Chapter 38: A Bitter Pill to Swallow
Note: I had to break a mega chapter into two! This is the first part. The second part will be posted in a few days! :)
Claire's attention immediately split between Trent and her appearance.
"I thought you couldn't make it!" she sang over the loud music. Her body contorted as her arm bent behind her back and her hand scrambled for the dangling overall strap Karen had undone.
"Elli told me how hard you were working, and I knew I needed to see you," Trent explained, his voice precisely raised and level over the music as he strode up to her and easily caught the strap. "Moreover, I owe you after the other night."
Claire's smile widened.
His hand pulled along the strap, untwisting the denim and locking the buckle into place at her chest with a short jerk. The moment he began to pull away, Claire wrapped her arms around him, and Trent lightly returned the gesture.
I took a step back at the sight, my body knowing I should leave before my mind did. My many attempts throughout the night to remind myself she was with Trent were feeble compared to witnessing the casual closeness between them. My shock was only amplified when Claire's hands slid down to Trent's belt.
"What—?" Trent started, his voice slightly louder before her hand freed a black pedometer. She snapped her own clunky yellow one off her pocket.
"Ha!" she barked as her eyes traveled from one device to the other. "My streak continues!"
"The night's not over yet," he said as he brought his lips to the top of her head. A moment later, he pulled back and gave Claire a quizzical stare as she returned his pedometer.
"You smell like cigarettes…?"
"Oh, Duke," Claire groaned and began to run her fingers through her hair. "I knew I should've gone home and cleaned myself up!"
But Trent didn't appear interested in an explanation. "Ah, I miss smoking," he confessed as he drew her closer.
"You smoked?"
"A bad habit I picked up as a teenager." He shook his head. "With two parents in healthcare, it was a pitiful attempt at rebellion. It didn't get their attention, but it did get me through some all-nighters in med school." Trent shook his head and let his hands slide down Claire's arms. "Thankfully, Elli helped me quit when I moved here. She hasn't been as successful with others."
On his final word, Trent's eyes turned towards me, and I was suddenly aware I had been frozen in place, uneasily watching a glimpse of their relationship unfold before me.
"How are you doing, Cliff?" he asked before offering a handshake and closed-mouth smile. Despite his raised voice, he spoke in the same polite, trying-for-enthusiasm tone he always had with me, and I couldn't blame him for it, especially after the things I had been thinking earlier.
Claire offered me a cheerful smile as if we had just run into each other in an unexpected but not unwelcome chance encounter.
Weren't we just in the middle of…whatever the hell that was?
She had changed so abruptly, and her smile was so convincing that I found myself doubting we were. Maybe I would have written it off if I didn't still feel the words she had breathed fanning my frustration.
Trent's cool hand shook my dazed mind into working again.
"Fine," I answered, though I wasn't confident my voice was loud enough to be heard over the jukebox. I scanned the table, the kitchen, and the stairs, unsure of which escape route I would take.
The moment the short handshake broke, Claire seized Trent's hands.
"Dance with me!" she shouted and tried to pull him back with her. "I've been wanting to dance with you all night, you know!"
Her words cinched my chest as well as my decision—the stairs.
Trent shook his head. "I'll need a pick-me-up first."
He did look uncharacteristically worn between his wrinkled shirt, loosened tie, and thoroughly disheveled hair. Based on appearance alone, a person could have easily assumed he had been drinking with us throughout the night.
"Then follow me!" Claire invited, leading him towards the table with a slight misstep and glance towards me. I ignored it as I pushed through my drunkenness, determined for the night to end on my own terms.
Karen stood at the table, using her vest as a rag to sop up spilled whiskey. As I grew closer, she looked past me and grinned.
"Hey! Look who I found!" she cheered, as if she were the first of us to spot the doctor.
Rick slipped his glasses back over his dulled eyes as Popuri folded her arms across her chest.
"Happy birthday, Karen," Trent smiled, and his eyes examined the group.
"Thanks, Doc! And thanks for the hangover kit!"
Trent gave her a blank stare.
"The present from you and Elli?"
"Of course," Trent nodded, and I suspected Elli had put the entire gift together. "You're welcome."
"What'd you like to drink?" Claire interrupted as she nonchalantly leaned her hand against the back of her chair. "I could pour you a shot," she offered, but before Trent could reply, the chair skidded backward under her weight.
She had only let out a short "whoa!" before Trent caught her, and I released the tension I held in my hand.
