Trip the Light Fantastic, Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Reid the Healer was not an impulsive fellow. His life was dredged in methods and order and predictable outcomes. So on this crisp September afternoon, when he found himself on his way to Oakdale, IL, to find a man on his wedding day and interrupt the proceedings, no one may have been more surprised than Reid himself.
Reid pulled into the Oakdale Botanical Gardens and parked, hurriedly extracting the copy of the wedding details that he had printed from his inside jacket pocket. When he’d called his office that morning to tell them that he would not be in for his afternoon appointments as planned, he could sense their amazement. He had never cancelled an appointment, for any reason, unless he himself had been so physically ill so as to not be able to stand vertically.
Observing the time on his watch, he approached the information desk in a snit as he inquired about the “fastest damned way” to get to the Japanese Tea House. The chipper attendant provided the directions but was not allowed the time to even offer him a half-price coupon for the Garden Café before he sped off.
Reid was grateful that he’d worn his running shoes because time was of the essence. Unfortunately, all the other lazy-assed weekend tourists did not seem to share his sense of urgency. So he dodged in and out, checking the map frequently to ensure that he didn’t go astray for his destination. Within ten minutes he had arrived.
He didn’t frequent weddings as a general rule, but had admittedly expected a bit more commotion outside. It was fairly quiet and he didn’t really see any people milling about, although all the trappings of the ceremony, to the best of his knowledge, were present. The chairs were neatly ordered and the extravagant decorations made for an astounding creation underneath the tent that would shelter the guests from the mid-day sun.
Then, as his expediency began to vanish and his logical senses kicked back in, he realized that the absence of people could only mean one thing. Everyone must have already moved to the reception. Somehow he had missed the whole damned thing.
As a flash of pain and uncharacteristic embarrassment erupted, he placed his palms over his face and rubbed them up and down to calm his swelling emotions. Fighting the sharp pain that tugged through his chest, he approached an empty chair to take a seat and catch a breath before he began the journey back to his car…back to Chicago…back to a life that he now somehow knew needed to have Luke Snyder in it. His stride crunched a small twig on the ground, breaking the silence, which was then followed by a familiar yet unexpected sound.
“Don’t.”
Luke.
His eyes searched the area under the tent frantically to find him (How many guests were they expecting at this shindig anyway? he thought), then finally spotted the back of his spiky blond hair peeking up in the front row, just behind an aisle decoration.
“Don’t come near me Michael. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to you. I am not changing my mind. It’s over. Now just go home.”
Reid paused momentarily in his shock to find Luke there, but regained the will to move and continued walking to the front after processing Luke’s words. It was over. Luke and Michael were over. Truth be told, he really hadn’t figured out what he was going to say to Luke when he got here anyway, and he sure as hell didn’t have time to write a speech right now.
Suddenly, Luke sprung up from his seat and turned towards him, his eyes full of fury as he began shouting. “I told you, I di…..” but the words died in his throat quickly.
Reid’s voice fought to escape from his throat even briefly. “Yeah, not Romeo.”
“You? It’s you?” Luke said, blinking his eyes wildly. “But how…what….?”
“I’ll admit that you’re quite a hard man to find,” Reid said as he moved. “If I weren’t such a brilliant doctor, people’s lives might have suffered because of the distraction you’ve caused me.”
“The distraction I’ve caused? What about you?”
“Me? What could I have possibly done?”
Reid continued walking towards him, holding himself back from executing a full-on tackle. Yes, perhaps the timing wasn’t quite right for that.
“Yes, you. I cancelled this whole…wedding thing…because of you,” Luke explained, drawing his arms out wide from his body and waving them around.
"So, Romeo..." Reid began to query, "he's outta the picture?"
"Gone. I'd known for a while that it was over but just didn't have the strength to end it. It just...it just wasn't right. He wasn't the one, you know? He seemed to think that being rich was enough to fulfill every aspect of my life. Apparently, money should have been sufficient to buy happiness in his book. The thing is...I was looking for more than that. And I had a feeling that maybe...just maybe...that it...or he... was waiting for me out there somewhere."
Luke’s declaration was the type of thing that would have sent Reid Oliver running for the hills in the past, and yet now, to his own surprise, it didn’t. In fact, it spurred him ahead. He continued to close the distance between them until he was about two feet away…from Luke’s hair, Luke’s eyes, Luke’s lips, Luke’s arms. All these things were so close yet they had been out of reach for so long. He hadn’t been sure how Luke would react to his presence there, not really, given that he was still a stranger and had shown up unannounced…and presumably to stop his wedding to another man no less. So he did the only thing he could think of - he started babbling.
