Leigh sighed. “I’m happy for you and Rob. Really, I am. He seems like a great guy.” She paused and looked around for a moment, searching for the words.
“Kyle and I were just. . .friends. I know he wanted it to be more than that, and it was fun to imagine, you know? But that’s all it was. And now it’s over.”
And that was the end of that. A few nights later, Rob held Mindy in his arms by the lake at the city park, while the stars danced in the heavens above them. After a passionate kiss, he looked into her moist, dreamy eyes, at her beautiful face, and he could no longer hold back the way he felt about her.
“Mindy. . . I have to tell you something,” he whispered. Her heart leapt. Please, God, let it be! And he didn’t disappoint.
“I love you,” he said, with the most sincerity anything had ever been spoken, “with all of my heart.” She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly.
“Oh Rob! I love you too!” she squealed.
He then dropped to one knee before her, and she began to tremble all over, tears welling in her eyes. He produced a ring box, and held it out before him, looking up into her face.
“You’re the one for me, Mindy,” he said. “I can’t live without you. I don’t have a lot, but I swear I will work my tail off to make you happy. And I will love you always.” He opened the box, and the diamond sparkled in the moonlight. She was now sobbing uncontrollably. “Will you marry me? Will you be my wife?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” she shrieked without hesitation, bouncing up and down on her feet. Rob stood and gathered her into his arms, and she kissed him; her man, her dream come true.
Three months later, Rob Fenton and Mindy Whitlow would be united in marriage. Through the next fifty -nine years, the highs and lows, they would love only each other, until the day she would find her old and feeble husband lying on the couch, his eyes closed forever in death, an eternal smile on his wrinkled face. His last fleeting thought, known only to him at the moment of his last breath, had been. . . What a life!
CHAPTER 21
The Queen’s Crown bar & restaurant was the hottest night spot in town on the weekends. It boasted a large dance floor and a long, full bar. Falstead had rented one of three huge banquet rooms in the club for a spring company party. Ted Johnson, the sixty-year-old owner of Falstead, believed in having fun and made it possible for his employees whenever possible. The event was catered, and the banquet room was stocked with plenty of food, including peel and eat jumbo shrimp, corn on the cob, new potatoes, prime rib, pork barbecue, coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad etc….
Employees had been pouring in since 8:30 pm, and near the entrance Mr. Johnson, surrounded by staff, greeted each of them jovially as they entered, with demands to “Enjoy yourselves!” and “Have a good time!”
At 9:00 pm, Genes Sykes and Leigh Thompson arrived. She was resplendent in a slip of a black dress with a short hem, cut low in the back, and the diamond earrings he had recently gifted her. He was dashing in an Italian pin stripe suit. They were both greeted enthusiastically by Mr. Johnson and the staff. Ted had known Leigh’s father professionally and socially, and occasionally golfed with Joseph Sykes.
“Hello, Gene, how are you?” he asked, smiling broadly and shaking his hand heartily.
“Fine, thank you, and yourself?” Gene responded, equally animated.
“Good, good,” he replied. “Tell Joe I’m ready for a re-match at Shady Pines. He really spanked me last time out!”
“No!” Gene exclaimed. “You let the old man beat you?” Ted laughed.
“I didn’t let him do anything!” he responded. He then turned his attention to the stunningly beautiful woman on Gene’s arm. “And how are you, Leigh?”
“Fine, thank you,” she responded, smiling. She was proud to be with Gene in that moment. He was so smooth and polished.
“So, are you two lovebirds ready for the big day?” Ted asked winking. Leigh genuinely liked her boss. He was a fair man, and generous to a fault. He had made her experience working at Falstead pleasurable.
“Yes sir,” she answered readily.
“Absolutely!” Gene chimed in, patting her hand.
“Good, good!” Ted replied. “So where’s the honeymoon?”
“We’ve decided on Paris,” Gene responded.
“Great choice! I love that city! And I’m looking forward to the wedding,” he said, and then waved his hand in a sweep toward the buffet. “Listen, there’s plenty of food here, so you two help yourself and have a good time, okay?” He clapped Gene on the shoulder, then walked away to greet other recent arrivals.
