Saving Forever - Part 3 Read online

  “Probably a good idea.” He yawned again and tried to hide it behind his hand.

  “I’ll set something up then and check with your secretary when you’re available. If you know where the funds will be allocated, we’ll do it by that wing or by the equipment you want.” She closed her briefcase and set the strap over her shoulder. “Thanks again for dinner.”

  Malcolm stood. “No problem. Thanks for coming here. I enjoyed it.”

  “Me too.” They shook hands. “I’ll see you on Monday at work.”

  New Year’s ended up being a quiet one. Elijah switched his night shift with another doctor for the New Year’s Eve day shift. He booked a flight for six o’clock and called Charity from his freshly repaired and stacked fire-wall hacking phone. Nearly six now, he said he wouldn’t make it because he was stuck in surgery. He planned to catch a later flight and had to call again to say he was still in surgery. He called her via speaker phone. She heard all the sounds of the operating room: the heart monitor; some kind of ventilating machine; people scurrying about in the room. Even her father mumbled some kind of Happy New Year to her. Elijah’s last words before he got cut off were: I’ll call you as soon as I can.

  So Charity stayed in and watched the ball drop from the TV in her bedroom. She had bought tickets for a fancy club for the two of them and considered going by herself, but the idea seemed too daunting. Who would go to a club on New Year’s Eve, on their own, without the intention of hooking up? She had no intentions and tossed the tickets in the trash instead.

  She didn’t mind being on her own. It wouldn’t be something she would do every year. Having Elijah with her would have been perfect, but she understood his job. She couldn’t complain. In fact, she was kind of proud he had sacrificed his personal time to save a patient.

  He called at ten to one in the morning. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it.”

  “It’s fine. Happy New Year.”

  “Oh shit! Is it New Year’s already? Crap! I thought it was ten minutes to midnight. I’m sorry. Happy New Year.”

  “It’s fine. You didn’t miss anything exciting down here.”

  He chuckled. “I beg to differ.”

  She smiled at the phone. “So what happened?”

  “The patient flies into emerg sometime after four this afternoon. He fell from the second floor of his house and impaled himself with a pole. You won’t believe me so call your dad tomorrow and ask him what happened. It was crazy!”

  Charity tried not to imagine what the poor guy looked like but an image implanted in her head. “Did he die?”

  “A couple of times, actually. The ambulance brought him in with the pole still in his chest! They didn’t know how to cut it out or if it would cause more damage. We couldn’t do an MRI so we had to old school it and then wing it. It was amazing!”

  She was pretty sure the guy on the operating table didn’t think it was too amazing. She kept the thought to herself because she wanted to know what happened.

  “I called you around six just before we decided to pull the rod out. The thing had actually gone through a part of his heart.”

  “No!”

  “Yes! But get this, the guy’s some cardio-fitness die hard and his heart kept beating and working like nothing had happened. It was leaking blood into his chest but the heart seemed oblivious to the metal.”

  Holy smokes! Definitely a good excuse for missing New Year’s with her.

  “Your dad came in and pulled the rod out so I could concentrate on the guy’s heart. It was incredible. We lost him and then managed to get him back and, you won’t believe this, saved him. Then some intern pulled the drain tube out by mistake. He said his fingers got caught when he was fixing the monitor. Anyways, back to surgery we went. The guy did not want to die. I’ve never seen a body so determined to fight.”

  He filled her in on more of the surgery. As his yawns seemed to happen more than his words, she pretended to be exhausted.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’ll let you go. When do you think you’ll be up this way next?”

  She sighed, hoping the noise didn’t echo too loudly through the phone. “It won’t be til after Valentine’s. We have the auction dinner called Have a Heart and I need to organize that. What about you? Do you have a weekend off?”

  “Let me check my schedule.” A moment later he huffed. “I’ve got a workshop for new interns, a bunch of meetings, a conference. No, I can’t make it out to you for another five, maybe six, weeks.”

