Coulson's Lessons

by McIntyre, Anna J

  “Ryan, we need to talk,” Alex said, watching Ryan stuff the invoices into his briefcase.

  “Sure, Alex, but make it quick. I need to get to the office early.” Ryan closed his briefcase and picked it up.

  “You always need to get there early.” Her sharp retort brought Ryan’s head snapping up.

  “Excuse me?” He was a bit bewildered. It wasn’t like Alex to sound so angry.

  “Ryan, our marriage is in trouble,” she blurted out. Her announcement caused Ryan to drop his briefcase to the floor.

  “I don’t understand, Alex. I thought everything has been going great.”

  “Ryan, all you do is work. We never spend anytime together. I need you, Ryan. I need you.”

  Ryan Keller looked at Alex; he really looked. God, she looks so tired, so sad. Why hadn’t he noticed before?

  Alexandra and Ryan talked for more than four hours. She never mentioned Garret or an affair. Their problem really wasn’t Garret, she decided. Their problem had enabled Garret to come into Alex’s life.

  They decided to begin working together at the restaurant. By sharing Ryan’s work load, they would ultimately have more free time together. They agreed to work on their marriage, for while they had always assumed they had a good marriage, they forgot that even good marriages couldn’t be neglected. They must be nurtured and cared for.

  At Christmastime, Alexandra resigned her position as treasurer of the Coulson Chamber of Commerce.

  As the months passed, Alexandra began putting thoughts of Garret out of her mind, bit by bit, day by day. Occasionally, she would see Russell around town and would ask how Garret was doing. Russell’s reply was always the same, a noncommittal he’s fine. And so, she stopped asking. As the years went by, Alexandra wondered why Garret hadn’t returned to Coulson. She never meant for him to leave for good. She expected him to return within the year. She imagined he must have found someone, gone on with his life. She hoped so. She wanted him to be happy.

  In her heart, Alexandra never regretted her affair with Garret. But she paid close attention to the lessons.

  Part Three

  Chapter 30

  Summer vacation was ending in less than two weeks. It was hard for Alexandra to believe Adam would be a senior. She was beginning to feel old.

  Standing behind the bar, she reached down and began placing the bottles from the back bar onto the oak bar top. It was Monday morning, and the restaurant was closed. After placing a dozen bottles in a row, she turned on the electric scale, which she had placed on the bar top. Opening the folder containing the liquor inventory, she began taking her weekly liquor count. One by one, she set the bottles on the scale, carefully recording the weight of each one. She was alone. At least, she thought she was.

  Placing a bottle of Absolut onto the scale, she heard “Hi, Alex!” and nearly dropped the bottle. Startled, she looked up to see her sister walking toward her.

  “Damn it, Kate, you scared the hell outa me!”

  “Sorry, kiddo.” Kate sat on one of the tall bar stools and leaned against the bar top, resting on her elbows. “Whatcha doing?”

  “How’d you get in here? I know I locked the doors.”

  Kate answered by waving a key in the air and smiling. “Tommy told me to give this back to you.”

  “I told him to keep it.” Alex went back to weighing the bottles as she talked.

  “How come you never gave me a key?” Kate faked a pout.

  “Because knowing you, you’d invite all your strange artist friends in for a party,” Alex teased.

  “True.” Kate smiled, then placed the key on the bar top and slid it over to her sister.

  “What’re you up to, Kate?”

  “Wanted to know if you’d like to drive up to Clement Falls with me.”

  Clement Falls. Alexandra hadn’t been there in ten years.

  “What for?” Alex placed a bottle of Smirnoff on the scale.

  “It’s hotter than hell. Thought we could go swimming.” Kate paused for a moment and watched her sister. “What are you doing, anyway?”

  “PCs.” Alex glanced up. Her sister didn’t have a clue. “Percentage counts. I’m weighing the bottles to see if what’s missing matches what we sold.”

  “You’re becoming obsessive, Alex. I’m worried about you,” Kate teased.

  “Oh, what do you know!” Alex laughed.

