A Tale Of Two Men 1

Chapter One: Adrianna

You know those days when nothing goes right no matter how hard you try? I was having one of those days, I had woken up and found out that my shower was only running cold water, then I had found that I was out of coffee and when I had run out to my car it refused to start. Groaning and slamming my fist against the steering wheel, I checked my watch. I had fifteen minutes to get to work and I had no money for a cab, I scrambled out of the car and ran back into my apartment building and up to the floor just below mine. It was a quarter to six on a Saturday morning and I hoped that Jack was awake or I was screwed, I banged on his door until I heard someone unlocking it on the other side. It was pulled open not by Jack but by a woman wearing nothing but a flannel shirt, she looked at me curiously as I just stared at her blankly.

"Hi, can I help you?" She asked when I remained silent.

"Oh." I shook my head to get my brain working again "Is Jack up yet?"

"How do you know Jack?" She asked instead of answering.

"I'm his friend and I really need his help right now, is he awake?"

"Not yet." She grinned "Of course you're just a friend, why would he be into a girl as plain as you? If you even are a girl."

"Fuck this." I sighed and push past her, Jack's apartment was a typical guys place. He had a sofa and a wide screen TV by the door as you went in and a pool table over by the windows, I walked past his open plan living room and kitchen and through the door that led to his bedroom. I found him sprawled on his front with the sheet drawn up around his waist and his tanned muscular back on display, I sighed and slammed the door in the face of the blond about to walk in.

"Jack!" I yelled, he jolted awake and rolled over. I was briefly distracted by the sight of his wide chest and washboard abs before my eyes made their way up to his face, his dark brown hair was rumpled and sticking up all over the place and his chocolate eyes were tired and confused.

"What? Ade?" He frowned up at me.

"Yes, it's me. Your apparently asexual friend, I need your help."

"Asexual?"

"Never mind, your flavour of the week pissed me off. My car won't start and I'm late for work."

"What time is it?" He asked as he sat up, careful to keep the sheet in place.

"Five to six, my shift starts at six."

"It's Saturday, why are you waking me up?"

"Ugh! You're so annoying, where are your keys?" I looked around "I'm stealing you car and leaving you in bed with Miss America."

"God... wait I'll drive you, I need my car today."

"Well hurry up I cant be too late or I'll be in deep shit." I growled and left the room, the blond was waiting for me with her arms crossed over her chest. "Don't look so pissed, he wouldn't have called you anyway."

"You cant know that."

"Actually I can, he never calls them back."

"It only takes one."

"And I highly doubt that you're it. He probably picked you up in a bar, brought you back here and screwed you senseless. This morning he will tell you that while last night was fun he just isn't looking for a serious relationship and it would be unfair to you to continue this, sorry." He had said the same to many other girls.

"Well, we'll just wait and see." She scowled at me, I sighed and stepped past her into the living room. Jack stepped out of his room a moment later and grimaced upon seeing the blond, he handed her some clothes and sighed.

"Crystal... I really had fun last night and you're a great girl-" He began but she cut him off.

"Don't. Fuck you." She shoved her feet into her shoes and stomped out of the apartment.

"What was that all about?" Jack frowned over at me.

"Who knows?" I shrugged and started for the door "Come one, we need to get going."

"Damn you and your early starts." He grumbled as he followed me, I jogged down the stairs and out the door until I reached his blue pick up truck. "What's wrong with your car again?" He asked as he started his own car.

"I don't know, do I look like a mechanic to you?" I looked up and saw his gaze running over the pair of dark blue scrubs I was wearing.

"Nope, you look like an nurse." He teased.

"Doctor, thank you very much." I scowled, in no mood for his teasing.

"Somebody got out on the wrong side of bed this morning." He sang.

"I'm just having a bad day ok? I have no hot water, no coffee and I'm going to be late for rounds."

"How about this, I will check out your car and your hot water? I'll even stop by the store and get you some coffee."

"Thanks." I mumbled "Sorry about ruining your morning."

"Nah, it's not that bad. I need to go over to the site later anyway"

"Sure." We stayed silent for a while before I couldn't hold it back any longer "Crystal? Seriously, where do you find these women?"

"Do not start, I met her at a bar. She was crawling all over me, what was I supposed to do? Say no?"

