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They Key to Believingchapter 20
The DenouementKyle received a phone call from the medical laboratories on the other side of the complex and he was able to report the news to Sloane in person. “I wanted to tell you, I just got a call from the medical engineering lab at the other side of the complex, and they said they’d be able to generate the list of compounds in less than a day.” “Really? That’s great. Do we have test subjects?” “Yeah, they finished research on some for other drugs the company still had to test for weeks and the subjects are still fine, so we could use them. And I hope I didn’t overstep my boundaries, but I told the engineers to start generating samples of all of the compounds we handed off to them before.” “Wow, that’s great, Kyle, and no, I’m not mad. You know how I think and sometimes you know more about what we should be doing around here. Thanks a lot.” “No problem...” “You know, I’ve got to let Mr. Madison know that you do so much more around here, so maybe we’ll give you more credit for our work...” “I learn half the stuff from you...” “You know the stuff now, though, and you take charge of a lot of this too. I think you were saying things about this potential virus just as I was starting to only think them, so you’re taking a lot of this in your own hands too.” Kyle smiled. “I just don’t want you saying anything that’s not true to anyone.” “Do you think I’d do that to anyone?” “No, I know...” “Then if you know what to do about this, take the next steps to start tests for the samples. I’ll get to work on ... whatever I can do with a bum arm...” She turned around to work on cleaning up files and meeting with people while Kyle started to hear the testing process for the potential vaccines. In her office after an hour, Julie rang her. “Ms. Emerson, Tyler Gillian is here to see you.” Thinking that she really didn’t have a reason to not see him, she thanked Julie and told her to let Tyler in. “Hey tiger, how are -- what did you do to you arm?” “I fell on my week off, and hi.” “Yeah, I hear you took time off, where did you go?” “I went out with a friend to get away. What did you stop in for?” “... I just figured that I hadn’t see you in a few weeks and I should just stop by and say hello, I know you had to be missing me by now...” “You’re a funny man, Tyler. No, I’m fine, and it’s nice to know that the lobby groups haven’t shred you in the week I haven’t seen you... And wait -- I just thought of something -- the book should be back from the printer this week, I think it will be on the shelves around the country this Friday. Is that something you want to hype?” “You know tiger, I was actually going to mention it to you. Think we can run a press conference about it this Thursday, the day before it’s released?” “Sure. Let me know what you want said, and I’ll be able to do it” “Thanks, kid...” Tyler said as he was turning around to leave. Before he left her room, he said, “Are you doing okay?” “I guess, but why?” “You’re looking a little beat from your time off. Wasn’t your vacation supposed to be relaxing for you?” “It must have been except for my arm, but thanks for asking.” With that Tyler left the room and Julie knocked shortly afterward, and Sloane told her to come in. “You actually took a visit from Tyler?” “Hard to believe but yes, I did.” “Did he have any fires for ’Ms. Emerson the Fireman’ to put out?” “No ... he mentioned the book release this week and asked if I’d do a press release about it Thursday, the day before it’s release.” “Are you doing it?” “Of course. It needs press coverage for it to sell. I even told Tyler to send what I should say at it.” “Are you going to say what P.R. wrote?” “I don’t see why not ... this is his ball game, so I can be the right ’puppet’ for him...” Julie laughed and as she was leaving to close the door, and she told her to leave the door open in case anyone wanted to come by to talk to her. But very shortly after Tyler came by at 3:00, she received a call from someone at The Renaissance Hotel. “Sloane Emerson.” “Ms. Emerson, this is Edward Rogers from The Renaissance Hotel. We needed to give you a message to come to the Hotel here, because we have some news and something to give you.” “What is it?” “We can’t disclose the information to you over the phone, we were just told to tell you to come here.” Sloane was once again visibly upset. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get off of work, thank you very much.” “Thank you, Ms. Emerson.” Looking at her watch, she saw that it was only 3:45, and she usually stayed until after dinner. She was afraid to find out what was at the hotel, but she needed to know immediately, so she started working on a plan to get her out of work a few minutes early. She packed everything up in her office so she would be ready to move as soon as she cleared her way with the rest of the lab. Walking out of her office and feeling distraught, she made a point to look more disheveled. Julie was the first to see her. “Are you okay, Ms. Emerson?” “I ... I think so.” “Maybe you’re hurt more than you think, you still have all these cuts and scrapes and a bandaged arm.” Howard walked toward them as Julie was trying to help her. “Yeah, I guess I was just trying to work through everything...” “Like you always do,” Howard chimed in. Kyle walked over when he saw the gathering. “You came in here all day Saturday, just get out of here now and get some rest.” “...Maybe I will. Thank you. And Kyle, if you need anything for the vaccine, just go ahead and do it, because I’m sure you’d do the same