  “So, will you come?”

  “If you help me finish the liquor count, I’ll go.” An outing did seem appealing.

  “What do I do?” Kate jumped down off the barstool.

  “Hand me the bottles, and after I weigh them, place them in a line on the other side of the bar. But keep them in order.”

  “You don’t want me to put them back after you weigh them?”

  “No, the bartender will clean the glass first and put the bottles away. Let’s get this done. A swim sounds pretty good.”

  Alexandra sat in the passenger’s seat of Kate’s Mustang as it drove up the highway leading to Clement Falls. Leaning back in the seat, she watched the scenery, glad she didn’t have to drive.

  “What made you think about going swimming at the falls?” Alexandra asked. She was looking away from Kate as she talked, gazing out the passenger window.

  “Actually, Tommy made me think of it when he gave me the key to give back to you. Remember when we were in high school and would go up to the falls and skinny dip?”

  “You used to skinny dip. I picked berries and wildflowers.”

  “You were always boring,” Kate teased. Then she added, “Wasn’t Garret’s cabin at Clement Falls?”

  “Sure was.” Alex looked over to her sister while she continued to lean back against the headrest.

  “Do you think he still owns it?”

  “I don’t know. As far as I know, he’s never been back to Coulson, so I can’t imagine he still owns it. Kind of expensive to own a cabin you never use.”

  “He’s a Coulson,” Kate reminded her. “Keeping ten houses they never use would be pocket change.”

  “I guess you’re right.” Alex turned her head and looked back out the window.

  “He didn’t live at the cabin, did he?” Since Garret had gone away ten years ago, they rarely discussed him.

  “No, he had an apartment in town.”

  “What was it like?”

  “I don’t know. I never saw it.”

  “Really, Alex?”

  “Really.”

  “Seems kind of strange.” Kate shook her head in disbelief. “I wonder what happened to him. Doesn’t Russy ever say?”

  “I stopped asking Russell about Garret years ago. I think he wanted to discourage any lingering interest I had in his brother. I imagine he probably found someone, maybe settled down.”

  “I could ask Russy,” Kate offered brightly.

  “Please don’t,” Alex said firmly.

  They were just reaching Clement Falls when Alex called out.

  “Turn at the next right, Kate.”

  “Why?” Kate asked as she made the turn. But Alex did not answer. Instead, she leaned forward and watched the road.

  “There, pull over by that big tree,” Alex demanded. She seemed a bit distracted.

  Kate drove the Mustang to the side of the road and turned off the ignition. Her hands remained on the steering wheel as she looked over at her sister and saw that Alex sat, mesmerized, staring out the car window. Kate followed her sister’s gaze, and she could see the object of Alex’s attention. Directly across the street was a neglected log cabin. The weeds were overgrown, and dead rose bushes lined the walkway leading to the cabin’s front door.

  “That’s it, isn’t it? Garret’s cabin,” Kate asked.

  Alex nodded the affirmative as she simply sat and stared. The logs were in desperate need of oiling and shingles were missing from the roof. It looked like an abandoned cabin.

  “Let’s go peek inside,” Kate suggested.

  Alex looked around the neighborhood. There were on
ly a few cabins on this street, most owned by weekenders, and there didn’t seem to be anyone around. It really wouldn’t do any harm to look.

  “Okay.” Alex jumped from the car, and together she and Kate raced across the street. Alex could see the drapes were opened partially in the living room.

  Alex peeked through the window.

  “Oh, my God!”.

  Kate quickly glanced at her sister. Alex looked as if she had seen a ghost. Curious and concerned, Kate looked through the window.

  She couldn’t see anything unusual—a big fireplace, leather couch. It looked like there was a chessboard and some game pieces piled in one corner, as if someone had dumped the game and not bothered to set the players in their correct positions.

  “What’s the problem?” Kate looked inquisitively at her sister.

  “It’s exactly as I last saw it. The day Russell caught us, Garret and I had been playing chess earlier. Well, we sort of scattered the game around the room.” Alex continued to stare into the cabin as she explained. “Anyway, we left the game scattered when we went to the bedroom. The next time I noticed the chessboard was the last day I saw Garret. He had haphazardly piled it in the corner, exactly where it is now.”

