“Um, nice to meet you.” He shook Sam’s hand in stiff and awkward a manner. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself at how uncomfortable Andrew was with people who weren’t fellow members of the upper crust.
“Listen,” Sam said, turning his attention back to me. “I don’t wanna crash your party here, Doc, but I’d kick myself if I didn’t come over here and thank you personally for gettin’ my boy in last minute the other day. The wife was freakin’ out about his fever, and you sure took a load off her mind.”
“Happy to do it. How’s Mick doing?”
“Much better – just a few sniffles now. And thanks for askin’.”
“Glad to hear he’s feeling better,” I said.
“Anyway, I’ll let you get back to your family time here. Good to see you, Doc! And first round’s on me!” He gave me one more slap on the shoulder before going back to his group.
The bartender approached with a grin. “You heard the man,” he said. “What’ll it be?”
“Pitcher of Bud,” I said. “And two glasses.”
The bartender nodded before setting two empty glasses in front of me and Andrew, who took his and regarded it with some skepticism.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s dirty.” He raised his hand to flag down the bartender, and I quickly placed my hand on it and lowered it. “What are you doing?”
“Andrew, you don’t ask for a clean glass in a place like this. That’s a good way to get your ass beat.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
I laughed. “You suck it up.”
My glass was cleaner, so I passed it to him. “There – problem solved.”
“Well, I already had a beer,” he said. “And a better one than Bud.”
“Bud’s just fine,” I said, pouring the pitcher out for the two of us once the bartender brought it. “It’s the king of beers, after all.” I took a sip of mine, letting out an ahh and shaking my head at how damn good it was. “Perfect. Didn’t realize how much I needed that.”
Andrew was still confused. “Would they really beat my ass for asking for a different glass?”
I laughed again. “Nah – figure of speech. These guys look rough, but they’re all good dudes deep down. Might get you a rep as a softie, though.”
“Just because I like clean glasses doesn’t make me a softie.”
“Sure, sure. So what’s up with you, bro?”
“The usual. Busy at the office but making good money.”
“There you go. Give it a few decades and you’ll be able to pay off that law school debt.”
He allowed himself a small smile at this joke. “Funny. But I want it paid off sooner than that. And if I make partner in the time they’re thinking I might, let’s just say I won’t have to worry about money for the rest of my life.”
“Don’t forget, money’s not everything,” I said. “Hell of a lot more to life than that.”
“Says the man who built a small fortune by thirty-five.”
“Right, but money wasn’t the reason I did it.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Andrew said. “You did it because you wanted to help people. I forget how noble you are.”
“That’s why I got into medicine,” I defended. “And the more I got into it, the more I realize I could do more good going the route I did instead of staying a local GP. The industry’s ripe for change, and I’m going to be the one to bring it.”
“And if you make a hundred million in the process, so be it?” he asked.
I smiled. “Something like that. But trust me – you get a few million and that’s nice. But there are only so many fancy restaurants you can eat at before the novelty wears off, you know?”
“Now that’s a problem I look forward to coming across on my own,” he said.
I grinned. “I’ll drink to that.”
We tapped glasses and sipped.
“And what about your love life?” I asked. I scolded myself for bringing it up. You couldn’t fucking resist, could you? I asked myself as I took another sip of beer, this one nice and long.
“Love life?” he asked, scoffing. “Are you serious? As if I have time for dating. And besides, I’m already making enough money to know that most women in our circles are total gold-diggers. They see your car and your suit and that’s all they can think about.”
“A little shallow of you,” I commented. “And they’re not all like that.”
Something about my comment knocked him off-kilter. He was doing some serious thinking.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Annie.”
And there it was. At least he’d been the one to bring her up instead of me. “Annie?” I queried, getting ready to lie my face off. “You ever miss her?”
“It’s complicated. At the time, I was certain, just certain I’d made the right decision. She was a good woman, but she took up far too much of my time. But now I’m thinking about all this, what we’re talking about.” His tone was even and calm, and he didn’t betray much. Andrew was stiff, and he knew when to play things close to the chest. His heart could’ve been broken in a million pieces and I never would’ve known it.
“What do you mean?”
“The gold digger thing, for example. Annie’s not like that – she never was like that. She always wanted to pay for her own meals, to have her own money. If I were still with her, I’d never have to worry about her only seeing me because of what I had. After all, she dated me when I barely had a penny to my name. And no doubt in my mind, she wouldn’t take me to the cleaners if things didn’t work out.”
“That right?”
“Sure. For her, the idea of getting rich off someone else’s work would be unthinkable.”
“Good traits, sure.” My replies were bland. But deep down, his newfound apprehension at breaking up with Annie made me ill at ease.
“It’s…I don’t know. It’s making me wonder if I screwed up in ending it with her.”
Shit. Shit-shit-shit.
“No, you didn’t,” I said the words without a moment’s hesitation and needed to back them up.
“How do you mean?”
“I’ve been around the block a few times, bro. And something I’ve learned is it doesn’t do you a damn bit of good to second-guess decisions.”
“Hmm,” he said, turning his eyes to his beer. “Maybe you’re right.”
“Of course I am. Trust me.”
He smiled. “Probably right. Grass is always greener, you know?”
“Oh, I know. But you can’t live in the past. The future’s the only thing we’ve got control over.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Just pointlessly thinking.” He shook his head, snapping himself back into the moment, and I felt like a real dick. “And what about you?” he went on. “You seeing someone?”
“Yeah, sort of.” Little did he know we were talking about the same woman.
“Sort of?”