Next Chapter 166:  To Berlin, It Is!

            “Michael, where are you?”  Brian scoffed him for being late meeting him at his jet.  “My pilots and I are waiting for you!”

“What!  Are you at your jet already, but I thought you said..."

"Mike Novot!  Where are you!  You should be here already.  I told you what time to meet me here!  You should have been here thirty minutes ago."

"Oh wow!  Don't get upset, Brian, please.  I’ll be right there.  I just got the time mixed up, so when Ethan and Chris asked me to run an errand, I thought I had plenty of time.  I’m at the supermarket right now, but I’m just about done here.  So, I’ll be there in a flash.”

“Supermarket, Michael!  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.  You're keeping  me waiting so you can go fucking food shopping!”  Brian was highly pissed and balled him out.

“I’ll be right there, Brian.  Be patient – won’t you.”

“Hurry up, damn it!”  Brian hollered at him and then abruptly dropped the call.

“Shit!  Same old impatient Brian,” Michael sardonically remarked, as he hurried to get to the checkout.  However, before he got there he spotted someone squeezing vegetables in the produce section which distracted him, and he then hurried up to that person. 

“Miss… madam…” Michael approached the woman.

“Me?  You’re talking to me?” the woman stopped and looked quizzically at Michael.  “I don’t think I know you?” 

“You don’t,” Michael told her, “However, we were recently guests at the same wedding, and I recall seeing you there.  You wore jeans and a tee, and you just spoke briefly with the two newlyweds and then rushed off, and there was another woman there who was younger than you but looked just like you.  She was dressed similarly and only stayed for a minute as well.  I saw you both there.”

“Oh… and so?”

“Hi,” Michael greeted her and extended his hand to the very attractive woman, for he noticed she seemed a lot more upbeat then than she had seemed at the wedding.  “I’m Michael Novotny, and it’s so nice to meet you… and you are?”

“I’m Elizabeth Sebastian-Graves,” the woman said, as she greeted him back with a pleasant smile and shook Michael’s hand.  “Nice to meet you too,” she said.

“Sebastian – did you say?”  Michael noted the surname.  “Any relations to the professional racecar driver Uri Sebastian?”

“Yes, he’s my brother,” she answered, but her smile departed her that moment, and she looked utterly sad.

Michael’s mouth then dropped open as he became speechless but not for long.  “Elizabeth, please accept my belated condolences for the passing of your late brother, but do you mind if I ask you…”

*******

            “Justin, love!”  Clay yelled from the bathroom when he heard his cell crooning loudly.  “Can you get that for me!”

“Sure, darling!  I’ll get it!” Justin shouted back, as he hurried and retrieved the other newlywed’s phone from the nightstand and peeped the display right away but didn’t recognize the number. 

“Hello?”  Justin answered with a smile, but it abruptly left him just moments after the caller began to speak.  “Clay!”  Justin begrudged, as he shouted out disappointedly.  “It’s someone who say he’s the Chief of Surgery at a hospital in Brussels! Damn, there goes our honeymoon,” he supposed, as he mumbled quietly to himself.

“Fuck!”  Clay cursed as he rushed from the bathroom and grabbed his cell from Justin’s hand, and looked quite vexed because he was sure of what was coming.   “Yes, Al!  No way!  Give me a break!  I’m on my honeymoon, damn it!  I’m not the only surgeon on the fucking planet!”

“Damn right, Clay,” Justin began to plea.  “Yeah, tell him to find someone else.  You’re on your honeymoon, goddamn it!  Can’t they find someone else, please?”  Justin beseeched, as he stood very close by his husband and listened intensely to his husband’s conversation with the chief.

“Oh, I see,” Justin heard Clay respond like a defeatist to the caller, and he knew for sure then that their honeymoon had abruptly come to an end.  “I guess I have no other choice then,” was the surgeon’s last words just before he hung up.

“Come on, Clay, you got to be kidding me – it’s pretty much like you said:  there are other surgeons on the fucking planet.”

“I know, Justin, but once again it’s a rare type of surgery, and I’m one of only a few surgeons on the planet who know how to do that particular type of surgery.”

“So much for being just too good at your job and being the only one able to save a life, I guess, huh,” Justin wisecracked as he already started to mourn the death of their honeymoon.  “How long will you be gone?”

“You know how long surgery usually takes, Justin.  I can be inside the O.R. for ten hours or more and then…”

“I know.  You then have to stick around for a few days and do all that post surgery stuff that you usually do for your patients.”

“Yeah, but I promise that I’ll just stay long enough to make sure the patient is out of the woods, and the moment I am sure of that I’ll rush back here to you.”

“Like I’ll be here.”

“Huh?”

“Clay, I still have the commitment to the art gallery to fulfill.  By the time you’re done with the surgery and return from Brussels our honeymoon will be completely over and I’ll be inside the gallery by then.”

“Sorry, Justin,” Clay apologized.  “I’ll make it up to you.”

“It’s perfectly okay, Clay; saving a life is much more important than anything.”  Justin tried to nobly express that but he was having a difficult time.  “You go where you're most needed now, my sweet hubby.  We’ll eventually find a more convenient time to do our honeymoon thing.  I love you.”

“I love you too,” Clay said and then he captured Justin’s lips and kissed him hungrily.  “I better get ready to rush out to the airport,” he announced when the kiss ended.  “They already have a jet waiting there to fly me to Brussels, but Justin, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t!”  Justin said as he placed his index fingertip to Clay’s lips and hushed him.  “Never apologize, Clay, for rushing off to save a life,” he told him with a smile.  “That’s what you do best and was put on this earth to do.  You never have to apologize to me for that.”

“Thanks, Justin.  You’re the best!”

“You bring the best out in me,” Justin said.  “Now hurried out of here.”

“Sure, by what will you do the meanwhile, Love?”  Clay asked as he started to change out of his leisure attire of short sleeve polo shirt and shorts and into more casual business wear.

“I guess there’s no reason to still hang out here, so I’ll leave Munich later on today and travel to Berlin where Lindsay, Sid, Pearl, and the kids are and stay with them until you return.”

“Okay, Justin, you do that, but as soon as we are able to we’ll come back here to Munich and finish out the rest of our honeymoon.”

“We most certainly will,” Justin said.  “But until then, you hurry over to Brussels, while I’ll go to Berlin.”

******

            “Briannnn,” Michael whined, as he flopped down in the plane across from Brian and settled in.  “Don’t look so pissed and grim.  I got the time mixed up, so when Chris and Ethan asked me to go to the supermarket and pick up a few things I thought I had a lot more time on my hands.”

“Just buckle up, Michael.  My pilots will be taking off to Berlin immediately.”

“Sure, to Berlin it is.  I’ll get you in to see your son in no time, Brian,” Michael promised.  He then sat silently pondering on some things that Elizabeth Sebastian-Graves and he had discussed while inside the supermarket.  Some things she told him were so interesting he didn't think it was too easy or wise to take too lightly everything she had said.