Chapter 13

 

 

 

 

 

Finn

Present Day

 

“You’re coming upstairs with me,” Mike says as he stands there, staring down at me. He’s getting more annoyed by the second, but I never invited him over and I certainly never said I was going to go to that stupid party with him.

I don’t respond as I lean back on my sofa, sipping on my imported beer and watching the Red Sox play the Indians in the first game of the ALCS. Even though neither of them are my team, I’d much rather watch this then go up to the penthouse of my building and deal with people I used to work with.

“Come on, Finn,” he whines. What sort of grown man whines? “I want you to meet my girlfriend.”

Oh right. I remember this now. Vaguely. I was going into work this morning, talking to him on the phone, when he mentioned his newish girlfriend was going to be at the party. I haven’t met her yet. I’ve been pushing it off, if I’m being honest. I’m happy for Mike and all that good shit, but the last thing I want to be around is a happy couple.

I just so happen to live in a building where the trauma surgeons occupy the penthouse. I was here first, which makes me sound like a child, but I don’t care, because it’s true. Those fuckers moved in a year after I did.

I bought this apartment three years ago after my life fell apart and I’ve been here ever since. The trauma surgeons, three of them in total, bought the penthouse together. It’s like a frat house up there and I hate it. I’m just happy I don’t live directly beneath them. They’re not my favorite group of guys either so it’s not like spending an evening shooting the shit with them is an incentive.

“Bring her down here,” I say without bothering to move my eyes away from the television.

Mike sighs, propping his hands on his lean hips. “She’s bringing friends. Friends who I’m sure are every bit as gorgeous as she is. Friends who I’m sure would love to meet a guy such as yourself.”

“Not interested.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Mike snaps and it’s not like him to get to this point. He’s typically more in control of his temper, so this has me sitting a up a little straighter to meet his eyes. “I’m so sick of your perpetual fucking negativity. How long are you going to live like this?”

“Don’t,” I warn.

“It’s been three years, man. You haven’t dated a woman in three years. You need to live your life.”

“Mike,” I say firmly. “I get you’re trying to be a good friend to me and all, but you need to shut the hell up and get out of here now.”

Another sigh, this time his chin drops to his chest. “Just come upstairs with me. Just meet my girl and then you can go back to your sulking in the form of beer and baseball. Ten minutes. That’s all I’m asking for.”

I deliberate this for a few moments.

I inwardly sigh. “Fine,” I stand up and bring my now empty beer into the kitchen, placing it by the sink so I can recycle it later. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t. But Mike has been there for me. He’s unbelievably patient with my bullshit. I owe him.

“You’re going to change, right?”

I look down. I’m wearing a t-shirt, very old worn jeans and no shoes. And as much as I really am in the mood to be a dick right now, Mike doesn’t deserve that. “Give me five minutes. Or better yet,” I say with a smile, “go on up and I’ll meet you there.”

He laughs. “No, I think I’ll wait.”

I shrug, leaving Mike in my living room while I walk down the long hall into my bedroom. This may not be the penthouse, but it’s still a very nice apartment. In fact, it’s my favorite place where I’ve ever lived, if for no other reason than the view of the East River and the wraparound balcony which faces it. And I’m high enough up that I don’t have to deal with the noise or view of the FDR or other buildings.

Eight minutes later, I’m ready. Mike is smiling at his phone before his eyes do a sweep of me, taking in my black button up, dark jeans and black shoes. I even brushed my hair. “Better?” I ask.

“Much. Let’s go. She’s already there.”

“Don’t want to keep her waiting.”

Mike rolls his eyes at me. “She’s great. You’ll love her.” I nod, not really caring either way. “Did I mention that she brought friends with her?”

“Once or twice.” He laughs at me, slapping my back as we step into the elevator to go up the two flights to the penthouse. The doors open not even thirty seconds later and we step into the apartment. It’s relatively crowded here and I already recognize a lot of faces.

Mike leads me over to the bar that’s taking up the entire island in the kitchen. “Sup, man,” Liam says to me, reaching out to shake my hand. “Glad you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” I deadpan, swiping another beer out of the bucket of ice. Liam laughs. He knows as well as I do I’m full of shit.

“The place is stacked tonight,” he goes on. “Whatever your pleasure, we’ve got it. But I already called dibs on your girlfriend’s friend,” he says to Mike, holding up his beer bottle like he’s saluting him. “You weren’t lying when you said her friends are hot.”

This is why I can’t stand the trauma surgeons.

“As long as it’s not my girlfriend, I don’t care,” Mike says. “Speaking of which,” he claps a hand on my back, “let’s go find her.”

I take that as my cue and give Liam the requisite nod. I have nothing to say to this guy. Liam nods his head back at me while mixing up some crazy alcohol concoction.

“What an ass,” Mike says once we’re out of earshot, which isn’t exactly far considering how loud it is in here. Music is blasting and people seem to be doing their best to talk over it so they can be heard. “I might have to warn Monique’s friend about him.”

“Probably should,” I agree.

We move through the crowd, stopping here and there to say hello as we pass people we know, which is pretty much everyone since most people here work at the hospital I previously had. Finally, Mike points his finger over toward the back of the living room. I nod, following him, while I sip my very expensive beer, the showoffs felt the need to buy.

“Hey,” Mike says, tapping a very pretty black woman on the shoulder. She spins around–and the moment she sees who’s interrupting her conversation–gleams at him.

“You made it,” she says. “I was starting to wonder.” She leans in and gives him a sweet kiss on the lips and Mike puts his arms around her. I’ve never seen Mike like this with a woman. Typically, they don’t last all that long with him.

