the house,” he rebukes, loudly.
“I would be, if that husband could actually do shit,” she calls back.
I cover my hand over my face and stifle a giggle. Matt looks hurt.
“Seriously? You’re on her side?”
“I’m, uh, just worried this might be violating a dozen or so safety regulations, that’s all. You know, they have that kind of thing for newborns,” I point out. “They try and keep them alive these days.”
I step forward and touch the side rail, jumping back when it crashes to the ground. I giggle, trying not to lose my shit in front of poor Matt, but it’s no use. I dissolve into a fit of laughter that is so intense I’m at risk of wetting myself.
“Well, it’s obviously not finished yet,” Matt grumbles. “I thought it would be really cool to make the crib. Remember our crib? Dad made that. There was no worrying about safety regulations then and we survived,” he gripes. “And it lasted a long time, too.”
“That’s true, but maybe Dad had slightly better handyman skills than you do?” I suggest gently.
Annie wanders into the room. She wraps her arms around Matt’s neck and smiles at him while she strokes the back of his head. “You know I love you, but there’s no way in hell my child is going near that death trap,” she says in her sweetest voice.
“Fine,” he sighs, giving up. “We will go and buy one tomorrow, then.”
He tosses his hammer on the floor and stalks out. Annie rolls her eyes at me as we follow him down to the living room. I sit down, while Matt makes coffee.
“Decaf?” he calls out.
“Are you kidding me? What’s the point if you take the caffeine out?” I retort. “It’s like sugar-free chocolate. It defeats the purpose,” I protest.
“Okay, well you’re the one who’s going to be awake all night.”
“I’m up all night anyway,” I say. “At least now I’ll have a reason.”
“So, how are things with Luke?” Annie asks with a smile. She sits down next to me.
“Good, actually,” I say, smiling. “He’s taking me out tonight.”
“Well, that explains it.”
“What do you mean?” I ask Matt. I don’t understand his cryptic comment.
“Oh, nothing.” He smiles, making sure I know it is, in fact, something.
“Matt,” I say in my sternest voice.
“No.” He shakes his head adamantly. “I refuse to ruin Luke’s surprise. You’ll find out.”
I shake my head. Sometimes I hate my brother.
I go home and have a quick shower and then get ready. I choose a short black dress with lace trim that hugs my waist. I style my hair, but let it hang down, because I know Luke likes it like that. I glance at my watch and frown. I thought it was seven when I left Matt’s, but it must have been six. Which means I’ve got more time up my sleeve than I thought, so I head next door to check on Iris.
“Hello?” I call out, banging on her door.
“Hold on, to your panties. I’m going as fast as I can.”
I smile and listen to her ranting. The door opens. Iris frowns at me as she looks me up and down.
“And why are you all tarted up?”
I shake my head and laugh. “No reason, I’m just going out with a friend.”
“A friend huh
?” She narrows her eyes. “Male or female?”
“Male, thanks, Grandma,” I tease her as I follow her into the living room. I sit down, keeping an eye on my phone so I don’t miss Luke’s text.
“Tea?” she asks. I shake my head.
“No, it’s okay. I don’t have that long. I just wanted to see how you are.”
“You mean you wanted to make sure I wasn’t decomposing on the floor?” she replies, frowning at me. I laugh and shake my head, because that wasn’t how I would’ve phrased it, but I couldn’t deny there was an element of that.
“Not at all, but it’s good to see that you’re still breathing.”
No sooner than Iris turns on her TV, Luke texts me.
Luke: Okay, come downstairs when you’re ready.
“I’ve got to go,” I say apologetically as I stand up. “I’ll try and come over tomorrow, okay? You stay there, I’ll see myself out.”
“All right. Well, have fun, I guess,” she says. “If the night ends up with you crying in the bathroom, you’re always welcome back here to watch the bachelor with me,” she calls out.
“Thanks,” I say.
As tempting as that sounds, I’m confident Luke can handle this.
I examine my reflection in the mirrored wall of the elevator and then walk out onto the ground floor. I walk outside the complex to find Luke standing on the sidewalk, dressed up in a tuxedo. I smile at him, my heart pounding. He looks hot.
“Hey.” He smiles at me as I walk closer to him.
“Hey,” I reply, taking him by the hand. I suddenly feel all shy. “I feel underdressed,” I joke.
He shakes his head. “No, you look absolutely stunning,” he compliments.
“You do scrub up pretty well.”
I laugh. Is that Matt?
Luke chuckles and steps aside to reveal a pedicab, being chauffeured by none other than Matt. He looks less than impressed in his shorts and collared shirt, complete with a bow tie. I crack up laughing. He scowls at me.
“What the hell are you doing?” I say, giggling.
“Apparently this is payback for a bet I lost nearly eight years ago,” he whines. He glares at Luke, who can’t wipe the smile off his face. “Just get in and let's get this over with.”
I’m still laughing as Luke helps me up into the cart. I don’t even want to know what the bet was. Luke leans forward and slaps Matt across the ass. Matt turns around and glares at him. I shake my head, because this is gold.
“Speed up a bit, please. We don’t have all night.”
Dinner turns out to be picnic in the park, complete with all my favorite foods.
“How did you know I like this?” I say picking up a little tub of olive and mint dip that I’ve only ever found in one grocers all the way over on the other side of the city.
“How do you reckon he knew?” Matt calls out from his perch across the way.
He has stationed himself on the other side of the park, leaning up against his pedicab. I giggle and shake my head, nearly losing it all over again. I glance at Luke, who looks pretty impressed with himself.
“This is great,” I say. “Thank you.” I lean back against him, but not before grabbing another handful of strawberries to dip in the chocolate sauce.
“Are you sure it’s fancy enough?” he teases.
