A Heart Healed

“I wanted to speak with you for a second.”

She shrugged out of his grip, frowning deeply at him. “First, you block my way without apologizing then proceed to handle me like I’m some sort of small animal. Not to mention the way you’ve been behaving towards me and the staff since your brother’s admission. You really don’t know how to deal with people, do you?”

A quick flash of something unfamiliar went across his expression before the stoic mask slipped back into place. “I…” he started slowly. “I’m sorry. For everything.” He raised a hand, combing his long fingers through the disheveled mess he had let his hair become in attempt to get the loose stands to behave. “I haven’t been myself these days, with everything happening with work and my brother, and have been taking it out on everyone else. I didn’t mean to leave you with a bad impression and I’d like to make it up to you.”

Naomi’s expression turned sympathetic. “See, was that so hard? Now what did you need to talk to me about?”

“Well,” he started before a loud growl filled the space around them, shocking them both. Naomi’s cheeks went blazing before the man in front started chuckling.

“Hey! It’s not that funny! I was on my way to get food, you know.”

Marc gave her an amused smile. “If that’s the case, why don’t I treat you to a quick dinner? It’s probably better than the hospital food Ezra likes to complain about.”

“I’m still technically in the middle of my shift, Mr. Hewitt.”

He shrugged. “Nothing I can do about that. Guess I’ll go out to eat by myself then.” Oh, that’s really low. She crossed her arms over her chest as he smirked at her.

The two of them stared at each other before another hunger pang started building. She couldn’t deal with this the whole night. “Fine. As long as it’s something quick.”

“Of course.”

*****

“I must say, I’d never imagine someone worth billions to come out to a drive-thru burger joint.”

Marc shrugged, ripping one of the tiny ketchup sauce packets open and squeezing it over the golden French fries on the red tray in front of him. “Just because I have money doesn’t mean I’ve never eaten fast food. Besides, you said something quick and this is the first thing that came up.”

She did. Naomi looked out of the window of the restaurant, looking at the emblem sign of the hospital blazing bright from down the street. She had to admit, she had forgotten this place was even there since her apartment was in the other direction.

The food there looked really good at least and it wasn’t expensive, not that he would let her pay anyway. She wasn’t used to not paying for her own food and his excuse of “having more than he knew what to do with” just didn’t sit well with her.

She didn’t want to owe anyone anything.

“It’s not going to run away, Dr. Bennett. Eat before it gets cold,” he said. Fine. She’d somehow pay him back for this later.

The two of them sat in silence after that. It was odd. Naomi glanced at him every now and again, but neither of them wanted to really say anything. It wasn’t exactly awkward to be like this, seeing as she never knew how any kind of conversation between the two of them would go, but the environment wasn’t exactly relaxing either. They were just watching the people on the street walking by.

What was going on in his head? Why did he suddenly decide to do this? Why her? Honestly, there were many things she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t exactly ask a person why they weren’t arguing with her. That would make her sound like some sort of lunatic,

“Mr. Hewitt?” Naomi finally asked.

He turned back to her. “Call me Marc. I’m pretty sure we’ve passed formal at this point.”

“Right. I suppose you can call me Naomi then.” This was definitely something she’d have to get used to doing outside of her head. “Wasn’t there something you wanted to talk to me about?”

He waved it off with a casual gesture of his hand. “It’s all right now. It wasn’t anything major.” The small smile on his face when he looked at her was suspicious.

“If you say so…” she said with a wary raise of her brow before her cellphone started ringing. Sh*t, she forgot that she had work to get back to. Fishing out the phone, she saw it was a text from Olivia.

> Where are you? Adamson’s looking for you. Said to head to the Director’s office.

Naomi texted a quick reply saying that she was on her way before turning back to the man seated opposite her. “I have to go. Duty calls and all that. Are you still coming to visit Ezra?”

Marc shook his head. “It’s probably too late for visitors. I’ll be back in the morning though. Would you like me to walk with you to the hospital?”

“What? You don’t have a driver who picks you up?” she teased.

He let out a chuckle. “He’s probably waiting for me there anyway.”

Naomi felt an odd thrill in her chest when he laughed that just reignited her bashfulness once again. She just turned herself away to face the hospital because she did something stupid like ask him if this was technically a date or not. It wasn’t a date, right?

“Okay then, let’s go before I end up in trouble again because of you.”