things I would.” When she finished her words she curled her arm more tightly into her torso and turned to get her belongings from her office so she could leave. Carter sat in a room at The Renaissance Hotel, after paying someone from the hotel to call him to tell him that Sloane Emerson had arrived at the hotel. He gave them instructions that when Sloane came in and gave her name they were to give her a key to the room he had reserved for the evening. Figuring that she never used the bathtub with jets when she stayed there before, this would be a good place to surprise her so she could know that he was fine. “A week ago, I couldn’t drink this,” he thought as he leaned back on the couch with the bottle of champagne he bought in a bucket with ice from the community ice machine. He held the champagne glasses he brought from New York, waiting for her to come to him. Sloane sped to The Renaissance Hotel in record time; her anxiety was taking over and she was getting more nervous and more scared with every passing light she had to go through to get there. Parking in the edge of the visitor parking, she almost ran into the hotel and went straight to the main lobby desk. “Hello, excuse me my name is Sloane Emerson, I was told there was something for me here and I had to come here.” The gentleman behind the counter said, “Yes, ma’am, just one moment please.” He then went to the back wall to get a hotel card for her. Walking back, he handed her the card. “What ... what is this for?” “It’s for room 323 here. You need to go there.” She stared at him blankly for a minute. The man behind the counter finally said, “If there is a problem, you can call from your room.” Stepping backwards for a moment, she had no idea what was supposed to be in this room. All she was able to think was that someone had died, but she didn’t know why she had to meet in a hotel room to hear it. She went to the nearest elevator, hit the button for the third floor, and waited until the elevator stopped moving up and the doors opened to her floor. Walking out, she found a gold sign on the wall that told her which direction to go to find her room. Carter received a phone call from the front desk, per his request, when Sloane Emerson took the key. He tried to decide what he should do, remain seated or stand there waiting for her. After two minutes he made sure he had the ice bucket of champagne on the table alone, he placed the glasses down around it, and almost held one of the glasses until he heard the plastic key slide through the lock. Not seeing anything in the front hall, she walked forward until she saw Carter standing on the opposite site of the room with the champagne. Carter could see her eyes turn to saucers, but for once in the past few months it was for a good reason. She stood silently and her mouth started to open, amazed that he was standing right there, in the same room as her. Carter finally quietly said, “Hi.” He could see her, eyes still wide open, starting to smile and almost laugh. “Hi...?” she answered. “I told you the first thing I’d do is come and see you,” he said as he made one step forward, leaving the glass he was holding on the table. Sloane almost ran toward him and threw her good arm around him. He grabbed her to hold her. “Ouch,” she said silently until Carter leaned back and saw he had to be careful of her cut arm, still bandaged. He pulled away far enough to grab her shoulders, then leaned in to kiss her. Trying to get words in while they were kissing, she managed to ask, “When did you wake up?” “About dawn.” “I called the nurse...” “Nurse Miles tested me; I was tested again at the hospital. Nothing is in me. And Nurse Miles knew I was coming so she said that I was still out, so that I could surprise you. We were even there listening to your call today when you left the message.” Laughing harder now and overwhelmed that he had come through with a clean bill of health and surprised her, Carter kept kissing her, working his way around each side of her neck, trying to unbutton her blouse. “Why didn’t you just come to my place?” “I figured that you needed a little honeymoon too...” “Carter, we’re not married.” “But in spirit ... aren’t we already?” Sloane could only laugh when she heard every answer he had for her. “Besides, I wanted you to be able to take a bath when I was here before, but you refused, so now you have all the space in the world.” “It’s a deal...” “Now you said you hurt your knees to get the antidote. Let me see.” “What, you want me to take --” “Yes...” “Carter,” she started to answer, “You’re supposed to be removing my pants yourself.” Carter unbuttoned her pants and started to slide them off of her as he pushed her to the bed. “Now, I have one question for you,” he asked. “What’s that?” “What should we do first, have champagne or make love?” “What? Um ... I --” “We’ll do both,” he said as he got up to uncork the champagne. She heard a loud pop and some of the champagne started coming out of the top, and Carter moved the bottle over her stomach, so it started spilling on her waist. “Ah, that’s cold! What are you --” She had to stop herself when Carter got on his knees on the bed and started licking the champagne off of her. “I have one request for you.” “What?” “Would you keep talking to me when we’re making love?” “What?” “I know --” “That’s strange, why?” “Because I want to hear your voice. It’s beautiful.” “...What should I talk about? Michael Jordan and our basketball team” “I don’t care, I just love your voice... Michael Jordan? You don’t know anything about sports, how did you know about that?” “It’s everywhere in the news, Carter, I couldn’t not know it. But what are you going to be saying?” she asked, trying to get Carter to talk as well. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to, I’ll be too busy kissing you and biting you.” “Biting me?” “You are very edible, you know...” Carter started kissing her lips and she locked onto him.
