Power of Attorney: A Novel (A Greenburg Family Book 1) (10 page)

From the moment Sarah stepped out of her bathroom to find Patrick gone, her emotions had shifted dramatically. First she was sad, then angry, then deeply concerned, especially after he didn’t answer her call or return any of her messages.

She worried that he was in some trouble or that something bad had happened after he had
ran out on her. She had considered going in search of him, but had waited for over an hour staring at her phone.

She felt foolish for expecting more from him. He had simply taken what he had wanted and walked away. Now, he was most likely back at work,
sated, knowing he had made it impossible for her to be with his brother.

Damn him.

A knock on her door made her jump and her heart start beating a quick staccato in her chest. Maybe she was wrong, he had come back. She ran to the door to let him in.

It wasn’t him at her door that
morning; it was Henry looking at her with haunted eyes. Her shoulders slumped as she knew he knew; she stepped back and gestured for him to come inside.

Their conversation hadn’t gone as she had expected. She thought he would yell and accuse her of playing him too. But he didn’t. He very calmly told her that he had seen Patrick and learned about the events of the evening.

Sarah felt terrible, truly awful and apologized for misleading him and betraying his trust. To her surprise, he accepted her apology. She could tell he meant it.

“I understand if you no longer want to talk to me,” she had told him. “I screwed
up; I’m so sorry for that.”

Henry had shaken his head. “No. You’ve been a wonderful friend to me. Let’s put this behind us and start over. Okay?”

Henry assured her that he would be alright and explained to her that he prepared himself for this situation, Sarah felt the need to do something, anything just to make up to Henry.

But nothing
can completely mend a broken heart. They were just two people who tried to make something work. They both had hoped their friendship would be enough to make a relationship viable. In the end, when things ended up the way they didn’t expect, they just had to accept that they weren’t just meant to be. Both Sarah and Henry were adults. It wasn’t going to be their first heartbreak but at the same time, it didn’t hurt less either.

Sarah
knew Henry was still angry at his brother, and she felt bad for being one of the reasons these two fought.

“I know he didn’t mean to hurt me, he was just trying to protect me in his
own messed up way. I still love him; he’s my brother. I just need him to let me live my own life, make my own mistakes.”

Sarah completely agree with Henry. Patrick wasn’t an evil person, not a bad man. He just didn’t know how to show love, didn’t know how to deal with people in social situations.

Henry said the fight had opened his eyes a little because he realized how much pressure was bottled up inside him too. Letting it out made him realized a lot of things. First was that he looked up to his brother so much, that he weakly did whatever he was told.

Henry realized Patrick had never asked him to be a lawyer, to follow in his footsteps at all. He had put the pressure on himself. “I guess the biggest enemy of success is yourself,” he told Sarah, laughing softly to himself.

He was more relieved than he was ever now that he had shared his concerns with Sarah.

“What do we do next,”
Sarah asked him but he just shook his head, he didn’t know. He supposed he would have to talk to Patrick sometime soon, but he wasn’t up for that conversation yet. Plus, it might do Patrick good to think about what he had done, figure out what it was he wanted

Sarah was worried about how things would turn out. It was Henry’s last sentence that convinced
her they both were going to be alright. Just before he left her house, he turned back and said with a grin, “Just for both our satisfaction, I gave Pat one mean punch right in his face. I figure that he could use a little old fashion dispute.”

And true to his words, Patrick
sported a large bruise on Monday. Sarah couldn’t help but snicker at it or find herself grow cold every time she was around him. She hadn’t planned on it, didn’t want to be one of those bitchy women who reveled in giving the cold shoulder.

She just couldn’t help it.
If he didn’t want to talk, she would make sure that he didn’t get a chance to talk again.

Staying cold and remote took all of her
acting skills to the test. She wasn’t a cold person by nature and being so insensitive and arrogant to Patrick was hard on her. In fact, she wanted to lock the office door and talk to Patrick. But Patrick needed this; he needed to know it felt when he treated other people like this. How horrible it felt for others.

So she shunned him
, just like how he shunned himself to his brother and other people who cared about him. He had opened up to her once; he just needed to find the guts to talk to her, not pretend their night together never happened.

Of course,
work was another thing. They needed to talk when they worked, and that was quite comforting. Working took her mind off this complicated relationship and how badly she felt that Patrick was in denial of what they had shared.

Henry was there to cheer her up. He
thought that Patrick’s openness that night was a great start and that she was going in the right direction. Sarah felt she was moving, but she was moving in circles. She fought the impulse to ask Jane since she was the only person who knew how to make Patrick dance or pulled his strings like a master puppeteer. But she didn’t want that. She didn’t want Patrick’s apology to come from manipulation. She wanted it to come from the bottom of his heart. Henry assured her that his brother would definitely do it though it might take time.