The deejay was cranking out a popular mix of tunes.
“I want to dance, Gene,” she said, moving her body in rhythm with the music. The dress she was wearing sported daring splits up the sides, and when she walked or turned, they displayed a breathtaking view of her shapely thighs.
“We will, hon, guaranteed,” he responded, looking her up and down. “You look beautiful tonight, darling,” he added, pecking her on the lips.
She felt really good, in control of things. Her romantic trysts with Kyle, now almost two months in the past, rarely drifted through her mind. When they did, they seemed the actions of someone else, a silly girl.
Mindy had been respectful of Leigh’s wishes, making no attempt to bring up the subject of Kyle in several weeks. But at lunch last Wednesday, she had casually mentioned to Leigh that Kyle was planning on turning in his notice and leaving Charlotte. It shook Leigh some to hear that - and Mindy had looked for her reaction -, but her expression remained calm. She wasn’t entirely surprised, and she thought it was probably for the best.
They partook of the buffet, and then, after socializing a bit more with Mr. Johnson and the staff, they went to the bar. Gene ordered a scotch and soda, and Leigh, a margarita. They took their drinks back to their table.
“Good music, huh?” he remarked, as a slow number began playing. Several couples had taken to the dance floor. “May I have this dance?” he asked, standing and extending his hand.
“Yes, you may,” she responded.
As they swayed he held her tightly, and she encircled her arms around his neck. He really is good for me, she thought, and then shook her head involuntarily.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, pulling back and looking into her eyes.
“Nothing,” she replied. “Just hold me.” And he did.
She had recognized her justifying thought. She found these skirting through her mind on occasion lately, and she knew it was evidence of a lack of conviction in her relationship.
They were heading back toward their table after the dance when Mindy and Rob intercepted them.
“Hey girl!” Mindy exclaimed. The two friends embraced tightly. Mindy was wearing a red dress, equally as enticing as Leigh’s, and she looked stunning. Gene glanced at Rob as the two women greeted each other. Through Leigh he had learned that Mindy had broken up with her boyfriend. Apparently she had gotten over it. Rob looked at Gene and appraised him. So this is Leigh’s fiancé. No big prize.
“Hi Gene,” Mindy said. “This is Rob Fenton.”
The two men shook hands. Rob noticed the Rolex watch shimmering on his wrist. Rolling in loot.
“Hello, Rob,” he said, with a mild smirk. “Good to meet you.”
“Same,” Rob replied, shaking his outstretched hand firmly. His condescending expression did not go unnoticed by Rob.
“So what do you do?” Gene asked, sipping his drink.
“Falstead,” Rob answered evenly and unblinking. Both women watched the exchange between them closely.
“Oh really? So when did you start?”
“Last week,” Rob replied. He already despised this pompous ass.
“Then you barely qualified for this party, didn’t you?” Gene remarked, laughing. But he was the only one that did. Leigh stared at him with a reproachful look, embarrassed for Rob. Rob looked at him with a smirk, but Mindy placed a hand on his shoulder before he could respo
nd.
“So, I bet there’s some good food here, huh?” she asked.
“There’s a great buffet in the banquet room,” Leigh offered, with an “I’m sorry” expression.
“Let’s go get some grub, honey, what do you say?” Mindy suggested, tugging on Rob’s arm and favoring Gene with a cold glance. “We’ll catch up with you guys in a few, alright?”
Leigh turned on him as soon as they were gone.
“How can you be so rude?” she chastised. He looked at her quizzically.
“Hey, I was just joking,” he said, smiling, but she looked away, extremely irritated by her future husband’s attitude. With a keen sense for the politic, he suddenly decided he needed to go to the restroom.
“I’ll be back in a minute, okay sweetheart?” he said, excusing himself.
“Sure,” she responded indifferently.
