Chapter 14 #4
“Well, … I was going to ask more questions earlier about the whole relationship thing,” he began, “but I didn’t want to … push any boundaries.”
She snorted. “Since when do you not want to push the boundaries?” Laughing, she said, “I feel like that’s something you do on a regular basis.”
“I do not,” he replied, “but I will admit to being very curious on that point.”
She looked at him in surprise and shrugged. “No, I haven’t had a relationship in a couple years,” she shared calmly. “At least not a serious one.”
“Good,” he said, “it’s really only the serious ones that are an issue.”
“Why is that?”
“I just don’t want anybody else stepping through the doors, all pissed off because I might be interested.”
“Might be interested?” she repeated, with a teasing glance in his way.
“Might, yes,” he teased, a grin on his face. “I’m not trying to stake a claim or anything because I don’t think you’re the kind of girl who would appreciate that approach.”
“First, I’m not a girl. … I’m a woman,” she stated, glaring at him in mock anger. “Second, I am perfectly capable of making decisions on my own.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he told her, a smile on his lips. “So, as long as you don’t have any relationship happening, I’ll take that as a good thing.”
“And you?” she asked, with a playful smile. “I get the impression that you have somebody in every port.”
He looked at her in astonishment and then chuckled. “Ouch, that hurts.”
“It might hurt,” she noted, “but the truth would be nice.”
“No, I absolutely do not have a woman in every port,” he stated, even with a smile. “And, for the record, I prefer one at a time, thank you.”
“That’s good to hear,” she replied, “because I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Good,” he confirmed, with a nod. “Now that we figured out those basics, plus all the other basics—”
“Right, we’re kind of clearing the air, aren’t we?”
With a big grin on his face, he nodded. “Absolutely we are simply clearing the air.”
She sighed. “Again, I feel like you have … I don’t want to say women everywhere, but, you know, like women everywhere.”
“I don’t,” he declared immediately. “I do not play the field. It’s one at a time, or it’s not at all. Now, if there was any privacy and peace and quiet around this place, I could show you.” He waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive fashion.
She burst out laughing. “Maybe it’s a good thing that we don’t have any privacy,” she pointed out, “because we still don’t really know each other.”
“So, what do you want to know?” he asked, eyeing her with interest. “Ask any question you want. I’m an open book, I promise.”
“Everybody says that,” she said immediately, “and then you find out I don’t want to answer this question and don’t want to answer that question.”
“So,” he offered, “let’s make a deal. You can ask ten questions, and I can ask ten questions, and we can go from there.”
“Okay …”
“What made you become a nurse?”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious? That’s your first question?”
“Yes,” he declared, with a shrug. “I always want to know what makes people do what they do.”
Silence fell as she thought seriously about her answer.
He gave her an odd look. “It takes a lot out of you. It emotionally drains you, and I can see that it’s something that you don’t want to give up. So, what is it that still drives you to be a nurse?”
“My grandmother,” she said quietly, realizing that he would not let up.
“I was very close to her. She believed in medicine. It didn’t seem to do very much to help her, but she still believed it.
We had to hire nurses to look after her at home, and then that got to be too much money.
So, my parents stepped up to do it, but they weren’t very good at it, didn’t like it, didn’t want to do it.
So, it ended up being me more times than not.
My grandmother was special, and it was a wonderful opportunity to spend time with her.
It really broke my heart when she passed,” she shared.
“Yet I also realized the value of what I had given her in the time that she needed it, and I think that just cemented it for me.”
“I like that,” he said.
“I wasn’t trying to give you any kind of idea about who I am in that way,” she explained, then shook her head. “It was the truth.”
“That’s all I want,” he told her. “Just the truth. If you go onto a dating app, you get what they want you to see. If you go out with friends, you get the version that the friend gives you. I just … would like to know who you are from your perspective.”
“From my perspective?” she asked, then laughed.
“I’m single, dedicated, hard-working, probably focused too much on my career and less on relationships.
I feel things deeply. I hurt easily, so I have built a shell.
” At that, she flushed and finally added, “I have never shared any of that with anybody.”
“Good.” He gave her a big smile. “That’s the important stuff, isn’t it? It’s who you are, the real you, … on the inside.”
Still astonished, she shrugged. “It’s the truth. … Now your turn.”
“Okay. What do you want to know?”