The Long Way Home (12 page)

"I was hoping you would come back." Grey was noting how beautiful she looked. She had a white towel wrapped around her covering her and she had another one wrapped around her head. It reminded Grey of a Swami and wondered if by having the towel on her head she could tell his future. Grey decided to get up and take a shower as well. Brazenly he got up and let the blankets fall where they may. Jill let out a small gasp as she saw him fully. He snickered and went to take a shower.

After they were dressed he took her home and walked her to the door.

"When will I see you again?" Grey didn't want to let her leave his side.

"At school, I want you to know that we'll be together for a long time and I have no intention of letting you go." Jill said unlocking the door. Grey gave her one last kiss and headed back to his dad's car. He looked back just in time to catch her going in. He couldn't wait to see her again.

Part Two

Chapter One

It was 4:43 in the morning and Jill couldn't sleep she had been restless all night. Her mind was filled with images and memories that she had buried away for some time now and was in no mood to be reliving them especially now. She lay there trying to make sense of it all. She started to trace her last moments before coming back to her apartment. It was, as she laid on her back counting the rotations of her ceiling fan that it came to her.

She had taken off from her firm early to get some coffee it was around five o'clock. She was drinking her usual a "Grande Vanilla Latte" and a "White Chocolate Macadamia Biscotti" she was in the Starbucks up on Forth St. near the United Nations Building. She was inside looking out to the street in front of her and she thought that even though it was November there had been no down pour. She remembered how odd that was for New York. She had been sitting there nursing her over rated coffee and noticing the sky right before it rained.

"Yes!" She thought there was something that the sky had reminded her of that she could get her mind off of. Jill just couldn't place it she had forgotten what it was that was troubling her. And right now she didn't know what was worse; the fact that something was bothering her or the fact that she couldn't remember the thing that was bothering her.

She decided to get out of bed, she had to put on her night gown it was cold. She walked over to the window in her bedroom that faced Central Park. She pulled back the drapes and looked at the rain it was coming down hard. She then looked at the clouds again like she did when she was in the coffee shop. It was then that she remembered what it was. It was the color of the clouds they were grey. Grey the word resonated throughout her soul like a child yelling in a cave for the first time.

She hadn't thought of him in nearly fifteen years now. She was happy that she figured out what it was that was bothering her only now she knew she wasn't going to be getting any sleep. She tried hating him like she did the last time she saw him only it wasn't working. Even then when it happened she didn't really hate him it only made it easier to have to leave him. She started now to wonder why now she started to think of him. She had done a thorough job of deleting him from her life. And right now she was mad at him for making her lose sleep over him. She started to wonder if he was losing sleep over her she hoped that he was.

Jill got back into bed and was trying to forget about Grey but she couldn't. She spent the rest the night restlessly tossing about in her bed at 7:45 her alarm went off. She rolled out of bed spent and cursing Grey's name under her breath. She went to take a hot shower after she was in the bathroom putting on her makeup. As she looked at herself in the mirror she thought how all of her friends from college were married now and some of them were even having kids. She was thirty three now and single she had lots of men come and go she didn't really trust them after Grey. Maybe it wasn't that she didn't trust them it was that none of them were what she was looking for.

She got dressed and was halfway down the hallway when she realized that she forgot her umbrella. She went back in to her apartment and searched through her closet and searched through random junk to finally find it. She thought to herself that she really needed to sort and clean out her closet.

Jill got to the street and hailed a cab. She got in and directed him to her office. She walked in through the main lobby and right away there was the usual "Good morning Ms. Waters." From nearly everyone in the office, for obvious reasons she feigned her answers and waxed a smile. She was the head of her own law firm and she had to set the example. She took the elevator to her office on the 25th floor. Her receptionist was a young girl just out of school. "Her name was Ruthie; she was blonde and twenty something and just as cute as a button." Jill thought sardonically before she walked out of the elevator.

"Good morning Ms. Waters." Ruthie said in her normally cheerful tone. Jill wondered if Ruthie ever had a guy sweep her totally off her feet only then to ruin the rest of her love life ever since.

"Good morning Ruthie. Could you come into my office I want to talk to you?" Jill said and went in.

"Sure." Ruthie went in wondering what her boss could want. In the two years that she had worked here Ms. Waters had never called her into her office to just talk. Ruthie thought for sure that she was about to get fired although she didn't know why she would. Ruthie sat down in the chair across from Ms. Waters' desk nervously.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Jill asked. Ruthie was taken back by this in all her time at this firm never had she gotten personal with Ms. Waters. Ruthie just figured that it was because Ms. Waters being one of the most successful criminal defense lawyers in New York didn't have time for things like this.

"Yeah, I do." Ruthie was feeling a bit standoffish.

"What's his name?" Jill continued her line of questioning.

"Todd." Ruthie didn't know where this was going and was worried.

"Do you love him?" Jill said point blank.

"Yeah...I mean I think so. Um Ms. Waters if you don't mind me asking, where is this going?" Ruthie was confused now more than anything.

Grey was standing outside of his ranch house on the back porch. He was now understood why they called Montana "Big sky country". His view was awe inspiring as his house stood atop a hill that over looked the Great Plains. He always came out right before the sun set over the great mountains that this state was named after. He knew that the colors in sky could not be produced any where else. He had a cup of coffee in his hand and was enjoying the moment.

He normally spend this time thinking about his father it was now nearly fifteen years since his father had died. Grey had moved to Billings after his father died to spend time with the only family he had left.

