Class Of Desire (Contemporary Romance) (2 page)

Home Sweet Home

Meanwhile in another part of Pelham Bay, NY...

T
he
modern style brick house stood proud and tall at the corner of a small dead-end
street, a few blocks from the Bregor Allen College. Iron fencing ran the
house’s perimeter and a narrow driveway led to a two car garage. Pulling up
into the drive way, the intense sunlight struck the windshield of the black SUV
and an almost blinding glare was produced. Using one hand to block out the sun
light and the other to maneuver his steering wheel the driver drove into the
garage.

Although the warm summer’s sun was a bit too much at times, Dr.
Spencer was grateful that the harsh New York winter was still a few months
away. He loved New York, but absolutely dreaded the cold. Just the sight of the
all-so perfect, pearly white snowflakes gave him chills. Without hearing his
accent, one would never be able to tell that he’d actually grown up in the Big
Apple. After parking his vehicle he retreated to the back, gathering his bags before
heading to the front door. He was finally home.

***

“Oh Spencer we’ve missed you so much honey,” the older woman said
as she rushed to the young man at the door with open arms, and a broad smile on
her plump face. She made it a point to kiss him twice, one kiss on each cheek,
before pulling him into a tight hug. “Grazie a Dio,” she muttered;
thank God
in her native language. She brought her fingers to her mouth, kissed them, and
then blew the kiss to the sky; a sign of her appreciation to God for bringing
her only son back home.

“I’ve missed you too mom,” Spencer said as he embraced his
overzealous mother for a long time before she withdrew her body from his. She
gave him another long examining stare and then embraced him again.

“I can’t believe it. You have a PhD. Doctor...” she paused
for a minute whispering his first name knowing that he loathed it. “My son - a
Doctor,” the woman boasted with pride, reaching down to grab one of his three
suitcases.

“You know I hate that name,” her son reminded her with a
serious look. For some odd reason, Spencer disliked his first name with a
passion. He kept it a secret from his friends and colleagues; he instead went
by his last name- Spencer.

The smile that had been on her face disappeared for a second,
as if he’d struck a nerve. However his mother Mary was never one to hold a
grudge; a few seconds went by and she was back to her normal perky self. “I’ve already
prepared your room Spence. Your father went to the office to pick up a few
things but he’ll be home by dinner.”

“I got it,” he said as he eclipsed her petite hand with his
huge manly hand; gently taking hold of the handle and encouraging her to let
go. Mary Spencer slowly straightened up with a huge smile on her face. Her only
child was home and she could hardly contain her excitement.

Spencer was not much different from his mother; their dreamy
baby blue eyes were usually the first thing people would notice when they
walked into a room. They both had rich dark hair and were very confident and
intelligent individuals. It was no surprise that he had a closer relationship
with her, than his father. The only feature that he’d gotten from his father’s
side of the family seemed to be his tall manly physique, which rose to about 6
feet and 2 inches.

***

An
Italian native, Mary Giuliani-Spencer moved to New York as a young child at the
age of seven. She spent most of her time learning the language and customs of
the people around her. Years later, she met Peter Spencer, the son of David
Spencer a local business man in Pelham Bay. It was love at first sight, Mary
and Peter were soon married and after trying to conceive for a long time, they
finally had a son.

Growing up, Spencer was given the best of everything. As a
brilliant scholar he excelled in college and then spent a few years working
with his father, before going back to school. Now at the age of 26 he’d
graduated with his PhD in Psychology and was ready to begin his new career. His
parents never really understood why he had chosen that field of study. They had
both expected him to pursue a doctorate in Management. However Spencer had
other plans and although thankful for all his parents had done for him, he
wanted to follow his
own
dreams. He didn’t mind helping out with the family
business, but it was not his passion.

Spencer loved everything about Psychology; even the word
itself was intriguing to him. He loved saying it slowly,
P-s-y-chology.
It
made him feel so accomplished, so intelligent, perhaps it was his guilty
pleasure. Now that he had returned to his home town, he intended to work at the
local college as a Psychology professor. His parents opposed his decision at
first, because of the relatively low prestige of the school.  But he wanted to
remain close to his family for a few years before moving on to a more
prestigious University in another part of the country. He missed his parents
while away at college and wanted time to catch up with them before being away
again.

***

“I prepared your favorite – five cheese lasagna,” Spencer’s
mother informed him as she led him upstairs to his old room. “I did make one
small
change to the recipe though...”

Spencer feared what she was going to say. Recently his
mother had become somewhat of a health fanatic. He remembered how her daily
emails to him would always have an attached article “The Dangers of Meat”, “Knowing
your Foods”, “Eat well - Live well”, the list went on forever. Sometimes if he
wasn’t lucky, she would send him more than one. He hated those days. There was
always a note at the bottom of the email informing him of the ‘important’
documents attached. His mother would probably have a fit if she discovered that
he hardly read anything she sent him.

