Power of Attorney: A Novel (A Greenburg Family Book 1) (7 page)

“Of course, he isn’t
moping around in the office or locking himself away from the rest of the world like somebody I know.” Patrick felt a slight itch in his nose with the remark. Within a minute, they were back to their usual spatting.

“If you were so sure, then why not say yes to him?
” Patrick asked. “You can’t decide that on your own?” Sarah was sure the blood vessel near her temple was visible. She could hear the throbbing of the blood roaring in her ears. Patrick sipped on his horrible machine coffee peacefully as Sarah tried to spin another insult back.

“
For your information I wasn’t asking. You asked me if you would remember. It’s clear I shouldn’t have said anything. I forgot that his brother doesn’t care.” Sarah watched him take a drink and then choke on it, several seconds of coughing followed. Sarah just stood there, watching Patrick clean up the mess he had made.

“Thank you, Patrick, for giving me clarity. I know exactly what to do next.”
Sarah picked up her phone and texted Henry, three little letters in answer to his simple question. Just like Jane said to her, why should she stick with people who have no courage to step from their comfort zone for someone? Henry was the one who had asked her out. He was the one who put himself on the line and gambled on his faith.

Sarah finally
realized why she hesitated at first. She knew that deep down inside, she wished her college hero would take some interest in her. Even if she no longer looked up to him like she used to, a part of her still wanted to be close to him, to get to know him more. She realized now that he never would; he couldn’t, he wasn’t emotionally available that way.

Instead
, it would be his brother. As she pressed the ‘send’ button on her phone, she decided to go for the obvious good choice in front of her.

It all began the following day with Henry meeting her with her favorite double shot espresso and a dorky smile on his face. They walked together to the office and parted when Henry went to his own floor.

Over the course of the week,
Sarah also visited Henry’s office too. Henry’s desk was a total chaos. There were so many piles of papers littering the surface that Sarah couldn’t even tell if there was a desk there or not. Some had coffee mug stain on them, and others had cookie crumbs. She knew that if Patrick saw this, he would flip the table over and ask Henry to rearrange them.

Sarah and Henry
had lunch together and spend their break at the Starbucks shop near the office. Henry also walked her home after work, to make sure she got there safely. He was nothing short of the poster boy for the ‘perfect boyfriend.'

Their first weekend date was a simple
dinner. Henry handled everything, searching for the best restaurant and making a reservation. Sometimes Sarah thought that Henry was doing too much and that she was taking him for granted.

Sometimes
it felt as if the distance Henry wanted to lessen between them was actually widening. Sarah was even more reserved and formal than she’d been before. She was more open to Henry when they were only friends but now, she had to choose her words carefully and avoid any actions that she thought would made Henry think of her differently. She wanted to be the ‘perfect lady’ for Henry just as he was being the perfect man to her.

“You
haven’t selected anything yet? Are you having trouble?” Sarah skimmed through the main course page for the fourth time and looked at the waitress who was patiently waiting for her order. Everything on the menu was pretty expensive. Even though she knew he could afford anything she wanted, she was a frugal girl and avoided the costly choices. Henry seemed to notice, so he gave her a smile and ordered her a pork chop. She wondered how he knew it was her favorite. Had he seen her eating one when she was having lunch alone?

“I know what
you’re thinking. You don’t have to be so modest. It’s our date, and I don’t want you to feel so nervous about it.” Sarah tried to smile reassuringly. Sometimes she wondered what she had done to deserve such a nice person like Henry. These past few days had felt like a fairy tale. She was a princess, and Henry was her knight.

Still, Sarah felt something missing from their relationship. Perhaps
it was because they were still getting to know each other. Or maybe she felt awkward because they were colleagues in the same office. It appeared that she was the only one who felt that way. Henry had transitioned from a good friend to boyfriend with amazing ease. It was her who still felt uncomfortable.

