Bruce did have an interest in art, and it showed in his choice of paintings and sculptures. Most of the work was traditional, with some ventures into abstract in the sculptures.
The well-maintained look had more to do with Clara, who had worked for the Patmans since Bruce was a boy, than with any innate neatness.
There were so many things Elizabeth liked about Bruce. In fact, they were very much alike in myriad ways; they liked the same books, movies, plays, and politics. Best of all, they didn’t like the same people, which gave them lots of fun conversations and private jokes.
More important, they felt the same way about serious issues like family and loyalty and love. Both surprisingly square and homey, almost old-fashioned. They were romantics.
Then it came to Elizabeth. She knew what Bruce’s secret was—he was in love.
For an instant there was the delight of knowing, of guessing right, because she knew she was right, but that lasted only a few seconds before another much darker emotion bubbled up.
She would lose him.
The thought took her breath away.
Bruce must have heard her car pulling up, because he opened the door before she could ring the doorbell.
Given a choice, she would have run and not had to hear anything about this mystery woman, about how he adored her and how she was everything in his life.
“No!” The word escaped her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Bruce was alarmed.
The devastation had turned Elizabeth sheet white. Her eyes opened so wide, they stung. Or was it the beginning of tears?
Bruce reached out, gently brought her into the house, and led her to the couch.
“My God, what happened?” he asked as she collapsed on the cushions. “Are you all right?”
“It’s okay. I’m okay,” Elizabeth said, struggling to collect herself. “I’m sorry. I just … I tripped. That’s it. I lost my balance. But I’m okay now.”
She tried a smile to reassure him, but no smile came, only a twisted grimace, the harbinger of tears.
Bruce was concerned. “Did you fall? Is that it? Are you hurt?”
“No. I didn’t fall, I didn’t even trip.” She was uncomfortable with the lie, but she couldn’t really tell him the truth because she wasn’t sure of it herself. Why did his possible happiness crush her so? He was her dearest friend; she loved him. She should be overjoyed.
“It’s just been too overwhelming. Everything.”
“I know.” He poured two glasses of wine, a Pommard, her favorite, and handed her one. “Let’s relax. Not talk about anything important.”
“But you want to tell me…”
“It can wait. Come on, take your glass and I’ll show you the new flowers I put in next to the deck. The I, of course, is actually Frederico, the guy who does my garden.”
“But you sold the house.”
“Who told you that?”
“It’s true, isn’t it?”
Bruce was caught. “Yes. Caroline?”
“No, my brother. But why the secret? And why did you keep it from me?”
“I’ll tell you everything, but first I need some fortification.” Bruce downed his wine, refilled his glass, and topped off Elizabeth’s.
“How many people are they expecting at the wedding?” he asked, stalling.
“A hundred and fifty or so. Todd has a million cousins.”
“Who from Sweet Valley is coming?”
“It looks like our whole high school class.”
They continued with the safe conversation for a couple of minutes. Both were uncomfortable about moving on.
Elizabeth was dreading the big revelation, but she couldn’t help trying to guess who it was. Maybe it was someone from Sweet Valley. What if it was someone like Lila? Lila was separated, that made her available.
No way, Elizabeth told herself. That little fling they’d had in college was nothing. According to Bruce it had disappeared without a trace.
She quickly went through other possibilities while Bruce told her about how he’d sold the house to people who lived someplace, Elizabeth didn’t hear where. She was too busy with the list of potential brides and beginning to feel more nauseated with every new candidate.
It turned out to be a whole long story about how the broker made a mistake on the price and they actually were going to pay ten thousand more than he was asking until he owned up.
Elizabeth studied Bruce’s face while he spoke. He had the longest lashes for a man. They were almost pretty, but the blue eyes were dark and his expression was very masculine, strong, and honest.
Bruce had been pronounced gorgeous since high school, and he was. Since the time his parents had died, Elizabeth had been his closest friend and had stopped seeing his appearance; their psyches were so deeply connected she hardly ever noticed the surface. But looking at him now, aside from the gorgeous part, there was a warmth and even a sexiness.…
Sexiness? Bruce, her friend? Well, there it was.
