The job was at Remington’s Medical Science Center. Brad was the director there and Cole, my old friend here, was his second-in-command. He was the head of research and…my boss.
The powers that be included him. He was like St. Peter guarding the gates of heaven, checking off who could enter from his list. Boy, did I ever love my bad luck.
“You’ll be fine. If it were entirely up to me I wouldn’t put you through the rigorous shit.”
At least he still talked like the same Cole from the past.
“No?”
“No, but my higher-ups want to make sure it’s all done fair and square, so he won’t look like a prick for handing his sister a six-figure-a-year job,” he explained. Brad was his boss.
I nodded. “It’s cool, I get it and I’m ready to bring it to the table. Just have to impress you right?”
Something sensual came into his eyes and his gaze traveled over my body in one sweep. It made me swallow hard.
Before he could give his answer, Brad came up to us with a broad smile on his face and a glass of wine in his hand.
Cole looked to him and there was a noticeable delayed reaction to the smile he gave him.
I got up to give my big brother a hug.
“Brad, I’m so happy for you and Andrea,” I bubbled.
Brad chuckled. “Thank you, both of you. It’s nice to see my other two favorite people together. It’s been awhile since we had this, so I was coming over to say hi.”
I smiled because it was him and I didn’t want him feeling any other way besides happy today. “It is nice,” I agreed.
Cole stood up. “Absolutely. I have to continue my wedding duties now to make sure my best pal and his girl have the best day,” Cole said and bumped his fist with Brad’s.
“You’re the best Cole,” Brad told him and Cole answered with a slight dip of his head before he walked away.
I watched him go, feeling the tension go too, but wishing I’d gotten the answer to my question.
And traitorously wishing he didn’t leave so soon.
“Come, Andrea’s parents are dying to talk to you about LA. They love it there,” Brad said, linking his arm with mine.
“Sure.”
As he ushered me over to the head table, I glanced over my shoulder to the direction Cole went. Two women rushed to him and it felt like the past again.
Nothing new. Just the same with the women racing to him like a magnet.
Will working with him be the same?
I guess I’d have to see.
Cole
It was like being on autopilot and I hated it.
It made me feel like a hypocrite to a person I should be a friend to.
Brad was my best friend. We were as close as brothers, except when it came to his sister.
Just like now.
We were at his wedding and he’s still playing big brother. He left his wife at the table talking to her new in-laws while he came over to play nice and pose as the brother who was happy to have his two other favorite people together.
Lies…
I knew it was a lie and he did too. I just wished he wouldn’t play with me like that.
It was more of a warning, or a reminder.
I didn’t need the reminder because his behavior when he found out about the trip to Vegas was enough to make me remember forever.
Out of respect I stayed away today like I did back then.
Laila left after dinner and I left soon after too, not leaving with the leggy blonde Brad purposely placed me with. While it was late I knew the guy I was going to see wouldn’t mind me dropping by his house.
I pulled up at my brother’s house at close to ten. Ryan and his wife, Paige, were expecting their first child at the end of the year. I’m glad she didn’t mind my sporadic visits to their home. I had keys which I stopped using when she moved in, but I used them when it was late like this so I didn’t wake her.
I walked into the house and found her asleep on the sofa. It was like I’d adopted my own little sister when she married into the family. Instinctively I grabbed one of the blankets and covered her with it.
I then made my way to the office where I knew I’d find Ryan because he’d been working day and night on his new research idea.
He smiled when he saw me come in.
There was paperwork everywhere. I even had to hop over some foolscap folders on the floor.
“Jesus bro…what the hell? Looks like a crazy person lives here,” I complained. “One of those weird people who writes formulas all over the walls.” I was about to elaborate when I saw the wall to my left had some formulas written on it. My face fell and Ryan started laughing. “Oh no, it’s happened. You’ve lost your damn mind.”
“No, I just needed the space. I have this amazing idea and I think it’s gonna be big and groundbreaking. I can’t stop thinking about it,” he answered with excitement. He looked just like Mom when he got like that. I looked more like our father.
I couldn’t deny that it was good to see him like this. Deep down, I was still the rebel I always was, but he’d changed everything.
Ryan was a playboy for many years but changed his ways and started taking his career seriously. Most of all, I was proud to see the way he’d took care of Paige.
Didn’t mean that I was gonna let him get off easy for the craziness surrounding me.
“You know you can’t have the place looking this way when the baby comes. Also, has your wife seen the state of this room?”
He laughed. “No, she has not. I’ve made sure she has nothing to do with work while she’s home so she can take the time she needs to rest. Dad has his eye on her at the hospital too. He makes sure she doesn’t overdo it.”
That sounded good.
Ryan and Paige both met at St. Michael’s where Dad was medical director and practically the deciding factor of whether you become a doctor or not. Or whether you got to teach in the medical profession or not. He was that guy who signed his signature on your certificate, giving the seal of approval for your career.