“
Everyone at the office seems to really like you. How come some woman hasn’t already snapped you up?” Sarah asked casually over dinner. She felt she had been tiptoeing around the subject, hesitant to ask anything too direct. That was the way they were to each other before Henry asked her out. She shouldn’t distance herself from Henry more than this.

To Sarah’s surprise, Henry gave her a hearty laugh
. “Sorry, I was thinking back about how it used to be the opposite.”

“Opposite?”

“You know, I wasn’t a really nice kid when I was little. Father and mother used to spoil me rotten. I was that kid who would stomp around the mall and yell for the toys I wanted until I got my way.”

Sarah thought back
to the conversation she had with Jane. Jane mentioned how she often fought with Henry when they were little. She couldn’t imagine how that statement was true before. Now that she heard it straight from Henry’s mouth, the conversation clicked in place. “I hardly talked to other people outside my family. I threw tantrum everywhere and… wow thinking back I actually hate my younger self.”

“Well, you’re different now
, thank goodness. You are much nicer, you know.” Sarah couldn’t imagine someone like Henry could be that bad as a kid. Henry only shook his head at the statement. He seemed to be in deep thought about it. Sarah started to wonder whether she was a magnet to unwanted topics since she seemed to start one every time she opened her mouth.

“You know what’s funny?
” Henry finally said. “Patrick taught me that. How to be nice to people, I mean.” Henry caught Sarah by surprise again. Patrick was the person who changed Henry from a spoiled brat to a total gentleman? How was that even possible? Last time she checked, Patrick was a total insensitive jerk who couldn’t hold back his tongue for criticism and sarcasm.

“You
don’t believe me; I can see it on your face!” Henry pointed out much to Sarah’s embarrassment. “Patrick wasn’t always like that you know? He was really similar to who I am right now… at least he once was.”

Jane’s words floated into her head again. She knew for
a fact that their parent’s divorce had a huge impact on all the three siblings. She knew the bright smile Patrick once had vanished, replaced by the frown lines and rude remarks that she now faced every time she entered her office. But why did Henry have the opposite reaction to it?

“You asked me why I
seldom date anyone. I’m also sure that you’ve thought the same about my brother.” Henry took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “It started when we were little. We had this illusion that our parents were
perfect
. We believed in the true love of our parents, how they really loved each other enough to actually have kids and raise us together. One day, we just… woke up from that illusion.”

“Your parents divorced,” Sarah finished off for Henry. Henry looked at her uneasily but continued with bitterness in his voice.

“Jane went with dad. I don’t know why but she chose to. Before I knew it, it was me, Patrick and mom. We never thought this would happen, you know. Sure, we heard them fight before but… we always thought it would pass just like before. But one-day dad just walked away. I didn’t even know why he did it until recently. Maybe I was too young, maybe I wasn’t paying much attention. I never really cared about what happened to others back then; I was a spoiled brat remember?” Sarah couldn’t imagine the pain of a broken family. It made her realize how lucky she was to live in a happy family. Her family rarely argued, and the only big disagreement was about her career choice.

“
So, we never saw our dad again. Patrick took it harder than the rest of us. I don’t know why but since the day dad left, he just… shut down. I thought he was bitter about it, the divorce. It was a long time before I saw a change in him. Patrick was trying to keep what dad left behind together. He would be the one who walked me to school and picked me up. He became my homework tutor instead of dad. He started to work a part-time job when he could so that it would lessen the burden from Mom. He started scouting for universities that accepted scholarships. To top off that, he worked his ass off to get that scholarship. He talked to me less. He even talked to mom less.”

Sarah was silent as she remembered the happy child in the picture and how he had morphed into the sullen man of today.
She imagined little Patrick struggling as he transformed himself from the middle child of a happy family and slowly the father of the family.

