Chapter 7 #3
They went upstairs to their bedroom to celebrate. They could both see new horizons opening up. It was a lot to think about, and the treats Mickie had reserved for him drove even the Korean investors and his plans for the Dallas office from his mind.
Billie and Jason were at a Dodgers game that night.
He was making an avid baseball fan out of her, and she loved going to the games with him.
She was happy with Jason. They both worked hard at their jobs, and enjoyed their time off together.
They had a weekend off, and he took her to San Francisco.
They stayed at the Fairmont on Nob Hill, and went to all the best restaurants and walked around the city.
They crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and drove around Marin County in the car he’d rented.
Billie had fun with him. He asked her to move in with him, and it was tempting because she wasn’t using her apartment anymore.
She agreed and gave the building notice on Monday when they got back.
Their relationship seemed more solid now.
She moved the few things she had into his apartment that week, and texted Mickie to ask permission to get rid of the furniture.
There was nothing worth keeping. It was all battered, stained, and ugly.
It had been all Mickie could afford at the time.
Now she was shopping regularly at Chanel, and using the credit card Alex had given her almost daily.
He didn’t seem to care what she spent as long as she looked fabulous and chic all the time.
She was a walking advertisement for him, and she had to look spectacular whenever patients would see her.
They were still going to parties every night, and walking the red carpet at every event they went to.
Mickie was becoming a celebrity in her own right now.
People recognized her in stores and in the street, and she’d had an offer to do ads for a perfume campaign.
Alex wanted her to do it. She was linked to Bellissima, and he wanted her to get her face out there.
Inevitably, it would bring in more patients who wanted to look like her.
But Mickie’s beauty was a gift of nature, it wasn’t man-made or even enhanced by any of Alex’s treatments.
She was on the cover of Us magazine, on their beauty issue, with the caption “the most beautiful face in the world.” Jason saw it at the checkout stand at the supermarket, and Billie put it in their basket.
“I’m happy for her,” she said to Jason. He didn’t see how. From everything she had told him, Mickie had ruined Billie’s youth and childhood. But Billie seemed to forgive her whatever sins she had committed in the past. She had a generous nature, which amazed him.
When Thanksgiving rolled around, neither Mickie nor Billie went home to Iowa.
They hadn’t in several years, without their mother, and their father didn’t care.
He hated all holidays since his wife’s death and hadn’t liked them much before.
It was his late wife who had seen to it that they had real holidays.
So neither Mickie nor Billie went home for Thanksgiving anymore, only for Christmas, which their father grudgingly acknowledged, but wasn’t enthusiastic about either.
He hated holidays in general, after his own hard childhood.
His parents had died young and he’d been brought up by relatives who beat him regularly and were drunks. Now he was one too.
Alex and Mickie spent the Thanksgiving holiday with favorite patients in Aspen.
Jason had to work, so Billie offered to work that day too, so someone else could be with their family.
It was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
They bought a prepared turkey dinner that night on the way home and ate it in Jason’s kitchen.
There was a new tenant in her old apartment by then.
It was nice being just the two of them, even if they didn’t have a big fancy dinner or family to be with.
Billie didn’t hear from Mickie. She called her father, and he didn’t answer the phone.
She assumed he was either drunk or having a Thanksgiving meal with friends.
Jason asked her a question, while they each had a slice of pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream.
“What do you usually do on Christmas?” he asked her.
It was clear that she didn’t have strong family ties, and she wasn’t in regular contact with her father.
Jason had called his own family from work that day.
His sister and her boyfriend were with his parents when he spoke to them.
He was sorry to miss the Thanksgiving holiday with them, but he was going home for Christmas in Connecticut.
“I go home to Iowa, and so does Mickie. I don’t know what she’s doing this year with Alex.
Neither of us had serious boyfriends before, so we went home to spend it with my father.
I’m not sure he cares. He doesn’t like Christmas, or any holiday.
It was more my mother’s thing than his,” she said quietly.
“Would you come to New York with me?” he asked her.
“We spend the actual holiday at my parents’ house in Connecticut, and my sister and her boyfriend will come down from Vermont.
It’s very cozy and informal. I’d love you to come with me, Billie,” he said gently.
He’d been planning to ask her for months, if they were still together in December.
They’d been dating for six months and it had turned into a serious relationship.
“My parents would love to meet you. I’ve never taken anyone home for Christmas before, so it’s kind of a big deal,” he admitted with a boyish grin.
“This will be Thad’s second Christmas with us, with my sister.
I guess we’re all finally growing up.” It sounded like a serious invitation to Billie.
“I’d love to come,” she said, “but I feel like I should ask my father how he feels about it. I haven’t seen him all year, since last Christmas.”
“Does he ever call you?” She never mentioned it. She shook her head.
“No, he doesn’t. As you know, we’ve never been close, particularly since my mother’s been gone.
But I think I should ask him.” It felt like the right thing to do, and Jason respected her for it.
“I’ll ask Mickie what her plans are too.
Thank you for asking me.” It meant a lot to her, and it did to him too.
They spent a relaxed weekend watching football and went for a walk on the beach.
He’d been busy at work lately—they’d been giving him investigative assignments, some of which were interesting, and he was good at them.
It was like solving mysteries. He had come up with some very interesting material that had led to an arrest in one case, and the exposure of a sex trafficking ring coming in from Mexico in another.
They were challenging and he liked working on them, more than reporting gang murders.
Billie called Mickie on Monday when she got back from Aspen, and asked her about Christmas.
“Are you going home?” Billie asked her, and Mickie answered quickly.
“Not this year. Alex chartered a boat. We’re picking it up in St. Barts, and we’re going to float around for two heavenly weeks.
We might invite some patients over New Year’s.
” It never dawned on Mickie to invite her sister, and Billie had never met Alex.
Mickie had no interest in introducing him to her family.
She kept her two lives separate, and Alex had never asked to meet Billie.
Jason had commented that they behaved like aliens from another planet.
None of the traditional behaviors seemed to apply to them.
They each lived in their own bubble, and everything was motivated by Alex’s practice.
Normal people didn’t behave that way in Jason’s world.
His family meant a great deal to him and they were close.
They spoke to each other regularly on the phone, and he admired them and wanted a life like theirs eventually.
“Are you going home?” Mickie asked her. It occurred to Billie that it would be even worse than usual without her sister, not that Mickie made any great effort for the holiday, and nor did her father.
But at least they were together. This year she would be alone with her father, which would be very hard.
He would be uncommunicative by day, and drunk every night.
He and Billie had nothing to say to each other.
“I don’t know,” Billie said to her sister. “I wanted to ask you about your plans, and I think I’ll ask Dad how he feels about it.”
“You should just do what you want. Dad doesn’t care about Christmas.
” It was depressing but true. “He can have dinner with friends if he wants to.” The truth was that he got excited if Mickie came home, but never about Billie.
He hardly spoke to her the whole time she was there.
She wondered where her friend Tom would be this Christmas.
She hadn’t heard from him in a year, on his undercover missions.
She missed him, but not as much now that she had Jason.
“Jason invited me to spend Christmas with his family in New York and Connecticut, but I didn’t want to leave you and Dad in the lurch.
” It had never occurred to Mickie to ask Billie about her plans, and it surprised her to hear Billie say it.
She was excited about the boat Alex had chartered. It was huge.
Billie called her father that night, and he sounded like he’d been drinking when he answered. He wasn’t incoherent but he was slurring a little. Any later, and he would have been passed out. There was a very narrow window of opportunity to talk to him at night.