Destined (26 page)

“And a woman might feel the same way,
for that matter,” I countered, pushing my empty plate away.

“Oh really?”

“Shall I beg now, or later?” I asked. “And
I’m not talking about food!”

His face flushed, and he took my hand
to kiss it one finger at a time.

“Did I ever tell you,” he asked, “That
you are the most adorable, sweet, funny, wonderful, beautiful woman in the
world?”

“No,” I said, “You must have forgotten
to mention it.”

“Well then, I’m telling you now.”

“Tony?”

“Yes, darling?”

“You’d better watch out, or I’m going
to start believing all this nonsense.”

“I hope so, Em. I want you to believe
it.”

“You do? Really?”

“Yes, I very sincerely do. If we both
believe in it, then it will be real, won’t it?”

“Tony, I have to tell you, I’m not
interested in casual sex. I just can’t handle it,” I said bluntly. “I’d rather
be alone and concentrate on working all the time.”

“Believe me, I understand,” he said
solemnly. “I’m not trying to seduce you, Emily. Not the way you think.”

He looked at me with an inscrutable
expression for a minute, then stood up from the table. He smoothed his hair
back with his hand, nervously.

“I think I’d better be going now,” he
said in a gruff voice. “I think…I hope you have a safe trip, and the funeral
isn’t too difficult.”

He put down his napkin and turned to
leave the kitchen as I stood up and ran after him, grabbing his arm.

“Wait!” I cried. “Don’t just leave
like that! Did I say the wrong thing?”

He stopped and turned back to put his
arms around me again.

“Silly girl,” he mumbled into my hair.
“You always say exactly the right thing. ”

“Then why are you leaving?”

He stepped back and composed himself,
taking his jacket off the coat rack next to the door and putting it on. I stood
and watched him, wondering if I had somehow ruined everything. Just when we had
finally started to talk openly with each other.

“Because I make it a point never to
fall in love on the third date, Emily,” he said, with a sardonic smile. “It’s
just too impetuous. I always wait until, oh, at least the fourth time I have
dinner with someone.”

So, we were back to the safe banter.
When in doubt, rely on humor. Well, two could play at that game.

“So, we’ll wait ’til next time for
that, right?” I said, trying to be funny, but it fell a little bit flat.

He nodded and bowed, looking
uncomfortable. His eyes were anxious, appraising my reaction. I decided to let
him off the hook, for now.

“Here,” I said, taking the spare key
to my apartment off the rack on the kitchen wall. I handed it to him. “Now you
have the key to my apartment. Watch out, people may talk!” I grinned at him
playfully, but he did not respond in kind.

“I’ll take good care of Tree,” he
said. “And, Henry too.”

“I know you will. Thank you.”

“You need to call me. You need to call
and tell me when you’re coming home, as soon as you know,” he said intensely,
insistently. He leaned forward and kissed me on the lips one more time,
carefully avoiding contact with the rest of my body. Then he tucked my key into
his wallet and put it in his back pocket, opening the door to step out onto the
landing. He stood there for a moment, just outside the threshold, looking at me
with a fierce, wary expression. Then he pulled the door shut and was gone.

When I lay in bed that night under the
swelling moon that sailed in a sea of stars above my skylight, I reflected on
how much things had changed since the night before. Lexi and I had transformed
from enemies to friends. Lexi’s poor sister had transitioned from life into
death. Tony and I had progressed from a promising flirtation to…what? Something
that might be much more serious, I thought.

It was probably a good thing I was
going to be out of town for a few days, to give us both a chance to cool down.
Because
cool
was
not exactly how I had been feeling around the man. In fact, I thought,
restlessly tossing and turning in bed, I would have gladly gone way too far
with him right there on the couch if his damned watch had not gone off. Oh my
god, yes. I drifted off to sleep, a little smile on my lips.

The yellow moon was smudged by a thin
streak of glowing clouds overhead, and I floated beneath it on my soft bed,
rocking along on the gentle waves off the coast, and then rising up in the air
to hover above a dark mysterious island. Not a single light was on in any of
the houses and no cars were driving on the roads. The place looked deserted, or
asleep. It looked wild and magical.

I floated toward the center of the
island, where a pillar of white smoke was rising up into the dark sky. As I
neared it, I heard drums and singing, tambourines and bells. My flying bed
settled down on the ground next to a bonfire on a broad hilltop. The fire was
surrounded by a circle of amazing creatures of many kinds, dancing and
frolicking. There were fawns, centaurs, sylphs and dryads, little fairies with
semi-transparent sparkling wings, and even a unicorn. They were beautiful and
rare, amazing.

I ran to join the circle, and glimpsed
others dancing whom I had not seen at first. Siri was there with her husband
and her children, as were Bella and her family, plus Laurie and John. Both of
my parents were there as well, and Henry and Margaret, young and spry, dancing
with the others as we all joined hands. I turned to my left and saw I held the
paw of a large white cat in my hand. I looked to the right and saw that Tony
had appeared and taken my hand in his. We all started to dance in a clockwise
direction, circling round and round the bonfire, which roared into the sky. We
chanted and sang. It was an exhilarating romp, but finally I began to tire.

