by Cee, DW
Laney saw right through me. She placed her hand on mine and whispered, “But it’s you Michael can’t take his eyes off of right now, wondering, worrying what you’re thinking and feeling. In the end, you’ll both be with the ones you love.” Laney smiled and then spoke in a louder voice, “I like you! We should be friends.”
“Um, Princess. You can let go of Chloe’s hand. I see the circulation being cut off.”
“Oh!” She giggled. “So sorry. Blame it on the excitement of meeting you and having this conversation. Can we meet again? How long will you be in Paris? Can you get another round of dessert so you can stay longer?”
“We are just about done with our meal…” Michael called for our check to Laney’s disappointment.
“I’m sure you can stay a few more minutes, Michael. It’s been months since we’ve seen each other. We need to catch up.”
“Princess,” the doting husband spoke, “let them go. I’m sure they have to be somewhere.”
“We have a meeting with the kitchen designer in fifteen minutes.” I explained. “Otherwise, I’m sure Michael would have liked to stay and catch up with you.” This Laney Reid Taylor truly was beautiful.
“All right.” She squeezed my hand once more. “Michael?”
“Yes?” The affection with which he answered Laney hurt as much as his earlier denial of our relationship.
“Please send me Chloe’s info.” Laney asked Michael but winked at me. “I think we’ll get along splendidly.”
“Dear God…not that…” Michael complained and waved one last time.
We rode the elevator in silence and this same silence stayed with us during our drive to the kitchen design store. When we finally arrived back at the apartment, I walked toward my room and stopped only when Michael asked, “What the hell is wrong now? What is it that I keep doing that pisses you off?”
Definitely, “Sweet” Michael picked and chose whom he would offer his honeyed words and attitude to—and that chosen woman was not me.
Michael: New York (UN) Friends
“It’s good to see you again, Michael!” Brendan greeted me even before he said hello to the woman he was dating. It didn’t feel good to see my friend hurt.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I’m sorry Grandfather and I kept Chloe from you all week. She’s been anxious to get to New York.” Since it was our fault for keeping Chloe longer than originally planned, it was only proper to make the situation right.
“I’m glad you finally made it.” Brendan wrapped his arms around Chloe. Honestly, it didn’t feel good to see my friend loved, either. What the hell?
“Me, too,” she answered quietly.
“Should we go have dinner?” Brendan asked.
“Sure. We need to go up to the apartment and settle in, first. You caught us as we arrived.”
“You’re staying here?” Brendan asked Chloe. His eyes darted from Chloe, to me, and then back to Chloe. I had no clue what that was all about, but I could tell Chloe was uncomfortable.
“Yes. I have work to do here.”
“Work…” Brendan made an innocuous word sound dubious.
“Shall we go?” I gestured as the elevator opened.
“Hold the elevator, please.” A voice called out as the door began closing. Brendan and I opened each side to let a woman and three rambunctious kids in.
“Thanks!” A darling little girl, who looked to be about two going on twelve, spoke. “JR, no running, no jumping!” she scolded whom I assumed was her little brother.
“NO!” he yelled back at her with the same index pointing she was doing.
“Mama!” This beautiful girl complained.
“Ellie. Don’t boss JR around. He’s excited to be walking. You were the same way when you started walking.”
“Me, too, Mama?” The third sibling asked. He, too, was beautiful.
“Yes, James. You were even more excited than your sister when you first started walking.
There was a look of pride on the older boy’s face.
Ellie. JR. James. Those names sounded awfully familiar.
“What floor?” I asked the mother.
“Thirty-second,” she said and looked up at me for the first time. “Michael.”
Finally. I placed the names and faces with the family. “Hello, Emily! What brings you to New York? Where’s Jake?”
“Jake got called in to consult on a heart condition while we were at the park. He dropped us off at the front door and had to leave.”
“Are you staying here?”
“We live here.” The little girl intervened. “Who dat, Mama?” She pointed at me and her brothers followed.
“This is Auntie Laney’s friend, Mr. Michael Bennington,” she explained to the curiosity of all three kids. “Do you and James remember when we were in London and we went to visit Mr. Harry Bennington’s house? You and your brother played with Amelie, Jonah, and those two gigantic toy chests that Grandpa Bennington gave you as presents?”
The girl’s big blue eyes got even bigger. “Was that the princess castle house, Mama?”
“Good memory,” I praised. “You remember the castle?”
The two older ones nodded their heads, which meant the little one followed. “That castle was meant for princesses and princes just like you and your brothers.”
“I’m not going to live in a castle when I grow up,” Ellie explained. “I’m going to live on Reid Place with Mama.”
“Me, too.” The older boy explained.
