Next to Me (8 page)

“So far it sounds as amazing as I hoped it would be for you,” she says.

“It gets better…then it gets worse. We came back here and talked for a little bit before he kissed me again. It got hot and heavy and before I knew it I was…” I bury my face in my hands again so I don’t have to see Spring’s reaction when I say the words. “I was straddling him on the couch.”

“Who would blame you, Jenna? Landon is seriously the hottest guy I have ever laid eyes on,” she says without missing a beat.

“I wouldn’t tell Matt you said that!” I chuckle. Matt and Spring have been dating for over a year. Things are going really great between them and I’m afraid
I’ll
be the one looking for a new roommate soon.

“Seriously! Don’t be so hard on yourself, Jenna. You said it yourself…you haven’t had any real action since before you moved here. You can’t be surprised when a guy as great, and as hot, as Landon comes on to you that you explode. If you’d stop pushing guys away, you might not be so frustrated. When did he leave? Oh my gosh! Is he still here?”

“No! I may have bottled up frustrations, but I wouldn’t have slept with him on the first date! Geez, Spring! No…that’s the mortifying part.
He
stopped us and then he left. Said he had to work today, but that he’d call me. He also told me to have fun with the doctor tonight.” Spring paints a puzzled look on her face. “That was the other
super great
part of the night. When he asked to see me tonight, I told him about my date with Dr. Fisher.”

“What is wrong with you?” she asks with a deadpan face.

“I’m a moron. Next question.”

“You’re not a moron. You just don’t know what you’re doing. But…if this guy really is as great as you think he is, he’ll call. And if he’s not, then maybe he was just your catalyst guy. The guy to get you off your ass and back into the dating world without finding the stupidest things wrong with every guy you go out with. The guy that makes you realize you’re done with casual dating and that you’re ready to be a big girl. I gotta run. I’m meeting Matt after work, so I won’t be here to meet the good doctor, but I’m sure you’re going to have a great time.” Spring kisses my cheek, grabs her lunch from the fridge and her purse from the hook by the door and is gone.

With a deep breath and a swig of coffee, I right myself and get ready to

go dance. I’m hoping I can get some endorphins flowing and start feeling more positive about how things ended with Landon last night.

The 9:00 am studio class today is ballroom and I can’t help but hope that Landon will be there…that he’s figured out a way to see me today since I can’t see him tonight. I enter the studio fully aware that a stupid look of anticipation is spread across my face. I scan the room and check out each of the eleven students’ faces before I’m left with nothing but disappointment.

“He’s not here,” Carina tells me. She’s tightening the long, fringed scarf around her waist as she approaches.

“Yeah, I can see that,” I say. She follows me to the side of the room where everyone dumps their belongings. “We went out last night,” I tell her.

“Aye! I knew it! He came back later on Saturday and asked a hundred questions about you! How did it go?” Carina asks with immediate excitement.

“It started out as the most amazing date I’ve ever had, but…I blew it in the end.” I sit and put my ballroom shoes on.

“How could you have blown it?” she says with disbelief.

“Let’s just say I came on a little too strong and sent him running. I may have also told him about the date I have tonight with one of the doctors I work with.”

“A doctor! My goodness, Jenna! You’re on a roll,”’ she says with that sexy tone.

“Yeah, I’m hot stuff,” I reply blankly. “Has Landon been back to class?”

“No. I haven’t seen him since Saturday. I’m sure he’s going to call you. He’s a fool if he doesn’t!” Carina’s hopeless romanticism is endearing. I just nod and work to convince myself that she’s right. I never told Landon that my class attendance is sporadic, and that I won’t be back at the Saturday morning class for three weeks.

I make it through class, doing my best to let the euphoric feeling I usually get from dancing take over. I think about my Tango with Landon last night and remember just how ridiculously in sync we were. All that seems to do is wash me with embarrassment for my behavior last night.

I walk home and slowly approach my building, hoping to find Landon waiting for me again outside the coffee shop. No such luck. The sidewalk tables and chairs are empty. I let out a big sigh and walk into my building and up to my apartment with the intent of finding something terribly fattening to drown my sorrows in. Spring and I are both relatively healthy eaters, so there isn’t much in the way of totally fattening in the kitchen, but my search does reveal that I have everything I need to make a hollandaise sauce. So…eggs benedict it is!