  She was glad he couldn’t see her face and the disappointment on it. They both had jobs that came first. His especially. “We’ll just have to set up a Skype session or two.”

  “What’s Skype?”

  Oh no. “Do you have an iPad? FaceTime?”

  “Yup. I think so.”

  She explained the program and when they finally agreed to hang up, he promised he would FaceTime tomorrow. She hoped the next month would fly by and planned on seeing him on, if not before, Valentine’s Day.

  Chapter 9

  “How are the auctions going?” Charity leaned over the computer tech’s shoulder to get a closer look at the screen. It was hard to believe the past four weeks had flown by and here they were, about to start the Have a Heart Auction. She pointed to a thousand dollar heart that popped up on the screen. “Who’s that for?”

  The tech laughed. “I thought you said you didn’t want to know anyone’s bids until the end of the night?” She scooted her chair over and pointed to the vacant one beside her. “Have a seat.”

  Charity set her coffee on the desk and sat down. “Thanks, Samantha. So how does it work?”

  “Call me Sam. Everybody does.” She turned the monitor so Charity could see it. “You already know the bids can be done over the internet or by phone. It’s early now, but give it another twenty minutes and the screen will light up like a bingo game. People place their bids or the pre-bids are inserted and each square represents a specific person.”

  “I just can’t believe this kind of thing is popular. It blows my mind. A fellow fundraiser I know suggested it. I was hesitant to do it but there are a lot of good-looking doctors and staff so I figured it was worth trying here.” Charity shook her head. “That sounds really cheesy. I don’t mean how it sounds –”

  “I getchya. I’ve done this program for four years now and it’s always been successful. You don’t need to worry.” Sam checked her watch and turned back to the screen. “It should get crazy any minute now.”

  As if on cue, the monitor began beeping and flashing numbers all over it. Two specific spots flashed repeatedly and their numbers rose at rapid rates.

  “Who are those?” Charity tried to catch the letter that corresponded to the big flashing numbers but she couldn’t. She pulled the list out of her binder and put it on her clipboard.

  Sam scanned the list Charity held up. “D is Dr. Parker. He’s got…” She clicked her mouse to a sidebar and flipped through a bunch of pages Charity couldn’t follow. “He’s got three bidders going pretty hard and some lower bidders that died off after a couple hundred dollars.”

  “Can you tell who the bidders are?” The bids were anonymous but it didn’t hurt to ask.

  “I only have IP addresses. I can tell you they are all local.” Sam clicked on the other flashing letter and went through the same process. “The other money maker is…” She grinned and shot Charity a sly look. “You.”

  “What? Bull crap.” She figured a couple of bids would come her way, but not a lot of people knew her here.

  “Seriously.” Sam went through some more sidebar screens. “You have two main bidders. One set their bid early and the other is bidding now, trying to trump the pre-bid. Oh!” Sam tapped the screen. “You just hit three thousand dollars!”

  “You’re joking!” She didn’t believe it. Who could it be? “Do you have the IP address?”

  “Give me a sec.” Sam’s glasses slid down her nose and she tilted her head back to see the screen instead of pushing her glass
es back up. “The pre-bidder’s from New York.”

  Elijah? Julie? Hopefully not her Dad. It couldn’t be Dr. Parker because he would be dining with someone else at a table close by.

  “The other address is from Texas. You know anyone in Dallas?”

  Charity felt her eyes squint as she tried to think if she knew anyone down there. “I don’t think so. Why would someone bid from out of state?”

  “Someone’s desperate to have dinner with you.” Sam laughed. “They just jumped from three to five thousand!”

  Charity’s mouth dropped. Huh? She didn’t want to have dinner with some crazy guy that was willing to pay that much and planned to fly in for the event. It was dinner – nothing more. No after anything. Unless it was Elijah, then she’d gladly take care of dessert. “Is the New York bidder still the high bidder?”

  “Looks like it. There’s five minutes left before the auction closes. Do you want tallies of everything or just want to watch your table now?”

