Midsummer's Eve (8 page)

The light from the fireplace was doing a jig on the ceiling when I heard
Mallory
’s decidedly unladylike snores. I should get off my rear end and throw a load of clothes in the dryer, and I really wanted to see how the movie ended, but I could hardly hold my eyes open. I programmed the DVR to record the movie, pulled the afghan from the back of the recliner,
relocated thoughts of Adam to the darkest recesses of my mind,
and slept like I hadn’t had a wink of sleep in forty-eight hours.

Mallory
woke me a couple hours later, “Look! It's still snowing! Let’s make hot chocolate with marshmallows like we did last year when it snowed.”

“You mean hot chocolate with marshmallows like
Adam
made us
from his secret family recipe la
st year when it snowed?” She had successfully shot my pleasant snow day all to hell.

“Oh yeah, scratch that idea.”

“I have an even better idea. Let’s sit by the fire and tell
ghost stories.
Or would you rather go next door and let my parents reminisce again?”

“Now
Eve
, dammit don’t start that shit again! Boy, are you ever vindictive,” she pouted. “I didn’t even mean to bring
Adam
up!”

Toward evening, I dug through my son’s closet and found thick insulated hunting suits for us. We simply had to look ridiculous in our camouflaged fat suits. Although,
Mallory
looked quite cute in the garment both of us could have easily fit in. Adding boots, toboggans, and gloves to our attire we headed outside to take pictures in the snow. I love to photograph trees, fences and old buildings when they are heavy with snow and dripping with icicles.
We were surrounded by a winter wonderland
when we finally followed the trail back home.

Shedding our wet clothes, we fell down in front of the fireplace in thick terry cloth robes and began a heated game of Scrabble.
As usual,
Mallory
lucked up and had the letters to spell FART, which sent her into convulsions of hilarity. Honestly, it takes so little to amuse the girl.

As was my habit, I had checked my messages the minute I walked through the door.
And as expected my employee
s had called one by one to inform me that they would miss work the following day due to snow
covered roads. That’
s why I drive a Jeep Ch
erokee. Showing up for work isn’
t an option for me. I have to be there even when no one else can make it in. It’s one of the pitfalls of being self-employed. Well, that and taxes.

As a rule, half of the plant, the men with four-wheel drive trucks, normally shows up for work on snow days. This left me to clean up after roughly 150 people. I have the janitorial contract at a large tire manufacturing company and the plant operates seven days a week
,
rain or shine. Not something I looked forward to. Thank God for
Mallory
. 25 toilets, 6 urinals, 12 sinks, 2 canteens, a patio, 3 smoking booths, 12 water fountains, and 99 trash cans to empty are a bit much for one person, don't you think? Again, thank God for
Mallory
!

At 6:00 Sunday evening
,
the plant was spotless and we were both near the brink of exhaustion, and the thought of
standing over a hot stove wasn’
t one I actually even considered. So I pulled in
to the parking lot behind Alfredo
's, an Italian restaurant in town.
Mallory
put in a request for spaghetti
,
and I ordered my usual boneless inferno hot wings, along with a large basket of buffalo chips. Most of my life is spent on a starvation diet, but I deserved each and every one of those greasy, salty chips today.

Slumped in the booth
,
I was almost too tired to hold my head up and had to be a most pathetic sight. The only time I really did physical labor anymore was on snow days or when one of my employ
ees took a vacation, which wasn’
t often. In this economy, most of them chose to take their vacation in the form of a weeks pay.

I pushed further back in my seat and closed my eyes to rest for the few minutes it would take our salads to arrive. Deebo, the extremely handsome and totally adorable owner of the restaurant, eviden
tly took pity on me and began ma
ssaging my shoulders.

“Heavenly,” I mumbled unwilling to open my eyes as the tension slowly oozed from my tired
body. I was about to drift off
in the middle of the restaurant, when I felt the toe of a shoe almost splinter
my shinbone. “Ouch!” I screeched
in throbbing pain, bending down to massage the o
ffended area. “What
did you do that for,
Mallory
?” Ye
t the second I opened my eyes, the answer was before them.
Adam
, along
with the
chosen one, stood looking rather tense and agitated a few feet away.

Oh my God! How was it possi
ble for one man to look so
good? And why was he looking at me as if I had committed a sin comparable to one of his? His eyes were shooting dagger
s aimed directly at me. Why? Oh! B
ecause Deebo had his hands on me? That had to be why! He was jealous! Imagine that!
Evidently, it caused some small fraction of pain when the shoe was on the other foot. I opened my mouth to speak-- well, actually, breathe his name-- but before I could he placed his arm possessively around Chia's tiny waist, gave me a go to hell look, and left.

I collapsed in my seat, realizing that I had been holding my breath
for a couple of minutes
.
Adam
looked so scrumptious that my bones turned to mush and I could have eas
ily dissolved into
a pud
dle of goo as I watched him storm
out. If the love of his life hadn’
t been with
him
,
I’
m not sure what would have happened.

