Make Me Yours: A BWWM Billionaire Love Story (8 page)

Dean reached forward
to take her hand in his. Meaghan shook her head. “Okay enough
with all the rom com ending dialogue. Let’s move on to name
calling norms in civilized society.”

Dean laughed, “Shall
we say that it’s not okay to call each other any names?”

“
I
think that would be wise,” Meaghan agreed.

“
I
apologize again for my shitty slimy uncouth behavior.”

“
All
these five dollar words just to say sorry…” Meaghan said
airily to dispel any remaining tension.

Dean reached into
his pocket and extracted an actual five dollar bill passing it to
her.

“
What’s
this for?” she asked.

“
I
figured actions speak louder than words.”

Meaghan barked a
laugh but removed her purse from her bag anyway and made a show of
keeping the five dollar bill in it. “Apology accepted,”
she said with satisfaction.

Dean smiled at her
expression. “Look at that self-satisfied smile, who wouldn’t
fall for that?”

Meaghan shot him a
glance and a smile but said nothing, just returned her purse to her
bag.

“
So
I should get home. My mother hasn’t seen me all week and my new
fake boyfriend offered me a new job that I need to go research.”

“
What?
Really? He was offering you a job? Why?” Dean perked up
immediately looking wary.

“
He
grew up in Queens and he has a foundation which assists inner city
youths in various ways. I expressed interest in it and he offered me
paid employment so that would enable me to free up some time by
quitting my locum and working for the foundation instead. It’s
a dream job for me to be honest.”

“
And
he just happened to have it ready and waiting for you,” Dean
said strongly sarcastic.

“
No.
We talked about stuff and giving back to the community and he
happened to mention that he has this project that he does.”

“
Y’all
looked really cozy and all,” Dean said the light of jealousy
brightening in his eyes.

Meaghan sighed. “So
we’re back to snarky and jealous?”

Dean
shrugged. “Well I’m sorry if I feel a little jealous that
my
girl is
having coffee with random hot doctors in her favorite restaurant when
she’s never told
me
about these hopes and dreams that she has.”

“
So
you’re saying that having heart to hearts would be something
you’d be interested in?” Meaghan asked unable to keep the
amusement out of her voice.

Dean shrugged in
contrived nonchalance. “That’s what people in
relationships do right?”

“
I
don’t know. You’re the one who was in a relationship for
like fifteen years. You tell me,” she said.

“
You
making fun of me?” Dean asked.

“
Absolutely
not,” Meaghan said hand on heart. “I just…I don’t
know how to behave when you get all serious and shit.”

“
Why
not? How long have we known each other Meaghan?” Dean asked
looking intently at her.

Meaghan
shrugged. “
Years,
”
she said grinning.

Dean grinned back at
her. “You know me right? I mean you know who I am right?”

“
And
you know who
I
am,” Meaghan countered.

Dean
shrugged. “I know who you
were,
”
he said thoughtfully. “Since we started sleeping together
though…you’re not as open as you used to be.”

“
I’m
still the same basic person. Maybe a little more cautious but…”
Meaghan protested.

“
More
cautious with me?” Dean clarified. “Why is that? Do you
think I’m going to hurt you?”

Meaghan was silent
for a while, staring down at Dean’s duvet. “I know you
will,” she said quietly. “You might not want to; but you
will. Because family always comes first. I know that about you at
least. And I am not your family.”

Dean opened his
mouth to say something to that, protest maybe, but found that he had
no counter-argument. Meaghan was right…but she was also wrong
– saying so with his mouth though, would not convince her. She
was a scientist – she liked empirical evidence that she could
test out and touch and verify. Dean realized he hadn’t really
done anything to make Meaghan feel like she was just as important to
him as anyone else in his life. Not really; he’d let his mother
and Samantha manipulate him into a situation where the rest of the
world was under the impression that he and Samantha were still
together. His father thought he and Samantha were still together. In
fact the only people who knew the true nature of his and Meaghan’s
relationship were Smith and his sister. Possibly the rest of his
friends were aware that they were sleeping together or seeing each
other; but they thought it was basically just one of those
things…boys will be boys, sowing wild oats, whatever cliché
it was this week. Meaghan wasn’t a cliché; he’d
said so to her. But not to anyone else. He couldn’t really
blame her then, if she thought that she really was just his flavor of
the week or month.

“
I
don’t blame you for thinking that,” Dean told her now,
his tone rueful. “It’s my fault and I realize that now. I
don’t know what I can do to change it right away though. Any
ideas?”

“
Dean,
I wasn’t trying to make you-“ Meaghan began to protest.

“
I
know you weren’t,” Dean interrupted. “I just…I’m
out of ideas and I thought you might have some is all.”

Meaghan smiled,
leaned forward and laid a chaste kiss on his lips. She didn’t
want to give him any ideas – her body was still recovering from
whatever that was they’d done just now.

“
Let’s
just…put a pin in it for now. I think this is good. We’ve
made some progress. We know that we have real feelings for each
other. We know that it’s mutual,” Meaghan said with a
shrug.

“
I
can’t exactly stand up at the board of directors’ meeting
and say hey, you know what Samantha’s not my girlfriend. It
would be inappropriate,” Dean said just thinking out loud,
ignoring Meaghan’s suggestion to put a pin in it. Meaghan
huffed a laugh.

“
Yeah
where exactly on the agenda would that go? None of Your Business
section maybe?” Meaghan said. “Look Dean, I get it.
You’re spirit is willing and so is your flesh. I didn’t
know before but I do now. You don’t have to do anything, I
promise.”