"Careful," he softly laughed as she held onto him for balance.
"Claire's had a few!" Popuri snickered and held her friend's chair steady.
Claire let out a guilty laugh. "There's no point trying to hide it, huh?"
"You were trying?" he gently teased as he eased her into her seat. She didn't try to swat his help away.
Claire groaned and let her hair hide her face.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of! Shots are required drinking at my parties," Karen ruled before her eyes glinted towards Trent. "Please get drunk. I need to see that."
"No one needs to see that. I don't make good decisions when I drink."
"Just one drink-drink won't hurt!" Popuri argued.
"Perhaps next time. I still have a few things to finish up at the clinic tonight."
With Claire safely seated, Trent righted my fallen chair and took my seat beside her.
It doesn't matter, I told myself, but I bit the inside of my lip as I rounded the table.
"Hey!"
Karen tilted her chair back and grabbed a handful of my shirt. "Where d'you think you're going?"
"My room."
She grinned mischievously and nodded toward the staircase. "I wouldn't if I were you!"
I looked over at the stairs, unsure what I was supposed to be seeing before I realized she was hinting at what I wasn't seeing—Gray and Mary must have climbed up the steps together.
"Ah," was all I could say.
"Ah-ha!" Karen laughed.
I stood still, silently debating over what to do.
"Think they'd mind if I—?"
"Oh my goddess, Cliff, yes! Just sit down!" Karen cackled and pulled me towards Mary's abandoned seat beside her. "I don't bite!" she promised before tossing a fry into her mouth.
I dropped into the chair faster than I intended and my stomach lurched, though I wasn't certain if it was solely because of my fall. Trent was seated directly across from me, arranging dirty dishes into neat stacks. He looked stilted compared to everyone else at the table, though I wondered if this was simply because he was the only one sober.
Claire sat straight-up, shoulders-back in her best imitation of sobriety, her burning desire for a drinking lesson as forgotten as our argument. She deliberately smoothed her bangs, unaware of the glares Popuri was shooting at her. Instead, her eyes laid on mine.
I felt my jaw tighten as I searched in her eyes for the flash of irritation I knew was in there somewhere. My arms crossed and I leaned away until my chair tilted back, as if trying to pull it out of her. But I couldn't find what I was looking for. A moment later, she dropped her eyes from mine and my chair fell forward with a thud, yet I still felt off-balance.
I wondered if a drink would still the rippling inside me, and my eyes rested on the untouched third glass of wine remaining from Mary's stunt. Just as I was on the verge of caving in, Ann burst through the kitchen door, a tray loaded with fries in hand. Her head cocked when she saw Trent, but her smile never wavered.
"Hi, Doctor!" Ann beamed as she unloaded her tray. "No one told me you were coming!"
"I'm not normally one to drop by unannounced," he said, and I smothered a scoff in my throat. "I hope I'm not too much trouble?"
"Not at all!"
"I still can't believe you're really here," Claire grinned at Trent as she rested her hand on his shoulder. He relaxed slightly under her touch, wordlessly inviting her to move closer.
It was strange, sitting in another person's seat and watching them from across the table. Is that what it had looked like when she did the same to me?
A dull thud and a sharp intake of breath later, Claire whirled around to face Popuri.
"That was my leg!"
Popuri's eyes widened without a trace of innocence. "Oops."
"More pizza should be done soon," Ann interjected, and Karen let out an excited whoop. "Anything I can get you in the meantime?"
Trent answered immediately. "Coffee with milk, please."
"I'll have one too," Claire ordered.
Trent raised an eyebrow. "A strong cup of coffee isn't going to help you sober up. Time is the only cure."
"I know. But you can't drink a whole pot by yourself," Claire smiled.
"You'd be surprised."
"Sugar?" Ann asked.
"No thanks," Claire declined as Trent shook his head.
"Alright, I'll be back shortly!" Ann sang before lifting a heavy stack of dishes Trent collected onto her tray.
I saw my chance. "Need help?"
"With this? It's nothing!" Ann assured me as she expertly added another stack to her tray, but her confidence gave way to confusion when she saw Karen's whiskey-soaked vest. "What the…?"
"I didn't see any napkins," Karen justified through a mouthful of fries, oblivious to the dispenser at the center of the table.
Ann added the dripping garment to her tray. "Just keep the rest of your clothes on."
"No guarantees."