“I didn’t want fancy, I just wanted something more than sex. As amazing as that is.”
“Gross.”
“Matt, stop listening,” I yell back at him. “Shouldn’t you be going home to look after your heavily pregnant wife, or something? What if she goes into labor and you’re not there to help her?”
That sends him into panic mode. I feel bad as I watch him jump up. He grabs his phone and tries to call her, but there’s no answer.
“Just go and check on her,” Luke urges him.
“Okay, if you’re sure you guys are all right?” He frowns at the pedicab. “What about this thing?”
“We’ll handle it,” Luke assures him.
He nods and walks off.
I rest my head in Luke’s lap again. He smiles down at me, gently tickling along my collarbone.
“So, tell me about some of the things you got up to while you were traveling?” I say
He makes a face. “Honestly, some of it’s probably better left unsaid. There was one time I drank too much and passed out on the train. I was headed to Germany, but I ended up in the middle of some village in Bosnia at two in the morning.”
“No way,” I say, laughing.
He nods. “Yeah. I wasn’t in the greatest mindset when I went over there, so I did plenty of things that my mother wouldn’t be proud of.”
“Do you regret not fixing things with your dad before he died?”
He thinks about that for a second.
“I let go of the guilt I felt over that a long time ago. I think what I regret most is that he didn’t understand me. I did everything I could for him. I bent over backward to try and get them to understand that this was my life, but they never got it. They never wanted to get it.” He looks at me. “How about you?”
I shake my head, a wistful smile on my face.
“Not guilt, just sadness, I guess. I see or I do things that remind me of Dad and I wonder how he would react. Even situations, like graduating or becoming a doctor, or meeting boyfriends…”
“Boyfriends?” he says, smirking at me.
“Well, one in particular.”
He leans down, gently grazing his lips over mine.
“You’re pretty special, you know that?”
“Yeah, I hear that from all my boyfriends,” I joke. I glance at my watch my eyes widening. It’s after midnight. “And I’ve got to get up for work in six hours,” I complain.
“Then we’d better get sleeping beauty home and into bed.”
He gets to his feet and quickly packs up the picnic, placing it in the back of the cart. Then he gets on the bike and motions for me to get in the cart.
“I’d help you up there, but that would probably end with both of us in the ER with bike crush injuries.”
“I think I can manage,” I say, giggling.
I can’t stop laughing the entire ride home. It’s got to be hard work, pushing that thing around, but Luke doesn’t seem to even break out in a sweat.
“So, where are we parking this thing?” I giggle.
He shakes his head and laughs. “I have no idea.”
Somehow, we get it inside and convince the doorman to let us leave it in the foyer so Luke can call the company to collect it in the morning. We head upstairs. I can barely keep my eyes open as we walk inside. I yawn and glance at my phone to see that it’s just ticked over to one in the morning.
“Let’s get you into bed,” Luke says, lifting me into his arms.
#
I spend every spare minute the next day at work, filling in my application. I’m in the ER again, and while I was run off my feet yesterday, today there is nothing to do. I guess people don’t get hurt on Sundays. I figure this counts as paperwork though, so I don’t feel bad about using time on the clock to get it done.
By the time my shift is over, I’ve filled in everything, but the million-dollar question, because I’m still not sure how to approach it. I think I’m worried that once it’s out there, I can’t take it back. I know it’s not hot gossip, but what if Luke stumbled across my application and discovered what I was keeping from him before I told him myself?
After work, I drive straight to Becs apartment, which is only a few streets away from the hospital, and hunt for a parking spot. When I finally find one, I go inside, via the liquor store two doors down from her building. She opens the door before I even have a chance to knock, her eyes lighting up as she reaches for the bottle tucked under my arm. She’s been sending me the most random text messages all day, and I can tell she’s bursting to tell me something.
“It's like you read my mind. I totally couldn’t be bothered walking down to get some.”
“It’s
literally right downstairs.” I giggle.
“Yes, I’m that lazy.” She grins at me as I follow her inside.
“What’s with all the messages you’ve been bombarding me with? Did you work today?” I ask, taking off my jacket. I toss it over the chair and sit down on the couch, tucking my feet up under me.
She nods. “Sunday rates, and you’ll never guess who I met,” she gushes, leaning against the kitchen counter. Her eyes light up excitedly as she waits for me to answer.
“So, tell me then.”
“Channing Tatum.”
She stares at me expectantly, barely able to contain her smile. I shake my head. From her reaction, I feel like I should know who this is, but I’ve got nothing.
“Um, yay for you?”
Her eyes widen in shock as her smile turns into a gape.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Um… no?” I laugh, not sure what the big deal is. It’s not like she had any idea who Marina Holden was when I’d gushed about her. “Stop looking at me like that.” I giggle. “Between studying and this little thing called a residency, I haven't exactly been overloaded with spare time.”
“That’s still no excuse,” she says. She walks over and slaps me on the arm.
I laugh. “What are you, twelve?”
She shakes her head. “No, I’m disappointed,” she grumbles. She continues to shake her head and walks back into the kitchen, pacing back and forth like she’s trying to solve some huge problem that she’s just been faced with.
“Are you all right?” I tease her.
“I will be. When we fix this.”
“Fix what?”
She marches back into the living room and grabs the TV remote, navigating to the MovieFlix app.
“You own me four ninety-nine,” she says as she clicks on the Magic Mike double.
“If I’m missing out on that much then why don’t you own it?” I tease as she glowers at me.
Before I can protest, I’m being forced to sit through four hours of Magic Mike. It turns out not to be the worst punishment in the world, but still, I came over to catch up, not watch movies. Every time I try and speak to Becs, she holds her hand up to silence me and points at the TV. I laugh glance at my phone to check the time, protesting shock when it’s snatched out of my hands.
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