A Weekend Getaway

by Karen Lenfestey

  “When the cops came and he lost his earring in their backseat?” He didn’t pull away, but let her touch linger.

  Was there something going on between her and Parker? “Thank goodness the officers let him off with a warning to keep the noise down.”

  “That’s because they were laughing too hard to write a ticket.” He grinned. “Bill threw great parties.”

  “That’s because he majored in theater. He had such an interesting mix of colorful friends.” Embarrassed at her boldness, she removed her hand from his. “I wonder what Bill’s up to these days.” She stirred the straw in her nearly empty glass, eyeing him.

  “Probably married with a couple of kids.” His voice sounded flat.

  She didn’t know what to say. Between the alcohol and the nostalgia, she completely lost track of time. All she knew was she didn’t want this night to end.

  Parker mumbled something. It sounded like, “Lucky guy.”

  “What?”

  “Bill. If he’s happily married with 2.5 kids, he’s a lucky guy.” Parker leaned forward and looked deep into her eyes. “If I could go back and do it all over again. . .” His words slurred a bit. “I should’ve picked you.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “What?” Beth must’ve heard him wrong. The band was too freaking loud.

  Parker’s head bobbed a little, his eyelids drooped. “Back in the day. I never should’ve gone out with Ivy. Definitely shouldn’t have married her. You. . . you would’ve been the smart choice.”

  Her heart ricocheted inside her chest. “Don’t be silly.” She pushed his shoulder playfully, the alcohol dulling her inhibitions. Why did it take you sixteen years to realize this?

  “I’m serious. Things didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. Why couldn’t I see that Ivy and I weren’t a good match?”

  “Because she was beautiful.” And I was not. “When you’re young, looks are all that matter.”

  He shrugged.

  “You two would’ve had cute children.” Regret choked her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “It’s all right. I married her when she told me she was pregnant.”

  Acid mixed with the alcohol in her gut. She didn’t want to hear this.

  Oblivious to Beth’s queasy stomach, he continued talking. “I thought it was the right thing to do. And then she had a miscarriage.” He gulped the amber liquid in his glass. “After that, I suggested we adopt some kids. I wanted to teach them to work and play hard. . . and to give to those less fortunate.”

  She took some deep breaths to maintain her composure. In, out. In, out. “I remember you were going to join the Peace Corps. Did you ever do that?”

  “No. Ivy wouldn’t have liked being left alone and she wouldn’t have wanted to go, either. Besides, I’m busy with my business here in the states. I give a lot to charity, though.” His focus seemed to float into the distance. “Life never turns out quite the way you pictured it, does it?”

  Why was he all sad? He’d gone on while Beth had made sacrifices. She’d suffered from her own secret. Silently counting the Christmases, the birthdays, and the milestones all in her head. Wondering if she’d made the right choice.

  “Last call!” shouted the bartender.

  She reached for her purse, but Parker insisted on paying the tab. The wait staff was pretty busy with other tables, so he made his way through the crowd over to the bar while she headed for the exit. When he joined her in the crisp night air, she tried to give him his blazer back, but he refused. Instead, Parker put a hat on her head that had been hidden behind his back. “There. That’s better.”

  She pulled it off and looked at it. It was a pink baseball cap with the name of the bar embroidered on the front: The Blue Note. She giggled. Back in college she’d often worn a baseball cap when she was too busy to curl her hair. “You didn’t need to do that.”

  The two of them started walking toward the union hotel when Beth thought about Ivy and that mysterious man. Was it safe to go back? Beth stopped. “Wasn’t your apartment around here somewhere?”

  The exact address was 124 Knight Street, Apartment C, but Parker didn’t need to know that she’d remembered.

  He looked down the road. “Sure. I wonder what it looks like.” His brown eyes twinkled in the streetlight.

  “Let’s go see.” They made their way toward the apartments. Soon they were outside a three-story brick building with wrought-iron balconies. Beth, on student loans and financial aid, had lived in the dorms. But even back then Parker had had the best of everything. Yet somehow he didn’t come across as spoiled or entitled. She’d loved that about him.