Ann sighed but flashed a smile before charging back to the kitchen. I longingly watched her disappear behind the kitchen door as Trent began to distribute food across the table, taking nothing for himself.
"Now, how about you eat something?" he suggested, sliding a basket in front of Claire.
She raised an eyebrow. "Fries?"
"They're not exactly protein-rich, but it may slow what alcohol hasn't already been absorbed."
"What happened to 'eat well to be well?'"
"There's a difference between eating fries on a night out and living off rice like a serf," he smiled. "Everything in moderation."
His words settled across a table still littered with shot glasses, emptied cocktails, and a half-finished whiskey bottle before he chuckled.
"What?" Claire laughed.
"Just look who I'm saying this to," he smiled as he carefully moved her hair back from her face. "You always go all-in."
Remembering she spontaneously uprooted her life, risked her money on Won's suspicious seeds, and impulsively bought one of every kind of livestock in the same day, I reluctantly agreed.
"Nuh-uh!" Claire straightened her back and waved a fry at him. "I'm very disciplined! You'd be surprised how patient I can be when I try."
"You have improved," he said with a smile I'm not sure I imagined was sly or not before covering a yawn.
Ignoring my own advice from earlier, I grabbed Mary's final glass of wine and took a deep drink.
Karen leaned closer to whisper but gasped my name instead, her eyes darting to my wine.
"You hypocrite!"
With a sigh, I lifted the upside-down wine glass Mary had used to halt their drinking contest, leaving Karen's shot defenseless in the center of a broken ring of red wine.
"I won't tell Ann if you won't."
Karen let out a cheer as she threw her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. It occurred to me Karen had been overtly flirting and touching me all night. It was obviously meaningless, just a side effect of whiskey that couldn't even spark Rick's jealousy. The idea that Claire's similar behavior earlier could have ignited any unwanted hope in me was ridiculous.
"Cheers!" Karen cried, her glass clashed against mine, sloshing whiskey over her hand. She slammed the shot back then simply wiped her hand off against Rick's sleeve.
"The napkins are literally right in front of you," Rick reminded her dryly.
I chuckled weakly and raised my glass, but a sense of being seen drew my attention away. Claire was watching me again, and I began to regret sitting across the table. My grip on the stem tightened as I wondered if she would dare to say something after the way she had acted earlier. But her eyes merely dropped to the wine glass resting against my mouth. As I stared back over the brim of the glass, doubt that she wanted to be as sober as she was playing crossed my mind. I waited a second before I took a drink, letting my eyes fall to her lips as I felt the wine on my tongue.
"I should ask Ann for a pitcher of water too," Trent decided, and I broke away from Claire to find him studying Karen, thankfully.
I swallowed and returned the glass to the table. I noticed, with some shame, the rim had fogged.
Karen scoffed at Trent's suggestion. "I'm not drinking water when I paid for an open bar."
"Then maybe some juice?"
"Pfft! You're worse than Cliff!" Karen laughed and backhanded my chest while I was in the middle of another drink.
"Oh?" he questioned, his dark eyes shifting to me as I coughed.
"He was just hiding shots from Claire and me before you got here!"
"I just moved it slightly out of reach," I said, my voice tight. I took another drink to clear my throat.
Trent gave me a short nod. "Thank you."
His words caught me off guard, and I was grateful I had a mouthful of wine.
Trent held his eyes on me and offered a small smile. "I haven't asked you yet—how did it go at the winery today?"
"Great!" Claire interrupted. "Turns out Duke invited us both to help."
Her words pinched. I turned to her, but she was entirely focused on Trent.
Duke didn't invite me, not really...
"And guess what?" she continued, stretching a hand across the table towards me. "Cliff did such a good job that Duke hired him right then and there."
Trent nodded appreciably. "Working at a winery? Sounds like a vacation. Carter's certain to be pleased," he smiled. "Congratulations."
"Thanks."
"What will you be doing?" He gestured to my drink. "Taste-testing?"
I stared down at the wine, feeling a familiar heaviness settle in the pit of my stomach. "I'm, uh, not sure."
"You don't know?" Trent confirmed. It felt as if every head at the table turned in surprise.
"We didn't go over details," I explained before bringing the wine glass to my lips again.
"Hmm…" He waited until I swallowed the wine to speak again. "You can never underestimate the consequences of being ill-prepared."
Rick nodded along, and I briefly flinched from the memory of working with Gotz. Trent carried on with his musings.