"Yes, yes you should have said no." I laughed. "She was such a cliché, was she a stripper as well?"

"No, actress."

"Wow."

"What has you so judgemental today?"

"Nothing. Just tired and grouchy, I'll see you later." I told him as we pulled to a stop in the emergency bay at the hospital, I threw open the door and stepped out.

"Hey Ade!" He called after me "You ok though? Her calling you names and shit cant have been nice."

"I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." I smiled and slammed his door shut, my friend Cassidy caught up with me by the automatic doors and slipped her arm through mine.

"And who is the hottie? Please tell me he's the reason you're late." She winked at me as we walked in.

"Nope, my car is the reason I'm late. That's Jack."

"Say no more, is he single?"

"Yes, and he has a new girl every night. Trust me when I say he isn't going to settle down any time soon."

"Damn, I need me a husband."

"You're twenty seven, you have plenty of time. We both do." Me and Cassidy were the same age and had met in medical school, we roomed together as well and then had done our internships and residencies at the same hospital.

"I suppose so, hey come out with me tonight. Me and a couple of my friends are going out for drinks."

"Hmm, I don't know..."

"Come on, we can get you all made up. You'll be a knockout." She turned to face me and grabbed my hands.

"Sorry, another time though. Yeah?"

"You're going to have to say yes one of these times you know." She grinned "We'll get you laid yet."

"Shut up, we have sick people to tend to." I laughed at her as we walked through into the ER.

Chapter Two: Jack

I arrived at the construction site at about seven am, the guys already working were surprised to see me that early but shrugged it off. I had taken over my fathers construction firm when he had retired two years before but I had been an employee for years, we were currently working on an apartment building on the outskirts of the city and we were close to finishing. I walked over to where Evan was looking over some plans, Evan had been working with the company almost as long as I had and we had become friends over the years.

"Hey man, you're here early." He commented as I joined him.

"Yeah, I took Ade to work 'cause her car wouldn't start."

"Oh, right then. You two live together?"

"No, she has the loft above me. She woke me up to ask if she could borrow my truck but I offered to take her."

"Didn't you take that chick home last night?" He frowned at me, Evan had been at the bar with me when I met Crystal.

"Yeah, she left this morning though. What's going on here?" I asked to get off the subject.

"Just checking over the plans for the penthouse apartment, I'm working up there today."

"Alright then, I'll be in the apartment below you so yell if you need anything." I told him before grabbing my stuff and heading up into the building. We worked for hours on putting down the flooring and stopped for lunch when it was time, when I went back up I joined Evan in the penthouse and helped him with the doors. He was cutting the wood with an electric saw while I fitted the hinges, I had just finished when I heard a curse from behind me and turned to see Evan pressing a hand over his bleeding arm.

"What the fuck?" I asked as I went over to him.

"Saw slipped, shit that hurts." He winced, I moved his hand away and saw the long gash that stretched across his arm and was dripping with blood.

"You need stitches, come on I'll drive you." I lead him downstairs and snagged a semi clean towel that he could wrap around his arm, I left one of the other men in charge so I could drive over to the hospital. Once there we had a nurse lead us both over to a bed in a very busy ER and were told to wait for a doctor, she handed Evan a chart to fill out and pulled the curtain around us.

"You don't need to be here man, I can manage." He told me.

"You cant write" I reminded him, he had cut his right arm- which was the one he used to write.

"Damn, you're right. Help me out would you?" He held up the chart and with his help I managed to fill out his information, I had just finished when the curtain was pulled open and I looked up to see Ade standing there with a professional expression.

"Hey Ade." I smiled, she looked up and blinked before her face settled into a smile.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she stepped in and pulled the curtain behind her, she rolled a stool over to the end of the bed Evan was perched on and sunk down onto it.

"I drove."

"Ahh, chart?" she held her hand up for it after pulling on a pair of latex gloves, I handed it to her and watched as she looked over the information before she looked up and smiled. "Evan Stewart, cut his arm with a power saw?"

"That would be me, yes." Evan looked sheepish.

"No problem, I'll stitch you up and give you a shot. You'll be fine." She smiled at him.

"Did I hear Jack call you Ade? Are you Adrianna?" Evan asked as she went to work on his arm.

"Yep, Adrianna Clarke. Nice to meet you, I take it you two work together?"

