-5 YEARS LATER-
“Dr. Cohen, this is turning into a
real problem... Dr. Cohen? Dr. Cohen, are you listening to me?”
I was looking down at my work beeper
lighting up as a hand waved over it. I shook my head to reel back
into reality and the drowning voice of Lucy's private school dean
filled my ears.
“I'm so sorry.” I apologized as I
stuffed my beeper back into the pant pocket of my scrubs. “I'm late
for work. They really need me. I'm gonna have to cut this short.”
“I understand that work is important,
Dr. Cohen, but so is your daughter's attitude. I'm not sure where
she's picked up the sarcasm, but it's something you need to sit down
and discuss as a family.”
I rolled my eyes as I took a step to
the side. Over the dean's shoulder I watched Lucy happily parade into
the building as she waved goodbye. I blew her a kiss and waved back.
“Can you blame her? She's Jewish and
her dad is Jonah Cohen.” I jokingly laughed, but the dean didn't
find it funny. “Look, so long as both those things are in the
equation she's just always going to be a ball of witty remarks. I'm
sorry.”
I reached into my purse and pulled out
a half eaten bagel. It was Lucy's, but she hadn't finished it, so I
covered it with a napkin and stowed it away for later like most of my
meals since the beautiful blessing of motherhood. Okay, so maybe
Jonah wasn't the one to blame for Lucy's sarcasm.
The dean looked at me as she tried to
hide her disgust in my choice of leftover breakfast. “I'm not
denying that Lucy is anything short of having character. I'm simply
implying that her mannerisms in speaking are a little far too
advanced for her peers.”
I laughed harshly as I pulled at my
bagel. “Far too advanced for her peers? Mrs. Rhoades, isn't
that why we're paying you the equivalent of an average American's
annual income each month? So, that our children can become more
advanced?” She was about to rebuttal, but I held up my hand to
stop her as I started to walk away. “The beauty of Manhattan's
children is their quick wit and culture. If that's missing then we've
truly failed as parents.” I was already five paces ahead. “Good
day, Mrs. Rhoades!” I waved my hand in the air as I quickly glanced
over my shoulder. She'd finally stopped following after me.
“Dr. Cohen” My supervisor, Dr.
Blumenfeld, sang disapprovingly as I waltz into the hospital.
“Beepers are meant for emergencies, not for you to look at and
ignore.”
“I'm sorry!” I swung my purse off
of my shoulder and stuffed it into an empty locker. “Lucy's dean
just wouldn't stop nagging at me this morning.”
“You're just a few months shy of
finishing your Residency.” His eyebrow was perked up in concern. “I
shouldn't have to remind you that patients are just as important as
family.”
My back was turned towards my
supervisor as I quietly mocked his words along with him.
I slipped on my white coat and headed
towards the exam rooms where my eager patient waited. I was caught by
surprise when I bumped into Sarah leaving the same exam room.
“Oh!” She chirped as I'd startled
her. “You're here.” Sarah looked confused. “Blumenfeld asked me
to see the patient since you were running late.”
I sighed loudly as I grabbed my
forehead. “I hate when he does this! I was half a minute late!”
“Don't worry, it was just another
teenager trying to get out of class.” Sarah smiled as she pranced
into the nurses' triage.
“You're...Jonah Cohen's wife...aren't
you?” I turned around to see two young high schoolers standing in
the doorway. Their smiles were from ear to ear and filled with
excitement from the now potential single degree between them and the
host of the Late Night show.
“Maybe.” I swung my shoulders side
to side. “Who's asking?”
“Dude, it's totally her!” The boy's
tall skinny friend tried to convince him. “I've seen him with her
before! It's totally her!”
“Shouldn't you boys be in school?”
I picked up the chart for my next patient and looked over it as the
boys quietly mumbled to one another.
“We have a free period right now.
Well, not really “free” but we're trying to get stories for the
school newspaper.”
I put the chart down and gave them a
look. I knew exactly where this was going.
The boy's tall friend chimed in, “we're
huge fans of Jonah! He's one of the reasons we're on the school
paper! I've even already received early admission to Harvard, and I'm
going to be on the Harvard Lampoon and the Crimson, just like Jonah!”