"While there's always a level of unpredictability in any job you can't control for, you have to ensure you're equipped to the best of your ability. I couldn't imagine how stressed I would be if I weren't confident of at least that, though I suppose in my line of work, the risks from me doing my job poorly are greater."
The realization I had wasted the limited time I had to prepare for tomorrow began to settle on my mind, with several added worries laid on top.
I have no idea what I'll be walking into tomorrow, I realized. I would have imagined a variety of disastrous situations if I knew enough about the job to know what a disaster would even look like. Am I going to end up getting fired on the first day again? After I told everyone? And Goddess, I'll be starting my first day with a hangover. What will Duke think?
I nodded and drained the rest of my wine. It was the fastest glass I had ever finished.
"Hey, don't beat yourself up!" Karen reassured Trent. "So you got a blood type mixed up. Big deal!"
Trent turned away to clear his throat. "Clerical errors should be some of easiest to avoid."
"I was about as unprepared to farm as I could've been, and I'd say things've worked out for me!" Claire chimed in.
"You have a way of making things easy," he smiled down at her. "But hope isn't a plan."
"Some of the best things in life are surprises."
"Some of the worst too," he said, her compliment about his unexpected arrival flying over his head.
The kitchen door swung open. "More food!" Ann cheered. Her tray was loaded with the strange combination of pizza and coffee.
Karen was already at her feet, ready to nab a slice before Ann had even served the pizza.
"Want some?" Ann offered, and I shook my head. I wasn't in the mood to eat anymore.
Instead of returning to her seat, Ann collapsed into Gray's chair beside me, her plate filled with pizza.
Trent set to work making a plate for Claire, again taking nothing for himself, while Claire grabbed the coffee carafe and creamers. I smiled as I spotted the sugar Ann couldn't resist offering regardless of their order, but it was left ignored as Claire prepared their coffees.
"You always make it perfectly," Trent admired after he drank from his mug, and my chest tightened when I realized Claire must have had a lot of practice.
"Ann is really the one who made it," she acknowledged but grinned nonetheless. She had prepared her own coffee as well, which is why I was surprised when I recognized the way her neck tensed as she drank.
It was the same way she had reacted when she tried Manna's wine earlier in the day.
"Alright, Claire, let's see if we can get you up to three pieces this time!" Ann playfully challenged before layering slices on top of one another.
"Oh, no, thank you. I'm good with one at a time," she said, suddenly politely mortified at the idea.
Ann let out a sheepish laugh and blushed. "Oh, okay!"
Why is she acting like this? I thought but held my tongue. Instead, I turned to Ann.
"Can I try?" I asked, gesturing to her triple slice.
Ann smiled and cocked her head. "Are you trying to steal a bite of my food?"
"That's way more than a bite!" Popuri laughed.
"Alright, but you better not waste it!" Ann sang, passing me the slices.
I nodded and chewed until I could manage a simple "Good!" behind my hand.
"Of course, it is—I made it!"
"You kind of sounded like Doug just now," I teased her.
"Take that back, or I'm never cooking for you again."
The conversation carried around us as Karen turned her attention to Trent.
"I don't think I've ever hung out with you, Doc. You never even come by the store unless it's for a haircut, and it's been a while…" Her sharp green eyes drifted to his tousled hair. "Hey, Ann? Do you have some scissors?"
"That won't be necessary," Trent blurted out over Ann's forceful refusal and Popuri's laughter. "I'll schedule an appointment once I have the time."
Claire reached up to touch his hair. "But I like it longer like this."
I looked down at my empty wine glass and silently wished for a refill.
"You do?" he confirmed, sounding vaguely surprised. "It's a little unprofessional, I think."
"Nah…" she murmured. "Ah, but I'm sure I'd like it shorter too."
"Excuse me, love doctor!" Karen interrupted. "I was talking to you! You should come and say 'hey' every now and then!"
"Elli gets everything we need," he explained, missing the point of Karen's invitation.
"Elli does your grocery shopping?" Claire asked, her voice tinged with enough disbelief for me to return my gaze to them.
Trent opened his mouth to explain, but Karen spoke first.
"Dad doesn't bug her as much as he does him."
Trent was quick to interrupt. "Your father doesn't bug me."
"The whole town knows he harasses you between his appointments!" Karen laughed, though I didn't that.
"I can't acknowledge whether he has appointments or not," Trent spoke with a direct cadence more suited for the clinic than the inn.
