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After they were finished in the kitchen she invited him into what appeared to be the living room. He’d never realized there were so many variables of the color white. The carpets were white. The walls were white. The furniture, the trim, it was all colorless. There was even a painting on the wall of a naked woman’s back with only a white sheet covering her finer parts. Oh shit, not a naked woman, a naked Mrs. Davis. He looked away and feared he might have actually blushed.
She obviously caught him. “Mason had that commissioned for our one year anniversary. He insisted we hang it in here. It used to embarrass me, but he loves it so I’ve gotten over it.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Five years.”
“Were you together a long while before that?”
She laughed. “Oh, no. We only met about two months before we were married.”
Two months! What the fuck? Did Mase realized she had some seriously goofy quirks before the wedding or was that something he learned after their “I do’s”. He realized she was staring at him. “What? I’m sorry, did you say something?”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s just…you…you have a piece of hair sticking…I’m sorry, it’s nothing. It was rude of me to stare.”
“Oh, this?” He forked his fingers through his hair knowing it was just going to spike out the way it wanted anyway. “There really is no rhyme or reason to it.” Her blue eyes widened as he sent his hair into more disarray. Shit, should he not have done that? The scene from the movie Rain Man when Dustin Hoffman lost it over something Tom Cruise did ran through his mind, but Rain Man was autistic. Was that what was going on with Mase’s wife? Nah, that didn’t seem right either.
A large grandfather clock in the corner of the room chimed, announcing it was nine o’clock. “Mason will be calling any minute unless he’s in surgery. He always calls between nine and nine fifteen on Sundays to say goodnight.” God, Sean hoped it was sooner rather than later.
Two seconds later the phone rang in her hand and she smiled. “Hello? Hi, babe. Yeah. Yes. No, I’m fine. I’m sure. Okay.” She held the phone out. “He wants to speak to you.”
Sean carefully took the phone from her. The faint scent of flowers around her was amplified as he brought it to his ear. Her sweet fragrance clung to the phone. “Hello?”
“What are you doing there?”
“I’m good. How are you?”
Mase sighed into the phone. “I’m sorry about your father. I’m assuming he passed.”
“Tuesday.” The mixed emotions that always accompanied the mention of his father’s passing slid through his mind, making no more sense to him than they had the day before.
“Guess he lasted a little longer than you expected. Sorry, that was uncalled for. Sean, you can’t be there.”
“I just wanted to see how you were.”
“I get that, but my life doesn’t allow for unplanned visitors. Especially visitors my wife has no idea about.”
“Yeah, funny thing, that.” Although Sean hadn’t had many long-term relationships, Mason was married. How could he have never mentioned him to his wife?
Mase scoffed then whispered into the phone, “Of all people, you cannot hold that against me. Besides, it isn’t for the reason you think that she doesn’t know. It’s complicated. It isn’t good for you to be there with her right now. She had no way of knowing you were coming. I…” There was a sharp beep in the background. “Fuck, I’m being paged. Listen, do me a favor, is…is she okay? Liberty handles things…I know you have no point of reference, but is she acting normal to you?”
Sean hesitated. “Uh…”
“Is she upset or doing anything dangerous? Did you see her do anything you thought maybe wasn’t a good idea?”
“Um, one,” he hedged, very aware of Liberty standing beside him.
“One what? One thing? What?”
He forced a cough and mumbled, “Hand.” He didn’t want Liberty to know that they were talking about her right in front of her. Funny, thirteen years and Mase talked to him as if they’d spoken every day for the past decade.
“Fuck! Did she burn them? Was she cleaning?”
“Yeah.”
“God damn it. All right, look, I gotta go see about this patient. I’m going to see if they can find one of the other doctors to cover my shift. As soon as someone gets here I will be home. I know this doesn’t make sense, but if she starts doing something you think she shouldn’t, ask her for a glass of red wine and accidentally spill it.”
“What?”
“Just, please. I have to go. They’re paging me again. Let me speak to Libby real quick.”
He passed the phone back to Libby and she smiled. “Hello. Okay. I thought you would. Okay. Me too. What?” Her smile briefly faltered. She looked down at her hands and he could tell she was upset. Her head nodded and she sniffled. “Mhm. I know. I know. I promise. Always. I love you too.”