An hour later, Carter had to ask. “Should I start a bath now?” “You’re killing me.” “You know, clean us off, make us presentable.” “Why, are we going somewhere?” “You’re not leaving until I check out of here near noon tomorrow.” “Carter, I’ve got to go to work.” “You can take a sick day.” She thought for a moment about how she left early because she didn’t look well, and people were worried about her arm. “Well, I...” “Do you ever take a sick day?” “I hate you, Carter.” “No you don’t.” “I know. And yes, I’ll probably call in sick tomorrow; I can get away with it. But I can’t get my arm wet in the tub.” “No problem. I’ll get a pulley from the front desk to hold your arm up.” Starting to laugh again, she had to answer, “But really, I also need to replace the bandages.” “Do we do that tomorrow or today?” “I can do it tomorrow...” “Then you’ll do it on your way home at lunch,” he said as he got up to start the bath water. They spent the evening together drinking champagne and sitting in the bathtub, and after they both slept the night through Carter woke up first and had a chance to watch her sleep. She started to open her eyes and suddenly got nervous and looked over to Carter. “What’s wrong, angel?” “It’s seven-thirty -- so I can call work to tell Madison I’m going to be sick today.” “Yes, and you might want to tell them you turned the ringer off in your home so you haven’t heard any calls coming and you don’t plan to take calls.” “Good idea. But I’ll call a little later, when people might actually be there to take my call...” “Okay. How are you feeling this morning?” “Great. It was wonderful to sleep. What do you want to do today?” “I thought we’d look for homes.” “What? What for?” “You probably need to look for a place where your monthly rent actually goes toward you owning something.” “But I don’t know if I can afford...” “It doesn’t hurt to look around, does it?” “...I suppose not.” They spent the afternoon looking at homes from real estate guides. The best place they found was a large condo by the water on the tenth floor. “I really like the place, Carter, but --” “But it’s really close for a commute for you to work. You wouldn’t even need to drive half the year because you could walk along the water.” “Yeah, I’m not arguing the place, I really like it, the view is great too, and I love the water here. I can’t afford it though.” “It’s just something to look at though, so you have an idea of what you’re looking for whenever you can afford a place.” Carter still had more devious plans in mind, because he had meetings planned with supervisors a few days this week for him to take over the philosophical books section and possibly be their west coast connection for their corporation. Because he had been paying a hefty mortgage on his flat in New York, he would have about a hundred thousand dollars when the place was sold that he could dump into a home for the two of them He didn’t know if it would all work out at Quentin, and he didn’t know if she would like the idea of them living together. He knew he had plans to marry the woman, but he had to make sure everything would work out for him first.
That Tuesday afternoon, Carter had to say good-bye to her yet again. They stood at the drop-off area at the airport, and Although Sloane felt miserable, all Carter could say to her was, “Don’t worry angel. The worst is over, and the government hasn’t bugged you, so I’m sure they don’t even know it was you there. The book is done and out this week, and I’m sure Quentin will want me to come out this way for other business.” “Carter, I hear that my boss wants to have a little party this Saturday for the lab and the chemical engineering department to celebrate the book. Is there any chance Quentin could use this excuse for you to come out to Madison for it?” “Have your boss send me a memo and a phone call about it, and we’ll see if I can ’extract’ the trip from Quentin.” “...Why is it that you always make me happy? I can’t be with you and not be in a good mood.” “I don’t know angel, but you do the same to me ... I love you.” Carter started to walk away with his bag. “Tell your boss to contact us about it if the party is going to take place.” “Got it ... I love you...” she said as Carter walked in the gate for his flight back to New York. Knowing that leaving her arm bent as it healed would cause the skin to be tight there, she tried to use her left arm more over the week when she was back at work. The lab also got verification about the press conference Thursday Sloane, Howard and Kyle would speak at, and they found out about the Saturday night party. Making sure Colin set phone and e-mail requests for Carter to attend the book and vaccine party Saturday was enough for Quentin to get Carter a flight to Seattle for the weekend. What she didn’t know was that Carter had been meeting with supervisors and bosses all week to find out if they would be pleased if he was to reposition in Seattle and represent the Northern West coast for the company and specialize in education and philosophical book releases, while stepping back from the lead position in new writers. Carter thought that for the slight pay difference he would receive, he would still be able to live extremely well, seeing that mortgage payments for his