Exquisite (34 page)

“Well hey there Casanova. Coming to
pick up your girl?”

Smiling at her he nodded and walked
along beside her, “Sure am. Think she’ll be ready for me?”

Shelly turned down the corridor
with him. “I’m sure. Since you’ve come along Lena no longer lingers at work
like she use to.”

He could believe that too. Before,
him Lena had been a complete workaholic putting in ridiculous hours only to go
home and run herself into the ground in the hopes of being able to fall asleep
nightmare free. He was happy that she now had him to fight off her demons and
so far it seemed to work like a charm. Although they still ran in the mornings
he liked to think their evening extracurricular activities were one of the
reasons she was now eager to get home.

“Earth to Mason.”

He focused back on Dr Monroe
smiling down at her.

“I was going to ask where you went
to but by the look of that smile I can already guess it was x rated.”

Laughing he held his arm out, she hooked
hers through it and they stopped at Lena’s door and knocked together. “You’d be
right.”

“Perv.” she said with a smile.

“Yeah yeah I know.”

Lena opened the door and looked at
the mischievous looks on their faces and demanded with her hands on her hips.
“Ok what?”

Lena could tell by the unholy smile
on Mason’s face and the smirk on Shelly’s they’d been talking about her.
Unhooking their arms Shelly moved into the office first wrapping an arm around
Lena’s shoulders.

“Oh nothing Lena. Mason was just daydreaming
and I caught him.”

They both looked over to where he
was leaning up against the door frame with his arms crossed. He was smiling at
her with the hottest look in his eyes Lena couldn’t help but feel every part of
her clench.

“You two don’t act anything like I
expected.”

Lena and Shelly both looked at him,
but it was Shelly who asked first. “Oh and how are we supposed to act?”

Mason pushed off the door and came
into the office leaning his hands on the back of the chair looking at both of
them.

“I’m not sure.” he paused and
looked them up and down, “You’re both extremely intelligent women.”

“Watch it Langley.” Lena warned.

“No, no. Hear me out. It’s obvious
you’re both top of your fields. Your professional, smart, sophisticated women
and yet right now you remind me of my sister when she was in high school.”

Lena’s mouth dropped open and she
heard Shelly snort then start to laugh. “Are you trying to tell us you think
we’re immature Casanova?”

Shaking his head he continued to
smile. “No you’re both just, “ he seemed to be looking for the right word, then
he found it, “Fun! You always expect doctors to be serious and kind of stuffy.
But you two act like two giggling girls.”

“Alright Langley that’s quiet
enough. Giggling girls?” Lena asked with an arched brow. He grinned at her
insulted tone then stood moving his way around the desk to them. He reached out
and placed a finger under her chin, tilting her head up.

“It wasn’t an insult Lena, you can
relax. I think it’s refreshing and sexy.”

Shelly made a squeak beside her,
probably falling under his spell since this was the first time she’d seen him
in seduction mode. He turned his face to look at her friend who was standing
beside her. She’d dropped her arm from around Lena’s waist but she was glued to
her side.

“Paul’s an idiot not to get you
into bed by the way.” he said softly then turned back to Lena. “That’s where my
doctor performs best.” and with that he lowered his head and kissed Lena hard
on the mouth.

Gasping she braced herself not
knowing what he was going to do next but she didn’t need to wait long. After a
quick hot kiss he stood up and she turned to face Shelly who was fanning
herself with her hand. Then they both looked back at Mason who was grinning and
they all started giggling,
exactly
like a group of teenagers.

When they arrived at Catherine’s,
Mason made a beeline to the kitchen after kissing her quickly on the lips and
Lena turned and made her way out the back to where everyone was gathered around
the large table under a huge oak tree. Catherine sat at the head and was
laughing at something Wendy had just told her. They looked up when she walked
in and Catherine jumped up walking towards her.

“Lena honey! How are you tonight?”

