A Heart Healed

Chapter 8

Marc

If there was one thing in life Marc Hewitt never thought he would be so fixated on, it was a woman. Not just any woman, however, it was the woman who was currently next to him, one Dr. Naomi Bennett. He didn’t expect to ever find himself in this kind of situation before and yet beyond all reasoning, there he was, and Marc was sure he never wanted to leave.

Memories of the previous night ran through his mind as he lay there, watching her sleep soundly in his arms like an angel. She wasn’t the woman he had initially pictured himself with one day. Not by a long shot.

He had imagined someone like his mother: calm, somewhat reserved, and didn’t get angry for small things. Naomi was the opposite. The first moment that she had burst into his life, she had argued with him and then proceeded to do her job as if nothing had happened. Whenever she had entered Ezra’s hospital room, he was fully prepared for another verbal attack, and yet she just did her job.

His brother, who was sitting at home at the moment, was proof of this. That news broadcast of the crash followed by the phone call from the hospital was one of the scariest moments of his life. Ezra, despite the number of headaches he granted, meant the world to him and to lose him would be his end. He couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and had no idea what to do with himself other than to tell Lawrence to cancel all of his appointments and meetings and sit next to Ezra, praying that his little brother would come back.

Yet even through all of them, the one thing that gave him hope at the end of all that was this woman who saw that he wasn’t well and gave him her card. He had sat for a week with it in his pocket, wondering whether he should call her or not. However, he didn’t need to after a little bit. All because of one conversation he had listened to when the two of them had thought he was asleep.

She cared. She actually cared about him. Not because of his money or his position, but because he was a man who was worried for his brother.

After that, he had started to look at her. She was excitable, tended to freak out about everything that excited her, and even when she had the energy of a child, she was amusing to watch. Naomi Bennett was a challenge and she was one he was happy to solve.

Marc ran a hand over her hair, smoothing the longer strands down with a smile before planting a kiss on her temple and releasing her. As much as he didn’t want to leave, he had to get to Octave.

He had a quick shower in her bathroom and put on the same clothes he had packed in the night before. Luckily, he had thought of this before coming to her place. The distance was starting to stress him out all over again. Every moment he couldn’t see her, he wondered about what she was doing. What kind of people was she talking to? What were they saying about her? After Ezra’s release from hospital, there were no more excuses that he could make to see the lovely doctor.

Thus, he had to take matters into his own hands and then last night happened.

He didn’t exactly plan for that to happen either, but damn, he sure was happy it did. As much as he enjoyed her company outside of the bedroom, it was if she was a different person inside of it. The way she reacted to his every move was enough to make him explode.

Marc couldn’t believe it, but Naomi Bennett had a hold on him. He just hoped she never let go.

*****

Two weeks later, Marc walked into the headquarters of Octave Media with a smile on his face that left quite a few of his staff staring at him as he made his way through the lobby of the building. He was having the best time of his life.

He and Naomi arranged to see other every few nights when she wasn’t working night shift. Some days they would go out and have dinner, others would be spent in on her couch with movies. They had gotten so used to spending the night at her place that even though he was further away from work in the morning, he didn’t really care.

He was in a scarily good mood on most mornings, so it was only his assistant who seemed to have the courage to approach him, even if it was with all the skepticism in the world. The others were beginning to wonder if he had lost it. Before his time off, this man was often ignoring the rest of the world. Sometimes snapping at others that had somehow gotten into his way or came to apologize for a mess up they had unintentionally caused.

Now, they weren’t sure what was going on.

“You seem to be in a very good mood again today,” Lawrence said as he fell in step behind his boss, his eyes focused on the man who actually seemed to very relaxed. No tension in his shoulders and he wasn’t sending Lawrence immediately for coffee. Who was this man and where was his boss?

“I am actually. What’s on my schedule for today?” Marc replied as he pressed the button to call the elevator. It gave a light ting before the doors opened to a blissfully empty elevator. It seemed like luck was on his side today. The two men stepped inside as Lawrence opened the binder in his arms, pulling up the schedule he had printed out as soon as he had gotten to the office.

“You have a video conference in an hour and a meeting with the heads of the record labels on the West Coast. Your afternoon schedule has been taken over by Mr. Salinger, who by the way wants to see you as soon as possible.”

Marc wanted to groan. Great, there went his luck for the day already. It’s never really a good thing when the CEO wants to see you first thing in the morning, is it? What a pity. Everything else was going so well until this point. Maybe this was why his overly eager assistant was waiting for him in the lobby.

He turned his head to the side where he saw Lawrence pressing another floor. “Top floor then, right?” Marc sighed towards the younger man as he shut the binder in his arms and smoothed down the short hairs on top of his head.

“Already pressed it.”

It was a silent ride for the rest of the ride. By the time they had reached the top floor of the building, another young man, his boss’ executive assistant whose name he could never bother to remember whenever he met the man, was standing there with his hands behind his back as if he knew that Marc was on his way up. “Good morning, Mr. Hewitt. If you would follow me, please “

Sometimes the man reminded Marc of a hostess of a restaurant more than an assistant with the way he carried himself. It was no wonder he and Lawrence often got along whenever they attended company events. When the two were together, it almost seemed like one was copying the other to try and see who the better assistant was.

Marc and Lawrence followed the young man down a short hallway to a set of ornate wooden doors that opened directly into the CEO’s office. It was a rather elegant decoration up here, much like the rest of the aesthetic of this floor. Salinger had insisted that it looked like something that belonged in a magazine. Honestly, he couldn’t understand the man’s need for showmanship from the time they had started this company together after graduating college.