“That would also be a good thing.”
Once I got off the phone with Sharon, I made two other calls. Kate, who still seemed stunned by what had happened the night before – she asked me to repeat my conversation with Melissa a half dozen times on the drive back home – seemed game for anything. Paul, on the other hand, required some coercion. His reticence and cynicism were something I hoped to see much less of in the future.
I drove down to Stephon’s, halfway expecting him to be waiting for my arrival. Instead, he seemed pleasantly surprised to see me.
“Hello, Ken,” he said, stepping around the counter to greet me, “how are things going?”
“Sensationally,” I said brightly.
Stephon obviously wasn’t anticipating that response. “Really?”
“Really. Now I just need my luck to hold. I met Melissa again. We have a date this afternoon.”
Stephon smiled broadly and said, “Excellent.” He clapped me on the shoulder and turned to go back behind the counter. “This calls for a celebration. I just received a shipment of Yinzhen Silver Needle tea. It’ll only take a short while to brew.”
It tickled me that he was so excited for me, and I laughed out loud. While Stephon busied himself with the samovar, I perused the new items in the store. I settled on a selection of pearlescent white stones delicately shaped into diamond, floral, and triangular designs. They were stunning.
“What are these?” I said to Stephon when he returned with our tea.
“Moonstone. Beautiful, aren’t they?”
Stephon sipped his tea. I took a sip of mine and was transported by its sweet fragrance. “Really beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like them before.”
Stephon grinned. “Well, I wouldn’t want you to start thinking me ordinary, Ken.”
“There’s little chance of that.” I took another sip of tea and continued to admire the moonstone.
“What brings you here today? I assume it wasn’t only to share your good news with me.”
“I did want you to know. But I also want to bring Melissa a present. You know how much she always loved this place.”
“Indeed I do.”
“I don’t want to go too far over the top. It’s supposed to be our first date and all. But I want to bring her something that says that this lunch means a lot to me.”
“And your eye was drawn to the moonstone.”
“My eye is drawn to everything here, but these moonstone pieces are remarkable. The tea is great by the way.”
“I should hope so.” Stephon held up a finger. “I have something you should see.” He put his glass down behind the counter and walked into the back room. He returned less than a minute later holding a pendant from which hung a round stone larger than any he had on display, though still relatively small. “Isn’t this magnificent?” he said, holding it out to me.
I held the pendant in my hands, running my fingers softly against the milky stone. “It’s great.”
“And extraordinarily rare. It is a perfect moonstone. Almost impossible to find in this size.”
I looked up from the pendant to Stephon. His eyes were brighter than I’d ever seen them. “This would be perfect, wouldn’t it?” I said.
“If you believe it’s perfect, then it is.”
I smiled. “I’ll take it. I hope she won’t feel that I’m going over the top here, but you’ve never steered me wrong before.”
He offered me a meaningful glance. “I’m glad you feel that way.”
I chuckled a little and Stephon boxed the pendant for me. When he finished, he handed me the box and I handed him my credit card. He brushed the card away.
“One of the privileges of owning one’s own shop.”
“I can’t let you just give this to me.”
He shrugged. “I’m not giving it to you. I’m giving it to Melissa.”
I reached out my hand and Stephon gripped it firmly. “Have a good lunch, Ken,” he said.
*
Melissa had made it subtly clear that she preferred meeting in an extremely public place, so we went to one of the dining rooms at the Mandarin Oriental. It was the sort of place where government and business icons met over studiously prepared meals served by impeccably groomed waiters. It was as safe and as public as I could imagine, and I hoped it was the last time we dined someplace this Old Money.
I arrived a half-hour early. Melissa was fifteen minutes late. I’d begun to wonder if she’d had second thoughts, deciding that even if I was a friend of Kate’s and even if she remembered the connection we’d made in Seattle that this kind of thing was much too impetuous for her. When she came to the table, I was checking my cell phone for messages.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. “There were some complications booking musicians for Friday’s session and I couldn’t break away. Have you been waiting long?”
“Just a few minutes.”
Melissa sat down before I could even rise out of my chair. She looked sensational. She was wearing a smart red outfit and I noticed that its cut was similar (though the color was not) to many of the business suits she’d worn in our other life.
“Well, again, I’m sorry. I hate it when people keep me waiting.”
If she only knew how long I’d been waiting for her, she would have understood how insignificant the current delay was. “It’s nothing,” I said. “I’m glad you came.”
“I have to say I was a little intrigued after last night. I don’t usually do anything this spur-of-the-moment. Jackeline thought I was out of my mind. She insisted on coming with me, but I put my foot down. Don’t be surprised if you see her peeking around a corner.”
A waiter laid menus on the table ceremoniously. Melissa idly picked hers up, but she didn’t look at it. I folded my hands over mine. “I promise you, I’m completely safe.”
“I’m sure you are, Ken.” She put her menu down, leaned forward a little, and smiled at me. “You have a trustworthy face.”