Now retired, he suspected that she was spending the bulk of
her time online, reading any and everything food or health related. He preferred
she use her free time doing something else, something that she enjoyed, or was
this her hobby?

“What did you do mom?” he almost didn’t want to ask but he
knew she would tell him regardless.

“Well, the other day I was at the store just minding my own
business,
you know me
.”

Spencer chuckled, clearly he
didn’t
know her.
Although he hated to admit it, his mother was a bit nosy; she would always try
to tell him some juicy gossip that she “accidentally” overhead somewhere while
minding
her own business.

“You remember Mr. Howard don’t you?” she waited for him to
answer.

“Yes, he works at the post office right?”

“Uh huh... He passed away a few weeks ago.” She said as her
face grew solemn, like that of a grieving widow. “Well I overheard his neighbor
Barbara, telling someone that his daughter Cindy told her friend Janice, that
his doctor said he died from eating too much meat.
You know he weighed like
400 pounds when he died
,” she whispered, as if it were some dirty little
secret she’d just shared.

“MOM!” Spencer called out in disbelief.

“It’s true. The meat killed him. I went online and
Googled
it.”

“What? Let me get this straight, you went online on Google
and learned that meat killed Mr. Howard?”  He said with a raised a cynical
brow.

“
Not exactly
. I was just reading up on meat. There’s
some scary information on there about the effects of consuming too much of it. I
sent you a few of the articles I found. You remember don’t you?” She continued,
opening his bedroom door and holding it steady while he dragged his bags in.

Spencer paused for a minute, propping his bags to the corner
neatly. “I think you need to get a part time job mom. Something to keep you
busy.”

“Oh Spence, that would be nice. But...”

“But what?” as he shot her a curious look.

“But - I’ve started this new club with some of the ladies at
my church. It’s a book club,
well not really.
It’s called
WWACC, “
Women
With a Cause Club”.
We do a little of everything, you know to better our
homes, church and neighborhood.”

“Does Dad know about your
club
?” Spencer said as he didn’t
like the sound of this; because he knew his mother
all too
well. He knew
that this was a clever excuse to meet up with her friends, drink red wine and
gossip about
everything
happening in Pelham Bay. However he wanted to be
certain that he didn’t jump to conclusions. Therefore he asked her one question
that would help him determine the authenticity and purpose of this so-called,
Women
With a Cause Club.

“So when do you ladies meet?”

“We meet here on afternoons. And yes, your father knows
about it.” She assured him with a smile.

“Uh – huh, I see. On afternoons, as in
every
afternoon.” Spencer said.

“Oh wipe that smirk of your face boy,” his mother teased,
realizing what he was insinuating. “Anyways, you won’t even know that I used
tofu instead of the meat. Well now you do, but I’m sure your dad won’t realize
it,” She said, immediately changing the subject.

“Ha, really you think?” he retorted sarcastically with a lopsided
grin.

Before long his mother was out the door, rushing downstairs
as the smell of burnt lasagna filled the air. Spencer’s eyes looked at his room
with admiration. Everything looked tidy, organized and untouched. Even the
white walls were crisp and fresh, as if they had just been painted. “Ah, home
sweet home,” he muttered to himself, lying back and savoring the feel of the
soft Egyptian cotton sheets against his skin. He then drifted off into a light
slumber, exhausted from his trip home.

At exactly 6 pm his door swung open and a tall, sturdy, grey
haired man walked in. Spencer sprung to his feet and greeted his father with a
tight firm hug. The two were the same height and build. They both had a slight
dimple in their chin and smooth looking ivory skin. Aside from these features
these two men were very different. Spencer’s father David was business savvy.
He enjoyed working at his family owned retail company, while Spencer was more
academically focused.

After a few minutes of chatting with his father, his mother
called them downstairs to the dinner table. Spencer’s heart leaped with joy at
the sight of the splendid dinner she’d prepared especially with him in mind. All
his favorite dishes were lined up neatly on the table before him. Thankfully
his mother had managed to salvage some of the lasagna. As they eat dinner, they
engaged in lively conversation catching up on old times.

First Day

L
izzy examined herself in the mirror for the umpteenth
time, before finally sighing with disappointment. She’d spent the last hour trying
on several articles of clothing, confused as to which one she should choose for
her first day of class. Why was she suddenly so mindful of her appearance? Any
other day she would have had no problem just throwing on a long summer dress
and heading out the door without a care in the world. However, today she wanted
to look good and therefore she made a special effort to ensure that was the
case. Even the light shade of pink lipstick that she had on, made her a little
uncomfortable. Yet there she was applying a bit of mascara, and praying she
didn’t accidentally poke her eyes out in the process.

After deliberating some more,
she finally decided to go with option number 4; a strapless blue maxi dress,
with a grey, unbuttoned summer cardigan hanging loosely over it. A small gold
belt provided definition to her petite waist. The dress draped her body
beautifully and she looked like a modern day Greek Goddess. Her outfit led down
to a pair of black and gold wedged heels that covered her pedicured feet.

