“Why, yes.” Ruth was taken aback. Could it be that Robert not only understood her, he appreciated her for who she was, as she was? “Well, yes and no. I am really fine on my own.”
“Of course you are. Just look at you and all you have accomplished.” Robert slid back to his plate, picked up his knife and fork, and stabbed at his iceberg wedge nervously. Ruth was shocked to see the always perfectly collected Dr. Apter so exposed. His vulnerability surprised her, but also endeared him to her all the more. She had not misjudged this man or this moment. She had shared her most personal secrets, and he still sat here with her. Smiling at her. Robert leaned in and asked her quietly, “Ruth, I was wondering, well, hoping really, would you be open to the idea of sharing just a little sliver of your life with someone else? Someone like me, perhaps?”
Ruth’s whole body suddenly felt as warm as the rhythm of the band; the high-pitched horns and low rattle of the drums matched the beating of her heart. “Yes, Robert, I think I would.”
He smiled wider, raised his glass to hers, and looked her in the eye. “Ruth Emeraldine, I think this might be the beginning of a great adventure.”
Even then, she believed him completely.
Chapter Three
Ruth awoke with a start and angled the clock on her marble-topped nightstand to catch the streetlight. Rubbing her eyes, still blurry from sleep, she switched on the lamp so she could get a better look at the man who had, in a matter of months, become inextricably interwoven into every corner of her being. “Robert, it’s two o’clock in the morning. Are you just getting home?”
“Sorry to wake you, my love. I was deep into the cranium of a violent psychotic and thought I might be observing a meaningful idiosyncrasy in the thalamus. I couldn’t leave the hospital until I compared it to my photos of several other specimens.”
“And?” Ruth suddenly felt quite awake and leaned toward Robert enthusiastically, ever hopeful that his research would yield something miraculous.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I was looking for.” He sat on the wingback in the corner opposite the bed and unlaced his shoes as he sighed. “But it has given me some new ideas for investigation.” He stood up again and unbuttoned his shirtsleeves, then removed his trousers and replaced them with a nightshirt. After he climbed onto the bed, he stroked Ruth’s hand, drew it to his mouth, and ever so delicately kissed it. “Don’t worry, my darling, I will figure this out.” He pulled Ruth toward him and began kissing her gently, first on the lips and then slowly, carefully down her neck and toward the space between her small breasts. “I have never been more determined, more inspired, or more certain of anything in my life.”
Ruth had never before experienced the sort of physical yearning she felt for Robert. Robert wasn’t the first man she had invited into her bed, but he was the only one whom she consistently wanted to return. In the bedroom, as elsewhere, they had an innate and all-encompassing connection. Each time they made love, she felt that everything simply fit, the curves of her body and his, the delicacy of his lips with her mouth. Even her hand rested in his grip so effortlessly that she felt they had been holding hands for decades. Though they knew enough to be covert about their living arrangements, when they were together at home, they were as one. They had no secrets, which was why Ruth was startled as Robert rolled away from her and reclined on his side, looking at her with an odd distance and awkward nervousness.
“Robert, why are you looking at me that way?” Ruth swatted his face like a kitten batting a ball of yarn. “Are you all right?”
“All right. All right?” He smiled and stroked her hand lovingly. “Such an interesting concept, this idea of ‘all right.’ I think, to that question, I will have to answer in the negative.”
“The negative?” Ruth felt the room start to swim, and she bit her lower lip to steady her emotions.
“I am not all right. I am gobsmacked. Giddy, like a schoolboy, although I was never very giddy as an actual child.” He chuckled. “Ruth Emeraldine, from the moment I walked into your office to be chastised by the most beautiful, brilliant, and astonishing woman ever to cross my path, I have harbored a tiny hope that you were my one. My wonderful Ruth, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”