  They both looked up to a dark, second floor apartment. No parties tonight.

  She remembered kissing him on that balcony. Making a fool of herself. God, how she’d fantasized that it was just the beginning, but she’d been so wrong. She swallowed. “I wonder if they still throw anti-Valentine’s Day parties there.”

  He chuckled. “It was so nice not to have to pair up just because it was February fourteenth.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “What I wouldn’t give to go back...”

  “Really?”

  He stood there in the quiet, looking longingly up at his old place. His gaze slid down to her face.

  Her pulse throbbed in her neck. It was one of those moments. The moment before the big moment. She could sense it. He tilted his head down as if he were going to kiss her. Her eyes closed and her body screamed, “Yes, yes!”

  But something clicked in her brain. She stepped back.

  He straightened and cleared his throat. “Sorry. You probably think I’m a jerk. It’s just that. . . things aren’t going so well with Ivy.”

  “I’m sorry.” What else could she say? And why had she pulled away? Even after Parker had broken her heart, she’d kept dreaming of his kiss. His compassion for the downtrodden, his easy, dimpled smile, everything about him seemed to cancel out his flaws.

  But now it was too late. Drew was a good man. The first man to see past the number on her scale. The first man to invite her to move in. Sure, he’d become engrossed in fixing up the house and raising Emma, but he loved Beth. And she loved him.

  She sighed in frustration. “Do you want to talk about it?” How selfish of her. Pretending to care but secretly relishing that Parker’s marriage stood on shaky ground.

  “No.” He wiped his hands on his pants. “I should go talk to her.”

  They walked back together, making idle small talk. Traffic had diminished, just as their enthusiastic conversation had.

  Back at the union, the interior of the limestone building echoed with their footfalls. Beth held her breath as Parker took his blazer, then opened the door across the hall. She exhaled with both relief and disappointment when he greeted his wife, who was apparently alone.

  # # #

  Bright and early the next morning, Beth called home again. Still no Drew. Frustrated, she hung up and dressed for the service project. The Leadership Club was all about giving back to the community and today they were helping at the Salvation Army. Checking herself out in the bathroom mirror, she placed her new pink baseball cap onto her head and smiled.

  Once Beth arrived at the cement block building, a fifty-something woman with her hair in a sloppy up-do told them how to sort through the donated clothes heaped on the floor. The old trio of friends, Sarah, Ivy, and Beth took spots near a box of used shoes as the Salvation Army employee took the guys to a back room to move furniture.

  Sarah held up an orange and pink muu muu. “What do you think?”

  They all giggled.

  Ivy crinkled her nose. “I don’t think we need to look at any of these pieces. They’re all out of style and should be thrown away.”

  Sarah shook her head, her long hair clinging to her back. “Just because you would never wear second-hand clothes doesn’t mean that somebody won’t appreciate them. When I was pregnant, I bought all of my maternity clothes at garage sa
les and thrift stores. Otherwise, it seemed like such a waste of money.”

  The stuck-up expression on Ivy’s face made Beth cringe. “Let’s just sort the clothes like they asked us to.”

  Sarah held up a decorative pillow with a rip along the seam. “What if it needs to be stitched up?”

  Grabbing a nearby T-shirt, Beth surveyed it then placed it in the “keep” pile. “She said nothing that needs to be repaired stays.”

  Sarah studied the pillow. “What a shame. This gingham pattern would look great in a quilt I’m making.”

  “Take it,” Ivy said.

  Sarah let out a little hmmm. “That doesn’t seem right.” She set it by her foot. “I’ll ask the Salvation Army lady before I leave.” Grabbing a nearby sweatshirt with a stain on the front, she paused to look at Beth. “So, tell me all about this man you live with. How’d you meet? What’s he like?”

  She and Drew had been together for about a year, but except for Facebook updates, Beth didn’t talk to her old girlfriends anymore. In fact, she’d sent a gift but hadn’t even visited Sarah when her last child was born. That was—what?—four years ago.

