Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
DREW
An hour later, we finally get around to ordering dinner.
“What do you feel like?” I ask Ally, scrolling through the room service menu on my phone.
“Mmm, I don’t know,” she says, arching her back in a lazy stretch. “Surprise me.”
I know how she feels. We’re still in bed and still naked, and I’m not too concerned about what we eat for dinner.
I tap the phone screen to order us each a burger and fries, along with a bottle of champagne. It feels like a champagne kind of night.
“When you asked me to dinner here, were you always planning for it to be room service?” Ally asks.
“Of course not. I made a reservation at the restaurant downstairs.” But I was hoping it would be a room service dinner. And since I’m pretty sure the restaurant will charge me a no-show fee, I don’t feel too guilty about missing it.
“Oh,” Ally nods. “I should probably text Sarah and let her know I’m staying with you tonight.”
“Good idea.” A smile tugs at my lips as I watch her climb out of bed to get her phone from her purse. In all the time she’s lived in my condo, she’s never fallen asleep in my bed, and it feels overdue.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll finally get to wake up next to her.
Ally climbs back into bed with her phone. “Sarah wants to meet you,” she says after a minute. “She’s asking if we can meet for breakfast tomorrow. Nine-thirty?”
“Sure. She doesn’t have a match tomorrow, right?”
“Not ’til Sunday,” Ally says, tapping at her phone. “She says you should be prepared for an interrogation.”
“I think I can handle it.” I pause. “Although I might be starting at a disadvantage. Did you tell her I’m hoping to steal her new assistant?”
“Don’t worry,” Ally says, setting down her phone. “I hadn’t actually taken the job yet.”
I roll to my side so we’re facing each other. “You hadn’t?”
“No. She offered it to me, but I hadn’t gotten around to telling her I wanted it. So there’s no issue there.”
No issue there, maybe, but some big questions. When I read Ally’s note on Monday, I thought Sarah wanted her to start right away. But earlier tonight, she said she left because she fell in love with me and she didn’t think I felt the same.
And I wasn’t thinking very clearly after that, or I’d have noticed that something wasn’t adding up. Everything seemed fine on Monday morning.
“Something happened on Monday,” I say slowly, and the look on Ally’s face confirms it. I’m an idiot for not putting it together sooner.
“I, uh, heard Heather Larkin talking about me,” she admits. “About us.”
“What did she say, Ally?” The look on her face tells me it’s going to be bad, and I brace myself to hear it.
“I’d asked Heather to write me a reference letter for nursing school,” she says reluctantly.
“Okay,” I nod, trying not to show my surprise. I had no idea Ally was applying to nursing, and the fact she didn’t tell me hurts a little.
“And she was nice about it, said she’d be happy to do a letter. But on Monday I walked by her office and heard her talking to Janine, her senior assistant.”
“Okay.” I reach out and put my arm around her, trailing my fingers along the bumps of her spine. “What did she say?”
Ally takes a deep breath. “Janine said she was surprised I didn’t ask you for a reference letter.
” The words come out in a rush, like she wants to get them out as fast as she can.
“And Heather said you could write me a letter that said I was very talented in bed. She said our relationship had lasted a lot longer than she expected. And she hadn’t thought you were the kind of man to be led around by his dick. ”
Rage floods through me, red, hot, and roaring in my ears. Heather Larkin’s lucky she’s on a different continent right now.
“Drew?” Ally’s voice cuts through the red mist.
“Yeah.” I make an effort to pull myself together. “Sweetheart, I’m sorry. Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have dealt with Heather.”
I will deal with Heather.
“I knew you’d have dealt with her,” Ally says. “But I was embarrassed, I guess. And you were already working too hard, I didn’t want to give you another problem to deal with.”
“Another problem to deal with?” I echo incredulously. “Ally, I’m in love with you.”
“But I didn’t know that then,” she says. “I’d started to hope, but when Heather said those things, I felt like I’d been a fool—”
“No, Ally,” I interrupt. “Heather’s the fool, and she’s full of shit. Please tell me you know that.”
“Yeah,” Ally nods, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “I know, but at the time I was hurt, and I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“I’ll handle Heather,” I promise. “Can you send me an email tomorrow with what you heard, as best you can remember? I’ll take it to HR.” Human Resources wouldn’t be my preferred way to deal with Heather, but it’s the only one that’s legal.
“Yeah,” Ally says, chewing her lip. “I’m sure Heather will deny it, though, so it’ll be my word against hers. Janine will probably back her up, so I’m not sure HR will be able to do much.”
“Don’t worry. They’ll do something.”
I’ll make sure of it. When I think of the way Heather was mooching around my clinic on Wednesday, asking about Ally . . . she must have been wondering if I knew. Wondering if I was playing a long game, and planning to serve my revenge cold.
I hope the suspense is driving her insane.