"He's my dad, Doc. And you do exams at festivals!" she laughed.
"He may be your dad, but he's—may or may not be my patient." Trent rubbed hard at his eyes before lifting his mug. "And those exams were not done in a professional capacity; I very clearly stated that," he claimed before taking a deep drink.
"Claire, is he always like this?"
"Mm-hmm," she nodded as she swallowed her coffee hard. "Until he dugs—drugs you, I mean," she laughed.
"H-hey, I don't do that anymore," Trent nervously laughed. He looked up to find the suspicious looks cast his way. "I made an herbal tonic—"
"Two," Claire corrected with a wide grin.
"Two herbal tonics," Trent conceded with a laugh. "I thought they were completely harmless. I'd tried them myself, and Elli and Carter never had a reaction that strong."
"He's a very creative cook, you know," Claire teased.
"Uh-oh," Ann taunted, and she reached behind me to playfully shove Karen. "There are two of you?"
Karen let out a dismissive laugh. "Please, there's only one of me."
"The negative iota was definitely an upgrade," Claire continued undeterred, and her smile spread wider.
"Negative ion," Trent corrected her, and I couldn't help but smile at the memory of the strange gift.
Claire met my eyes before her grin erupted into a shoulder-shaking laugh.
Trent smiled in return. "What?"
"You know," she began before another round of laughs racked through her, "…when you first gave it to me…!"
Her laughter seemed to take over her body, and I found myself chuckling along with her automatically.
"Yes?" Trent prodded.
"…I thought it was a sex toy!" she eventually exploded.
The table burst into surprised laughter. Even the corners of Rick's mouth twitched upward.
"How kinky!" Popuri giggled, and another wave of laughter rocked the table.
"Popuri!" Rick half-scolded, half-laughed, but his sister was shaking against Claire, her earlier annoyance clearly shelved.
Trent shook his head, though an amused smirk had edged onto his face. "I never thought I'd hear negative air ionization therapy referred to as kinky."
I flashed a reluctant grin to Claire. "It really did look odd."
"I know!" she laughed as she stretched her hand out across the table again. "And Elli was all like, 'I want one too!'" she squealed, causing an involuntary hoot of laughter to escape from my lips. It was easy to forget my frustration with her when she laughed like that.
"That's because Elli understood how they're supposed to work," Trent flatly defended as he glanced over at me. I looked away, unsure what to make of his blank expression.
"I still don't know how it works!" Claire giggled.
"I'm sure the doctor would be happy to teach you," Karen teased.
Claire wiped tears from her red face. "We already—"
"How about you eat some more pizza?" Trent interrupted with a smile and pushed her plate closer to her.
"No, finish your sentence!" Karen begged, and I was thankful that Claire smiled and bit into a slice of pizza instead.
Karen huffed at Claire. "I should have expected as much from you. I do have a few questions for you, though, Doc."
Claire tried to chew her food faster, but she wasn't fast enough.
"How did this happen?" Karen asked as she wagged a slice of pizza between Claire and Trent.
The couple looked at each other, but neither spoke. I felt their silence grip my throat too.
"Oh, come on, there are no secrets between friends," Karen pressed, despite the secretly emptied shot glass in front of her.
Trent hesitated, and Karen turned her interrogating gaze to Claire.
"We are friends, aren't we?"
Claire grinned at the comment.
"Well, we'd been friendly for a while, but I guess it really started this summer. I collapsed when I was working—"
"Nothing happened then," Trent hastily clarified.
"Of course not," Claire nodded. "I had been working too hard and not looking after myself, so it was only a matter of time before I ended up passed out at the clinic. But when I woke up, Trent was there."
Claire's eyes softened, and she wore a smile that made me ache.
"And the first thing I see is him smiling at me, and then he said, 'You look like someone who could use some care.'" She looked down and wrapped Trent's arm in her hands as she confessed to her coffee. "I don't know…they were just the perfect words to hear at that moment."
Popuri released a longing sigh. "How romantic."
Jealousy threatened to creep up through my skin. Determined to wash it away, I reached for my wine glass, only to remember it was already empty. Instead, I rolled its stem between my fingers, half-heartedly trying to stop myself from listening.
"That's not romantic!" Karen snickered, her voice hoarse. "He was saying you looked like crap!"
"Were you really?" Claire wondered, but before Trent could respond, Karen let out a raspy laugh.
