ME, CINDERELLA?(31)

She opened the door in front of him, and it was all he could do not to sweep her into his arms. She looked miserable, her nose red and runny, her eyes bleary with sleep. There was a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and she seemed to be bundled up in all manner of odd clothing. With all this, though, she still beamed when she saw him, and he felt his heart lunge forward, wanting to take her into his embrace.

“El—Dr. Herceg,” she said. “You didn’t have to come, really.”

“Of course I did,” he said, walking past her into the building and taking in the rooms with astonishment. This was where his interns were expected to live? They had added in so many beds. The rooms were cramped with furniture.

“This is absurd,” he said. “I don’t—” He stopped when he saw Brynn shivering under the blanket and realized that the room was freezing. He hadn’t noticed with the rush of adrenaline pumping through him, but now that he paused he saw his breath come out white and steamy in the air. “Brynn, you’re freezing!” He tore off his coat and pulled it around her, forgetting his promise to himself not to get too close. He simply couldn’t help it. Brynn let her blanket fall to the ground and put her arms through his coat, wrapping it around her. A fury ran through him as he rubbed her arms briskly to warm them.

“B-but,” she said, her teeth still chattering. “You’ll freeze without it.”

“Never mind me,” he said. “That damned landlady. The heat should have been on, I told her that you were coming…”

“It’s okay,” she said. “Really, it’s okay.”

She waited patiently as he dialed the landlady and paced across the floor. He heard the phone ring on the other end four, then five times before going to the answering machine. He swore and hung up. He had no way to get to the heater, no way to make things right…

“Really, Dr. Herceg,” Brynn said in a small voice. “I’ll be fine. If I can just borrow your coat, maybe, for the night.”

Eliot’s heart strained when he looked at her, so quiet and unassuming, so ready to accept whatever came her way. Something inside of him turned, decided for him.

“Come,” he said, picking up her bag. “You’ll stay with me tonight. I have an extra room.”

He expected her to protest, but she just yawned, her pink lips opening wide behind her hand.

“Okay,” she said. “Oh, wait!” She turned and fled into the other room, his large coat flapping at her knees behind her. When she came back she had something in her arms. Eliot’s eyes widened when he saw what she was carrying.

“This is Lucky,” she said, holding the kitten tightly to her heart. “Can he come along?”





Eliot drove slowly over the dark ice patches on the road, the heater running at full blast. The kitten kept pawing at his arm, as Brynn let it crawl all over her, its tiny claws digging into the coat as it tumbled over itself. It managed to clamber out of Brynn’s hands and onto Eliot’s shoulder. Eliot felt the pinpricks of the claws and then a small tongue licking at his earlobe.

“Get it off!” he cried, trying desperately not to take his eyes off of the road. The raspy tongue tickled his ear and he tensed his head to the side to avoid it.

“Sorry,” Brynn said, a giggle in her voice. “He likes you.”

“The feeling isn’t mutual,” Eliot said, grudgingly. The damn thing would give him fleas, he knew it.

“Sorry,” Brynn repeated, prying the kitten off of Eliot’s shoulder and putting it back in her lap. “Lucky, you stay here now.”

As they pulled up to the estate, Eliot heard Brynn gasp. With her sitting next to him, he saw the place as she saw it, a vast acreage of beauty. Surrounded by a fence of cypress trees, the gates in front opened up to what couldn’t be called anything but a castle. The stone walls stretched up high over the gardens below, the roofs pointed in spires.

“It’s like a fairytale,” she said, her voice wondrous. “This is where you live?”

“It’s the family estate,” he explained. “But no one has lived there for a while.”

“What about your brother?”

“He lives downtown, close to the government buildings.” Close to the women and nightlife and action. Eliot couldn’t imagine his brother anywhere rural, and this place came as close to the forests as you could get while still being inside of the city limits.

Pulling up in front of the house, Brynn pressed her nose to the window in awe. Eliot opened her door and helped her out, taking her bag out of the backseat. She nestled the kitten in her arms.