Leigh frowned as she watched him walk away. She abhorred that “better than thou” quality that occasionally surfaced in Gene’s character, a quality that thankfully didn’t make an appearance very often. Otherwise, he would be insufferable. She turned her attention to the dance floor and watched people dancing as she sipped her drink, already feeling a little woozy. She swept the room with her eyes, and just happened to be looking in the direction of the entrance to the banquet room when Kyle walked through the door. He was dressed in black pants and a black sports jacket over a burgundy button down shirt. To Leigh, who was unaware that she was holding her breath, he was in that moment the most devastatingly handsome man she had ever seen. In her initial shock that he had actually come to the party – wasn’t he supposed to be leaving Charlotte? - , she failed to notice the shapely, pretty red head accompanying him. But now she saw her clinging tightly to his side, and the vision of him with another woman caused a sudden, massive explosion of jealousy to erupt within her. The entirely unexpected emotion intensified as they made their way across the floor in her direction. Trying to grasp the idea that he was actually here was hard enough, but he had brought a date? As they walked along, Kyle spotted her and stopped in his tracks. Don’t come over, don’t come over, she thought. She was reeling, disoriented; too out of sorts to deal with him right now. But after staring at her for a moment, he took his date by the hand and did just that.
“Hello Leigh,” he said as they walked up. He was smiling warmly and confidently, his eyes as beautiful and intense as ever.
“Hello Kyle,” she responded tentatively, gulping. Feelings that were supposed to be over (never there) nipped (bit hard) at the edges of her heart. She grappled with the sudden reality, not the fantasy, of those feelings as she looked into his captivating eyes. Lisa was glued to him, her female instincts ever diligent; and although it was subtle, she saw the way Leigh was looking at him, and she didn’t like it a bit. Warning bells clanged in her mind: This girl is competition.
“I’d like you to meet my girlfriend Lisa,” he said. “Lisa, this is Leigh Thompson, the Human Resources manager at Falstead.”
“Hi,” Lisa said curtly.
“Hello Lisa,” she sputtered, her voice cracking. Girlfriend? There was something stuck in her throat. Kyle, over Leigh’s shoulder, saw Gene heading their way.
“Let’s go check out the buffet, what do you say?” he asked Lisa, taking her hand. “Good to see you!” He practically dragged her away from the visibly stunned Leigh. Gene arrived at her side, watching Kyle and Lisa walk away.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“Friends from Falstead,” she replied in a weak voice, watching the man that used to want (love?) her walk off with his girlfriend sashaying by his side. Girlfriend? her bewildered mind dumbly repeated. That didn’t take long! And why wouldn’t he have a girlfriend? Of course he would! Her mind was spinning and her eyes were quivering. Why is this happening? She shouldn’t be feeling this way; she was over him! Over him? Over what, exactly? And it was all just...nothing, right? She picked up her glass and slugged the remainder of her drink, trying to drown the jealously that was roaring in her heart. She took Gene’s hand.
“Let’s dance,” she demanded, and he allowed himself to be led out on the floor.
They cut a rug to an upbeat tune, and then went back to their table where Leigh ordered another margarita, clamped her lips to the straw and sucked it down in record time. Soon, they were back on the floor again, and when another slow number began playing, Rob and Mindy, as well as Kyle and Lisa, hit the air.
“Yuk!” Mindy whispered in Rob’s ear as he held her close. Over his shoulder, she was watching Kyle and Lisa dancing.
“What?”
“I can’t believe Kyle brought that little tramp with him!” Rob maneuvered around to see for himself.
“How do you know she’s a tramp?” Rob asked, chuckling. “She seems like a nice girl.” Mindy pulled back slightly and looked into Rob’s smiling face.
“Oh please!” she exclaimed. “Trust me, darling, she’s a hoochie mama.”
As Mindy put her arms back around Rob’s neck, Leigh, although trying her best to ignore it, helplessly watched Lisa all over Kyle, pressing full body to him. At one point, noticing Leigh’s glances, Lisa took Kyle’s face in her hands and kissed him deeply, then smiled at her contemptuously.
“How are you feeling, darling?” Gene asked, pulling back from her and looking into her eyes as they danced.
“Fine,” she responded, producing a tight, fake smile. “Just fine.” But she wasn’t fine, not in the least. The sight of Kyle kissing another woman had dumped fuel on the fire, pumping up the level of her jealousy tenfold. She was unable to control it. Her heart and mind had skid off the yellow brick road into a ditch. She had stepped up her alcohol consumption in response, and she was now getting a good buzz on. After the song was over, Leigh almost ran back to their table, where she took a deep drink from a fresh margarita.
