by R. R. Banks
He shifted slightly as I curled my body against his and I felt his hand come to rest on my belly where I could feel the baby still tumbling around. I pressed my lips to his shoulder, closing my eyes against the words that I wanted to say, but that I couldn’t bring myself to voice.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rue
Three weeks later…
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
I turned away from the mirror where I was checking my makeup and looked at Richard, sure that I hadn’t heard what I thought I had. I stared at him for a few moments and then took a step toward him.
“What?” I asked.
He finished tying his shoe and stood, shaking the front of his pants to straighten them and ensure that the pleat fell smoothly. It was something that had irritated me when I first saw him do it, thinking that he couldn’t possibly be fussier, but now it was almost endearing. He took a step toward me and took my hands in his.
“Have dinner with me tonight,” he repeated.
“You mean like a date?” I asked.
“No,” he said, and I felt my heart sink a little. “Not like a date. Not kind of a date. Not something similar to a date. A date.”
“You’re asking me on a date?” I asked, my heart lifting and a smile coming to my lips.
Richard laughed and nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “I am asking you on a date. I want to go on a date with you. I want to pick you up and bring you on a date. I want to be on a date and look beside me and see that you are there with me. I want to accompany you to dinner and have it be romantic in nature. I want this to be our first date. I want to date you and have it begin now.”
“OK,” I said, laughing. “Alright. I got it.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I think that I could come up with a few other ways to say it if you give me a minute.”
“I’m sure.”
“Then will you?”
I nodded, my smile getting bigger.
“Yes,” I said. “I would love to go on a date with you.”
Richard grinned and squeezed my hands.
“Perfect. I’ll have Abraham bring you to your apartment, so you can get ready. I’ll be there to pick you up at seven.”
“My apartment?” I asked. “But I don’t have anything there that I would want to wear on a date. Especially my first date with you.”
A glint came to Richard’s eyes and I knew that I had, yet again, underestimated this man.
“You might have something waiting for you,” he said.
“You were pretty confident in yourself, weren’t you?” I asked.
“More like hopeful.”
“And if I had said no?”
“Is there any way that you would have?”
“No, but what if I had?”
“Then you would be very prepared for the most formal birth in recorded history. Our daughter would have the most glamorous delivery of any child ever.”
I felt my breath catch in my throat.
“Our daughter?” I asked.
Richard pulled me closer to him until I could feel his heart beating in his chest. The rhythm was fast and deep, and I concentrated on it, enjoying the security of it. He nodded.
“It’s something that I want to talk to you about at dinner tonight.”
I nodded back, and he smiled, bringing his mouth down to gently touch mine.
“I’ll see you at seven?” I asked.
He nodded and kissed me again. My heart was fluttering in my chest and the butterflies swarming around in my belly were doing a bang-up job competing with the baby’s tumbling that she had gotten extremely skilled at in the past few weeks. I couldn’t get the smile off my face as I headed out of the house and into the waiting limo. Abraham headed in the direction of my apartment without me saying anything, telling me that this was all put into action well before Richard asked me to go to dinner with him that night.
When we arrived at the apartment, he escorted me to the door and unlocked it for me just as he always did. There was something about that that I really liked. It went beyond just feeling special because he was helping me. It was more that I was never the one who unlocked the door. This kept me from feeling like the apartment was a replacement for my home in Whiskey Hollow. As long as I wasn’t treating this apartment like my home, Richard wasn’t trying to control me, he wasn’t trying to change me.
I thanked Abraham and walked into the apartment. As soon as I went into the bedroom, I saw a large white box tied with a red ribbon sitting in the center of the bed. As I walked closer, I saw another smaller box behind it and a third behind that. Smiling at the thought of Richard going through so much effort for me, I untied the ribbon on the biggest box and lifted the lid. Pushing the pieces of tissue paper aside, I saw a stunning red dress. I reached in and withdrew the dress, holding it to me and spinning around to look at myself in the full-length mirror on the wall behind me. The dress had a delicately scooped neckline and a flared skirt that fell just above my knees.
Resting the dress back into the box, I reached for the smaller box behind the bigger one. Opening it, I found a pair of shoes perfect for the dress. My hands were shaking slightly as I picked up the third box. I sat on the edge of the bed and held the box on my lap for a few seconds before lifting the lid. Nestled inside against a bed of white velvet was a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a bracelet. I grinned as I took the bracelet and slipped it over my hand.
I put the bracelet back into the box and undressed before walking into the bathroom. A basket sat on the floor beside the tub, filled with my favorite scented bubble bath, bath salts, and lotion. A new pouf was tucked behind the bottles, making the assortment even more appealing. I ran a warm bath and poured some of the bubble bath under the stream of water, immediately filling the room with the sweet fragrance. Twisting my hair on top of my head, I stepped into the bath and slid down into the lush bubbles. I lingered in the bath, luxuriating in the sensory experience, then stepped out and used one of the thick, soft towels set beside the basket to dry myself. I felt refreshed and beautiful as I took my time doing my makeup and styling my hair. I still had some time when I was finished, so I sat down to write a letter to the baby.
