A Green Knight and a Hot Night

Callie loved Barry
—beyond question, beyond doubt
. And how wonderful it was that they worked together and saw each other every day. Both were employed by Paradise Party Planners, an organization that focused more on corporate functions and huge galas than on simple birthday parties and other small affairs.

Whatever a particular event called for in the way of lighting, it was Barry
'
s job to oversee it. Callie
'
s primary responsibility was floral placements. From a single rose in a bud vase to a plethora of potted palms, and
whether real or one of
the many artificial flowers and plants stored in
Paradise
'
s warehouse, Callie was the go-to gal when it came to greenery. She loved the challenges and the creative aspect of her job almost as much as she loved working with Barry.

It was Robin who ruined everything for Callie. Robin was a client, the president of the Greenvale Better Government Organization, and she engaged the services of Paradise Party Planners to handle every detail of the organization
'
s year-end awards banquet. She took an immediate fancy to Barry when he met with her to discuss her needs for lighting, and after that there were no holds barred. Robin pursued Barry unabashedly, and he seemed flattered that a woman of so much prestige and wealth would be interested in him. To Callie, Robin was just another cougar on the prowl, but Barry was flattered…and caught up.

"
You
'
re acting like a lovesick puppy,
"
Callie told him
as Barry once again stared with glazed
eyes at Robin
'
s retreating form
after one of her visits to consult with the staff.

"
I don
'
t know what you
'
re talking about!
"
Barry
'
s eyes flashed with indignation, and anger sparked in his denial.

"
If you
really
don
'
t, you
'
re the only one in the office who doesn
'
t.
"
Callie
'
s firmly declarative voice punctuated her statement emphatically, but it was a disagreement they would return to several times more before The Incident.

The Incident occurred after Barry had gone to consult with Robin at her home—at Robin
'
s request.
He returned to the office smelling of
something other than aftershave. Specifically,
Callie recognized it as
Beautiful by Estée Lauder. Callie knew the scent well and was aware that it was Robin
'
s signature fragrance.
When she turned
Barry
around to perform a sniff test on the back of his neck, she discovered a
lipstick
smear there
.

"
Well, of course I smell of her perfume!
"
Barry exploded.
"
Wouldn
'
t you expect me to hug her
'
Hello
'
?
"

"
It rubbed off t
hat strongly from one little hug?
"
Callie asked scathingly.
"
And that still doesn
'
t explain her lipstick on the back of your neck. Or do you have a convenient excuse for that, too?
"

But he
didn
'
t
. In fact,
despite his blustered,
"
Am I subject to a top-to-toe inspection every time I return to the office?
"
h
is face appeared to be reddening
more out of embarrassment or shame than out of anger
.

"
You
'
ve been cheating on me!
"

"
Since when do you have such a suspicious mind? I won
'
t put up with that kind of attitude!
"

"
I don
'
t hear you denying that you cheated.
You
'
re just accusing me to divert attention from your own guilt.
"

"
If you don
'
t trust me, we
'
re finished!
"
Barry stormed.

"
Fine with me!
"

And just that quickly, a loving couple broke up and became antagonists.

C
lear
ly
Callie was going to need a new job. Staying at Paradise Party Planners and working alongside Barry
seemed
insufferable. She handed in her resignation even before she had found another position, but fortunately she soon secured a job managing a floral warehouse. Callie remained friends with a few of her old co-workers, though, and not long thereafter she heard from one of them that Barry had resigned, too. The reason for their breakup had become common knowledge, and popular sympathy was with Callie. Too many of her former co-workers were casting aspersions at Barry, and
he
could
no longer
be comfortable working
there.

Callie tried to put Barry out of her life and move on,
which proved a challenge
. For the first couple of months, learning her new job occupied much of her thoughts and kept her busy,
but eventually
Callie
could not escape
fac
ing
the reality of the hole in her life. Barry was gone
, leaving her
evenings empty, and her heart
in quite the same condition
. A couple of months had passed since the breakup, time enough to start healing, time enough that she
felt
ready to at least
attempt
to move on.

A
proposal
now
in front of the city council
would
ban dog-walking by the lakeshore
, and a
s a dog owner, Callie objected vigorously. When she heard that a new group called Pro Dog
had been
form
ed
to oppose the proposal, Callie decided to get involved. Maybe it not only
would
be worth it to invest her time for the cause but would take her mind off her being alone, too. Most of the group
'
s activities and communication took place online, in a Yahoo
group.

In a preponderance of caution, Callie got a
"
throwaway
"
email address and joined the group under the online handle
"
Furbaby,
"
using her new email addy. She met a lot of new people online in a short time, a dizzying number, and she had trouble keeping them all straight in her head, but one in particular caught her attention early on.
"
GreenKnight,
"
as he called himself,
spouted fresh and often innovative
ideas for how to combat the anti-dog-walking proposal.
Unbounded zeal sparked his every post.
If he could have, he would have taken on the city council single-handedly. Fortunately, of course, he had a whole organization behind him.

The force
behind a lot of the group
'
s machinations as they fought the council
'
s proposal
, GreenKnight
wangled TV interviews on two different local stations for the group
'
s spokeswoman. He organized a letter-writing campaign. He staged a protest in front of City Hall.

He even attended that one himself. For the most part, GreenKnight stayed behind the scenes, not appearing in public. But when none of the other Pro Dog members
expressed
willing
ness
to put on a Saint Bernard costume to take part in a demonstration, GreenKnight donned the costume and wore it downtown during lunch hour. He got a lot more people to sign the petition, a lot more people to join Pro Dog, and he also caught the attention of the local newspaper, which sent a reporter and photographer to interview him and take his picture…in costume, of course. The newspaper article identified him only as
"
GreenKnight, the code name of a local resident who
'
s upset about the city council
'
s new proposal to….
"

Callie wondered if GreenKnight might be her
"
white knight,
"
the man who would sweep into her life, rescue her from her aloneness—and her residual anger and hurt over Barry—and bring new joy and a new dimension into her world. But of course, she had never seen his face. She didn
'
t know if he was young, old, or possibly even had an
off-putting
face in some way. Well, she could even handle it if he
turned out to be
disfigured, but if she was
spinning
fantasies over a teenager or a geezer.…

And she
was
spinning
fantasies. There was no denying
how
caught up
she had become
, enraptured with this crusading do-gooder with the can-do attitude and the get-it-done results. But she had to know if she was chasing up a blind alley.

They had begun a correspondence by now. Callie took it as a good sign that
"
Green
"
(as she now called him)
appeared
interested enough in her to write back and forth to her, and she used this opportunity to try to find out more about him.
"
It
'
s unusual to find someone with the energy of a teenager yet enough free time to do as much as you do, such as usually only a retiree would have at his disposal. Am I stereotyping here or what?
"
she wrote cautiously.

Callie held her breath when she got his reply, but she exhaled deeply and gratefully when she read
,
"
I am neither a teen nor a geezer. LOL. Try splitting the difference. I am in my early thirties.
"
She was twenty-nine herself. Whew!
That made him
just the right age for her.