Jewel Ann - Idle Bloom

“Oh my gosh! Oliver!” Samantha, the receptionist, calls as I walk into their office. She waddles in her tight skirt and heels to give me a hug. She turned fifty this past spring, but between her time in the tanning bed and years of smoking she doesn’t look a day over seventy.

“Hey there, Samantha.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was hoping to talk with Brice. Does he still mark off an extra half hour after lunch for a nap?”

“Oh, honey … you know that’s just hearsay.”

I laugh. “No, it’s I’ve seen , not hearsay. I’ve walked into his office on more than one occasion and seen him hunched over, drooling on his tie.”

“Well, Cindy said he has sleep apnea so I’m sure he’s just exhausted by one.”

I glance at my watch. “So are you stalling or are you going to let me sneak in on him?”

She shoos me toward the hall. “Have at it, but if he asks, I wasn’t at my desk when you arrived.”

“Deal.”

Brice Sturgeon is third-generation law school. His grandfather practiced until he was eighty-two, but his dad took early retirement at sixty-three after a triple bypass. Brice and his twin sister, Valerie Wallace, took over the family practice seven years ago and brought their friend from UCLA law school, Mitchell Faye, in with them.

“Knock, knock, wipe your drool and stash your porn.”

“Oliver Konrad, what the hell are you doing in town?” Brice shoves his half-eaten sandwich back in its sack, stands while wiping his mouth, and offers his hand.

I shake his hand and take a seat opposite him. “Wish I could say sightseeing, but unfortunately that’s not the case.”

I look around his office. “You found another Ivy League sucker like myself to come work for you?”

Brice, Valerie, and Mitchell never tried to hide the fact that they hired me based on my Harvard degree. Brice said my diploma would look good on the wall and lend confidence to potential new clients. I just needed a job and an established client base. We were a good match at the time.

“Nah, preppy boys like yourself don’t like to navigate off the East Coast. Most of your breed are just a bunch of mama’s boys with a trust fund.”

“Well I haven’t been notified about mine. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh?”

“I’m in town for a while. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be longer than I originally expected. Caroline’s parents want me to stay here until she gets … better, of sorts.”

“Better? You do realize—”

I hold up my hand. “You don’t have to tell me. I’m fully aware of her chances of ever getting out of there or having anything resembling a normal life. I’m doing this for Doug and Lily and … I guess my own closure or something.” I rub my hands over my face. “I don’t know.”

“So you need a job?”

“Not a job. I’m not staying. Just work. I need something to keep me from going crazy myself and some income until my magic trust fund becomes available wouldn’t be bad either.”

Brice grins and tosses a whole stack of files on the desk in front of me. “Have at it. Valerie’s here maybe two hours a day before she has to go home and elevate her swollen feet. As you know, she has a lot of female clients that would bend over backwards to work with you—figuratively and literally.”

I grab one of the files and open it. “I’ll start on these next Monday if that works. I need to go back home and pack up my stuffy suits and shiny shoes.”

“Yeah, I heard a rumor you’ve been helping your brother plant shit.”

I stand. “Yes, that’s his business tagline. ‘We plant shit.’”

Brice pulls out his sandwich and props his feet up on the desk.

“Looking forward to it, preppy.”

I shake my head. “See you Monday.”

As expected my news isn’t going over well with Doug and Lily.

“You can’t leave. She’s just started to come around again,” Lily says.

“It’s just for the weekend. I’ll tell her I’m leaving for two days and that I’ll be back.”

I start down the stairs, tired of having this argument with them.

“She won’t understand,” Doug calls after me.

“Then she probably won’t notice that I’m gone for two flipping days!”

Every day I wonder what I’m doing. I found out after Caroline was admitted that Lily has struggled with depression most of her adult life and even takes medication for it. The genetic factor was there. That would have been helpful to know when I married my pregnant wife. So naturally Lily is extra sensitive about … everything. I not only have to baby step my way around Caroline, I have to with Lily as well. I hope I can accomplish whatever the hell it is I’m supposed to be accomplishing here and get out before I lose it with one or the other.

I contemplate calling my parents and letting them know I’ll be coming home this weekend, but I want to surprise Vivian, and to be honest, my mom is not to be trusted. A poor trait for a psychiatrist, but I think in her professional life she abides by her oath and keeps information in strict confidentiality. Maybe I should hire her and tell her my childhood secrets, then I could sue her for breach of confidentiality every time she tells Vivian about the weak bladder I had as a child.

I’m considering calling Alex. She’s very protective of Vivian, and she and I have had a few stern words since the news of Caroline came out, but Alex has been great about sending me photos of Vivian and making sure all of my surprises are in fact, a surprise. I think I’ve managed to beg, steal, and crawl my way back onto her good side.

“Make it quick. I’m on my way to class.”

“Alex, I need a favor.”

“Big surprise. What now?”

“I’m coming home this weekend—”

“Oh my gosh! Vivian is going to freak out. She’s been missing you so much and—”

“Alex!”

“Yes?”

“I coming home just for the weekend. I’ll be flying back out here Sunday afternoon.”

“Oh … that sucks.”

“Tell me about it. Anyway, you’re the only one who knows I’m coming home and I’d like it to stay that way. But I need you to make sure she’s home Friday night. It will ruin the surprise part of my visit if I have to hunt her down when I get home.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. She doesn’t go anywhere except to work with Maggie on Saturdays. I’m talking total nerd girl. She studies all the time. She got her first B the other day and ate a dozen Boston Kreme doughnuts … in one sitting.”

I laugh. “She told me about the B, but not the doughnuts.”

“Of course she didn’t.” Alex chuckles.

“I’ll let you go. Thanks a million. I really do appreciate all you’ve done.”

“You know I do it for Flower.”

“I know, she’s lucky to have you. Bye, Alex.”

Vivian

Ilove school. If money weren’t an issue, I’d make a career of it. And right now without it, I’d fall apart missing Oliver so much. We text and talk on the phone everyday and on the weekends we have Skype-X—sex via Skype. Oliver has tried to engage me in it during the week, but he’s apparently forgotten the demands of college. It’s also possible that he was a student like Alex or Sean, here for the degree and not necessarily the knowledge.

I’ve made some friends, good ones, the kind who sit in the front row and record all the lectures. A few of them have been asking me to join them for open mic night at one of the local pubs. I’ve graciously declined until today. Weekends are lonely for me, even with all the studying I do. There’s too much time to miss Oliver, especially living in his house and sleeping in his bed. So I’ve accepted their invite and I plan to drink too much wine, piss on Johnny H. on my way home, then drunk dial Oliver to see if he wants to get naked on Skype with me.