Chapter 6

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A knock drew Bernie from her cooking as she was rushing to get Alex's dinner made then she needed to get ready for the University Alumni and Faculty party. The knocking grew louder, and she wondered if one of her new roommates arrived early. Her landlady told her there were only two girls signed up for rooms next semester. She rushed to the entry and peeked through the eyehole, then she shrieked happily as she ripped the door open, dragging her sister inside and out of the freezing sleet.

"Trixie! What are you doing here?"

"I came to spend New Year's Eve with you, silly." Trixie grinned and held up a bottle of champagne. "What is that amazing smell?"

"Gluten-free cornbread and organic chili," Bernie giggled as her sister's face scrunched up. "I'm cooking for Alex before I head to cater."

"He's not even your boyfriend but you go running with him three times a week and cook for him. Is he that pretty? Seriously, you need to take a selfie with him and Snapchat it to me," Trixie chided.

"I hate taking selfies and I hate Snapchat," Bernie pouted, ladling chili into a bowl for her sister and quickly sprinkling it with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar.

"Aww, please... or at least tell me about him." Trixie begged as she happily dipped crispy breadsticks into the bowl, "Mmm, why does yours always taste so much better than mine?"

Bernie laughed as she pulled a pan of cornbread from the oven. "Because I put love and magic in it."

Trixie snorted as she ate a big spoonful, then mumbled, "Talk about Dr. Feel Good."

Bernie blushed a deep red, she smiled in embarrassment.

"I enjoy his company. We run together a few times a week. I cook for him, so he doesn't have to live on boiled eggs, rice, and chicken breasts. He comes and gets coffee twice a night and we talk. That's it."

Trixie raised an eyebrow, then pointed her spoon at her sister, "And how is he in the sack or have you not thought about that?" From the look on Bernie's face, Trixie laughed. "Omigawd, you have thought about it. You need tips, ask me anything... Anything?"

Bernie whispered, "Shut up, Trix for boys."

Trixie grinned like a guilty cat. "Oh okay, everything... How to seduce a doctor one-oh-one."

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Alex regretted that he agreed to work a straight twenty-four hours for New Year's Eve. He regretted it more when he found out Bernie was off from the coffee kiosk to be the barista for the university alumni and faculty party. He warmed the food container Bernie made for him. As he savored the contrast between the spicy chili and sweet cornbread, he loosened the waist of his scrubs. He was gaining weight, weight his body was quickly converting to muscle with his workout routine. He also didn't feel hungry all the time. For his whole life, eating was an exercise in cautious futility but with Bernie cooking just one meal a day for him, he felt satisfied when he ate. He felt pleasure without worry. He was beginning to wonder how he survived without her, how he would ever live without her. Bernadette made him happy.

He answered his phone halfway through its ring, he hated the ringtone and his brother knew it. "How did you get that noise back on my phone, Anthony?"

His brother laughed malevolently. "I imbedded the coding to install it in the last picture I sent you."

Alex shook his head and mock threatened, "One of these days, you're going to wake up with a penis sewn to your forehead, then I won't be the only one to call you a dickhead."

Antony laughed again, "Maybe, maybe not... might help my play with the ladies."

"You're sick." Alex chuckled. "So, what's up, little brother?"

"I'm going abroad for six months. It's an internship with the U.S. Consulates in Asia." Anthony sounded so excited. "I just got word that one of the other applicants didn't pass his security clearance and I was next on the list."

"And did you tell mom and dad, and Carla?" Alex asked as he continued to eat.

"Mom and dad will be cool, and Carla will just have to deal. She's a big girl," Anthony responded nonchalantly. "Maybe she will realize I'm not ready to marry her and calm down or find someone else."

"Trouble in paradise?" Alex asked around a bite of cornbread, almost moaning at how good it was.

"No more than usual... Dude, what are you doing? It almost sounds like you're having sex," his brother demanded.

"I'm eating. I met someone. Bernie is amazing and is an amazing cook," Alex answered taking another bite, mumbling, "She cooks around my allergies. All those foods you love, I understand why now. At first it was just pastries, then Bernie made me perogies, chicken and dumplings, meatloaf, cacciatore, chicken fried steak with mashed cauliflower... I am eating chili with cornbread without worrying about spending the next week dealing with the aftereffects of my allergies."

