Ethan and Dominic (manxman) Short Story

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Dominic…

(Lionel Clerc..image of what Dominic would look like----->)

I must admit that when my receptionist had called me out of my examination of my last office patient of the day for an important phone call, I was truly expecting it to be the Hospital calling me in for an emergency case or something in regards to one of my hospitalized postoperative patients. I didn’t expect the panicked Hostess of La Casa to be calling me and telling me that Ethan was in distress. And with that piece of news, there was nothing that could have held me back when I shrugged out of my white lab coat and jogged to my office to grab my suit jacket and my car keys. I had barely checked to make sure I had my wallet and cell phone before rushing out of my private practice hollering over my shoulder to my office staff to lock up and go home.

It was a flipping miracle that I didn’t get a traffic ticket on the way to over here to Ethan’s Restaurant. And I was trying to divert my overactive imagination from what could have triggered Ethan’s panic attack by thinking back to the day when he opened the doors to La Casa for the very first time. I was so proud of him. He had always enjoyed cooking so it wasn’t a surprise that after we graduated high school that he chose to go to culinary school as well as the state college to earn his MBA in business and become a renowned chef in his industry at only twenty-six years old.

While I went off to Medical School, I made sure that we weren’t far away from each other.  He had become even more delicate and vulnerable, and it screamed out to that protective side of me. Then after Ethan finished up with his studies and started apprenticing as an entry level chef in New York, I transferred to make sure I would always be there to watch out for him as usual. Then, I completed my surgical rotation and followed him home. I went into a group practice after interning as an ER physician and he apprenticed with a famous Italian chef at a five star eatery. Soon he was starry eyed and babbling nonstop about opening his own restaurant and his vision for what he wanted it to be. It was one of the only times I have ever witnessed him so animated. He would pounce on me in his excitement and send my heart rate through the roof. Then sadly he would realize he was touching me and immediately backed off flushing so enticingly from head to toe.

Silently I sat there willing him my strength and studying his trembling frame and the dejected droop of his head and shoulders. I couldn’t help the frustration that boiled in my chest. I have loved this person in front of me ever since we were paired together in our seventh grade science lab and I took a really good look at him for what really seemed like the first time in our long friendship. I was paying more attention to the top of his honey blond head and too busy wondering how a boy could be so delicate and pretty. And so distracted by my new feelings towards Ethan I had added too much hydrogen peroxide to our beckon causing it to bubble over creating a mess at our station, and that was when I saw those big golden hazel eyes in a new light and I was forever his from that day on.

"Ethan, come on, calm down and talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong." I softly cajoled and watched as he drew a ragged breath before shaking his head at me again.

I wanted so much just to pull him into my arms and cradle him against my chest. Every protective and possessive instinct that I had screamed for me to do it. But I refrained, I just stayed where I was and let the storm pass, then hopefully I will take him home and watch over him. This wasn't his first panic attack and I am sure it won't be his last. I just wished he trusted me enough to tell me what's triggering them, that and his aversion about being touched. He has always been shy, but in the past as we were growing up, he didn't panic or cringe when I brushed my arm against his or even if I outright held his hand.

I did a lot of hand holding with him right up until our senior year in school. Then all of a sudden one day Ethan just seemed to withdraw into himself, even from me. And no amount of questioning or cajoling on my part could get him to talk to me about what was he bothering him during our last few months of school. Nobody knew what happened to him, none of our mutual friends at least.

But in my gut, I knew something did happen, but he stubbornly refused to tell me no matter how I had begged him. So seeking not to stress him out even more, I let it go and just offered whatever support I could.  Ethan is the love of my life. I would lay down my life just to see his gorgeous smile. So I sat there and patiently waited for him to simmer down so that I could take him home, feed him, and put him to bed. He was the picture of exhaustion.