****
Dear Baby,
I am going out on a date with your daddy tonight. I can hardly believe it. Of course, it’s something that I’ve been dreaming of and hoped would happen, but I couldn’t really let myself think that it would actually happen. Over these last few months I’ve tried to ignore that I was falling in love with him. Even as we got closer, I didn’t want to let myself admit what I was feeling. It would just make it much too hard when the time came for you to be born and for us to go our separate ways. I didn’t want to have to think about losing you and the man that I loved at the same time. It would be just too much for me to bear.
That was before today. Finally, your father asked me to go to dinner with him. It’s not the first time that we’ve eaten together, of course, but this is different. He finally said that it was a date. He finally admitted that he was feeling the same things that I was. Then he mentioned you. He told me that he wants to talk about you when we go out to eat tonight. I can only hope that he wants the same thing that I do. You know what that is. You are so close to my heart that you can hear it beat every second. I can only imagine that you know what’s in it. If he wants what I hope he does, maybe my heart can finally stop longing for what I thought would never be, and instead start dreaming of something far more wonderful than I could have ever hoped.
Something is going to change tonight, my sweet little one. Our lives are going to be different. I just know it.
I love you.
****
I put down my pen and put the letter aside without signing it. I didn’t know what to sign. Just my name didn’t seem like enough anymore, but there wasn’t anything else that seemed appropriate. Not yet. Not until I knew for sure.
I checked the time and saw that it was only a few minu
tes until Richard was supposed to arrive to pick me up. The butterflies felt like they had gotten their second wind as I let the dress drop down over my head and settle around my thighs. I put the earrings in and secured the necklace around my neck. I had just stepped into my shoes and drawn the bracelet over my hand when I heard the knock on my apartment door.
A real date.
I was smiling so hard my face hurt as I scurried toward the door as fast as my burgeoning belly would allow me, and opened it, but the expression melted when I saw who was waiting for me outside.
“Abraham,” I said.
“Hello, Miss Rue,” he said. “You look lovely this evening.”
“Thank you. Where’s Richard? Is everything alright?”
“Everything’s fine. There was a brief delay, so he sent me to get you and bring you to the restaurant. He says that he will meet you there and will probably even make it there before you.”
“Where is he?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Abraham said. “He had me drop him off at the Central Hotel. He said that he will be to the restaurant shortly. That’s all I know.”
“Did he seem upset?”
I was starting to panic. What could be keeping him?
Did I misunderstand what he meant when he asked me to dinner tonight?
“Everything seemed perfectly normal,” Abraham told me. “We should leave if you want to make your reservation on time.”
He was starting to sound impatient and I stepped out of the apartment. Abraham reached behind me and closed the door, locking it. I almost reached for the keys that I had in the tiny black purse I was carrying, as if I could somehow extra-lock the door. Abraham guided me toward the limo and I felt slightly unsteady on my feet as I went, thoughts of everything that could be happening, all of the ways that this could be going wrong spiraled through my head. As I slipped into the backseat and Abraham closed the door behind me, my mind suddenly cleared.
He specifically said that this is a date. Specifically. He wouldn’t say that if it wasn’t what he meant.
I forced myself to calm down, drawing in a few breaths as I tried to relax and bring myself back to the happiness that I had been feeling. The limo glided through the streets of the city and I watched the lights gradually coming on though it was still too early in the evening for it to be dark. This was the strange time of a summer day, when the clock said that it was sliding toward nighttime and many children were being tucked into bed, but the sun was still bright enough that you felt like you should be doing something productive. I distinctly remembered having that feeling when getting ready for prom in high school. I felt so fancy, dressed up in the gown that Grammyma had made for me and taking three hours to style my hair in a way that I look back now and know looked little different than something that would have taken me just a few minutes. I had felt glamorous, but when I stepped outside of the house to meet my date, the sun was still shining, and I felt far too gussied up. Rather than feeling grown up, I suddenly felt like a little girl toddling around in dress up clothes.
As we made our way down one of the main streets of downtown I noticed the large, ornate sign for the Central Hotel ahead of us. We were directly in front of it when traffic grinded to a halt and Abraham had to stop.
“What the hell is going on up there?” he muttered, and I saw him craning his neck to see what was causing the delay ahead of us.
I turned to look out of my window at the hotel, wondering where Richard was inside of it and what he was doing. As if my thoughts of him had guided them, my eyes scanned across the huge picture windows at the front of the hotel and landed on Richard. He was sitting at one of the small tables in the hotel’s exclusive lounge, two glasses of wine on the table in front of him. And sitting across from him was Flora.
I felt my heart jump into my throat and I turned to press myself closer to the window so that I could watch what was happening between them. They were leaned toward each other over the table, obviously caught in an intense discussion. I saw Richard reach across toward her and Flora take his hand. He gave hers a squeeze and she offered him a hint of a smile. The limo was starting to roll again, and I twisted to make sure that I could continue to watch them even as we pulled away. They were nearly out of sight when I saw them both stand and walk around the side of the table so that Richard could gather Flora into a tight embrace.