home would be so much lower than it was in New York. He also deduced that if he was with Sloane they could share one car for a while. Carter would work out of his home and not need to commute, because he could rely on a private T1 line for his Internet and Quentin network connections. Now all he had to do was get the okay from Sloane. He spent the latter half of the week setting up his flight and getting a hotel room that Quentin would pay for at The Renaissance Hotel, as well as covering taxi fares with a receipt. He even called to make sure Sloane would be there. “I’m going to Seattle for the party this Saturday,” he told her. “And I’m bashful at this...” “At what?” “I was wondering if you would be my date for the party.” “Are you asking me on a date?” “I’ll even bring a boutonniere.” Laughing, she said, “I’d love a date. And I’d prefer the wrist corsage ... I’ll see you Friday night at the airport, okay?” “Great. I’d like to take you out to dinner when I get into town. To celebrate.” “What are we celebrating?” “A lot, I hope. So is it a deal?” “Wow, two dates in one weekend, I’m overwhelmed.” Carter started laughing before her and she finished her thought. “I’ll pick you up from your flight at 6:30 Friday evening.” Everything began falling into place that week for them. The book samples were mailed to Madison Pharmaceuticals, and everyone in the lab was thrilled with the results. They even received a box of one hundred books as a gift to the lab staff, so everyone in the lab got a copy or two for their records, and everyone at the press conference had a copy of the book to use to illustrate while they were at the stand talking. Sloane even went home to look at the book before she went to bed, and for the night she kept a copy of The Battle from the Inside with all of the books Carter had published on her nightstand. Wednesday, when Toby called Sloane with a concern about the drug he was searching for from the rain forest trees, she didn’t even seen phased. “Toby, I don’t know if there’s much more you can get from your samples.” “Yeah, but check this out. You’re always checking into these things, so I did some searching into the company that bought the land in South America. It said it was an orange grove company, but I did a little more web searching and the only web data I could find was that it was owned by our government.” “Toby, I thought we found that out.” “Yeah, but this is the deal, Sloane -- the company was started by someone who works for the DOD, I even got the records on the owner and they have nothing to do with growing oranges. Their web site had nothing, and when I checked tax records from a three-year-old company I found out they made nothing and had no product to sell.” “And they’re still in business...” “Yeah, that’s the deal -- no company can exist without a profit for more than three years, and they have no real base of plans for growth. This is a total shell company they’ve got here.” “So what are you thinking?” “I’m thinking that they did know I was looking for data and they intentionally stopped me.” “So ... Do you think there is anything at all you can get from your samples still?” “I don’t know. I just want to let people know that this is what the government is doing to people who try to help.” Sloane thought for a moment about trying to get the word out to people. “I don’t know if I can help out on this one, buy my friend Steve works at the paper and might be able to get an investigative reporter to snoop around to find anything out, and I’d think they’d want to run lots of news coverage on it too.” “Wow, if you think you can help, that would be great.” “Toby, you did all the work here. I just have a friend that might help.” They said goodbye to each other before she called and left a message at Steve’s work to ask him if he could start a ball rolling, hoping that there would be enough of an interest in AIDS medications to make them want to push to get this news out there to people. Thursday morning Carter made his final decision on a wedding ring and engagement ring set. Knowing she wouldn’t want a large, clunky ring to get in her way, he still wanted to give her an extraordinary set, so for the engagement ring there was a single large emerald-cut diamond set in a round gold band, and the wedding ring was a round gold band with three horizontally-placed low emerald-cut diamonds running along the band, at the same width of the band. He picked up the set Thursday afternoon and hoped this would be what she wanted if she decided to spend the rest of her life with him. Thursday afternoon Kyle told Sloane about the luck with the vaccine tests right before they were about to leave for the press conference an hour later that day. The two of them were thrilled that two of the compounds seemed to work perfectly with some of the animals, so they opted to test them on a few different kinds of animals before they would think of testing them on any humans. “We have to celebrate, Kyle,” she said. “That’s what Saturday is for at Mr. Madison’s,” Kyle responded. They walked together to Tyler’s office so they could all go to the press conference and discuss their book. The three of them performed Tyler’s script perfectly at the speech, and Tyler even took them all out for a drink. Friday they worked seamlessly throughout the day and found a new set of different animals for additional testing. Sloane left work and headed straight to the airport to pick Carter up. Standing in the back of the group waiting past the gates for passengers coming off of Carter’s flight, she spotted him in an instant, because she just