She couldn’t wait any longer. “Okay, so who is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you too well. You’re in love. So who is it?”
Even as she said the words and tried to make them sound light and fun, she dreaded the answer.
“How do you know I’m in love?”
“I can feel it.”
“Describe it.”
“Look at you. You’re practically oozing love. You’re almost electric in your warmth. No, make that hot—dare I say—passionate? You’re on fire.”
“That sounds like the writer talking.”
“No. It’s just what I feel.”
“You feel?”
“Well, I feel you feel.”
“You’re right.”
Now she wanted to run. It was okay up to this point, but when he named this woman, that would be the end of them together. Oh, yes, he would say he and Elizabeth would always be friends, but just from the look of him, she knew there would be no room for her. Or for anyone else.
Suddenly Elizabeth knew she didn’t want to lose Bruce. Her reaction was so startling, she didn’t even know how to explain it.
It was far beyond just the selfishness of keeping her friend to herself, but any other reason was too weird.
She chickened out. “Okay, I don’t want to know who it is. Just tell me where you’re moving.”
“To New York.”
“Wow! How come? Is she there?”
He nodded.
Elizabeth poured herself another glass of wine. She’d need it for this. He would be living in New York, practically her neighbor, and she would have to pretend to be whomever’s friend. Well, she would. Because she really loved this guy.
“Enough.” Bruce sounded almost angry. “How can you be so dense? You’re supposed to know me so well. Can’t you see? It’s you. I’m in love with you.”
Elizabeth gasped. That was all she could do.
“And it’s been you since that horrendous time in the hospital with my father. You took my hand. Dumb high school thing, but that was it. I’ve been struggling through your life for the last ten years and I can’t do it anymore. At least not quietly.”
It was like a huge wave hitting Elizabeth, knocking her down and burying her under a sea of water. Now she really had to gasp for breath.
“Me? You love me?” Her voice was so small it was barely a whisper. Certain she had misheard, she winced, expecting the embarrassing correction.
“Yes.” Bruce moved closer. Close enough for her to feel the aura of heat emanating from his body.
Elizabeth let herself be drawn in. There was nothing she could think to say. In fact, there was no thinking, only feeling. An awesome, overpowering feeling.
Then he kissed her. Bruce Patman kissed her! That had never happened before. Not while she was conscious anyway, but that’s a long story.
All those years of being so close emotionally but never touching, always keeping that little distance. He was the one who kept
it, not she. She loved her friend and would have been warmer and more affectionate, but there was always that slight awayness.
It wasn’t that Bruce wasn’t appealing, because he was. In fact, he was very sexy, but absolutely off-limits.
For one thing, those were mostly the Todd years. Even the other brief relationships, like with Tom Watts and Sam Burgess, always had the shadow of Todd clouding them. Besides, the possibility of Elizabeth Wakefield cheating on anything or anyone was near impossible. That was her reputation and, truth is, it was deserved. Dummy that she was. But perhaps more important, it would have been a betrayal of their friendship. In those terrible years of loss, Bruce needed her. Taking advantage of that vulnerability would have been dishonorable.
Additionally, he certainly never showed any signs of liking her as anything but a friend. Although there were times when she thought she felt … stared at. Mostly when she wasn’t looking. And when she turned around, it was gone. But she felt it all the same, then dismissed it and chalked it up to silly teenage romantic nonsense.
But this kiss was no silly romantic nonsense. It was real! And it was wild!
It reverberated right through her whole body. Before she knew it, Elizabeth threw her arms around Bruce as if she had just returned from a million years away from the man she loved.
At last Bruce had the love of his life in his arms, the unattainable woman he had adored for ten years, the woman he watched loving someone else. He’d known their love was wrong, but he couldn’t tell her the truth because he cared too much.