“He
isn’t the kind of person to make mistakes. You know that he is such a perfectionist. So when he does mess up, he doesn’t know how to handle it.” Henry was a jewel, offering his advice after everything that happened. He’s also told her, “He’s confused, and he’s going to wreck his mind with it. Give the genius a little time to discover something new about his heart, he’s not stupid.” This encouragement was given during their trip to the coffee house. Sarah was comforted by his words.

It wasn’t until after Patrick retrieved the conversation tape between
the Golden Dome’s former employee and Diana that Patrick tried to talk to her again. He looked like a man with a purpose, walking into the office, sitting the evidence down and moving directly over to her. She looked up at him, for the first time in days.

“I’m sorry,” he said to her. His eyes
were full of regret, and there was a slight tremble in his voice. “I chickened out and I left you alone. I’m sorry for treating you like that.”

Sarah
’s shoulders sagged in relief, and a deep sigh escaped her throat. Now they could move forward, she thought. She was proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone.

Looking up at him, she shifted back into her saucy self.
“Took you long enough,” she said.

He smiled and then grew serious again, shaking his head before offering, “I
should have said that on the first day.”

“Well, you said it now. That’s better than
leaving it hanging.” They were silent for a good moment, eyes locked on each other, but not saying a word. It wasn’t necessary. Everything was on the other’s face. They could get through this together.

“What are you going to do next? Have you figure
d out what you want?” she asked him. One night of passion could not settle anything between them, not for Patrick and Sarah at least. Being a couple, lovers, was more than just sexual desire, and both of them knew that.

“I know this is going to sound like I ask to
o much after all that has been going on but,” Patrick looked as if he was swallowing something big down his throat. It was his pride. “Please give me a little more time. I just…I need to make sure.”

“Of me?”

“Of myself.”

She finally understood. He
doubted himself, not her.

“I need to make sure
I’m ready for this. I just need some time to prepare myself for this change. If you will let me.” He looked so sincere, so vulnerable, and so precious to her eyes. Not like the authoritarian Patrick she knew at the beginning and more of the soft man she made love to that night.

She smiled.
“What kind of person am I if I don’t give my potential boyfriend time to figure out this stuff?”

Patrick’s face softened as he watched her stand and walk towards him. He held open his
arms, and she stepped into them, comforting and being comforted. He needed this; she needed this, the reassurance of being there for each other.

After they had broken the ice,
she talked to him about Henry. “He’s waiting for you to come talk to him,” she told Patrick.

It wasn’t hard to see the uneasiness
and the mixed emotion in his face when Henry was mentioned. Although most of the bruise had faded, the real damage was the one that wasn’t visible. Patrick felt the distance between him and his brother was too far to be mended. Sarah thought this was a good time to repay back the kindness Henry gave her. She wanted the two brothers to be friends again.

“He misses you, you know? He misses how close you two were once. And when you talked to me on that night, I know how much you miss it too
.” Stubbornness seems to run in this family although it varies on different levels. Both brothers were reluctant to be the first one to step forward and so Sarah felt the necessity to push. Patrick just happened to be the one with the lucky straw.

“He’ll never forgive me for what I did.”

“He said that to you?”

“No, but how could he?”

It started with an energetic weekend trip to the theater to see the newest thriller movie together. Their popcorn and Cokes were completely forgotten as both of them were captivated by the sound of gunshots and fist fighting. There was a moment in the theater when the person sitting beside them took out their phone and was about to make a call. Patrick and Sarah both glared at him, and he wisely put the phone away.

The rest of the movie remained undisturbed as they enjoyed the villain being beaten to
a pulp by Sarah’s favorite actress.

After the theater, they had a wonderful dinner at a local
Chinese restaurant. The Dim Sum was scrumptious, and Sarah could eat the spicy and sour soup every day. They ended up in a friendly argument over that one as Patrick cringed at even the smell.

When they
were finished, Patrick walked her home but didn’t ask to visit her room. In his mind this was their official first date, he wanted to take it slow this time.

They
went out again the next weekend, to a small Indie bar that had recently opened. The food was delicious, and the ambiance of the place was warm, intimate and inviting. Moon River played in the background, a unique version that played low and sexy in the background. It was during this slow song Patrick asked, and she answered. They officially became a couple, even sealed it with a kiss. Sarah sank into Patrick’s arm as they listened to the music and drank in the romantic atmosphere around them.

