Doctor's Date with a Billionaire

by Amelia Addler

  “No,” Greg replied, standing from his seat. “With you, we’re the Three Stooges.”

  Juliet broke into laughter. “I completely forgot that they used to call us that.” She pulled Greg in for a hug.

  Aaron stood up, wrapping his arms around them both in a group hug.

  “When did you get so strong?” squeaked Juliet.

  Aaron shrugged. “I have to be able to hold a wriggling four-year-old twin in each arm, and I think that’s the ultimate workout.”

  “Oh my gosh, I haven’t gotten to see them since their third birthday party!” said Juliet as she took a seat.

  Greg shook his head. “No, that’s not true. We all hung out six months ago, at my wedding. And my bachelor party, though the kids weren’t there.”

  “Ah, of course. How could I forget?” Juliet said with a smile.

  How could she forget? She was the only woman invited on the bachelor party – a four day backpacking trip in the mountains. She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to keep up, but she was one of the fastest in the pack. It seemed that all of her friends getting married and having kids really slowed them down.

  “So Jules,” said Greg, “What’s this project that you need help with?”

  She took a deep breath. “It’s a long story, but basically, the vet clinic where I work is at risk of being shut down.”

  They looked at her with surprise, and she was about to continue when something caught her eye. It looked like…but no, it couldn’t be.

  Greg turned around to see what she was squinting at. “What?”

  “Shh!” She kicked him under the table. “Turn around!”

  Greg snapped back to face her just as Aaron leaned across the table to see what was so interesting.

  “Could you guys be any more obvious? I thought I saw someone, but – it turns out I was wrong.”

  Aaron shrugged. “It’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We probably know everybody in this restaurant. It’s practically a high school reunion.”

  Juliet cautioned a glance toward the front door again. She was being silly; there was no one there and she’d gotten all flustered for nothing.

  She cleared her throat and started again. “We had grant funding from – ”

  A voice cut her off from behind. “Hey guys! How’s it going?”

  She knew who it was before she turned around to look. She’d know that voice anywhere: her ex-boyfriend, James Balin.

  “Hey man! Long time no see. How’s it going?” Greg offered a handshake before motioning for James to take a seat.

  That flushed feeling was back, and Juliet knew that the skin on her chest was bright red under her hoodie. This was the last thing she thought she’d have to face during this visit to her hometown.

  Her mom nagging her about her hair being too long? Yes, always. The owner of the restaurant scolding her, for the thousandth time, about breaking a huge stack of dishes back when she was a freshman in high school? Sure.

  But running into James? Definitely not. As far as she knew, he hadn’t been back to Michigan in the last five years. His family didn’t even live there anymore. And yes, it made her feel a little rattled to see him appear like that. But she didn’t want him thinking that he could rattle her, so she needed to play it cool.

  Juliet turned to him and smiled with as much grace as she could muster. He hadn’t aged a day – well, not in a normal way, more like a George Clooney way. His blue eyes were as bright as ever.

  “Pretty good, it’s good to see you all,” he said. His eyes met Juliet’s. “Do you mind if I join you?”

  Before she could think of an excuse as to why he couldn’t sit with them, Aaron said, “No, of course not!”

  She reminded herself to breathe slowly. This was the problem with having guy friends. It was all fine and dandy until an ex-boyfriend showed up. If Juliet’s female friends were there, they would’ve known that the ex-boyfriend protocol called for civility with a large helping of coldness.

  They wouldn’t shake his hand. They wouldn’t ask how he was doing unless they planned to look away, disinterested in his answer. And they certainly wouldn’t have invited him to sit down!

  James scooted into the booth next to Greg.

  “Hi James, fancy seeing you here,” she said coolly.

  “Yeah, I’m in town, kinda a surprise actually. Zach invites me for Thanksgiving every year, and I finally took him up on it.”

  Juliet shifted uncomfortably to make sure her legs didn’t brush against his; there wasn’t enough room in the booth for another person.

  “Oh yeah? How’s he doing?” asked Aaron.

  “Really well,” replied James. “I haven’t been able to see him for a while, so it’s a nice treat.”

  Juliet had to force herself not to say something snarky back to him, like “I’m sure it is hard to see your best friend when you refuse to leave your precious New York City.”

  Instead, she said, “Is your dad alone for Thanksgiving?”

  James laughed. “No, he’s got all of his coworkers to keep him company. They’re working on a big presentation for some investors, I doubt they’ll take any breaks for Thanksgiving dinner. Or Christmas.”

  “I see.”

  “It’s so nice to see you Juliet, I can’t believe I ran into you here,” said James.

  What was he going on about? Where else would she be for Thanksgiving? Oh – yeah, she could be with her boyfriend’s family. If she had a boyfriend.

  “Yeah, it’s nice to see you too,” she lied.

  Greg prompted her again. “So what’s going on with the clinic?”

  “Oh!” James said, eyes lighting up. “Are you working in a clinic here?”

  “Westside Veterinary Clinic,” she said, keeping the edge out of her tone. “In Lansing.”

  It was best to remain neutral, she decided. She’d carry on as though he wasn’t even there, or as though it wasn’t the first time she’d seen him in five years. It’d been so long it was just like seeing a stranger. At least that’s what she told herself to keep from getting frazzled.

