15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

come I haven’t heard about this guy?”
I smile a little. “Things are kind of... it’s not really.. .” I have no
idea how to explain our situation to my mother. “He works a lot, so we
haven’t really spent that much time together. At all. This is actually
the first time we’ve been to dinner together.”
My mother raises an eyebrow. “Really?” she says, leaning back in
her seat. “He sure doesn’t treat it like that. I mean—he seems
comfortably affectionate with you. Not normal behavior with someone
you’ve just met.”
“We didn’t just meet,” I say. “It’s been almost a year since the first
time I met him. And we’ve spent time together, just not on a date. He
works a lot.”
“Where does he work?”
“Massachusetts General Hospital.”
My mother leans forward and her eyes practically bulge from her
head. “Lily!” she hisses. “He’s a doctor?”
I nod, suppressing my grin. “A neurosurgeon.”
“Can I get you ladies something to drink?” a waiter asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “We’ll take three.. .”
And then I clamp my mouth shut.
I stare at the waiter and the waiter stares back at me. My heart is in
my throat. I can’t remember how to speak.
“Lily?” my mother says. She flicks her hand toward the waiter. “He’s
waiting for your drink order.”
I shake my head and begin to stutter. “I’ll... um.. .”
“Three waters,” my mother says, interrupting my fumbled words.
The waiter snaps out of his trance long enough to tap his pencil on
his pad of paper.
“Three waters,” he says. “Got it.” He turns and walks away, but I
watch as he glances back at me before pushing through the doors to
the kitchen.
My mother leans forward and says, “What in the world is wrong
with you?”
I point over my shoulder. “The waiter,” I say, shaking my head. “He
looked exactly like.. .”
I’m about to say, “Atlas Corrigan,” when Ryle walks up and slides
back into the seat.