Chapter 34

DORIS

First thing in the morning before work, I spent time writing more emails to the New York City building department. It was an exercise in frustration.

My mentor Kate gave me a few more leads.

I also called the three real estate possibilities that I was sure would be signed contracts by now. Unfortunately, none of those couples answered my calls.

I spent the afternoon working my butt off for Heritage Properties, but nothing panned out.

I visited Mia for a few minutes after work. Even though she was her wonderful, cheery seven-year-old self, I had to admit my mind was elsewhere.

I made myself pay attention to Mia, knowing that her father was often distracted and her real mother had been absent her whole life.

I left as soon as Mia finished telling me about her day.

Then I went to visit Noah. I had to admit I felt good about moving him to the private wing of the hospital with his own private, upgraded bedroom. It was evident in this wing, the nurses had more time for him.

When I got to Noah’s room, a huge black nurse, as big as some of the biggest American football players, was sitting by Noah's side, reading a book to him. That just made me even feel even better about the care that Noah is getting.

The nurse introduced himself, and told me there had been more improvement.

"I'll go get the doctor immediately so she can talk to you," the nurse said in his Barry White sounding baritone.

The doctor, Natalie Patel, a short woman in her 40s with large round blue plastic glasses that made her eyes look bigger, had a warm smile and friendly handshake for me.

"It’s good to see you again," I said to her.

"You as well," she said with just the tiniest hint of an Indian accent. "So I know we got permission last week from you to do the very small experimental treatment on your foster father," Dr. Patel said, picking up Noah's chart.

"Based on how well he responded to that, I’d like to do a larger similar treatment for him." Dr. Patel looked up from the chart and directly into my eyes to make sure that I was following her.

I nodded to show that I was listening.

"I want to remind you these treatments are still in Stage Four experimental phase."

I nodded again.

"In this case," Dr. Patel continued. "That means we can somewhat safely say that we don’t expect any side effects, but we don’t have enough data to say for sure that this treatment will work on him; however, I do suggest you try it."

"Absolutely, if there’s any chance Noah might get better, then I’m all for it," I said.

"Excellent," Dr. Patel said. "I’ll bring you in some forms to sign, and we can start the treatment tomorrow."

Dr. Patel put her hands on her hips in a no-nonsense way. "I want to remind you again not to get your hopes up too high. There have been some people who responded to this excellently and some people who haven’t responded at all. We just don’t have a big enough test sample to be sure."

"I understand, Doctor."

The following day, I was really dragging. Even two cups of coffee, a focused meditation, and some upbeat music weren't not enough to make me feel like myself.

The best thing about the real estate business was that, to some extent, you make your own hours. In real estate, we work a lot of weekends, and on the weekdays, sometimes there was some flexibility.

I called Kate and asked if I could take the morning off, and she said that was fine.

I called Nina and asked her if she wanted to have a spa morning with me, and she agreed before I even had the whole sentence out.

“Woot! Woot!” Nina said, and I could imagine her on the other side of the phone doing a little dance and shimmy. "I know the perfect place to go. I’ll call them to see if they can get us in, and if they can, I will text you the address."

"Nina, you’re the best."

"It was your idea, Doris," Nina said before she hung up.

There was no doubt about it. Spa days were blessing from stress release Goddesses.

If I could, I would recommend spa days to everyone.

It wasn't an entire spa day, just a spa morning, but it made my afternoon at work feel amazing.

After work, Nina and I went to the penthouse, and Nina, Mia, and I made hair jewelry from a little kids' hair-bead-and-jewelry-and-toy-making kit that Nina brought. Very smart lady, that Nina.

We spent about an hour making fancy hair jewelry in the shape of small pink butterflies and then braiding each other’s hair.

Nathan stopped by the penthouse to drop off some business documents for Arthur. Again, it was immediately apparent that Nathan was smitten with Nina.

Nathan blushed slightly and sputtered when he asked Nina questions. In a way, it was adorable.

It was almost like he could barely get a full sentence out. He was trying to flirt, but he didn’t know what to say.

I was very happy for Nina. I had gotten to know Nathan a little bit, and he was clearly a great guy. On the other hand, I was a little sad for myself. I hadn’t seen Arthur recently, and I wondered if he wasn’t avoiding me a little bit, again.

Before Nathan left, I explained to him about the man who showed up at my door, and I gave him Joe’s information. I asked Nathan if he could please investigate Joe for me.

Nathan looked at the paper I just handed to him skeptically. "I have to admit, Doris. Some of this sounds a little far-fetched."

"Exactly what I said," Nina concurred.

"What's far-fetched?" Mia asked.

"It means unlikely," Nina explained.

"Which is exactly why I'm asking you to look into it, Nathan," I said. "I know you have a lot to do, and it is not your job..."

Nathan tucked the paper into his vest pocket. "No problem. I can do it. Absolutely."

"Thank you."

"I just want to make sure everything he said is true," I added revealing perhaps how much doubt I had.

"Lying is bad," Mia said.

Nathan grinned at her comment. He glanced at Nina for a split second as if he wanted to impress her. Then Nathan looked at me. "I’ll get right on it and let you know."

That night Arthur rang the doorbell to by my apartment.

I opened the door, and there Arthur was, looking as tall and dashing as ever.

Before he even came in or asked to come in, while he was still standing in the hallway, and I was in the threshold of the door, he told me that he surmised that Andrea was behind the Brooklyn land deal going sour.

Something about the way he said it made me feel that it was more than a guess, but he didn’t reveal more. I didn’t say that I had guessed the same thing.

"Doris, I want to give you the money from the commission to make sure you get it and keep it no matter what.”

"No, I can’t. I can’t keep money I didn’t earn."

"You earned it. The fact that it’s been taken away from you because of a government seizure is not your fault."

"True," I said. "But unless I can get that ruling reversed, I don’t want to keep a commission for a sale for a client that isn't going to have his dream home." I knew my gaze went gooey-soft. "It's sweet of you to offer, though."

"Little Dove," Arthur said. He caressed my cheek. "I have plenty of money. I’d like to give you this commission."

"That’s nice of you, and I’ll think about it. But I’d rather get it because I managed to reverse the problem."

I’ll just have to fight harder to get it fixed.

"I see we disagree on this," Arthur said.

Arthur lets it go, and so do I.

"Well, would you like to come in?" I asked, gesturing to my apartment.

The question came out more inviting and sexier than I had intended.

Arthur raised one eyebrow.

"I was planning on just dropping by to tell you what I wanted to about the commission, but that sounds like quite an invitation."

"I guess it is," I said and backed up so he could get in.

"I want to talk about our relationship," I said. "Ever since the night we were stranded in your Porsche, I've been wondering about where things stand with us. How you feel."

I looked down at my feet for a minute. I noticed my gray high-heeled shoes are scuffed. I've bought many new suits over the past month but only one pair of new shoes.

"I still feel embarrassed over how we met. How wrong I was about you," I said, still looking down at my feet. "I don’t know where we are at or where this thing is going."

Arthur took my cheeks in his hands and tilted my face until I was looking at him.

"Yes," Arthur said. "I hear you. I wanted to talk about it too, but not right now."

He pushed me against the wall and kissed me passionately. "You look too divine, and I know you will taste too delicious to talk first and devour later. We will do it in the opposite order."

As our tongues danced, my shoulders relaxed, and all of me melted into his attention and his kisses. I forgot about categorizing our relationship.

I forgot about my troubles of the day or any worries I might have had.

All I could think or feel was how right it was being with Arthur.

In his arms, pressed against the wall, as each kiss got hotter and hotter, and I never wanted to stop.