Chapter 2

Brandon’s POV

My day started out like any other day. I showered, got dressed, had my breakfast, and then went into my office to start going over the resumes for the applicants that were interviewing for a position at my research lab.

Two of my buddies, Mark and Thomas, and I started this lab after we got back home from overseas. They were the brains and I was the money. Well until I decided that I was tired of only being the money. So, I decided to go back to school and finish getting my degree to become a bioengineer.

On my way into the office, I started thinking about Mark and Thomas. We met overseas in Iraq. We were bunkmates while we were on our first tour. We got sent back stateside after our convoy got ambushed on our way back to our base. Out of twenty-four men in our convoy that day, only seven made it back home.

To say that the three of us had a bond that most wouldn’t understand, would be an understatement. When I got back home, I wasn’t the same person that I was when I left.

I used to be the quiet boy who tried to please everybody, especially my best friend, Alexia. She was the person that I always imagined would be there no matter what. That was until the war.

When I got back home, I was only back in the physical sense. It took a long time for my mind to follow my body. I would wake up in the middle of the night covered in sweat and crying. I pushed the most important person in my life away from me, because I couldn’t stand the thought of her thinking any less of me. I wouldn’t have been able to survive her feeling sorry for me. So, I didn’t give her the chance to.

Mark and Thomas were the ones that I ended up confiding in during my darkest times after we got back home. I knew they would understand what I was going through and we never had to say anything, because we all lived it. We were goofing around one day when Mark made the suggestion that him and Thomas should start a research lab. He wanted to create better mechanical prosthetics for both veterans and civilians alike. Thomas of course had to throw his two cents in about revolutionizing medicine in the world. They kept joking around about it until I told them that I would back them monetarily if they were serious about it. That was the start of our legacy.

I shook my head and stopped reliving the past. I had made it to my office on autopilot. I sent my assistant an email asking for him to bring me the files on today’s applicants. When my assistant, Teddy, came in my office to bring me the files, he also brought me my morning coffee.

“Thank you.” I said as Teddy was walking out of my office door.

Once my door was closed, I opened the first folder in the stack of four and started reading. I started to lose hope on finding someone to fill the position that opened up when Thomas decided to retire. I sighed as I opened the last file.

“Dr. Montgomery.” I said to nobody but myself. “Are you going to be as disappointing as the rest of these guys were?”

I started reading the file on Dr. Montgomery and the disappointment that I had been feeling started to disappear. There were multiple papers published by Dr. Montgomery on newly discovered viruses and a couple of papers on immunology. That was just the beginning of this file. There were many letters of recommendations from some of the most recognized biologists in the field. I knew instantly that this would be the person that I would offer the position to. So, I decided to go ahead and write up a contract just in case the interview went as good as I hoped that it would.

I pressed the button on my intercom. “Teddy. I need you to call all the applicants, except Dr. Montgomery, and tell them that the position has been filled.”

“Yes, sir.” Came the response over the intercom.

I decided to call Mark and see if he could swing by my office before the interview with Dr. Montgomery.

Mark answered on the third ring. “Hey, man. What’s up?”

“Could you swing by my office for a few minutes? I want you to look over this applicant’s file before they get here for their interview.” I said briskly.

“Well, it’s your lucky day.” Mark said before my office door opened and Mark walked in.

I chuckled as I hung up the phone. “You couldn’t tell me that you were heading here to begin with?”

“I wouldn’t have even if I had the chance to. That would ruin my fun.” Mark replied jokingly.

I handed him the file to look through. As he was reading through the multitude of pages in Dr. Montgomery’s file, I found myself once again thinking about the past. My mind going back to a redheaded green-eyed girl who unknowingly had claim to a piece of my heart. I never could pinpoint the moment that I fell in love with Lex. I was almost positive that I was born loving her. There wasn’t a memory that I had of my youth without her presence in it in some way. Her stepdad, David, was one of my dad’s best friends. They had met in grad school and stayed friends up until David died. My mom and Lex’s mom, Kathy, still get together every couple of weeks, or so, for lunch. My dad goes with on the rare occasion, but I think it still makes the wound from losing his best friend raw when he does.

“Earth to Brandon. Where’d you go, man?” Mark asked curiously after getting my attention.

“Just thinking about the girl from a million years ago.” I sighed as I tried to shake the image of those emerald green eyes from my mind.

“Bro, you can’t go back there. You know how hard it was for you to get where you are now. I don’t want to see you go back to the way you were.” The concern in Mark’s voice was the only thing that kept his comment from rubbing me the wrong way.

“I’m not, man. I promise. Sometimes I just wonder what it would have been like if I hadn’t let the fear of failing her, make me push her away.” The regret in my voice was easy to hear.

“That’s the rabbit hole talking. If she is supposed to be a part of your life, Fate will make it happen.” Mark’s belief in fate being this all magical being always makes me chuckle a little.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. How is it that a macho man, like you, believes in something as silly as Fate?” I asked in the most serious voice that I could muster.

“Go ahead and make your jokes. Just remember that I’m gonna be the one laughing when you figure out that I’m right.” Mark scoffed in mock anger.

Even though I enjoy our jokester moments, I needed to get back on task. “Alright. I think that’s enough joking around for now.” I laughed a little. “What do you think about Dr. Montgomery taking over Thomas’s job?” I asked wanting Mark’s opinion.

“If the interview goes the way that this file makes it appear that it will, then I say, offer her the position.” Hearing Mark voice my opinion made me more confident in my decision to write up a contract for Dr. Montgomery.

“That was my thoughts as well. If it goes accordingly, I’ll let you look over the final terms of the contract before it gets signed.” The comment wasn’t something that I needed to say. He knows that I won’t make any final decisions without running them by him and Thomas.

