Destroy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (21 page)

“What about you, Dr.
Aldridge, which is your department?”
Good
question, Mom. Why don’t you tell her that “deception” is your all-exclusive
department?

“I am a roving surgeon
actually. I am available for most types of surgery. I don’t have a specialty,
like most physicians do. I lend a hand or perform whatever surgery needs to be
done on that day at that hour.”

“Wow, that’s impressive,”
Mom said, after finishing her second slice of pizza.

“Not really,” Jeff
countered. “I’m just a jack of all trade when it comes to surgery. Except for
neuro-surgery, which I will not perform under any circumstances, I try
repairing most malfunctions of the bodies that cross our operating tables.”

“Why not neuro-surgery?”
Mom asked.
Of course she would.

“Simply because we have
the best neuro-surgeon in the country working in our hospital. Treading his
waters would simply not do. He can open a skull and correct a micro-surgical
problem as easily as scooping ice-cream out of a bowl, whereas, I would be
thinking of the cost of the mistakes I could eventually make to the patient’s
brain. When I begin thinking that way, I can’t perform surgery.”

“And what do you know
about mental health?”

My mother was relentless.
Although I hadn’t been the one who invited Jeff to our table, she was
preventing him from eating his first bite.

“Very little. I am not a
psychiatrist. But I have a little experience with a few debilitating diseases,
such as Alzheimer and dementia or temporary amnesia.”

By this time, my mother
was staring. “I’m sorry for staring at you, Dr. Aldridge, but my husband has dementia
and it could be Alzheimer’s…”

“Has he, really?” Jeff
shot me an accusing glance.
As if I
should tell you anything about my personal life?
“Heather didn’t mention
anything…?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Doctor,”
Mom was quick to say. “I didn’t mean to intrude on your time. I haven’t invited
you to share our meal in order to pick your brain. Truly, I haven’t.”

Jeff smiled benignly.
“That’s okay, Mrs. Williams. It’s understandable.” He resumed eating his slice
of pizza. It was probably cold by now. He seemed to enjoy it anyway.

We sat in silence–thank
goodness–for a few minutes, just enough time to finish our meal.

While I cleared the
dishes and put everything in the dishwasher, Tiffany started the coffee maker
and scooped some sorbet into four cups. We exchanged a few furtive glances but
didn’t say a word. No need to explain; she knew what I was thinking.

As soon as we started
eating our dessert, Jeff said, “Let me answer your query about dementia now,
Mrs. Williams.” Mom looked at him inquisitively. She was all ears. “You see,
both my parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when they were in their sixties.”

“Did they really?” Mom
sounded surprised. As it happens to most people, when they are diagnosed with a
terminal illness, they believe they’re the only ones on earth suffering from
such disease. Although my mother was not the one with dementia or Alzheimer’s,
she certainly acted as if my dad’s illness was exceptional or terribly rare.

“Absolutely. Dementia is
quite common among elderly patients. Even though your husband is not ‘elderly’
per se, it’s not uncommon for a man to find himself in that situation.” He
paused to eat some more of his sorbet. “Alzheimer and dementia are first
cousins. Yet, there is a marked difference between the two. Alzheimer is a
progressive disease that affects the entire brain. It is an extremely
debilitating disease. The patient goes into a regression that ends in death.
There is no stopping and no remedy to the illness. But, when it comes to just dementia,
the patient does not regress physically such as they do with Alzheimer. It’s
only a question of memory loss. Long-term memory becomes sharp and vivid
whereas short-term memory is blurry at best, if not immediately erased.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Mom
interrupted. “That’s exactly what I noted about my husband. He needs me to
repeat answers to his questions endlessly it seems. I often think that I should
record my answers and play it back to him.”

Jeff chuckled. “Yes.
That’s exactly what my mother said when Dad was first diagnosed. She had a hard
time of it. But as soon as they had established a routine with the home care
worker, my dad was a little better.”

“Yes. That’s what Heather
suggested.” Mom nodded in my direction. “And that’s why I was able to come for
a visit actually. Without that routine, the home care worker, and her brothers’
assistance, I wouldn’t have been able to leave the house.”

“Same as in our home,”
Tiffany put in with a smile. “I had to get Heather down to a routine; otherwise
I don’t know how I could have handled her.”

Everyone cracked up
laughing.

Jeff nodded. “Yeah,
routines are great in some instances. And the best thing about routines is
breaking them.”

It’s
really too bad that the guy is married. He gets along with Mom so well, I wish
he were free,
I thought.

While we talked for a
while longer, after Tiffany had gone to bed, I saw mother nodding off. She was
tired.

Since the couch was going
to be my bed for tonight at least, I told her to go to my bedroom and stay
there for the night.

“Oh no, Heather. You need
your rest. I’ll be fine here. Your sofa is a hide-a-bed, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Mom, it is, but I’m
the one sleeping on it tonight. You take my room. I’ll be fine.”

Meanwhile, I saw Jeff’s
ears perked up.
If he thinks he’s
spending the night with me on the couch, he’s got it wrong!

“Okay, if you think
you’ll be fine. I’ll say goodnight then.”

Jeff got up and extended
a hand. “It was very nice meeting you, Mrs. Williams.” Mom shook it. “And if
you need anything from me, advice or information on dementia or Alzheimer’s,
don’t hesitate to call me, okay?”

“I’ll be sure to do that,
Dr. Aldridge. But for now, it’s good night for the both of you.”

“Nighty-night, Mom,” I
said as she walked away.

As soon as we heard the
bedroom door close on my mother, I got up. Jeff knew this was an invitation for
him to take his leave.

“I’m sorry for having
intruded on your family reunion, Heather, but since I haven’t seen you for
several days, I thought I would come by.”

