My Blue Heaven
"Good morning, Jeremiah," Divya greeted him as he entered the kitchen the next morning. She was leaning against the bar reading the morning newspaper and sipping coffee when he walked in.
"Good morning," he replied and smiled as he spotted his morning orange juice and the world news section of the paper on the bar in front of him. "Did you sleep well?" he asked.
"Well enough," she answered with a smile. "Maya fussed a bit more than normal, but otherwise I slept fine."
"Good," Jeremiah said with a nod before sipping on his orange juice.
"What about you? How did you sleep?" Divya asked.
Jeremiah moved to the cabinets to pull out a box of cereal and said, "I slept well, thank you," before continuing on with his morning routine. Divya continued to read in silence and Jeremiah joined her, reading his own section of the news as he ate.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Divya asked a few minutes later as she set down the paper.
Jeremiah took a moment to finish swallowing the cereal in his mouth before replying. "This morning I have an appointment with Ms. Newberg and then Hank asked to meet with me in town before he had to leave with Boris again. This afternoon, I thought, if you were up to it, you could do a routine check on Mr. Lunsford. He's apparently developed some kind of rash on his arms and back. It sounds very routine."
"I'll be there," Divya answered. "I'm very anxious to get back to work. All this sitting around is driving me crazy." Jeremiah smiled.
"I figured you would welcome a chance to get back into the rotation. I know that sitting around in this house for the better part of nine months isn't exactly ideal."
Divya nodded. "Not exactly," she conceded, "but I did enjoy your company immensely."
"It was my pleasure."
After a beat, Jeremiah took another bite of cereal as Divya cleared her throat. He looked up to see her with her mouth half-open as if to speak, and eventually she said, "Jeremiah, Rafa contacted me yesterday to say that he was finally able to get time off to come visit Maya and I. But I don't want to trespass on your hospitality, so I wanted to ask if it would be alright if he visited here."
Jeremiah paused. He swallowed and said, "Rafa would be staying here?"
Almost immediately Divya replied, "No, of course not. I just meant, he would be over here from time to time and I was wondering if that would be alright with you."
"Why wasn't he here for the birth?" Jeremiah asked without thinking.
"He was busy with his modeling," Divya said. "He says he couldn't get time off until now." She waited a second before continuing. "But he won't be here every day. He won't even be in town for very long. But he arrives tonight, and I was hoping that he could meet the baby here rather than his hotel or some public place."
"Of course," Jeremiah said. "Your guests are more than welcome here. This is your home, too. Invite whomever you want." He said it, but felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. He could still remember when Divya had first started dating Rafa. He had matured since then, but still his jealousy when Rafa's name was mentioned was embarrassing. He wanted to be the only man in Maya's life and the most important one in Divya's, and now the prospect of sharing them made him more jealous than he cared to admit.
But he could never deny Divya, and she beamed at him in response. "Thank you, Jeremiah," she said, placing a gentle hand on his forearm.
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Hank Lawson was waiting at a table on the patio of the coffee shop where he had arranged to meet Dr. Sacani. When he spotted Jeremiah, Hank stood up and waved him over, calling, "Jeremiah, over here!"
Jeremiah heard his name called and turned to see Hank standing and beckoning him. He walked over to the table and shook Hank's hand, saying, "Hello, Hank. It's good to see you again. How was your trip?"
Hank smiled and said, "It was good, thanks for asking. And it's good to see you again, too, Jeremiah." Hank motioned for them to sit and they did so as he continued, "You look great. The off-season in the Hamptons seems to have done you some good."
"Thank you. I did enjoy it."
"And you were a big help to Divya, from what I hear." Jeremiah shrugged.
"She needed the help, and I was more than happy to give it." Hank smiled.
"Well, I know Divya appreciates it, and I do, too. It's so much easier to do what I need to do for Boris knowing that you're here to look after our friends and our business. Speaking of which, I was hoping you could give me an update on HankMed before I have to leave again."
"Of course," Jeremiah replied. "I would first like to say how much I appreciate your trusting me with HankMed. I understand how hard that must have been."
Hank nodded. "It was difficult. But it was much easier knowing it was in capable hands. So tell me, Jeremiah, how is HankMed doing? Aside from the numbers, of course, which Evan tells me are better than ever."