“Hi,” he said softly. “I’m Reid. Dr. Reid Oliver. I fix brains, but not the stupid ones. So your boyfriend, fiancé, whatever his name is…Michael?
“Ex-fiancé.”
“Yeah, ex-whatever, I can’t fix him. I like to eat…a lot. I believe that sandwiches are the perfect food. I make nurses cry on a regular basis. I’m a chess geek. My favorite color used to be blue but now it’s the cherry red that your lips are going to be in about ten minutes after I kiss you senseless, AND no, that’s not a pick up line. That’s the truth. Oh, yeah, I’m also considering a twilight career as a private detective.”
Luke eyes brightened further, if that was even possible, and he threw back his head laughing.
“What? You don’t think I can do it? I found you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, how did you do that, by the way?
“Well,” Reid replied, stepping closer. He reached his hand out towards the hem of Luke’s shirt and tilted his head sideways slightly to emphasize the question, noticing for the first time that he wasn’t dressed for a wedding.
“I don’t think I should let you touch my clothes until I introduce myself,” Luke teased.
“Well then, by all means….”
Luke then offered his hand, palm facing upwards, and Reid reached out to grasp it firmly. He didn’t shake it but instead pulled Luke a little closer. “I’m Luke. Luke Snyder. Luciano Eduardo Grimaldi, by birth. I’m rich and spoiled. I run a foundation and a land-locked shipping company. My biological dad’s a criminal.”
“I did see that on the internet,” Reid interjected. “Too bad.”
Luke shrugged his shoulders and kept talking. “The dad that raised me is a horse farmer and my mother bounces between the two of them like a ping pong ball. I have one grandmother who is sort of like the ruler of the free world and another that makes a apple pie that men fight wars over.”
“I’d be willing to test that out.”
“And oh, my favorite color is the color of your eyes. And that may or may not be a pick up line.“
Reid leaned in, bringing his lips closer to Luke’s. “It may or may not be working.”
“Everyone says I have a big heart.”
“Everyone says I’m an ass. And they’re right.”
“I’m a brat.”
“I’m obnoxious.”
“I’m pushy.”
“I hate small talk.”
“I have family members coming out of the woodwork.”
“I don’t have any real family at all.”
“I almost made the biggest mistake of my life today.”
“I wasn’t going to let you.”
Luke observed Reid carefully as well as their hands clasped together between them. His let his body weight drift forward and rest against the other man, taking in the unique scent that he remembered. “What else do I need to know about you Reid?”
Reid paused, unsure how far to go, but his gut told him not to hold back. “I’m a tomcat in the sack,” he purred.
Luke blushed furiously before replying. “I’m…extremely enthusiastic.”
"Luke, I'm going to kiss you now."
"I'd be insulted if you didn't."
"So we're changing literary inspirations from Dumas to Shakespeare now, are we?"
"No, I was an English major. I give equal opportunity to all the classics. Now shut up and kiss me."
"Mmmmm...Mary Chapin Carpenter. I never studied her in lit class..." Reid teased.
"My god, you're still babbling. Let me give you something better to do with your mouth."
Reid leaned back, taking in the breathtaking man before him. Luke eyes looked like a threatening rainstorm, dark and tempestuous and bursting to full with moisture. The sight of him was enchanting…almost like a dream come true.
They melted together, under the big tent with the flowers and decorations all set to celebrate another love that had never been in the universe’s plan. Two nearly imperceptible gasps could be heard when their lips first connected, which was followed by a beautiful symphony of sounds as the gentle swells captured, explored and tasted each other. Soon, their arms were twined as well, holding and grasping as if their lives depended upon it. Something about this - the two of them - was different and they both knew it.
As they broke apart for air, Reid took a small breath and spoke softly in Luke’s ear. “You forgot something important.”
“What’s that?” Luke asked.
Reid reached out, tilting his head again and Luke nodded permission. Lifting one side of his shirt carefully, he spoke with a serious tone as he reverently touched the scar there. “You’ve had a kidney transplant.”
“Yes, I have,” he affirmed.
“It’s how I found you,” he whispered. “It didn’t just save your life. It saved mine too.”
The events of Prince Luke and Sir Michael’s wedding day had taken an unexpected turn, to put it mildly. In the days that followed, Sir Michael journeyed to Seattle, never to return. News traveled quickly through the village as the story unfolded, inspiring gasps and cries of surprise from all except the Widow Snyder, who simply quoted the Bard and said, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Yet all who saw Prince Luke and Reid together knew instantly that they were meant to be and that fate had worked it’s magic. One of the most intrigued was Dr. Bob Hughes, who, when the time was right, would offer Reid a post at Memorial hospital. He did not hesitate to accept it.