"Evan is my right hand man, that is before he tried to slice off his own right hand." I grinned.

"Thanks for that." He scowled at me before looking back down at Ade. "I have heard a lot about you, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Thanks, I hope all you've heard is good?"

"Oh it is, he never mentioned how beautiful you are though." He smiled down at her and I frowned. Was he flirting with her? "You must be the hottest doctor I've ever had." He fucking was flirting. The bastard.

"Thank you." Ade smiled up at him under her lashes.

"You're welcome, you're very good at this as well." He pointed at where she was stitching up his arm.

"It took a long time to get this good." She assured him.

"Everything takes practise." He winked at her. Winked! I watched in stunned silence as they flirted with each other, after a while Ade finished with the stitches and went to find a bandage.

"Can I ask you something?" Evan turned to me.

"Sure."

"Would you mind if I asked Adrianna on a date?"

"Err, what?"

"I just thought I'd ask in case you and her... never mind." He cleared his throat and looked away.

"Wait, you thought me and Ade were together? Why would you think that?"

"Well... why wouldn't you be? She's smart, funny, kind... gorgeous. And you spend like all your time with her, I figured you were into her."

"We're just friends man, I've known her for ten years. There isn't anything romantic or anything between us." I told him with a frown.

"So I can ask her out?"

"Free country." I muttered as I looked over at where Adrianna was chatting to a nurse, her long caramel coloured hair was pulled back into a ponytail but it was still long enough to reach halfway down her back and I knew it fell to the small of her back when it was loose. She was wearing a pair of dark blue scrubs that were loose enough to hide her figure, she normally wore loose clothes so I was surprised that Evan thought she was hot. "Hey, I'm gonna head out to the car, meet you there ok?"

"Sure." He nodded before calling my name to stop me "You got any tips? You know anything I should know before asking her?"

"Erm..." I frowned "She loves the Chinatown, and her favourite restaurant is the Emerald Dragon. Take her to dinner there and then walk through Chinatown for a while, she's from there so she loves it."

"Thanks man, I thought she looked a little Asian." He nodded.

"Sure, see you." I walked out and thought about walking past Ade but I decided to stop and say goodbye, when I tapped on her shoulder she looked up at me with a smile and I found myself just looking at her. She had smooth golden skin that I knew stayed the same all year round and full lush lips, her big blue eyes were slightly tilted from her Asian background and her bone structure spoke of her ancestors.

"You ok? You're staring at me." She arched an eyebrow at me when I remained silent.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm heading out now though, you want to come over and hang tonight?"

"You not going out to pick up another Crystal?"

"No, god no. And I'm kind of tired after someone woke me up at six am." I reminded her to get off the topic of Crystal, why I had taken her home with me was beyond me. She wasn't even that hot.

"Sorry, but yeah I'll come over about seven? You want to get take out?"

"Yeah, pizza ok?" If Evan was going to take her for Chinese it made sense to order something different.

"Sounds good, I've got to go and bandage your friend. Watch yourself around the power tools." She grinned and moved to walk past me, I stopped her so I could give her a quick hug and found myself focusing on the feel of her soft, warm body against mine. I even inhaled the sweet vanilla scent of her before pulling away, she looked at me curiously before striding back to Evan. As I walked out to my truck I found my thoughts focusing on her and why it suddenly bothered me that she was going to go out with Evan, I knew that she had dated before because I had even met some of them but it had never bothered me before. All of a sudden the idea of her walking hand in hand with Evan, kissing him and even going to bed with him had me clenching my fists and glaring at the dashboard. I couldn't be interested in Adrianna. Could I?

By five past seven that night I was cranky and pissed off, after taking Evan home I had driven back to the site to finish work. I had left at about half six and sped home to shower and change into jeans and a plain t-shirt ready for when Adrianna came home, but she was late and I was getting annoyed. I had heard her come home about fifteen minutes ago so I knew she was in and I was debating going up to find her when my front door opened and she walked in. She had also showered as her hair was wet and hanging freely down to her hips and she had changed into a pair of loose jeans and an overlarge sweatshirt, when she saw me pacing in front of my breakfast bar she stopped with a surprised expression.

"Oh shit." She sighed "He told you didn't he? I can cancel if you want."

"Huh?" I frowned at her in confusion.

