by M. C. Vann
When I returned to the shop, I couldn’t help but replayed their interaction in my head. How could I have been so foolish thinking Henry and I had a chance? He said he liked me. But he obviously didn’t like me enough. He would never go for someone as plain as me.
After closing up the shop, I drove over to my sister’s house for a barbecue. It was a good way to end a Friday and hopefully keep my mind off Henry and his partner.
My niece and nephew ran out the door when my car pulled up to the driveway. They both hugged me, something I really needed, and then they dragged me to the backyard, yapping on how I missed out on the fight their parents had about how to start the grill.
I recognized Rick’s parents sitting around the bonfire while he grilled.
“Hi, Ally, glad you could make it,” Rick said with a smile.
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss out on free food.”
“Have a seat. The food’s almost done.”
“Okay.”
I walked over to Rick’s parents, Ruth and Bob, who were visiting from Georgia. Rick shared more similarities with his father. Both were tall and slightly bald while Ruth was short. Even Eason reached up to his grandma’s shoulders already.
I sat on an open chair next to Ruth. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester. How are you two doing?”
“We’re doing just fine,” Mrs. Sylvester replied. Mr. Sylvester smiled and nodded acknowledging. “How about you? We heard you have a new person in your life. This special someone called Henry.”
So much for not thinking of him. “Oh, no. Henry and I are just friends. Nothing more.”
“Really?” Her brows raised in a questioning astonishment. “Your lips may say it, but your expression seems to say something else.”
“We are just friends,” I repeated, trying not to blush.
“Thanks for coming, Ally,” Eve spoke from behind me. Thank God. “Did you just get here?”
“Yes, just like five minutes ago.” I stood on my feet to give her a hug.
Eve looked around the backyard. “Where’s Henry? I asked you to invite him.”
Henry, once again.
“I think he’s out of town,” I replied discreetly.
“Ally, is something going on?” my sister asked. When I didn’t answer, she pulled me into the kitchen. Everyone else was too distracted to notice us.
“Ally.”
“It’s nothing,” I said. She looks unconvinced. My sister also knew me too well. “Okay, I’ve decided that Henry’s not the right person for me.”
“How do you know that when you don’t even give it a try?” Eve asked, the confusion evident in her eyes as she popped open a Coke for me.
I took a sip of the Coke. “He already found another person.”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I delivered an order to his hotel earlier today, and I saw him with another woman.”
“She could have been a friend or relative?” she suggested, keeping my hopes alive, but barely.
I shook my head, replaying their image in my mind. “I don’t think so. To me, they were pretty close. Anyways,” I inhaled a breath of courage, “I’ve already decided that I’m no longer going to see him. Not anymore after today.”
“You sure about that?”
“I’m sure,” I said with a promising tone. “Because the truth is, I’m probably not the right person for him. Henry could do so much better and plus, he—”
“Stop that now,” Eve interrupted me which instantly shushed me. She never interrupted me. “You don’t know if he could do better. You’re my sister, and I don’t want you to beat yourself down about this. Don’t ever think you’re not good enough for anyone,” she warned, and I nodded compliantly. “Now, come on, Rick should be done cooking the food by now. Go outside and have a good time and forget about Henry for now.”
“Henry who?” I joked, causing Eve to chuckle.
After walking outside, Eason and Alexis ran up and asked me to play soccer with them, and I agreed, hoping it would take my mind off Henry. I never understood where kids get their energy. I was already exhausted and panted like a dog for air after five minutes. I was relieved when Eve yelled for us to come eat by the bonfire.
As I sat down after grabbing my plate, my phone chimed with a text. I suddenly became nervous. What if it was Henry? Stop that, Alexandria. It wouldn’t be him.
I looked at my text and saw the message came from Adam.
Do you have plans tomorrow and Sunday? He texted.
No, I don’t, I replied.
Now you do. Tell you more when you come back tonight.
I closed my phone in a curious state. What was going on?
I couldn’t stop pondering about what Adam’s text meant. Plans? Was he going to take me somewhere? I was suddenly excited. I haven’t felt this way since … Well, being around Henry if I wanted to be truthful.
“Hey, Peaches,” I said as I walked through the bedroom door. Lily was packing her clothes into a large tote bag. “What’s going on? Adam texted me earlier about plans this weekend?”
Lily’s hand landed on my shoulders. “It’s so amazing! Adam won a weekend package at this resort called Grizzly Bear or something from work.”
“That’s awesome to hear.” I moved out of her grasp to lay on my bed. I had been so tired the entire day.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked.
“Relaxing, I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”
“No, you’re not.” She dragged me up from my comfortable bed and stomped over to my closet to throw me my duffel bag. “Get ready. You’re coming too.”
Henry lingered in my mind. He just liked to show up out of nowhere. “It’s okay. I don’t feel like doing anything this weekend. I’ll just stay home.”
“What’s going on, Ally?”
“Nothing, I just don’t feel like going.”
Lily sat down next to me on my bed. “This isn’t like you. Come on now, I know something is going on in that head of yours. What is it? You know you can tell me.”
