Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
As I’m sure you’re aware, he said.
People don’t typically talk about their strained relationships with their parents on the first date. I certainly would never bring up my mother. You talk about music, your interests.
So why would Dr. O’Rourke put it like that? As I’m sure you’re aware?
Why would I know?
And more importantly…
What should I know?
16
MADDOX
I’m back at Randolph and State. It’s about ten minutes before Alissa said she’d meet me here.
So much for being fashionably late.
But Alissa is worth showing up early for. I still can’t get that kiss outside her apartment door out of my mind. I’ve jacked off three times since the date just thinking about it.
Normally I’d abstain before a date. But with Alissa in mind, I couldn’t help myself.
She brings Mad Maddox out even when she’s not in the room.
My phone buzzes. A text from Harrison, my best friend.
Hey. Super random, but I think the woman you’re seeing tonight works at my hospital.
No way. I mean, Harrison is a cardiothoracic attending surgeon at a hospital downtown. But this is Chicago. There are lots of hospitals, lots of doctors. What are the odds?
Alissa Maravilla?
She’s the one. She’s a nurse in the transplant wing. You’ve never taken a woman to the club before, have you?
Nope. Until yesterday, you were the only person I’d brought as my guest.
An honor. Hope you know that I’m not putting out.
Very funny.
Anyway, I hope I didn’t fuck you over. I mentioned that you have brought me there in the past as your wingman. This was before I connected the dots and realized it was you she was seeing.
Fuck.
I hope Alissa didn’t get the wrong impression. I’ve dated and hooked up casually in the past, but that doesn’t mean my feelings for her aren’t real. Hell, I shared Aces with her on the first date.
Did you tell her she’s the first woman I’ve taken to the club?
I mentioned that, yes.
Alissa and I talked about Harrison last night. She guessed that I brought him as a wingman. She said that it wasn’t a big deal.
I hope she knows that this date with her is a big deal. I’m not just hoping to get into her pants—though I certainly won’t say no if she offers—I want to get to know this woman.
Good. I’ll talk to you later. Meeting Alissa for our second date in a few minutes.
I put my phone back in my pocket.
I look around the corner.
It’s not as cold tonight because the sun was out all day. I chose a light-gray suit for tonight over a black shirt and a blood-red tie. And of course a gray fedora, the same one I wore the night I first met Alissa.
Only two days ago. It feels like a lifetime ago. From this point forward, I’ll measure my life in years of BA and AA.
Before Alissa and After Alissa.
I check my watch. A few minutes past six.
Where is she?
I’ve always prided myself on being punctual, perhaps to a fault. If I’m ever running late for an appointment, I call ahead. And I’m usually more upset about it than the person I was supposed to meet. That was something my father drilled into my head. Time is finite, son, and you show respect to your colleagues by respecting their time. Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable. No exceptions.
But Alissa isn’t meeting me for a dental appointment or for a work meeting. She’s meeting me for a date. She’s allowed to have a few minutes to herself.
Five minutes past the hour now.
My heart takes a dive into my stomach. What if Harrison fucked me over?
Or—oh God—what if he told Alissa who my father is?
He wouldn’t think anything of it. Most people in the city have heard my name, at least in passing.
Alissa doesn’t know who I am.
And I like that.
I’m sick to death of women who are after my family’s money. They lose all interest once they find out I turned away my family’s riches in favor of an old haberdashery.
I don’t want to live in the cesspool of Chicago politics. Politics in general, if I’m being honest. Screw my family’s money. There would always be a new condition attached to it. The dominos would keep lining up. That’s how my father worked his entire life.
It's part of the reason for his downfall, too.
All those deals made behind closed doors, all the working the media like puppets, all the flashing cameras and hot mics. My dad was a master at it, until his luck ran out.
It never sat well in my gut. I don’t want to live like that.
Better to die a pauper than a prince of politics.
All Alissa has to do is a Google search, and she’ll know everything.
I thought she was different. I knew she was different.
It’s ten past the hour.