“I’m not worried about it. You know Thomas and I trust your judgement, bro.” He said as he walked out of my office.

I sat back down at my desk and continued working on the contract for Dr. Lexi Montgomery. Crazy how just a name can make you go back in time.

It had been fifteen years since the last time I spoke to Alexia Davison. I wonder what she is doing these days. Did she ever get married? Have kids? The things that I shouldn’t let my mind wonder. It always leads me down the road of misery and regret, and that wasn’t a road that I could afford to go down.

Just then my phone rings pulling me back to the present once again.

“Johnson.” I answered the phone a little harsher sounding than I intended.

“Dr. Johnson, Dr. Montgomery is in the lobby for her interview. I have already informed Dr. Brown and Dr. Hollingsworth. They will meet you in the conference room.” Bri got straight to the point in her matter-of-fact way that she has.

“Thanks, Bri.” I said before I hung up the phone and headed to the conference room.

Ava and Max were already in the conference room when I walked in. I sat down beside Ava and started looking over Dr. Montgomery’s file again.

I heard the door open and close and then heard Ava start introducing herself and Max. As she started to introduce me to Dr. Montgomery, I finally glanced up from her file to look at her in person. For a second, I was back in time sitting in Kathy and David’s living room, talking to the girl with the mesmerizing green eyes, and the kind of personality that made everyone love her.

“Montgomery? Did you get married?” I couldn’t help but ask her as I stared at her like an idiot.

I released the breath that I didn’t even know that I was holding when she told me that David had adopted her before he died. My heart tightened as she talked about losing her dad to cancer. It just reminded me of what I let her go through alone.

I could tell that she was uncomfortable with me staring at her, but I couldn’t force myself to look away.

I could hear Ava and Max asking Lexi their questions, but I couldn’t make myself focus on the words they were saying, but I hung on every word that Lexi said.

“My dad. When he got sick, it was completely unexpected. I spent months trying to understand why it happened to him. One day, after his chemo treatment, I decided that I wanted to do everything in my power to learn about his disease and to cure it some day. I changed my major the next day.” I had no idea what Ava’s question was, but I could hear the conviction and passion behind Lexi’s words.

She was so much like the girl I once knew; beautiful, smart, passionate, and motivated, but she was definitely more mature. Her green eyes still sparkled with light when she spoke, but they also held the same haunted look that mine did. I could only wonder if I was part of the cause of that look.

Before I could ponder on that thought any longer, Max asked her a question about whether she would be able to handle the amount of failure that comes with this line of work.

Her answer made me physically flinch. It felt like a slap right across the face. “I can’t honestly say that the failures won’t disappoint me some, but I can say this. If I am strong enough to make it through losing two of the most important people in my life without letting it destroy me, then I am strong enough to use my failures as a learning tool.”

I immediately felt like the biggest piece of crap on the planet at that moment. We were best friends once upon a time. I knew about her dad getting sick and I didn’t go to her. Even worse still, my mom and dad went to David’s funeral when he died, and me? I couldn’t get over my own pride and ego and be there for her. After that, she became a topic that I refused to listen to. I didn’t even know that she went to medical school, or that she got her PHD in biology.

Ava pulled my attention back to the land of the living as she and Max gave their approval on offering Lexi the position at AL, Inc. The three of them looked at me, waiting for me to say something, but it took my mind a minute to stop reeling.

I told Lexi that I would have the contract written up and sent to her by lunch for her to look over so that she could let me know any changes she wanted to be made to it.

Lexi looked at me for a second. The polite smile that she put on her face wounded me. She started to call me Brando like she did as a kid, but caught herself before she finished saying my name. The professionalism from her as we brought the meeting to an end, was more painful than I thought that it would have been.

I couldn’t help that my eyes wandered over her face, looking for any sign that she still cared about me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the mixture of emotions that I saw there.

She thanked me as she got up from the table and started to head towards the door. I felt an emptiness start to grow within me as she walked out of the room.

I wanted to say something, anything to get her to stay a little longer. To be around her for more than the thirty minutes that it took us to solidify what we had already decided. I wanted to tell her that I was sorry for being the worst person on the planet. That I felt worthless for being the reason that she suffered. So, I did the second stupidest thing I’ve done in my life. I went after her.

“Lex.” I said loud enough that she could hear me over the midday traffic. When she stopped, I felt my heart skip a beat, but as soon as she turned around, and I saw the look on her face, it stopped beating completely.

“You don’t get to call me that anymore.” The ice in her voice told me just how much she hated me, but what she said next, that told me just how bad I had broken her heart.

“The day that you chose to walk away from our friendship was the day Lex died. You have no idea what that letter did to me. What you did to me. I was devastated. I lost a part of me that day, and I never found it again. You were my best friend. The person that I told everything to, my entire life. Whenever something good happened, you were the first person that I told, and when something bad happened, you were the shoulder that I wanted to cry on. For years after you chose to leave me behind, you were still my first thought whenever something happened. When my dad died, I watched the doors of the funeral home, just to see if you would come. If I was ever important enough to you to put all the past stuff behind us. For you to be there when I needed you the most. The fact that I wasn’t made the pain of losing my dad even worse. So no, you don’t get to act like you give a crap about me now. You are fifteen years too late, and I am done feeling sad for the loss of something that was only important to me.”

She turned around and left me standing there, not knowing what to say or do. I don’t know how long I stood there before I finally came back to my senses. I pulled out my phone and sent a group text to Mark and Thomas.

‘I’m sending out an SOS. Meet me in my office in thirty.’

I didn’t even wait for any replies before putting my cell back into my pocket and heading back up to my office.