The smallest one yelled, “Me, me, me.”
The elevator dinged, signaling our exit. “We have a second home here that we try and visit often. I assume you have a home on this floor as well?”
“Grandfather does.” I realized my poor manners only now and introduced everyone to each other.
“Your children are beautiful,” Chloe admired. I never thought of Chloe as a baby lover until I saw her wistfully staring at the three who stood with an arm or two or six around some part of their “Mama.”
“Thank you.” Emily answered with much pride. “Are you here long?” she asked me.
“We should be here a few days. Chloe and I saw your family in Paris the other day.”
“Then you’ll see them again in a few hours. They’re flying in as we speak.”
“It’s my birthday!” Ellie shouted with glee.
“It’s my birthday, too!” James, her twin, announced proudly.
“You want to come to my party? James and I are having a party with Auntie Nene, Unca Donny, my unca Ax, Auntie Janey, Auntie Bee, Daddy, JJ, and…who else, Mama?”
“I think you covered all of New York, Baby.” Emily laughed and opened the door for the kids. “You’re welcome to join us, if you don’t mind three hyper kids and seeing your ex being pampered by her husband.” I didn’t realize this quiet woman had a wicked sense of humor.
“Are you gonna come?” Ellie questioned. “I like lellow dwesses, James likes Legos, and JJ likes diggers.” This little imp batted her big blue eyes at me. “See you. Bye.” She ran off with her brothers.
“I think I’m in love with yet another Reid,” I declared to Emily’s amusement. “Did she just hand me a wish list for all three kids?”
“More like a demand list,” Brendan chuckled. “I may duel with you at dawn for that little girl’s attention.”
“Please, pay no attention to Ellie’s demands, but join us for dinner and cake if you’re free.”
I was tempted to accept so I could spend more time with the toddler who’d bewitched me in under five minutes. However, as Emily pointed out, watching Donovan doting on his pregnant wife wouldn’t be my ideal night.
“We will pass on dinner, but you can let Ellie know I understood loudly and clearly what she and her brothers would like. Please say hello to Jake for me.”
“I will.” Emily smiled and walked into her house. “If anything changes, feel free to stop by.”
“Damn that girl was cute. Only if women could stay that cute and uncomplicated.”
“Amen! Babe-magnet Brendan O. Amen!” Brendan and I high-fived a few more times than necessary. “And maybe if they decide to change, they’ll let us know, or write out an instruction manual. The mood swings, the demands, the undecipherable mood swings—how the hell does a man navigate? Sometimes I feel like Christopher Columbus looking for a trade route to India, but ending up on the opposite end in the Caribbean. North, East, South, West—I have no damn clue which way is up.”
Brendan agreed wholeheartedly. “If you can’t figure it out, Mikey, I don’t know who can. I’m right there with you in the lost-at-sea category.”
We were slapping each other’s backs, encouraging more bashing of women, when we both stopped abruptly. There was something really, really wrong with this situation.
We looked at one another. We looked around. We both cursed aloud.
Shit! Shit! Shit! And one more shit! We’d lost Chloe during our male bonding time.
“Do we go back for her?” Brendan asked.
“Hell no. She’s obviously pissed. I don’t want to talk to her now.”
“Your funeral, man. You have to face her when you get back home.”
“Shit.”
Brendan laughed. “I’ll admit, I was initially pissed that you and Chloe were staying in the same apartment. But now, I’m thanking the gods that I’ll be downtown while you’re ‘dealing with her,’ uptown. Call me when it all blows over.”
I had to chuckle with my uni buddy. Tonight would be hell. Chloe was never one to back down when she was pissed. “Aren’t you the one courting the woman who’ll chop off my balls as soon as I walk in the door? Why the hell do I have to walk into the lion’s den?”
“Uh, because you’re the one who’s been with her all week?”
“We were working.”
“Working…” Brendan mentioned that “dirty” word again. “Let me ask you something.”
“Shoot.”
“Do you want Chloe? Is that why you’ve kept her from me all week? Am I fighting a losing battle?”
“CHLOE?” I questioned loudly. “I don’t want Chloe!” Those words weren’t any quieter. After a few clearings of the throat, I clued Brendan in on what was between my friend and me. “We’re friends. We’ll be always be friends, though after tonight, I’m unsure she’ll call me a friend. If you want her, go after her and treat her well. All kidding aside, you won’t find a better woman than Chloe Darcy.”
Brendan watched me for a few seconds before asking, “If she’s the best woman out there, why the hell aren’t you pursuing her?”
Babe-magnet Brendan O had me there. Why the hell wasn’t I pursuing her???
