A Heart Healed

His own office downstairs was rather subdued compared to this. Maybe this was why Ezra liked to be up here more often than Marc was. They were practically the same person. The man was still a friend to his family after all these years, and after attending a few family gatherings during the holidays, the man had become both his best friend and his business partner even after a brief period in which Jax had secretly dated his sister, Leah, which they only had announced over one Christmas lunch out of the blue. Needless to say, he didn’t take it exceptionally well at first. Not that it mattered now.

The young man opened one of the doors and looked inside.

“Mr. Salinger, Mr. Hewitt is here.”

“Let him in then,” they could hear from the inside before Marc walked inside to see his business partner standing in front of the large window that overlooked the street below them with a mug of coffee in his hand which explained the smell that filled the office.

“You were looking for me, Jax?” Marc asked before his boss turned around to greet him with a smile.

“Marc! How are you?”

“I’m doing fine. What’s this about?”

Jax Salinger. A man who was barely older than he was with black hair and a narrow face that sometimes reminded him why he didn’t want to do press conferences. They both understood the cruelty of the press a lot and they hadn’t found the right spokesman for the job, often leaving that job to Marc himself.

“Do you read the tabloids sometimes, Marc?” Jax asked him.

“As little as possible, why?”

Jax walked over to his desk and pulled a stack of papers from his printer, tossing them on his desk for Marc to look at. “One of them sent me some interesting pictures that they wanted to print before I took the liberty of killing the story.” He shrugged before Marc picked up the sheets.

There were several pictures of him and Naomi out on their date from their past dates, from when they had breakfast at the café near the office, from days they went shopping at the mall, even when the two of them had left a bistro downtown where they had dinner. He couldn’t believe it. How long had they been followed?

“You’re welcome, by the way. I just felt that was necessary for you to be a little more careful when you’re picking up your girlfriend. People talk, so even though I killed this one, there’s no telling who may just write the next story.”

“How many people know about this?”

“Just Liam and I out there. Just remember, you’re a public figure. Be careful, will you?”

******

(Tuesday)

> Marc: Hey. I have the afternoon free. Would you like to have lunch?

> Naomi: Can’t, sorry. Have a new patient in intensive care.

> Marc: I’ll see you on Friday night then.

(Friday)

> Marc: It’s Friday. Would you still like me to come over?

> Naomi: Hey handsome, sorry. I have something to do for work. Dr. Adamson’s got an interview for me.

> Marc: What for?

> Naomi: It was for a permanent position he wanted me to apply for. Who knows if I’ll make it through this part anyway? I’ll call you afterward.

That was all the conversation he had with Naomi this week.

As he sat on his bed that Friday night, he had hoped that he would be on his way to her place. Whenever he walked through his luxury penthouse, it seemed emptier than any place he had ever visited. The black and white furnishings of the living reminded him of a showroom and even with the comfortable mattress of the bed that his interior decorator had spent thousands of dollars to get, there was nothing he wanted here.

With all the things that had surrounded him that may have cost more than her entire building, he found something much more comforting about Naomi’s place. She made it feel like a home.

He missed her greatly and her silence…

Marc should have known that work would start to pick up again as the year was starting to pull to a close, but he didn’t think that it would keep her away this much. It was beginning to feel like those first few weeks when they had started dating. It hurt.

He had begun to think their arrangement had gotten them past that, but it seemed like it was only stalling the inevitable.

Even his own work had started to pick up once Jax decided that he was going to throw some of the more social tasks that the company to do. It wasn’t as if he needed the work, but he did it anyway. With Naomi often busy, he was usually stuck with work without a distraction since his mother had insisted on flying Ezra out to France last week.

The distance he had thought was finally closing was opening wider once again.

No. He couldn’t let it happen. He wanted to see her again. As clingy as it probably sounded, there was no air in his life the further they drifted apart.

One thing about her messages concerned him a great. Besides the extra work she had been doing lately, she had mentioned applying for a permanent position. Did that mean that the rest of their relationship would be like this moving forward? He knew that he couldn’t pull her away from her job as much as she could from his.

Both of them had spent years trying to reach where they were and even though he could support her for the rest of her life and more, she would grow to resent to him eventually for not giving her the chance to grow her career to the heights he was sure she wanted to achieve. He was sure of it. There were dozens of cases like that amongst many couples in his life.

Friends who had gotten married at a young age that ended up divorcing because they blamed their partner for denying them the chance to do anything significant or allowing them to explore.

Marc covered his face with his hand, letting out a groan. He shouldn’t be thinking like this. Marriage was something they weren’t anywhere near to discussing.