“Please,” I begged, panting, “I need
to stop. I have to drive Lexi. I can’t be late!”

But the circle spun round and round,
spiraling off as I finally broke loose and was flung far out into space,
eventually catching my foot on the moon and tripping to fall down, down, down.
When I woke up very early in the morning, the sheets had twisted around me
tightly and sweat was dripping from my body.

I showered and dressed, watering my
plants and making sure to leave the apartment spotless. Then I headed off to
learn how the very rich deal with it when one of their own dies so young, so
tragically.

Description: A woman
pours something from one chalice into another. She is blending two fluids, two
extremes.

Meaning:
 
Synthesis or moderation. A tempering of
opposites. Softening the extremes through either collaboration or
compromise.
 

Four
days later, I dropped Lexi off at her house before heading straight over to
work. Lexi and I had caught a flight back to Hyannis in her cousin’s private
plane very early today. It was raining a little when we hit the Mass. Pike and
drove west around six in the morning, and we encountered very little traffic
until we got almost to Springfield.

We parked in the driveway in front of
the striking four bedroom contemporary home that Lexi owned, set on two
landscaped acres in the nicest residential area in town. I got out with her, to
help with the luggage. While each of us had started the trip with just one
suitcase, we had both somehow acquired numerous bags and bundles along the way.
(There were actually
two
shopping trips into the little retail district on the Island, I confess.) I
opened the trunk and we divided up the contents. Then I helped carry everything
of hers inside. When she finally stood in the foyer, her packages scattered on
the floor around her, she turned to face me and delivered her most charming
smile.

“I don’t know how to thank you enough,”
Lexi said, very seriously and sincerely. She took both of my hands in hers and
kissed me on the cheek affectionately. No more air-kisses, the real thing. “I’m
sorry my family is so weird,” she added with a grimace.

“Lexi, everybody’s family is weird.”

“True, very true.”

“And your parents were absolutely
wonderful to me, and I love your cousins. Anyhow. It was a very interesting
field trip. I don’t get out of town much, you know,” I said lightly as I turned
to go.

Lexi stood in the open doorway
watching me walk down the path to the parking area. Everything looked clean and
refreshed after the rain. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the
flowers were blooming and she was beautiful and blonde and golden all over. She
was smiling. All was well in Lexi Land today.

“My work is done, Grasshopper!” I
muttered to myself as I got into the car.

“See you at the next DBA meeting!” she
called, waving.

Funny how that didn’t seem to worry me
at all anymore.

“OK, save me a seat if you get there
first!” I called, waving back. I turned the car around to go out of the long
driveway, admiring a huge bed of pink day lilies. Lexi’s world was certainly a
lovely place, I had to admit.

The Prius was not in evidence when I
parked in the alley behind the store. Letting myself into the back door, I
heard feminine voices and laughter coming from the showroom. I realized it was
Friday, Pilates day, and the girls were all here for our early morning class. I
glanced into the kitchen and saw that scones were cooling on a rack. Our menu
board, a giant drawing pad that we displayed by hanging it from a hook on the
wall behind the coffee bar, was lying on the table with a couple of magic
markers nearby. Reading it upside down, I saw that Siri had made curried
chicken salad with almonds today, and we were also offering a dark chocolate
fudge cake, which was probably in the fridge. It looked like everything was
under control, and we still had over an hour before it would be time to open
the shop. I hung my raincoat on one of the hooks by the back door, and turned
to follow the sound of my friends’ voices.

I stood in the doorway watching for a
minute before they noticed me. The lunch tables and chairs had been pushed back
against the wall. Six exercise mats were laid out on the floor, five of them
facing the one where our teacher, Mindy, demonstrated for us. Everyone was
dressed in T-shirts and leggings or sweat pants. The class consisted of Laurie,
Siri, Bella and me, plus Mei and my newest friend, Alyssia. She was the mother
of Rashid, the boy who had carried my cake upstairs at The Palace, and the
happy baby who usually shared the carriage with Siri’s daughter. Her low
melodious voice rang out now, as she made everyone laugh with a remark about
the hamstring stretch they were trying to hold.

“Bellies, bellies, bellies…” Mindy
reminded them to pull in their stomachs. “Good!”

Bella groaned and flopped onto the
ground. “Holy cow, that one kills me!”

“It’s your bad knee, try the modified
pose, like this,” Mindy suggested, showing her what to do. A petite woman with
a mop of curly golden hair and an incredibly strong, limber body, she was a
physical therapist friend of Laurie’s who taught Pilates classes for extra
income. She was teaching us about “the mind-body connection,” and we all agreed
that the more toned our muscles became, the more focused our minds became as
well. It worked in reverse, too. By thinking about moving muscles we hadn’t
moved in years, we were training them to respond. Mindy had a huge smile, a
vibrant voice, and she radiated energy.