Page 35 of Raymond's Forever

Amelia looked at him, and sighed heavily after several moments. “Nothing as tragic as what you lived through, and for your first wife, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m still unsure if I should apologize for your second one and her daughter.”

“Thank you for saying that about Ciara, you don’t have to apologize for Melissa, I know that was my mistake.”

“Oh, anyway, to answer your question, I never had anything as tragic as your past relationships.” She shook her head and sipped her wine. “I dated a guy all through middle school, and high school. When it came to college, we hung out the summer before leaving, but we knew we were going to break up before we went to our respective colleges.” She shook her head as she sipped her wine, and stared into the empty fireplace.

“It’s not tragic, it’s just that we were both eighteen years old, and I got a full-ride scholarship to Harvard. I’m talking the entire degree program with the pre-med stuff, up to and including when I got my PhD. I knew it was going to be intense studying, and I didn’t want to be distracted.” She looked at him with a wrinkled nose. “In order for me to keep that scholarship, I had to maintain at least a three-point eight grade point average.”

“Holy hell, that was intense.”

“Yes, yes it was. Scott knew what I would be facing. He, on the other hand, got a full-ride to Texas A & M for a football scholarship.”

“Wow, okay, well, since you’re a doctor already, I can assume you maintained that killer average, and are now a successful physician that just opened your own practice. It’s none of my business, but what is Scott doing now?”

“No clue,” she said with a shake of her head and shrug. “The last time I heard or even saw him was during the Christmas break during our first year of college. It was only long enough to say, oh, hey, hi, how’s everything going. Good, talk to you later. You get the gist. I did realize after seeing him again, that I never would have married him had I not gotten into college.”

“Do you ever go back home?”

“No. I don’t mean to sound cold, but I grew up in a small town in Missouri. I was a late in life baby for my parents. They were told that the possibility of them ever having a child was impossible. They both suffered from fertility issues. Anyway,within six months of me getting my PhD, they did see me walk across the stage, they both passed away.” She looked at him and reached out to gently take his hand in hers. “Don’t feel sorry for me, they were forty-five when I was born.”

“Oh, wow, you mean a late, late in life baby.”

“Yes, and Mom went into menopause about three months after I was born. I had a great childhood, and was well loved. They lived a great life, they were both almost seventy. When I went back to clean up their lives, donate their possessions, keep what I wanted, and dealt with the house, it wasn’t in the town I grew up in. They had moved the year after I saw Scott that first Christmas.” She looked at him with a grin. “To a retirement home in Florida. They wanted to get away from the cold and snowy winters. They had a good life.” She sipped more of her wine, and looked at their entwined fingers. He hadn’t let go of her hand after she’d reached over and touched his.

On a heavy sigh, she snuggled deeper into the sofa, and looked at him with a small smile. “Once I dealt with their affairs, when I returned to work, I threw myself into work. I loved my job, and that’s when I became double certified as a general physician and an orthopedic surgeon. The surgery was intense during my residency, because in order to learn, I was called in on emergency cases. Back then, I didn’t have time for anything else but my work, let alone time to find someone to date.”

“Did you ever go out with anyone?”

“Not intimately,” she said with a small smile. “Sure, a bunch of us would hang out on our days off, go out to dinner, maybe, if we didn’t run the risk of falling asleep, we would catch a movie. I wasn’t exclusive with anyone, and I didn’t hook up with anyone to have sex in the on-call rooms like you see on the TV hospital shows.” She frowned, stared into her wine, and looked at him with a grin.

“I can’t remember the last time I’ve had sex with a human.”

“Excuse me?”

“I do have a battery-operated boyfriend.” She laughed when she saw understanding dawn in his expression, and grinned harder when his cheeks turned bright red.

“Oh,” he didn’t say anything else, and they sat there sipping their wine, and holding hands.

“How long has it been for you?”

“Over seven years. It’s been over five since that shit with Melissa started, but she stopped being affectionate with me almost three years prior to that. I had suspected she might have been cheating on me, but nothing came of that. There was no proof, no one came out of the woodwork to tell me to be nice to her during her trial.” He shrugged. “I guess we just grew apart, or she did.”

“Not to bring up bad memories, but do you think she was bleeding you dry to divorce you?”

“Yes and no, she didn’t get a lot, but that could have been the case.”

He settled back in the sofa cushions and looked at her with a smirk. “So, do you want to relieve our dry spells together?”

CHAPTER 15

Amelia lookedat him with a critical eye, and after what felt like hours, but only ended up being less than ten seconds. “Would you be offended if I had questions?”

“I would be even more offended if you didn’t.”

“Ah, lawyer double speak,” she laughed as she turned on the sofa so she was facing him. “When was the last time you had a full blood workup?”

“Nine months ago, when my doctor told me to slow down, where I was facing burnout out, or a possible heart attack.”

“Is your heart that bad?”