  She wanted to watch her table but knew that wasn’t the point of this fundraiser. She waved her hand. “Flip back to the main screen and let’s see how everyone is panning out.”

  Sam tore a sticky note into a smaller piece and covered Charity’s table. “We’ll check it last.” They watched the other auctions as they ended. Dr. Parker’s table ended with a winning bid of seven thousand.

  “That’s awesome,” Charity said as she tallied up the totals of the forty tables. She had rented a hall and hired a catering service and DJ for the entertainment. No one was supposed to know who their high bidder was. They would just be given a number. The bidders would know, not the people auctioned off. She had no right to ask who the winners were, even if it was her own.

  “Are you ready?” Sam lifted the sticky note a smidgen. “Do you think you topped Dr. Parker?”

  She shook her head.

  Sam ripped the note off quickly.

  Both girls stared at the screen, their mouths open. Eleven thousand dollars.

  Charity blinked, believing she was reading the number wrong. Sam whistled, proving Charity’s wishful thinking was useless.

  “That’s huge!” Sam clapped her hands. “Well done!”

  “Is it the New York IP address?” Charity whispered with a heavy feeling in her gut. She didn’t want anyone spending that kind of money on her, even for the benefit of the hospital.

  Sam clicked a few links and shook her head. “You’ve got some other secret admirer.”

  “My luck, it’s some serial killer.” Her sarcasm wasn’t hard to miss.

  “You’re funny. This was your idea and you’re the one who doesn’t want to do the dinner?” Sam chuckled.

  “I don’t mind doing the dinner. I just don’t want to be the one with the highest bid. It should be one of the doctors here.”

  “You sure that’s the reason you’re worried?” Sam could obviously see behind the lame excuse. “It’s just a dinner. There are no strings attached to do anything else or even speak to the high bidder again. Valentine’s Day is completely overrated in my opinion.”

  “Overpaid in my case this year.” She never liked Valentine’s Day either but this brought it to a whole new level for her dislike. Her phone vibrated from inside her pocket. She pulled it out to check it.

  Elijah had sent her a text: WTF! Lol I just checked your V-Auction. I bid $10,000 this morning before surgery figuring no one would get near it. I lost!! Who’s the secret admirer?

  She replied: I have no idea. The program doesn’t show names. Thanks for bidding for me though. That was super nice. Think I can play hooky and skip it? JK. The fact that he had bid on her made her heart melt. He had done it before a surgery which could only mean it meant something to him. Point for trying.

  It sucks I lost. He text again. Guess I can’t fly down and surprise you again. Probably wouldn’t be polite if I showed up at the dinner and beat the other bidder up. You sure you don’t know who it is?

  She smiled at his comment on beating the winner up. However, she didn’t like it that he asked again who the other bidder could be. He was the player, not her. He could still be a player and… She forced herself to stop the train of thought. He had tried to win a dinner with her and she was turning it into something they could argue about.

  She tried to make her reply fun. No clue. Maybe I have a secret stalker. I think you need to come down, buy a van and park it outside the hall. Do some recon work and I’ll send you photos of the guy. We can get the CIA + IRS + ABC + XYZ people to catch him.

  She reread the text after sending it and cringed. It sounded sarcastic and mocking. “Sam? Is there anything you need me to help you with?”

  “We’re good. I’ll send you everything and my crew will have everything set up at the hall next weekend. If there are any problems, I’ll give you a shout.”

  “Thanks.” Charity stood and collected her stuff and put it into her briefcase. “I’ll get going and make a few phone calls.”

  She left Samantha and went outside to head back to her office at the hospital. She jogged to her car, wanting to call Elijah as soon as she could. Sitting in the car, she saw he’d sent another text.

  The alphabet police? I’ll get on it right away. You know it’s serious if we have to stoop to those measures. Lol The bright spot is I don’t have to buy you flowers n chocolates n an expensive dinner. Tell the dude I owe him one. Ha.