The breath seemed stuck in my lungs as I turned around and pressed my back to the seat, my hands coming to rest protectively over my belly as I fought to keep my emotions under control and my mind from spiraling out of it.
“Funeral,” Abraham muttered.
“That’s what it feels like,” I whispered back.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Richard
I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off of my shoulders as I climbed out of the limo that Flora had arranged to bring me to the restaurant. Meeting up with her that evening was something that I dreaded and certainly didn’t want, but now that it was over I realized that it was exactly what I needed. I knew for absolute certain that that part of my life was finished, and I could put it all behind me. Without even knowing it, she had taken away some of the stress that I had been feeling about my date with Rue that night and replaced it with total reassurance. Everything was in place now, everything was exactly as it should be.
I reached back into the car and pulled out the bouquet of flowers that I had ordered for Rue. It was an exact replica of the one that I had brought for her on Thanksgiving, the first time that we had really had an opportunity to spend any time together just the two of us. I hoped that she would notice and understand the sentiment. The words that I wanted to say to her were repeating through my mind over and over as I approached the door to the restaurant. I wanted every single one of them to be absolutely perfect. What I needed to tell her was far too important for me to risk saying the wrong thing. I had never been so nervous about something that I needed to say.
The maître d’ welcomed me to the restaurant by name and then directed me toward the table, though I didn’t really need such formality considering it was the same table that I always reserved. It was one of those things that people did for me, falling over themselves to show me courtesy and respect, to demonstrate that they knew that I was important with gestures that I was starting to recognize were largely meaningless.
I saw Rue waiting for me at the table as I approached, and a wide smile broke across my lips. She was wearing the dress that I had chosen for her and the jewelry was the perfect accompaniment, exactly as I had envisioned that it would be. She was staring at the glass of water in front of her, her fingertip tracing the rim lazily as she seemed lost in her thoughts. I felt terrible that she had been waiting for me, even if it had only been for a few minutes, but I knew that by the end of the evening it wouldn’t matter to her anymore. I opened my arms as she looked up at me, but the expression on her face didn’t change. The smile that I had been sure that I was going to see wasn’t there and her eyes looked empty and dark.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Is Flora going to be joining us this evening?” she asked.
My stomach sank, and I felt my face burn with embarrassment. She found out. Somehow, she already knew that I had seen Flora that evening. Though I obviously wasn’t going to hide it from her and had been planning on telling her everything about the meeting as soon as I sat down, she had found out before I had the opportunity to tell her and was now furious. I couldn’t really say that I blamed her for her reaction. Knowing that I had met with my former girlfriend, the woman who had once been the future mother of the child that Rue was carrying, would be confusing and upsetting at best, devastating and infuriating at worst.
“Rue, let me explain.”
She stood up suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone at the tables around her.
“I don’t need you to explain anything you slimy fucking son of a bitch,” she said through gritted teeth.
Well, damn, that escal
ated quickly.
“Rue, please calm down,” I said quietly.
“No, I’m not going to calm down,” she said. “And stop saying my name. I am so fucking sick of the touchy-feely psychobabble that you rich men think is going to help you control the world even more than you already do. You think that the more you say my name, the more I’m going to feel acknowledged by you, don’t you? Yeah, that’s right. I took the interpersonal skills workshop at work. I know all the tricks. I suppose you were making sure that I felt plenty acknowledged the other night at the fair. I’m sorry that I couldn’t acknowledge you in return. I was too busy with your dick in my mouth. It was pretty hard to talk around it.”
Oh, holy hell.
Everyone in the restaurant who was in earshot, which was everyone who was in the restaurant, gasped and I felt my face burning even more fiercely. I’m not usually one to be embarrassed easily, but Rue was certainly doing a great job pushing the limits of my self-confidence. It was fairly difficult to remain dignified when a heavily pregnant woman was screaming about your sexual adventures in the middle of a restaurant that had a waiting list of more than three years for the few tables not held by standing reservations. Now all she needed to do was mention Flora just a little louder and it would bring everything full circle.
“Why didn’t you bring Flora along with you? I’m sure that she would have loved to get a bit of a laugh out of this. Or is she capable of laughing? I’m not sure how Barbie dolls forged in the annals of hell express emotion.”
Yep. There we go.
“There really isn’t a need to cause a scene,” I said, still trying to keep my voice as low and steady as I could, hoping to calm her enough that at least we wouldn’t be escorted away by the police. “Can you sit down so that I can tell you what happened?”
“No need to cause a scene?” Rue asked, her voice reaching a thin, high pitch that was almost painful. “No need to cause a scene? I’m sorry. I guess you don’t know who you’re dealing with. Well, if you don’t like the mudslinging, then perhaps you should have stayed out of the pig pen. Because that’s what you think of Whiskey Hollow, isn’t it? Admit it.”