AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS CHAPTER IS ABOUT PARIS AND JAMIE'S GUY. I HOPE YOU LIKE HIM. THANKS FOR TUNING BACK IN.
RATING: PG-13 IF ONLY FOR LANGUAGE
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN THE MAJORITY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY, BUT I DO OWN A FEW THAT PEOPLE LOVE LIKE THE FABULOUS ANNE MARIE. BUT IF I DID OWN GG SHE WOULD HAVE SO SAID YES.
CHAPTER THREE: BEN CHAPMAN
- - -
Paris can't help but smile appreciatively as Jamie sets a bowl of pasta down on her desk. She loves the fact that not only can he cook, but he actually enjoys it. She moans quietly as soon as she takes her first bite.
"You like?" Jamie asks though he already knows the answer. He's sitting in his usual spot in her office, the small loveseat they'd discovered while on their honeymoon. Paris had loved the loveseat so much that Jamie had no choice but to buy it and have it shipped to the states so that it could go in her office.
"I love. Is this a Rachael Ray recipe or a Paula Dean?"
"Actually neither, it's an Ina Garten recipe. You know the Barefoot Contessa? Lainey found it for me." Lainey is Jamie's assistant and has been for close to five years. He often jokes that if it weren't for her the firm would have fired him a long time ago.
Paris doesn't say anything, but rather just nods and continues eating. This is their usual routine. She reads medical journals while he watches television, more often than not C-SPAN to be exact. Most guys would resent her for being so wrapped up in her career. They'd complain about the fact that they hadn't had children yet and she was always willing to put in extra hours at the hospital, but not Jamie. He understood just how much her career meant to her, but that didn't mean it meant more to her than he did. Likewise when he had a big case at the office and had to work long hours she not only understood it, but often would bring him takeout from his favorite restaurants. She'd recently run in to Doyle by chance at a lecture one of her colleagues was giving. He'd looked haggard and after talking to him for a few moments she discovered he was married with two kids and was living in Philadelphia. Paris has never been one to put much stock in fate, but she did reluctantly admit to Lane, Rory, Stephanie, and Anne Marie later that her encounter with Doyle may have nearly persuaded her. James is certainly the only man who could put up with someone as high strung and intense as Paris.
"Have you thought about who we're going to nominate to be Gigi's escort? I mean neither one of us knows very many teenagers, especially teenaged boys." Jamie asks after the episode of Cold Case he's watching reminds him of their task.
Paris frowns as she sets the journal she's been reading down. "I just assumed you would have a cousin around her age. I mean don't you have like thirty of them."
Jamie rolls his eyes. She's always exaggerating when it comes to the size of his family. "I have like fifteen cousins, but none that her age. I'm the youngest male in my family outside of my nephews."
"Shit. What about young interns? Don't you have some teenagers working in the mail room?"
Jamie gets up off the loveseat and walks over to her where she is sitting. He can tell she's on the verge of panicking. He kneels down in front of her and grabs her hands. "It's going to be okay Paris don't panic. Okay? Just breathe."
"I just…I mean…we just can't not come up with someone. There has to be someone." Paris asserts.
"I'll call Lainey and see if she has any ideas. I'm sure she'll come up with something. She always does."
Paris nods. She slowly can feel herself calming down. "Good idea. You should go ahead and call her now before it gets too late. You don't want to wake Allie up."
Jamie kisses her softly on the cheek before going into the other room to call Lainey. Despite the fact that he seemed confident when telling Paris his plans inside he's nervous that Lainey is going to deliver bad news.
Ten minutes later Jamie has no idea what they are going to do. Lainey explained that while there are youngish guys who work in the mail room most of them are burnouts. He decides though to lie to Paris and tell her that Lainey knew of the perfect guy for them to suggest because he wants her to get a good night's sleep before her surgery in the morning. If Paris is stressed not even a bottle of sleeping pills can knock her out.
"What'd she say?" Paris asks hopefully when he returns.
Jamie smiles as best as he can. "She's pretty sure there is a guy who fits the bill that works in our mailroom. She's going to grill him tomorrow."