I shook my head like a child. I couldn’t tell her, but a part of me wanted to. I wanted to get it all out, shout it to the ends of the world how distraught and hurt I was after seeing that man so intimate with another woman.
“Is this about Henry?” she asked. Lily always got it right. I could be read like an open book.
“Is it written on my forehead?”
She giggled at my joke, but suddenly regained a somber composure when she realized I wasn’t laughing.
I took a deep breath, falling back down to the bed. “I saw him with another woman at the hotel when I was delivering an order there today.”
“Who is this woman?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“She could be a friend,” she suggested, similarly to my sister.
“Or his girlfriend,” I added harshly.
“Good for him then,” Lily replied. I could sense she was obviously tired of my sulking mood. “You’re going join us this weekend, and you’re going to have a grand time. You’re going to forget all about this Henry, okay?”
I remained passive. I knew a weekend getaway wouldn’t help me nor stop an invasive Henry from infiltrating my thoughts.
“Okay?” she repeated.
“Yes, mother,” I said jokingly. She smiled and threw me my duffel bag again, demanding that I pack or I was going to have to be naked this weekend.
My friends and I left in the early morning for Utica, a town about two hours southwest of Chicago. It was around nine by the time we checked in at the Grizzly Jack’s Grand Bear Resort. The receptionist informed us there was a conference this weekend, which explained why the resort was rambling with visitors.
After breakfast and deciding on our activities for the day, Adam, Lily and I set out for Starved Rock State Park. It was a good thing I remembered to bring my camera because once we entered the park, the landscape was breathtakingly beautiful. Fr
om the canyons to the waterfalls to the wildlife, everything was beyond my expectations. When I looked up from my camera, I realized my friends had walked on the path ahead. I’d catch up to them in a bit, I thought.
The beautiful scenery with a line of people on the path behind me caught my attention. Closing one eye, I held up my camera to my open one and peered into the screen. I twisted and turned the lens with my other hand to focus on the blurred image. The colors began to mush together and separate at the same time as I tried.
But as the image behind the screen became clearer, I found a familiar face among the crowd staring right into my soul.
“Henry,” I mumbled, his name falling unconsciously from the depths of my bruised heart.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I slowly peeked up from my camera to see for myself, but he was nowhere to be found. My eyes searched for him among the crowd, but there was no sign of Henry. A combination of relief and disappointment confused me as I walked ahead to find my friends.
Why would Henry be here of all places? He was probably somewhere talking and drinking with people in some fancy place. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were out of the country — maybe in Europe. Who he was with, I didn’t want to guess.
This weekend was supposed to help me forget about him, but I had already failed. Wherever I went, he always seemed to invade my thoughts.
I continued walking up the trail in search of my friends. The beautiful waterfalls and captivating landscapes did help rid my thoughts of him for a while.
After the state park, my friends and I returned to the resort’s water park and finished the day by having dinner at a family restaurant Adam picked out nearby. It wasn’t anywhere lavish and extravagant, which I liked. I didn’t have to dress up or act cool, and it certainly didn’t remind me of a certain someone.
After dinner that evening, Adam and Lily decided to have a drink at the bar across the street from the restaurant. I told them to enjoy themselves and walked back to the hotel room alone. On my way, I noticed a man in a suit exiting a taxi in front of our hotel and for a moment, my mind immediately thought of Henry.
But it wasn’t him.
I shook my head, disappointed with myself. Not every man in a suit was Henry.
After showering and changing into my pajamas, I jumped into bed and went through the pictures that I had taken earlier.
It hadn’t been two minutes and my phone suddenly rang. I sighed. It was probably my sister. Besides my friends, she was the only one who would call me. When I looked at the caller ID, it wasn’t Eve.
It was Henry’s number. My heart raced as I stared at the familiar number. I deleted his contact, yet I still remembered. I hated myself for it.
I was skeptical about answering him because I didn’t know what to say after how we parted the last time. It was so awkward now. What should I say? And I was beyond curious as to why he was calling only now. Why would he be calling me?
The seconds ticked by slow — too slow — as my phone kept on ringing. Guilt began pricking at my skin as I debated whether to answer him or not.
I heaved in a breath and eventually picked up the call, but all I could hear was the dial tone, realizing he already hung up. I was disappointed again. Was I being too stubborn?
My phone registered a voicemail from him and I fumbled through my password in order to listen to his message. “Hi Ally, it’s Henry. It’s been so long since we talked. I hope you are well.” There was a strange pause in the message. “Anyways, I’m sorry to bother you at such a late time, but I want to see you.” He wanted to see me? Every inch of my body tingled with hope. “I hope you’ll call me back. Bye now.”
I dropped the phone from my ear and placed my hand over my pounding heart. It was going so fast, I thought it would burst out. What was Henry doing to me? He lifted me up one moment and brought me down the next. And why now? Why does he want to see me now?
I refrained from telling my friends about Henry’s message when they returned to the room. Lily wouldn’t be happy to hear about it, and I couldn’t risk her deleting the message. I knew they wanted the best for me, but sometimes I had to learn by myself.