thought he stood out in her mind and she could see him in a flash. Leaning on the back wall, she had to remain there just so she could watch him living on his own, acting the way he was the way because she was in love with him. Carter finally saw her and held onto his bag over his shoulder and quickened his pace to get to her quicker. Carter walked right up to her, picked her up and twirled her around before he put her down to kiss her. Getting his luggage from the baggage claim, she brought him to her car where she drove him to The Renaissance Hotel again for his stay. “We’re eating here, so go home and get ready and come back here, okay?” “Sure. It will probably take me about an hour with traffic, but maybe less. I’ll see you soon.” He didn’t tell her how nicely to dress, but she decided to go all out anyways because she never got the chance to see him regularly. She slid on a twenties-style dress with spaghetti-straps that stopped above the knees with satiny fringe at the bottom. Adding pearls for a necklace and post earrings, she brushed her hair through again before working on her make-up, making sure she looked perfect before she put on a pair of high heels to show off her calves. “With this stole I’m ready,” Sloane thought. Carter made sure they had a private corner in their dining room, with curtains separating them from the rest of the room. He stood in the lobby, dressed in a full black suit, looking out the front door window to see when she arrived. When she drove up, Carter moved toward the back of the front lobby, with his single red rose in hand for her. He watched her come in from outside and he had to stop himself for a moment because he thought she looked so beautiful. She walked in slowly, starting to approach the elevators, and he then turned a corner to meet her. She felt just about as stunned as he did when she saw him come out to meet her. “You ... you look amazing,” she told him. “Words can’t do you justice,” he responded. “I hoped the stole would cover my bandage.” “The bandage looks smaller,” Carter answered. “I can wear a smaller one now. It has been long enough, so it is okay.” After waiting a moment to speak again, he said, “This is for you,” and handed her the rose. “You didn’t have to,” she said. “You’re right ... I should have given you more.” “Carter...” “But I didn’t think you’d want a hundred roses filling up your apartment,” Carter said, as he smiled at her smiling at his remark. “There’s a table waiting for us,” Carter added and offered his arm to Sloane to escort her into dinner. They had an incredible dinner together; she loved the location of their table and they both loved the food and wine. At the end of the meal the waiter brought a bottle of champagne and poured two glasses for them. Sloane watched the waiter walk away, and there was enough time for Carter to drop her engagement ring in her glass. “A wonderful wine with the food, and now champagne? I thought you’d be trying to take me to your place and have your way with me.” “Is that the way dates normally go for you?” “Honestly, they usually stay away because they’re too frightened of me...” “You can scare people, angel.” “If people don’t like strength, then --” “Then they shouldn’t tread on the water.” “And you come stomping in.” “Does it bother you?” Drinking another sip of her champagne, she answered, “No; you’re the only person who could do it to me.” Carter knew this was the moment to start with his speech he had rehearsed in his head a thousand times, but he still had trouble saying it because he was so nervous. “Do you know what it’s like to feel alone?” “Yes, I suppose.” “To feel like nothing or no one in the world understood you and you’d have to forge through life alone? Even if you had friends you could talk to, you’d never tell them everything because they wouldn’t understand.” “Oh yes, I know that. That’s how I live.” “Do you still?” She smiled when he asked that. “If you lived here I’d answer no.” They sat in silence for a moment and she took another sip of her champagne. She was just over half through with her glass and she still hadn’t seen the ring in her glass. “It doesn’t help, even if I am far away?” “...I don’t feel alone, but I don’t feel whole.” This one got to Carter. “I thought about that, and I thought that knowing you, even if I could never be with you, made me feel like I was starting to live again. But you know what I wanted to feel?” “What?” Carter lifted up his glass to make Sloane follow his lead. “I wanted to feel alive.” He then drank, and she took a sip of hers as well. As she was drinking she saw something in her glass. She tried to get a better look at it as Carter then said, “I wanted to feel alive with you.” It looked to him like her eyes popped out of her head when she saw there was a ring in her glass, so she drank the last of her champagne and tilted the glass to get the ring out. She stared at the ring, amazed and speechless. There was an extra dish of water on the table, so Carter took her hand to put the ring in the water to clean it off. He then took the ring, got out of his chair and went down on one knee and asked, “Will you marry me?” Sloane put her hand on her chest to try to stop her breathing from becoming a pant. “Yes...” Carter then got up to walk to her side, got on one knee, and placed the ring on her hand. He then stood up and kissed her. When he stood to go back to his seat, the waiter was already approaching to refill their glasses, because they knew to refill if it looked like she accepted and took the ring. As they were finishing pouring the champagne and about to leave, she