Indelible Love - Emily's Story (11 page)

“Why are you so quiet? Did I do
something wrong again?”

“Emily, why would you think you did
anything wrong?”

“Well, generally when someone stops
talking to you, it’s because they’re upset with you. All right…let
me explain why I don’t want to hear about that vile
woman.”

This brought a chortle out of
Jake.

“When I was waiting in the car for
you, I realized you were right when you said it’s not good to know
too much about each other’s past. Watching her kiss you unsettled
me to a point where my mind raced in all directions, jumping to
conclusions about your relationship with her, past and present.
Unpleasant would be a mild way of explaining what I
felt.”

This explanation only brought on a
guiltier look.

“But then I thought about what you had
to witness on Friday with me and Max, and I decided whatever I felt
this morning couldn’t have compared to what you must have felt
meeting my only boyfriend of four years. So, I thought it only fair
to let everything go and enjoy the rest of the day.”

His eyes expressed appreciation and we
enjoyed the rest of the day at an oyster farm about an hour north
of the city. It never ceased to amaze Jake how much I ate. He
watched in amusement as I tried to shuck an oyster with no success.
Jake also found no success trying to top oysters with the goodies
that we brought. His toppings fell off the shell or slid to the
side. We decided he should shuck the oysters while I created my
masterpieces of oysters with caviar, oysters with mignonette and
hot sauce, and grilled oysters with melted cheeses, hot sauce, and
pancetta—that was the winning combination. A bottle of wine later,
I needed dessert and coffee to wake me up or I would end up asleep
on our picnic blanket among a crowd of people.

“Jake, how did you know Parisian
macarons are my favorite dessert? I don’t think I ever told you
this, did I?”

His lips curled into a most endearing
expression. “You have this almost wistful look in your eyes when
you talk about or see something you like.”

“That’s exactly what my mom used to
tell me. While you call it wistful, she called it covetous.” I
laughed. “How boring and predictable am I when you’ve figured me
out this easily and so quickly,” I stated with chagrin.

“On the contrary, I find you to be the
most interesting and desirable woman I’ve ever met. I can’t get
enough of you.”

I felt blood rushing to my cheeks.
“That’s only because I’m the one girl who hasn’t jumped into bed
with you on the first date.” I saw blood rushing to his cheeks as
well.

Waiting out a delay on the runway at
SFO, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Jake pulled up the armrest,
placed his arms around my waist and had me snuggle into his chest.
I could never tire of this sense of being desired. Drifting into
unconsciousness, Jake kissed the top of my head whispering three
words that gave me goose bumps. Perhaps I was only
dreaming.

Chapter 5
Max
’s Regret

The phone rang way too early for my
liking.

“Hello?” I answered,
annoyed.

“Emily. You’re back. Where were you
yesterday? I tried calling you all day.” It was Sarah, probably
calling for a minute-by-minute recap of my date.

“Sarah! It’s awfully early to be
calling. What time is it?”

“Get up! It’s 6:00a.m.”

Was she kidding? 6:00a.m? “I just got
to bed a few hours ago. Leave me alone.”

“I’m coming over right now. I got you
some coffee.”

Sure enough, the doorbell rang within
minutes. Ugh. I pulled on a robe, slowly brushed my teeth, and
washed my face before answering the door. Sarah was dressed to go
to work and ready to attack if I didn’t start talking.

“Tell me everything!”

I tried to be vague, because I was
tired and wanted her to leave so I could go back to sleep, but that
was wishful thinking. I had to give her every detail of our trip
from start to finish.

“All right. We flew out of Burbank
airport and landed in SFO. Jake rented a car, and we had lunch at
my dream restaurant up in Napa.”

“Seriously? How did he do that? Didn’t
he just dream up this trip three nights ago? He’s good! Wait,
what’s that on your neck? That looks heavy. That’s not an
engagement ring, is it?”

I started walking toward my bedroom
threatening to go back to sleep. “OK, I won’t interrupt,” begged
Sarah. “Continue!”

“We ate lunch, drove to his apartment
in the city to rest, and then got ready for dinner and an
opera.”

“What? He has an apartment up in San
Francisco? What did you do there?” Her expression turned
suggestive.

“Sarah! You know that I didn’t have
sex with Max during our entire four-year relationship. You know
that I feel strongly about waiting till I get married.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You and your
virtues. I don’t know how you can hold back when you have someone
as gorgeous as Jake in an empty apartment.”

“Anyhow, his sister, Jane,
was in town as well, so we got ready and had dinner with her and
saw
Carmen
. After
a nine-course lunch and a four-course dinner, I think I have
officially gained back the weight I lost after my breakup with
Max,” I kidded.

“So, then where were you yesterday?
Did you spend Sunday with Jake as well?”

I paused, knowing that Sarah was about
to assume the worst. “I stayed up north all weekend.”

“You what?” Her eyes bugged out. She
knew I had never spent a night with anyone other than her. “You
slept with Jake?”

She would jump to insane conclusions.
“Sarah, I stayed in their apartment, but slept in Jane’s room with
Jane.”

“Oh.” Her excitement deflated faster
than a popped balloon. “So you told Jake about your ridiculous
pledge to stay a virgin?”

I nodded my head yes.

“What a buzzkill. He must have loved
that piece of information about you.”

“Yeah, at first I thought that he was
OK with it, but I soon saw a whole other side to Dr. Reid. Inside
this well-respected doctor who showers me with attention, lives a
five-year-old who pouts when he doesn’t get what he wants and gets
upset quite easily. I found it adorable.”

The conversation that ensued covered
why I had a very expensive ring on my neck, and how Jake and I were
going to give this relationship a chance at a future.

