Resist Read Free Page B

attitude.
    Not patronizing but quick to call me out on my crap when I acted below what he considered intelligent with well thought out answers and questions from me.
    Right now, he was definitely plunging the third button with gusto.
    Then again, his parents were two of the most prestigious professors in the world. Of course he knew people and could get a sense of their attitude right from the start. I might not have exactly been an open book but I wasn’t exactly overly guarded or cautious about my emotions or my feelings towards certain subjects.
    “Well, my parents were very tight with money . . . let’s just put it that way. I grew up in a ‘waste not, want not’ household. I guess that comes from having family that has been well off for several generations. They almost act like . . . I don’t know—British aristocracy or something. I would swear my dad must be secretly related to Queen Elizabeth and my mom can’t be too far behind. She’s just so damned . . . concerned with having enough. The only splurging they did was on my education and they didn’t do a lot there, mostly because I always qualified for scholarships, and worked my way through school. Usually internships.”
    Blaine smirked though his expression almost verged on a smile. “Must have been hard. It’s not like you chose general psychology. Abnormal psychology is difficult. My parents wanted me to get an advanced degree but I stopped after I received my Bachelors. They weren’t exactly pleased I only graduated Magna Cum Laude. After all, I grew up surrounded by the science my whole life. I’ve always been brilliant in math too.”
    I sipped from my champagne and grimaced at the taste. I’d always hated it and preferred an aged Pinot Gris to the carbonated crap that left me with raging headaches and feeling slightly out of body.
    “Then why didn’t you graduate with the highest honors?”
    “I simply didn’t care.” Blaine finished his champagne, grabbed my flute and downed mine too. “I’ll let the flight attendant know you prefer Pinot Gris to champagne.”
    I turned toward him, fascinated by how easily he changed the subject. However, the disconcerted feeling of my body somehow responding to the warmth of his as we brushed one another left me with my face overheated and blush suffusing my face, neck and chest.
    “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you care? And how the hell do you know I like Pinot Gris as opposed to champagne?”
    “I’ve been around it my whole life, Vie—may I call you that? My father told me that was the name you go by along with your favorite wine.” He stared at me intensely as he continued, “I don’t give a shit about why humans do what they do. We act and react to situations and circumstances around us. It’s as simple as that. Are there diseases of the mind that cause certain people to act and react differently? Of course. Can a traumatic experience change a person’s attitude beyond recognition? Obviously—it’s a no brainer.”
    Blaine’s blue eyes bore into my own. “To be honest, dealing with manic depression when I was younger, and my parents telling everyone about it . . . it was weird. I mean, everyone expected me to be this odd person. It didn’t help me during high school when Six Feet Under was on television and everyone expected me to be just like Billy Chenowith. You know, one day I’m fine and then the next, off my meds and either crying like a fucking baby in the corner or flying through a manic episode where I wouldn’t sleep for days at a time.
    “I don’t take the medication . . . well, except lithium. It does its job and the rest, well I deal with it homeopathically. I try to get plenty of rest and exercise and when I sense a swing in my mood coming on, I do a shit-load of breathing exercises. It’s worked so far and I can honestly say that I live as normal of a life as the next person—whatever the fuck normal is supposed to be.”
    “Well, we all have our issues.