asked, “So we’re going to be married across the country?” “No.” “What does that mean?” “Well, you said you couldn’t move Madison, so I tried to move Quentin.” “I’m sure your huge company isn’t moving...” “True, but they thought they needed a rep in charge of their educational and philosophical books on the Northwest coast.” She started to lean back, listening to him, knowing there was more. “So they said they’d set me up with a T1 line for a network and Internet connection, so I figured I had to come here to start looking for a place. I really liked one on the tenth floor at the water, and after I sell the place I’m paying a mortgage on I’ll probably have about a hundred grand, which will cover a down payment, but I didn’t know how much spending money I’d have after I pay the monthly mortgage on it.” “You made me go looking for a place for myself under false pretenses?” “Do you forgive me?” “... I suppose...” “I hope you like the engagement ring, I knew you didn’t want something sticking out on your hand, but I wanted to give you something big and gaudy anyway... I hope this is a fair mix of the two.” “Carter, I love it!” “The wedding ring in the set is excellent too, that’s why I picked it out.” “I can’t believe you.” “So, getting back to that place. You said before that you liked it but you couldn’t afford it.” “I did.” “It was close to your work, had a great view and was on the water.” “Yeah, I can’t believe you.” “Why not?” “What, did you go buy the place without telling me too?” “No, I figured I’d get your approval on that one first...” Sloane started laughing again. “It’s hard for me to find a place to live if I’m going to be living with my wife over here,” Carter finally said. “I’ve tried to do things here, and I’m going to be taking another trip out on Quentin’s dollar to make final plans, but that is the other reason they let me out here this weekend. So in another month or two, depending on terms for getting a home, I’ll relocate here.” At this point Sloane was just grinning widely. “What?” “I’m just...” She turned her ring to look at it, and then turned her hand to show it off to Carter. “Look at this ring!” she said as she started giggling again. “What, too small?” He kept going as she kept laughing at every question he asked. “Too gaudy? What, you wanted a round stone? Don’t like diamonds?” “I don’t want a big wedding.” “You’re thinking about the wedding already?” “You’re right.” “Think about the book.” “Oh yeah...” “Think about your work progress.” “The cure couldn’t be developed from the samples left from your medicine bottle because it wasn’t kept cool in transport, but I think we’ve got a vaccine from it, which is excellent.” “Think about your party tomorrow at your boss’ house.” “Oh my God, I’m going to have to tell them about your illness tomorrow.” “And our engagement.” “I’ll have to tell everyone we’ve been friends for years, that’s how I got the contract so fast through Quentin.” “We’ll find a way to tell them” “We have to let people enjoy the vaccine news for a while, Carter.” “We’ll celebrate our own news tonight.” They looked at each other and raised their glasses to toast their news, and celebrate together while they were alone tonight. Saturday during the day the two of them looked at homes together, but still liked the loft on the tenth floor on the water closer to her work. By the time the evening came, they had to get ready for their drive to Colin’s house. “I hope this is okay, Carter. I didn’t want to get too dressy.” “That looks great,” Carter said as he watched her walk in the room, wearing a white turtleneck with black pants and a black stole. “Did you do okay getting the turtleneck over your bandage?” “Yes. I figured that it wasn’t bleeding any more, and the white turtleneck goes with the white bandage underneath...” “No one should see it, and you look great.” “Do you think we’re ready for this?” she asked Carter. “Do we have much of a choice?” Carter said as he started laughing. “Oh, Carter, one thing.” “Yes?” “Just don’t kiss me until we say the news.” “Can I escort you in the house or get your drink?” “You know what I mean with the kiss.” “We came together, we just shouldn’t be showy.” “That’s all I was thinking.” “Got it.” “Carter, they don’t even know you don’t have AIDS.” “Well, there’s an announcement right there.” “But we can’t just tell them you’re cured, ’hi, I stole the cure from the government, and no, there wasn’t enough to make for everyone, and yes, I was selfish and gave it to this acquaintance of yours, but with scraps of the cure we generated a vaccine this quickly...’ we can’t do that.” “Do we tell them anything?” “We can’t not tell them. I’ll come up with something. An original bad reading and you don’t have AIDS, or something.” “That sounds good...” “No, wait, I can’t tell them that, Carter... I’ll be roasted for traveling to see you so often if you weren’t sick.” “Then what do we tell them?” Um ... We could ... There are a bunch of options here. We could tell them that it could have been because the injection in you wasn’t potent enough to actually infect you because the hospital detected the HIV in your dermis from an injection but it may not have gotten into your system.” “Okay...” “Or there is a chance that flooding your system with an overdose of the cocktail may have eventually helped you, but we can’t guarantee that...” “That’s true as well. That’s a good one, too.” “The thing is, we made sure you did anything possible to keep you in good health at the same time, so that may have been a contributing factor...” “You’re saying a bunch of good points.” “Well Carter, maybe that’s what I’ll have to tell.” “Tell them all of it?” “I’ll tell them that we can’t be sure of why you’re better precisely because there are so many factors in play.” “I can tell that we’re engaged.” “Carter, I have to tell them first that I knew you as a friend before the book, that’s how I got the contract so quickly.” “If we’re telling them we’re engaged, I’ll be telling them I’m moving to Seattle. But I have to tell them that I’ll still be their rep for book publishing if Madison ever wants to do more.” “Are you trying to sell more books to us?” she asked, smiling, as she kept driving to Colin’s house. They made a point to be dressed for the party, and they did everything in their power to arrive in style. