Melissa was nowhere to be found. I was so close to her, but again she was impossibly far away from me.
Chapter 16
Brush with Greatness
Brick and mortar trembled under the sound of 2,500 clapping hands. Chandeliers shuddered as the audience cheered the woman on the stage. Melissa shimmered like a fountain in her silver gown as she bowed before the storm of adoration.
“Ladies and gentlemen.” Her voice soared to the top of the vaulted ceiling, regal, yet tinged with eagerness. “There’s someone I would like you to meet. In the audience tonight is someone special. Someone who has traveled a great distance to show his love for me. It took me too long to feel this man’s love, to understand the enormous sacrifice he made, but now that I have it, I’ll never, ever, let it go. I would like to introduce you to my new husband. Please welcome my one and only love, Ken Timian.”
A wave of warmth engulfed me as the spotlight shone in my eyes. Through the silver corona, I dimly saw Melissa wave me on. I rose and groped my way toward the stage. As I tried to mount it, a hand took mine, soft but strong. Melissa lifted me and raised my arms and hers over our heads. I turned toward her and smiled at her radiance. I love you, she mouthed silently as applause washed over us. Then we both faced the audience and bowed. Her hand reached across my shoulder, her hand on my neck….
I fought to stay in the daydream, to have that precious moment last forever. But it ended as they all did, with Melissa’s arms replaced by the arms of the recliner. I soared high every time, only to crash at the realization that I was dreaming.
I arrived from Seattle exhausted, unshaven, and depressed. A neighbor I had never spoken with stared at me as if I were a burglar. She was as suspicious as I was angry. Angry at myself for believing it could be so easy. Melissa had seen me – I know we locked eyes – and then moved on. Why wouldn’t she? She had no reason to know who I was or what I’d meant to her. Melissa lived a charmed life, and if the absence of Ken Timian had left something lacking in that life, she was completely unaware of it.
I felt staggered, but not defeated. For me it was simple. I had no desire for life without Melissa. Therefore, I would do everything I could imagine to get her back and never be deterred from trying. Persistence was the key. Persistence had sustained me through those long nights studying law. If I could endure something that arduous for the sake of my career, what did it matter what I endured to return to the woman I loved? I have always believed that if you want something badly enough, you can get it. I definitely wanted Melissa badly enough.
Yet I was stymied over what my next move should be. I couldn’t do this alone, but how could I ask for help in a world where I was a stranger among friends? The people who knew me would help me if I were sick or needed money, but they would have committed me if I told them the story of how I’d changed history. If that Seattle cop regarded me with suspicion, what would Paul, Marty, Sharon, and everyone else think of my babbling about alternate realities?
Something black slid quickly across the kitchen floor. “Wizard,” I said as I jumped from my chair, “my address book is not a toy.” He retreated to a corner and cheerfully licked his coat. Playtime wasn’t fun unless I got mad.
I picked up the black book that he’d knocked off the kitchen table. Wizard was playing kitty soccer with it, and I was lucky he hadn’t scored a goal in the narrow gap under the refrigerator. The address book was flopped open to the J’s. There were no names penciled in under that letter. I guess in this world, I didn’t know anyone whose last name began with J. The only acquaintance I could recall whose last name began with J was Kate Jordan.
Wizard scuttled away as I slammed the address book on the table.
“Come back,” I said to his quickly retreating form. “I’m not angry.” I went to the refrigerator and took out a small chunk of cheese. I brought it to the cat, who was watching me cautiously. I placed it on the floor and he studied it for several long seconds before jumping down and nibbling at it.
“Enjoy,” I said as I walked away. “For once, you’ve earned your keep.”
I went to the computer and called up a phone directory. Did Kate live at the same address? Yes, there she was in Georgetown. It was fairly late, but I dialed the number anyway.
“Hello?” a woman answered after two rings. Her voice was deep and sharp with annoyance.
“Is this Kate Jordan?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Kate, it’s Ken Timian.”
“Ken?”
“Yes, hi.” It was good that she’d used my first name. It meant that we knew each other in this world. Were we friends? “How are you doing?”
“Fine. My God, it’s been a long time. We haven’t seen each other since my going-away dinner when I left Warwick & Gray.”
“I know; it’s been a while.” I’d seen Kate less than a month ago. We had dinner together after Melissa’s bridal shower. “I was wondering if maybe we could get together. Maybe meet for a drink somewhere.”
Thunder boomed over the Potomac, crackling the line with static.
“Sure, I guess. I can use a few laughs.”
“Great. Let’s meet tomorrow night. If you’re free, that is.”
“Let me check my busy social calendar. No, I’m not dining at the White House until next week. The Vice President is bringing the pizza, and I’m bringing the beer. Yes, I can fit you in tomorrow. How about Donovan’s on M Street?”
“Donovan’s is perfect. I’ll see you then.”
“That’s it? You call completely out of the blue, make a quick drinks date, and then jump off the phone? I’m not that easy. What the hell have you been up to?”
