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Kate
What possible Christmas gift could you buy a man like Drake? He had enough wealth to buy a small country, although you’d never know it from the rather ordinary lifestyle he adopted. I thought he was worth millions, but it was far more. He never told me exactly how much until we signed a pre-nup, and then I had no choice but to look at the legal papers and calculations. Even for me, who had grown up around old money, it was a huge amount. The corporation was doing exceptionally well.
As a result, we could have lived anywhere in Manhattan – a new apartment, the most expensive penthouse with a view of Central Park, but Drake wanted to move in to the 8th Avenue apartment and make it our own. Drake sold his apartment in Chelsea, and I gave up my tiny one-bedroom in Harlem and slowly, over the next couple of weeks after we returned from our honeymoon in Nassau, we got the place in shape. We hired professional cleaners, donated most of the old furniture to a local charity, gave the place a fresh coat of paint and updated the kitchen with new appliances and a nice granite countertop on the island, but that was about it.
Although not huge, the apartment was big enough for now. Drake wanted to combine it with the apartment below us and make it a two story, but that would wait until the tenant moved out. Drake didn’t want to kick him out, so I guess some of his father’s socialism rubbed off after all, although Drake would never admit it.
I was happy to be with Drake wherever we chose to live but 8th Avenue was special. Not only did we start our relationship there, it also had such sentimental value for Drake. I liked to see him sitting in the huge overstuffed chair by the sound system, listening to his music mixes while reading over files or keeping up on the latest surgical developments in the medical journals. Sometimes, I’d stand in the kitchen and watch him sitting there and think of how lucky I was that I wore those high heels over a year earlier and that I took a chance and contacted ‘Mistress Lara’, despite my fears. I had begun to doubt if I’d ever find someone I could love passionately and completely. Then I met Drake.
That sunny Sunday afternoon in early November, I leaned against the dining room table and watched Drake sorting through a box of Liam’s things. Dressed in a white cable knit sweater and faded jeans, he looked especially handsome. His hair had grown a bit longer, and fell into his blue eyes and down the back of his neck. My heart did a little flip flop when he glanced up and saw me watching him and smiled.
He was mine.
“Find anything interesting?” I said, drying my hands on a paper towel after rolling out pastry for a curry pie I was making. Drake had been putting off going through Liam’s personal possessions for weeks, as if it was too painful to consider, but now he was down to the last box.
He exhaled loudly. “A lot of old designs he was working on before the company took off. I didn’t realize he was such an inventor. He was always trying to improve surgical implements. He had these old notebooks, and wrote about what parts of a surgical procedure could be automated and what required a surgeon’s judgment. It obsessed him. I had no idea…”
I glanced over his shoulder at the intricate drawings. “He was really skilled.”
Drake nodded. “I wish I’d known him better. He was so busy, I was so busy. We hardly saw each other except once or twice a year at Christmas or in the summer.”
“You didn’t talk on the phone?”
“He wasn’t big on talking. He tended to want to do things – tinker with his car, fiddle with his designs. He was pretty closed.”
I sat down on the side of the chair beside him. “I wish I’d known him.”
He smiled. “He would have been very chivalrous and charming at first but he would have closed up eventually. He was too self-contained.” Drake said nothing for a moment, staring off into the distance as if remembering. “Don’t let me ever get like that. If I ever seem distant, unconnected, or closed off, tell me, okay?”
He turned to me, his blue eyes dark under a frown.
“Of course,” I said.
“Seriously, Kate. I don’t want to fuck up again. Don’t ever hesitate to tell me if I do something to upset you.”
I nodded, and put my arm around him, leaning my head against his shoulder.
“It’s sad you didn’t get a chance to visit his grave in Africa when we were there. I feel bad about pulling you away before your term was up and before you had the chance to go to the Ethiopia like you wanted.”
He closed the box. “We’ll go one of these years. Maybe when you’re finished your thesis.”
“Whenever you want.”