"Oh thank god."
"I know what you mean, but now that that is settled we should probably go to bed. You have surgery in the morning and I have the usual boring paperwork waiting for me."
Jamie lets out a sigh of relief when he realizes that Paris has fallen fast asleep. He figures if anything there has to be at least one secretary in the office with a son who is decent looking enough for them to choose. At this point he doesn't mind losing as long as they have a suggestion.
- - -
Most mornings when Paris has a surgery scheduled she has tunnel vision. All she can think about and focus on is the task at hand. This morning was different though. For some reason she actually stopped at the coffee cart and bought a coffee and muffin. It was while she was waiting for the impossibly slow girl who was running the car that she saw him. She opened her phone and dialed her home phone number.
Jamie groans when he hears the phone start to ring. He opens his right eye to see what time it is before rolling over and grabbing the noisy contraption. He doesn't have to look at the caller ID to know its Paris calling. "Morning honey is everything okay?"
Paris looks at her watch and cringes when she sees that it's only 7:05, a full hour before he usually would wake up. "Yeah I'm sorry Jamie I just I got excited and I didn't even think about how early it was for you."
"You got excited? About what?"
Paris' looks across the room and finds him standing at the nurses' station chatting with a young blonde one whose name she can't remember. "I found our guy. He's perfect and yeah. So you don't have to have Lainey track that guy in the mailroom down."
"Really? What's he like? What's his name? Who is he?" Jamie lets out a sigh of relief. It feels like a weight has been taken off his shoulders. Still he can't help but wonder who this random guy is that Paris has seemingly plucked out of nowhere.
"I have no idea the answer to any of those questions except he works here. He looks like a college kid so I'm guessing this is a part time job for him. I don't know. All I know is he's perfect." Paris assures him.
"Okay well just text me once you actually talk to him. Okay?"
"Okay. Yeah I'll definitely do that. I'm sorry I woke you."
"It's no problem. Good luck with the surgery."
"Thanks. I love you Jamie."
"I love you too Par."
Once she's off the phone she doubles her order. She's not sure how she's going to approach him, but she knows she has to. He's chatting with the same blonde nurse as before who according to her nametag is named Kimmie. Now that she's closer she can tell that he isn't chatting with her as much as being forced to listen to her moan about her bad date last night. "Excuse me," she reads his nametag quickly once she has his attention, "Mr. Chapman I was told you wanted to talk to me about maybe viewing my quadruple bypass today."
Ben was sure that his eyeballs almost popped out of his head when he saw that it was none other than Dr. Gellar-Davis saving him for a boring conversation with Kimmie, his least favorite nurse. If this hospital was Grey's Anatomy she would definitely be the Miranda Bailey of surgery. She was a hard ass, but was fair and a great surgeon. While not everyone liked her they sure as hell respected her. While he was interested in viewing her surgery he had not expressed this interest to anyone else. "Yes, yes I would like to talk to you about that."
"Okay well follow me and we'll talk in my office."
Ben nods and follows her. Everything about this moment feels surreal. "Dr. Gellar-Davis?"
"Yes?" Paris asks never stopping to turn around, but rather just plowing ahead.
"Is there something going on here? I mean we've never talked before. I'm not even sure how you know my name. Not to say that I'm not flattered that you would even consider allowing me to observe your quadruple bypass today."
"I'll explain everything once we reach my office." Paris assures him.
Ben doesn't say anything, but just follows her into the elevator. He sits down in the chair she has signaled is for him. He thanks her for the muffin and coffee and then patiently awaits an explanation.
"How are you old Ben?"
"I'll be nineteen in a couple of months." Ben answers. His confusion is made obvious by his tone.
Paris nods thoughtfully. "So I assume you are in college."
"Yes I go to Yale."
"That's good. Very good." She jots this information down on a sheet of paper.
"Dr. Gellar-Davis?"
"Please call me Paris."
"Okay um Paris not to sound paranoid but you never answered my question earlier." He tries to sound as respectful as possible.
