A Heart Healed

She folded her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, laugh it up now until you have kids and they start drooling over your hair. Or worse.”

“Okay, okay, next question. Since you know about my family, what about yours? Brothers or sisters?”

“I have an older brother who lives in the city with his son. His name is Julian. Our parents are back on the west coast, so we don’t get to see them very often. We were a small family who lived in a town that was often a little too interested in what the person next door was doing.”

The car pulled to a gentle stop in front of a restaurant Naomi had never heard of before. When she looked at the area around it, it had looked like they had ended up in the middle of the richer area of their city. The buildings were not only bigger, but she could even see from the lobby of the apartment building that was across the road that she was far from her usual haunts. Even that burger place that they had gone to previously was a far cry from this place.

When she and Marc had gotten out of the car and entered the restaurant, it was like something out of those reality TV shows where celebrities liked to hang out. The tiles on the floor and those that paneled the face of the bar against the back were a shining black with the majority of the décor around it sticking to an elegant silver or white. What kind of restaurant had they just stepped into?

“Table for two under Hewitt,” she heard Marc say to the host, an older gentleman in a neatly pressed tuxedo that kind of reminded her of a butler with the way he had even parted and brushed his greying hair down. All he was missing was the mustache.

“Of course, Mr. Hewitt. Right this way,” the man said before one of the waiters had come to collect the two of them. They were led to a more private section of the restaurant where the seats reminded her more of couches than actual chairs. Everything about this somehow made her feel like she was out of her league here. Especially after they sat down, and she opened the menu.

What the actual hell? As she read the list of drinks alone, she could feel her wallet crying a little bit. There was even a champagne that cost over a thousand per bottle!

Naomi wouldn’t afford to eat at this place on her own unless she became a director of her own hospital. Even then, she probably wouldn’t.

“Judging by that look, you’re probably looking at the prices for everything,” Marc said to her, an amused expression on his face. “Don’t worry about it. This is my treat after all.”

Naomi wanted to say that she couldn’t abuse his generosity like this, because everything really was a lot. Even if he could afford to buy this place in its entirety with a swipe of his credit card or something.

“Naomi,” he called to her. She had spaced out again without even noticing. “Would you like me order for you and we just continue talking instead?” That sounded like a much easier option. She never really allowed anyone to do that kind of thing for her, but the idea was tempting especially since the menu freaked her out a little whenever she had glanced over the price of something.

She just nodded and put down the book on the table, her body feeling a little warm under his gaze. “I think I need a distraction from that. Tell me about your childhood.”

This kind of back and forth of questioning went on for the evening, even after the food arrived, as they learned more about each other. Marc had spoken of his mother who had tried to raise him and his two siblings on her own with a lovingly soft tone in his voice. She had learned more of his childhood and the way he had often gone to school with every intention of earning a scholarship in order to try and save his mother some money to feed Ezra.

“Ezra was our binding force after a long while. When I had turned eighteen, I had just wanted to leave home. My sister wasn’t in a good space, having gotten herself caught up with the wrong kind of people, and my mother and I would often argue about what would be in the fridge at the end of the day, yet she didn’t want me to leave.” Naomi felt touched. She could just imagine a skinnier version of the man in front of her with a backpack on his shoulder, trying to decide whether to run away from home or not.

There were no such comparisons in her own life. Her mother and father seemed like they were fine as far back as she could remember. There was always food on the table for her and Julian, plus they had their grandmother at home who had been her inspiration for medicine.

Whenever she thought of the different kind of lives the two of them had until this point, she kind of wondered what fate had in store for the two of them afterwards. However, she didn’t want to think of all that right now. Naomi just wanted to enjoy the company of the man in front of her.

*****

“Did you like the food?” Marc asked her as they strolled through the warm breeze of the evening. He had asked their driver to stick around as the pair took a quick walk down the road to talk a little more.

“It was delicious. The salmon was very good, and that dessert was worth the ridiculous price. Who knew that they’d charge that much for something I’d likely want to smother in chocolate later on anyway?”

He laughed, the warmth in it resonating through her much like the first time she had seen his sleeping face. It was something that she could easily grow addicted to, much like the man’s company. Naomi had wondered if he actually enjoyed himself. As much as she wanted to believe so, she didn’t quite understand the way he thought yet.

Even now, as they walked through the evening side by side, she couldn’t help but glance at him every so often. Most of the time, her gaze fell to his mouth. Would it be too much to ask?

“Naomi, you all right?” Marc asked with a smirk when he had caught her staring. Her face heated up again, the warmth starting to spread to other places as well.

“This was a date, right?” she blurted out before she could stop herself. His eyes went wide for a second and she thought that she had really stuck her foot in her mouth again. Was going home and crawling into a hole an option at this point? Because she’d very much like to do that if it was.

Naomi was considering fleeing before she heard him start laughing again. “I’m sorry. Was I not clear?” he asked. There was something about this moment that reminded her how much he pissed her off when they had first met. It still took him several moments before he turned her to her with that lazy smile of his that made her heart skip several beats. “I don’t what it is about you, that makes me unable to hide myself.”

“Why would you need to?” she huffed before that smile of his faded to something a little more… lonely.