Reid the Healer was not an impulsive fellow. His life was dredged in methods and order and predictable outcomes. So on this crisp September afternoon, when he found himself on his way to Oakdale, IL, to find a man on his wedding day and interrupt the proceedings, no one may have been more surprised than Reid himself.
Reid pulled into the Oakdale Botanical Gardens and parked, hurriedly extracting the copy of the wedding details that he had printed from his inside jacket pocket. When he’d called his office that morning to tell them that he would not be in for his afternoon appointments as planned, he could sense their amazement. He had never cancelled an appointment, for any reason, unless he himself had been so physically ill so as to not be able to stand vertically.
Observing the time on his watch, he approached the information desk in a snit as he inquired about the “fastest damned way” to get to the Japanese Tea House. The chipper attendant provided the directions but was not allowed the time to even offer him a half-price coupon for the Garden Café before he sped off.
Reid was grateful that he’d worn his running shoes because time was of the essence. Unfortunately, all the other lazy-assed weekend tourists did not seem to share his sense of urgency. So he dodged in and out, checking the map frequently to ensure that he didn’t go astray for his destination. Within ten minutes he had arrived.
He didn’t frequent weddings as a general rule, but had admittedly expected a bit more commotion outside. It was fairly quiet and he didn’t really see any people milling about, although all the trappings of the ceremony, to the best of his knowledge, were present. The chairs were neatly ordered and the extravagant decorations made for an astounding creation underneath the tent that would shelter the guests from the mid-day sun.
Then, as his expediency began to vanish and his logical senses kicked back in, he realized that the absence of people could only mean one thing. Everyone must have already moved to the reception. Somehow he had missed the whole damned thing.
As a flash of pain and uncharacteristic embarrassment erupted, he placed his palms over his face and rubbed them up and down to calm his swelling emotions. Fighting the sharp pain that tugged through his chest, he approached an empty chair to take a seat and catch a breath before he began the journey back to his car…back to Chicago…back to a life that he now somehow knew needed to have Luke Snyder in it. His stride crunched a small twig on the ground, breaking the silence, which was then followed by a familiar yet unexpected sound.
“Don’t.”
Luke.
His eyes searched the area under the tent frantically to find him (How many guests were they expecting at this shindig anyway? he thought), then finally spotted the back of his spiky blond hair peeking up in the front row, just behind an aisle decoration.
“Don’t come near me Michael. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to talk to you. I am not changing my mind. It’s over. Now just go home.”
Reid paused momentarily in his shock to find Luke there, but regained the will to move and continued walking to the front after processing Luke’s words. It was over. Luke and Michael were over. Truth be told, he really hadn’t figured out what he was going to say to Luke when he got here anyway, and he sure as hell didn’t have time to write a speech right now.
Suddenly, Luke sprung up from his seat and turned towards him, his eyes full of fury as he began shouting. “I told you, I di…..” but the words died in his throat quickly.
Reid’s voice fought to escape from his throat even briefly. “Yeah, not Romeo.”
“You? It’s you?” Luke said, blinking his eyes wildly. “But how…what….?”
“I’ll admit that you’re quite a hard man to find,” Reid said as he moved. “If I weren’t such a brilliant doctor, people’s lives might have suffered because of the distraction you’ve caused me.”
“The distraction I’ve caused? What about you?”
“Me? What could I have possibly done?”
Reid continued walking towards him, holding himself back from executing a full-on tackle. Yes, perhaps the timing wasn’t quite right for that.
“Yes, you. I cancelled this whole…wedding thing…because of you,” Luke explained, drawing his arms out wide from his body and waving them around.
"So, Romeo..." Reid began to query, "he's outta the picture?"
"Gone. I'd known for a while that it was over but just didn't have the strength to end it. It just...it just wasn't right. He wasn't the one, you know? He seemed to think that being rich was enough to fulfill every aspect of my life. Apparently, money should have been sufficient to buy happiness in his book. The thing is...I was looking for more than that. And I had a feeling that maybe...just maybe...that it...or he... was waiting for me out there somewhere."
Luke’s declaration was the type of thing that would have sent Reid Oliver running for the hills in the past, and yet now, to his own surprise, it didn’t. In fact, it spurred him ahead. He continued to close the distance between them until he was about two feet away…from Luke’s hair, Luke’s eyes, Luke’s lips, Luke’s arms. All these things were so close yet they had been out of reach for so long. He hadn’t been sure how Luke would react to his presence there, not really, given that he was still a stranger and had shown up unannounced…and presumably to stop his wedding to another man no less. So he did the only thing he could think of - he started babbling.
