Private Emotions – Promises (The Private Emotions Trilogy) (2 page)

It didn’t take very long for him to arrive and I could see the smile on his face when he saw Ronnie all decked out in the snow-white ensemble. “Ah, young Ethan, a maiden awaits the kiss that will awaken her. You have but to wear this in the rendezvous.” She passed him the rented tuxedo that I got. He fingered the material and then took the piece of paper with the task that he would have to perform to get his next clue.

He read the contents and looked around but he had no idea that I was there watching the whole thing unfold. The task that he would have to perform was something that would be a little unusual and definitely out of his comfort zone. I figured that the role reversal was fair play and I was looking forward to seeing him act the fool.

He spotted a woman carrying packages who was getting into her car and said, “Dear lady, I have been tasked with acting like a knight in shining armor and it would be my pleasure to help you with your burden, if you so desire. Please do not deny me this request because I am trying to make amends for an error in judgment. My lady has been most adamant about what it will take to get her to forgive me and this is just one of the many things that she has asked me to do all this fine day.” His lingo was exactly what I was looking for and he even bowed to the woman in the most gentlemanly way.

“Who am I to get in the way of such an admirable declaration of apology? Please, you have my permission to help me with my packages. This has given me an idea about how to get my own husband out of the dog house.” He smiled at her and I could tell that his charm and chivalrous manner made it easier for him to persuade her to go along with this preposterous idea. After loading the packages into the backseat he then returned to where Ronnie was waiting for him with a letter of what he had to do next. It was fun seeing him go the extra mile and it looked like he actually enjoyed running around the city like a mad man on the whims of a woman.

Ronnie said, “The lady in question is most pleased with your progress but you have many paths to follow before you find her at the end of the hunt. Take this to the bank and they will give you access to a safety deposit box. You are to open it and search the contents.”

“Come on, this is getting a little ridiculous. I just hope that it’s worth all this effort. I’ll continue this game but only because I feel that she is softening towards me and I’m getting a little thrill knowing that she will be waiting for me at the end of the line.”

He left there and I followed closely behind but not close enough to be noticed. I supposed it was kind of silly to make my friends dress up in funny costumes for me but it lent a certain flair to the hunt that I thought was needed. The bank was nearby and it took him only a few minutes to enter the premises with the key that my best friend, Ronnie, had given to him. My women friends were all for my plan and even Barry was willing to go along with it but Mark wasn’t as accommodating. He probably didn’t feel right doing this to his friend. It seemed unlikely that Ethan would get upset over something so trivial but I guess Mark didn’t want to take the chance of ruining the friendship.

I knew exactly what he would find in the deposit box, it would just take some thinking on his part to come up with the second to last place that he would have to go to. In the deposit box was the special silver heart locket he had bought for me during our ski holiday. He would find a picture enclosed within it of the first place that we met. This would lead him back to my apartment and down into the laundry room to get his final clue.

He came flying out of the bank with a sense of purpose in his eyes. When he got into the laundry room he would find nothing waiting for him and that would give him food for thought about what was going on. I had everything ready for him and I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he walked out and saw what I had arranged outside of my apartment building.

It was a little while before he came out shaking his head like he didn’t know why he had come here in the first place.

Barry was doing his final job for me. He was waiting for Ethan at the exit of my building with a white rose and a letter in his hand. The letter mentioned our first meeting and when we had dinner at his new place. He had to recall where he got the ingredients for such a feast and if not, then he truly wasn’t the connoisseur of women that he claimed to be. All that most women really asked for was that men paid attention to the little details because it was the little things that mattered to us the most.

He was reading the contents and then it was like a light bulb went on over his head. He grinned and then took off for his final clue. I stayed well ahead of him because I already knew where he was headed. He drove to the grocery store and went inside with a mental list of the menu. He moved through the store quickly, looking at the exact places that he had picked up the items.

He got to the spice aisle and there was an envelope sticking out. This would be his final clue to where he would have to go. This clue was going to drive him out of his mind and when he opened it, there was a question mark scrawled on the surface. Once again he had no idea what he was supposed to do so he stood there for a while before walking towards the exit. He was scratching his head in confusion and I used this distraction to get to my car across the street. It was going to be priceless to see his reaction when he came out of the supermarket.