“I know, I know, Jeff.
And it was nice of you to come actually. But, I would have thought you had
other things to do than to talk with an ageing woman on Friday night.”

We were walking toward
the door. He turned to me abruptly and peered into my eyes. I returned the
gaze, unflinching.

“I wanted to be here,
Heather. Don’t you know I miss you?”

“No, I don’t, Jeff.
Besides, I don’t miss you. We’ve had a great time together, but now, we’re
done.”

“Your mouth is saying the
words but your heart is saying something else.”

“No, it isn’t, Jeff.” I
lowered my gaze and opened the door.

“You really want me to
leave?”

“Yes, I do, Jeff.”

I was about to close the
door on his stooped shoulders when I said, “Please, say hello to your wife for
me.”

He turned around
abruptly, opened the door wide and marched in again. I retreated. He closed the
door and grabbing me by the shoulders, he pushed me against the wall. He then
kissed me fervently.

Once again, I was melting
in his arms. The man was like a drug; and I was addicted.

Chapter
23

“Alright, alright,” I
blurted, pushing him away again. “Let me get a breath here. You must know that
I am now working with Elizabeth, don’t you?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’m
aware of it. So what?”

I was incensed. “So what,
you ask? Come on, Jeff. I’m not blind or deaf. I’ve been talking to her. And it
doesn’t seem to me that the two of you are separated or even close to living
apart. So, you tell me; why on earth would I want to risk my career to have a
fling with the likes of you?”

“Because, I want you.”

“Are you that selfish? My
God, Jeff. Truly?” I turned and walked to the living room. This being an old
building, I knew the walls were thick enough for neither my mother nor Tiffany
being able to ear us, unless I started screaming of course.

“No, I am not, Heather. I
am not selfish. But I know what I want and how to get it.”

“Well, you’ve got it
wrong as far as I am concerned. I am not having an affair with a married man.
And certainly not in these circumstances. My life hangs in the balance, Jeff. I
don’t have a choice. If you were free, it would be an entirely different
matter. But you’re not, are you?”

He shook his head and sat
down beside me on the sofa. “She refuses to sign the divorce papers.”

“Is that all you’ve got
to say? How long have you been separated?”

“Just over a year now. I
just can’t do anything else but wait. She’ll be getting everything she wants in
the settlement. So, I really don’t know what else I can do.”

“Have you thought of
moving out of the city?”

He looked at me
strangely. “Do you really hate me that much, that you want me gone?”

“No, Jeff, I don’t hate
you. But I have to be as reasonable as I can with this whole thing.”

“And reason tells you
that I should move away and let you be, is that it?”

“What else do you want to
do? I can’t quit. I can’t move. You’re the one who holds all the cards, Jeff.”

“No, I’m not. Elizabeth
is. If I move away, she is probably going to claim desertion or something like
that. And in that case, she gets it all. I would be left with nothing.”

“But tell me, what’s so
bad about Elizabeth? You must have loved her, didn’t you?”

“Oh yes, we were
absolutely crazy in love, of course we were. I loved everything about her.
She’s a very intelligent woman, and she’s not bad to look at either…” His voice
trailed off. There was a tinge of regret in the words.

“What happened?”

“Nothing,” he replied,
getting up. “I just can’t love her anymore. The mold is broken and there’s no
way we could even attempt to repair it.”

I got up too. I felt sad
for him all of a sudden. There was definitely something he wasn’t telling me.
But if I didn’t want to be involved with him, I should leave it alone. I didn’t
ask.

He caressed my cheek and
peered into my eyes again. I knew I was falling headlong into that terrible
crevasse called sex. I wanted him. I knew it was going to happen.

He took me in his arms,
kissed my neck, and went down to my open-neck shirt. I would have changed into
a t-shirt, if it hadn’t been for my mother being here when we got home. The
moment his lips touched my breast, I was lost. I went down to my knees and
unzipped his jeans. He bent down and began massaging my breasts while I took
his penis into my mouth. He moaned with pleasure as I started sucking it. I
knew he would soon come down to me and undress me. It didn’t take long for him
to do so avidly. I felt his lips teasing my clitoris while I tousled his hair.
I was enjoying this. It was the softness of it all that thrilled me. I wanted
him; I craved his power into me. When he began climbing over my body and ended
up sucking my nipples until it almost hurt, I had a fantastic orgasm. He
clamped my arms against the carpet while he closed my mouth with a kiss. I
would have screamed had it not been for our tongues twisting together. A moment
later, when I calmed down a little, I grabbed his penis and put it just beneath
my clitoris. He smiled. I swung it back and forth until he couldn’t hold back
anymore. He had to penetrate me. He did so with relief in his quiet groan. His
body towering over mine, he slammed it rhythmically until he suddenly stopped.
He then pawed my breasts avidly. All the while, I was enjoying the treatment so
much that I was on the verge of another orgasm as he pulled himself out and turned
me gently on my tummy. I lifted my butt to him so he could take me doggy style.
I heard him take a condom and slipping it on before penetrating me again. But
this time he had my clitoris firmly clamped between his index finger and thumb.
He not only teased, but pulled on it and rubbed it until I buried my head in
the carpet to mask the scream that wanted to escape my mouth. The pleasure this
man gave me again and again was unbelievable. I could not say no, because I
wanted more of it. I bathed in his sexual affection like a baby in its mother’s
arms. I couldn’t get enough of him.

As soon as he was spent,
he took the condom off and got up. He rushed to the bathroom while I got
dressed, only with my shirt. When he came out, his face was red. He was exhausted,
but his smile betrayed his contentment. He was happy. I could see it in his
eyes.

Before he left, his kiss
was sweet and gentle.

The next day, I was dead
on my feet, until I went jogging with Tiffany. She had eyed me curiously when
she first got out of bed and came to the living room. I was putting my tracksuit
on.