"If you were trying to flirt, you should have said something smooth, something like…" She deepened her voice before she spoke again. "Let me be your medicine, baby."
Popuri smacked her hands against the table with a force that sent dishes clattering. "Yes."
"That's smooth?" Ann mocked.
"You guys!" Claire laughed. "Look what you've done!"
I glanced up to find Trent looking away at nothing, his hand covering his mouth before he closed his eyes and murmured a muffled "Oh no."
"I think you're embarrassing him!" Popuri laughed with amazement. "I didn't know that was possible!"
"Don't worry, Doctor. They've been pulling this stuff all night," Ann comforted him as she refilled his coffee. Claire's was still half full.
He dropped his hand to fetch his mug. "I shouldn't have said anything at all."
"I'm glad you did!" Claire insisted as she squeezed his arm to her chest. "We talked about a lot of stuff that day. Most of it about the city," she added before Karen could ask.
"It was nice talking to someone who wasn't from here," Trent smiled at Claire before sipping his coffee.
"What, you don't like talking to us hicks?" Ann joked.
"No, that's not what I meant. I suppose I was a little homesick, oddly enough."
He looked over the rim of his mug to see his audience still waiting for an explanation.
"You see, it's easier practicing in a big city. Patients don't remember your name unless you've made a mistake, and it's rare to run into them outside of work. Here, it's harder to stay clear-headed and objective—your patients could be your clerk or your neighbor, or your best friend. I don't want to seem cold, but it's bad medicine to get too close. And yes, it can get isolating with time, but what choice do you have?"
"You tell me!" Karen burst, her eyes jumping between Trent and Claire. "Obviously, choices were made!"
He let out an awkward breath. "I was trying to be more open and got a little carried away." He raised his hand back to cover his mouth, but I could see the smile swelling in his eyes. "Claire was very…persistent."
My stomach felt empty despite the alcohol I had poured into it all night.
"Was she now?" Karen laughed and began trying to unearth the meaning behind the word, but Trent held his ground.
Persistent? Claire had left that part out when she had told me about them. Before I let questions bleed into my mind, I looked to Claire for some sort of silent explanation.
Her face was hidden behind her coffee mug as she took another strained drink.
She was persistent with him but immediately gave up on me without even talking to me about it? Even with what she believed about Ann, what happened to her competitive spirit? It doesn't add up. Why didn't she go all-in with me? Are the number of steps taken in a day more worthy of competition than I am?
I bit the inside of my numbed lip again to stop myself from asking questions I already knew the answers to. Of course, she was persistent with him.
"So then when did things between you two actually start?" Karen continued, demonstrating her own persistence for answers.
Claire answered immediately, her voice confident and cheerful.
"Just before the Fireworks Festival. He had to fire me as a patient first," she laughed.
That's a lie.
I looked to Claire again, but her eyes were shining at Karen.
"I prefer the phrase 'terminate the patient-physician relationship,'" Trent teased just as casually. His cautious eyes held mine as he took another drink of coffee.
They're both lying.
The lie itself wasn't surprising given what Claire had told me the other night. What made my stomach turn was how easily I would have believed them if I didn't already know the truth. If I actually knew the truth.
Would Claire have even told me anything if I hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or would I be seated here, believing the lie the same way everyone else was?
"I thought Ma said the clinic was struggling," Rick interrupted. "Seems weird to be firing patients."
I was surprised Rick was listening—he had been so quiet for so long. His comment sparked the vague memory of Trent mentioning the clinic couldn't afford to replace equipment the last time I had seen him.
"But it's for love!" Popuri argued, and I chose to watch Rick roll his eyes rather than face the couple across the table.
Trent cleared his throat. "The clinic is struggling," he began, and I was grateful he hadn't acknowledged Popuri's comment. "I knew it was going to be difficult when I accepted the position, but it's been…well, more difficult than I anticipated. We have limited resources to serve an already underserved population. Most of our equipment is donated secondhand from larger hospitals. A lot of it is outdated. Some of it I would even consider archaic!"
"That head mirror," Claire laughed.
"Don't remind me," Trent joined her, and his hand ran absentmindedly through his hair. Despite talking about the challenges, he wasn't complaining. Instead, he leaned forward in his chair and spoke with a passion.
"Elli and I have adapted. We're doing our best to provide the highest quality care we possibly can. Elli especially has grown as a nurse, and I can only hope I've done the same as a doctor. But staying in the black is always a challenge, even with us expanding our reach out to the Valley." Trent turned to Claire. "It's a shame I can't use your expertise to draw in more business."
