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Sarah and her family entered the room. As soon as she saw us, she brought her husband and two children over to introduce us, and then they took their places at the table. Ken’s wife and two sons also arrived and Ken led them over to say hello to us as well. Finally, everyone was seated around the table and the room was very noisy as everyone chatted with everyone else, catching up on the week. Servers poured everyone water and then wine.
Mrs. O stood up and turned to us, her glass of wine in her hand.
“To our guests, Drake and Kate. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. You’ll be starting your own family, but please, welcome to our family. There will always be two chairs for you at our table. And when it’s necess
ary, a high chair or three.” She winked at us.
“Hear, hear,” the others said and they all raised their glasses to us. Kate turned to me and we toasted each other and then took a sip.
While servers placed a bowl of soup on our plates, Ken regaled us with news of his son making the football team. With the focus turned to everyone else, Kate seemed to relax beside me and ate her soup, listening to everyone talking about family news.
In the end, the meal was delicious, the conversation loud as usual. Mrs. O sat beside Kate and kept her busy talking about the upcoming wedding plans, while Ken sat beside me and we talked about the pediatric neurosurgery fellowship and how Liam was doing since his stem cell transplant. Kate seemed to enjoy herself and she and Mrs. O were busy talking. I listened in and heard them talk from time to time, to make sure Kate didn’t need me to step in, but there was no need. Mrs. O was adept at conversation with strangers, and asked Kate about her father’s illness and recovery, her plans for her MA and of course, her wedding dress.
I kept her hand in mine as much as I could, squeezing it from time to time to let her know I was thinking about her.
After dessert and coffee, we said our goodbyes and promised to return every Sunday that we had open, and then we left, the evening having gone as well as I could have hoped.
I took Kate’s hand and we walked down the street to the car.
“I thought that went well,” I said, as we reached the parking garage.
“It did,” Kate replied, smiling. “Mrs. O kept me talking almost the entire time. She’s so glad you finally met someone.”
“I know,” I said and laughed. “She was always trying to match me up with various cocktail waitresses she knew. I told her I wasn’t going to get married again and she always said ‘Never say never’. She was right, of course.” I kissed her knuckles.
“Ken said he was afraid you’d never meet anyone who could mend your broken heart,” Kate said softly.
“He said that?” I was surprised that Ken got so personal with Kate. “When?”
“When you went to the washroom. He leaned over and told me how glad he was that you met me and that we were getting married. He said you never got over Maureen leaving until you met me.” She raised her eyebrows at that, a coy smile on her face. “That I must be pretty damn special.”
“You are,” I said. “Very special.”
We drove on in silence, and when I glanced over at Kate, she was smiling to herself.
“So, do you think you’d like to go back every now and then?”
She turned to me. “Of course,” she said. “We have a standing invitation at my dad’s place on Sunday, but we can switch whenever we want.”
I nodded and finally we arrived back at our building. After I parked in the parking garage, I took her hand and we went up to the apartment. As soon as I got her into the entryway of our place, I pushed her against the closed door.
“And now, Ms. Bennet, future Mrs. Morgan, I’m going to ravish you.”
So I did.
I had my meeting with Fred Parker at NYU that week, and spent quite some time thinking about my research project. My specialty was robotic surgery, and if I contributed anything, I hoped to bring my experience with robotics to pediatric neurosurgery. Pediatric neurosurgeons were already performing minimally invasive procedures using endoscopy and so I had been thinking of doing a study that compared various procedures in terms of efficacy and what conditions are best suited to such procedures.
He thought the topic was excellent and would bring together my own expertise with an expanding field of interest for pediatric neurosurgeons. With that settled, we went over my schedule and the students I’d be supervising. It would be a great year.
“So,” Kate said when I returned to the apartment, “how did your meeting at NYU go about the fellowship?”
I put my jacket in the hall closet and smiled at her, excited to tell her about my plans. We sat on the sofa and I went through all of the details, talking far too long about the research I’d be doing and how excited I was.
“I’m going to be really busy this year,” I said, my voice lowering a bit. “I’ll be leading a research project, supervising neurosurgery residents and doing surgeries. Plus, I have everything else.”
Kate kissed me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “And I’ll be busy as well, writing my thesis, painting, writing for the student magazine. We’ll be like two ships passing in the night.”
“We’ll have to have very good nights to make up for the long days at sea.”
