Page 20 of Noticing Natalie
I stared after Tim.
“Natalie?”
I jerked back to him. “Um, yeah. I mean, no. I’m not busy.”
“Great. Maybe we can grab a bite to eat. I’ll see if Tim wants to ask one of his many admirers to go, too, and we can hang out with him, if you’d like.”
I’d looked back to where Tim had now been mobbed by several girls. I couldn’t tell if they were Alexis’ friends or older, but I didn’t recognize them. “Sure. That sounds fun.” I smiled at him and exchanged contact information.
“I’ll look forward to it.” Hunter said, giving me a grin that caused a few butterflies to take flight in my stomach. “I told Tim at the start of the summer that I thought you were beautiful. He said you were dating someone, though, so I was glad to hear that you were single again.”
“Oh, right,” I said a little awkwardly, trying to mask my confusion.
“See you, Nat,” Hunter said, and turned to jog over to Tim.
Tim’s eyes flew to mine as soon as he saw Hunter. He gave me a little wave and indicated he’d call me later.
I just waved back.
Why had Tim told Hunter I was dating someone?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Natalie, 24
College flew by. I changed my major to nursing, graduated with a BSN, became an RN, and entered graduate school. I wanted to be a physician’s assistant, and I just had a couple of months left in the program. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to work in surgery at a hospital or in a general practice setting, but I could do a couple of residencies after graduation to help me decide. I also knew a lot of nurses changed locations, added certifications, and so on during their careers.
Tim and I stayed close. I’d gone to parties, football games, and fraternity mixers with him at Georgia Tech. He’d hung out with Imani and me in our apartment in Decatur. We were more low key than he was. We’d cook and play board games. She had a long-time boyfriend, and they were both in medical school. They studied all the time. Sometimes I even forgot I had a roommate.
Tim had gone to France with me a couple of times during breaks, and we’d had a blast. He’d enjoyed meeting my friends… except for Jacques. The two of them had never hit it off. Overall, though, it had been wonderful being in Paris at Christmas or during the spring with my best friend.
Now things were really changing. He’d graduated from Tech and had been working at the quarry over a year now. He had a condo on the outskirts of Indigo Falls and often had get-togethers and parties. I had a standing invitation, but there wereplenty of times I was too busy with my studies to come. Still, I did my best to be there as often as I could.
Tim’s condo was nice, and he kept it that way. Yes, he had lots of parties, but they weren’t raging keggers like a college party. They were more like glorified dinner parties. He had friends over from college who were computer scientists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, and so on. There was always plenty of wine, beer, and mixed drinks available, and he always made sure that people brought an appetizer to share when they came.
I had brought a dessert platter I’d picked up at a grocery store this time. He had this friend, Cora, who always coordinated the dishes for him through this party planning app she’d made herself. It had been wildly successful, and I was pretty sure she’d made millions off it.
I was also pretty sure she wasveryinto Tim. As far as I knew, he hadn’t gone there yet, but I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t. She was his type.
I was leaning against a wall in his condo, a glass of wine in my hand, observing his friends mingling around. I didn’t have tons in common with most of them, but there were a few I enjoyed being around. Tonight, though, my mind was elsewhere. I was so close to graduation I could taste it.
I couldn’t wait to be done with school. I loved it in some ways, but I was burned out for the time being. I was excited about my residency opportunities, though. I had offers at several hospitals, including one in Atlanta. But I also had an offer at my dream hospital—Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. I bit my lip just thinking about it.
It would only be for one year, but I knew it would be hard to leave my friends. Who was I kidding? It would be hard to leave Tim and his family.
I was leaning towards the opportunity in Atlanta, even though my dad was pushing me to take any of the otheropportunities. I knew he had ulterior motives, though. The older I got, the more I looked like my mom. He couldn’t handle it. He just wanted me gone. At least, that’s what I thought it was.
I leaned against the wall and sipped a glass of chardonnay. I was loosely involved in a conversation with a few people, but I found myself mainly staring at Tim. He was talking to Cora and looking much flirtier than I’d ever seen him before with her.
She looked perfect. Her long, blonde hair was shiny and perfectly curled. Her makeup was applied carefully to look as if she’d only spent a few minutes putting it on. You know, that whole natural look that was anything but natural. Her dress was tight and short without being too over the top. And she was obviously wearing a push-up bra to make her already plentiful cleavage even more noticeable.
She threw back her head and laughed at something Tim said, and I saw his eyes drop to her chest. I pulled my eyes away, took a sip of my wine, and forced myself to focus on whatever the group I was standing with was talking about.
“What are you thinking about so hard over here, beautiful?”
I looked up, a little startled. A handsome guy stood in front of me with a glass of wine held out towards me. “I noticed you needed another one of these.”
I glanced down at the glass in my hand. I hadn’t even noticed it was empty. “Oh. Thanks,” I smiled at him.