Sarah looked at me as though she
wasn’t sure she believed my earnest attempt at a new relationship.
“I know you really like Jake, and Charlie and I are happy you’ve
moved on, but can you honestly say that you are over Max and that
you can seriously date Jake? Jake obviously thinks a lot more of
you than you do of him.”

“He told me that he really likes me
and I like him just as much. I’m going to try, Sarah, to completely
let go of the past and to start loving again. I had such an amazing
weekend with him.” Without a doubt or any pretense, I believed I
could start anew. Sarah didn’t buy it.

“Peter told me you and Max never made
it to the bar Friday night. What happened to you two? Where were
you?”

“We went and had dinner. Thanks to
you, I didn’t eat that night. I can’t believe you did that to me.
How can you call yourself my..."

Sarah cut me off. “OK, OK. I’m sorry.
Back to dinner, what did you two talk about?”

“Max asked about Jake and I asked
about him and Jennifer. He apologized to me for breaking my heart,
and reassured me that he loved me very much when we were dating. He
said that I was his world or something like that.” I spoke with
much skepticism.

“Charlie told me yesterday that Max
and Jennifer broke up.”

My head spun. “What?”

“That’s what I heard. He broke it off
after being with you on Friday, so we thought maybe you two were
back together.”

“Sarah! That’s crazy. You know that
I’m seeing Jake. I have no thoughts of getting back together with
Max.”

Sarah eyed me curiously. Still she
wasn’t convinced.

“You’re such a liar. I still see the
hurt on your face whenever I bring up Max.”

“Yeah, it still hurts, but I’m over
him. I want to be with Jake. I really like him. I feel so at ease
with him. With Max, I was always on edge, you know
that.”

Ding
dong
.

We looked at each other, wondering who
would come by so early in the morning. We both walked over to the
door, and to my delight, it was Jake.

“Good morning, Beautiful.” He planted
a long kiss on my lips. Sarah tried to make her presence known and
break us up, but Jake wouldn’t let go.

“Hello?” Sarah protested.

Jake looked up from my face and
answered, “Hey, Sarah. What are you doing here so
early?”

“I was going to ask you the same
thing.”

“What are you both doing here at this
hour?” I tried to sound annoyed.

“After having spent an entire weekend
with you, my girlfriend, I was going through withdrawal.” He tried
to kiss me again, but the phone rang.

“Goodness, it’s Grand Central here
today. Sarah, can you answer that for me, please?”

“Hello?” We heard from
afar.

I continued my conversation with Jake.
“To what do I owe this unexpected but much-appreciated visit? I’ve
never seen you so soon after a date. I thought maybe I wouldn’t see
you again till we landed in Hawaii.” I laughed, knowing this was
our reality.

“I missed you after dropping you off
last night. I thought I’d come by and see you before I started my
day. What’s your schedule like today?”

“Absolutely nothing is on my schedule
today. This is the life of a school teacher on
vacation.”

“You want to come to the hospital and
have lunch with me?”

I eyed him suspiciously, knowing that
he had no set lunchtime.

“Oh? What time?”

A chuckle ensued with no clear answer
for a lunch time, but many more kisses to all parts of my face and
neck followed. Sarah halted our embrace as she yelled over, “Max
and Peter want to know if you want to have lunch with them around
noon today?”

My eyes gleamed with mischief, while
his shot daggers at the thought of me being back together with
Max.

“Well, Dr. Reid? Lunch today? I’ve got
another offer on the table. Can you match that?” I smiled at his
perturbed face.

“No. Go ahead and have lunch with your
ex. I don’t know when I’ll get out of surgery.” Even with a
churlish demeanor, Jake was still endearing.

I hugged him and said, “I thought I
might see another one of your tantrums. Don’t worry. I promise I
won’t allow Max to run over and kiss me like you allowed Allison to
do. Go save another life, Dr. Reid. Stop by after work, if you
like.”

He glowered at my snide remark
concerning Allison, then lit up at the prospect of us seeing each
other later, but quickly turned glum at the thought of me spending
the day with Max. We said good-bye and he left for work.

Sarah had told the guys to meet for
lunch near her work so that she and Charlie could join us. Today
was shaping up to be a more eventful day than I had
planned.

“By the way, Sarah, I’m leaving for
Hawaii on Monday. You and Charlie want to house-sit for me? I’ll be
back Thursday morning.” Once again, I went into long details with
my best friend about Jake and the Reid family. She seemed quite
impressed.

“We’d love to house-sit. It gives me a
chance to be with Charlie for four straight days.” I didn’t want to
know what was going on in that mind of hers.

“Use the guest bedroom, OK? No funny
stuff on my bed.” This provoked a pillow fight I was not ready for
so early in the morning.

When Max offered to pick me up and
take me out to the Westside to meet Peter, Sarah, and Charlie, I
hesitantly agreed. Being with Max made me nervous all over again,
but for different reasons. Though I knew Jake was the only man in
my life, I was still unsure where Max fit, if he fit at all. I got
in the car and Max eyes immediately landed on my new
necklace.

“What’s with the albatross on your
neck?” he rudely referred to my ring.

My face scowled in answer to his
obnoxious question. After a bit of silence, Max tried to ask me
questions about inconsequential things like what I was doing for
Christmas and New Year’s, but as soon as I reminded him that I was
going to Hawaii with Jake, the awkwardness reappeared. Feeling
jittery, the conversation stopped for the rest of the
ride.

When we got to the restaurant, our
friends were seated already. We all said our hellos, and everyone’s
eyes locked on to my pendant.

“Did you get married and forget to
invite us to the wedding?” Peter questioned.

Max sharply answered, “She won’t say.
I’ve asked already.”

Charlie too was curious about the
necklace. “You going to explain why you’re wearing a wedding band
on your neck?”