Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

53. Frustrated competitor

Cat's phone rings and she answers, letting in Tess's voice through the car's stereo. She was on her way as fast as she could, battling her own irritatingly frustrating imagination.

"Hi."

"Get your errand done?" Tess asks suspiciously.

"Yeah, I'm just on my way to New York General to follow up."

"Nah, Narcotics is already on it, oh, and the boyfriend's a dead end."

Cat blinks, looking out the window. "Oh good," then she realizes what she said, "I mean, now we can have some more down time," she chuckles.

"You sound weird. Is it the guy?"

"Uh, kinda."

Tess snorts. "Alright that's it, I'm cancelling my plans with Mister Married. You and I are hanging out."

"No no no, Tess," Cat sighs. "It's okay, I just really need some time alone right now." She closes her eyes, praying that Tess would take it and also hating herself for the lie.

"Alright well whatever you do, don't call on - I don't even know his name?"

Cat shakes her head. "At this point why bother?"

*******

Vincent chewed carefully on the food that Alex prepared. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

"Is it good?" she asks, sipping from a glass of red wine.

He looks at her, seated beside him on the carpet. "Yeah, it's great," he smiles.

"That's good, because it's still only one of three dishes that I actually know how to make," she chuckles shyly.

He nods, swallowing the chewy piece of green pasta. He pushes the rest around the plate, staring at it. It was quiet between them. Awkwardly so. He had things to tell her, he just needed to get the courage.

"Are you sure you can't have some wine?"

"I was part of an experiment in the military," he says, still looking at the plate. No more thinking. Just say it.

She looks at him for a moment, then puts her wineglass down. "Okay?"

"It's just that uhm," he pauses. "Well, it didn't go as planned and...that's what I needed to tell you."

Alex really cared about Vincent and she could tell it was hard for him to talk about it. She was going to try to be as supportive as possible. "So do you have post traumatic stress or - ?"

He closes his eyes and shakes his head. "No it's more complicated...
Uhm, I am more complicated." He looks at her.

"You're not," she says softly, rubbing his back in comfort. "Maybe your circumstances are but I know you - "

"No you don't." He sighs. There it was. The hard truth. "You don't."

Alex frowns and stops rubbing his back. She looks him over. "I'm starting to feel like you don't wanna do this?"

"No," he says, "I do."

"Then what? Does your handler not think it's a good idea?" she asks heatedly.

Vincent closes his eyes, breathing deeply. Catherine had nothing to do with this. "Alex, I told you it's complicated."

"No you said you were complicated."

"I don't know, look, I'm just trying to do the right thing here and I just, I want you to know what you're getting into." He looks down at his hands.

"Vince," Alex says. "I told you, I'm in."
He meets her eyes. "Look, people fantasize about leaving their lives all the time. We actually get to do it. Go where nobody knows us. Start a clinic." Vincent can't help the smile. "Help people."