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this,” she said to Carter as she held his arm and they walked to the front door together. Colin found them after Carter and Sloane walked into his front hallway. “Colin, did you ever meet Mr. Carter Donovan?” “No, I don’t believe I did. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Donovan.” “Likewise, Mr. Madison. The honor is mine.” “Who else is here, Colin?” she asked. “Most everyone, dear. Everyone’s been wondering how you were when you took a sick day this week.” “I’ll introduce him to those who don’t remember. Thanks for everything.” Colin led the way into the main room and both of them followed, while Carter still held her arm. Half of the group that knew her was stunned to see her with a man, and people who knew Carter were a bit surprised to see him holding her arm. She leaned over and whispered to Carter, “Wow, I didn’t imagine the looks I’d get by you holding my arm...” Carter smiled; it was the only way he could respond when twenty people were looking at them. “Nice look everyone is giving us, no?” he whispered to her. She chuckled with him before she had to make her presentation of him to people who didn’t know him. Sloane raised her voice to everyone looking at them and said, “If anyone hasn’t met him, I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Carter Donovan,” she said as she then moved her hands away from him to present him to people. “This is the man who spearheaded the production of The Battle from the Inside and the printing. He came into town for our celebration party.” People started to mingle toward Carter and say hello, both Kyle and Howard came to him to give him a more proper greeting. “Carter Donovan, remember me? I’m Kyle Mackenzie, I helped you with the editing of the book.” “Hi. I heard Sloane say you two worked on a possible vaccine this week.” “When did she tell you that?” “I have been in town this weekend, and she was giving me the tour and prepping me on things around here. While she was checking on me in New York she got to see a little of New York, so now I’m seeing a little of Seattle.” “Really?” “Yes, and I really like it here ... There are flowers everywhere, it’s great.” “We’ve got the rainfall for it,” Kyle said, and they both laughed. “While touring I think I heard more about her work than the town.” Kyle said, continuing laughing, “That sounds like Sloane.” Howard butted in. “Have you seen how she has been doing? She has been under the weather, and we’ve been worried.” “Actually, it looks like she she’s doing pretty well...” Carter said as he pointed to Sloane talking to a few other coworkers from the lab, cracking jokes and putting her good arm on someone else while they were laughing. “And speaking of, I should get her something to drink. Where is --” “The bar is in that corner,” Howard said. “Do you know what she wants?” “I think she’s in such a good mood,” Carter said, “that she’ll tolerate whatever I get her.” He then turned to Kyle and started to smile before he went to get drinks. Kyle then turned to Howard and raised his eyebrows at Carter’s actions, and then they both laughed at whatever was happening. Carter walked over to Sloane with two glasses of wine. “I hope this is good for you.” “This is fine. Thanks. But Carter,” she said as she leaned her head back and lowered her voice, “over there” she said, nodding her head over to Tyler, “is Tyler Gillian. The yellow patterned tie.” “Oh, lovely fellow, I like his fake tan. That and the blonde hair really hides the fact that he’s losing a bit of his hair.” She started openly laughing in response to Carter’s cracks and Tyler saw Sloane and decided to come by. “Hey, tiger!” he exclaimed as he smacked her back and she almost spilled her wine. “Where did the ’tiger’ come from?” Carter said under his breath as Sloane responded with “Thanks for almost spilling my red wine on my white shirt. You’re the best.” “I think the speech for the book went really well...” “I think you should meet Mr. Donovan, Tyler, this is the man who --” “Printed the book, I heard! Mr. Donovan, I’m Tyler Gillian, the head of P.R. and Marketing here at Madison.” “What an ornate title. Nice to meet you.” “Ornate?” “Ornate, intricate, elaborative, exhaustive, you know what I mean.” Sloane started laughing and turned around to head to other people because Carter seemed to be doing a phenomenal job of cutting Tyler down right to his face without even trying. The evening at Colin’s was working out perfectly. Carter and Sloane would meet up occasionally, Carter seemed to always see when Sloane was running low on a drink and he would bring her a refill. Occasionally people would ask why they came in together, and they would both respond that Carter didn’t have a car when he was in town and Sloane was showing him the town, so she gave him a ride to the party. When it was just around 