It was nearly noon when a familiar ringtone notified him that Cam was
finally getting in touch. Kreg briefly debated whether or not to answer,
until he admitted to himself he was only delaying the inevitable.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Where the fuck did you go? Did you
slither out on me again?”
“I met this girl.” It was the truth, and
would remain that way. His brother didn’t need to know the exact details
of how he and Ravannah had hooked up.
Cam’s excitement was instantaneous. “You
did? Where’d you go?”
“I took her over to The Brasserie for
coffee and scones. We spent over an hour there, discussing books and
movies and stuff. Then I took her to my place.”
“And?”
Kreg let out a huge sigh, which Cam
immediately recognized.
“Struck out again?”
“Yeah.” He knew what the next question
would be before his brother asked.
“Was she one of us?”
“No.”
Next comes
the tirade, he told himself.
“What the fuck! How many times have I
said—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He cut Cam off before
the man got wound up and this conversation dragged on for an hour. “I know
what you and Dr. Elaphe said, but same species don’t do anything for me!
I’ve explained that time and time again! But something about this girl…
For a moment there, it looked like things would get hot and heavy. I mean,
she instigated it. I tried to take it to the next level.”
“But you wilted?”
“No. She pulled away, gave me that funny
look, and took off.”
“That’s pretty common when it comes to
humans.”
“So what about you? How’d you make out
last night?” Kreg tried to steer the topic back into safer waters.
“Oh, man. Kreg! The four of us were
ballin’
all…night…long!”
Although he’d expected something like
that had happened, to hear it still managed to get jealousy to rear her
ugly green head. “I’m happy for you, bro. Listen, you caught me in the
middle of cleaning. Can we talk later?”
“Yeah. Sure. Say, when the doctor say
your tests results would come back?”
“Sometime next week. His office is
supposed to give me a call after the doctor reads the results to tell me
what I need to do next.”
“All right. Ring me when you find out
something. Hang tight, Kreg. You’re gonna beat this thing. I just know you
are,” Cam reassured him.
“I hope so.”
The call ended. As Kreg slid the phone
into his rear pocket, his eyes landed on the unopened box of scones
sitting on the bar. Walking over to it, he lifted the lid, took one out,
and stuffed half of it into his mouth.
It proved to be a long, uneventful
weekend. * * *
“Mr. Regius, I’ve been looking over your blood work and the results from
the stress test you took last week. So far, things look fine. When we get
through talking here, I’ll hand you over to my nurse so you can tell her
where you’d like her to phone in your prescription.”
Kreg saw a “but” coming and knew why.
“However, there are a few discrepancies that confuse me that I’d like to
ask you about,” Kuralt continued.
“Oh?” Kreg tried to keep his voice from giving away his rising
trepidation. This could prove to be disastrous, as his people had been
trying to keep under the radar for generations.
“Well, for starters, your blood type. The labs were unable to type it. And
your hemoglobin, your red and white blood cell counts were off the
charts.”
Kreg feigned ignorance. “Is that dangerous? Am I sick?”
“I can’t tell you right now,” the physician admitted. “When are you
scheduled for your next test?”
“Two weeks from Thursday.”
“Good. I’ll instruct them to draw more blood and have it checked again. It
could be this batch got contaminated somehow. Don’t worry about it, Mr.
Regius. It happens. But I have another reason for calling you. Mr. Regius,
have you considered, or would you consider talking to a clinical
specialist?”
“What kind of specialist?”
“A psychotherapist. Specifically, a psychiatrist.”
Kreg paused. “Are you thinking my problem is all in my head?”
“We can’t rule out the possibility it could be psychosomatic,” Kuralt
admitted. “I’d like to refer you to a doctor I know who’s helped others
with similar problems.”
“A sex therapist?”
The physician chuckled. “Some do specialize in certain fields. I’ll
contact Dr. Sosa’s office and send them your case study, with your
permission.”
“Yes, you have it. Thanks, Dr. Kuralt.”
“They’ll call you to set up a date and time. Take care, Mr. Regius. We’ll
get this figured out before you know it.”
“I hope so. Thanks again.”
After he got off the phone, Kreg stared at his desk and the pile of work
he still needed to complete. Another doctor and another round of
tests—where would it end?
Worse, if Kuralt didn’t find anything wrong with him, and this
psychiatrist couldn’t put a finger on the cause of his erectile
dysfunction, what was left? Was there anywhere left he could turn to for
help?
Shutting down his computer, he got up from his desk and went to tell his
boss he was done for the day. After that, he bought a fifth of Beam from
the liquor store at the corner and went straight home to get stinking,
flat-on-his-face drunk because it was the only way he could get any relief
from the burgeoning throb in his groin.
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