He finally walked out of the grocery store still looking at the question mark and then he looked up and saw something that took his breath away. His mouth fell open as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Sitting in the parking lot was a beautiful white antique car that was kept in mint condition. I guessed all those antique car shows that I accompanied Nick on served a purpose after all. The owner of the car was hired by me to drive Ethan to where I would be waiting for him with forgiveness in my heart. Even though I was going to forgive him for what he did, I was not going to forget, so he had better not make the same mistake twice. I would make sure that he didn’t.

Ethan looked at the man as he motioned for him to get into the car. Ethan was hesitant to comply but took a deep breath and eventually climbed into the car. He would see a small supply of assorted fruit, cheese and crackers. A similar platter to the one that was prepared for us during our gondola ride, in a place Ethan referred to as, ‘Little Italy’. I should have done this long ago because it was giving my heart a real boost.

I put my car into gear and sped down the road and away from the scene. I only had a few minutes to get there and get ready before he arrived. It was going to come down to the wire, but with Maria on the scene, I had no doubt that she would have everything in hand. All I had to do was show up and be ready to surprise him with the dress I would be wearing. I could not wait to see the expression on his face when he saw me.

He had come into my life under suspicious circumstances but my experiences with him had shown me what I had been missing in my life. My friends and therapist have also been guiding me closer to who I really was inside and I knew that I had changed for the better. I was no longer as shy and introverted as I once was and if what I was doing right now didn’t prove that, then nothing would. If you told me a year ago that I was going to send a man on a scavenger hunt through the city, I would think that you were crazy but that was then and this is now.

When I arrived at the secret spot, I was assured that it would be the perfect place to end his hunt. If Ethan wanted to take this journey with me then I was all for it, but if he only wanted to continue the relationship as a business arrangement, then I could do that too…at least for now. He would just have to be clear with me this night and then hopefully, we could either move on to building something strong and pure or remain friends with the benefit of his sexual wisdom.

My car came to a stop by the side of the road and I quickly hid it behind some trees before making the final preparations of our soon-to-be meeting. I quickly removed the pair of jeans and T-shirt I was wearing and slid into the white dress that he had bought for me the day he visited me in Michelle’s shop, the same dress that I wore to our first dinner at Au Chanté. It seemed a fitting tribute to how far I had come in my development and it would go perfectly with what I had in store.

Maria was there dressed as a maître d. She was standing in front of my favorite spot, the mound of grass near the river’s edge. This was the spot where I could almost reach out and touch the swans when they approached to devour the pieces of bread that I would throw for them. I had come here many times to just clear my head and find the calm feeling that had always eluded me. Maria stood there with two glasses of champagne in her hand and a picnic that was all laid out, complete with candles all around the blanket. Although it looked very romantic, love and sex wasn’t what this night was about. Tonight was my way of letting Ethan know that I was ready to let things go and move on to better experiences.

“Maria, you have outdone yourself with all of this and I am awed with how quickly you pulled all this together. You have prepared a feast fit for the gods!”

“I’m glad that you are pleased and I know that this isn’t supposed to make his heart skip a beat for you but wouldn’t it be nice if it did?”

I smiled in agreement. That notion was in the back of my mind but it wasn’t what I had intended to do. This was nothing but my intricate and crafty way to show him that I appreciated everything that he was doing for me. The prize at the end of his hunt would be nothing more than a ‘thank you’ picnic on the river’s edge. On many occasions I have thought about us being together, although that sentiment has never slipped from his lips once. He said he loved being with me, loved having sex with me, loved teaching me, but he never once said that he loved me. I wasn’t even sure that he could love or that I could love a man who drove me crazy like he did but in my heart I knew that I did.

“You can stay until he gets here and then you have to make yourself scarce. We have a lot to talk about and we’ll need some privacy so that we can get things out in the open.”

“I understand and I will leave once I give him his glass of champagne.” I saw the white antique car approaching in the distance which meant that he would be here momentarily. As he got closer my hands began to tremble and my mind was mentally pulling me in all directions as to how this evening would unfold.