I snickered as I held my fingers over
my mouth. Jonah was just a normal guy to me, so it always made me
laugh when people reacted this way.
“He inspired me to start writing. His
jokes when he hosted the ESPY's last year? And don't even get me
started on how great he was at the Oscar's! Not just once, but twice!
Oh and his show....”
“Okay, okay, okay...” I gestured
for the boys to calm down. The nurses in the triage were starting to
look our way, concerned. “What do you boy's want?”
“We just want to do a quick little
interview with him!” The shorter boy begged.
His tall friend added, “or even just
a quote will suffice!” The boy nudged his friend and scowled at him
for so quickly diminishing their request.
I rested a hand on each of their
shoulders as I walked them to the hospital's exit. “As long as you
boys promise to say out of the hospital, I just might...” I
dragged the would out in emphasis “...ask Jonah to pop into..”
“Park Lane Preparatory!” The boys
could hardly contain their excitement. “Thank you, miss!”
“Doctor!” The taller boy corrected
his little friend
Sarah laughed. “Those poor boys think
you're actually going to send Jonah.”
I smiled as I picked up my chart and
scanned over it again. “You're coming tonight, aren't you?”
“Yup!” Sarah leaned over the
counter between us. “As soon as I pick up Henry and Jaime from the
airport we will be there!”
“Right!” I closed the file lying in
front of me and rested my elbow on the counter. “They're back from
their honeymoon tonight, aren't they? How about the le boyfriend?”
I wiggled my brows. She pushed herself away from the counter and
began walking down the hall as I trailed after. “Another dud, huh?”
“You know, for so long every guy I
dated wanted things to be a little more serious than I liked, but I
was in love with the bachelor life, and now, now that I'm ready to
settle down, I can't seem to find any of those guys anymore.”
“Don't worry S” I wrapped my arm
around her in a side hug. “Candice from oncology is bringing her
cousin Emerson. He's a total stud, and he just moved to the city!”
Sarah laughed as we parted ways down
the hall.
It was well past five o'clock by the
time I was done seeing patients and filling out paper work. I slipped
off my coat and grabbed my purse out of the hospital's locker room. I
still had a million errands to run before tonight's house warming
party.
“Hello?” I called out as I entered
the house. Lucy raced down the staircase as her grandmother tried to
keep up.
“Mommy!” Lucy tackled my leg. I
picked her up in my arms and kissed her.
“Thank you for staying so late Anna.”
“Anything for my sweet little
pumpkin.” Anna and Lucy wrinkled their noses at one another. “I
have to get going though.”
“Anna, when are you going to sell the
Long Island house? You know Jonah and I want you here with us. I
mean, besides Lucy's playroom, the whole third floor is empty!”
“That's sweet dear, but I feel it's
easier on all of us if I'm just here during the week and back home on
the weekends.”
“Nonsense!” I disagreed.
“Nonsense!” Lucy mocked me.
Anna laughed at Lucy. “I'll think
about it. Besides Marsha and the girls are coming over tonight.”
After Anna left, a chef came over to
prepare dinner while I did a quick sweep of the house making sure
things looked presentable. It didn't take too long since we just
moved into the house a few weeks ago.
I was in my closet picking out a dress
to wear when I yelped as I felt hands wrap around my waist. “Jonah!”
I felt his mouth against my neck as he kissed me. “Jesus Christ, I
didn't hear you come in.”
“How was your day, babe?” He asked
as he pulled his shirt off and walked into the bathroom.
“So weird.” I finally decided on a
dress and began undressing. “I'm convinced Lucy's dean is out for
her. I'm usually able to dodge her, but we were running late today
because someone kept her up past her bedtime last night.”
“Sorry not sorry. Thursday nights are
Monty Python nights. It's a Cohen tradition!” Jonah shouted over
the sound of running water.
“Anyway, that made me late to work
and today just happened to be the day Blumenfeld had a stick up his
ass. Like, I'm late half a minute, chill out!” I grunted as I
pulled the dress over my head. “Don't get me started on the
ridiculous work load for a Friday.”