“Hi,” he said softly. “I’m Reid. Dr. Reid Oliver. I fix brains, but not the stupid ones. So your boyfriend, fiancé, whatever his name is…Michael?
“Ex-fiancé.”
“Yeah, ex-whatever, I can’t fix him. I like to eat…a lot. I believe that sandwiches are the perfect food. I make nurses cry on a regular basis. I’m a chess geek. My favorite color used to be blue but now it’s the cherry red that your lips are going to be in about ten minutes after I kiss you senseless, AND no, that’s not a pick up line. That’s the truth. Oh, yeah, I’m also considering a twilight career as a private detective.”
Luke eyes brightened further, if that was even possible, and he threw back his head laughing.
“What? You don’t think I can do it? I found you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, how did you do that, by the way?
“Well,” Reid replied, stepping closer. He reached his hand out towards the hem of Luke’s shirt and tilted his head sideways slightly to emphasize the question, noticing for the first time that he wasn’t dressed for a wedding.
“I don’t think I should let you touch my clothes until I introduce myself,” Luke teased.
“Well then, by all means….”
Luke then offered his hand, palm facing upwards, and Reid reached out to grasp it firmly. He didn’t shake it but instead pulled Luke a little closer. “I’m Luke. Luke Snyder. Luciano Eduardo Grimaldi, by birth. I’m rich and spoiled. I run a foundation and a land-locked shipping company. My biological dad’s a criminal.”
“I did see that on the internet,” Reid interjected. “Too bad.”
Luke shrugged his shoulders and kept talking. “The dad that raised me is a horse farmer and my mother bounces between the two of them like a ping pong ball. I have one grandmother who is sort of like the ruler of the free world and another that makes a apple pie that men fight wars over.”
“I’d be willing to test that out.”
“And oh, my favorite color is the color of your eyes. And that may or may not be a pick up line.“
Reid leaned in, bringing his lips closer to Luke’s. “It may or may not be working.”
“Everyone says I have a big heart.”
“Everyone says I’m an ass. And they’re right.”
“I’m a brat.”
“I’m obnoxious.”
“I’m pushy.”
“I hate small talk.”
“I have family members coming out of the woodwork.”
“I don’t have any real family at all.”
“I almost made the biggest mistake of my life today.”
“I wasn’t going to let you.”
Luke observed Reid carefully as well as their hands clasped together between them. His let his body weight drift forward and rest against the other man, taking in the unique scent that he remembered. “What else do I need to know about you Reid?”
Reid paused, unsure how far to go, but his gut told him not to hold back. “I’m a tomcat in the sack,” he purred.
Luke blushed furiously before replying. “I’m…extremely enthusiastic.”
"Luke, I'm going to kiss you now."
"I'd be insulted if you didn't."
"So we're changing literary inspirations from Dumas to Shakespeare now, are we?"
"No, I was an English major. I give equal opportunity to all the classics. Now shut up and kiss me."
"Mmmmm...Mary Chapin Carpenter. I never studied her in lit class..." Reid teased.
"My god, you're still babbling. Let me give you something better to do with your mouth."
Reid leaned back, taking in the breathtaking man before him. Luke eyes looked like a threatening rainstorm, dark and tempestuous and bursting to full with moisture. The sight of him was enchanting…almost like a dream come true.
They melted together, under the big tent with the flowers and decorations all set to celebrate another love that had never been in the universe’s plan. Two nearly imperceptible gasps could be heard when their lips first connected, which was followed by a beautiful symphony of sounds as the gentle swells captured, explored and tasted each other. Soon, their arms were twined as well, holding and grasping as if their lives depended upon it. Something about this - the two of them - was different and they both knew it.
As they broke apart for air, Reid took a small breath and spoke softly in Luke’s ear. “You forgot something important.”
“What’s that?” Luke asked.
Reid reached out, tilting his head again and Luke nodded permission. Lifting one side of his shirt carefully, he spoke with a serious tone as he reverently touched the scar there. “You’ve had a kidney transplant.”
“Yes, I have,” he affirmed.
“It’s how I found you,” he whispered. “It didn’t just save your life. It saved mine too.”
The events of Prince Luke and Sir Michael’s wedding day had taken an unexpected turn, to put it mildly. In the days that followed, Sir Michael journeyed to Seattle, never to return. News traveled quickly through the village as the story unfolded, inspiring gasps and cries of surprise from all except the Widow Snyder, who simply quoted the Bard and said, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Yet all who saw Prince Luke and Reid together knew instantly that they were meant to be and that fate had worked it’s magic. One of the most intrigued was Dr. Bob Hughes, who, when the time was right, would offer Reid a post at Memorial hospital. He did not hesitate to accept it.