“I do?”
“Does that surprise you?”
“No, not at all. It’s just good to hear someone say it.”
“You have a very nice face,” she said and then seemed embarrassed that she’d done so.
“You have a nice face, too,” I said, immediately scolding myself for saying something so lame.
Melissa cupped her chin in her hands. “Thanks. And you’re such a smooth talker.” She offered me a bemused smile.
I cringed. “I seem to be getting in touch with my inner junior high school boy at the moment.”
Her smile grew wider. “I’m teasing you. Thank you for the compliment and thank you for inviting me to lunch. I’ve been looking forward to it all day.”
I felt a tingle from her expression that I hadn’t felt in much too long. What she looked like when she teased me was one of the things I’d allowed myself to forget in the time we were separated.
If I hadn’t already been madly in love with Melissa, I would have started falling in love with her right then. We’d been sitting across from each other for less than five minutes and I was already feeling more alive than I had in weeks. It was intoxicating, and I was so thankful for it that I nearly wept. I promised myself I would remember every second of this exchange, that there would never be a time in my life when I couldn’t call up the feelings I was feeling at this very moment.
Over the next several minutes, we traded stories. I told her about my career and my messy apartment, and left out little details like the reputation I’d developed as a party animal. That Ken Timian was so far removed from who I was now – who I planned to be for the rest of my life – it was as though he was a different person entirely. I suppose in some very real way he was.
Melissa told me about the course her career had taken, and provided a few anecdotes about her time at the conservatory and lif
e on the road. She spoke with passion and excitement, and as she did so, I realized that she was everything I knew her to be but just a little lighter, a little less careworn, a little less worldly, even though she’d traveled the world. She dedicated herself almost entirely to her music, practicing from eight to ten hours every day, but she had no regrets about this, feeling that her time could hardly be spent in a better pursuit. I asked her as gently as I could about her rock star ex-boyfriend and she tossed it off as a media invention. Yes, they dated, even vacationing together once, but theirs was hardly a major romance and their breakup was nothing more than a decision to get on with the rest of their lives. I hoped I didn’t seem too pleased when she told me this.
When the waiter came to take our order, we stopped talking only long enough to tell him what we wanted. The break, however, allowed Melissa to shift gears.
“So what’s happening here?” she said.
“Here? As in right now?”
“As in right now, and last night, and in Seattle, and all of this. This certainly doesn’t feel like a casual little lunch and you certainly don’t seem to be looking at it that way.” She eyed me carefully and I felt a little apprehensive.
She continued. “And neither am I. But why is that?”
I didn’t want to blow it by saying too much, but I also knew that I needed – perhaps more than ever in my life – to say what I really felt. “From the first time I saw you, I knew that I would take every second with you seriously. I know that probably sounds ridiculous to you, but I felt it right from the start.”
Melissa held my gaze for an eternal moment. Just then, the waiter came with our drinks, breaking the connection. When he left, I looked over at Melissa, but she was no longer looking at me. Instead, she was glancing down at the table. Then she picked up her glass.
“This is a total mystery to me,” she said, “but I can’t remember the last time being with someone felt this right.” She raised her glass toward mine and we touched them together. “Here’s to taking every second together seriously. Wherever this leads.”
I wanted Melissa to decide that she needed to spend several more days in Washington. I imagined her calling her personal assistant and telling her to put her entire life on hold and then our staying in this restaurant until the waiters ganged up on us.
That fantasy lasted all of a minute and a half. Then her cellphone rang and Melissa pulled it out of her bag, moving to silence it.
“It’s okay, Melissa,” I said. “Take the call.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
Melissa got up from the table to take the call. I watched her walk away, praying that urgent business wasn’t going to take her completely away from me just now. As time passed, I half expected a waiter to come by to say that Melissa was sending her regrets, but she had to run off. A couple of minutes later, though, she came back looking amused.
“Is everything okay?” I said.
“Everything is fine,” she said, sitting down. She laughed. “That was Jackeline calling. She wanted to make sure I was all right. She’s so ridiculously protective of me. She was offering me an opportunity to escape.” Melissa leaned toward me. “I told her I wasn’t to be bothered again the rest of the afternoon.”
I smiled. “Thanks.” I reached into my breast pocket and produced the jewelry box. “This is for you.”
“Really?”
She seemed a bit apprehensive, so I moved quickly to minimize this gesture. “Just a little something. A getting-acquainted present.”
I handed her the box and she ran her fingers over the top of it. “Stephon’s,” she said.
“You know the place?”
“I visit him every time I’m in town. He’s my favorite jeweler in the entire world. I saw him yesterday and.…”
Her voice trailed off and she looked baffled. “And?” I said.
“And he told me that something momentous was going to happen to me on this trip.” She looked from the box to me, the light dancing in her eyes. “I think it has.”
She looked down at the box again. Slowly, she opened it, removing the pendant and studying the gem carefully. “This is gorgeous. I don’t recognize the stone.”