“A lot of things. I’ll give you all the nasty details tomorrow.”
“Hmm, sounds interesting.”
“Not that interesting. For some reason, I found myself thinking of you. It seemed a shame that we lost touch.”
“That’s funny; I was thinking of you only a couple of months ago after I ran into someone else from the firm. You were one of the few people I liked there.” Certainly she wasn’t the president of the Harrison Warwick Fan Club. People still talked about their final (though certainly not their only) argument. Certain words were used that hadn’t been uttered in those hallowed halls before or since.
“It hasn’t been the same since you left. The place is one hundred percent stodgy now.”
“Present company excluded of course.”
“Of course. Hey, you know Melissa Argent, right?”
“Knew would be more accurate. I haven’t seen her since high school. Except in magazines and on television and even on stage once. Why do you ask?”
I needed to handle this delicately. “I saw something on PBS about her recently. You mentioned that you used to be friends with her, so you’re my brush with greatness. I use it to get tables in restaurants.”
Kate laughed deeply. Her laughter was always good to hear. “Yeah, I should have thought of that myself. After all, how many other people have a friendship bracelet in their attics handmade by the acclaimed Melissa Argent?”
“You just gave me goose bumps,” I said with a laugh, though the image did cause a little shiver.
“Yeah, I’m sure I did.”
“I’ve recently gotten into her music. I bought all the albums.”
“You? Don’t you normally listen to Metallica and Def Leppard?”
“Never Def Leppard.”
“And never people like Melissa Argent, if I remember correctly.”
“Hey, you get older and you grow.”
“You’ll have to tell me all about it tomorrow night. I’m looking forward to it. Bye.”
I held the phone in my hand for several seconds after Kate hung up. I felt intensely warmed by our conversation. It felt like the first real connection I’d made in this new world. Kate not only sounded like herself, but we qu
ickly fell into the banter that had marked our relationship. It would be nice to feel natural around someone.
Of course, there was much more than that making me feel optimistic tonight. Kate was an honest-to-goodness connection to Melissa. Even if they hadn’t seen each other in more than a decade, she was closer to Melissa than anyone else I knew. If I handled things the right way, she might be able to lead me to her.
*
“I told him that he misunderstood,” Warwick said as he bounded into my office.
“I’m sorry?” I said. I had been studying a case file, which these days took more concentration than ever before.
“I told Peter Darlington that he misunderstood. He did misunderstand, right?”
Peter Darlington was a potential client I’d spoken with on the phone earlier. “What did he understand?”
Warwick chewed on his cigar for a moment and then pulled it out of his mouth. “Somehow he got it into his mind that you were turning him down.”
I should have expected this conversation. “Then he didn’t misunderstand.”
Warwick glared at me, then regarded the damp cigar in his hand. There was little question which he found more appealing just then. “What exactly is the problem here?”
“There’s no problem, Harrison. I just don’t think I should take this case.”
Warwick the Lesser nodded slowly. “Let me see if I understand this. A client asks specifically to retain you after another client recommends your services. This is an important potential client who could generate a great deal of business for this firm. Yet you turn him down. When did you go insane, Timian?”
I refused to get riled up along with Warwick. “I am not insane. I simply choose not to accept this case. The client wants to retain our services to facilitate a deal that will involve the destruction of some twenty thousand acres of Amazonian rainforest. This number is the client’s own estimate, which means that the true figure will be much, much greater.” I looked down at my desk and gathered myself. “The Amazon is a precious natural resource – a barrier against global warming and the home of many unique species of plants and animals. I don’t want to be involved with this project, nor do I believe it to be in the best interests of this firm to be associated with it in any way.”
Warwick looked at me as though I’d just force-fed him castor oil. “Not in the best interests of this firm? Who made your our corporate conscience? When did you become a tree hugger, Timian? You never had any qualms about ravaging the environment before.”
“I took a careful look at the circumstances around this case and they’re appalling.” This had been a touchy subject between Melissa and me. Her passion was impossible to ignore and it was equally impossible to be unmoved by it. At the same time, the reality of my professional life put her ideals (ideals that were increasingly becoming mine) at odds. I subtly refrained from taking on the most egregious sinners as clients, but it was never nearly enough for her. We’d debated this as recently as a month ago. This all came back to me when I was reviewing the plans Darlington had sent over from his logging corporation yesterday. All I saw was pillage camouflaged by neat diagrams and spreadsheets. What was especially disheartening was that the client specifically asked for me to handle the deal. Warwick thought it was a compliment; to me it was a mark of shame. There had been far too many Peter Darlingtons in my past.
