Pursuit For Lucidity (Crashing Waves) (12 page)

“
No, no, Claire and I cooked together,” he corrected.

“
Alex, you cooked?  May I see what you made?  It sure smells really good,” my mother noted.  Alex showed my mother what he had cooked and gave her samples to taste as he had given me earlier.

“
Oh my goodness, you can cook!  Claire, I think Alex is a keeper and he can sure teach you to cook like this.  Henry, come taste these delicious meals that Alex has prepared,” my mother called my father to the kitchen.

“
I agree, this tastes great, Alex.  I’m sure everyone is going to enjoy this gourmet lunch,” said my father, devouring the food in his mouth.

When Alex and my father left the kitchen, my mother turned to me and made it clear that Alex was the man for me
and I needed to keep this one.

“
He’s the one, Claire.  He’s just perfect for you.  You need to talk to him one day, you know, about what happened to you,” she said, in a quiet whisper.

“
I already did, mom.  I told him everything Friday night and he couldn’t have been more understanding.  He’s amazing,” I whispered.  My mother just smiled.  She was as happy and relieved as I had been.

Katherine and John arrived after my parents and they loved my new place and the way it was all put together.  Katherine turned to me after she met Alex, with a look of total approval.  She seemed to have a great first impression of
him.  I couldn’t blame her, as he was perfect after all.  John and Alex seemed to get along right off the bat, which made Katherine and I very happy, since we were such good friends, we would hate to see our men not getting along.

Kyle, Molly and Calvin finally arrived as well and we were all ready to sit down and feast on the incredible food Alex had prepared.  My brothers gave me the look of approval after they met Alex as well.  It was important to me what my brothers thought of
my boyfriends.  Men had a way of differentiating the good guys from the bad.  They were never too fond of James, and that didn’t turn out well.

Molly really loved the modern look of my new place.
  “Not that I didn’t like your old place, but this is definitely an upgrade.  I love this very modern furniture, Claire.  It’s very young and very you,” she smiled.

I asked that everyone take
a seat so we could start eating.  I was starving and I knew Alex was very hungry as well, although we did a lot of taste testing of his gourmet food.  Lunch was amazing.  Everyone seemed to love Alex and I could feel that he was very fond of my family and friends also.  My father asked him about his schooling and his life in New York, and of course what his parents did in New York.  He seemed very impressed with the great schools Alex had attended and how far he had come in life.

Ale
x poured wine in everyone’s glass and stood up to speak.  I wonder what he’s
going to say
,
I thought.

“
I would like to congratulate Claire on her beautiful new place, with the help of her wonderful parents, of course.  I’m very grateful to have met Claire.  I know it’s only been a few weeks, but it’s been a very happy few weeks for me.  It’s great meeting you all and I hope you enjoyed the meal I helped Claire put together this afternoon,” he cheered.

Everyone raised their glass and cheered, thanking Alex for preparing the delicious meal.  They all knew I wasn’t the greatest cook in the family.
  It turned out to be a great day.  Alex, John, my father, and my brothers couldn’t stop talking about sports.  My mother, Molly, and Katherine helped me in the kitchen and were whispering to me about how much they liked Alex.  “Claire, I think he loves you,” my mother whispered.

Katherine agreed, “I definitely agree.
He’s in awe of you.  Like he said, he’s only known you for a few weeks, but he has very strong feelings for you,” she added.

“Okay, you guys, stop,” I pleaded.
  “He’s going to hear you and I’m going to be so embarrassed,” I said.

Molly just s
miled, letting me know she liked Alex and agreed with the other two ladies.  Molly was very sweet and never said too much.  She knew just what to say and exactly when to say it. “Thumbs up from me,” she said, holding up both of her thumbs.

I opened my housewarming gifts.  My brothers had given me electronics, my parents a gift card to the home store, Katherine and John gave me a plant in a beautiful pot.  It was m
y first plant in that condo.  I thanked everyone and pointed to the Tiffany vase with the beautiful roses in it and let them know that was my housewarming gift from Alex.  There were many ooh’s and aah’s from the ladies, of course, causing poor Alex to blush.

It was ge
tting late and time for my guests to head home.  I said goodbye to everyone and thanked them for coming and for their wonderful housewarming gifts.  Alex helped me finish cleaning my place.  He wrapped his arms around me while I was rinsing the remainder of the dishes to put in the dishwasher, kissing the back of my neck.  He whispered something that sounded like, “You’re too good for me.”  I closed the water and turned around to face him.

“
What did you say?” I asked.

“
I just said you’re too good for me, Claire,” he clarified.

“
Why would you say that?  I’m not too good for you, Alex, maybe you are too good for me,” I noted.

“
No, that’s not possible.  Let’s finish cleaning up here, so we can sit down and enjoy a glass of wine together before I have to go home and sleep and face another early morning tomorrow,” he said.  We finished cleaning up and everything looked like it did before the lunch.  Alex poured two glasses of wine and we sat down outside on the veranda and enjoyed the view.

“
I wish you packed a night bag.  You could’ve slept here and went to work from here,” I said.

Alex grinned, “Y
ou would want me to stay here?” he asked.

“
Well, I do have an extra room, remember?” I reminded him.

“
I wouldn’t be able to share your room with you? I would have to sleep all by myself in the guest bedroom?  What if you have a nightmare, Claire?  Wouldn’t you want me to be there, next to you?” he asked.

“
Don’t push your luck, Alex,” I replied.  He laughed, leaning over to kiss me. 

“
Maybe next time I will pack an overnight bag,” he said.

I didn’t want that day to end.  The thought of having to wake up early the next morning and face another week at work seemed exhausting.  Alex stood up and told me he should head home.