Karen rested her head on her folded hands. "What's that mean?"
"Claire used to work in advertising."
I glanced at Claire, who nodded along. I had never even asked her what it was she did in the city. Whenever it had come up in conversation, it was always just "the job." I would be the last person to ask for details about someone's past.
Ann jumped in her seat. "Really? You wrote jingles and stuff?"
Claire laughed. "No, but that's what everyone asks. I didn't come up with any of the creative work. I was an account executive. Essentially, my job was to bring money to the agency. I worked with a lot of different companies, pulling in new business, getting clients to fall in love with the work, and keeping them happy," she grinned. "Someone like me wouldn't be any help to the clinic!"
Trent's hand disappeared under the table as he grabbed Claire's hand from her lap. "You already help me plenty."
It felt like I fell into someone else's seat all over again.
"The clinic can't close," Rick warned. "We couldn't afford to take the ferry for Ma's check-ups again."
Popuri murmured her agreement. "And all those different doctors there. We'd be saying the same things over and over with no one listening."
Guilt fell over Trent's face. "I won't let that happen. I…I have been collaborating with Thomas to try and secure grants for the clinic," he admitted as if he were in a confession. "I wish I could do more for everyone. I'll keep trying. It will all be worth it if we succeed."
"When you succeed!" Karen interjected.
"Right."
Rick reached over to clap Trent on the back. "Keep up the good work."
Trent's mouth parted with astonishment from the gesture.
"See?" Claire smiled. "Everyone sees how hard you're working. I wanna be more like you."
Her words made Trent quietly laugh as he looked away and made me realize how suddenly sleazy working in a winery is.
Karen opened her mouth, but this time Trent spoke first.
"Ah, that's enough about me." He stood and stretched, turning to Claire. "I've had my coffee. Are you positive you're up for a dance?"
"One hundred percent," she said as she took Trent's hand. "Let's pick a song."
She carefully stood, obviously trying her best to cling to him, and I wondered how she was going to dance at all.
"Who sang that one song you like again? The one from that movie?"
Her response became inaudible as they ambled towards the jukebox. Once I realized I was waiting for her to look back at me again, I closed my eyes.
I heard Popuri let out a huff. "She's such a flirt. We were supposed to be in this together."
"I'm glad the doctor came. But it's weird, seeing him like that," Karen mused, her voice beginning to crack. "I never could picture him being romantic. He always seemed so…" I opened my eyes to find her waving her hand in front of her face. "…well, you know what I mean!" she said as she squeezed Ann's arm.
"Flat," Rick nodded.
"Right! I never knew what he was thinking."
"Something he and Claire have in common," I joined.
"What're you talking about?" Karen laughed. "Claire's tight-lipped, but she's so easy to read. She's obviously crazy about that guy."
"Yeah…"
Popuri stood from her seat as well, and let out a long yawn, then began to head to the bar.
"Hey, where're you going?" Rick demanded.
"If Claire isn't alone now, I'm not going to be either!" she called back.
Rick tried to shoot up from his seat, but Karen grabbed onto his shirt.
"It's my birthday," she warned with much less festivity than earlier in the night.
We watched as Popuri staggered away, grabbed a barstool, and dragged it over to the phone. With a long-suffering sigh, Rick fell back into his seat and reached for the whiskey bottle.
A slow relaxing melody began to fill the dining room, but I was determined not to hear the song Trent and Claire chose. Instead, I pushed a shot glass to Rick, wordlessly asking for one more.
If you hadn't caught on to it by now (there have been hints for a long time), you certainly have by now: Claire is shady. It was fun to write Cliff being quietly frustrated with her.
Even though Trent didn't play any drinking games, I hope this chapter sheds some light on who he is and what he's about! The line Karen suggested for him is a modified version of something he says to Claire in Harvest Moon for Girl. So ~smooth~. ❤️
I think "Cold Cold Cold" by Cage the Elephant was my favorite song to listen to while writing this first part. It suits Cliff, Trent, and Claire all very well, which you'll see that more as the story unfolds. "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by The Smiths is a great tie-in for the next chapter.
I hope this chapter wasn't too boring! The really dramatic stuff is in the next part (lol, sorry!) I wanted to post them together, but there are few more things I need to work on a tad more. It should, however, be uploaded within the next few days.