Would I have raced across the floor and fallen breathlessly into
Adam
’
s outstretched arms? Well, he would have had to rem
ove his arm from its death grip
on Chia’
s waist or I would have fallen breath
lessly to the floor. And wouldn’
t that have been the absolute pits if I had ran up to him and he had patently ignored me, with a knowing smirk? The horror! Watching him walk out of the restaurant with his arm around Chia left a twisting, gnawing ache deep inside me.

B
eing perfectly honest, if I had
been him, I would have scurried out the door as well
. We both knew
they weren’
t about to enjoy a cozy little meal. Not with me there. And
Adam
wouldn’
t have dared anyway. He was acquainted with my emotions
well enough to know that if he had
even considered
snuggling
with Chia, in one of the dimly lit back booths, I would have found immense pleasure in ripping out every last silky shiny black strand of hair from her gorgeous head.

I glanced at
Mallory
and her eyes were bulging as big as one of he
r Melmac saucers and she couldn’
t be still. I mouthed, “sshhh” to her, praying that she could kee
p quiet for a few more seconds - oftentimes a chore for her
- at least until Deebo decided to cease with his marvelous ministrations.

“Gotta get back to work. Here comes your salads
,” he said in that
sexy Italian voice and moseyed
back to the kitchen.

“
I was trying to let you know he was here, but
you had your
eyes closed,”
Mallory
grumbled as soon as Deebo and the waitress were out of hearing range.

“
Tell me every detail from the minute h
e walked in.” I waited
breathlessly as she took the time to pour Thousand Island dressing over her salad. I know the girl was famished, so was I, but let’s try to get our
priorities in order here. “Don’
t leave anything out!
Start at the beginning.”

She finally took a deep
breath and began her oratory. “
I saw them when they came in. He stopped to talk to some people at the door,” she whispered conspiratorially. “The minute he walked in he saw you. He got thi
s weird look on his face. I don’
t know, like mad or confused. But then
Adam
always looks confused. Anyway, he stood frozen in his spot for a few seconds. Then he walked in and just stood there waiting for you to open your freaking eyes! And by the way, you
looked quite content with Deebo’s hands all over you.”

“Don’
t you dare change the subject! W
hat was the precious one doing?”

She took a huge bite of salad and chewed it longer than the average cow chews its cud. Then without apparent haste, or concern that I was on the verg
e of choking her
, she took a big swig of iced tea to wash it down.
“
Oh, she was just trailing along behind him like some simpleton. She had to know he was staring you down. I personally would have been thumping
Adam
’
s head and telling him to get a grip
if I was her
.” She took another large bite of salad, miraculously found room in her mouth to stuff a cr
acker and
,
spit
ting
crumbs
,
continued
.
“Especially when the two of you were just gazing at each other like there was no one else in the restaurant. I have to admit, for a few minutes there I was terrified that you were going to do something stupid
,
like run into
Adam
’s outstretched arms.”

Mallory
always did have a flair for the dramatic. And what outstretched arms? It would have been on if he had so muc
h as stretched out his pinkie. “The thought crossed my mind.”

“
I know it did. I could tell from the look of complete adulation
on your face.”
She breathed an irritated sigh. “Now this will bring all of those unnecessary feelings for
Adam
rushing back.”

When had they left
?

Mallory
felt no love loss for
Adam
, whatsoever. Her boyfriend, at the time, had been the one who had introduced
Adam
and me on a blind date. So I guess she felt somewhat responsible for the ensuing chaos. Hers had been the shoulder that I had sobbed quarts of nasa
l secretions on for the last three
years. She knew every pain and heartache that he had ev
er caused me and obviously wasn’
t anxious to witness a repeat performance.     

“
Why did
he have to show up here anyway?”

“Well, in the booming metropoli
s of Twin Rivers, we have Alfredo
’s and Bojangles. It wouldn’t take a nuclear physicist to answer that question
.” However
,
my mind had already traveled through time and space to the apartment
Chia had recently moved in to
. I was imagining, in vivid detail, what they were doing and i
n which room they were doing it.
I knew Chia was drop dead gorgeous, but
ever the glutton for punishment
I needed to hear
Mallory
’
s assessment of her
. “What did you think of her?”

“You were right. She’
s
…
p
retty.”
Then, of a sudden, she seemed extremely interested in the inner workings of a saltshaker.

“
Pretty!” The word
came out
a little harsher than I had intended, but I was so not feeling like bein
g patronized tonight. “The girl
transcends pretty,
Mallory
, and you damn well know it!”

“
Okay, so she is a freaking
knock out! Nonetheless you
can tell by the way she just stood there, with her man fixated o
n another woman, that her
pretty little head
didn’t come equipped with a brain
. How
did
Adam
get her anyway?”

Mallory
seemed truly perplexed by
Adam
’
s ability to have a woman of such stunning beauty enamored with him. Exactly what did that say about me?

“Who knows?”
I was unable to hide my
smile. But he won’
t have her long. In a rush Lady Wonder's words filled my head, “
He will feel exactly what you are feeling now. Only worse
.”

I sat staring at the door hoping against any last remaining vestiges of hope that
Adam
would drop Chia off at home t
o make egg rolls
and rush back with a sincere declaration of his undying love f
or me dripping from his lips.
I slid my untouched salad toward
Mallory
and she smiled her thanks before digging in.