I stuff my face and drown my sorrows with the freshly made orange juice Spring made the other day. I hope she doesn’t get mad that I drank almost all of it. It literally took six bags of oranges and two hours to make this one pitcher.

Feeling a surge of energy, which I can only attribute to the massive quantities of Vitamin C I just consumed, I take to cleaning the entire apartment. I turn on the mix playlist Mercy, Spring and I made one night after too many bottles of red wine and start fluffing the pillows on the couch from where Landon and I flattened them. Not able to look at this couch any longer I grab the supplies from under the kitchen sink and scrub and scour the bathrooms. I dust and polish the furniture, and finally vacuum every room before I collect our laundry.

We’re fortunate to have a closet for a full-size washer and dryer in the apartment so I spend the next two hours doing all of our laundry, folding it and putting it away. I pause only a few times when random songs play as proof to our drunken state when we make the playlist. Like when KISS’s
Rock and Roll All Nite
ends and Barry Manilow’s
Can’t Smile without You
begins.

There’s a knock at the door precisely at seven just as I’m deciding which shoes to wear with my dark jeans and orange top. I know Dr. Adam Fisher is standing on the other side of that door and I wish I felt the same kind of crazy butterflies as I did when it was Landon. It’s not that I’m not excited. He’s a well-respected, attractive doctor for crying out loud. I just don’t feel that same spark as I did with Landon.

“Hi, Adam,” I say opening the door with a determination to enjoy myself tonight. Adam is standing there smiling wide and wearing a suit, with a baby blue tie and everything. I feel terribly underdressed and Adam’s quick-changing facial expression tells me he feels the same way about my choice of clothing.

“Hi, Jenna. I’m sorry…I really should have told you where we were going. We have time for you to change,” he says, the smile returning to his face.

“Oh, uh, ok. I’ll be just a minute. Make yourself at home,” I tell him. I close the door and motion to the living room before going back to my room to change. I would never have done this before my new resolve to grow up and start looking at the potential a date has. I would have rightfully used his rudeness to end the date right then and there.

Now I really have to be determined to have a good time tonight. Adam clearly isn’t a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. He’s got a plan and we’re going to stick to it.
Don’t compare him to Landon. Don’t compare him to Landon.
I make this my mantra for the night and choose a black pencil skirt, a blue top that nearly matches his tie, and a pair of black patent heels. I check myself in the mirror and, feeling good about being up to par with Adam, I find him standing in the living room.

“Oh, that’s much better. You look lovely, Jenna,” he tells me.

So glad I meet your approval
, I think. “Thank you. Let’s go.”

We step outside onto the sidewalk and I almost suggest walking to the restaurant, but decide against it since Dr. I’ve Got It All Planned Out is in charge. Adam grabs a cab and we’re quickly being whisked away. It doesn’t take long before we’re pulling up to an Italian restaurant about two blocks from Navy Pier. I sigh to myself remembering how Landon and I walked all the way from my apartment just last night.

Adam and I are seated at a quiet table for two in this restaurant I didn’t know existed. After we order and our server brings the bottle of wine Adam ordered, we settle in for what I hope will turn into a lovely evening.

“So, Jenna, tell me about yourself,” Adam asks.
Standard first date question number one!

“There’s not much to tell, really,” I say. I take a sip of my red wine. It’s delicious and obviously more expensive than the cheap stuff Mercy and I usually drink. “How about you go first? Did you always want to be a doctor?” I avoid asking about his family for now. I have a rehearsed answer I give about mine, but think maybe I’ll wait it out before I open the door to that conversation. Since I’m trying to be more open to things, I may be able to tweak my answer and provide a little more of a personal spin on it.

“Yeah. I was the guy studying my ass off in high school so I could get into a great college and go pre-med. I used to want to have a family practice and then thought about pediatrics, but decided that I didn’t have the patience for it. Some people go to the doctor for every sneeze and then some don’t come until it’s turned into something worse. And don’t get me started on pediatrics!” he huffs.