Lena smiled took her hand and
walked with her over to the table. Sitting down she said her hellos to Wendy
and her husband and that was it tonight because Rachel had flown to Italy two
days earlier. Mason had told her about the break up with Charlie and she
couldn’t help but wonder how she would cope if Mason and her came to an end.
Right now everything was great. They were in a comfortable pattern that seemed
to shift and morph when it needed to and she felt that she was finally
beginning to heal, she really believed that for once in her life things were
going to be fine. They all sat down to a meal of steaks and salad and it was
delicious. Mason was talking to Wendy about Saturday nights menu when Catherine
came down and sat beside her.

“Lena dear how are you? I finally
have a minute to talk to you without Mason hogging you to himself.”

Lena smiled over at her and reached
out taking her hand in her own. She squeezed it gently. “I’m great. Work’s busy
and things with Mason are going very well. I know that’s what you really want
to know.”

Catherine laughed and nodded, “It’s
true, that is what I wanted to know. He tells me you go down and visit Carly on
your own now. That’s a really big step for you Lena O’Donnell. I’m proud of
you.”

Lena felt tears gather in her eyes
and swallowed deeply trying to hold it together. “It’s all because of him.” she
paused and looked over to where he was smiling at Wendy and her husband, “If
you’re going to be proud of anyone it should be him.”

Catherine patted her hand. “Oh
don’t you worry. I’m very proud of him and I’m grateful to you.”

Lena tilted her head and asked,
“Grateful? Why”

“You came along at the perfect time
Lena. He was ready to settle down he just hadn’t met anyone worth doing that
with, and especially not that silly red headed twit.”

Lena’s eyebrow rose. “Trisha?”

“Yes her. I met her once and I have
to tell you, if he’d chosen her I would’ve done my best, but Lena I’ve never
been so happy to see him leave a woman.”

Laughing Lena watched as Mason
looked over to her and smiled a slow sexy grin that showed his dimples off and
made his eyes twinkle. She felt her heart kick up and do double time then he
looked back at Wendy and Lena turned back to Catherine.

“I guess it was right place right
time?”

Nodding Catherine agreed then said
softly, “But I’m grateful you opened to him Lena. I was worried at first.”

“Worried? “ she asked, “About me?”

“No. I was worried about him.”

Lena sat back at that. “Oh.”

“Not because you aren’t a wonderful
person dear.” she paused and scooted closer to Lena. “Because you were so
closed. I knew you were scared to open your heart to someone. I watched you
grow from a young girl to this amazing woman sitting beside me, and I never saw
you relax and smile until a few months ago.”

Lena felt tears welling in her eyes
and she reached up to brush them away.

“I’m glad my Mason did that for you
and I’m glad you let him.” she smiled and leaned in kissing Lena’s cheek. “You
two need to look after one another, promise me.”

Nodding Lena looked over to Mason,
where he sat watching her with his mother, then she turned back and smiled at
Catherine.

“I promise.”

T
he following week flew by. Mason had been working
non stop on a new promotion for the restaurant and he’d only seen Lena twice.
He missed her. She’d told him she was extremely busy this week with two
seminars and she had a new intern following her. They’d met up on Tuesday for
dinner and fallen asleep on his couch and Thursday night he’d gone by her house
and they’d gone for a run around the park then they’d come home and crawled
into bed. They were both exhausted.

He knew they needed to discuss
moving in together soon, he wanted her with him all the time. Not just when
they could fit each other in, but first he needed to sit her down and talk to
her, tell her how he felt. Finally tell her that he was completely in love with
her. He was planning to do that tonight. She’d told him she had the weekend off
and they were going to meet down at O’Malley’s for a drink when she got off
work, then they were going back to his place for the weekend. It was had just
turned 7.23pm when his phone rang. He put his pen down and picked it up
cradling it between his shoulder and ear.

“Hello.”

“Hi there.”

Mason beamed at the voice on the
other end. He felt his heart start to beat just a little faster when Lena’s
voice floated over the line. “Hey yourself. You better not be calling to
cancel.”

He heard her laugh and could
imagine her smiling. “No. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time in
your condo this weekend.”

“Oh are you? So it has nothing to
do with me then?”

“Hmm. Well maybe a little bit.”