"Oh yes I'm sorry about that." Paris stops writing and sets down her pen. She looks at the small clock on her computer and realizes she needs to hurry up. She has an hour until she needs to start prepping for her surgery. "I have a situation Ben. My best friend has a younger sister who's sixteen and goes to Chilton. The other day her boyfriend broke up with her for a girl she doesn't get along with. Now I know your wondering why I'm telling you all of this." Before he can even nod or acknowledge that he was in fact confused Paris continues explaining her predicament. "In three weeks she has her debut. Well because of Miles she is dateless. My friends and I have decided that we'll each find a potential suitor. Now I'm sure you know of my reputation for being a bit well intense. As you can imagine that doesn't bode well for me being on friendly terms with many boys your age. Anyway to sum it up will you be willing to maybe be Gigi's escort?"
Ben is shocked to say the least. "Uh so to just make sure I understand you correctly you would like me to escort your best friend's high school sister at her debutante ball?"
"Actually you would potentially be her escort. Ultimately she'll pick between five choices. Almost like that game show the dating game or whatever. You'd be like bachelor number three." Paris can sense his reluctance and starts to panic. She logs onto her computer to pull up a picture figuring that if he sees what she looks like he may be more apt to go along. She smiles when she finds the picture she knew would change his mind. It's from the group's last trip to the Cape. Gigi is wearing this sundress and a scarf in her hair. It's a candid shot so her mouth is wide open in laughter. Still her beauty is obvious. She turns the monitor so that he can see what she is looking at. "This is Gigi."
Ben's jaw drops just slightly when he sees Gigi. Never in a million years was he expecting her to be as his roommate Elton would so eloquently say a "dime". "The one with the scarf in her hair is Gigi?"
Paris nods. "Beautiful isn't she?"
"Is this some sort of competition?"
"Yeah I mean sort of. There's a pot and we're each putting something in like there's a weekend trip to Belize up for grabs"
"Do you hate Belize or something?"
Paris laughs not sure she understands his meaning. "No. Why?"
"Cause there is no way a girl like that is going to pick a guy like me." Ben understands that while he's a nice guy and not completely unfortunate looking, he's not the kind of guy girls of his social status go after.
"Well we'll just have to make sure that your portfolio is a good one. Anyway we better wrap this up for now. Did you actually want to observe?" Paris asks with a smile. She's so happy she was able to convince him.
Ben grins and nods furiously. "That'd be awesome."
"Okay good. We'll talk more after the surgery." Paris stands up and begins to make her way to the patients' room. She stops when she's halfway down the hallway. She turns around and calls his name to get his attention. "Thank you Ben. Just know even if she doesn't pick you, you're set for life okay. Anything you want to be I know someone who can give a stellar recommendation. Banking, law, journalism, medicine, anything."
Ben can't wipe the smile off of his face when he returns to the nurses' station. Not even the fact that Kimmie is still there can dampen his spirits. He finds an intern waiting for him when he walks into the observation room. Much to his surprise the intern is holding a camera and a pad of paper. When he asks what all of it's for he finds out that it's for her portfolio. He's pleasantly surprised at the picture which doesn't make him seem nearly as nerdy as he usually feels. Maybe just maybe he actually has a shot.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING THIS CHAPTER. I HOPE YOU LIKED IT. NOW WE KNOW TWO OF THE BACHERLORS. JUST LIKE BACHELOR NUMBER ONE JAMES BRADSHAW YOU CAN GO TO MY PROFILE AND CHECK OUT BACHELOR NUMBER TWO ALSO KNOWN AS BEN CHAPMAN. IF THERE IS ANYTHING YOU WANT TO SEE PLEASE JUST LET ME KNOW AND I'LL BE GLAD TO ATTEMPT TO INCORPORATE IT FOR YOU. WE HAVE THREE MORE BACHELOR'S TO INTRODUCE SO YOU CAN PICK WHO COMES NEXT WHETHER IT BE STEPHANIE & COLIN'S, LANE & DAVE'S, OR THE ALWAYS HUMOROUS FINN & ANNE MARIE. JUST REVIEW AND LET ME KNOW. THANKS AGAIN. LOVE YA'LL. – KRiSTiNE.