  “Well, for our first date, he made reservations at this upscale restaurant known for their filet mignon, but then he called me to cancel at the last minute.” Ivy and Sarah wrinkled their foreheads in confusion, so Beth continued. “It turned out his sister got called in to work and needed him to babysit his niece. Emma wasn’t even two years old at the time and definitely wouldn’t have sat still for a four-course meal. The problem was he didn’t tell me that. He just cancelled without any explanation. Somehow we both ended up at a pizza parlor—me getting take-out and him entertaining his niece. The place had a little toy horse kids could ride and Drew stood next to it, holding Emma’s back to make sure she didn’t fall, putting in quarter after quarter. Emma was giggling and he and I ended up chatting. The evening flew by.” It was the night Beth knew that Drew was husband material.

  “I hope he took you out for a real date the next time,” Ivy said.

  Beth smiled. “Eventually, but there was something special in the simplicity of that first night.” Not to mention that pizza was one of her favorite foods. Something she hadn’t allowed herself to eat for six months. Her stomach growled at the thought.

  Sarah’s eyes shone. “You know how to pick ‘em. I still owe you for introducing me to my hubby.”

  Back in college, Sarah had been the first fix-up Beth had ever tried. It worked out so well, other girls in the dorm asked her for recommendations. More often than not, Beth had a sixth sense about those kinds of things. “I’m happy it worked out. I like your website, by the way. The photos of your family vacation to Mount Rushmore are amazing.”

  “That trip was so much fun. I had my oldest two use the atlas to map out our route and we studied the presidents before we went. That’s the neat thing about home schooling. You can turn everything you do into a learning experience.”

  Ivy piped up. “But nobody needs to read maps anymore. You can use GPS.”

  Beth ignored Ivy. “Anyway, SarahHomemaker.com is such a clever url.”

  “Thanks,” Sarah answered. “It started out as a way to update my in-laws on the kids. Whenever I tweaked a new recipe or figured out how to make a craft even better, I’d post it there. Soon all of my fellow stay-at-home moms were spreading the word to their friends.” Her cheeks bloomed with pride. “Now I have thousands of visitors every day.”

  Ivy took a piece of gum out of her purse and popped it into her mouth. “You’d think people would have better things to do than make spaghetti sauce from scratch.”

  Sarah’s posture faltered for a moment. She continued sorting clothes and took a deep breath. “I try not to judge. If moms want to open a jar of Ragu so they have more time to make finger puppets with their kids, then that’s great. It’s about maximizing the motherhood experience.”

  Beth thought about Emma and how much time she spent at daycare compared to home. Even though the little girl wasn’t hers, Beth still suffered from a good dose of mom guilt.

  Ivy got up and began rifling through outfits hanging beneath a sign that read $5. “I can’t believe I agreed to do this project. Who knows where these clothes have been? There could be bugs in here.”

  Beth and Sarah exchanged knowing looks.

  “Go help the guys move furniture then,” Sarah said.

  Ivy yawned. “I’m too tired for that. Parker and I had a late night if you know what I mean.” She wiggled her perfectly-tweezed eyebrows.

  Was that true or was Ivy lying? Jealousy stirred inside of Beth as she remembered how Parker had tried to kiss her last night. The muscles in her shoulders tightened as she forced herself to focus on picking up and tossing clothes.

  Finding a nearby wicker chair with some loose caning in the arms, Ivy sat down. “I don’t know how you two with kids keep the passion alive. But for Parker and me it’s still like we’re teenagers making out after prom. I would think more people would skip parenthood if they knew how fabulous my life is.” She blew a pink bubble.

  Again Beth and Sarah glared at each other knowingly. Beth had forgotten how annoying Ivy could be. Why had she been so excited about this reunion anyway? Oh, that’s right. Because she wanted to show off Drew.

  Ivy stretched and yawned again as if she were a kid woken up too early. All drama—all the time. “I just can’t do this today. I’m going for a nap so I’ll have the energy for dancing tonight.” She disappeared in the back room and before long, Beth could hear her and Parker arguing about her taking the car.