Walking past her mirror one
last time, she glanced at her reflection. This time she was satisfied with what
she saw. She looked just as good now, then when she was in college several
years prior. Perhaps her decision to go back to school was not solely based on
her wanting a better job to support her family. Maybe in some strange way she
longed to reclaim a little of her youth, the life she had given up to raise her
kids.

***

A slender brunette girl ran
into the room with her younger brother trailing closely behind her. They’d been
fighting over the TV remote and wanted their mother to mediate. This was
nothing new to Lizzy; she’d grown weary of seeing her children fight all the
time, over the most trivial matters. She immediately tried to settle the
scuffle between her 12 year old daughter and 9 year old son, telling them that
neither of them would get the device.

It was during times like
these Lizzy felt lucky to have been an only child. Although she imagined that
perhaps if she had a sibling growing up, life would have been much better. Her
mother, Lucy Roberts, now deceased, had raised her as a single mother without
any help. Growing up her father had been like a ghost, she remembered hearing
stories about him, but to this day she has never met the man. She could have
tried to find him over the years, with all the technological advancements and
the emergence of social media. But the truth was, she didn’t care enough to go
searching for him, especially after learning how he treated her mother. He’d
moved to North Carolina after abandoning her pregnant mother. The rumor was
that he left to wed his co-worker.
Although
Lizzy did not hate this man, she had no desire to know him.

The loud tapping on her
apartment door distracted her from the kids for a few moments. “Oh thank you so
much for coming. Are you sure you don’t want them to come over to your
apartment instead?” Lizzy invited Mrs. Lewis, her neighbor into the apartment.

Mrs. Lewis was a plump,
friendly old lady who lived in the same building as Lizzy. She and her late
husband Tom had raised three well-mannered boys as their own, her sister’s
children, Lizzy had heard. Now widowed, she spent her days knitting and
watching
The Golden Girls
reruns.
“I
don’t mind coming over Lizzy. I’m sure the children don’t mind it either. Right
kids?”

Molly smiled, nodding her
head in agreement, while Nathan who was too busy playing with his video game to
utter a word.

Lizzy gathered a few of her
things before kissing her children goodbye and heading out the front door. Her
heart raced in anticipation as she made her way to the bus stop outside her building.
The number 32 bus was on time as usual and as she boarded the bus, the driver,
a man with whom she’d become well acquainted with over the years, greeted her
with a pleasant smile.

The bus was partly empty with
just over five passengers including Lizzy. Easing into a seat in the middle row,
she flipped through the pages of her text book. The good thing about attending night
classes was the reduced work load. This semester, she had to complete only 9
credit hours, which worked out to be 3 courses: Civil Procedure I (CP101),
Criminal Law (CL210) and Psychology I (PSY101).

Her time on the bus went by
quickly and before long she was at her stop. Clasping her text book shut, she
stood to her feet and made her way to the door. As the bus slowed down, she
wished the driver a good evening and prepared to disembark the vehicle. She was
now officially back in college.

***

“I’ll get it,” the deep husky
voice came suddenly, stopping Lizzy in her steps. A professionally dressed man
rushed ahead, holding the door open so she could walk in. His cologne filled
the air like a fine wine and she wished she could embrace him for a quick
second to enjoy his sweet, but masculine scent.

As she looked up to thank the
well-mannered man, her gaze locked into those of a handsome young man with the dreamiest
baby blue eyes she’d ever seen. His black hair was styled handsomely and he
towered above her at about 6 feet and a few inches. He was perhaps in his mid-20’s;
one of her potential classmates she hoped. A smile swept across her face like a
warm summer’s breeze over a flower. There was a succulent silence between them
for a few seconds; it was almost as if time had stopped so they could both
savor in their chance encounter.

“Thank you,” the words
finally left her lips. Lizzy chewed on her bottom lip nervously, as tiny
butterflies came alive in her stomach. She could feel her heart beating faster
and faster, and she struggled to not fidget or say anything silly.

He must have realized how
uncomfortable she’d suddenly become, because a bemused look broke out on his
face and a lopsided grin touched his lips. His eyes lit up as bright as a
diamond in the sun. “You’re most welcome,” he replied, before eventually
walking away.

As he left her presence, her
eyes followed him down the hallway until he disappeared behind one of the brown
doors. Slowly reality drifted upon her and she laughed at herself softly for
her childlike behavior. Lizzy couldn’t help but wonder whether she would see
this handsome stranger again. Maybe she wouldn’t – with her seemingly bad luck.

“Stop it... You don’t need
any distractions,” a small voice in the back of her mind chided.

She was there for one reason
and one reason only, to finish what she’d started years ago. This time she
intended to graduate and pursue her Law Degree, even if it took her the rest of
her miserable life. She had to get that degree, if not for her then for her
children – they deserved to have a better life.