"Seriously? That's amazing. He sounds great, I'm happy for you. How did you meet this amazing Chef Bernie?" Anthony was so happy his brother finally found someone.

"I know, I'm gaining weight. Pretty soon even Mom won't be able to tell us apart when she hugs us." Alex chuckled, as he spooned the last bite in his mouth. "Bernie works for the campus café staff as a baker and barista, she had the night shift here at the hospital. I told her about Granddad, and she made a coffee that taste like that memory."

Swallowing, he continued, "It's amazing. Bernie's amazing but there are some things I have to work on. I think Bernie had a bad time of it when she was younger, but I am not giving up." Alex mushed the last bite of cornbread around in his mouth as he talked.

"I wish I could come meet Bernie, but I am leaving next week." Anthony sounded truly regretful. He waited for so long for his brother to find love, he didn't even have a second thought about it being a guy named Bernie as long as his identical twin was happy.

"Be safe, little brother," Alex teased, "Do everything I wouldn't do."

Anthony snorted. "I gotta jealous girlfriend and will be working sixteen-hour days. The only thing I will be doing that you wouldn't do, is trying the local cuisine."

"If you find a good dish, send me the recipe and I'll give it to Bernie." Alex rinsed his dishes clean and put them back in his locker. "I gotta get back out on the floor. I love ya, bro."

"Love you too... And I can't wait to meet Bernie." Anthony ended the call.

Alex went back to the desk, and the nurse handed him a chart. "Party girl in room 101, said she fell and strained her wrist, but it looks fine. She asked for you personally, Dr. Marvillis. She looks like one of those."

Dr. Mike Mason was just turning in his last chart before leaving, to go to meet his uncle at the university alumni party. "Want me to come in with you?"

"Just stand outside the door," Alex gritted his teeth. Every week there was some young woman, dressed inappropriately, trying to charm the doctors into giving them pain medications for a fake injury. Addiction didn't take a holiday.

In the room was a strikingly beautiful strawberry blonde, her blue-green eyes appraised him judgmentally. Alex immediately knew who she was, Bernie's lock screen was a selfie of herself and this girl. He looked at the chart then leaned out the door.

"Go to your party, Mike, I know her, it's fine." Alex turned to face her, closing the door. "Beatrix, Trixie for short, nice to finally meet you."

Trixie's smile curved upward in a lupine way. "You might not say that after I tell you what I have to say."

"And that is?" Alex folded his arms across his chest at her tone. His father and grandfather were in business, and Alex had been sitting in on hostile negotiations since he could walk.

"My sister Bernadette cares about you. In fact, I have never seen her care about any guy the way she cares about you. But she was hurt really badly in the past, hurt by men when she was way too young. She internalizes everything, she never asks for anything, and she never will, so you will have to give her what she needs without her asking." Trixie was straightforward, no threats, no posturing, just a simple promise. "She doesn't trust easily, but she trusts you, so I will tell you this only once. If you hurt her, cheat on her, betray her... I promise you I will become your personal angel from hell. I have been to jail and don't care if I go back."

Alex sighed, breathing out slowly. This was not how he hoped to meet the famous Trixie, but it was what it was. "So, I guess right about her being molested."

Trixie's eyes betrayed her surprise for only a moment, before they returned to their previous coldness. "I was molested, fondled, the like... but Bernie was violently raped, sodomized, and strangled almost to death by the man who we thought was going to be our new daddy. She was twelve. Our mother left us with him to go to some spa thing, and if our grandmother hadn't called to check on us, he would have assaulted me too, then probably killed us."

Alex couldn't hide the shock on his face over the horror that something so vile happened to his gentle Bernie.

"So, are you going to dump her now that you know? Or what, Dr. Alexander Marvillis?" Trixie's voice was ice cold.

Alex swallowed; he knew he had one shot to convince her. "I would never hurt, Bernadette. I am in love with her. I could feel she had something in her past, that is why I am taking my time."

"How did you know if she didn't tell you?" Trixie eyed him curiously.

"My frat mate's sister was attacked on a date. She was different after, funny about being touched, funny about being aware of the men around her. Organized to the point of obsessive. Your sister does the same things." Alex looked her dead in the face and promised, "I would never hurt her, she is the most important person in my world."

