Pursuit For Lucidity (Crashing Waves) (21 page)

“
Still, Laura, it was no reason for him to snap at me like that.  You should have seen him…it was as if he had turned into someone else… a monster.  He was so furious,” I explained.

“
Claire, how would you feel if I didn’t know you were dating Alex and I was trying to pursue him by sending him flowers and he never told you about them.  Imagine how you would feel if you found out from me, and not him.  Think about that,” she added.

I took a glimpse at my cell phone and noticed I had a lot of mis
sed calls and texts from Alex.

I’m so sorry, baby.  I don’t know what got into me.  I was so angry when Mark told me all those things.  Please call me.

Claire, please call me, baby.  We need to talk.

I’ve left you so many messages, baby. Please call me.

I’m so tempted to come to your department right now, Claire.  You have no idea!

I did not want him to barge into my department and beg for me to talk to him about what happened with Mark.  I had to respond right away.

We will talk about it tonight.

I didn’t hear from Alex the remainder of the day.  I was glad my last text kept him from coming into the department and making a fool out of himself and embarrassing me.  Five o’clock rolled around pretty quickly and I headed home.  Alex wasn’t there when I arrived and I hadn’t heard from him since my last text to him.  It started to get later and later and still no word from Alex.  I wondered if he had gone to his house to check on something or if he had gone to the gym.  It was almost nine thirty when I heard the key in the front door.  It was Alex, looking disheveled.  His eyes had dark circles around them and he looked unhappy.

He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around me.  He smelled like alcohol.  I pulled away slowly, “Alex, have you been drinking?” I asked.

“Just a glass of scotch,” he replied.

“
Why don’t you go upstairs and take a shower.  I will make you a sandwich and tea,” I offered.

“
No, baby.  I’m not hungry.  Just the tea will do,” he replied.

I made some chamomile tea and
began to put together a platter of cheese and crackers. Alex came downstairs after his shower as I was making the platter.  He wrapped his arms around from behind me and buried his face in my hair.  “I’m sorry about earlier, baby.  Really, I am.  I wanted to kill Mark when he was giving me the details about the flowers and all the things he wanted to do to you.  I just couldn’t contain my anger,” he said.  “Will you accept my apology?” he asked.

“
I accept your apology, Alex.  You really scared me today, you know?  You were so full of anger that your eyes didn’t even look blue anymore. They looked black.  You seemed to have turned into someone else,” I replied.

“
I don’t know what got into me.  I’m really not a jealous person, but when it comes to you, I seem to be having a great deal of difficulty. I shocked myself too, not only you, Claire. I’m not an angry person at all. I’m just a little overprotective of you. Maybe it’s because I feel the need to protect you from men such as Mark, since you’ve been attacked before.  For me, Mark was that evil asshole that attacked you several years ago.  Maybe it’s because I love you so much.  I don’t know what it is or what had gotten into me, but I’m sorry for everything I said.  I love you, Claire.  I don’t want to lose you,” he added genuinely.

“
Apology accepted.  I’m sorry also, for not telling you about the flowers and everything else.  I promise to tell you everything that involves Mark from now on, okay?  Can we eat the cheese and crackers now? I’m starving, Alex, and I’m sure you are as well, since we skipped lunch today,” I noted.  Alex leaned down and kissed me more passionately than he ever had before with his hands on the small of my back, pulling me closer to him.

“
Let’s eat,” he said as we sat down on the dining table and finished the platter of cheese and crackers.

Chapter 8

Laura greeted me as soon as I walked into work the next morning with questions about Alex and if we had resolved our disagreement.  She had worked things out with her fiancé and was very happy that they were finally compromising on the wedding and honeymoon plans.

“
We are trying to meet in the middle about everything, so I’m really happy about that,” she told me.

I kept replaying Alex’s anger in my head and realized I would
’ve been just as angry had another woman sent him flowers and dinner invitations.  I would be exceptionally upset if he had chosen to keep it a secret from me.  I imagined Taryn sending him flowers and invitations to dinner, not taking into consideration that he had a girlfriend.  I would be furious as hell.  I decided to send him a text.

Just wanted to say hello.  I miss you already.

Hi beautiful.  I miss you more.  I love you.

Are you available for lunch or are you too busy today?

Never too busy for you.  Bradley’s at noon?

See you then.

I wanted to go back to the diner, so we could make up for the previous day’s missed lunch that I had been craving.  Alex was there before me and was sitting at our usual table.  He smiled wide when he saw me and gestured for me to sit right next to him.  Deanie came by to take our order shortly after I sat down.

“
Nice to see you two happy again,” she said.  “I didn’t like the way you stormed out of here yesterday before you even ordered,” she said.

“
We worked out our issues,” said Alex, looking at me, smiling.  I smiled back, holding his hand as we ordered our lunch.  “So, Mark was talking about you again today,” Alex started.  I frowned at him because I really did not want to hear that man’s name.  “Don’t worry, baby, I kept my cool and did not say or do anything wrong.  He just kept asking me why a girl like you would not accept a date with a smart guy like him.  He’s not handling the rejection well and was asking me for advice.  I told him that it’s probably not a good idea to ask out a woman who has told you she has a boyfriend.  I advised him that it’s not the right thing to do and to let it go.  If she’s interested, then she will accept your offer when or if she is single again,” he added.