Dean nodded his
head, but he still looked skeptical. Meaghan pushed away the bed
covers and slid out of bed, naked.

“
I
need a shower now though seriously, we’ll get where we wanna
go. Lets just not be all worried and shit. It’ll come together
by itself. I promise you.”

Dean stood up and
made as if to follow her to the shower. Meaghan put up her hand, palm
outward.

“
Halt.
Where do you think
you’re
going?” she asked.

Dean grinned. “I
thought I’d scrub your back for you,” he said hands on
the waistband of his boxers.

“
Uh
huh. Not happening,” Meaghan said eyes on his hands. “I
still don’t know how I’m even going to function after
that…session. I’m not looking to inflict any more damage
on this vessel,” she said indicating her body.

“
What
damage? That was just standard sexual procedure for you; just coz you
were on top this time doesn’t mean anything changed,”
Dean said grinning smugly.

Meaghan threw a
random sock at him and mock-glared. “Stay away from me fool,”
she said slipping into the bathroom and shutting the door.

“
You
don’t know what you’re missing!” he yelled at the
closed door.

“
Oh
yes I do,” she sang back as she switched on the shower.

*****

Meaghan and her
mother walked into the narrow brick building that housed the offices
of the Shelley project. She had an appointment with the project
manager who would give her orientation on the work that they did
here. When she’d told her mother about the work that Conrad had
offered her. She’d been very excited and asked if she could
come along and see what work they were doing as well. Meaghan had
called Conrad to see if it would be alright and with his enthusiastic
permission had brought her mother along on what was essentially sort
of an interview.

“
Hi,”
she said to the receptionist. “I’m here to see Maggie
Martinez?”

The receptionist
looked up, brown eyes friendly and welcoming in her freckled face.
She smiled widely and stood up to point out the correct office; in
spite of her substantial bulk and the gray in her hair she moved
easily, guiding them to the right door and leaving them to it with a
nod and a smile. Maggie Martinez also turned out to be
enthusiastically friendly greeting Meaghan and Amanda like they were
old friends.

“
Conrad
told me about you – we don’t get many doctors who grew up
around here so we’re really excited to have you,” she
said as she led them down the hall to show them the clinic space.

“
I’m
excited to be here,” Meaghan replied exchanging a look with her
mom.

“
Most
of our patients are disadvantaged in terms of access to insured
health care. We have a payment policy that allows them to settle
their bills slowly at a rate that won’t break them” she
said as they walked past the packed waiting room where nurses were
carrying out triage.

“
And
do you get many defaulters or are people good about paying?”
Meaghan asked curiously.

Maggie shrugged.
“Most of our patients are return customers. They are well known
to us and we to them. I think Dr. Conrad told you that we don’t
just do the clinic, but we also have a mentorship program and needle
exchange every other Saturday? We know most of these people by their
first names; we’ve been to their homes. We know their
challenges. It’s a very hands on project we run here. Very few
of our patients are walk-ins. And most of those who are have some
sort of emergency or have heard of us through their neighbors for
example.”

As she talked,
Maggie showed them the state of the art laboratory that had been
built through the efforts of the community who held a funds drive to
raise the capital. They also walked through the ward where a few
inpatients were admitted.

“
We
don’t have an extensive in-patient facility. Just a few beds to
deal with acute cases that might need overnight observation. We also
have a maternity ward though it's empty right now. Many of our
maternity patients come from the drug users who are looking to give
birth in conditions that are sanitary among people they can trust.
Many times, they wish to give up the child.”

“
Sounds
really intense. What do you do with the children who are given up? I
mean obviously you call child services, silly question.”

Maggie smiled, “Not
silly at all; we have an arrangement with Child Services where we
keep the child in the neonatal ward until we’re sure that they
are healthy. Many of them are born with addictions, and then we pass
them on to the social worker who we liaise with.”

“
Maggie
I’m really impressed with the work you guys are doing around
here, even without seeing your other projects. So I just have one
question for you,” Meaghan said smiling.

“
What’s
that?” Maggie asked head cocked, ready to answer anything.

“
When
do I start?”

Dean
was making more of an effort with Meaghan. She didn’t really
know how she felt about that. It felt a little forced. He’d
text her randomly throughout her day giving her updates on what he
was doing and asking what
she
was
doing…it kind of felt like checking up on her. Who knew that
beneath the expensive Armani suits and Ralph Lauren shirts beat the
heart of a possessive jealous Neanderthal who thought he was being
clever by couching his tabs-keeping behavior in terms of concerned
and loving texts. She knew what his game was though she kept this
knowledge to herself for now. No need to rock the boat unnecessarily.
He also came to pick her up from work more often than not. So at
least now everyone at work knew her boyfriend drove a flashy
Lamborghini if not who he actually was. Thankfully her days were too
busy for her to be pinned down by curious colleagues who wanted to
know all about her guy. She was not about that gossip life.

She
and Bain had kept their pact to not let busy lives get between them
again. They had a standing Thursday night dinner date to which
significant others were
not
invited, no matter how much they begged. And Daniel was not above
begging…neither was Dean but he was more subtle about it.

*****

“
I
hear you’re spending a lot of time in Queens these days,”
Smith ventured as they caught up at lunch; “citizens are
concerned.”

Dean looked up from
his plate with a glare. “Concerned about what?”

Smith shrugged.
“That you’re…little diversion…is getting
more serious by the day,” he made air quotes with his hands
around the little diversion.

“
Yeah
well it is getting serious; and it’s not a ‘little
diversion’,” Dean replied grumpily.