  “How will I get back?” his deep voice asked.

  “Just get a ride from someone else. You’re surrounded by friends.” Her tone hinted of sarcasm.

  A hesitation, then the jingle of keys.

  With her back aching from so much bending over, Beth dragged an armchair over to Sarah. “We’re going to be here a long time. Might as well sit while we sort through the best and worst of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.” She smirked and sat in Ivy’s abandoned wicker chair. Feeling warm, she pulled off her baseball cap and set it next to her.

  Without Ivy there to distract them, Sarah and Beth had the items sorted and boxed just in time to call it a day. After seeing Sarah off, Beth decided to see if Drew was home. For a guy who wanted to fix up the house all weekend, it didn’t make sense that he wasn’t answering their home phone. She’d noticed the way the blonde cashier at the hardware store smiled at him. Her voice on the phone when she called to say their special ordered chandelier had arrived went from flirtatious to cold when she realized it was Beth who’d answered. Was Drew flattered? No doubt. Was he tempted? Good question. He did spend an awful lot of time at the hardware store.

  Sitting in her car, she dialed home on her cell, but again, no answer. She had a fleeting thought about trying the hardware store when she realized she’d left her baseball cap inside.

  Rushing into the building before it closed, she managed to trip on a rolled up rug. “Damn.” Her palms slammed against the concrete floor.

  Parker came over. “Are you all right?” He smelled sexy—a combination of manly perspiration and expensive cologne.

  She allowed him to help her stand. “I’m fine.” The truth was her knee felt bruised, her hands raw, and her pride hurt.

  The rest of the male crew called out that they were leaving. “Do you need a ride, Parker?” someone asked.

  He looked at Beth. “No, I’ve got a ride. Right?”

  She blew cool air onto her hands. “Sure.” Dusting off her jeans, she tried to regain her composure. When she took a step, her calf muscle protested. “Ow!” She leaned down to rub her lower leg.

  “Did you pull a muscle?”

  “You tell me. As I recall, you were pre-med for a while.” She smiled flirtatiously. What the hell was she doing? Parker was no longer an option. Even if his marriage weren’t rocky, she’d made her choice. She’d moved in with Drew. It was too soon for them to be pulling apart, even
though she sometimes feared that they were.

  “Unfortunately, anatomy class was a killer. Sit down.”

  She hopped toward a wooden chair splattered with dried paint. Once she sat, he gently squeezed her calf. There was a time she would’ve relished his touch but she reminded herself that those days were long past.

  “When you get back to the hotel,” he said, “elevate it and put ice on it.”

  She nodded. “I guess I won’t be dancing much tonight. Not that I would’ve anyway.”

  “Your boyfriend couldn’t make it, huh?”

  She shook her head. “We have this old house and something always needs fixing.”

  “Maybe I would’ve asked you to dance.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. Why was he teasing her like this? He made her feel eighteen years old again. “I’m sure I can walk to the car now.” She pointed toward the wicker chair across the room. “Would you grab my hat?” After he placed the hat on her head a moment later, she eased herself up and limped toward the parking lot.

  “Let me help you.” He put his arm around her lower back. Every cell in her body tingled with excitement. She reached around him, as seemed only natural, and couldn’t help noticing his firm torso. He was muscular, far more so than Drew ever could be. And boy, did Parker’s body chemistry smell good! Just like in the old days, her heartbeat sped up. Obviously, logic had taken a vacation.

  All too soon, he eased her into the driver’s side of her Chevy. “Can you drive?”

  “Fortunately the leg that operates the gas and brake are fine.”

  He walked around the vehicle and buckled in beside her. “Are you ready for tonight’s speech?”

  She turned the ignition key and winced when she grabbed the wheel. Her palms were tender. Not wanting to draw any more attention to herself, she loosened her grip and pulled out of the parking lot. “You’re the one who should be speaking. After all, you founded the club and a successful business. Aren’t you going to say something?”