“It’s a moonstone. Stephon told me it’s a rare perfect specimen.”
She ran her finger over the pendant just as I had in Stephon’s shop. “I can’t believe you got this for me. I would have picked it out myself if I had seen it.”
She had been in Stephon’s shop yesterday and hadn’t seen this display. I didn’t think I was ever going to solve the mystery of that remarkable jeweler. “Try it on. It’ll go beautifully with what you’re wearing.”
Melissa seemed a little unsure of herself but then took the pendant out of the box and tried it on. It looked as gorgeous on her as I imagined it would. “You have excellent taste in jewelry,” she said. “Thank you.” She looked down at the pendant for a long moment. “My head is spinning a little.”
When she looked at me again, there was a glimmer in her eyes that could have lit the entire Kennedy Center. It was even more electrifying to my soul.
Chapter 24
At Least as Much of a Mystery to Me Today
I sat alone at the top of the mountain. Aspen in the early summer teemed with shoppers, tourists, and hikers striding challenging paths. Unlike in the winter, though, it was still possible to get a little part of it for yourself. The air was so different here from what it was in Washington. It was crisp even when it was warm. I lay back on the blanket and breathed deeply. It had taken me a few days to get accustomed to the altitude, but now it felt completely natural. Like my new life.
Three days ago, I’d shut down the apartment in Arlington. I supervised the loading of all of my belongings onto a moving van, picked up the cat’s carrier, and headed to the airport. Colorado would be home now, but when one lived with Melissa Argent, one truly was a citizen of the world.
Warwick the Lesser almost seemed relieved when I handed in my resignation. We’d been going at it pretty hard lately. Over the course of two lifetimes, Melissa had taught me that truly caring about things meant more than simply paying lip service to them and I steadfastly refused to represent any client I didn’t believe in. Since the firm seemed to specialize in attracting spoilers and despots, this lightened my workload considerably. I still billed major hours, but I’d clearly become less of a team player than Warwick desired. I don’t think he’ll ever understand how “that woman changed me.” He’ll always think I took my revised moral stance to remain in her good graces. What it really came down to for me was this: did I want to regale my grandchildren with stories of how I helped some rich people devastate the future for the sake of a buck or did I want to tell them how I negotiated fair deals for farmers all over the planet so they could make a decent living and we could enjoy the fruits of their labors? My new office would be ready in downtown Aspen when we got back.
Leaving Sharon behind was tougher than I’d expected. The divorce settlement turned out fine in the long run, but she still had some huge issues facing her raising two boys as a single parent, and her ex-husband took every opportunity he could to poison them against her. I nearly convinced her to move to Colorado and work with me again, but in the end she decided that she couldn’t take her kids that far away from their father. There are no simple lives.
Paul took me to Dulles. He and Kate took me out to dinner to celebrate my last night in town. I got to choose the restaurant and I decided we should go back to the Neapolitan, the Italian place I went to with him and Angela right after I learned that Melissa was gone. He thought it was a strange choice, but I had my reasons. As I expected, the two of them spent a lot of time whispering to one another and swaying to the romantic Italian music. When Paul started singing Andrea Bocelli’s “Per Amore,” I nearly lost my appetite, but the contrast was still wonderful to watch. Introducing them h
ad been one of my better inspirations.
“I’m gonna make the move,” Paul said as we sat in traffic on the way to the airport. “I’m gonna ask Kate to marry me.”
“Hey, that’s great. I knew you had it in you.”
“Yeah, I know you did. I’m not sure when you became such a great judge of character, but you were totally right. I just needed to be in the right relationship.”
“I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m gonna do it in the plane on the way back from your wedding. I was going to ask her at your wedding, but I figured you and Melissa might have a little problem with that.”
“Either way is great. Let the spirit move you.”
His brow wrinkled. “She’s gonna say yes, right?”
“I think there’s a very good chance of that. You did notice her mooning over you while you were singing last night, didn’t you? Kate wasn’t the moony type until she met you.”
“Wow, I had that effect on someone?”
“Imagine that. You’d better make sure to hold on to Kate, though. I’m not sure there are too many other women who would find your vocal stylings romantic.”
Paul laughed. Even now it still tickled me to see him so easily amused. “Yeah, you’re probably right about that.”
Earlier that day, I’d gone to Stephon’s to pick up the rings. They were platinum and gold and Stephon told me that they were based on a centuries-old design created by his family. I wondered if he created it himself centuries ago. Stephon was at least as much of a mystery to me today as he had been the afternoon he fulfilled my fantasy and turned my entire world upside down.
“I’ll be back every time I come to D.C.,” I said as I prepared to leave.
“I look forward to it. I would hate to lose a favorite customer.”
“Not a chance. You know, you should have a website to allow people to shop your store online.”
Stephon shook his head. “I don’t believe in the Internet, Ken.”
“You don’t?”
“Not for the long term.”
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