Rhett: Want me to say something to her?
As much as I’d like to employ my sometimes-vicious son to yank his mom off me, I know there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed.
Nah. There’s nothing for her to find, so I’m not worried. It just wastes my damn time, you know?
I’m unable to see his response because I’m called by a nurse. She takes me through the routine of weighing me and thenchecking my vitals. Then, I wait for Dr. Lau as I continue to text with my son, moving on to the topic of his college soccer season.
“Knock, knock,” a voice says as she opens the door.
I tuck away my phone and offer Dr. Lau a warm smile. Her returning one is quick and practiced. I’m sure she sees upwards of a hundred patients a day. I’d get pretty sick of smiling all the time too, and don’t fault her for having one she can turn on like a light switch.
“Your pulse is high and your blood pressure could be lower. Everything okay?” Dr Lau asks, getting straight to business per usual. “Are you having sleepless nights? Any sleep disturbances I need to know about?”
I give her a quick shake of my head. “No, nothing like that. The meds are actually helping, I think. Aside from last night.”
Dr. Lau arches a black, thin eyebrow at me. “I need to know everything to help you.”
With a sigh, I tell her about waking up in the backyard, ankle deep in snow. I know I wasn’t out there long, because I checked the cameras to confirm. In my sleep, I disabled the alarm and let myself out. Cason, my fifteen-year-old son, was the one to wake first to the sound of the alarm disengaging. The other two also woke up and made sure to get me back to bed.
“Hmm,” Dr. Lau says, lips pressing into a firm line. “Any new stressors?
“Same stressor, my ex-wife. But we did have a custody hearing today.”
Even though Dr. Lau isn’t my therapist, I unload everything that was said in the hearing and how sick to my stomach I am about it.
“My life is stressing me the fuck out,” I admit hoarsely. “I keep trying to piece it all back together again, but it’s too messy. I’m losing control and I hate it.”
Dr. Lau’s dark brown eyes flash with unspoken thoughts and then she rolls her chair close to me. “That makes two of us.”
For some reason, this endears me to her. “Yeah? You having psycho ex problems?”
She snorts out a small laugh. “Mine isn’t as cut and dry. It’s more financial.”
This surprises me. Dr. Lau is a doctor. There are plenty of country club members I’m friends with who are doctors. They’re all wealthy.
“Need a financial advisor?” I say jokingly.
“Need a wife who can help you keep your kids and vouch for your health?”
A laugh barks out of me. Her smile is genuine this time. Wait, she’s serious.
“I’m afraid I don’t get the joke.”
Dr. Lau offers me a dainty hand. “Call me Jin.”
“Owen.” I shake her hand. “What are you saying, Jin?”
She blinks rapidly and then sucks in a deep breath before rushing out, “I have days to save the house of someone very important to me from going into foreclosure. It took everything for me to open up this clinic. I’m overextended and the banks keep denying my attempts for a mortgage loan to buy the property. It’s only worth about a hundred grand.” She closes her eyes for a beat. “I can’t put an eighty-year-old woman on the streets. I can’t bear to see her lose the only home she’s known for most of her life.”
When Jin’s eyes meet mine again, there’s a quiet desperation in her gaze that I feel down to my soul. Circumstances sometimes put us in a shitty position. My sleep disorder is threatening my custody arrangement. Her financial situation is threatening someone she loves.
“Were you serious about what you said earlier?” I ask, still unsure because Jin has a pretty good poker face.
“I mean, yes,” she says, nodding. “I’d have to immediately refer you to another doctor, but yes. I need this to happen as soon as possible.”
My credit is impeccable, despite Leah’s attempts to ruin it, and my savings is cushy. I have the ability to cosign on Jin’s loan. Even if it all went to hell and she didn’t repay the loan, I have the money to cover it until I could sell it.
“Mutually beneficial,” I murmur, wrapping this insane, spontaneous idea around my head. “There’d have to be a prenup in place, of course.”
