Perfectly Adequate

Chapter One

SHE’S GONE

Elijah

A woman broke me, so I chose a woman to put me back together.

Probably not my most brilliant idea.

“It’s been a year.” I stare at my folded hands, ignoring cloudy downtown Portland just outside the window to my right.

August.

My wife left me at the end of summer, two days after our son’s second birthday. Impeccable timing. I’d say out of the blue, but that would be a monumental understatement. She seduced me the previous night, after we shared a bottle of wine—and dare I say the best sex of our entire married life.

We met in high school and attended the same college. Medical school. Residency. Hobbies. Shared life goals.

Check.

Check.

Check.

“Yes. Time to move on. Julie’s not coming back to you. Have you thought about dating? You’re surrounded by women all day. Surely someone has a friend that might be a good match for you.”

“You’re the worst psychiatrist ever.” I close my eyes, shaking my head.

“My colleagues would disagree.” Dr. Lori Hawkins brushes her chin-length, silver hair away from her face etched with a few soft wrinkles. Her hazel eyes peer at me from over the black frames of her glasses. She excels in all the mom looks.

Sit down.

Shut up.

You’re lying.

Don’t be a baby.

The family discount comes with an extra-large side of sarcasm and hardcore truth. My mom’s attention lingers a whole two seconds before returning to her salad.

“I haven’t dated since high school. Do you know how many years that’s been?”

“Twenty since you graduated. Twenty-four since you started high school. I’m good with math.” She dips her fork into basil-lime dressing before stabbing a grape tomato.

“It’s all online dating now. No one gets fixed up. I don’t think. I’m not really sure.” I rub the tension from the back of my neck.

“You’re a millennial. You’ll figure it out.” She blots her red lips with a napkin. “I’m a millennial by fourteen days.” Leaning forward, I rest my elbows on her desk, framing my face with my hands. A deep sigh escapes me. I have lots of deep sigh moments. The previous year has felt like one big, deep sigh.

She fights her grin. “You look like the little dirty-blond-haired boy that your grandma used to bring into this very office thirty-plus years ago to have lunch with me. That baby face and cute nose.” The tip of her fork bops my nose as I wrinkle it. “Of course, now you’re all grown up. A tall, handsome doctor who needs to shave more often and could use a haircut. I wish your grandma was here to see you now. She’d be so proud.”

After a few seconds, I frown, scratching my scruffy face. “I hate her. I thought after this much time I’d stop hating her, but I think I hate her more now than I did then.”

“Grandma? That’s not very nice … she was a bit stubborn, and she liked to swat your ornery little ass sometimes, but—”

“Julie.” I roll my eyes.

Mom smirks. It quickly settles into a sad smile. “Why? What purpose does it serve to hold on to that hatred?”

My shoulders lift toward my ears, an excruciatingly hard feat given the way I’ve carried the weight of the world for so long. “I’m not sure it will ever make sense to me. We waited until our mid-thirties to start a family. Roman wasn’t an accident. We planned for him. We planned every part of our lives to fit around him. Julie scaled back her surgeries because she wanted to be home more with him. I turned down a promotion because the added hours would have taken away from time with my family. Then one day she’s just … done? I go from seeing my son every day to being a part-time parent? What is that? Who does that? Who just walks away because they’re…” I shake my head “…what were her words? Not that woman anymore?”

Mom bites her lips together, returning the lid to her salad. “I saw Julie with Roman the other day at Shemanski Park, buying flowers for her mom’s birthday. Julie has a tattoo on her ankle, a lotus. When I complimented her on it, she showed me Roman’s name tattooed at the nape of her neck with a heart next to it. Did you know about the tattoos? Or that she’s a redhead now instead of a blonde?”

“Yes. I know. My sophisticated wife—ex-wife—who obsessively ironed our clothes and wore her hair in the same long, straight style since we were in high school, has wavy, red hair, tattoos, and the wardrobe of a teenager.”

And boobs. I don’t say it aloud and neither does my mom, but Julie got breast implants six months ago, and she likes to show them to the world. Turtlenecks … she wore turtlenecks with me.

“Rhonda’s daughter recently turned twenty-four. She’s an architect who just got out of a lesbian relationship because she’s questioning her sexuality again. She’s had some health issues that have played havoc on her hormones. Poor thing. But she’s doing better, and Rhonda thinks she’s ready to try dating men again. Loves adventure. The nicest girl you could ever meet.” Mom takes out a compact, checks her teeth for lettuce, pops a mint into her mouth, and applies a soft pink shade of lipstick.