“Monique, this is my friend, Finn. Finn, this is my girlfriend, Monique.”

She smiles brightly at me, reaching out to shake my hand. “Hi,” she says. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

I tense a little at that, but she isn’t saying it in a particularly knowing way. More of a you’re Mike’s best friend way. “You too.” I really know nothing about this woman other than her name and the fact she’s Mike’s girlfriend. I’m sure he’s told me more, but I don’t think I listened all that well.

“I thought you said you were bringing friends,” Mike says and Monique laughs.

“She did,” a voice chirps behind me and I turn to see a familiar-looking woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, heavy bangs and blue eyes. “I’m Chloe,” she says. “I work at the hospital with you.”

“Oh,” I say feeling a little bad that I can’t place her other than vaguely recognizing her face. “What do you do?”

She laughs, shaking her head. “Same thing as Mo here.” That doesn’t help me and when she realizes I don’t know what Mike’s girlfriend does, she laughs even harder. So does Monique, so I guess she’s not put off by that. “We’re midwives, Dr. Banner. You know, the people who deliver cute little bundles of joy into the world.”

Great. Mike’s girlfriend is a midwife. And so is this chick. And she works at my hospital which means she knows Gia. Now that I think about it, that’s why I recognize her. I’ve seen the two of them together before.

Just. Fucking. Perfect.

I’ve successfully avoided her for weeks following that encounter in her apartment. I pissed her off when I answered my phone instead of kissing her, and that was it.

It was for the best. That’s what I’ve continued to tell myself. Because wanting Gia the way I do is a problem. I don’t just want her for a night or a week or even a couple of months. She’s the type of woman I could want for the long term and I won’t go down that road again.

I won’t.

But every time I run into her, she chips away at my resolve a little more. Each time, I end up just a step closer to crossing that irreversible line with her. It was nearly impossible not to that night I slept in her bed with her. I held her all night, even if she doesn’t remember that part of it. I allowed myself to have that, knowing it would never happen again.

I just didn’t expect it to feel so…perfect. So right. I didn’t expect to sit up half the night just so I could watch her sleep. So I could bury my nose in her hair and breathe in her unique fragrance.

The night at the bar, when I found her completely drunk out of her mind, all I could think about was wanting to be the one to make it all better for her. Her hero, she called me. I can’t shake that one.

I may be the broken one, but she’s the one who always needs saving.

That’s really why I stayed the night, even if I did give her a half-hearted excuse for it.

“So how do you know each other then,” I ask Chloe in reference to Monique. “You work at different hospitals.”

“We went to graduate school together,” Chloe says like it should be obvious, which I guess it probably should be, but I’m thrown off right now.

“Actually,” Mike interjects, “do you remember that girl who came in on her graduation day? Her father ended up dying from a STEMI?” I can only nod. “She’s actually Monique’s friend.”

“Gia,” I say because I have to say her name.

He nods, his expression a mixture of sympathy for Gia and surprise for me. “You remember.”

“She works at the hospital with me. I’ve run into her a time or two.” I leave it at that and then turn back to her friends to see if anything else registers. Nothing does and I don’t know if it bothers me or not that Gia hasn’t mentioned anything else about me to her friends.

Chloe steps into me, her blue eyes sparkling up at me. “Come buy me a free drink, Dr. Banner. I think our friends would like to be alone.”

I have no interest in buying Chloe one of the free drinks here. “I believe Liam already called dibs on you,” I say with a wry smile.

Chloe laughs, shaking her head. “Oh no. That wasn’t me. That was Gia. He zeroed in on her like Mark Walberg from that movie about the stalker.”

“Fear,” Monique supplies with a roll of her eyes. “And it wasn’t that dramatic.”

The two of them go back and forth for a minute, but I can’t focus on anything other than the fact that dipshit Liam called dibs on Gia. That Gia is here somewhere with that asshole who is no doubt trying to fuck her at this very moment. My Gia.

That thought is eating me alive.

And since Chloe here started with the movie clichés, my brain is running with that line from The Godfather III. Not my favorite of them, but the line still works in this situation. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Only it’s not them, it’s Gia.

Gia. Gia. Gia. It’s always Gia.

Or at least it has been since I set eyes on her a year and a half ago.

“Where is she?” I ask. I don’t even care how I sound right now or what they think of the desperate tone in my question. I need to get her away from Liam. He cannot have her.

“Outside on the terrace,” Chloe responds with a smirk. “And I do believe our friend Liam is still at his makeshift bar.”

“Sorry, Chloe,” I say to her with a smile, because I may actually like this girl. “I think you might have to find someone else buy you that drink.”

Chloe lets out a dramatic sigh. “I figured as much. You’re lucky that this place is like a meat market, otherwise I wouldn’t let you off the hook so easily.”

I grin at her. “You’re mixing metaphors.”

“Part of her charm,” Monique says with a wink.

“Catch you later,” I nod at Mike who might just be smiling bigger than Monique and Chloe combined. I ignore that. Because even though I’m being a selfish prick and trying to cockblock Liam, that doesn’t mean anything is going to happen with Gia and me. It just means I don’t want her to end up as another notch in his bedpost. And for the record, I know he does that. He bragged about it all through residency, only he’s smart enough to put the notches on the bottom of his bed where women can’t see them.

Which makes him the official asshole and not me.

Mike gives me a pat on the back and I wave bye to his girlfriend who seems nice enough and her friend Chloe and I go straight for those glass doors which lead out onto the balcony.

Gia Bianchi will not end up with anyone tonight but me.