They were both overcome, out of breath. Bruce stood up and held out his hand. And as she did ten years ago in that hospital waiting room, Elizabeth slipped her hand into his. Together they walked up the steps to his bedroom.
Once there, they just held each other. Then Bruce put his hands on her shoulders and moved her back slightly, only far enough to see her completely. To make certain she was absolutely there.
Gently, he unbuttoned her silk blouse. She didn’t move. He slid it down over her shoulders, deftly unhooking her bra and allowing her breasts, with their taut nipples, to be free. He just stared at her, drinking in the sight of the flesh and blood of years of longing. Still she didn’t move, waiting for him to slip her skirt and thong down over her hips and reveal her total nakedness to him.
With the excitement of standing in front of this man whom she had known so long from the distance of friendship, of being completely exposed to him, it took all her willpower to keep from closing the space between them and feeling the heat of his body against hers.
But now it was her turn. Elizabeth reached out and began to unbutton Bruce’s shirt. She moved her hands to his belt, unzipped his pants, and with a gentle push, allowed them to drop to the floor, exposing his smooth, almost sculpted body and his desire for her.
Bruce let his shirt drop from his arms, kicked his legs free of the clothes, and took his love in his arms, pressing so hard he feared he would break her, but he couldn’t stop himself and she didn’t break. Together, they fell to the bed.
When they made love, it was completely loving, full of such deep tenderness that the passion almost played second to the adoration.
But the passion was there, and once the love had been established, the excitement took over and spun them out into the wild reaches of the glorious.
At last Elizabeth knew the splendid, the marvelous, the amazing, the spectacular!
The over the top!
EPILOGUE
For All Sweet Valley Fans of Old
They all came, from far and wide, to the Wakefield wedding, people who hadn’t seen each other since high school at least ten years earlier. There were all kinds of whoops of delight, shrieks, hugs, and kisses along with some silent snubs, glares, and outright snaps.
Of course, it was at the Wakefields’ country club, whose rooms were transformed into gardens of orchids, roses, peonies, and long branches of nascent cherry blossoms, all in blush tones with barely a hint of pink. The tables were draped in blanc cassé–colored soft voile with borders of tiny live roses. The cocktail room was done in deep pink and light pink peonies interrupted only by tall, fragrant eucalyptus branches, their silver leaves shimmering in the candlelight.
The procession started with two little flower girls, Todd’s six-year-old cousins, flinging petals to the tune of “Sing” from Sesame Street. They were followed by bridesmaids in soft cream-colored gowns. Elizabeth, the maid of honor, dressed in deep blush and carrying matching flowers, was escorted by Bruce Patman, a last-minute (only this morning) usher addition. Both looked radiant. They walked to a mélange of Beatles’ music. Next the bride’s mother, also in shades of cream highlighted with subtle threads of beige, followed by Todd, the groom, with his father in an electric blue tuxedo and his mother in a matching blue gown. Just a reminder that even in the most perfect wedding, there’s aggravation.
And for the pièce de résistance, Ned Wakefield with his daughter Jessica, the bride, on his arm. She was dressed in a strapless sequined gown. Together they walked to the strains of “All I Ask of You” from The Phantom of the Opera.
Jessica said she’d had enough with “Here Comes the Bride” the last time around.
It was a fun wedding. Not a whole lot different from any Sweet Valley High dance, which, as everyone knows, is not a whole lot different from real life.
Plus ça change, plus ça change pas.
* * *
Bill Chase drove up from San Diego. He’s still great-looking, with his signature long blond hair and blue eyes, very handsome in his tuxedo. In Sweet Valley High, he dated Dee Dee Gordon, but that ended when she went off to college in Maryland.
As a teenager Bill was an incredible swimmer and surfer. He broke all the records at Sweet Valley and went on to win All-State medals. Three years ago when he was competing in a triathlon in Australia he was attacked by a shark and lost his right leg below the knee. Today, he teaches surfing to handicapped teenagers and is involved in the Special Olympics. He married his longtime girlfriend, Lianne Kane, an almost six-foot-tall Sweet Valley basketball star whom he wooed away from Jim Regis.
