Between Octobers Bk 1, Savor The Days Series (3 page)

We kissed the kids and repeated the
babysitting rules to Noah before leaving the house in a taxi. It
was only for a few hours, dinner and a drink, but better safe than
sorry.

The place she chose was surprising. In
Hollywood, on the Strip. A poorly lit English style pub with a
clean kitchen that Lily swore was frequented by celebrities. She
thought it might be fun if we happened to see one. Not that I’d
recognize any. My knowledge of pop culture was severely limited by
my preferable lack of exposure to the outside world. I hardly
watched television, except old shows from the nineties, and most of
the music they played on the radio held no interest for me. I was
quite content with my old CDs and books.

We approached the bar since most of
the tables were taken and sat to wait for Natalia, Lily’s friend
from work, who was running late. I was kind of glad. Natalia and I
used to work together at the hospital. I liked her. Until she
flirted with Sol. That kind of soured my attitude towards her. She
knew he was my husband and acted like her advances meant
nothing.
But it was a long time
ago
, I reminded myself.

Lily and I ordered wine. After another
twenty minutes, I got tired of waiting and ordered an appetizer. I
couldn’t drink on an empty stomach in those shoes. I’d tip right
over.

“Geez, where is this woman?” Lily’s head
swiveled, her eyes panning the crowd. “Natalia!” She called over
the music, waving her hand over her head, beckoning her friend in
our direction.

I looked back and Natalia’s eyes lit up. I
smiled politely and welcomed her as she sat on the stool between
us.

“
I’m so happy to see you, Grace! I
haven’t seen you since—”

Lily’s pointed boot suddenly stabbed the
back of her calf. I looked to my empty wine glass, trying to
politely ignore what I’d seen.

“Oh, let me buy you a drink. It’s the least
I can do.” She offered.

I felt myself stiffen at the offhand
reference and wondered at it while Lily dramatically rolled her
eyes behind Natalia’s back. I suppressed my grin, reminding myself
of the new leaf, my pledge in the dark. Natalia was trying to be
nice. The incident only bothered her now because he was gone—the
same reason it shouldn’t have bothered me.

I bobbed my head, enjoying the rock music
playing a little too loudly to make easy conversation, and thanked
God for small favors as the bartender brought another round.

“How have you been? Did you go back to the
hospital?” Natalia asked, almost yelling in my ear.

I noticed I was slumping and sat up
straight. “I’ve been okay. Taking care of the kids and house and
all the normal stuff. I haven’t gone back to work yet. How are you?
How is work going?”

“Fine,” she answered sweetly, but her face
hardened as she turned to Lily. “I have to go to the bathroom.
Lily, come with me.” Before I knew it, she was stalking off.

Lily shook her head, getting up to follow,
“I’ll be back.”

“What’d I say?”

“She’s dramacidal. Hey, save our seats. It’s
getting really crowded.”

I used my purse and pink wrap to mark their
stools and guzzled the last of my wine. Waiting. Then, ordered
another round for all of us. They could play catch-up when they got
back. From the corner of my eye, I spied a couple inching towards
the seat where my purse was set. They stopped to talk to someone,
but I grabbed my purse and wrap to reverse their positions, keeping
my purse closer to me. As I did, the warm rush of alcohol spread
through me and I relaxed. I wasn’t driving, so I snatched my glass
and took a few more sips.

When I asked, the bartender assured me that
my appetizer would be up any minute. As I stepped backwards,
intending to plant my butt back onto my seat, it hit something. A
quick look down and I saw it was a leg. The attached lap was
currently parked beneath me. I flew away from the stranger’s touch,
and caught a spiky heel on something. I managed to catch myself
before I fell completely, but still wobbled enough to cause
catastrophe.

It moved like slow motion on the DVR. The
wine glass flying, sloshing, building a wave of black-purple liquid
that stretched until it found escape, up and over the rim.
Splattering the shoes attached to the legs of the lap that had just
stolen my stool. The glass smashed to the ground beside a pair of
expensive, Italian leather shoes.

I gasped, “Crap!”