“
I’m impressed, Alex.  You kept your cool, played it off and gave him excellent advice.  I’m very confident that it’s going to work,” I cheered. We enjoyed our lunch together before I drove back to work and completed a big project I had been working on since the past week.  I felt relieved that I didn’t need to worry about that anymore and could concentrate on planning dinner for that Friday night, since it was Alex’s birthday on Saturday.

Laura gave me advice about what I should wear to that steakhouse
, since she had been there a few times and loved the food and ambiance.  She said it was very hip and romantic with beautiful city views.

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That night, when I got home from work, Alex was already home, making enchiladas for dinner.  The condo smelled so good it made my mouth water.  I gave him a kiss and helped him set the table.  I loved watching him cook. It was as if he was born to dominate the kitchen.

“
Alex, you are going to make me fat with all this good food you’re always making,” I joked.  “Oh, on Friday, let’s carpool with my car because I won’t be able to hang my dress in your Porsche and your trunk is too small.  It will wrinkle and you know how I feel about wrinkles,” I added.

“
Whatever you want, baby,” he replied.

It would be much easier to hide his gift in my trunk, since it was so much roomier than the tiny one of his Porsche.

Alex looked as though he had a rough day, so I asked him to go upstairs and take a shower and I would do the cleaning up, since he did all the cooking.  He normally wouldn’t allow me to clean up by myself, but this time, I could tell he was so exhausted.  “Thank you, baby.  I’ll be right down and we can have a glass of wine together if you’d like,” he said.

After the dishes were done and put away, I poured two glasses of chardonnay and waited for Alex to come down
stairs.  I heard his footsteps and looked up to see him in his Burberry pajama pants, shirtless.  He really didn’t like to wear a shirt to bed or around the house.  I didn’t mind, though.  I enjoyed looking at his hard, muscular body, his wet hair dripping onto his shoulders.  I handed him his glass of wine and he sat on the sofa, pulling me down onto his lap.  “To us,” he said, lightly touching my glass with his.  “To us,” I replied and took a sip.  Alex was very quiet that evening, which wasn’t usual for him.  He seemed to have a serious look on his face all evening.

“
Is everything okay?” I asked.

“
Yeah, baby.  Why do you ask?” he asked.

“
It’s just that you’ve been very quiet and your mind seems preoccupied with something.  You’re just not your usual self,” I noted.

Alex just took a deep breath in and exhaled.
  “Everything is good, baby.  I guess I’m just a little tired, that’s all.  I love you,” he added.  He took my wine glass and put both glasses down on the coffee table and pulled me close to him as we lay down on the sofa.  His arm wrapped around my waist from behind me, his nose buried in my hair.  He held onto my hand and we must have dozed off to sleep.

It was that white van again, someone chasing me from behind.  I could see the shadow getting closer and closer from behind me.
I ran as fast as I could to pass the van, but I couldn’t escape it. I was grabbed from behind, causing me to collapse.  I must have awakened with a scream because Alex looked frightened.

“
It’s okay, I’m here.  You had a bad dream.  It’s okay, Claire,” he assured me.

  We went upstairs and I peeled out of my sweaty clothes and jumped into the shower.  Alex was asleep when I went to bed
, but noticed I was next to him and wrapped his arms around me again.  I prayed that I wouldn’t have that nightmare again, so I could enjoy a good night’s sleep until morning.

“
It’s okay, baby.  Go to sleep.  I’m here and nobody’s going to hurt you, I promise,” Alex assured.  The next thing I knew, it was morning and my alarm clock notified me that I needed to get up and start my day.

Alex woke up at the same time as I did
, but needed to leave the house earlier than I, since he had a few early appointments to tend to.  He kissed me before he headed out, “I miss you already,” he said and was out the door.

I used that opportunity to put Alex’s birthday gift box in my trunk.  I decided I would get his birthday card during my lunch break
, so that I didn’t need to worry about it last minute.  The hospital gift shop had the most beautiful selection of greeting cards.  I had so many thoughts in my head of what I would be writing in that birthday card.  This was going to be his first birthday since we had been together, so I wanted to make the message special and to let him know how much I appreciated having him in my life.

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Friday morning finally arrived and I jumped out of bed much earlier that morning, since I wanted to wash and style my hair for our dinner date.  I prepared my dress and shoes for that evening and hung it on my doorknob, so I would not forget to put it in the car.  Alex gave me his clothes for the evening as well and I hung that right next to my dress.  We would definitely need to change out of our work clothes before heading out to the W hotel for our dinner reservations.

During my lunch break, I changed our dinner reservations to a much quieter, more romantic French restaurant at the W Hotel called
Delphines.  The steakhouse I had booked originally was going to be too noisy and I recalled Alex had requested a quiet dinner.  I ran all errands that I needed to run and sat down and concentrated on what I would write in his birthday card.

Five o’clock rolled around and Alex texted me
to let me know that he was changing out of his scrubs and would meet me by my car in fifteen minutes.  I had chosen to wear a very dark red, tight fitting bustier top dress.  I slipped on my nude peep toe Christian Louboutin platform pumps and the dress seemed to get shorter as my height increased from the platform pumps.  I touched up my makeup and was ready to meet Alex at the car.

He was dressed in a
tight fitting button up black shirt with dark blue designer jeans.  His hair so perfectly styled, he looked as if he had stepped out of a magazine.  He smiled big when he saw me approaching him, his white teeth sparkling even in the dark parking structure.

“
Well, well, well, you look amazing, baby,” he said as he examined me from head to toe, turning me around to have a better all around look.

“
You don’t look so bad yourself, Dr. Blake,” I replied.