Her relationship with Patrick was very unlike her relationship with his brother.
Unlike Henry, Patrick didn’t show up on her way to work, didn’t bring her coffee. Instead, she was the one who met Patrick on their way to work with a hot Americano in her hand. She would hand it to Patrick and instruct him to just drink it, not listening to his excuse that the horrible office coffee was fine

“
You always drink that coffee. No wonder your taste buds are out of function,” she teased as Patrick took his first sip of the Americano. She enjoyed his look of surprise followed by another quick sip. It was clear her favorite Starbucks was a hit.

“Now you can join me and Henry on our break,”
she suggested, enjoying her new role of bossing him around.

Sarah ordered him coffee with
a sandwich and also put his name on the coffee duty list. The moment Henry saw his brother’s name on the list; he laughed hysterically and joked on how Patrick finally succumbed to the power of good coffee. Although he was reluctant at first, he finally joined Sarah and Henry on the caffeine addict club.

His first time as a coffee runner was a hysterical sight to see. No one on the floor could believe it was him. So trained they were to avoid him and his grumpiness, they were loath to be the first to take a
cup from his hand.

He was calling
out the names on the coffee cup, getting more and more irritated by the minute. Finally, he said,

“You want your coffee or not? I
’ve got work to do,” and one by one, everyone on his floor received their brew. He quickly became the joke of Johnson and Smith… Patrick Greenburg, coffee boy, they would say. But truly, everyone was just so surprised he was interacting and speaking to them outside of work. And pleased.

“Am I really that bad? I can’t
have been that bad. Right?” Sarah and Henry could only be honest. Yes, yes he was that bad. He was simply floored that he had become such a spectacle. He smiles at someone, and you’d think the world had ended.

“You
are
that bad Patrick. You just never saw yourself doing it.” Henry answered it for him and gave him a hard pat on his shoulder and a squeeze before going back to his floor. Sarah nodded slowly in agreement and raised her cup to Henry for a quick ‘cheer.'

“Let’s just say that it was the first step to self-development.”

Everyone was uneasy at first. They were still afraid of him a bit. However, whenever he wasn’t working, he started to talk more, and the others began to warm to him.

He
even joined people in conversation, added tips and suggestions when he could. When he heard two of their co-works, Nick and Adewale, talk about wanting to join a local gym. Patrick just causally popped in and offered a suggestion before disappearing onto the elevator. There were little things, but to other, they meant a great deal.

The next day they thanked him for the tip and even invited him to join them
on their morning jog. Patrick agreed and even dragged Henry with him. Sarah was so pleased to see him gain other friends.

One
day, Patrick complimented the receptionist on her new haircut and received a shocked ‘thank you’ and blush in return. In the elevator, Sarah elbowed him, a bit sharper than she had intended.

“What?
” he asked. “I thought you told me to be friendlier to people.”

“
You never said that to me.” Sarah was pouting which made Patrick chuckle and give her a quick peck on her cheek.

“That’s because you always look good
.” Which only earned him another jab in the ribs. This time it was playful, he gave her a hug.

“C’mon
give your girlfriend a little confidence,” Sarah then put Patrick in a quick headlock.

“Okay
okay!” Patrick tried to throw up his hand as a sign of surrender. “You look really beautiful today.”

Sarah let
him go and gave him a kiss, a soft long kiss like a reward to her sweet hero. They were gazing into each other’s eyes, ready for another kiss, when the elevator bell rang. They let go and stepped apart by the time the door opened, and there stood Henry, who quickly jumped inside.

“You guys,” he
said, looking from one to the other. “If you are going to pretend none of those make out sessions happen, please do wipe the lipstick smudge away.”

Life was good
at Johnson and Smith. In fact, Patrick could easily describe what he was feeling right now as perfect. He had never felt this happy as an adult or felt as close with Henry until this moment. Maybe, if he had a chance, he could re-forge the relationship he had with Jane too. His world was full of possibilities.

His work was going smoothly too. Golden Dome
didn’t have a chance when they were facing both Sarah and himself. It seemed that everything changed in his life ever since he and Sarah admitted their feelings for each other openly. It felt good to know she was there to love and be loved unconditionally. Patrick wasn’t the kind of person who would scream to the top of the world when he was happy. He enjoyed that happiness silently, quietly with the people he loved and cared about.

On their next date, Patrick surprised Sarah with a
birdcage with a small bird sitting inside. Sarah’s eyes seemed to sparkle like a thousand Christmas lights when she saw the beautiful bird inside. It was a male bluebird. She decided to name him “Turquoise” to match its color. It was a gift from Patrick to her that symbolized what she also gave to him: happiness.