I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night because of Henry’s unexpected call. Hearing his voice again, hearing him say that he wanted to see me, my heart went out to him. I didn’t know what he was doing to me and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to find out … just yet.
During the car ride, back to the city that next day, I made the decision that I wasn’t going to call him. I couldn’t bear to see him again.
Henry lingered on my mind throughout the day, and I tried to keep him out by visiting my niece and nephew. I took them out to the park for a picnic, but even that reminded me of that damn executive. He somehow crept into my mind as I thought about the last time he took us to their soccer tournament.
“Where is your friend, Aunt Ally? The one who came with us to our soccer tournament,” Alexis asked me as I handed a ham-and-cheese sandwich to her.
“Oh.” Her question caught me off guard as I poked a straw into a Caprisun drink and handed it to her. “I think Henry said he had some important things to do today. He works a lot, you know.”
“Oh,” Alexis sighed. Was she disappointed that he didn’t accompany us?
“Can you bring him to see us again?” Eason asked.
I was caught off guard again. I didn’t realize that Henry had made such a big impression on these two. It was only a day. I fumbled for an answer in my head. “Um…The next time I see him, I’ll ask if he has some time, how about that?”
They both nodded. I didn’t want to get their hopes up about seeing Henry again. But honestly, I didn’t want to get my hopes up either.
“Do you like him?” Eason asked seriously.
“What?” I laughed nervously. “Do I like him? No. Of course, not. He’s my friend.”
“Only a friend?! How could you not like him, Aunt Ally?!” Alexis interrupted with her mouth full of bread, cheese, and ham. She shouted so loud, she almost spat out her food. After she had swallowed, she said, “He was so nice and he definitely looks like a prince.”
I chuckled at her naive words. “A prince?”
“I know, for sure, that he’s your prince, Aunt Ally,” my niece answered confidently, and I shook my head. I reached over the table and tousled the top of her long hair.
After I had dropped them off, I returned to the apartment feeling a little glum.
“Back already? Did you have fun today?” Lily asked. She sat at the kitchen table, working on a scrapbook. She had been adding so many pages to it, the book barely closed properly. This was what we bonded over mostly — our love for scrapbooking. It was an old lady’s hobby, but we’d always joke that we’d become old spinsters, living together and do nothing, but scrapbook all day.
“I had a good time. When are you going to get a new scrapbook?” I asked as I opened the fridge to grab a water bottle. Lily rolled her eyes at me. “That one is getting way too big.”
“You won’t believe it, but I need just a couple more pictures and designs.”
“Finally,” I remarked sarcastically. “That’s what you said a year ago.”
“I mean it this time!”
“Okay, okay. I can’t wait to see the finished product.” I took a swig of my water and placed it back in the fridge. “I’m going to bed,” I sang as I walked down the hallway to my room.
After showering, I grabbed my phone from my purse and without thinking, I found myself replaying Henry’s message.
Henry was probably waiting for my call. Or not.
As I held up my phone, my fingers felt tempted to press the callback button. Was it too late to call him now? I threw my phone onto my bed and it bounced to the floor. I gasped and scrambled to check for any dent on it. After ten minutes of arguing with myself, I finally mustered the courage to call him back.
Ten seconds ticked by, but nothing.
Twenty second
s and still nothing.
The line went to his voicemail. “Hello, you’ve reached Henry. I can’t answer the phone at the moment, so please leave a message, and I’ll return your call as soon as I can.”
After the beep, I hung up the phone. I didn’t want to leave a message, and the worst part was that he would see my number on his caller ID. I felt a little discouraged that he didn’t answer since he mentioned he would be waiting for my call. But then again, I also felt that similar relief as I wasn’t prepared to talk to him yet.
I fell asleep thinking about what would have happened if he had answered.
As I walked into work the next morning, Nancy greeted me with a big grin which wasn’t unusual. A gleam in her eyes told me she obviously knew something I didn’t.
“Morning, Nancy. You’re in an extra cheery mood,” I pointed out. “Something good happen?” I could sense when Nancy wanted to show me something.
“Come here quick.” She seized my shoulders and pushed me into the break room in the back. There was a gorgeous arrangement of purple-toned tulips with a small silver note stuck in it.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s for you, silly dear. Guess who it’s from?”
My mind instantly thought of one person, but I didn’t want to say his name just in case it wasn’t him. I had already been disappointed too many times this past week.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“You’ll soon find out.” Nancy handed me the note and the ends of her eyes wrinkled as she smiled larger. She left the room, leaving me alone to find out.
My shaking fingers unfolded the tiny card and there it was, in a swift swerve of black ink, his name.
Meet me at tonight at ten. Buckingham Fountain. I’ll be waiting. ~ Henry
When the time on my phone ticked ten p.m., I changed my mind. I wanted to see him. Even if my heart was going to be broken again, I needed to see him. I darted to the door and ran past Adam as he walked up the stairs. I apologized to him quickly and told him I’d explain later. I flagged a cab down as soon as I flew through the doors.
When the driver dropped me off near my destination, I ran as fast as my legs would take me and once I arrived at Buckingham Fountain, my lungs gasped for air as I desperately searched for a sign of Henry, but he was nowhere to be found.