“Great.” I couldn’t help but laugh at their insolence.
“Mum and dad are doing dinner tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Are you going?”
“I don’t know. I have a patient that’s unstable so…” I was still waiting for the parents of my non-concussion patient to sign the surgical permission document. It was just another thing that was making me on edge.
“Sounds serious.” Dorian replied.
It always amused me how such an intelligible and successful barrister had lost the name lottery. I had no idea what my parents were thinking naming a girl Dorian because my mother desperately wanted another boy.
“It is.”
“I hope it all works out. Let me know if you need anything. I know the divorce is done and everything, and I know that it’s not my area…”
“Dorian, I really am fine. I spoke to Jenna today and we understand each other better.”
“I still want to get my cross and stake out every time I hear her name.” Willow hissed.
“Stop being a drama queen.”
“Sorry. Can’t. It’s my occu
pation. You save lives, she cleans messes and I bring the fun!” She chimed. “Also, I have tickets for my matinée in December. Wanna come big brother? Quincy’s already said yes.”
“After you blackmailed her into it.”
“Means must.”
“I’m going to go now. Thank you for reminding me why I only need you both in small doses. I love you.”
“You too.” They both crooned and put the phone down.
Quincy
I love it here. The fresh air and the sound of the warm breeze rippling the water makes it impossible not to relax. It should feel like you’re constantly being watched by all the other homes around the enormous lake, but even when the jet skis and the motorboats are out on the water and the neighbours are all out it’s so tranquil and quiet. It’s like the water and the Cotswolds air eat up all the manmade noise and the only thing left are the birds chirping and the branches of the trees swaying and their leaves rustling.
It’s peaceful. And I need the peace so badly right now. I’ve tried doing some more advanced reading for September. Every time I think that I’m about to start my first year of Medicine at one of the top three medical schools in the world I get a little panicky. Oxford has been my dream since I was old enough to understand dad’s conversations with mum about his patients. He’s a Cardiothoracic Surgeon. He’s exactly what I want to be. And I’m shitting myself because what if I’m just not as great as he is?
I’ve done nothing but study my whole life. I study and I dream, because one isn’t enough without the other. Phillip makes fun of me because I’m not very social, mum and dad always push me to make friends, but the reality is that I’m happy with the friends I have. I don’t want more. I don’t have the time for more, although Richard keeps telling me that once I start Uni it’ll change. I don’t think it will.
“A penny for your thoughts?”
I swear every time he talks to me my heart just about explodes out of my chest. Jamie’s voice is so different. It’s changed. It’s deeper and rumbly, and it makes me think and imagine things that I don’t usually go out of my way to think about let alone imagine. It makes my belly do acrobatics and my mouth water.
How is that possible? How can his voice alone do that to me?
“Are you still angry with me?” He asks as he sits on the edge of the hot tub my parents had installed on the first-floor balcony.
It’s such a pretty view. The water and the trees that surround one side of it with all the beautiful grey, white and light blue lake houses that line it in a cosy and enclosed U. You can just make out the green rolling hills surrounding us with the large church spire just about breaking the treeline. It’s just so wonderfully beautiful.
“I’m not upset with you,” I hear myself reply even though I am a little.
To be honest I think I’m a little more heartbroken that he’s leaving than I am angry. I was so looking forward to having Jamie around at Oxford, but he’s going to do an Overseas Exchange to UCLA so he can learn from some great minds like Doctor Wilson Weller—a teaching and practicing Neurosurgery god. Or whatever Jamie calls him.
Phillip decided to stay close to home at UCL even though he got an offer to Oxford just like Jamie and Richard did three years ago. He doesn’t want to leave his girlfriend, Jamie’s sister and my best friend, behind. I think I’m a little bit jealous of them, even if I am happy for them.