“Your secretary’s maybe-possibly-not-sure-if-she’s-a-lesbian daughter? I feel like you’re disregarding my emotions.” I stand, angling my arm to see my watch. “But we’ll save that for next time. I have to get back to work.”

She pushes back in her chair, making her way around the desk to give me a hug. “I love you, Eli. And not just because you bring me lunch every Friday.”

I drop a quick kiss onto her cheek. “But that makes me the favorite, right?”

Mom chuckles. “You’re my favorite boy.”

I grin, being the youngest of three … and the only boy.

Releasing me, her glossed lips turn downward. “You met Julie when you were sixteen. That’s pretty young to expect forever.”

I nod. She’s been my other half, my better half, my morning cup of coffee, and my favorite goodnight kiss for so long I stopped counting. We were supposed to be forever—that unreachable number. Yet, here I am starting again at zero.

One … I have Roman. He is my one, and one is enough; it’s officially everything.

“She wasn’t everything, Eli.”

How did she read my mind?

“Julie is the mother of your child. That makes her something … but not everything.”

**

I grab a coffee and make my way toward my lab. Rounds went well this morning. Some good research results this afternoon is all I need to make Friday officially the best day of this week.

A shiny pair of red sneakers with red soles and red laces snag my attention when the doors open on the second floor. The sneakers move toward me, and my gaze slides up the blue scrubs to the young woman with shoulder-length, sable hair and a friendly smile. She makes eye contact for two seconds before turning toward the doors and pressing the button to the fifth floor.

“Nice shoes,” I say.

“Thanks, Dr. Hawkins.” Her blue eyes make a return to me with her surprisingly enthusiastic reply to my compliment.

My lips curl into an unavoidable smile. “Have we met?”

She tucks her dark hair behind her ears. “Yes. No. Well, I hear a lot about you. And I’ve delivered mail to your office and test results to your lab. We’ve passed in the hall, but clearly you don’t recognize me, maybe because I’m usually pushing a patient or a piece of medical equipment. So … we have not officially met.”

“I see…” I glance at her badge “…Dorothy?”

She doesn’t look like a Dorothy. Maybe a Lauren or an Elizabeth. Maybe even a trendy name like Poppy.

Her hand goes straight to her badge. “Yes. I’m a patient transporter and a nursing student.” Blue eyes roll toward the ceiling as she bites her lips together. Dorothy’s cute. Young. Petite. My mom and sisters would say something like “simply adorable, cute as a button,” or something crazy like that.

My grin swells by twenty percent. She has a forced confidence. I think it’s forced. Maybe just nerves. I can’t tell for sure. “What do you hear about me?” My head cants to the side just as the elevator stops on the fourth floor—my floor.

She points her finger upward. “I’m the next stop.”

“You’re not off the hook. I’ll catch you later.”

“You will?” she blurts as I step off the elevator.

“Yep.” I don’t turn back.

Dr. Warren, my intern, glances up from his tablet, peering over my shoulder as the elevator doors close behind me. “Dorothy Mayhem. Now there’s an odd duck.”

Mayhem? I keep my amusement to myself. Dorothy seems like an oxymoron to Mayhem.

“Odd how?” I brush past him toward my lab, and he follows right on my heels.

“She has like a million pairs of tennis shoes and they always match her undershirt. I saw her in the cafeteria last Sunday, eating lunch. She had a red metal lunch box, all prim and proper looking on one side, but the other side was covered in stickers. Decals … like Nike and Taylor Swift. I tried to say something to her, but she had earbuds in and was reading some textbook. Willow said she’s on the spectrum. I can totally see that. I once dated an Aspie. It lasted all of two weeks. Damn eager to please in bed, so it wasn’t completely awful.”

“You’re a dick. Did you know that?” I swipe my badge to open the lab door.

“I’m just saying … it’s a tough personality. Grating and annoying.”

“It’s ASD, not Aspie, and you’re annoying me. Does that mean you’re on the spectrum?”

He chuckles. “Point made. I was just making conversation. Don’t get me wrong. She’s cute. Kinda has that innocent sex appeal. Plain but forbidden in some ways.”

I pull up the previous day’s test results on my laptop. “Placebo is performing better. Go figure. Tell me why the placebo is performing better, and I’ll forgive you for being a dick.”

Warren deflates as I smirk at him.

No one wants to cure cancer more than me … except Warren. His younger sister died of a malignant brain tumor a year earlier. My motivation isn’t as personal. I just want to stop offering painful and oftentimes false hope to young people who should have their whole lives ahead of them instead of fighting for a chance to have one more Christmas, a high school prom, or the opportunity to fall in love and have their hearts broken.