If we owned GA, we would have written McDouchebag out of the show ages ago. Sadly, we don't own the show.
It had been two days since my date with Meredith. Two days since I had kissed her in a parking lot. Two days since I had last heard her laugh. Two days and I still didn't have a phone call. I tried reasoning with myself, she was busy, of course. But then, she only worked Monday through Friday. Had she lost my number again? No, it was on her phone. Frankly, I was beginning to worry that I was turning into a girl.
She would call, she had said she would call and she would. It was different than the other times when she has seemed disinterested. She was interested. She was nervous and hesitant but she was interested. She would call. People didn't share first dates as amazing as the one that we had shared and not call. That would be...well a possibility. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, giving it a quick glance to make sure I hadn't missed a call.
Nothing. I sighed and then went into my mother's house for the weekly Shepherd dinner. It was a tradition that usually, I looked forward to, but my mother was strictly against cell phones and having to turn mine off was an absolute impossibility. Pagers she could deal with, cell phones annoyed her. "Derek!" she smiled warmly as I walked through the dining room into the kitchen, where my sisters and mother were congregating.
"Hey everyone," I said, trying my best to push Meredith from my mind and smile at my family. Instead I found myself looking at them and wondering how Meredith would fit in, what they'd think of her, what she'd think of them. I know Meredith didn't want fast, but I couldn't help myself with the speed my brain was going.
"How are you doing, honey?" my mother asked as she surveyed me, seeing if I had somehow lost weight in the past week or if I looked too tired.
I feel like a 15 year old boy who just went out on a first date with the most beautiful super model that is far too intelligent, kind and perfect for him and is now waiting to get a phone call saying that she wasn't actually to good for him. "I'm fine, Mom," I answer instead.
"Are you sure?" she raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, mom, I'm good. Great actually," I said. And well it wasn't quite a lie, I would be great if my phone rang. But my mom's over concern worried me. I felt like I had a sign on saying that I had finally met my match, the one girl that didn't fall at my feet.
"How's work?" she asked me as she turned back to the stove. "They're not keeping you too busy are they? Really, Derek, I always used to tell your father, all work and no play makes you a very dull boy."
"I'm not dull," I responded jokingly frowning at my mom. "And work is...good. Busy but good."
"Just don't run yourself ragged, honey," she smiled at me. "Allow yourself some fun."
I smiled to myself, thinking about how much fun Friday night had been, sprawled out on a blanket with Meredith, smelling the flowery scent of her hair and enjoying the warmth of her body pressed against mine. I couldn't remember a night ever being more fun. "I'm having some fun."
Mom, seriously, leave him alone," my sister Leah smiled from where she sat at the table, peeling potatoes. "He looks fine."
"I look more than fine and you know it," I joked, smiling in thanks to Leah. She had always managed to save my ass when I needed it the most.
"No one looks as good as me though," the booming voice of my friend, Mark Sloan, was heard as he came into the kitchen, a bottle of wine in one hand and flowers in the other. "Hey, Mom," he said to my mother, handing her the flowers. My mother had basically adopted Mark and now he was apart of our weekly family dinners. She loved "adopting" people whose families weren't as good as ours.
"You only wish," I said, slapping my friend on the back. "Stole away enough time from the ladies to see the family today?" I asked him.
He grinned, his eyes twinkling as he took of his leather jacket. "I never thought Becky would leave. I don't know where I pick up these girls that think cuddle time is more than one minute and thirty seconds."
"Mark Jeremy Sloan! You know better than come into my house and talk about woman like that. And Derek shame on you for encouraging it," my mom yelled, giving us the patented mom look she had mastered on the two of us years ago. Mark and I gave each other warnings looks as we both bit back laughter.
"Sorry, Mom," he winked at her and then leaned over. "Smells great. What's cooking?"
"Roast beef," my mom answered him. "Keep your hands off it if you expect to get some. And for someone with such an active social life you don't look nearly as tired as my son."
"Mom!" I cried as I reached behind her and grabbed a carrot. "I'm not tired. I'm fine."
"You? Tired, Derek? Who's the woman keeping you up at night?" Mark asked me giving me a knowing look. I shot him back a dirty look in response. Mainly because there was a woman keeping me up at night, just not in the fun way Mark was accustomed to.
"Woman?" He had said the one word that got my four sisters and my mother riled up whenever I was around. I was the lone single Shepherd, the lone childless Shepherd. And now he had my mother interested. "Derek, are you seeing someone?"
"No Mom, I'm not seeing anyone, Mark's just being an idiot," I answered. I wasn't about to tell my family about Meredith. They would never leave me alone about her till they met her. And for now she was just mine.
Erin looked up from the newspaper she was reading, her blue eyes sparkling in amusement. "I don't know, Mom, he took Talulah to the doctor for me and she told me that Uncle Derek asked the physician's assistant for her phone number."
Talulah, why had I not thought to bribe Talulah to keep her mouth shut? Of course Talulah was going to mention something about Mer and me to her mom. Why had I not thought of this? "That was nothing," I said quickly.
"You took her out for ice cream, Derek," Erin eyed me. "You obviously used her to pick up Meredith. Mark has done it before, remember?"