The wine was in his socks! I cowered in
embarrassment, eyes glued to the escaped liquid drenching the
stylish feet. A stream of profanity came from the direction of my
victim’s mouth. As luck would have it, there were no napkins on the
bar. I grabbed the only thing I could think of—my silk wrap—and
tried to soak up the wine from the offended feet, all the while
blurting my shamed apologies over the ruined shoes and offering to
replace them. The feet retreated in haste.

I looked up in time to apologize to the back
of his head. “I’m really sorry!”

He waved his hand, dismissing me. I sighed,
noticing the entire restaurant had stopped. Everyone had seen my
faux pas. Heated chagrin washed over me.

“What did you do?” Natalia was suddenly
beside me, her eyes scanning the splattered wine and glass on the
floor, the stained scarf in my hand.

“I spilled my wine on some poor man.”

“You can have mine. I have to go,
anyways.”

“You spent more time in the bathroom than
you did talking to me. Natalia, if I offended you, I hope you would
just tell me.”

She shook her head, “No, I didn’t really
have time to stop. I’ve been running behind all day, but I wanted
to see you and say hello.”

“Well, I appreciate the effort.” My heart
warmed from sincerity. Or the wine. I decided to give her the
benefit of the doubt.

“I’m grabbing that table in the back.” Lily
interjected, reaching between us for her glass. “Bye, honey!” She
called, darting away.

Natalia looked to me, then toward Lily
and back before leaning in. “Grace, I know it’s too little too
late. Lily didn’t want me to say anything but I am
really
sorry about Solomon. He was a
good man and I am sorry you lost him.”

There. She said it.

“You know I’m not mad, don’t you?” As I
spoke the words, I realized how true they were.

“I thought you’d be upset that I didn’t call
you after, or go to his funeral. But I worried it would upset you
more if I did.”

“I wouldn’t remember if you did.” My hand
touched my temple, remembering what a basket case I was those first
six months.

“Your hair is pretty. You should keep it
that way.” She smiled and winked before stalking towards the
door.

That wasn’t so bad. It shouldn’t have taken
so long to get around to.

The restaurant was packed. Lily and I spent
most of the night at our table in the corner, making conversation
and eating an assortment of fried foods. She told me Natalia’s
sudden urge to pee was motivated by fear. She thought Lily spilled
the secret that she was losing her job next month and didn’t want
anyone to know. Lily hadn’t told me anything, of course. She was my
vault, the most trusted secret-keeper I knew.

“I’m being accused, so I may as well be
guilty.” She smiled, “but don’t tell her I told you.”

We watched people come and go, hoping for a
sighting of a familiar face. But there were no celebrities to be
found, much to Lily’s disappointment.

“Maybe we’ll find one next time.”

Lily answered with a smile as the taxi
pulled up to take us home.

October
8
^th

The keys to the file room in Dr. Pataki’s
office were devoured by the couch monster. I performed a random
cavity search when Lily called earlier in the morning. I had to
drop them by her office, on my way to take the boys to school,
before the days’ patients started showing up.

While the car warmed up, the boys were
getting loaded inside. I made sure Caleb was settled, then tried to
text Lily to let her know we were leaving, but my cell battery’s
was nearly dead. I flipped the phone shut and rolled down the
driveway. “Noah, text your Aunt—let her know we’re on our way.”

The parking garage beneath the office
building wasn’t open to the public yet, but Lily called the guard
and told him I was coming. I drove in, looking for a spot near the
central bank of elevators—the set closest to her office on the
third floor, which was two floors beneath Dr. Lena’s office. I’d
never met with her at her professional office. We always met over
on the other side of town, at my church.

After hopping out of the car, I called to
Noah, but he continued bobbing his head to the beat of whatever
song he was listening to. I waved my arms, hoping the movement
would grab his attention. It did; he looked my way and took out an
ear bud.

“I am going to give Aunt Lily her keys. I
will be right back.” I shook them in my hand for him to see.
Glancing in the backseat; I saw Caleb had fallen back to sleep.
“Please wake up your brother and tell him to eat his breakfast.
Help him open his juice, too, please. I don’t want him squirting it
all over the car.” He nodded. “A verbal response would be
nice.”