Jonah walked back into the closet and
helped me zip up my dress. “I'm sorry you had such a bad day.”
I turned around and looked at Jonah.
Something looked off about him. He wasn't acting like his normal
self. “What's going on?” I asked quietly
“Huh?” He pretended not to hear me.
I grabbed his chin and turned his head
towards me. “What's going on?”
“Okay, okay, I didn't want to tell
you this til later.” His energy level had quickly gone up. “But...”
He squealed like a little school girl. “I got the Tonight Show!”
My jaw dropped. Jonah couldn't hide the
gigantic smile on his face. “What!” I gasped as the words slowly
caught up to me. “Oh my God! Jonah! That's amazing!” I squeezed
him tightly between my arms. This was all Jonah wanted since he
started his career.
“They haven't made the official
announcement yet and there's still a shit ton of legal details Adam
has to iron out with the network before everything is settled.”
“Holy shit!” I walked out of the
closet and sat on the bench at the end of our bed. “Did you ever
think we'd be here? You hosting THE talk show of talk shows,
me being a doctor, us having a five year old, and living in a
Brownstone that we designed ourselves?”
“Didn't I tell you?” Jonah sat next
to me. “Before we got married and you were worried about the
future, didn't I tell you it would all work out?”
I leaned in and kissed Jonah. “You
did.”
The doorbell rang and I quickly threw
on some jewelry before racing down the stairs.
Kadie and Adam were the first to
arrive. “My favorite little niece is here!” I cheered as I took
Olivia from her arms. She smiled as she sucked on her hand unaware of
what was going on.
“Wow!” Kadie whispered as she
looked around. “Y'all did a great job decorating.”
“Are you kidding? Neither one of us
had time so we hired a decorator.” I laughed. “By the way, how
was the launch?” Kadie's PR company had blossomed in the last few
years. She opened her second national office in L.A. It wasn't until
Jebrone and Adam partnered together to build their own law firm that
Kadie's business grew as far as opening her first international
office in London.
Kadie and I pulled up a couple of bar
stools to the kitchen counter. “It was so unreal! I wish you could
have been there. The office is just a block away from Darlington's.”
I laughed at the irony.
Our guests started arriving one by one.
Jonah and I gave everyone the grand tour of our beautiful new home.
Since I graduated and started working, we agreed that it was time to
start building a more permanent residence. Almost two years of
staring at different shades of paint and finding the perfect marble
top, we were finally able to move in.
It was getting late so I excused myself
from the party and headed up to Lucy's room. She was already in bed
waiting for me to tell her a bedtime story. Most of the time she'd
talk herself to sleep. Jonah and I never understood how she'd come up
with such bizarre stories, but they always kept us entertained.
“Mommy?” Lucy's voice sounded
sleepy.
“Yes sweetie, I'm right here.” I
closed the door behind me and laid next to her.
“Nana said daddy named me after a
song. Is that true?” I smiled when I heard her question. Lucy
already knew this, but she loved hearing it over and over.
“It is in fact true!” I tapped her
nose and she giggled.
“Is it the song daddy sings when he
takes me to the park and throws me in the air? I like that song”
“Mhmm...do you remember how it goes?”
She whispered quietly. “Lucy in the
sky with diamonds.” She was already nodding off, but not until she
got the full story. “But why mommy?”
“Well, before you were born daddy and
I weren't sure if we were going to have a little baby boy or girl. We
wanted it to be a surprise. We picked some names just in case, but it didn't matter because when daddy saw your eyes he was mesmerized. They were so big and beautiful. The doctor told
us we had a little baby girl he put you in daddy's arms and daddy
said, 'A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.'”
I gently kissed Lucy on the forehead
and within seconds she was fast asleep.
As I tip toed out of the room I found
Jonah standing in the corner of the doorway. He'd been listening in
on our bedtime story.
“I love you” He whispered.
“I love you too”
_____________________________
There will be one last additional post I just haven't decided what date it will be posted. If it's not up this coming Thursday it'll be up for sure by the next. If there's any character's wrap up you'd like me to include in the next post, please comment and let me know! Hope you all enjoyed the read!