Ryan and I were both surgeons who fell into medical research, just like Dad. The only differences between us was that Ryan and Dad did cardiothoracic surgery and I chose neurosurgery. I specialized in complex cranial surgery and because of my years of success with my patients, I verged into research. That was how I ended up at Remington’s.
We all worked together until a few years ago. Ryan was the first to leave. He now worked at the medical research center at Lennox Hill, while I’d been at Remington’s for the last two years. However, because St. Michael’s was one of the hospitals linked to Remington’s, my role included visits there once a week to touch base with patients undergoing clinical trials.
“As long as you don’t make your woman as crazy as you then I’m fine,” I stated.
“You look like you need pancakes and syrup.”
“Breakfast Ryan, at this hour?”
“Hey, it’s fine to eat breakfast whenever you want. I just choose to have it at night. No complaints too.” He made a show of running his hand down his washboard stomach that mirrored mine. Except, unlike him, I had to work a little harder.
I figured I could live with a few pancakes. Sugar is supposed to be good to calm you in some instances. It produced extra serotonin.
“You’re crazy,” I intoned.
“And you also look like you need to talk. I take it the wedding was tense.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure tense was the right word to use. It would do for now though.
I drew in a deep breath as he made his way over to me.
“Come bro, let’s eat pancakes, have a beer, and air out the shit on your mind.”
I laughed and followed him to the kitchen where he started on the pancakes straightaway.
He made a couple for us each within ten minutes and set everything out on the table.
I had to admit that his breakfast meal felt more relaxed than the dinner at the wedding, where I found my attention drifting to t
he beautiful Laila who sat opposite me.
It was a joke, waving a woman in front of my face I was trying not to want.
“Right, talk…” Ryan said, opening his palms. “And don’t hold back.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“How about the part where you lied your ass off to the one girl I’d ever seen you have any real interest in. Let’s start there.”
I rolled my eyes at him. This was what happened when you told people a story and they didn’t get why you did certain things.
That’s what happened to me.
“It wasn’t as simple as that. I didn’t lie to her.” What I’d said was I didn’t think it was a good idea for us to be together. Okay…yes, that was a lie. One I’d tried to make myself believe.
“Yes, it was,” Ryan insisted. “You think if I had a woman I was interested in I’d allow her brother to dictate to me whether or not I could be with her? Hell no.”
I couldn’t question him because I knew he wouldn’t. He actually was living the words he’d said. He fought to be with Paige.
Things may be all nice now because they’ve been together for so long but in the beginning it was rocky. Ryan had that playboy rep of his and Dad told him to behave or that would be the end of his career at St. Michael’s. At the time he’d met Paige, was seeing her in secret, and Dad found out. Dad threatened Ryan and he chose Paige. Dad saw he was serious as shit about his decision.
I wished I could have had the balls it took to be that way when it came to Laila way back when, but my situation was a little different than what his was.
“If it was as simple as that, I would have done it. But you know that at the time things were complete shit with me.”
That silenced him. The same way I couldn’t refute what he would have done, is the same way he couldn’t when it came to me either. And it was the first time that Brad had any right to stop me from seeing his sister.
What happened was this.
Vegas was perfect. I never took Laila there to take her virginity or have the wild weekend in bed we ended up having. That just happened. What wasn’t sudden was my feelings for her.
I always felt like that but knew Brad would have a problem with it because I was a worse playboy than Ryan could have ever been—even worse than what people knew. But my best friend knew.
When I went to him to talk to him about me wanting to be with his sister, he hit me with another piece of news he’d learned while I was away on my little rendezvous.
Cindy, my ex—who was more of a woman I’d had casual sex with—and I had broken up with three months prior to my Vegas trip; she went to him looking for me because she was pregnant.
I learned the news from Brad who greeted me with a fist to my face and didn’t hesitate to tell me I wasn’t good enough for his sister when I’d told him I was with Laila.
He dropped a bomb on me that day and I had to bear the task of breaking Laila’s heart. I never saw her after that and months later a paternity test confirmed Cindy’s baby wasn’t mine. But the lesson taught me that Laila could do better and should.
I’d hoped she had when she got married and had a son.
Knowing she didn’t crushed me.
Brad never told me why she got divorced. After the fight we had, Brad never spoke much about Laila, so the bullshit today was just for show.
Even though I’d changed, he was still big brother watching over his sister, making sure I didn’t get to her.
“What are you going to do?” Ryan asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t know Ryan. As per usual, I’m the prick.”
There was one more thing I had to do that Laila wouldn’t like at all.
I knew she hated me. It was the only thing that could come from the lies I told. Lies she believed were truth. Lies that just made me look like a playboy.
I knew Brad wasn’t thrilled we’d be working together, but it was just the way the situation played out.
My problem now was being around her. It wasn’t hard to feel the same way I always did.