"Evan asked me out and I said yes, I was worrying that you would find it weird if I went out with your friend. If you really want me to cancel I will." She looked at me with those big blue eyes and suddenly I did want her to cancel but not for the reasons she thought.

"No it's fine, I don't mind if you date Evan." I lied.

"Oh good, we're going out tomorrow cause it's my night off." She grinned and moved to sit on my couch.

"Where are you going?" I asked as I joined her.

"Emerald Dragon." She grinned "Did you tell him to take me there?"

"Nope." I lied, she looked so pleased by the fact that he was taking her to her favourite restaurant that I couldn't ruin it for her "He's a smart guy, probably figured out that you're from China."

"I'm not from China, my grandmother is from China." She reminded me.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm off to order pizza, pick a movie" I climbed over the back of the sofa and walked over to the phone so I could order the pizza. We hung out and watched an action movie until Ade announced that she was exhausted from work and was going to bed, I told her I would see her later and let her shuffle up to her apartment. Once she was gone I miserably padded into my room and collapsed onto sheets that still smelt of sex, I hated the thought of sleeping in the bed when it still smelt like Crystal so I grabbed a pillow and a blanked and headed out to sleep on my couch. I had never had such an aversion before and had even taken other women to bed while it still smelt like my last bed buddy, but for some reason I couldn't stomach it anymore.

The next morning I woke up after an uncomfortable night on the couch and decided to go for a run, when I came back I noticed that Adrianna's car was gone and I frowned. Shrugging it off I ran upstairs to take a shower, I was still in a bad mood so when there was a knock on my door I scowled and finished ramming my legs into my jeans before jogging out to answer it.

"I need your help, I know I'm getting annoying with this but I really do." Adrianna looked up at me with a pleading expression.

"What's up?"

"My shower still won't work and I need to have running water for tonight."

"Planning on inviting Evan up for a shower?" I couldn't stop myself.

"No." She glared at me "But I like to be clean, could you come and take a look?"

"Sure, let me grab my stuff and I'll be up." I told her, she nodded and turned to run up the stairs to her apartment and after grabbing my tool box I followed. Adrianna lived in one of two loft apartments in the building and the elevator didn't reach that floor so there was a flight of narrow stairs leading up there, I stopped on the hallway and looked over at Adrianna's red painted front door before walking through into her apartment. I loved Adrianna's apartment, it was a loft and it had bare brick walls except for the bright blue wall on the right. She had a flat screen up on the blue wall and a soft and comfy dark leather sofa in front of it and a coffee table covered with several books and medical journals, Ade was stood in her black and white kitchen pouring two cups of coffee and I strode across her dark hardwood floors and into her kitchen.

"So what's wrong with your shower?" I asked as I picked up my cup.

"Well I thought it was just my hot water but..." She trailed off as she walked out of the kitchen and down the short hallway, we went through her vibrant green bedroom and I paused to look around. Her walls were painted a vibrant bright green and her huge double bed was covered in white sheets with green vines sewn into it, there was a wall of glass on the outside wall and more hardwood floors.

"Are you going to come and check out my shower or stand here looking around my bedroom?" she arched an eyebrow at me.

"I'm coming, I was just looking at the changes. You redecorated" I commented.

"I got sick of the red, thought I'd go more summery" she grinned, I followed her into the huge en suite bathroom I had helped put together. There was water spewing out of the taps and into the bathtub, Adrianna stopped next to the huge claw foot tub and pointed at the fountain of water.

"I can fix that really easily, and free." I grinned and dropped my tool box to the floor as I crouched next to the tub.

"Thank you so much-" She broke off as someone knocked on her door "You go and get that, I'll get started in here." I told her, she smiled and ran out of the door. I listened out as she answered the door and gathered that it was someone she knew, their footsteps echoed on the wood flooring as they walked about and I listened for their conversation.

"Thanks for coming." Adrianna was saying.

"Oh I happy to help, and I brought some helpers too." Another woman told her, some music started playing and I tuned it out as I worked on her shower. By the time I was finished a half an hour later I was soaking wet and my hair was dripping trails of water down my face, I snagged a towel from the heated rail and used it to towel dry my hair as I walked out into the living room. Adrianna was sitting on the sofa with two women sat on either side of them, I remembered seeing the blond one at the hospital but the dark haired one on her other side was a complete stranger.