Chloe: Avoiding Friends
By age twenty-six, one would think I would have had a serious relationship or two by now. WRONG! I was the poster girl for the saying, “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”
New York was disastrous once we stepped away from those Reid cuties. I left a guffawing Brendan and Michael after deciding I’d heard enough of their crap. Where did they get off complaining about not understanding women? An instruction manual? Christopher Columbus lost at sea? I could have castrated those two! Instead, I walked away and shopped for Ellie and her brothers.
I found everything on Ellie’s list, plus a few more “lellow dwesses.” I arrived back at the apartment early enough to go straight to my room without running into Michael and fell fast asleep. It helped that I had just arrived from Paris, having gained a few extra hours of daylight. It had been a long day.
The next morning, I dropped off three big present bags in front of Emily’s apartment and went out for a long run in Central Park. Living in London, I didn’t run. Not that living in London had anything to do with running or not running—I was just not an exercise kind of person. Channeling my inner marathoner, I took a slow crawl through the park. Between running/walking, I heard a little girl call my name.
“CHLOE!”
Then a little boy’s voice followed. “LOEEE!!”
The last screech was exactly that—a loud, undecipherable screech. “EEEEEE!!!”
Hobbling over, I greeted the three munchkins. “Hello Ellie, James, JR.”
Once the three got their kicks in taking turns yelling my name, they could care less what I said to them. They tuned me out and talked to one another about the best way to build a castle.
“Children. Say hello to Miss Chloe.”
They looked up, waved, then went right back to their engineering. I didn’t realize kids could make my self-esteem ride so high and so very low.
“Why are there so many families out so early? Is the playground always this crowded at seven a.m. on a Sunday?”
“Apparently so,” Emily spoke with much laughter in her voice. “Kids are up between six and six-thirty. If you want them to take a nice long morning nap, this is the best way to do it. Tire them out!”
“Is that the key?”
Emily nodded along with an “Uh-huh!”
I was about to ask if she was here alone when I saw a man walking toward the sandpit with two cups of coffee. Tall, jet-black hair, sparkling blue eyes like his daughter, and all-around gorgeous, described the man who only had smiles for his wife and three kids.
“Here you go, Emi.” He handed the cup and tenderly embraced his wife with a soft kiss to her lips. Emily shyly returned the affection with her hand on his face and look of love in her eyes. Watching the two interact was uplifting.
Their love made me sigh…in a good way.
“Jake, this is Chloe, Michael Bennington’s childhood friend.”
“Hello.” He put out his hand. “Laney told us a little about you yesterday. My cousin was hoping you’d stop by the party.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Jake.” I shook his outstretched hand. “I should have stopped by, but I needed to be asleep before Michael came back.”
Jake and Emily didn’t know how to respond to my off comment. In so many words, I told them everything! Essentially, these people were no different from strangers, and I told them what happened with Brendan and Michael yesterday. If that wasn’t bad enough, I gave them the abridged version of my “relationship” with Michael since birth, and my “relationship” with Brendan since the day after Michael left me at Heathrow for Laney Reid.
When I was done, Jake handed me his latte. “I think you need this more than I do.”
Emily encouraged me to drink her husband’s coffee and asked, “Who and what is making you this upset? Michael? Brendan? Yesterday’s comment? Being left at Heathrow? My cousin-in-law Laney?”
Her questions made me ask myself, “Who was it that I was angry with and why?”
“I’ll let you ladies discuss. I think the leader of the gang is calling me to come judge the castles.” Jake walked away.
“Your husband seems fantastic. You make a lovely couple and an even lovelier family.”
“Thank you. Jake is a dream. My life would have been barren without him.”
I sighed—this time, a frustrated, sad sigh. “It appears all the men in your family are as attentive as your husband. I met Max and Jane in Florence and he couldn’t keep his eyes off his fiancée. From the little I saw, he appeared even-keeled, kind-hearted, and balanced.”
Emily’s smile grew bigger. “That’s a perfect word for Max. Balanced. He’s all you’ve described and better. My sister-in-law found her absolute match.”
“Then there was that god-like man called Donovan Taylor. How did God pass out everything good to one man?” Emily was now laughing. “Laney is a lucky woman to have a man who adores her. She obviously must have some magic trick up her sleeve. Every man she dates wants to make her his queen. How does she do it and does she give lessons?”
Emily had a hard time keeping her giggles controlled. Her kids looked up, wondering why sh
e was laughing so much, and then followed her in joyous shrieks.
“Donovan was Laney’s first love since age eleven and Michael was Laney’s first boyfriend at age twenty-two. Laney couldn’t give lessons since she’s had so little experience with dating.”
“NO DAMN WAY!” I screeched like the Reid kids. “How? Why? What do you mean? You must be kidding me.”