Gamble Everything For Love
Chapter Four
A Week Later
Lucy took a deep breath as she walked to the baggage claim area. That's where she was supposed to meet up with John. Saying she was nervous would be one of the biggest understatements of the century. The past week had been kind of nice as they texted each other through the day and had used Facetime to have some good conversations.
But now it was time for them to meet up again and for her to see what his life was like. She couldn't help but think about what would happen if she didn't fit in with his life. Or what would happen if she did fit in here. Was she ready to commit her life to him and pursue a relationship together? If they ultimately decided to stay married, who would move where? They obviously couldn't live in different states and be married.
Of course she realized she was freaking out about things that might not matter in the long run. They might find out in the next three weeks that they really don't like each other or that their lives simply weren't compatible with each other.
She should instead worry about the things that will immediately matter. Like are they going to sleep in the same bed? Will they have sex? Did she want to have sex with him? Did he want to have sex with her?
There was just too much swirling around in her brain so she tried to quiet the noise. Seeing her bag, she quickly grabbed it from the conveyor belt and looked around for John.
A few moments later she found him walking towards her with one hand behind his back. "Hey." She greeted with a smile.
"Hey." He smiled back. He pulled his hand from behind his back to give her a red rose. "This is for you. Welcome to Chicago."
"Thank you." She took the rose and smelled it. Somehow the scent managed to calm her fears slightly and she was grateful.
He grabbed her bag from him.
"You don't have to…"
"Yes I do." He laughed. "You shouldn't have to carry your own bag."
"Well thanks." She shouldn't have been surprised that he was being such a nice guy to her. He really seemed like a genuinely nice guy.
"So how was your flight?" He asked as they walked towards the parking garage.
"It was fine." She shrugged. "It was short and there was no turbulence."
"Great." He smiled. "I'm glad I wasn't late to pick you up. I was worried because I got out of work late. There was an mva trauma that came in."
"Was everyone ok?" She asked.
"The little girl will have to have surgery but I'm sure she will be alright. The dad is in worse shape, but hopefully he will be alright too."
"Hopefully."
"So this is your first time in Chicago, right?"
"Yes." She smiled.
"Is there anything special you want to see or do while you are here?" He asked.
"Navy Pier." She replied immediately. "It looks like so much fun and I love ferris wheels."
"Ok." He nodded. "We can definitely go to Navy Pier. Anything else?"
"Not that I know of." She said. "We can go wherever you want."
He stopped in front of a beaten up old Jeep and clicked the key fob in his hand.
"This is your car?" She grinned.
"Yes." He nodded. "Why?"
"No reason." She chuckled as she got in on the passenger side.
"No. C'mon." He told her after he got in. "Now you have to tell me what the grin was about."
"I just…Well I guess I didn't expect you to own something like this. I thought maybe you would drive a…"
"Porche?" He chuckled. "Corvette? Maybe a limo?"
"You can make fun of it but it was a valid thought!" She laughed.
"Yeah. I know." He smiled. "I bought this Jeep myself many years ago, and while it is getting old and I'll need to replace it soon, I haven't had the heart to get rid of it."
She couldn't help but laugh a little more. "How old is it?"
"Fifteen years." He chuckled.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "What kind of a car do you drive?"
"It's a four year old Nissan Altima." She told him. "You know you could always get another Jeep like this one, only from this actual decade."
He chuckled. "I guess you're right. It's just that this was my first car and I'm a little sentimental about it."
"That's understandable." She shrugged, letting it go.
"So what would you like for dinner tonight?" He asked.
"I don't know." She shook her head.
"Well I was thinking that you might be too tired to go out, so maybe we could stay in tonight? I mean, we can go out if you feel like it, but there is definitely no pressure to go out."
She had worked most of the day and then grabbed a flight to come here, so going out was the last thing she wanted to do. It was nice of him to realize that. "Staying in sounds great. How about Chinese?"
"Ok." He looked over and smiled at her. "Chinese it is."
They pulled up to his brownstone and his parked on the curb, amazed that he actually found a spot in front of his building for once. That hardly ever happened. Lucy must be a lucky charm.
"Ok. We're here." He pointed to the brownstone and watched her look through the window.
"You live here?"
"Yeah." He smiled.
"It looks beautiful from the outside."
He got out of the Jeep and opened the back to get her bag. Then he met her at the front door. "So in the interest of full disclosure, usually my place isn't this clean. But since you were coming, I cleaned everything up."
She smiled. "Well thank you."
He unlocked the door and let her go in first. He watched from the entryway as she went from room to room, looking around. She then came back to where he was standing.
"You have a nice place."
"Thanks." He nodded. Then he pointed to the stairs. "Upstairs is the bedroom and another bathroom."
"There's just one bedroom?" She questioned.
He wasn't sure she was aware that there was a look of panic on her face. But it was there and he felt bad about it. "Yeah. But I planned on giving you the bedroom." He watched the panic go away. "I'll be sleeping down here on the couch."
"You might just be one of the last gentlemen left on this planet." She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He couldn't help but grin from ear to ear after that. It wasn't a kiss on the lips, but the cheek was a nice place to start. "I'll go put your bag upstairs. Feel free to make yourself at home."
Later that evening they were both sitting on his couch and eating dinner. "Can you please pass me a napkin?"
"Sure."
He grabbed the napkin from her hand and smiled. "Thank you, by the way."
He watched her laugh.
"You don't have to thank me. It was just a napkin."
"It wasn't just for that." He grinned. "I meant also thank you for coming here like this. I know this whole situation is unconventional and weird."
"Yes, it certainly is those things."
"And I was worried that you may not actually show up…or that you would show up and we wouldn't have anything to talk about."
"I was worried about that too." She paused for a moment. "Have you told anyone that you got married?"