10:00, Carter leaned toward Sloane and whispered, asking if they should see if they could announce anything here. She said she’d check with Colin to see if it was possible. “Colin, I know this is a get-together for the book, but I’d like to mention new news that both Mr. Donovan and I had to share -- I could even bring up our vaccine findings. I was just wondering if it would be okay.” “Sure ... to get people to listen, would you like me to get their attention and ’introduce’ you?” She thought that was very generous of him, and Colin made a call out and everyone stopped talked to hear what he had to say. “Everyone, thanks for coming tonight. This evening is to celebrate the printing of our book, The Battle from the Inside. Let’s give a round of applause for everyone who contributed to the book - from P.R. to the writers.” They waited while the applause to end; Carter applauded Sloane because she was one of the writers. Colin then continued. “We should also be thankful for the speediness in producing the book at the printers, and we’re lucky enough to have the head of new clients from Quentin Publishing here, Mr. Carter Donovan.” Everyone started applauding him without Colin even having to ask for it. Now it was her turn to clap. “But the two people who were probably most instrumental in getting this book out. Sloane Emerson here and Mr. Donovan, wanted to tell you some news...” Colin stepped away from where he was speaking; Sloane and Carter walked to the empty space together, and Sloane started talking first. “Hi. We’ve got a lot of news to tell, but I first wanted to mention to everyone that Kyle and I were working this weekend and we think we’ve found compounds that could eventually be used for ... for a vaccine.” Everyone seemed to catch their breath in unison. “We don’t know for sure, but please, Kyle needs some applause too...” They listened to the applause for the both of them for this potential vaccine, and when the applause settled, Sloane started on their news. “Now here comes the string of news. Some of you know that there was a hold-up in the production of the book because Carter Donovan here was mugged and blood test results stated that he tested positing for HIV.” Some of the group didn’t know and started looking at him to see if he looked sick. “A hypodermic needle was found at the attack scene, and there were traces of the virus in the needle and in Carter’s dermis, near a puncture mark. Some of you knew, but I wanted to tell you that Carter just went in for a string of blood tests again, and I don’t know why, but Carter Donovan is clear of AIDS or HIV in his body. He’s actually perfectly healthy.” With that statement there was a huge round of applause. “We don’t know exactly why this has happened. There may have been a glitch in the old blood tests. The tests on Carter’s skin may have shown it at only his skin and it never entered his body. Kyle knows that I was called in hours after he was found and attacked because my card was on him, and we overdosed him with Emivir and AZT. Maybe it was all of these things, but he was also following everything in the book to a ’t’, which may have helped, but that might be why he’s in such good health now. We can’t prove anything, but we can see that something worked, and Carter here is living proof of it.” She said this in celebration of his successes until the applause quieted down. She then tried to take a deep breath for the remaining part of her speech. “But what none of you know is that we got this contract so easily because I have known Carter for years, we went to undergraduate school together, and we have been friends for nearly a decade. We’ve been the best of friends, even when we were on opposite side of the country.” Carter leaned over to Sloane and whispered that he’ll take over, because in his mind he was sure he’d say their news with ease and grace. “But what Sloane wanted to say,” Carter said, “was two things. One was that I’ll be your rep for any future books, if you ever want to do any...” and everyone started to laugh, “but it will be easier to do because I am moving to Seattle to work as a Northwest publishing agent for Quentin.” People started to clap when they heard the news. “But that wasn’t all,” he said, to make sure they would calm down so he could finish the story. “In this time in working together, and with me moving to Seattle, we’ve decided to see each other, and we’ve fallen in love, and we’re engaged.” This one caught people off guard, Kyle was right near them and he stared at Sloane. She suddenly got extremely embarrassed and ducked her head down, sticking her hand out to show the ring. Suddenly everyone was fascinated with the news. Sloane had to say aloud, “When we thought Carter was injected with the virus, I was working on helping him get better, I wasn’t trying to escape to just be with him. We only found out about his condition being normal at the beginning of this week.” “So did you become more militant?” Howard asked. “Maybe more scatterbrained,” she said, turned toward Kyle, “but also more militant,” he said to the group. “Were you in love all this time?” Ellen asked. “I think so,” Carter answered to Ellen on behalf of both of them. “When did you get engaged?” someone asked. “Yesterday,” she answered, and more people came to her to look at her ring and give them a hug to congratulate them. Carter leaned over to Sloane and asked before kissing her cheek, “How do you think we’re doing?” “...I think we’re doing pretty well...”
Click here for Chapter 21 of The Key To Believing
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