Page 131 of The Choices I've Made
He laughed. “Right.”
“Okay, sure. So, one of the benefits of working the way I did in cardio was, I had very brief contact with my patients. An hour or two of appointment times before and after surgery, and then they were gone. That’s the life of a surgeon. And, for some, that’s fine. They like the hands-off approach of it all. I know plenty of doctors who have stunning careers as surgeons because they need the separation.
“Ask any of my friends or family back home, and you’ll find, I’m a bit of a tender heart. I’m the guy who tried to nurse a jellyfish back to life after my best friend poked it with a stick even though I knew I could get stung. I need the personal contact with my patients to thrive. Take it away, and I wilt. I grew up in a small town, and all I ever wanted to do was take care of people. The downside to all of that? Honestly, the caring,” I answered. “Seeing your patients suffer…die, it’s incredibly hard. So, yeah, the caring part will always be the hardest. It’s far easier not to.”
“So then, why do you do it?” a burly fellow in the back shouted.
“Why not?” I replied. “Why do we go into relationships without the guarantee it will succeed? Why do we make friends and hold our families close? It’s human nature to care,” I answered with a shrug.
A timid girl a couple of tables back raised her hand, and Makayla gave her the go-ahead. She stood up, all six feet of her. She had lovely red hair and freckles. She shyly looked at me and smiled.
“We’re dying to know…are you single?”
A roar of female laughter took over the place as I looked down at the floor, my shoulders shaking as I joined in.
“That’s a long story,” I finally answered. “But the short answer is no. I gave my heart away a long time ago.”
A few disappointed sighs rang across the restaurant before someone else chimed in, “Does she know?”
Those three words…and my mouth went dry as I looked around the room. I searched every face. Makayla obviously noticed my distress and called it quits.
“Okay, I think that’s enough questions. Let’s hit the bar!” she announced.
I continued to scour the room for that familiar female voice.
“You okay?” she asked, a comforting hand on my back.
“Yeah,” I said. “Go grab a drink. I’ll be right behind you.”
Her Spidey best-friend senses were tingling, but she obviously knew when to give me space. She moved toward the bar with the rest of her class, and I was left alone, searching around for a ghost from my past.
Suddenly, as though she’d materialized out of thin air, I saw her.
My Molly.
All the air from my lungs escaped as my eyes converged with hers. Standing in front of me, wearing a simple red dress and heels, she looked like a fucking vision from my dreams.
“You’re here,” I said, barely able to speak. “How?”
“Your best friend over there publicized the crap out of this little talk on her various social media outlets. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. Besides, I seem to remember someone saying I’d love Chicago,” she said, taking a single step forward. “Although I think I was promised high-rises and busy streets. This all seems a little tame.”
It was her coy smile that did me in. Stalking forward, I did the single thing I’d been dying to do for over two years.
I kissed her.
I didn’t know why she was here or for how long. I didn’t care. All I knew was, I loved this woman.
I always would.
Pulling back, our foreheads still touching my breath faltered, I heard the crinkling of paper. Looking down, I saw she had an envelope in her hand.
“I’m sorry it took me so long, Jakey,” she said.
“You wrote me a letter?”
She nodded. “I wrote you a hundred letters, maybe more. From all over the world.”
I let out a relieved breath. “You traveled.”