  She continued. “We got notice two months ago that our funding will run out at the end of the year, and it won’t be renewed. The grant we used to get is totally out of money.”

  Aaron shook his head. “That’s awful. How long can the clinic survive without funding?”

  Juliet sighed. “A month? Maybe two? Not very long. We don’t make much profit, because everything we do is offered on a sliding scale based on people’s income. It’s not enough to cover operating costs – hence why we got the grant for being a vet clinic in an underserved area.”

  “That’s so nice though,” interjected James. “You’re helping, uh, poor people take care of their pets?”

  She turned to him with the slightest glare in her eye. “When you say it like that you make them sound like homeless people. They just don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on their pets. But it doesn’t mean that they love them any less.”

  “Of course not,” James added, shaking his head.

  Juliet turned back to her friends. “But I came up with a plan. There is this newer company that develops cancer drugs for animals. They’re pretty small, but one of their drugs has been out for years and is undergoing human trials. They’re holding a contest to raise awareness for how well the drug works. The winner of the contest will get one million dollars, plus a stipend to run clinical drug trials at their clinic.”

  Aaron raised his eyebrows. “That’s incredible. What’s in it for them?”

  “Well, they want people to put together a video of animals that have been saved by the drug. They’re going to use that for marketing and fundraising, I don’t know.”

  James nodded. “It’s actually really smart. If they don’t have enough money for their own marketing, this can create a lot of hype, even beyond the winning video. It’ll help them with investment and buy in.”

  Before Juliet had the chance to cut him off, Aaron asked, “Does your dad’s c
ompany do that?”

  James shook his head. “No, we have an in-house marketing department. Plus, none of the drugs that we developed are used in animals, just in people. But it’s not a bad idea.”

  “Anyways,” Juliet said, “I contacted a lot of my old vet school friends who are at some of the bigger veterinary practices. They’ve been using this drug for years and some of their patients agreed to appear in a video about it. Which is where I come in. I’m going to make this video and win the contest. I hope.”

  Greg smiled and patted the dark bag sitting on the table. “I brought my old camera, just like you asked. It’s all yours.”

  Aaron leaned back, crossing his arms. “And Greg is going to edit this video for you, right?”

  Juliet shrugged, a smile on her lips. “No, I can’t afford to pay him.”

  Greg laughed. “Oh, please. It would be nice to edit something other than wedding videos for once. And it’s an honor to loan my skills to your clinic for poor people.”

  Juliet had to swallow to suppress the laugh that almost sprung from her chest. Maybe guy friends had some merits.

  “Thanks Greg, that means a lot,” said Juliet.

  “I know a good bit about how drug companies work,” James said, apparently missing Greg’s jab at him. “Maybe I could be of some help?”

  “I think I’ll be okay,” replied Juliet.

  She was unable to force herself to smile this time. Why did James think he could show up in town after all these years and act like he was just another member of the gang? Did he think that she’d look at him and want to be friends all of a sudden?

  Luckily, at that moment, Zach came over to their table. “Hey guys, good to see you.”

  Everyone smiled and said their hello’s. Juliet made a point of being much warmer to Zach than she was to James. She liked Zach, after all. It wasn’t his fault that his best friend was a jerk.

  “James – we’re going to put our dinner orders in soon. Do you want to come over or…?”

  “Oh, of course. Sorry, sure.” James stood from the table. “It was really nice catching up with you guys. Maybe I’ll see you later?”

  “Sure, see you later,” said Aaron.

  Juliet waited until they were out of earshot to speak again. “Thanks a lot guys,” she hissed. “I really wanted to have to pretend to be nice to my ex-boyfriend.”

  Greg and Aaron started laughing.

  “What’s so funny?” she said, deciding again that guy friends were no good.

  “I don’t think that anyone would think that you were trying to be nice to him.”

  She crossed her arms. “What’s that supposed to mean? And why did you tell him to sit down?”

  Greg shrugged. “I didn’t want to be rude. And besides, it’s been a long time. Maybe it’s time for you to forgive? You can forgive but not forget.”

  Juliet sighed. “You know I hate that phrase.”

  “Yeah, we know,” Aaron said with a grin. “Maybe it’s time to get over it?”

  “No! It’s a stupid phrase! If you forgive, but you still hang onto whatever they did, then that’s not really forgiveness, is it?”

  Greg shrugged. “I mean, it’s a form of forgiveness.”

  “No, it’s not forgiveness,” Juliet said matter-of-factly.

  “Okay then, just forgive and forget,” said Aaron.

  Juliet realized that her shoulders were scrunched halfway up to her ears. She released the tension. “There are some things that can’t be forgiven.”

  Aaron and Greg looked at each other, then back at Juliet.

  “You’re still that mad?” asked Aaron. “I don’t think that’s good for your health.”

  Greg tried to hide his smile behind the menu.

  She wasn’t going to play into their teasing anymore. “I’m not mad. I just keep a very updated list of people to be avoided.”

  “Like a black book with people you hate?” asked Greg.

