Make Time For Me

“I… Sorry. It was just a shock. It’s not the kind of thing you expect to find out. You’re right, you’re Jason South worth, and they’re your parents. Your parents don’t have anything to do with your choices.”

Jason sighed, sat down, and shook his head.

“Maybe that’s not… It’s not really… Well, my family thinks that this is a phase.”

She took a sip of water because she really was parched, and tried not to gape around her at the bedroom. She’d never been inside a billionaire’s living space before. To be honest, Jason’s apartment was not lavish. Sure, it was bigger than Paul’s or Angela’s, and though she and Ellie lived in a cottage that probably was about the same in floor space, they shared the place. It was definitely not the kind of extravagance she would have associated with the billionaire class.

“What’s a phase?”

“Being a doctor.”

Olivia choked on the water hard enough that Jason thumped her on the back and looked a little worried. Her eyes watered.

“Don’t look at me, I look stupid,” she managed to spit out in the middle of choking.

“Please try not to be such an idiot. Are you all right? Can you breathe?”

“Of course I can breathe. You’re a doctor, you can see that. Even without a medical degree, that should be evident.”

She cleared her throat a few times and felt better, and finally managed to get her incredulous question out.

“Your parents think that going to medical school is a phase? How? How is that a phase? Dying your hair blue is a phase, though for Ellie it’s a phase that leads from pink to green. How is going to med school a phase?”

Jason shrugged.

“I was expected to go into Spade, take over, you know, that kind of thing. That was what I was expected to do. I was good at everything in school. It came easily to me. Well, my parents, they are geniuses, it was bound to rub off on their child, I suppose. It’s genetics, isn’t it? I was going along with the plan, too, but then I went to college – early, I graduated high school two years early and skipped a year of college – and I just…”

“Had a phase and decided to do pre-med?”

“I guess.”

“So after that you went to med school and your parents still think that was a phase? Do they know what med school is like?”

“Well, sure, they fund programs including med schools, but they still think that… I don’t know how to explain, really. I mean, everything comes easily to them. Learning is easy for me, too. So they think that when I’m done learning, I’ll just give up on being a doctor and go and do what I’m supposed to do. They’re very… indulgent about it.”

“Indulgent?”

“Better than cutting me off and things like that, right?”

“But Jason, you’re an excellent doctor. Not just that, you’re going to be an excellent pediatrician. You’re good at neonatal care, too. You could choose either of those and you would be one of the best in the country. How can they think that’s a phase? It’s a vocation. How are they not proud of you?”

Jason laughed, but it was the first time that she’d heard him laugh and sound so much less than happy.

“It’s not that they’re not proud of me. They’re proud of how good I am at my phase. They just don’t understand that this is something I have to do.”

“Well, they’re being terribly shortsighted and not understanding at all, then. I don’t like your parents,” declared Olivia furiously.

Jason looked at her, a little surprised.

“Really?”

“Well, I mean… yes, really. Really. I wouldn’t embarrass you if they came here and I met them or something, but I don’t like them and until they understand how important this is to you and how it’s very real and not just something you’re going to grow out of, I don’t like them, either.”

Jason sighed a little.

“Do you know something? I don’t think anybody has ever gotten so mad about this before.”

“What? You must’ve gotten mad about it. If I were you, I’d be mad about it.”

“It’s not that easy. My parents don’t mean to make me feel bad.”

“It’s not about what they mean, it’s about what they do. And if they don’t understand after this long, then they’re not trying hard enough. They must be trying pretty hard to stick to their own point of view. That must be harder than just accepting what you say about yourself.”

“No, nobody has ever gotten this mad at anybody on my behalf. I like it. I definitely like it. And I like how you look in my shirt. I think I like everything about this moment. If I could pick one moment to freeze forever, I think it might be this one.”

Olivia shook her head, still angry at the thought of how much it must have hurt to have his dream and his vocation brushed aside so casually, as if completely inconsequential. It must have hurt, of course it must have hurt. Olivia decided to send her own parents some flowers. They never did anything of the sort to her, not even when she was trying to figure out whether she wanted to be a ballerina or a doctor. They’d never pushed her.

After hearing of Ellie’s family, and now Jason’s, he was more grateful of hers than ever before.

“You deserve better, Jason. I don’t care how rich they are. You deserve better.”

And her heart trembled a little again.

It was late. It was very late.

It was infuriating to keep checking the time, but it was definitely almost three.

Olivia was not back. She was not home.

Bi*ch.

Sl*t.

Wh*re.

This was unacceptable!