After Hours (7 page)

“Please let me make it up to you. Oh look, there’s a little coffee shop over there. Wouldn’t you like something warm to drink? Come on, my treat,” the woman said quickly giving Amera no room to say no.

Moments later, Amera sat in the café holding a cup of black coffee, staring at a woman people seemed to just drift towards like a light. The clerks were extra solicitous, other patrons gestured to an empty table. Amera was used to being invisible, but in the woman’s presence, she felt even more so. Susan Pentworth was very chatty--discussing her job as a house stylist, who helps realtors stage houses for sale in great detail--but to Amera’s surprise, the fact that she kept talking non-stop, didn’t bother her. Susan appeared genuine. “So what do you do?” Susan asked motioning to the plate of cookies and biscotti she’d bought.

Amera shook her head. “I’m an executive assistant.”

Susan took her third cookie and bit into it. “I don’t know how you can resist. You have better control than I do or...” She began to grin. “Are you trying to keep your weight down until after the wedding?”

“Wedding?”

“Yes, when’s the date? Oh wait.” She lightly tapped her forehead then rolled her eyes. “I probably should first say congratulations.”

“Congratulations?”

“Yes. I didn’t see that ring before, trust me I would have noticed a ring that gorgeous, so he must’ve just proposed.”

Amera sighed. “No, I’m not getting married. This is just a joke.”

“It's not real?” Susan reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “It certainly looks real.”

“The ring is real. It’s just...” She shook her head. “It's hard to explain.”

“Your boyfriend is playing with your heart?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m single.”

“You and I are so much alike.”

No we’re not
, Amera wanted to say. The woman had men flocking to her. She wore fabulous clothes and had an interesting career. She was nothing like her. The poor woman was clearly delusional.

“Isn’t it great to make new friends?” Susan continued. “I could use some help with finishing up my shopping. Want to come?”

She probably needed someone to carry her bags. “Sure,” Amera said deciding that a few more hours of shopping were better than going home to her empty apartment. She was quickly pleased with her decision, liking Susan’s chatty, happy personality more than she’d expected.

“What do you think?” Susan asked showing Amera a pinwheel hat she’d just put on.

Amera didn’t think it was possible, but the hat actually made her look terrible. “Try this,” Amera said placing another more suitable hat on her head.

Susan looked in the mirror then her face crumpled into tears.

“What’s wrong?” Amera asked.

“I’m just so happy. You’re so sweet. I don’t have a lot of girlfriends. Actually, I don’t have any.”

“Well, if you always cry like this, of course you won’t.”

Susan wiped a tear away. “Women get jealous. They think I'm trying to steal their men.”

“I guess I’m safe because there’s no man to steal.”

She placed the hat back on the stand. “There should be. Let’s go.”

“You want to steal my man?” Amera asked as they left the store.

“No, that came out wrong. But don’t you want to be in a relationship?”

“I barely have the time.”

“But if you did?” She spotted a bench and sat down then took out a black book from her handbag. “I have a wonderful man.”

Amera sat down next to her. “I thought you said you were single.”

“No, I said we were alike.”

“But you implied ….”

Susan grinned, then giggled like a naughty girl. “True. I wanted see how you’d react, but you didn’t react at all.” She pulled out her phone. “Can I show you a picture of my little boy?”

“Sure,” Amera said, knowing there was no way she could say no.

Susan pulled up a picture of a little boy dressed up like a train.

Amera smiled. “Cute. Great Halloween costume.”
“No, it’s not for Halloween. I took this picture two days ago. He wants to be a train when he grows up. The moment he gets home he puts it on.” She flipped to another image of the boy with a man in the background. “At least I got him to stop wanting to wear it to pre-school.”

“And the handsome man in the background is your husband?”

“Yes, James.”

“Let me guess. He's also rich, smart--”

“And he’s kind to animals.”

Her life just got more and more perfect. Why did she worry about friends when she had a life like this? A healthy family, a job she loved and people who treated her like royalty.

“What do you want in a man?” Susan asked putting her phone away.

Amera shrugged with nonchalance. “The same.”

“How about the person who gave you that ring?”

“My boss?”

Susan’s mouth fell open. “Your
boss
proposed?”

Amera waved her hand, horrified by the thought. “I told you, it’s a long story.”

“So you’re not interested?”

“Absolutely not. He’s not kind, he’s arrogant, cold and he only eats animals.”

Susan shivered. “Then why do you stay?”

“I like the work. It has its perks. I make good money and get to travel and the days are never the same.” Unfortunately, her job would soon end, but she didn’t plan to tell Susan that bit of information. “He’s a jerk and I don't like him, but...there’s something there.” Something that made him unlike Bishop Senior. She knew his father would never have donated the food to Peale House, he wouldn't have even looked at the proposal. But that didn’t matter now. Any redeeming qualities he had were buried so deep they might as well not exist. “Are you finishing up your Christmas list?”Amera asked, unable to read what Susan was scribbling down.

“Yes, that’s it,” she said absently. “You devote your life to your work, don’t you?”

“I’d like a little romance, but I know it’s silly to say, because it’s not going to happen. There’s no man in my future.”

Susan put her black book away. “You may be surprised. Let’s do this again. I’d love to have you over for dinner.”

Amera shook her head. “I don’t think we can be friends.”

Susan’s face fell. “Why not?”