“You should know that I, uh, confronted Heather and Janine after they said those things,” Ally says. A faint blush steals across her cheeks. “I said I’d bewitched you with my magic pussy.”
I let out a crack of laughter. “I think HR will understand that you were provoked.”
“I was. She insulted you, too.”
“Oh, Ally,” I say with a chuckle. I never dreamed I could love anyone half as much as I love this girl. “I’m sure the hospital will give you your job back, if you want it.” I’ll make sure of that, too. “Not working for Heather, obviously.”
“Right,” she says, but her voice lacks enthusiasm.
“Unless you want to do something else, like nursing school?” I ask, remembering what she said earlier. “I didn’t know you were interested in nursing.”
She hesitates for a beat before answering. “I’m not sure I am, really.”
“If it’s because of Heather, you shouldn’t let that put you off,” I say. “We can find someone else to write you a reference letter.”
“It’s not about Heather,” she says. “I just . . . working as an admin assistant was fine, but I didn’t really enjoy it. I wanted a change, and nursing seemed like a sensible choice. I was going to get a practical nursing diploma and work for a few years, then go back and get my RN.”
“I think nursing could be a great career,” I say carefully. “If it interests you.”
“I know,” Ally says, but the look on her face tells its own story.
“You don’t really want to be a nurse,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Not really, no,” she admits.
“Then you shouldn’t,” I say. “And you shouldn’t feel like you have to go back to the hospital either, if you don’t want to.”
“I have to do something, Drew,” she says with a sigh. “I’m not going to sit around all day and let you support me—”
“Not long term,” I interrupt. “But you’re giving up the opportunity to be Sarah’s PA to come home with me. It makes sense to take some time to figure out what you want to do.”
“I’m not even sure I want to go back to school.” She says it as though she’s confessing a dirty secret.
“So don’t.”
Ally blinks at me. “But . . .”
“But . . .” I prompt. “But what, Ally?”
“You’re a surgeon, Drew,” she says with a sigh of resignation. “And all your friends have degrees, and—”
“Ally, I don’t care about that,” I interrupt.
I remember the way her family behaved at her sister’s graduation dinner, and the way her father belittled her community college diploma.
“And yeah, I guess some people might, but the people who matter won’t.
I think a lot of higher education is really overrated. ”
“Really?” Ally looks skeptical.
“Sure. A lot of people are just at university for the degree, and they’re not interested in learning anything unless it’ll be on an exam.
They’re the same people who never shut up about their degree once they have one, because it’s their biggest achievement.
They don’t have ideas or talents that speak for themselves. ”
“Hmm,” Ally says thoughtfully.
“University makes sense if you want to do a profession, or there’s something you particularly want to study,” I say. “But if not, it can be a waste of time and money.”
Ally nods, looking a little surprised by this view on things.
“But you don’t have to decide anything now,” I tell her. “Give yourself some time.”
There’s a knock at the door, and I realize it must be our dinner.
“One second,” I call. “You can stay there,” I tell Ally, tucking the sheet around her so she’s covered from her chin to her toes. I grab my boxers and pants off the floor and throw them on before I head to the door.
The rest of our clothes are still all over the floor, so I leave the waiter in the hall and carry everything in myself. Once I’ve closed the door behind him, Ally grabs a robe from the closet and joins me at the table.
“You ordered champagne?” she asks.
“Uh huh.” I take the bottle out of the ice bucket and pull the foil off the top.
Ally grins. “You know, Drew, I think this qualifies as a grand romantic gesture.”
“What?”
“A grand gesture,” she repeats. “You know, like in a romantic comedy. Drew Malone—Mr. I’m not looking for a relationship—just followed me to London and told me he loved me. And now there’s a romantic dinner with champagne—”
“And burgers,” I point out as I pour champagne into her glass.
“It’s still a strong effort,” she teases. “A proposal at Wimbledon might have been more dramatic—”
“Wimbledon frowns on that sort of thing.”
Her eyes widen. “You looked into it?”
“Of course not.” Not seriously, anyway. “And it wasn’t really a grand gesture, Ally. It was just that. . . you stole my shirt. It’s my favorite, and I wanted it back.”
“Your shirt?” she echoes.
“Yeah, my green t-shirt. I lent it to you that first night at my condo when you didn’t have pajamas, remember?”
“Oh. Well . . .” she pauses to take a sip of champagne. “I’m not even sure I brought it to England. It might be packed in one of the boxes in your storage unit.”
“I don’t think so.” I know it isn’t, because I unpacked all the stuff she left in the storage unit.
“Huh.” Ally’s blue eyes are gleaming with amusement. “I’m pretty sure you gave me that shirt, Honeybun.”
I shake my head. “It was a loan, Cuddlebug. If you want to keep it, you’ll have to come home with me.”
.