  Juliet sighed. “No! I don’t ‘hate’ anybody. There are just certain people that you can never trust.”

  Aaron got a very serious look on his face. “We better be careful, or we’ll end up on her list.”

  Greg nodded. “It’s kinda like a Do Not Call list. But it’s worse – a Do Not Trust list.”

  Juliet threw a sugar packet at him. “You’re both going to end up on my Do Not Call list soon.”

  They laughed and finally moved onto another topic.

  The rest of the evening was nice, even though Juliet felt like her nerves were on edge. She constantly looked to see if James was going to sneak up on them again. Luckily, he didn’t, after they paid their tab, they walked out to the parking lot together without any sign of James.

  Aaron made them all promise to stop by his house after Thanksgiving dinner, and they agreed. Juliet waved goodbye, still on alert that James could show up at any minute. She quickly started her car and was about to pull away from her parking spot when the car suddenly stopped.

  “What in the world?”

  She tried turning the key in the ignition again, but that didn’t do anything. She put her foot on the gas with no response. She realized that everything in the car was dark – even the clock stopped glowing. She pulled the emergency brake and got out to take a look at it.

  Greg and Aaron were still chatting and came over to see what was going on.

  “What happened?” asked Greg.

  “I have no idea! It was going, and then all of a sudden, it wasn’t.”

  “Maybe I could take a look?” said a new voice.

  Juliet closed her eyes. Of course James found her again. Just when she was about to get away from him forever.

  Chapter 2

  James took a step forward and opened the hood of Juliet’s Saturn Vue. He didn’t know much about cars, so he wasn’t really sure what he was looking at, but he still wanted to try. He would do anything for the chance to talk to Juliet for just a bit longer.

  Luckily for him, Aaron took the lead. “Well, your oil looks okay. I don’t see anything obviously wrong, but Juliet, this is a pretty old car. It might be the engine or the transmission.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “It can’t be broken right now. Why couldn’t it break next week? I have to drive to Ann Arbor on Friday – it was the only day the lady with the parrot could meet!”

  James saw his chance. “I have the whole week off, actually. I could drive you anywhere you need to go.”

  She responded without looking at him. “Thanks, but I’m sure my car just needs some fluid or something, and it’ll be back up and running.”

  Greg rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure about that Jules. And you’re gonna have a hard time finding a car to rent the day after Thanksgiving.”

  James tried to suppress a smile. Clearly Greg didn’t hold a grudge as long as Juliet did.

  “It wouldn’t be the worst thing for you to have someone go with you,” Aaron added. “You don’t know the people that you’re going to meet. What if one of them attacks you or something?”

  Juliet threw her hands up. “Why would anyone attack me? I’m sure they’re all nice, normal people. Since when are you so paranoid?”

  Greg shrugged. “Better safe than sorry, don’t you think?”

  A vein bulged from Juliet’s forehead, but she didn’t respond. She got back into the driver’s seat and turned her key in the ignition again. The car didn’t even try to start.

  James felt almost giddy with excitement.

  “I can give you a ride back to your parents’ house if you like,” he said.

  “No thank you,” she responded. “Greg – their house is on your way home. You don’t mind, do you?”

  “No, of course not. Let’s go.”

  “My offer to drive you on Friday stands!” James yelled after her. “You still have my number, right?”

  “No, I deleted it,” she shouted without looking back.

  He frowned. This wasn’t going to be easy. But he knew that when he made the d
ecision to come back to Michigan. “I’ll text you so you can let me know if you need my help.”

  She got into the passenger seat of Greg’s car without responding. James watched as they pulled away.

  Although it wasn’t exactly a warm welcome, it was still a better interaction then he expected. Juliet was a tough cookie – she always had been, and always would be.

  It was part of the reason why he’d been so afraid to talk to her, even though he thought about her almost nonstop for the past five years. His life falling apart in the past few weeks forced him to finally confront what he really wanted in life: to win her back.

  The last time that he spoke to Juliet was the night that she refused his marriage proposal. Not only did she tell him that she would not marry him, she also broke up with him and refused to speak to him about it. James was left to wonder what he did wrong.

  Wondering wasn’t the right word – he wasn’t entirely clueless. Their relationship was wonderful for the first two years when they were both in college. It became rocky when James graduated and moved to New York City; Juliet still had one year left at school, but he thought that they were strong enough to survive the distance.

  James’ excitement clouded his judgement; he was ecstatic to finally get to work at his dad’s company, and he didn’t think the distance would be that bad. Yet their easy relationship became difficult; there were arguments, tense silences, and a lack of understanding between them.

  Perhaps it was foolish of him to propose to her when he did, but he was desperate. Despite all of their problems, he loved her dearly, and he wanted to show her that. Obviously, she thought that was the wrong move.

  He was devastated after they broke up, but since Juliet refused to talk to him, he had no choice but to try to move on. That didn’t go very well. No matter who he met, no one measured up to her.

  Dating was tough. Instead of focusing on whatever his date was telling him, he found himself wondering what Juliet was doing or what she would say about a new movie or TV show. When he went to a restaurant, he would look at the menu and try to pick out what Juliet would’ve ordered. Sometimes he would order it just to see what it was like.