"Tiffany, is that you?" Doug Baxter said, already knowing the answer. The research doctor at General Hospital had been jolted as if by electricity when he spotted her in the airport terminal. It had taken him this long to work up the nerve to talk to her. Their last meeting had been ... intense.
Doug had gotten to know Tiffany a couple months earlier, during one of the lulls in her romance with Sean. He thought they had hit it off, which was backed up by the fact that when he took her to his brownstone she had made romantic overtures. Overtures hell, she'd taken off her clothes and seemed very willing to let nature take its course. And they were about to, until an untimely accident outside his front door had pulled him away. When he got down to the street, he found Sean - who apparently had been following them - pinned between a car and a tree.
It was quickly apparent to the doctor that it wasn't over between the two of them, especially when a delirious Sean kept declaring his love for Tiffany. Not that he had any choice, but he stepped aside immediately. Although he did check on the patient's condition a day later, only to find him with the object of his own affections in his arms.
In the couple of months since that time, Doug hadn't forgotten her. Maybe it was her spirit, maybe it was the fact that when he was thinking about her the least that she popped back into his head in vivid detail. She had changed him, he had been a reclusive hermit when he ran into her the first time and she ended up in a heap beside his medical books. But since their romance ended practically before it began, he didn't spend every day and night with his head in a book anymore. He was dating, coming up empty because no one was measuring up to Tiffany Hill.
"Doug," Tiffany said brightly, covering up her feelings as she had become so used to doing as somewhat of a public figure. "It's been a while, how have you been?" She gestured to the open first-class seat next to her.
"Fine, fine. I'm coming back from one of those ever-exciting conventions in New York. I won't put you to sleep by giving you all the details."
"How's the research going?"
"Slow but steady thanks for asking. What about you?" He wanted to ask about her and Sean, hoping against hope that they weren't still together but not expecting it to be true because he had witnessed first-hand how strong the bond was between them.
"I'm all right, was just over in Europe."
"How was it?"
"The more things change, the more they stay the same," she said, and the words were ringing true for Tiffany on a number of fronts. It always seemed like when she took one step forward with Sean, there were two steps backward taken almost immediately. But he was part of her, it had been like that - for her at least - since the day they met. Everything she ever wanted in a man. Well almost anything, he wouldn't let her get too close. And she bemoaned that fact, since she really felt like she understood him at his core. Which meant she also got why he was reluctant to let go of his loner ways.
"Kind of sounds like my work," he said sympathetically.
She half-smiled and nodded, looking up at Doug and remembering how the opposite had been true when they met. He was so different from Sean. Well, they were both tall and handsome, but Doug was more classically so, with sandy blonde hair and one of those movie-star good looks that could have been as at home on a big screen as easily as with all kinds of microscopes and slides and whatever he had in his lab at General Hospital.
"Sean didn't go with you?" he asked, not being able to help himself any more.
"Uh, no," she said. "We're not together any more."
"Oh I'm sorry to hear that," he said, hoping that the words didn't sound as false to her as they did coming out of his mouth.
"Thanks," she said, looking away.
"He's an idiot," he replied.
"I keep trying to tell myself that. Maybe someday I'll actually believe it's him and not me."
"I hope so. You're terrific."
"You can still say that after what happened?" she said, disregarding the compliment. "I mean you more than anyone have reason to believe that I'm some flibberdigibit who doesn't know which way is up."
"I've never thought of someone less as a flibberdigibit," he said.
"Oh right, someone who takes off their clothes in front of a person in an effort to forget someone else ... what would you call that?"
"I'd probably call that someone in love," Doug said.
"Yeah, well, I think I've had quite enough of that," she said.
"I really would hate to hear that," he responded. "You have so much to give. So much life and spirit."
"Right. But speaking of spirits..." Tiff said, signaling to the flight attendant. "Can I get you something?"
"Whatever you're having," he said.
"Can we get some white wine please?" she said to the attendant, who nodded and went off to procure it.
Tiffany started fiddling with her jewelry.
"Tiff, I mean it," Doug said. "I mean, I wouldn't even admit this to myself until now, but you're kind of unforgettable. And if someone doesn't see that, it's really his loss."
"You're really good for my ego."
"I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it. And believe this, I haven't seen a woman half as ..." His words trailed off as the flight attendant returned with two glasses of wine for them.
Slightly uncomfortable, Tiffany didn't given him a chance to finish the sentence. She clinked his glass. "To old friends," she said and smiled.
Doug got the message, he echoed her sentiment and they sipped the wine in silence.