Trixie nodded, seeming to accept his words. She brushed past him toward the door. "See you at dinner tomorrow. This little meet-up never happened. Bernie likes to think she takes care of me and not the other way around. We're going to keep it that way." She pulled open the door and left.

He watched her walk away with her six-inch heels clicking on the polished concrete floors.

She turned and faced him. "Oh, and if she kisses you first, don't break her heart or I will make you wish you never met us." Then she was gone.

Stephanie came up to him, "Everything okay, Dr. Marvillis?"

"Just fine, Miss., uhm." He glanced at the fake name on the chart and almost laughed. "Miss Or-else won't be back."

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Mike thanked Bernie for the latte, "You're the best, Bernie."

"Thanks, Dr. Mason, I mean Mike." She smiled at him.

"No, thank you. I need this after the afternoon we had. So, have you seen anyone that's my type tonight?" Mike chided joking.

"Oh, so I'm your coffee girl and wing-woman now. Hmmmm, you're looking for frisky, alone, and available for the night..." Bernie tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I think Mrs. Berstromer, the retired head of library sciences, came without a gentleman friend. They say older women know things... special things." Bernie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at his horrified expression.

"You are a terrible wing-woman." Mike shook his head at her giggles.

"Oh, my sister is a terrible matchmaker. You should ask me to be your... wing-woman." A voice like silk purred to him.

Mike turned to see a young woman who looked like a summer version of Bernie's autumn coloring. He always thought of women as seasons and food. Bernie was an autumn afternoon, from the color of her cranberry lips, and the auburn accents hidden in her rich pecan hair. Bernie's eyes lingered somewhere between coffee and dark chocolate fondue accented by just a bare sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg freckles dusted over the creamy goodness of a baked custard. The perfect autumn afternoon treat after a walk through the shifting colors of the fall forest in Maine.

But her sister was something far different. In front of him was a fiery sunset on an exotic shore, wearing a scarlet beaded corset and asymmetrical, tiered silk skirt in ombre tones from fire to dark scarlet. Her eyes were like the early evening sky surrounded by the coppery glow of the setting sun. She was a smoldering, sultry evening just after a summer storm, or the luscious flesh of a persimmon, the divine fruit indeed. The resemblance between the sisters was unmistakable but so were the differences.

"I'm Beatrix Austen, but my friends call me Trixie."

"Mike, Dr. Mike Mason."

"Your usual, Trixie." Bernie sat the frothy drink on the counter. "Don't hurt him too much, he has the afternoon shift at the hospital tomorrow and he's Alex' best friend. Have fun." Then she turned to help the couple who walked up to the coffee bar.

He gulped his coffee, then held out his hand, "Miss Beatrix, do you dance?" Mike asked chivalrously.

"I do." Trixie sipped her drink, slowly licking the foam from her lip. "I prefer to tango."

Mike watched the movement with the keen eye of a trained observer. "They have three dance floors and music in all the private galleries. Maybe we can find your tango."

Trixie turned to glance at Bernie, who gave her sister a wave away, so she turned back to and gave the interested young doctor a glance. "Let's go."

They wandered through the University Gallery looking at art, listening to the music, and talking about his best friend and her sister. Mike opened a door and led Trixie through it, up two flights of stairs and he guided her into a private gallery. The room was filled with nudes, paintings, drawing, and sculptures.

"Did you bring me here to see these great artworks of female beauty? Or..." Trixie turned to face him. She pulled at the bow on the side of her skirt and the tiers of silk slid slowly down. "Would you rather see the kind of form which inspired them?"

Stepping forward slowly, her stilettos made no sound on the carpet. She paraded between the sculptures and reclined on a divan that matched the one in the painting above, arranging herself like the woman from the Moulin Rouge.

Mike lifted the silk from the floor, before he walked over to the door, locking it with a click. In ten strides, he stood over her, devouring her with his eyes. The beading on the corset picked up the colors of her hair. It was old-fashioned. The sheer panty with stockings matched the perfect cream color of her skin. He knelt onto one knee and started kissing her at the ankle. Dr Mike Mason was going to give Miss Beatrix Austen a very thorough examination.