“Seeing him being like that
kinda kicked me in the head. Patrick was just trying too hard, and there I was, thinking about nothing but myself. I started to think that I must do something for him, or he was going to exhaust himself to death. And from then, I became more self-conscious about what I did. I started to think about others just as I thought about Patrick. That was a huge change in my life.” Henry rubbed his head sheepishly. “I realized what a brat I was and then I started to think back what Patrick used to be. I followed his example and improved myself.”

“That was…
a very good choice.” Sarah couldn’t believe that Patrick’s struggle was the factor that changed Henry so much. She couldn’t believe Patrick had done so much for his brother either. He didn’t seem to be that close to Henry from Sarah’s perspective.

“Thank you…
though I wouldn’t say the same for Patrick. He changed so much. He never trusted anyone around him again, not even me. He wouldn’t let me do anything, not even the smallest task for him. He would keep everything to himself, do everything himself. The reason I even graduated was because he tutored me.” Sarah sucked her breath in when law school was mentioned. She could still remember all her bad days as if they had occurred yesterday. She studied on her own with some help from her friend. Henry was lucky to have someone as smart as Patrick as his tutor.

“I totally know how you
feel about law school,” she offered her sympathy with Henry about the horrible experience in Law School. She was once a bad student too. Thinking about it gave her goose bumps as she remembered the heavy textbooks she carried around daily.

“Patrick did everything on his own though. He
went to class alone, studied alone, and did everything alone. And came out on top. He finished his first case alone.” Henry finished his story. “Patrick won’t trust anyone. That’s why he’s alone. I think that’s the reason we both are very hesitant in finding someone. We don’t want to end up like our parents. We both know that love is fragile, that even our parents, people who loved each other for so long and had a family together, could fall out of it.”

“And you think that I am the right choice?”
The words slipped out so carelessly. It was the question that Sarah also asked herself too. Was Henry the right choice for her? Was she really ready to be in a relationship? She knew that Henry was a great friend. She knew that Henry was a nice person who would make a nice boyfriend. Somehow, those were probably the thought that Henry’s parents went through too. Perhaps that was how they got together at first, seeing each other as nice people who would enjoy their company. Just how long would that last?

“That was what
I’m trying to find out.” His thoughts were so simple. Henry was afraid of the unknown just as much as Patrick, but he still had the courage to face that fear.

“Even if what lies in the end might not be what you expected? Even if you and
I just… won’t work out?”

“If it didn’t work out…
then we aren’t just meant to be. I will accept it.”

“Henry!”

Their conversation was interrupted by someone calling Henry’s name. They turned in the same direction to see Patrick in jeans and a polo shirt, running towards them, a worried look on his face.

“Whoa Pat, calm down. What’s going on and why are you here?” Henry looked
alarmed, which was normal. No one was used to seeing Patrick this way.

“I just walked past your
apartment. There are police pooling around, and I don’t know why. I think you should go back and check.” The chair’s loud screech stung Sarah’s ears as Henry stood up abruptly. He looked at Patrick and then at Sarah.

“Oh god. I
really should get back.” He clasped his hands over Sarah and looked at her apologetically, “Sarah…I’m so so sorry for this. I just need to make sure that they didn’t break into my condo by mistake.”

Sarah shook her head in understanding, “
It’s okay. Be sure to let me know that everything is alright.”

Henry nodded and left the money on the table for
the check. Glancing back at Patrick for the last time, Henry asked Patrick to walk Sarah back to her home, just to be sure she was safe.

Henry
gave her hand another quick squeeze before he left the restaurant with spurs on his heels. Patrick watched him leave, the worried mask on his face disappearing the moment he was gone. Sarah looked at Patrick, scrutinized him like a suspect on trial. Patrick could feel her glare upon him which made him flinched unconsciously. He whipped his head back at her in an instant.

“What?”

Sarah placed her chin on her hand and squinted her eyes. After working with him for a while, she started to know how he thought and now that Henry just gave her the last piece of information, she could read Patrick like an open book.

She decided that she would confront him.
She had promised Patrick that she would surprise him after all.

“You think
I’m going to believe that lie?”