Turning Point(68)

It was difficult to decide which of the hospitals they’d seen was the most impressive. Although the teaching hospitals offered a broader range, each institution had a distinct personality and something special to offer.

    Bill enjoyed talking to Wendy about it afterward since he’d done his residency there. He had been offered a job at SF General that he couldn’t resist but he could see why she loved working at Stanford. She was typical of the high-quality physicians who practiced there. Her ex-lover Jeff was one of them too, in cardiac surgery. His surgical skills were what had won her admiration in the first place and the rest had come later. She was in love with her work and where she did it, and it showed.

She invited them all for a drink at her house after the tour, since it was close by. They were coming back on Sunday night for a barbecue, but they enjoyed a glass of wine sitting around her pool on Friday afternoon, and since they had a driver to bring them to Palo Alto, they could relax with a second glass. Valérie and Tom were sharing one of the lounge chairs, and Gabriel was sitting slightly apart from the group. He had been brooding and sulking for two days after meeting Andy, and Stephanie’s refusal to spend the night with him afterward. He said that she had humiliated him. She had apologized profusely, but had explained repeatedly that if she had disappeared that night, Andy would have caught on that they were having an affair. Gabriel felt it was time for Andy to know, but he finally relaxed sitting at Wendy’s pool on Friday afternoon, put his arm around Stephanie, and kissed her. They had had a busy and informative week, and she had promised to spend the night with him on Saturday. She was going to tell Andy that she had to work, to cover for someone who was sick. Friday night, they were having a girls’ night, and the four men were going out together, which promised to be rowdy, and they’d have hangovers the next day.

    The women were having dinner at Perbacco, an Italian restaurant downtown, and Stephanie was planning to join them for that too.

“I love your house, Wendy,” Bill said warmly, as they sat in chairs side by side in the afternoon sun after the tour. She had decorated it in soothing muted colors, warm beiges and pastels, which suited her, with some paintings that she loved. “You inspire me. My place looks like a bomb shelter. It looks like the tenant has already moved out. But I like the view.” She smiled at how he described it. But seeing where he worked and the long hours he put in, she could guess that he spent almost no time at home. “I have to do something with the girls’ room before they come out this summer. I promised I’d paint it pink for them. Alex wants purple, but we compromised on pink.” They exchanged a smile, thinking of his girls, now that she knew them. “Maybe you can help me pick the right shade. I’m not good with color. Or decorating.” He had wanted to have the group over for dinner, but he didn’t have enough chairs, or even plates and forks. And he only had four glasses. “I had a nice Victorian place when I was married. I never bothered after I sold it. I didn’t care where I lived once Athena and the girls were gone.” But he admired the fact that Wendy had a real home that looked like someone who loved it lived there.

“I could use a hand with the barbecue on Sunday,” she said shyly. “I’m scared to light it.”

“That’s my forte. Ribs, chicken, and steaks. I’ll come over in the afternoon, if you want.”

    “I’d like that.” They exchanged a glance that stretched just beyond friends, but not too far. He’d been inching his way toward her since he’d heard that she had broken up with her married boyfriend, but he didn’t want to scare her off if it was too soon.

“We should have dinner sometime,” he suggested and she nodded. Valérie was watching them and smiling. She’d been hoping something would happen between them after Paris. She thought they were perfect for each other.

By the time they left, Gabriel had gotten over his two-day pout and forgiven Stephanie for bringing her husband to the party.

Valérie and Tom were talking about it on the way home in his car. The others had gone back to the hotel in the van. Valérie was worried about Stephanie. She thought Gabriel was putting too much pressure on her, and she already had a lot going on with two small children, a divorce in the offing, and a married lover who expected her to give up her job and move to France. “She’s got so much on her plate.” Tom nodded, and had thought the same thing.

As they headed toward Oakland, Valérie told him something offhandedly that startled him. “I’m having lunch on Monday with an old friend, by the way. He lives here.”

“An old boyfriend?” Tom asked, suddenly worried.

“Not really.”

“What does ‘not really’ mean? He was a boyfriend but lousy in bed?”

“Don’t be silly. Just a friend,” she said vaguely, and offered no further information. And as though to reassure himself and conquer her again, he made love to her when they got back to his apartment, before they both left for dinner. She could tell he was worried, but she liked to tease him at times, to keep him on his toes. She told Marie-Laure it was good for him, and that a man like Tom should never be totally sure of a woman, or he’d get bored. But there was nothing boring about her. He was still worried about her “old friend” when they shared a cab into the city and he dropped her off at Perbacco to meet the other women. He went to meet the men at the bar at the Big 4 on Nob Hill, which had a nice manly feel to it.