“Okay, I will.” His tone whispered
irritation. “Happy?”

“
Yes, thank you.” My eyes shrunk as I
turned away. I could not wait until he has his own kids. Wait, yes
I could.

The elevator opened immediately; I walked
inside. Right before the doors closed, I noticed a man with a beard
sitting inside a black SUV in the parking garage. He leaned his
head against the seats’ headrest, like he was trying to catch up on
sleep. Briefly, I wondered why he was there. Probably for the same
reason my boys were—waiting on someone inside.

The doors opened to the third floor. Lily’s
office was two left turns away. I pulled out my phone and checked
the time, pleasantly surprised. Maybe the kids wouldn’t be late for
school.

Reaching the glass doors to her office
suite, I knocked lightly. Lily’s head, with her hair twisted back
into a loose bun, bobbed up from behind the partition. She jumped
up once she saw it was me, holding her keys to the file room.

“
Where are the boys?” She asked,
surprised.

“In the car.”

“Why?” She was digging into the pocket of
her gray scrub top.

“Caleb was sleeping—what are you doing?” My
eyes grew wide as she dumped a fist full of Halloween candy into my
purse.

“Give this to them, from me.”

“They’ll love you forever.” I tucked my
phone into my pocket to play with my belt loops.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m breathing.” I responded without
thinking, and realized how it sounded. “I’m fine. The kids are
going to be late if I don’t get out of here, though.”

“Quick question: how would you feel about
buying Noah a car for his birthday?”

“What?”

“He’s going to be sixteen—”

“No way.”

“But he’ll have his license when he’s done
with that class and I want—”

“I can’t talk about this now . . . I’m
late.”

She nodded and thanked me.

I practically ran back to the elevator and
slammed the button. If I hit too much traffic, the kids would be
late. As my stress level rose, I reminded myself to not worry about
things I couldn’t change and checked my phone for the time. The
wallpaper popped up, distracting me. It was a picture of Sol and me
at Pier 39 in San Francisco. I forced myself to avoid looking at
his face—it would hurt too much—and drug my gaze to the numbers in
the corner of the screen.

Stepping into what I assumed was an empty
elevator, I bumped into something. A tall man dressed in black from
head to toe. He was really good looking.

The thought surprised me because I couldn’t
remember the last time I actually longed for a man. Looking at his
face didn’t hurt, so I let myself stare. His hair and clothes were
a mess, but he wore the chaos well. He was very clean and his skin
looked soft. His features held an essence of Jim Morrison in his
strong jaw line; maybe a little James Dean, too, in his hair and
the way he arched his long torso. It wasn’t a slump—more of a
stance. One hand was set across his stomach as he stared at me in
disbelief. I realized my shoulder was still poking his chest and
stepped aside, into the elevator.

“Sorry.” I flopped the phone into my purse
and made myself look away.

“That’s perfectly alright,” he said, in a
distinct English accent. “Going down?”

“P2,” I glanced at the buttons. Mine was
already lit.

“Well, there you go.” He crossed his arms,
bringing one hand to his eyebrow where the thumb and index finger
pinched at the flesh.

Something about him was familiar. I knew I
didn’t know him, but there was a sense, a veiled awareness that I
was missing something. “Have we met before? You look familiar.”

He stared. “Yeah, I work in the building . .
. uh, Repairs department.”

Sol worked in construction and I’d been
on-site enough to recognize the common solidity a man acquired with
the labor, the sturdiness it brought. This guy seemed too . . .
genteel for such work. His hands were too clean. No scars or
calluses. I also used to buy Sol’s clothes. This man’s sport coat
looked tailored and the rumpled shirt underneath bore a designer
insignia that screamed expensive. His jeans, worn a little too
tight and a little too low, looked like they cost around seven
hundred dollars. Finally, my eyes fell upon his shoes. They were
worn-looking but also expensive. Not that it was any of my
business.

I wiped the skepticism away and turn my
attention to the numbers over the door. The needle stopped on the P
that marked my level. I stepped forward and waited.