“I will plan something fun for next weekend,” he added as he kissed me and made his way to his car.  “I miss you already, Claire,” he said as he got into his Porsche and drove away.

<><><>

Monday morning came very quickly.  There was a text message on my phone from Alex from five o’clock in the morning.

Good morning, beautiful.  It was a lonely night.  I should’ve packed an overnight bag.  Maybe I will stay tonight.  It’s closer to work from your place.  I wish you would stay here on the weekends.

Laura greeted me with a huge smile on her face, extending her left hand to show me her big diamond engagement ring.  She was beaming with excitement and I couldn’t be happier for her.

“
Oh my God, Laura! Congratulations!  I’m so happy for you,” I said as I hugged her.  “That is a gorgeous rock on your finger.  You must tell me all about it, detail for detail,” I told her.  We decided to have lunch together that day, so she could tell me about her wonderful weekend.

I had a lot of work to complete before lunch.  I didn’t want to tu
rn down Laura.  After all, we would have to celebrate her new engagement by at least having lunch together.

Taryn
appeared in our department looking for Walter.  She didn’t have an appointment and Walter was not expecting her.  I stopped her and said, “Excuse me, Taryn, Walter is on a conference call right now.  I could let him know you stopped by and I could schedule a meeting with him if you’d like,” I noted.

“
That won’t be necessary Clara, I need to speak with him right away,” she called me Clara.  I didn’t like to be called Clara
. 
That was not what my parents had named me.

“
It’s Claire, not Clara,” I clarified.  She ignored me and barged into Walter’s office.  Laura looked at me with her eyes wide.  “I told you she’s evil,” she reminded me.

“
I think evil is a gentle term.  I can’t believe she called me Clara and then completely ignored me.  I hope Walter isn’t upset that I let her slip past me like that.”

“
He knows her, Claire, don’t worry.  He knows what type of a person she is,” Laura assured me.

After Taryn was finished with whatever it was she needed to meet with Walter to discuss, she didn’t even look my wa
y as she was leaving.  I went into Walter’s office to apologize and explain what happened.  He seemed very understanding, “You don’t have to apologize, Claire.  It isn’t your fault she doesn’t follow directions,” he said genuinely.

Lunchtime came quickly and Laura an
d I decided to go to our usual falafel joint.  She told me the whole story of how her boyfriend proposed.  It sounded so romantic.  As she was telling the story, I daydreamed about Alex proposing to me one day.  Oh, what was I thinking?  Alex was too good to be true.  He was probably a part of a dream that I would soon awaken from.  I wanted to tell Laura about Alex, but I held back.  Maybe one day I would talk to her about him and make her promise she wouldn’t say a word to anyone at work.

We headed back to work after lunch.  Laura was telling the other ladies in the office about the proposal.  Her ring was very large and hard to miss, attracting attention from people.  They knew that ring was not on
her finger the past week.  I began to open a few new work emails I had received while at lunch.  I recognized the name on one of them, Mark Kohler, who was one of the surgeons that attended the last meeting.

Hello Ms. Claire,

I’m not sure if you remember me from the surgeons meeting last week
, but I would like to get to know you better.  Maybe we could go out to lunch together one of these days.  Please contact me.

Mark Kohler, MD

Orthopedic Surgery

Downtown Memorial Hospital

I thought that was uncomfortable, especially since he worked with Alex.  I wasn’t sure if I should bring it up to Alex when I spoke to him next or if I should keep it to myself and just tell that Mark character that I was already seeing someone.  Thinking of Alex, a new text message arrived.

Hi beautiful, my last patient is at four and it’s just a suture removal.  I will stop by at home tonight and pack my overnight bag, if that’s ok with you.

That soun
ds great.  I can’t wait.

I was really excited about Alex staying over that night.  It got very lonely and a little scary in my new place all by myself, especially in the middle of the night when my nightmares decided to pay a visit.  The security was great, but it still didn’t keep the nightmares away.

Five o’clock finally struck and I was out of the office in a flas
h, so excited to go home and wait for Alex.  He called to let me know he was going to stop by the gym on his way to burn off some steam.  I thought this was a great opportunity for me to do some intense yoga.  I needed that after the day I had.  I kept recalling the email from Mark.  I thought it would be a good idea to tell Alex because he obviously knew Mark and what kind of a person he was.  I didn’t like receiving such an unprofessional, personal email at work.

After an hour of yoga I felt so refreshed.  I
took a shower, dried and styled my hair and put on a pair of lounge pants and a camisole and waited for Alex.  The phone rang just then and it was Alex.  “Hi baby, I’m on my way.  I just wanted to know if you’d like me to pick up something to eat,” he asked.

“
No, no, please don’t.  We have a lot of leftovers from yesterday’s lunch.  Let’s not let it go to waste,” I said.  Alex agreed and was at my door less than thirty minutes later.  He looked exceptionally great, in his basketball shorts and t-shirt tight around his muscles.  He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me as if he hadn’t seen me in weeks.

“
It feels so good to hold you, Claire.  I had a very exhausting day in the OR. I’m so glad I can spend the evening with you.  How was your day?” he asked.

“
I, uh, I guess I had an interesting day as well,” I replied.  I told Alex about Laura and her engagement.  I told him how Taryn barged into Walter’s office that morning, calling me by the wrong name and not even apologizing.  I told him about Mark Kohler sending me that flirtatious email, which made me very uncomfortable.  Alex looked just as uncomfortable as I had when I opened that email.

“
The audacity of that bastard.  Claire, stay far away from that man because he’s a womanizer and a pervert.  He has no respect for women at all.  I knew he would do this because of something he said to me about you after that meeting.  He kept telling me how hot he thought you were and how he wanted to…you know.  He’s sick, Claire.  Please stay away from him.  I can say something to him if you’d like,” he offered.