When Grey came his mother didn't know who he was and for two years she thought that he was an orderly. The first thing he did when he came was take her out of the home she was in and bought this house. He hired a live in Registered Nurse to take care of her. They lived together for nearly ten years and in that time Grey got the opportunity to get to know his mother. He found that he loved her more than anything. He didn't have the heart to tell her that his dad had died.

It wasn't until one morning when the Nurse came running into Grey's bedroom that the inevitable happened. Grey's mother passed away in her sleep.

Even though that was five years ago now, and Grey knew that he should go back to Los Angeles he had no reason. So he stayed here and did all of his work from his house. Although the internet company that he worked for was based out of Los Angeles he was a programmer and could do everything from his house. He had developed the banking software that kept all of his company's accounts straight. He would occasionally get phone calls from various executives telling him what improvement they wanted for the system. Grey would always do it and he never procrastinated anything that he needed to do. He only worked to keep from going totally crazy. After his father's mysterious death that the government would not explain, he was given all of his father's earnings for the next ten years and they doubled it being that Grey was the only benefactor. Plus his father had a lot of assets and money anyways.

The sun had finished its mournful decent beyond the horizon and Grey stood in the dusk. He heard the phone ring inside the living room and walked in to answer it. He looked at the caller ID and it wasn't anyone from his office in Los Angeles. Grey thought about it for a second he didn't know why anyone else would be calling him. He picked up the phone and he was pleasantly surprised to hear who it was.

Jill stood up in her office and walked over to Ruthie and took the chair next to her. Jill could see that Ruthie was confused and taken a bit back by all this.

"Look I know that you don't know where this is going or why I am asking you these questions. Let me just settle the nervousness you have right now by saying that you have done nothing wrong and that I only want to find out about you in an attempt to understand myself." Jill was trying to be comforting as possible but she didn't know if it was working.

"Before you try to make sense of all of this let's go out to an early lunch and we'll talk about it then. What do you say?" Jill hoped that she hadn't totally estranged her innocent employee.

"Yeah, Ms. Waters that sounds like a good idea." Ruthie didn't know if she should be scared or what. Part of her was elated to do anything personal with Ms. Water. Ruthie had always looked up to her; she idolized her in a way. Right now she was curious as to where this line of questioning was going.

Jill got up and headed towards the elevator lobby with Ruthie gallantly at her side. Jill could feel the pride Ruthie had as they entered the elevator. Jill had never thought of her self as an important person but she was starting to see that she meant something, at least to Ruthie.

They got to the lobby of the building and Jill decided to have her driver meet her outside. That way they could have some privacy and she wasn't sure how the weather was outside. She had the receptionist call her driver to come to the front of building. Jill and her confidant walked to the front of the building and stood under the awing. It was pouring rain and Ruthie's excitement was beginning to tantamount to a point where she could hardly contain herself. She had never been in a car with Ms. Waters and the only other time she had been in a limo it was on her way to her prom with Brad Steven feeling her up the whole way. Ruthie knew that whatever was happening with Ms. Waters had to be huge because Ruthie knew that she had no social life the only personal calls that Ms. Waters would take where those from her mother and one of her friends from high school.

The steel grey limo pulled up Ruthie had seen it before; Ms. Water often used it to go to various meetings around the city. Normally however Ruthie saw the car from her office up on the 25th floor. It seemed much bigger up close she thought. The driver came out and was wearing protective rain gear he went to the passenger side and let Jill and Ruthie in. Once inside Ruthie was in awe of the car to her it seemingly had everything you could need in a car. It had a fax machine, mini bar with and mini fridge (that Ruthie thought was cute), two phones and little swivel table that was mounted on the wall which could swing out at just the right height so that the lap top computer mounted on it could be used with ease.

Jill was watching her secretary take mental inventory of everything in the limo. Jill gave her some time before she continued their conversation; Jill knew that she rarely let anyone into her personal life.

"Ruthie I want to tell you something before I continue with my story. I have always liked you and from now on I don't want you to refer to me as 'Ms. Waters' I want you to fell comfortable around me alright?" Jill was looking at her from across the limo. She could see Ruthie's surprise.

"Sure, but can I still call you Ms. Waters in the office?" Ruthie said.

"Whatever pleases you Ruthie but for now we are on a first name basis. Also if at anytime during the course of our time together you feel the least bit uncomfortable then by all means let me know. Okay?" Jill wanted Ruthie to loosen up.

They pulled into the parking lot and entered a relatively high class Italian Restaurant. The generic kind they have all over NY. Ruthie however was impressed. Jill on the other hand was wondering when they were going to tear this place down. They got and in Jill asked for a seat in the back. Their métier sat them in the back it was poorly lit and there were no windows around. It made Ruthie feel like she was doing some underhanded dealings or something.

"What do you want?" Jill said looking over the menu. Ruthie was too excited to even remember that she was in a restaurant let alone concentrate on ordering anything. Jill saw Ruthie hesitate.

"Don't worry about anything its all on me." Jill said thinking that it was the price that was worrying Ruthie.

"To be totally honest I don't know what to order. I mean I'm not that hungry." Ruthie was embarrassed.

"Don't worry. I'll order for you I hope you like steak because that's all I know how to order." Jill was joking trying to lighten things up.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Ruthie said she was starting to feel like she was with an older sister.

Jill ordered two of the biggest steak dinners they had there even though it was only 10:30. She also got coffee for her and Ruthie, and then she began her story.