  She laughed out loud, relieved that he hadn’t taken her message the wrong way. Will do. But you better promise to make me dinner next time I’m in NY.

  His reply came instantly back. You promise to make me dessert?

  Definitely. She added a winking face.

  I gotta go now but I’ll call you tonight.

  Charity leaned back against her seat before starting the car. There was no getting out of this Valentine’s dinner. She wished she could but knew it was impossible. In the back of her mind, she hoped it was Elijah playing a trick on her. Maybe he had someone bid for him from Texas. He could be the kind of guy to plan something like that. Thinking about his texts, it seemed pretty obvious it could be him. She smiled. She’d buy the hottest red dress in town and make it worth his secretive effort.

  Chapter 10

  On the evening of Valentine’s Day, Charity stood in the hall admiring all the details to the room. She loved the fact that she had popped by earlier and everything had been set up. She hadn’t needed to do anything. Samantha’s crew had done an amazing job. The red and purple decorations looked fantastic against the white tablecloths. Rose petals, balloons, and ribbons were set strategically throughout to make each table seem like it had its own privacy and still be in a large room. It looked great.

  The room had filled quickly with the people who had volunteered to be part of the auction. The dinner had raised over forty thousand dollars. Charity had aimed for ten. She loved being ahead of schedule. Her contract was set for two years, but if she continued on the pace they were going, she would be done in a year. The city of Atlanta was a very giving community.

  She wiped her hands on her dress, trying to wipe the imaginary sweat away. She had found a gorgeous tight red dress that was seductive, but perfectly presentable for the dinner. Samantha was the host for the evening and had warned her that she would get Charity to stand up when she made her opening speech. The dress was perfect, and the black lace bra and thong underneath would be the dessert Elijah had been hinting at. She had put champagne on ice back at her place and had everything set: music, strawberries, and whip cream. It would be a perfect evening.

  Dr. Parker came up to her and smiled. “You look lovely.”

  Charity gave him a hug. He was such a nice guy. “You look nervous.”

  His eyebrows came up. “You can tell? I’m not too keen on not knowing who’s coming to dinner with me.”

  “That’s part of the fun, the surprise of seeing who bought a plate to sit with you.”

  “Do you know who’s coming?”

  She shook her head. “Not a
clue. Don’t even know who bid on me.” Nobody would know how much each plate had been purchased for, either. Samantha had been adamant about not letting anyone feel disappointed or cocky. It wasn’t the idea behind the bidders buying their dinner. Everyone was on an equal playing field. Charity agreed and kept the bids a secret.

  A tinkling bell rang out. Samantha stood by the MC podium. She wore her hair down, a pretty skirt and blouse, and her tech glasses were nowhere to be seen. “Most of the guests have arrived. Would everyone please come stand by the wall by entrance to the hall? We’ll call out your name so you can pick your dinner date up and take them to your table.” She had shown everyone the seating chart earlier.

  As the guests came through the door, Charity could feel butterflies build in her stomach. Elijah had sent her a text earlier and told her to have a good time. He said he would be working all night and she could text and send pictures whenever she wanted. He had joked about hiring a black van and would have it parked outside the hall if she needed to make a quick getaway. Part of her believed him.

  Dr. Parker squirmed beside her when his name was called. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Have fun.”

  He chuckled when his date walked through the door.

  “Who is it?” Charity asked.

  “My ex-wife. She bought the ticket.”

  “There were three women bidding after you.”

  He looked at her in surprise. “I thought you said you didn’t know?”

  “Go, she’s waiting. She’s the lucky one.”

  “No, I am.” He smiled at his ex-wife and walked over to her.

  Charity could see the adoration in his eyes and realized they were both still in love with each other. It was really sweet. She straightened her dress when Samantha called her name. The room had filled up and low chatter and laughter drifted through the air. She was the last auction standing. She stared at the door, wondering what Elijah would be wearing. A tux? Something dark to bring out the gorgeous blue in his eyes? It didn’t matter. He would look gorgeous in anything.