And…I was certain I’d be the prick again in her eyes when she found out what her job would entail, and that six-month trial would be a little more intense than she imagined.
Laila
Nerves filled my soul for the whole of the last week, and they’d caught up with me from the second I opened my eyes this morning. They were still with me now as I sat in my car in the parking lot at Remington’s.
It was my first day of work.
It was eight-thirty when I got there. Now it was nine. I started at nine-thirty.
I planned to get coffee and ease myself in. Basically not rush.
That was the one thing Dr. Maylor advised as she wrapped up my counseling sessions, which were a massive help to me. It was her who told me to move back home and start anew.
Therapy was always something I hoped to never have. I did it for Peter after the divorce when I found myself slipping into what I could only describe as a spell of depression.
I did it for about half a year and it ended a few months before we came to Pittsburgh.
I’d always been this strong-willed, strongminded person who knew what she was doing. Until the day I came home early and found my husband in bed with one of his students, balls deep inside her telling her how hard he wanted to fuck her before his wife got home.
I’d gone to get physical therapy and Peter was with his grandparents in LA. I’d needed it for my back after Peter was born because I had such a difficult labor with him and ended up getting an epidural. It turned out my dear husband took every chance he got while I was away to distribute time to his students.
I knew it was a bad idea to get involved with my professor. That was a given no matter what, but I foolishly believed he loved me. That day would forever be burned in my mind, right along with him leaving.
That little fiesta he had with his student got him in more trouble than just with me. She reported him to the dean when he supposedly ended it with her, and they gave him the choice to resign. I didn’t know how he managed to get off so easy since it was then that I’d found out about the other women he’d been sleeping with—staff and students.
He left me and he left Stanford. I never knew where he went after that, but I heard he’d been seen with someone else. Most likely another student.
He just left me and Peter after the divorce like it was nothing, left us to fend for ourselves.
Shaking the memory out of my head, I got out of the car and headed to the little coffee shop on-site to grab a cappuccino. I then made my way inside the building.
I’d been here a few times before and since then they’d really revamped the place. It was bigger for a start. Big enough to fit in a football stadium. And there was another building complex I guessed was the teaching facility Brad told me about awhile back.
I was going to be based in the main part where I was now.
I’d sat in the foyer near the room I was told we’d be meeting in. There was a reception desk ahead of me and several levels above that went up to six floors. All labs. It actually felt like a place I’d be happy at.
Back in LA, at the Good Samaritan Hospital, I did the same job I’d be starting today. I’d started working with nanotech just before I left.
I was sad to leave but it really was for the best, and would be much better after I got past this intense trial period because Remington’s was a world-renowned facility. A place I knew I would have had to fight to get into if I didn’t have Brad. The very best people in the medical and scientific world came here. Even with my solid credentials it would have been a fight I wouldn’t have had the strength for. I knew all the other applicants had a PhD. That was the only thing missing from my list of credentials.
So, while the trial may be intense, I was grateful for the opportunity.
I straightened up when I glanced to my left and saw Cole walking up the corridor with a folder tucked under his arm.
He looked to me and smiled. It was
a warm smile that made me feel at ease.
As awkward as it was seeing him at the wedding, it was a little reminiscent of the past. Prior to Vegas and long before I left for college. Those days when I used to follow him everywhere like a shadow.
I stood up as he approached and assumed my professional mode. The wedding was the wedding and it was awkward, but this was work and my fate was in his hands.
“Morning,” he greeted me. The corners of his lips arched and the blue of his eyes looked brighter in the sunlight beaming in through the window.
I’d expected a handshake but he hugged me and it didn’t feel like the awkward hug we shared at the wedding. This was more real.
“Hi,” I answered, grateful that my nerves had calmed. “I’m sorry I’m early. I just didn’t want to rush in.”
“That’s fine. I’m the same. I’ve been here since seven.”
My eyes widened at that. “You’ve been here that long?”
He laughed and nodded. “Yes, sometimes even guys like me have to change things up when it calls for it. There was some stuff I had to finish up for the hospital. The research unit there has really taken off over the last year,” he explained.
“I heard.”
“My sister-in-law’s best friend works there with her husband and they’re what you get when you have two likeminded people who just have nonstop ideas. It’s like a tap that won’t turn off.”
“But that’s good though. It means it won’t be boring.” Wow I’m doing it. I’m talking to him like a normal person.
“I guess so, but try having to justify a million dollars to the board for trials, tests, and tribulations—and a crazy couple of doctors who keep coming back with more.”
My mouth dropped wide open. “A million dollars?” The most I’d ever been approved for research was twenty-five grand, and I thought that was a lot.
“Welcome to Remington’s. Come on, let’s go in. I wanted to talk to you before we start so it’s good you’re here.”
“Oh, okay.” I couldn’t help the flutter of concern that filled my stomach.
Cole Page 3