"No." He shook his head. "I didn't want to have to answer a bunch of different questions about it. I also didn't want it to be awkward for you when you came here. Everyone at work has good intentions but if they knew we were married, they would never leave you alone. So Peter is still the only one who knows."
"I haven't told anyone other than Mel either."
He nodded, glad that she had her best friend to talk this situation over with because he didn't really have that. Although Peter knew about the situation, the surgeon wasn't the best person to go to with personal problems like this. So he had been keeping all of his thoughts and feelings about what was going on to himself. He remembered what happened when he tried to talk to the man about it a few days ago.
"Hey Peter, can I talk to you for a minute?" He asked as he saw the man leave a trauma room.
"Sure." He nodded. "What's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Lucy."
Peter laughed. "You having problems with your new wife?"
"Can you please keep it down?" He asked. "I don't want everyone to know about this."
"Why not?"
"There's too much pressure right now to make this work as it is." Carter explained. "I don't need the nurses making a pool on how long this marriage will last."
Peter laughed. "Yeah, and you know that would be the first thing they would do."
"Exactly." Carter nodded. "You're the only one who knows about this. I need some advice."
"Sorry. But I don't know how I could possibly help you with this. I've never been in your situation before."
" I know." Carter sighed. "But what do you think I should do? Because we've been texting and Facetiming. Everything's been going pretty well. I just don't know…"
"Carter, man…listen. You're an adult and you have to handle this as an adult. You chose to continue with this strange marriage so you need to figure it out."
"But I just…"
"Sorry." Peter sighed. "You're on your own with this one."
He had gotten nowhere asking Peter for help. That was just one of the many reasons he was glad that Lucy was here this week. Although the Facetime conversations were good and he felt like they were slowly getting to know more about each other, there was only so much you could learn from the other person through Facetime. And to be honest he had missed her. It felt weird to say that considering how little time they had spent together. But he truly did miss her.
He wanted this to work out between them so badly. There was something about her that was almost addictive. He also wanted to sleep in the same bed as her this week…not because he was expecting sex though. He simply wanted to be near her, but he didn't think that was a good idea unless she initiated it. So he decided to let her have his bedroom and he would sleep on the couch.
It was the gentlemanly thing to do, and he didn't mind sleeping on the lumpy couch if it meant Lucy felt more comfortable. Plus it seemed to make her happy.
"I kind of thought if I told anyone they might think I was crazy for coming here." She admitted.
He smiled and couldn't help but chuckle. "Do you think you are crazy for coming here?"
She took a while to answer and he started to become worried.
"I don't think I'm crazy for coming here." She finally answered. "In all honesty, after I stopped you in the lobby of the hotel and agreed to this I went back to my room and wondered what the hell I was doing. But my second guessing doesn't have to do with you…it comes more from my own personal issues with relationships."
He could tell that she had been burned by at least one guy in her life. It was also possible that multiple relationships had gone badly in her life. But as much as he wanted to know why she was so hesitant about relationships, he wasn't going to pressure her into telling him. He just hoped she would feel comfortable enough to tell him eventually.
"I just feel like most people wouldn't be able to understand what we're doing." She added.
"It makes sense to me." He chuckled.
She smiled. "Me too."
"And that's all that really matters."
"I guess so." She was quiet for a moment. "So what is on the agenda for tomorrow?"
"I unfortunately have to work until 6 so you have almost the whole day to explore the city. Then I was thinking we could go out to dinner? Maybe dancing somewhere? Or a movie?"
"Ok." She nodded. Her nod turned into a yawn. "Sorry."
"It's fine." He assured her. "Are you getting sleepy?"
"Yeah." She admitted.
"I am too." He chuckled.
"I think if it's ok with you I might go to bed."
"It's fine." He nodded. "I have to get up early tomorrow morning anyway."
She stood up. "Ok then. I guess this is goodnight."
"If you need anything, like extra towels or blankets, just let me know."
He stood up too. Unsure of what to do, he stared at her for a moment. Then he went in for a hug. He was relieved when she returned the hug and placed her head on his shoulder. It gave him the courage he needed to place a kiss on the top of her head.
"Goodnight." He watched her walk out of the room and sighed. This wasn't as awkward as he thought it would be, but there were still awkward moments…like that one.
Lucy entered the bedroom after changing into pajamas in the bathroom and looked around the room. It was painted a dark blue color, with dark wooden furniture. She couldn't help herself as she walked around the room and looked in the drawers.
She knew it was wrong to be snooping on him. After all, this was his personal space. But she wondered if there was something she could learn about him from his bedroom. There was nothing new in the drawers of his bureau that gave her any insight into him. She already knew that he wore boxers so even his underwear drawer held no surprises.
She went to the first nightstand and saw a short pile of books. They were all mystery books. That was something she didn't expect for him to be interested in. The bottom one was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. The second one was 1st to Die by James Patterson and the top one was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
She picked up the top one and quickly thumbed through it. She had read this book several years ago in high school and remembered enjoying it. After a moment, she put it back on the nightstand and went over to the other nightstand. What she saw there surprised her.
She had scanned the photo they had taken after they got married and sent it to him. He then must have gotten it printed out and framed because it was sitting on his nightstand. She sat on the bed and picked up the frame. It was sweet that he had put it there.
After a while she put the frame back where she found it.
She was glad that he had given her the bedroom and was going to sleep on the couch, but it did fill her with feelings of guilt for essentially kicking him out of his own bed. She was aware that her feelings didn't make much sense and were contradictory. But this was a confusing situation.
She climbed under the covers and turned out the light. His bed was comfortable, almost more comfortable than the bed she had at home. She hoped his couch was comfortable too. Surprisingly it didn't take her long to fall asleep.