Warwick put his small hands on the edge of my desk, as if he were going to topple it over me. He still wore his Harvard graduation ring, along with a gold wedding band that was surprisingly plain. “Tell me, Timian; are you aware of a shortage of lawyers in this town? Because I am not, and I can assure you that this client will find a firm to represent him in the time it takes to dial a phone. Are you telling me that you suddenly had a revelation that our clients are not always the good guys? You must be joking. We have represented the Chinese and we have represented dictators. Hell, I was pretty sure that one of our clients was supplying the Taliban, though I will deny ever saying that. Either way, they are entitled to legal counsel, and it is not our job to make moral judgments. And before you mount your high horse, let me remind you that the Southeast Asian deal you so ably handled was not clean. I play golf with an undersecretary at the State Department. If you knew what your client was really doing – what you helped facilitate – your hair would turn white. So let’s drop this foolishness, okay?”
I couldn’t do anything to correct what I’d done for the firm in the past, but I was determined not to make my record any uglier. “It is not foolish to protect the environment we live in. I am simply not going to take this case.”
Harrison Warwick, esteemed lawyer, gave me a lecher’s grin. “There’s a woman involved in this, isn’t there? You met some graduate student at American University who is majoring in saving whales. Your new social awareness is coming to you from pillow talk, isn’t it?”
I looked Warwick straight in the eye. He was truly a miserable excuse for a human being. “My personal life has nothing to do with this.”
“It appears that your personal life has very much to do with this. I’ll have to keep that in mind.” He turned toward the door. “I have to get back to Darlington. I’m sure Marks will handle the case. I know he has ambitions. And he won’t let anything get in the way of them.”
Warwick sent me one more smoldering glare and then left.
Sharon came in a moment later and closed the door behind her.
“I’m surprised he said all of that with the door open. I could hear everything from my desk.” She looked at me as if a stranger were sitting in my chair. “That was quite a stand you just took there. I can’t believe you did that. Warwick is accustomed to getting his way.”
She stared at me until I began to feel uncomfortable. “Come on, Sharon. It isn’t like I dyed my hair purple or came to the office naked.”
She covered her mouth and coughed. “It’s a little like that, actually.” She looked at me with a bemused smile on her face.
“What?” I said, feeling like she was toying with me.
“Are you dating a graduate student from American University?”
“Why does that have to be the reason?”
“It doesn’t.” She smirked. “People change personalities overnight all the time.”
I had a tough time retaining eye contact with her. “Maybe this does have a little to do with a woman I used to know. Someone I’d like to get to know again.”
Sharon moved forward and patted my desk. “I hope you do. Looks like she’s good for you.”
We never would have had a conversation that personal a couple of weeks ago in this new world. I suppose that was progress of sorts. Maybe she’d even come to work for me again after Warwick fired me.
Chapter 17
Gravity and Sobriety
No matter what your taste in music, you had to feel accosted by the sound system at Donovan’s. Hip-hop and metal stood toe-to-toe in a high decibel battle of the bands that took no prisoners. You didn’t as much groove to the rhythms here as you succumbed to them. Compared to the gorgeous sounds that had filled Benaroya Hall just a few nights earlier, it was the aural equivalent of a mugging.
Then again, sports bars weren’t known for their quiet ambiance. At least three dozen HDTV screens were displaying baseball games from various spots around the country. Enormous signs announced the bar’s allegiance to the Orioles and the Redskins, while others indicated that they bowed at the altar of Budweiser and Cuervo Gold. Even when I used to frequent bars almost nightly I tended to stay away from places this loud because I found them a little hard to take. Now it was simply sensory overload.
The bar was a beehive of people drinking, talking, and laughing. Everyone moved at a frantic pace, as if their energy propped up the building, and a moment’s rest would collapse the ceiling. Someone tapped my shoulder. I turned and saw Kate. She spoke, but her words bounced off the barrier of n
oise. I pointed at a table farthest from the bar. She nodded and followed me.
As we sat down, she leaned over the table and shouted, “Did you bring your earplugs?”
“Forgot. Thanks for recommending this quiet little place for a chat.”
Like other things in this world, this Kate looked the same – just a little different. Her hair was short instead of shoulder-length. Her navy business suit was more tailored. It was Melissa who had convinced Kate to let her hair grow long and loosen up with her clothing. It made a huge difference in her appearance, warming her up. She was still very attractive, but she seemed harder somehow. Then again, maybe that wasn’t the hair. Who knew what life without Melissa had done to her?
After a few minutes, our ears adjusted until the music became white noise. “What will you have?” I said, gesturing toward the bar.
“Any German beer is fine.”
I elbowed my way through the crowd and returned with a beer and a ginger ale.
Kate took a healthy gulp and smiled, regarding me. “Ken Timian. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen your face.”
“You mean you missed me?”
“I didn’t think so, but now that I see you, I think I just might have.”
I raised my glass to her, choosing to ignore what it meant that Kate “didn’t think” she missed me and focusing on the compliment instead. “Well I missed you, too.”
She smiled. It was amazing what happened to her face when she smiled. The vulnerability that she worked very hard to hide slid through, making her so much more appealing. “So you’re still working for Warwick the Loser, huh?”
“At least until partnerships are announced. I might be working for legal aid after that.”
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