Mason rocked back on his chair and
lowered his voice. “Good because I’m looking forward to spending some quality
time in
you
this weekend.”

He heard her take a deep breath. “I
can’t wait. Sure you don’t want to just skip O’Malley’s?”

Mason saw his phone light up with a
second call coming through. He noticed it was his mother’s shop and figured
he’d call her back after he hung up.

“Now why would we skip O’Malley’s?
You know I love it there. We first danced there.”

Lena chuckled, “You first groped me
there.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Wow, really mature doctor.” Mason
replied with a laugh.

“Ok then. If I must I’ll met you
there at 8.”

Mason watched his phone light up
again, wow his mother was really wanting to talk to him about something. “Ok
sounds like a plan. I can’t wait to see you Lena.”

“And I can’t wait to be seen
Langley. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Mason hung up and sat forward
dialing his mother’s number. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his
face as he sat back rocking his chair. This weekend was going to be amazing, he
could feel it. He was still thinking about Lena when he heard a man on the
other end of the line.

“Hello? Is this Mason?”

Mason sat up and looked at the
phone,
yep he’d dialed the right number, so who the heck was this?
“Yes,
who’s this?”

“Mason, my name’s Edward Scott. I’m
the shop owner across the street from your mother’s.” he paused and what came
out of his mouth next would forever change Mason’s life.

Lena sat at O’Malley’s with a beer
in front of her checking her watch. It’d just turned 8pm. She’d got there a
little early and gone in to get a drink. Taking a sip she thought about what
she wanted out of this weekend. Oh it was a given there would be a lot of good
food, good company and hot hot sex and she wanted it all, but this weekend she
planned to lay it on the line for him. Lena was ready to open her heart, let
down every defense she had and invite him in. She was going to tell him she
loved him.

Looking up at the clock she noticed
it was now 8.15pm and he still wasn’t there. She grabbed her cell phone and
called him. It went straight to voicemail. Reaching for her beer she told
herself not to worry,
he was probably just held up
, but there was
something niggling at the back of her neck and she couldn’t seem to shake it.
8.30pm and still nothing, she picked her phone up and dialed again, this time
it was answered.

“Hello, Mason’s phone.”

Lena frowned, it sounded like
Wendy, but she was speaking funny so Lena asked. “Wendy?”

“Oh god. Lena! Is that you?” she
asked on a frantic cry.

Lena’s breathing froze and she felt
herself go rigid. She made herself answer. “Yes. What’s going on Wendy? Mason
was supposed to meet me here half and hour ago. Why are you answering his
phone?”

There was another sob at the other
end and Lena could feel her heart clenching getting ready to crack open at
whatever tragedy was about to be hurled her way.
Please God, don’t let him
be sick, or hurt
.
Or worse, dead.

“He’s just left the hospital Lena,
it’s terrible.” she paused and Lena gripped the bar with her free hand.

“What happened to him?”

“Oh.” Wendy sobbed hard now, “No
not him Lena.” she heard her swallow. “It’s Catherine. She had a heart attack
in her shop this afternoon.”

Lena’s hand flew to her mouth and
she gasped loudly. She knew people were staring at her and she could feel the
tears gathering in her eyes. “Is she?” she couldn’t even say it. “Is she going
to be ok? Where did they take her?”

Lena heard Wendy let go of her
tears now, “She died Lena. She died at the scene. Mason just left the hospital
after going to down to identify her.”

Tears rolled in twin streams down
her cheeks as she sat in the crowded pub looking at the happy people smiling
and dancing without a care in the world. She hit the end button on the call and
numbly got off the stool and made her way through the crowd and out the door.
Her first instinct was to run, to leave it behind her and not go to him. He
would have Rachel and Wendy to comfort him, she just couldn’t deal with this,
but she didn’t run she did what her battered heart told her too and made her
way to Mason’s.

Mason couldn’t comprehend what had
just happened over the last hour and a half. He’d just got back to his place
and moved through the condo to sit on his couch. His mind kept running over the
details one by one, refusing to make sense of it. Choosing instead to believe
this was some kind of horrible nightmare.