“Are you going to tell her about me?”
“I want to.”
“But?”
“I guess I’m not sure if it’s too soon to be saying anything to anyone. We don’t even know where you’ll be next week, and I just don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.”
“I suppose that’s fair enough, but you should know . . . Regardless of what happens with Miami-Dade, I want to be wherever you are.”
I’m dumbfounded by his candor. “Oh. Um, you do?”
“Yeah, I do.” He presses his lips to mine once again, this time sliding his hand around my neck to kiss me for real. By the time he pulls back, I’m dizzy and drunk on whatever it is that comes over me when he kisses me that way. “I wish we had nowhere to be today so we could go back upstairs to your bed and I could show you some of the many ways I want to be wherever you are.” More kisses, more dizziness. “This weekend . . . Can we please spend it together?”
I’m nodding before he finishes asking the question.
“Every minute?”
“Yes, every minute.”
“Now I have something to look forward to.”
He resettles himself in the passenger seat, and I somehow manage to start the car. After a quick trip to his hotel so he could shower and change, we arrive at Juanita’s ventanita in Priscilla. He made a case for driving me since I wasn’t caffeinated yet, and it might be safer for both of us. He thinks he’s funny after finding out I’m grumpy in the morning.
When Juanita sees me with Jason for the second morning in a row, she raises a brow. In Spanish, she asks if there’s anything I want to tell her.
“No,” I reply, “nothing to report.”
She laughs and calls me a liar. “I know something when I see it, amiga, and I see something. And before you can deny it, just know I’m happy for you. No one deserves it more.”
Jason stands by my side while I shamelessly talk about him in a language he doesn’t understand. He pays for two cortaditos and two dozen pastelitos for us and the clinic staff.
“Saw you on the news last night, Doc,” she says to Jason. “Thank God you were able to help that sweet child.”
“I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time.”
“We’re all glad for that.”
Twenty minutes later, we arrive at the clinic to find an even longer line than yesterday.
“Holy shit,” he whispers.
“You’re in hot demand, Doc.”
“I see that.”
“If it’s too much, you can still say so. No one says you have to be here indefinitely.”
“I’ll be here until every one of these people is seen.”
CHAPTER 18
CARMEN
It takes three days for Jason to see all the patients who come to the clinic. He treats everything from gout to hemorrhoids to asthma to diabetes complications to scabies. According to Jason, he’s heard from almost everyone he’s ever known since the news segment went live, which he attributes to my posts about it on Instagram as well as his mother posting the link to Facebook.
We fall into a routine that includes long days at the clinic followed by daily stops at Miami-Dade for him to check on Mateo and for me to brief Mr. Augustino on our progress in person.
“The coverage on NBC 6 was huge,” Mr. Augustino says on Friday evening. “I’ve heard from several members of the board about it. Keep up the good work, Carmen. It seems to be having the desired effect.”
Jason is thrilled when I tell him that, but he’s not himself after having been to see Mateo. He’s met me in my office, where I’ve been killing time looking at emails detailing other projects that’ll require my attention when this one is finished and reading documents the former director of public relations left for me. As I read, it occurs to me that I still haven’t called Tony’s mother, and I’m running out of time before Sunday brunch.
“What’s wrong?” I ask him.
“Mateo has an infection. We’re working on it, but it’s worrisome.”
“Do you need to stick around?”
“No, they know to call me if anything changes. It’s a waiting game right now. Hopefully the antibiotics will do the trick.”
“Is this a common thing?”
“It happens.” He waits for me to gather my belongings and gestures for me to lead the way to the elevator. In the parking lot, he takes hold of my hand the way he does every chance he gets. “Can we run by my hotel on the way to your place? I want to pick up some clothes and running shoes. I need to get in a run at some point.”
“I didn’t know you were a runner.”
“Any chance I get, which isn’t as often as it used to be. Exercise helps me manage stress.”
“Tony was a gym rat. He was always trying to get me to go with him, but I sucked at it. He would try not to laugh at me, but he sucked at not laughing.”
Jason laughs as he holds the car door for me. I’ve told him he doesn’t have to do that every time, but he says he does have to. “Now I want to take you to the gym to see this comedy routine for myself.”
“That’s not happening.”
When he gets in the car, I turn so I can see him. “Is it okay that I mention Tony and our relationship to you?”
“Of course it is. He’s part of you, and I want to know every part of you.”
“I went to this grief group for widows after it happened. I was the youngest one there by decades, but those ladies helped me a lot. They taught me that grief is love with nowhere to go. They helped me accept that I’ll never stop loving him. I might love someone else someday, but I’ll always love Tony, too, and it’s okay to let that happen.”
“I’m glad you were able to get that kind of support when you needed it.”
“They also said that when my Chapter 2 came along, which is what they call the first significant relationship after the loss of a spouse, that I’d know he was the right one for me because he would understand that I’ll always love Tony, and the new guy wouldn’t be threatened by that.”
“Does this, with me, count as your Chapter 2?”
“I think it might.” After several nights in bed with him, I’m completely addicted to him and the way he makes me feel.
“I promise I’ll never be threatened or annoyed by the love you have for Tony, Carmen. I think he must’ve been a really special guy to have a woman as fantastic as you are care so much for him.”
“He was,” I whisper as I blink back tears that are equal parts sadness and joy. I never dared to dream that I’d meet someone like Jason. I thought I’d had my one chance at great love, that it was too much to hope for more.
“I always want you to feel like you can talk about him with me.”
Smiling, I decide to lighten the mood. “You can talk about Ginger with me, too.”
He scowls. “No, thanks. I’m good.”
I laugh as a lighthearted feeling of pure joy comes over me. That feeling has been close at hand during the week we’ve spent together. I want to hold on to it with everything I’ve got, even with so much still uncertain. I’m sure about one thing: I’m falling hard for my sweet, sexy doctor, and falling has never felt so good.