“Because I envy you,” she said with a reluctant sigh. She didn’t want to be honest, but felt she had to. She glanced around the mall, which was decorated with the bright, cheerful colors of the season. “I spoke to a little girl tonight, Maya, who still believes in magic and I envied the joy her belief gave her. All this happiness around us, I can’t feel it. I’ve never felt it. I look at the expression on your face and the connection you have with your family and it’s all foreign to me.” She bit her lip, ready to reveal something she never had before. “Just once I’d like to see someone’s face light up because I entered the room, to have people
I
belong to. But I learned early that there are dreams that can make you strong and other dreams that can destroy you. Yes destroy,” she repeated, seeing the shock on Susan’s face. “Dreams that make you lie to yourself. Dreams just as toxic as the taste of whiskey to an alcoholic who thinks she can stop after just one drink.”

“I don’t believe that. Everyone should dream.”

Amera flashed a sad smile. “Says a woman who has had all of her dreams come true.”

“Not all.”

“You don’t understand,” Amera said standing, ready to leave.

Susan stopped her and shook her head, perplexed. “You act as if having a home and family is impossible for you.”

“Because it is. I’m thirty-one years old and I’ve only loved once and he didn’t love me, so I never tried again. Don’t be surprised, it wasn’t hard. People wonder how I can work with my boss, but I understand him more than most people do. He deals with facts and figures, rather than emotion. I wouldn’t know what to do in an environment that was too personal or emotional. So you see, as much as I want it, I wouldn’t know what to do with a family. I’m not emotionally equipped. But people like you are and it makes me just as happy but also tears me apart.”

Susan sniffed and wiped her eyes. “That’s just too sad.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“You’re not even forty and you’re talking as if life and love have passed you by. You have plenty of time and it’s never too late to fall in love.”

Amera shrugged. “Maybe, but that’s why we can’t be friends.”

“No, that’s why we
have
to be friends.” Susan pulled out a card and handed it to her. “Please reconsider. I really like you and think we’d be good for each other. You don’t have to be alone.”

***

You don’t have to be alone.
Amera entered her apartment with Susan’s words echoing in her mind. Was being alone so wrong? She’d always been alone. One reason she’d shared so much with Susan was because she didn’t expect to see her again. She sat in her apartment thinking about the factory workers about to lose their jobs, how she couldn’t help Bill, the pink slip on her desk, and Peale House having to turn people away. She had to come up with the perfect way to get back at Curtis. She briefly dreamed about putting salt in his coffee, causing him to miss a major meeting, hijacking his email account and filling it with porn sites or secretly taping one of his nosebleed episodes and sending it to his father. That thought made her smile. He’d be completely humiliated, but she wasn’t sure that act would be bad enough.

She turned on the TV and saw a holiday film, showing a family that reminded her of Susan. Here she was, a single woman thinking about revenge against her boss, while Susan was likely preparing for a holiday party filled with family. How different their lives were.

“Wishing is for wimps,” she said to herself then opened up her handbag to toss out Susan’s card. Then she saw Maya’s pink bracelet. She pulled it out and stared at it for a long moment, in her mind seeing the little girl dancing with joy then giving Amera the gift so that she could make Curtis happy. A man she didn’t know.

Amera felt the stinging of tears, the weight of loss--for the workers, for Peale House, for herself--engulfing her in misery. She closed her eyes, covered her face and cried.

Kyle knew that phones didn’t fly, but for a moment he thought they did when one flew into his lap while he was sitting on the couch watching TV. He stared down at the phone then up at his wife, Heidi, with a silent question.

“It’s your mother,” she mouthed.

Damn, he hadn’t even heard it ring. He waved his hands and mouthed “I’m not here,” and held the phone out to her.

She took a step back and pointed at him, making it clear that she expected him to answer.

He stood and flashed a grin, one that usually melted her heart. He rested his hands on her shoulder and whispered, “Just cover for me this once.”

She folded her arms, her expanding middle making her look extra fierce. “No,” she said, then spun and walked away.

Kyle silently swore and watched her leave, wishing he’d found her as attractive as he used to, then picked up the phone. “Hi Mom.”

“What did he say?”

He fell back onto the couch. “What does he always say? Mom, stop doing this to yourself. He hasn’t changed and he won’t. You have to face that. Give up--”

“He’s my son and I'll never give up on him,” she said in a curt voice.

“I'm your son too,” he said in a soft tone, wishing he could be enough. Why couldn’t he and his sister be enough for her? She had the two of them and grandchildren she adored. Sure, this year it would be hard, since his sister had decided to spend time with her husband’s family, but his mother would be fine with his. Curtis didn’t belong, and he never would. In the past, Kyle had been just as hopeful. He’d believed his mother’s warm memories of Curtis, he’d never had any of his own. He had always been a distant figure in his brother’s life, at times sending money, but never affection. He’d hope for a chance to really get to know him, but this year that hope had died.

“Kyle,” his mother said in a soft tone. “If you knew what he used to be. He was such a loving child.”

“He’s not a child anymore,” Kyle said in a flat tone. “And I’m not going to ask him again,” he said, inwardly knowing that for his mother’s sake, he probably would.

***

Camille Carroll heard the pain in her son’s tone on the other end of the line. She didn’t mean to hurt Kyle. But she was getting older, and there were so many mistakes she wanted to fix. She regretted the choice she’d made and how easily she’d given up custody to her ex-husband. She had remarried well and created a new, loving family, but there was a hole in her heart that only her first born, Curtis, could fill.

“Okay,” she said. “I won’t force you,” she said then sniffed.

Kyle’s tone hardened. “Don’t let him make you cry. He’s not worth it. He doesn’t care.”

“I know, that’s what hurts. I just wanted this year to be different. I’d do anything to get my son back.”

“His father was too powerful to fight. He knows you tried. Don’t blame yourself for the man he's become. You have to realize that he’s just like his father.”