“Well. . . can you hold your liquor, darling?” Gene asked, smiling and looking around to see if anyone was noticing his fiance’s sudden abandonment of discretion.
“No problem,” she responded, waving him off. She had to pee. “I’ve got to go to the little girl’s room. Excuse me.” He stood with her.
“Certainly. I’m going to talk with Ted a bit, okay?”
“Alright,” she replied. She went toward the ladies room, and across the way, Kyle watched her. After a couple of minutes, he stood.
“Back in a minute,” he said.
“Where are you going?” Lisa asked possessively, half rising from her seat.
“Take it easy, babe, I’m just going to the restroom.” With a pout, she lowered herself back into her chair as he walked off. He was hoping to time it right, and when he rounded the corner into the hallway, he bumped into Leigh returning from her potty break.
“Well, hey!” she exclaimed, laughing and taking a step back. The alcohol had loosened her up plenty by now.
“Hi there,” he responded, smiling.
“So... are you having fun?” she asked. He looked at her for a moment: her beautiful face, her perfect white teeth, her full lips. Ye gods, I’ve missed her.
“Yeah,” he responded, staring fully into her eyes, “How about you?”
“Oh yeah!” she responded, “I’m having a blast!” She wobbled a bit, but her eyes never left his.
Although there had never been any doubt before this moment, he knew now, this close to her again after what seemed like forever, that he loved this woman and would never love another. He had tucked it all away in his heart over the past month, resigning himself to the reality that she was going to marry Gene, and they had, in her words, “no chance.”
When Rob and Mindy had told him about the company party two weeks ago, he didn’t give attending it even a passing thought. His plans of late had been on leaving Charlotte as soon as possible, but Mindy’s words and advice that Friday night had never entirely left his mind. One evening last week, as he wrote out his notice to Falstead, he realized he couldn’t leave without giving it one more try. Maybe, like Mi
ndy told him, she didn’t truly mean the things she said. Maybe it had been an act, intended to stop the progression of a love she feared, only because she was beholden to the past. Nothing she could do or say would hurt any worse than it already had. No chance? He would back her against the wall and make her mean it, because he didn’t believe she did.
Leigh stared back into the amazing eyes of the man she had not seen for the past six weeks, the man she had dismissed in her heart as a regressive fantasy. She had achieved a state of almost total belief in the solidity of her relationship with Gene, and the pure nonsense of the idea that Kyle was anything more than a sexy guy she had enjoyed flirting with. But her self- analyzing, pseudo psychology had been challenged this evening when she saw him with another woman, holding and kissing her the way she had dreamt of being kissed, and she couldn’t deny it with all of the analysis she could conjure.
And now, as he stood before her, she felt that tremendous desire for him return, as strong as ever, as though they had parted ways only yesterday. She was aware enough, however, to realize that she was all the more susceptible to fantastic feelings in her altered state. She had to maintain her composure. She couldn’t allow herself to say or do anything tonight that she may regret in the sober light of tomorrow.
“So how’s the writing coming along?” she asked, taking a small step back.
“I’ve finished the one you’re reading. I told you that, remember?” he answered, taking a small step forward.
“Yes, I remember,” she replied.
“Well, my agent loves it, and say he’s working hard on it,” he said, keeping his eyes trained on hers.
“Well, I think, whoever decides these things, would be nuts not to publish it!” she exclaimed, her voice rising with each word. She was buzzing right along.
“Thanks,” he said, taking another step closer and looking into her eyes. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
She stared back at him for a moment then took a step to the side. She should be getting back to Gene, she knew, but she didn’t really want to. The drink had removed the chains from her innermost desires, and her mind was where it shouldn’t be - on the thought of Kyle kissing her, making real what she had fantasized about so many times. Her mind was telling her to go for it… it’s the truth, girl, you want it! Always have. Who are you kidding? She could show him what a real kiss was like; let him feel a real woman’s lips. Why not? her alcohol induced mind continued. If nothing else, at least kiss him! Find out how it feels! But she mentally slapped herself. I’m here with Gene, she thought steadily. It was time to end this little run in.
The Rain Began to Fall Page 15