“You don’t like kids?” Him not liking kids is going to diminish any potential I’m working to find here. So far this date is going the exact opposite of how I had once hoped it would. I’d blame it on me being preoccupied with thoughts of Landon, but that is definitely not the case. Dr. Adam Fisher has taken us on the a-hole train and I’d like to get off.

“Oh, no, I like kids,” he says with a smile. “It’s the parents that would drive me crazy. I have a good friend in pediatrics and you wouldn’t believe the ignorance and arrogance of some parents. They don’t want to vaccinate because they think they know better. Then their kid gets sick and they wonder why. Then some parents think their home remedies are better than FDA approved medicine that’s gone through a decade of clinical trials. I think I’m better off with patients who have serious issues.”

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” I tell him. “Don’t you think that parents are just doing the best they can? They don’t have all the information we do, and sometimes the information we give them is confusing.”

Adam just stares at me for a long minute. I don’t know if I’ve stumped him or if he thinks I’m as crazy as the parents he just referred to. “I’m sorry,” he finally says.

“Why are you sorry?”

“I don’t think I’m getting off on the right foot here. Work is an intense topic for me, so let’s start over and avoid talking about work like the plague. What do you say?” He looks at me with a sweet smile and morphs into the nice guy who stood on the other side of the nurse’s station and asked me to dinner.

“That sounds good,” I tell him. The waitress brings our dinners and we ease back into conversation.

“So, Jenna…what changed your mind?” I look at him quizzically and he answers my unspoken question. “Any time I asked Mercy about you, she was very clear in telling me that you were not interested. Then, all of the sudden, Mercy finds me in the hall outside a patient’s room and tells me that I need to strike while the iron is hot.”

“Thank you for reminding me that I owe Mercy a swift kick in the ass.” I give a breathy laugh and Adam smiles. “I was just really focused on my job for a long time. Well, nursing school and then my job. I know me and I knew that if I got involved with anyone while I was in nursing school that I’d get distracted, and I didn’t want to be distracted.” This is one of the rehearsed answers I’ve been giving about dating for six years. Most people

thought I was being extreme, but it was an explanation they could believe.

“So what happened after nursing school?”

“I guess I was just really focused on my job until…until you made me break my rule,” I smile.

“And what rule is that?” he mirrors my smile and I think that maybe I could find potential here since I’m sure I scared Landon off.

“Not to date anyone I work with…especially doctors.”

“Oooh! I’m hurt! What’s wrong with doctors?” he asks with mocked disappointment.

“You know how your people are. Obsessed with your jobs, crazy hours, God complex,” I tease.

“Wow, this keeps getting better! So what was it about me that made you break your rule?” Adam takes a sip of his wine and sets it down before he focuses all of his attention on me, sending a little surge of nervous excitement through me.

“I don’t know. I guess you seemed like you might be the kind of guy worth breaking the rules for,” I say with a smile. His eyes are locked on mine and I see all of the arrogant doctor attitude slip away. Sitting in front of me is just a guy who likes me who happens to be a doctor.

The conversation the rest of the night goes much better. Adam doesn’t ask me about my family or my past, and I steer any discussion that looks like it might even remotely lead to work to something different. We talk about my love of dance and Adam’s fascination with NASA. When we arrive at the door to my apartment a few hours later, I’m tempted to invite Adam in, but decide against it. The rest of the date went really well, and I could see myself getting caught up with him. I don’t really want to spend another night lying in bed thinking of all the things I should not have done.

“I wish we could have stayed out a little longer, but I have rounds in the morning and I always underestimate how quickly 6:00 am arrives.” Adam takes my hands in his as I lean against the door. “I had a really nice time tonight, Jenna. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I didn’t mean to come across as a total ass…not on the first date at least,” he chuckles.

“I had a nice time too, and you weren’t a
total
ass,” I smirk.

“I’d really like to see you again. And you should probably say yes because

if you don’t, things are going to be very awkward at work.” Adam smiles and I can’t help but smile back, biting my lip so it doesn’t get out of control.