"Desperately Seeking, Prologue"
by Cathy and Melissa

Sure, I noticed how good looking he was right away. We were all a little torn between being distracted by his looks and by his klutziness. If it was possible to trip over something, Carter did it. Drop something? Carter was your man. And none of us had ever seen anyone blush like he did. We teased him just for the hell of it, because we enjoyed seeing it - men just don't blush anymore. We all liked him, though -- we liked him a lot. Balancing out that goofiness was such a complete gentleness that won us all over.

I liked to watch him with patients when I got a chance. He'd take an elderly woman's hand in his own, smooth her hair out of her eyes, and listen like he had all the time in the world. He could talk sports with the men, video games with the kids, and even seemed to know something about the soap operas that the housebound people watched.

Then we found out that his family was rich. Amazing how down to earth he was, considering his background, we all thought. Ivy League school, silver spoon in his mouth, and he'd never let on - not once. Could he get any more perfect?

Maybe if he were about five years older. I'd never been interested in younger men. I'd been seeing Paul for a couple of years, then started dating Div Cvetic when that had finally ended. Div had his good points, but he tended to sulk, and it was just so much work trying to make a relationship with him last. I knew it was going down the tubes, and while part of me cared and wanted to make it work, part of me was past caring. I just had too much to deal with. Chloe dragging her various outlaw boyfriends around the fringes of my life, work piling up and becoming increasingly hard to cope with, my screwed-up parents -- you name it. So when Div was being vague about Christmas plans, I figured that he didn't really plan on us spending the holiday together.

Even though I knew it was, for all intents and purposes, over, I still worried about Div. I knew he was becoming increasingly depressed, but he pushed me away when I tried to help. And hell, if a psychiatrist won't get help, what can you do?

That Christmas season was unreal. The bad weather meant that there were even more patients to deal with than usual, and I hadn't been able to reach out to Div to help him. He stopped returning my calls, and I have to confess that part of me was relieved.

Still, I had to go and check on him. Carter gave me a ride to Div's place after our shifts were over. Although I was shocked that Div had moved, I wasn't surprised that he hadn't let me know. Maybe I deserved it -- I hadn't been there for him.

Carter drove me back to my place, thankfully understanding that I needed the quiet, needed to be able to collect my thoughts in peace. He didn't ask me a thing about the situation, although he probably knew a fair bit from Carol. Carol was always filling him in on the gossip, and that's what I'd likely become -- gossip.

He walked me to my door, and I was touched by his concern at wanting to see me inside. He said, "Are you sure you're going to be okay? Because I could come inside...keep you company..."
When he moved in for a kiss, the rational part of my brain told me to push him away. If nothing else, I had screwed up things with Div, and should be alone for awhile. Added to that, Carter was a student, and it was against the rules for us to become involved.

The rational part of my brain didn't win the argument. I'd had my eye on this guy for months, he was gorgeous, nice, and a hell of a kisser. I don't think I had ever felt that much energy in a kiss before that night. I pulled him inside the apartment and pushed him up against the wall, pulling his shirt out of his pants and running my hands up on his chest. His skin was so warm and felt so good in that cold room. We were both frantic to feel more skin, to taste each other. He kissed my neck as he started undressing me, and pulled me to the floor with him.

"Hey guys. Don't mind me." Chloe stood in the doorway of the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal and grinning. Chloe. I intended to kill her at my first opportunity.

Chapter One

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