Page 14 of A Man of Prestige

I went to him. I inserted myself in whatever fucked-up situation he’s gotten himself into. I let him fuck me in my own apartment. Shit. My clothes are still at his house.

What am I doing? I need him to leave. I need to get my head on straight. I have my own shit to figure out, I can’t be dealing with his.

“I’ll leave, but this isn’t over,” he says as he turns to go to my door. He pauses with his hand on the doorknob. “I meant what I said, Ella. Whatever is between us, is still there.”

With that, he opens the door and leaves. I continue standing in the middle of my living room completely confused. And quite frankly, not wanting to face the facts.

Eventually, I will myself to take a shower and wash off his smell. His sweatpants smell of his laundry detergent. The same one he’s always used.

I take a long shuddering breath once I’m under the hot water falling from my rain showerhead. I try to still my overworking mind, but it’s filled with a cascade of memories that won’t stop. I hurry to get out of the shower, determining that it’s not going to help me by staying in here.

Once I get into my own clothes, I sit on the edge of my bed. It’s late, I should go to sleep, but I can’t in this restless state. So instead, I go to my home office and start researching.

I look up the people I know in his life. I find out what they are currently doing. I look up his mentors. I look up his father. I look up his friends’ parents. I continue searching, for what, I don’t know.

As the sun rises over the Washington Monument in the distance, I know one thing for sure. Every single one of his frat brothers holds a position of power. Their collective worth is staggering. They run…everything. Something about that doesn’t sit well with me.

I pour myself a coffee and look at the screen. It’s a photo of the president, Jason Lewis, yet another TOD brother. I know fraternities and Greek life, in general, is about networking, but this, this is beyond that. I begin to wonder if Aiden’s advancements in his career are linked to his status as a TOD alumnus. Did he earn it? Or was he placed there? And why would someone want him working at the National Institutes of Health?

I pause as something I never considered dawns on me. If my boss was TOD, and his brother was as well, then the drug I have in my lab right now, may be being used for way more powerful reasons than I previously thought.

I sit and stare at my second screen, which has information on the pharmaceutical companies involved, Confervo and Halfagher. They want to merge. But why? There’s the obvious, but I can’t help thinking there’s more to it than that.

I crawl into bed. I need a few hours to sleep. All of this is becoming a jumbled mess in my mind. I’m missing something, something key.

* * *

Dreams are strange and powerful.I wake with a start, sitting straight up in my bed. The embers of what I had been experiencing a moment ago start to die away, but one thing remains clear. Aiden. I was dreaming about Aiden. I fall back onto my pillow with a huff. What am I doing? Every time I’m around him, I lose my mind. I go from playing it safe to throwing caution to the wind. He brings out some crazy fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants self that I’ve kept on lockdown for years. I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to plan and be calculated. College. Med school. Navy. Everything was wrapped up in a neat package until the day I walked into that summer clinic and took a seat next to Aiden Thomas. He made me see for the first time, really see the world. Until that day, it was like I was going through life with blinders on and then he took them off, and I suddenly realized how much I’d been missing. When I left him, it nearly broke me, but I managed to survive by immersing myself in my work. My work became my life. Maybe, just maybe, I chose the wrong path. I haven’t cried in a long time. I honestly wasn’t sure I could, but I feel a tear well in my eye and then spill down my cheek, followed by another and another. I grab a tissue and wipe my eyes. I can’t break down. I need to be strong. I need to figure out what’s going on, but I can’t keep playing the lava game where Aiden is the lava. I’m going to have to force myself to figure it out, only I’m not sure I’m ready to do that. Should I tell him the things I’ve kept from him? I look toward my nightstand. Perhaps it’s time.

I open my blinds. It’s daytime, but I have no idea what time. I reach for my phone and groan when I realize I left it at Aiden’s. Damn it!

I find the time on the laptop’s screen. I slept in late. Shit.

I crawl out of bed and stumble to my shower. I need to go to his house. It’s the last thing I want to do, but I need my phone.

I quickly dress after showering and head to my front door. As I pull it open, I freeze and look down at the floor in front of me. My phone and the burner phone he gave me sit neatly atop my clothes which are folded. Even my coat is there.

There’s a small note card on top of the phone. Looking around, I slowly lift the card to read it. The front of it has a fancy monogram. AFT. Aiden Franklin Thomas. I open the note card, my hand shaking slightly.

My star,

I knew you’d want your things this morning. I don’t know what happened between us all those years ago. There are more things to discuss. You know it and I know it. I’ll be waiting for your call.

Your Aid

My Aid. I swallow back the emotions that threaten to erupt again. He can’t be mine.

I pick up my clothes and turn my phone on. It’s fully charged. I roll my eyes. Of course, he even charged it. I check my messages.

“Hey, Ella. You left some lab samples to finish. I just wanted you to know that they are done. The emailed results should be in your inbox. I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do with the sample though. I need to use the machine later,” Michelle Schneider says. Michelle is my youngest lab tech. Straight out of the Naval Academy, she interned with me, and I requested that she be stationed here. She’s brilliant and is going for her master’s degree.

I press call.

“Hey, it’s Ella. Just leave them on my desk. I’ll be in shortly. I had some admin to do this morning, but I’m done and heading in now,” I explain as I grab my purse and keys. I decided to run one last diagnostic on the sample from Aiden. It’s not what he asked for, but I’m curious about it.

“Cool. Also, Admiral Blake was in here like fifteen minutes ago. He asked for you, so maybe call him?”

Shit. “Yeah, sure. Thanks, Michelle.”

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