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British Writer. Her novels are considered Literature Classics.

William

CHAPTER SEVEN

Days Later

I knowhow to handle obsessions.

No one becomes the best at what they do for nothing.

It might sound cliché, but to reach the top of your profession—or in fact, any area of your life—you have to be one hundred percent committed. I never do anything halfway. When I see what I want, I dive in completely.

I’m not saying obsessions are healthy; I’m just acknowledging they’re part of who I am. The only constant obsession I’ve ever had was medicine; everything else comes and goes.

Cars, an innovative technique in my field, women—whatever sparks my interest or desire gets my full attention for a while, but as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, there’s an expiration date.

I usually welcome my obsessions. I don’t fight them, especially the challenging ones. I’ve never liked anything that comes easy.

For the first time, though, there’s something—someone—occupying my mind without respite, and I don’t know how to handle it, because my latest obsession is my grandmother’s employee: the redhead, Taylor Jarvis.

She just turned twenty-three. Yes, I found out that, on the very day I ran into her at the bookstore, it was her twenty-third birthday. Alone in the world, and as far as my cynicism allows me to believe, far too innocent for me.

I’ve been to Maryann’s house several times since that bookstore encounter, not because my heart yearns to see Taylor or any romantic nonsense like that, but because I want to understand what it is about her that keeps me replaying her voice and her smiles in my head.

Why does the way she looks at me seem different from that of any other woman I’ve known? How can someone so young ignite my desire to the point that I don’t feel like sleeping with anyone else?

Maybe it’s because I’ve never met anyone who seems so comfortable with herself. Taylor is gorgeous, but she doesn’t use that as a weapon. I’ve never seen her lush red hair done up in some elaborate style. It’s always loose or in a messy ponytail.

She doesn’t wear a scrap of makeup—even though that might highlight her huge blue eyes and translucent skin. She never shows up in anything but jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers. She doesn’t dress up for me, although I’m sure she’s noticed I’ve been visiting Maryann’s house more often just to see her—in fact, that I’m hunting her down.

The looks she gives me, and especially the blush on her cheeks when our eyes meet, tell me the attraction is mutual. But either Taylor’s afraid of getting involved with me and risking her job once all of this ends, or she’s playing some game, trying a seduction strategy to keep me hooked.

“I’ve been enjoying your unexpected visits,” Maryann says, “but I want to know how you’ve managed to find so much free time to come by so often. Are you short on patients, by any chance?”

I study her in silence for a few seconds. My grandmother is one of the sharpest people I know. She’s already noticed my interest in the girl.

“No. Just as many patients as ever. In fact, we’re thinking of expanding—maybe even building another hospital,” I reply, recalling the lunchtime conversation I had with my two best friends and business partners, Athanasios?1and L.J.?2“My schedule’s fully booked until the end of next year.”

“I doubt you’d turn down a patient in need,” she says.

“If he presented a challenge, I’d take him,” I answer.

She shakes her head slowly from side to side. “You can fool anyone you want, William, but I know that you have a generous heart inside that icy shell. You put on layers of frost, but you’re the passionate type. And I don’t mean just about women. Passion is part of who you are, in your career and in your personal life.”

“I think you’re mixing up passion with obsession, Grandma.”

“Passion is an obsession when it dies quickly. If it lasts, it becomes love.”

“Love is an abstract concept to me.”

“Love isn’t meant to be understood. That analytical mind of yours can try to dissect it until it shorts out, and you’ll never grasp the reason you fall for someone. What sets one human being so completely apart from another?”

“Physical attraction.”

“If that were true, William, you would’ve fallen in love hundreds of times, given how many girlfriends you’ve had.”

I stand up, feeling uncomfortable with this conversation. It was a lousy idea to pursue Taylor so persistently. Maryann has caught on and is starting to cook up romantic notions in her head.