"Talulah is no longer my favourite niece," I said, with my arms crossed pouting at my socks, not even bothering to attempt to hide from the barrage of questions I was about to be peppered with.
"Oh Derek!" my mother squealed happily. "Tell me all about her! How old is she? What does she look like? When will I get to meet her?"
I sighed, I didn't want to talk about Meredith, at least not to my family. She wasn't ready to meet them and the second I started talking about her they'd want to meet her. But Erin hadn't left me with much choice. "She's 30, Mom. And she looks like Meredith, she's...beautiful. And I have no idea when you'll meet her, it's only been one date." One perfect date.
"Where did you take her?" my mother prodded eagerly, her hand on her hip. "Did you pay? Is she from Seattle? Where does she live? Where did she go to school?"
I looked around the room hoping to find a face that looked ready to cut in but they were all listening eagerly, apparently wanting to know everything as well. "I took her to Movies at the Mural. Yes, I paid. She's from Seattle. I umm...don't actually know where she lives, I met up with her at the bar near the hospital for the date. And she went to Dartmouth," I said, answering every question.
"Movies at the Mural?" Mark laughed as he grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Dude, did you get laid at least?"
I chose to ignore Mark's question. Partially because my mom was in the room. And more because I didn't get laid. "Mom, everyone, you'll meet her eventually, you will. And you'll love her...she's...amazing."
"Amazing," my mom repeated, smiling proudly. "Oh, Derek, is she the one? Will I get a grandbaby from you soon?"
I smiled to myself again. I hadn't even thought in terms of the whether she was the one or not but...she fit. In every way possible she fit. After just one date I could imagine her in my life, in my bed, everywhere. She fit. She was the only woman I had ever met that I could imagine spending forever with. "Maybe, I don't know. It's only been a date."
"I knew after one date," Kathleen smiled, taking a sip of wine. "Sometimes you just know."
Was Meredith the one? Even as I tried to argue with myself about all the reasons I couldn't know yet, all the reasons I couldn't be sure yet, everything within my screamed yes. Meredith was the one. "She's...something special," I finally said to my family.
"Oh, Derek!" my mom forward and hugged me tightly. "I'm so happy for you. Bring her to dinner next week."
"Mom!" I exclaimed squirming out of her arms. "We haven't even had a second date yet, I can't bring her to meet this motley crew. We're going slow, taking time, enjoying it all. No family stuff yet." I told her, even though part of me would love to bring her here, introduce her to the people that meant the most to me. But Meredith wanted slow, and she would get slow.
"Taking it slow?" Mark smirked. "So you haven't gotten laid, have you?"
"No, I haven't gotten laid," I said calmly to Mark. "But that's okay, we're enjoying the ride."
"The other ride is much better," Mark winked at me and then jumped as my mom swatted a towel at him.
"And now that we have torn apart my love life, I suggest we move on," I said, giving each member of my family the best pleading eyes I could muster. "I mean, we have Dr. Mark Sloane, Seattle's number one manwhore here, why talk about my boring first date?"
"Derek!" the towel was swatted my arm. "Don't listen to him, Mark, I'm glad you have a healthy social life."
"See, Derek, I'm the good son," Mark said, smiling at me with a shit-eating grin.
Before I could respond, Nancy asked, "So when's the next date?"
Good question, amazingly good question. One that reminded me oh so painfully of the silent cell phone resting in my pocket. "Not quite sure yet. She's going to give me a call" I answered, hoping that my voice sounded more confident than I felt.
"Two days and she hasn't called?" Kathleen asked.
"She's busy," I defended, knowing my defence was week. But it was the excuse I had been offering myself so I might as well extend it to the rest of the family. And she was going to call, she was. So any defence I used now was fine.
"It's the weekend, how busy can she be?" Nancy asked.
My family was apparently far too smart for my own good. So maybe what I assumed to be the honest truth would work. "Meredith...she's complicated. Beautifully amazingly complicated. And she's really tentative about me and about us. She wants it but she's scared. I don't know why and for now I'm not pushing. She said she'll call and I trust her. She'll call," I tell my family, surprisingly believing the words for the first time myself.
"Man, this is why I go for girls in bars," Mark sighed. "Not very bright and totally uncomplicated. Complicated usually means daddy issues. And I don't need a girl obsessed with attachment. Bang 'em and leave 'em."
"You have serious issues," I told him, looking at him with a fake look of disgust. "And I don't want to leave Mer, whatever it is...we'll work through it."
"Derek," my mom reached forward and squeezed my hand, "I'm so happy for you. I don't think I've ever seen you this way over a girl."
"I've never been this way over a girl," I answered my mom honestly.
"Okay, you know what, let's eat before I throw up," Mark grimaced.
"Jealous," I said, knowing that one day Mark would end up just like me, waiting patiently for some girl to call because he was pretty certain that she held the key to the rest of his life. Meredith held mine. Minutes ago I had been worried that she wouldn't call, worried this wouldn't work. Now I knew it would. Because Meredith...she was the one. And with the one it has to work.
And although I know I don't believe in destiny, maybe it's found me.