The Doctor And The CEO

The ambiance of the restaurant they chose was really good, Rachel and Catherine got a private table for two and they requested for a candle-light arrangement which the restaurant agreed to provide with. 

Rachel was really excited and she clicked a selfie with Catherine, where one could see the ambiance and the candle-light arranged on the table, she sent this picture to Daniel and her grandpa, she wanted to show-off that she is having a great time and also wanted to update them about what she is upto.

She and Catherine first had some casual conversation and ordered some food and wine.

"Auntie, can you now tell my mom and dad's love story?" Rachel excitedly asked as this was the something she had been waiting for to know almost all her life.

"Absolutely, so first tell me how much do you know?" Catherine questioned her to get an idea from where to start.

"Okay, so mom and dad met somewhere, they fell in love, dad pursued her and then they got married."

Catherine was shocked knowing it, "That's it?"

"Yeah I only got to know this much." Rachel embarrassingly answered.

"Rachel that is such a generic story, haha who told you this story?" Catherine smiled seeing Rachel's innocence.

"Grandpa just mentioned it here and there, I knew one thing that they had a love marriage and they chose each other." Rachel's eyes shined when she said it was a love marriage.

"So you too want to have a love marriage just like your parents?" Catherine interpreted this seeing the spark in her eyes.

"Yes and that's why…" Rachel was about to say 'I ran away when grandpa fixed the alliance' then she remembered she is Daniel's mother and she controlled herself.

"That's why you didn't like the grandpas arranging your marriage with Danny?" Catherine asked as she understood what must have happened.

"I am really sorry auntie." Rachel felt guilty.

"Hey Rachel, please don't apologize, auntie is sorry, we planned something without even asking for your choices and your opinions, it must have been so important for you to have a love story like your parents, please don't feel bad and next time if there is anything that grandpa suggests and you don't like it, don't hesitate to say no and you can come to me, I'll support you in every decision of yours, even if it is rejecting my son, I'll be with you. You can consider me as your mother. Okay?" Catherine explained her thoughts to Rachel holding her hand, these were the words she wished she told her earlier.

"Thank you so much auntie and to be honest I like Daniel." Rachel confessed to Catherine.

Catherine was surprised by Rachel's sudden confession. She already had an idea but she never thought Rachel would so frankly share something so important with her. 

"I know it might be shocking for you but I wanted to let you know this, you are the first person I am telling this to, can you please not tell Daniel?" Rachel blurted out the truth in the spur of the moment, although she didn't regret it, she still did not want Daniel to find out about it either, especially from his mother.

"Of course sweetheart, your secret is safe with me, I am so happy you like my Danny." Catherine couldn't hide the happiness and she grinned from ear to ear. She was very happy that Rachel really likes Daniel and was even more happy to know she was the first one Rachel shared this news with. Catherine decided to not tell this to anyone and she wanted to be the only special person who knew Rachel's secret officially.

"Thank you auntie, I am really trusting you with it."

"I promise sweetie I'll not break your trust and also you have my blessing." Catherine winked at her.

Rachel blushed and smiled at her.

"Okay now coming to your parents' love story, let me start from the beginning so that you can get the context, okay?"

"Damn okay." Rachel excitedly replied.

Then Catherine started narrating the past to her.

"So, me, William and Harry were childhood best friends."

"Umm sorry to interrupt but who is Harry?" Rachel got confused as she never heard of Harry.

"Harry is my husband, Daniel and Jimmy's dad, Harry Morris."

"Oh, I am so sorry" Rachel was embarrassed, she knew him as Mr. Morris and didn't know the name.

"Chill sweetie, it is an honest mistake."

Catherine didn't mind such silly stuff.

"We three used to spend a lot of time together, our fathers were very close friends too as you can already witness two of your grandpas still hanging out together."

Rachel nodded.

"I used to have a crush on Harry since we were kids but he was always indifferent towards me and treated me just like his other friends and I always used to confide my feelings to your father, when we were in our teens there was a girl who was into Harry, I misunderstood that Harry too was into her and was kinda heartbroken, at that time, your dad then told me that Harry always liked me and he acted indifferent because he was not sure how to confess his feelings as he is a very shy guy, then based on your dad's motivation, I went and proposed Harry which he gladly accepted and we started dating, since then I always felt grateful for your father and always tried to set him up with different girls as a thank you for what he did for me but he never liked any of them and kept on rejecting all my friends." 

Rachel laughed at this, "Why did he reject them all?"

"Because he used to find them very annoying, they were all into your father and used to make moves on him and I guess he never liked it."

"Wow he was popular with girls it seems."

"Yes, very popular, so many women used to hit on him."

Rachel laughed, "Then what happened?" she curiously asked, wanting to know how her mother stood out among those women.

"Then career and studies became more important, Harry and Will wanted to pursue business management as they were very clear they wanted to take their father's businesses forward, I wanted to study architecture, I got admission in one of the best architect colleges but I had to leave London for it as it was in Dublin city. Harry and William got into the same business school in London so they were together and I got separated from them."

"Oh that's sad" Rachel pouted.

"No, not exactly as I met your mother in this architecture college, she was my batchmate there."

"Oh right, you mentioned it earlier."

"Yes, me and Liz had so many things in common that we were able to hit it off immediately and became very close friends, during our holidays I used to come to London to meet Harry and Will whereas Liz used to stay in the same city and do internships, your mother was an orphan and she had no family but luckily she was interested in studying and seeing her talent the orphanage people enrolled her in school, then later with her hard work she cracked exams and got admission in Dublin with a scholarship so she always knew the value of money and used to spend all her extra time in earning extra money so that she can pay back the orphanage so that they could educate other children and also it helped her in gaining more knowledge. She used to pay for her own expenses too."

"Wow she was so inspirational." Rachel felt pained that her mother struggled so much in life but was also impressed how her mom was independent and was leading her life her way. She already knew her mother was an orphan as she never had maternal grandparents and her grandpa was the only family she had.

"She is the best woman I ever met, I agree, she was very inspirational." Catherine got emotional remembering her friend.

"Don't be sad auntie, we should remember them happily and not get sad." Rachel tried to console her.

"You are right" Catherine composed herself and then continued, "One year passed quickly, now at that time it was compulsory for us to do internships during our long break and similarly Harry and Will too were supposed to intern somewhere, they two decided to intern in their father's company but in my case my father was not into architecture so I couldn't intern at my father's company so Will offered me an internship in one of their architect departments, so unlike now where your company has a different firm for architecture, it was not the case at that time, there was only one main office, where on one floor there was an architect department and in another floor real estate and business management on another floor and son, later your father expanded the business and that's how your company became what it is now."

"Oh" Rachel was surprised as she was not aware of it.

"Yeah, so Will offered me an internship in his company, but I didn't join as I had some issues."