To Love, Honor and Cherish
Page 15
Chapter 15
In January, after the kids were back in school, Joe started spending more time at SaraCom. He was also taking a couple of classes as he was working towards his Masters degree. He was a regular visitor to the university library, as it was one of the best in the state.
One afternoon, in early January, Joe was checking out some magazines when a young lady dropped a pile of books. Joe helped her pick them up. As she thanked Joe, she introduced herself. Her name was Anna Michaels. Joe and Anna started talking, and before they knew it, two hours had passed. Joe and Anna had a lot in common. Both of them were interested in music, computers and history. Anna was a freshman at the university studying pre-law. They were strongly attracted to each other. They made a date to have lunch the next day.
When Joe returned home from the library, Betty and Mary noticed that he was in a very good mood, almost glowing. When they asked him why he was so happy, Joe told them that he had met a woman at the library and they had really hit it off. He told them that they were having lunch the next day.
Betty was very happy for Joe, but Mary did not say anything. She excused herself to go do her homework.
Mary was upset that Joe was interested in a woman from the college. She was a little jealous. She tried to convince herself that she was just being protective of Joe, but she realized the truth was that she had a big crush on Joe. She knew he was too old for her, as he was 18 and she was 14, but she cared about him. Of course, she would not dream of telling Joe of her true feelings. That would be too embarrassing for her. She wrote all of her thoughts and feelings in her diary. She felt a little better when she realized that she and Joe were very close friends.
Over the next several months, Joe saw a lot of Anna. Their dates took place on the nights when Betty was home with the kids. Joe spent time with his family on the weekends.
Joe made sure that he still had plenty of time to help the kids with homework, Boy Scouts, and sporting events. He was now helping to coach little league and soccer teams that the kids were on. He still taught Sunday school and the boys were becoming more confident in the woodworking shop. They had helped Joe make a coffee table and a set of end tables.
As the weather started to get warmer, Matt began making birdhouses to sell to neighbors to earn some spending money. He wanted to be able to take a girl to lunch, or to a movie. He was becoming very popular with the girls at school as well as with their parents.
The girls’ parents were very impressed with Matt’s manners. Matt always opened doors for their daughters, held chairs for them at the dinner table and was always a gentleman. He addressed adults as sir and ma’am when talking to them and had the best table manners of any kid his age.
Mary had gone to a few school dances with boys from school, but she was not too serious about any particular one. Joe and Betty had given her the confidence to say no to any boy who got rough or tried to take their date too far.
Mary had turned into a very beautiful young lady and she had many guys chasing after her. Every time that she went to a dance or a movie with a guy from school, Joe always worried about her. He never thought any of them were good enough for her and always found something wrong with each of them. If he mentioned his opinion to Mary, she just ignored him.
Joe was falling in love with Anna and she seemed to feel the same way towards him. They went dancing, to concerts, and to dinner. Joe had invited her to the house to meet his adopted family and everybody greeted her warmly except Mary, who was cordial, but secretly she thought that Anna was wrong for Joe.
By the end of May, Anna invited Joe to her home to meet her parents. They lived in Beverly Hills. Joe and Anna drove to see them on the first weekend in June. Joe thought that the visit went really well. He liked Anna’s parents and he thought that they liked him.
Joe told them that he worked with computers. He did not mention that he owned the company, and he had not mentioned it to Anna either. He wanted their relationship to develop from love. He also had not told Anna that he was worth Millions.
Anna’s parents were very wealthy, and it showed everywhere, from the live-in maid, to the mansion that they lived in, to the way they dressed and to their circle of friends. Anna had told Joe that her parents were worth about twenty million dollars. Joe was worth ten times as much, but he kept it to himself and tried to live as normal a life as he could. He donated to several charities, but his donations were kept out of the public eye.
About a week after they returned to San Francisco, Anna started coming up with excuses not to see Joe as often. When he called her to ask if everything was ok, she said that they were going too fast and that maybe they should slow down a bit. Joe had a feeling that she was not being completely honest with him.
On June 19th, Joe went to see Anna and confronted her. He told her that he wanted to know the real reason she did not want to see him. Finally, after making up excuses, Anna blurted out that her parents did not think that Joe was good enough for her. They told Anna that if she stopped seeing Joe, they would give her one million dollars when she graduated, but that if she kept seeing Joe, she would get nothing.
Joe told Anna that they would be okay without the money and that their love had no monetary value. However, Joe could see in Anna’s face, that it did and that money was worth more to her than love. Joe felt empty inside and he knew it was over.
Joe kissed Anna goodbye for the last time and said, “I hope that the money will bring you the happiness that you are looking for.”
That evening, when Joe returned home, he was feeling very depressed. Betty saw that something was wrong, but she decided not to ask Joe to talk about it. She would wait until later, when Joe was ready to talk.
The next morning at breakfast, as they were eating breakfast alone, Mary asked Joe where they were going to go to celebrate their birthdays that evening. Joe was silent for a moment. He had forgotten that it was his and Mary’s birthdays.
“Can we celebrate another time?” he asked Mary. Before he could offer any explanation, Mary got angry.
“Are you and Anna going out tonight?” she asked. “ We are supposed to spend our birthday together. Can’t you see her another night?”
Mary stopped talking when she saw that Joe’s eyes were tearing up. Joe looked at Mary and said “Anna broke up with me last night. Apparently, her parents’ money is worth more to her than I am.” Mary could see that Joe was trying hard not to cry, as he told her what had happened the night before.
Mary suddenly felt so ashamed at the way she had yelled at Joe. She looked at Joe and said “I’m so sorry, Joe. I ‘m sorry for the way I talked to you and I’m sorry that Anna broke up with you.” Mary ran over to Joe and gave him a big hug. Joe could not hold back the tears anymore. He started crying and that made Mary start crying as well.
The two of them kept holding each other for a long time, until they were all cried out. No words were spoken between the two of them, but they each felt something, as if their souls connected in some way and they could read each other’s thoughts.
Mary could feel how much Joe was hurting, and she knew that his heart was broken, and Joe could feel how deeply Mary cared for him.
Joe felt bad about canceling their birthday celebration, so he told Mary that they would go out and celebrate their big day. “Maybe, it will take my mind off of Anna,” said Joe.
“I know just the thing to cheer you up.,” said Mary.
So, that night, Joe and Mary went to the theater to see the latest comedy film. It had them laughing so hard, that Joe forgot how sad he had been. After the movie, they went out for pizza and then to a quiet diner to have birthday cake and iced tea.
It was almost midnight by the time they returned home. To cap off a perfect evening, they listened to music in the rec room and talked for over two hours. Joe tried to make each of the kids’ birthdays special for
them, but he always made Mary’s birthday extra-special. Joe was now 19 and Mary was 15.