"HankMed is in a very stable position from my estimation. Though its size took a significant hit when you and Divya were unavailable, I was able to treat all of its patients without much trouble. Luckily, business is much slower during the off-season, but this past week, things have begun to pick up again. Divya is seeing her first patient this afternoon, but with your occasional absence, I would recommend hiring a third doctor to help with the workload during the summer."
"That's what Evan keeps saying," Hank confirmed. "And I think it's a good idea. I don't know how often I can be in town, we don't want Divya to work herself too hard right after her pregnancy, and you certainly can't handle it all by yourself. So, by all means, hire whomever you see fit. I trust your judgment, Jeremiah. Discuss the salary we're willing to offer with Evan, but otherwise, the decision is yours."
Jeremiah nodded. "I'll do my best."
"I know you will," Hank said with a smile. "And Jeremiah, I hope that we can be friends again. I know what I did was wrong, and I'm very sorry, but I hope we can put it past us and look forward to a long and healthy friendship."
"I'm sorry too, Hank. I should take more responsibility for my actions and not distance you for a potential fault of my own. I would very much like to be friends."
Hank grinned. "Should we shake on it?" he asked with a glimmer in his eye.
Jeremiah extended his hand and was delighted when Hank reached out to grab it in friendship.
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It was approaching 8:00 and Divya couldn't help but feel anxious. She sat in the living room in her favorite chair with a book and a glass of wine, but she was too anxious to read. That position had become one of her favorites during her pregnancy. It was comfortable and always made her feel secure, but right now, all she could do was sip her wine, hoping it would calm her down.
Jeremiah wasn't far. After they had finished dinner (it had become their custom to dine together), he had followed Divya's lead and retired to the living room. They had sat there, enjoying the evening and their respective books, but as it approached 8:00 and Divya became increasingly fidgety, it seemed as though Maya had picked up on her mother's unease and had begun to fuss. Secretly delighted, Jeremiah offered to soothe the child's woes, and Divya readily agreed. So he was holding Maya in his arms trying to lull her to sleep while Divya tried to make small talk to otherwise occupy her mind.
"So how was your meeting with Hank this morning?" she asked.
"It went quite well. We've finally resolved all of our differences and he's given me permission to hire another doctor to help out during the summer," Jeremiah said as he swayed gently on the spot.
"Well, that's great!" she replied enthusiastically. "We'll need the extra help, but most important is that you worked everything out." He nodded.
"I agree. I'd consider it a great success." She smiled and they fell back into silence as Divya distractedly took another sip of her wine. "How did you feel about being back on the job today?" he asked as if to offer her another avenue of escape.
"I enjoyed it, though I must admit that I was nervous at first. It had been so long since I'd worked that I was a bit worried. But once I started, I realized that it was just like riding a bike," she smiled at him.
"I'm glad," he answered, looking down at Maya who was finally starting to drift off to sleep. "I wanted your first assignment to be as easy as it could be."
"Well, I appreciate it, Jeremiah, though I it was–" Divya started to say but was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell.
Maya started to fuss in Jeremiah's arms again as Divya jumped up. "That must be him," she said and walked off to answer the door. Jeremiah tried to swallow but found that his mouth had suddenly gone dry.
When Divya returned, Rafa was trailing behind her and saying, "And where is my beautiful daughter?"
"Oh, Rafa, you remember Jeremiah, don't you?" she asked as Rafa approached him, extending his arms to take Maya from his arms.
"Of course. How do you do?" Rafa said as he took possession of Maya. "There she is, my baby girl," he continued. "Look at how pretty you are!" he exclaimed in admiration.
Jeremiah took a step back from the scene as Divya moved in closer. "I'm fine, thank you," he said softly, though he knew that neither Rafa nor Divya were listening anymore.
"She's so big, too!" Rafa exclaimed.
"Yes, she has grown quite a bit since we brought her home from the hospital, hasn't she, Jeremiah?" Divya asked for confirmation.
"She has grown about four inches since then," he agreed.
Rafa looked up to meet Jeremiah's eyes for the first time then. He smiled and said, "I hear you were a great help to Divya and my beautiful girl here."
Jeremiah shrugged. "I was glad to help."
"Well, I thank you very much for taking care of them," Rafa said, still maintaining eye contact. Jeremiah nodded and finally Rafa returned his attention to his daughter. Divya smiled at Jeremiah before also returning her attention to Maya and her father. It was then, while they cooed at the child, that Jeremiah quietly slipped out of the room. And it wasn't until he had reached the sanctuary of his bedroom that he could swallow.