Chapter 37 BLAINE'S INVITATION

Chapter 37 BLAINE'S INVITATION
“Come on in, Alexander. Don't just stand there like a stranger,” Blaine said as he entered the room. 

Xavier entered, closing the door behind him, and watched as Blaine walked around his desk and settled into his black leather chair, crossing his legs like he owned the place. 

Xavier stood by the door for a moment, looking around the office. The office was three times the normal size for a doctor's office, with a few paintings here and a double door fridge on the other corner. It exuded luxury. 

Xavier walked over to the chair across from Blaine and sat down, keeping his back straight as he waited and stared into Blaine's eyes. 

After dealing with a lot of things and fighting for his life, a man in a fancy suit was not going to scare him. 

Blaine looked around his office with a smug smile. 

“This is a big office, is it not?” 

Xavier nodded as Blaine continued. 

“If you act like a good boy and do what I say, one day you might get an office like this. And trust me when I say that I can make it happen for you.”

Xavier did not look impressed. He only looked straight at Blaine, wondering where this conversation was going. 

“So does this mean that your friends have offices like this?”

Blaine shook his head. “No, they… they don't have…” he stammered. 

“Look, this is the part where you try to scare me into doing what you want and I tell you that I'm not going to do it. How about we just wrap this up so I can go do something else?”

“What?” Blaine shook his head with a weak laugh. “I'm not trying to scare you. I merely wanted to congratulate you and talk about the research.”

“Okay,” Xavier dropped in. 

“But I have to say, I heard news about how you answered those questions and even my father was surprised.”

“I'm glad you liked it,” Xavier said in a bland tone. 

Blaine's smile was slowly fading away as his eyes got cold. "What I do not like from people like you is making my father look terrible in front of other people. You made him look like a total buffoon. You made him look like he didn't know what he was doing. And that is a very costly mistake, Alexander. I will not tolerate such bullshit."

Xavier tried to talk as Blaine held up his hand to stop him from speaking. 

“I did not give you permission to talk,” Blaine stated. “I only came here with you so I could be able to talk to you.”

“So does that mean there's no research papers? Because that's the only reason I'm here.”

Blaine narrowed his eyes. “If I had told you to come to my office… that I wanted to have a discussion with you about the board exam, would you have come?”

Xavier kept quiet as Blaine nodded, “Look, my father is one of the greatest doctors in this country. Do you know who he is? Let me tell you who he is. He has helped so many important people. You know, he saved the life of Governor Harrison when everyone else gave up. He operated on Marcus Vane, a famous singer. He even helped Elena Rose, an actress, after she got into a very dangerous car accident. These people are very important in high society, you know, and they owe their lives to my family.”

Xavier stared at him in confusion as he did not know who any of these people were. In his own life and in his own time, there were a lot of famous people, but he knew their names. In this world, he didn't know the names of any celebrity here. 

Blaine stopped talking as his eyes widened in shock. “You do know who I'm talking about, right? Elena, Vane and Harrison?”

Xavier shook his head. 

“You're joking, right?”

“Look, I don't really follow the news, especially celebrity gossip or whatever it's being called.” 

Blaine was shocked. “You're kind of weird. So you spend all your time just reading books? Not once have you gone to a concert. You can't tell me you don't know who Marcus Vane is. He filled up the stadium three nights in a row last month.”

Xavier gave him a sympathetic smile. “Concerts are not really my thing, Blaine. As long as it's not a surgery or research, I'm not interested. I find music from a concert a bit noisy, I prefer silent places for peace, I hate loud places.”

Blaine leaned back with a sigh as he looked at Xavier like he was dealing with a child. 

“Look, Alexander, I see you have talent. Let's stop beating around the bush and start over. I could tell my father to give you an office right next to mine. I could tell him to make everything easy for you. You won't have any paperwork. You won't have any shifts. No one breathing down your neck. No deadline. And I could make you a star in this hospital.”

“What's the catch?” Xavier asked as Blaine shrugged. 

“There's no catch,” he said, spreading his arms by his side. “I just need you to help me. Join my circle. When I say a patient needs a treatment, you back me up. When I need a result from the lab, you find it and you help me. I'll make sure you're the most famous doctor under thirty in this city.”

Xavier couldn't help but laugh, which startled Blaine. 

He laughed for a few seconds before wiping the tears that had pooled by the sides of his eye. 

“I think you've got the wrong guy, Blaine,” Xavier chuckled. “I'm here to make people live a very healthy life. I'm not here to serve you or anyone that isn't a patient. I'm not here to serve your ego. If you're looking for someone to join your group and go around bullying new doctors into doing your dirty work, well, I'm the wrong person. I'm not interested.”

Blaine's face suddenly turned red with anger as he jumped to his feet with his chair flying backward and hitting the wall with a bang. 

“You don't know who you're messing with. Do you think because Craig likes you that you're safe? You're nobody. You have no idea what my family can do to a thing like you. We can erase you from the world before the sun goes down.”

The familiar blue glow flickered quietly across Xavier’s vision.

\[HOSTILE INTENT CONFIRMED\]
\[THREAT LEVEL: HIGH\]
\[DEFENSIVE OVERRIDE AVAILABLE\]
\[AWAITING HOST COMMAND\]

Xavier didn't even flinch at Blaine's, and didn't react to system either. In fact, he started to chuckle as he got to his feet feeling the system humming in his mind, ready to defend him if Blaine tried to go out of control. 

“Look, I am a doctor and I'm not going to sell myself to be under you. Name one thing that I will get from being under you.”

Blaine chuckled. “I’ll name multiple. Money, fame, riches. Is there any other thing that somebody needs?”

Xavier nodded. “There are so many things that we need that aren't money or fame or riches. For example, when I get the satisfaction of watching families reunite with their other family members. Or when I create a cure that hasn’t been found. Or when I go through a surgery for hours just to be successful and no one dies around me. That is the true joy of things.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You see, that right there is what makes me know that I can't have someone like you in my corner. You only need me around for your ego and I don't want to be the one fanning it. Let me give you a piece of advice,” Xavier added with his voice becoming very low and very serious. “Don't do anything rash. You might not like where this goes. I've survived a lot worse than a talkative doctor in a fancy office.”

“You are standing in my office, in my hospital, and you are talking to me like that? Is that a threat I hear?”

Xavier shook his head. “I would never threaten someone like you. That would be very rude, wouldn't it? But I don't like when people call me to serve them. I just came out of one pile of shit. I don't feel like going back into it.”

“So is this a yes or a no to my friendship with you?”

Xavier shrugged his shoulders normally. “It depends on how you want this to go. From my own angle, it's a huge no. I can be able to work with you as a partner in the hospital, but nothing more. If you are looking for a slave, I'm not going to be a slave.”

“You are going to regret this.”

Xavier narrowed his eyes. “Maybe.... I may, I may not. Either way, I'm here for one thing and one thing only, to cure people. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Dr. Blaine? I have things to do.”

With that as his closing statement, he nodded to the doctor, then walked out of the office with a smile on his face.