After college Lianne played briefly in the national woman’s basketball league, but gave it up to travel with her husband, a sacrifice she has never let Bill forget.
Lianne spent too much of the wedding ogling the bridegroom, Todd, the ex-basketball player she always had a crush on, and flirting with her ex-boyfriend Jim. It turned out to be too much for Bill. They left before the cake.
Roger Collins, known only as Mr. Collins the Robert Redford double, was there. Elizabeth was delighted to see her favorite high school English teacher and faculty adviser for The Oracle, the high school newspaper.
While he was teaching at Sweet Valley, he had a near-disastrous experience with Suzanne Devlin, who had been a houseguest of the Wakefields, and had accused him of sexual molestation. He was completely innocent.
After that incident, he felt too uncomfortable being a teacher, and he left to become a nonfiction writer. After four biographies, his latest effort is a memoir called Lies, about his teaching experiences. It’s his most successful book so far, hitting the bestseller list and staying there for fourteen weeks.
Mr. Collins hasn’t remarried and has lived with the same woman for the last eight years. He met her when she was a senior at Sweet Valley High, though not in his class. His son, Sam, now nineteen, is finishing his junior year at UCLA.
Of course, Aaron Dallas was there. He’s never going to love Jessica, but since she might be his sister-in-law (California laws permitting), he has settled into a fairly comfortable, if distant (a room’s length is usually best, but a table length will do) relationship with her.
All of his former classmates who still live in Sweet Valley are well aware of his new life, but the out-of-towners were knocked out when they learned he and Steven Wakefield have been living together for almost a year. They couldn’t stop talking about it. Indeed, word spread so fast through the seated
audience that some of them forgot to look at the bride—and don’t think Jessica didn’t notice.
Lila Fowler, still Jessica’s best friend (and sometimes worst enemy), looked fabulous despite the bridesmaid gown. She wore her blond-streaked brunette hair loose with a center part separating the cascading waves that framed her lovely face. Of course, she still had brown eyes, but now they were disguised as green thanks to new contacts. She and Ken Matthews have been separated (a most unusual separation that changes as the wind blows) for almost six months, and her date for the wedding was Jeffrey French.
Jeffrey French moved to Sweet Valley from Oregon with his father and attended Sweet Valley High in his junior year. Lila and Enid Rollins competed for him, but it was Elizabeth who won. Lila’s not really wild about Jeffrey, but having lost him to Elizabeth all those years ago, coming with him to the wedding made things a little spicier. Added to that, flirting with Ken, her ex-husband, made it even more spicy. Just like all the high school proms.
Somewhere after the soup course, Lila lost interest in Jeffrey. Still unmarried and unattached and now a practicing dentist, Jeffrey had a grand time dancing with Dee Dee Gordon and showing her around the grounds for a good forty-five minutes. Her fiancé had to work that night.
Dee Dee Gordon, as cute and petite as ever, and a talented working artist, dated Bill Chase in high school and still has a bit of a thing for him. She was able to sublimate it nicely with Jeffrey.
Charlie Markus, a truly nice guy, came with his wife, Annie Whitman, aka Easy Annie, the girl he saved in high school by teaching her to have self-respect. Charlie writes for an automobile magazine and hates it. His ambition is to publish a novel. He’s written four, but so far he’s had no luck in selling them. He just finished his latest novel with Annie as the protagonist. She’s okay with it except for the title—Easy Annie.
Betsey Martin, dear, good Tricia Martin’s older sister, was the traditional bad girl, a high school dropout who took drugs and slept around. She’s off drugs, has switched to alcohol, and can’t be counted on for anything important after five in the afternoon. She’s still sleeping around, but thanks to the martinis, most of the time she doesn’t remember with whom. Of course, she had a great time at the wedding, an inordinate amount of which she spent in the cloakroom.
Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later Page 23