  “You’re saying that no one has even been here in ten years?”

  “It seems that way.”

  “Creepy.” Kate shivered.

  “Come on.” Alex grabbed Kate’s hand and began dragging her toward the garage.

  “Where are we going?” Kate asked as she allowed her sister to pull her along.

  “I want to see in the garage.” She walked to the sidewall of the garage and stood on her tiptoes, then looked into the small window.

  “I’ll be damned,” Alex muttered.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s his Jeep. It’s in the garage.”

  Kate looked around for something to stand on. Even on her tiptoes, she couldn’t see into the high window. She found a rock and moved it below the window, then stood on it.

  There was definitely a red Jeep in the garage. A Jeep covered in an abundance of lacy cobwebs.

  Chapter 31

  Originally, Garret had hoped to be in Coulson before Thanksgiving. Yet, now it looked as if he might not make it until Christmas. It was amazing that it had taken him less than twenty-four hours to move from Coulson to Chicago. Yet, it would take him over seven months to return.

  Garret sat at his desk sorting files when his intercom buzzed.

  “Mr. Coulson, Ms. Spencer’s here.”

  “Send her in,” Garret said into the intercom, and then he dropped the files unceremoniously into a heap and stood up.

  “Afternoon, Garret.” Karen Spencer breezed into the office. She wore a green jump suit; her short, red hair fell in curls around a small, heart-shaped face. She was a petite woman, barely five-foot-two, and when Garret held her in his arms, he often thought about placing her on a box to give her a little extra height.

  “Still sorting files?” She frowned at the pile on his desk, leaned up, and kissed his cheek, then fell back into a chair as if she was exhausted.

  “Rough day?” Garret teased. He walked around his desk and sat on its edge as he faced Karen.

  “Shopping. Life’s hell,” Karen said in dramatic exaggeration. She looked back at the files and asked with a serious tone, “So, you’re really moving back?”

  “I’m really moving back.”

  “You’ll miss me,” she said softly, her eyes a little sad.

  “Yes, Karen, I’ll miss you.”

  “You know what they say, Garret. You can’t go home again.”

  “That’s what they say.”

  “But you’re going anyway?”

  “I’m going anyway.”

  “You’re going to miss the restaurants in Chicago. You’ll never get a decent Italian meal out West,” she teased.

  “You’ve got a point, Karen. Chicago has the best restaurants,” he conceded, then added, “It’s not really Chicago. I just don’t like the city. Never have.”

  “You know, Garret, you’re too young to retire,” Karen insisted. She would miss Garret.

  “I’ll still be on the board. Anyway, you’ve been nagging me for years to stop working so much.”

  “That’s just because I wanted you to come out and play.” She grinned, then added, “So, did your loyal secretary decide to transfer with you?”

  “No, her family is here. Anyway, since I decided to retire, I really don’t need a full-time assistant.”

  “I hope you know what you’re doing, Garret.” She stood up and walked over to him. He opened his arms and pulled Karen into his embrace.

  One of the lessons Garret learned from his experience with Alexandra was that a woman could be more than a bed partner, more than a conquest. She could be a miracle. He had never taken the time to know a woman before Alexandra. That realization was a bit of a contradiction, considering the number of women he had slept with before Alexandra had come into his life.

  He had met Karen a year after moving to Chicago. She was the first woman friend since his initial friendship with Alex. He had come to trust Karen, and after a while, he’d told her about Alexandra. She was the only person, other than Russell, whom he had ever discussed his affair with. For several years, Garret and Karen had been platonic friends.

  During this time, Garret met and dated various women. Unlike his pre-Alexandra relationships, his attitude toward women was radically altered. In spite of this, Garret had been unable to find a woman who could replace Alexandra. Eventually, he had stopped looking.

  After Karen’s husband decided to leave her for the clichéd younger woman, she began sleeping with Garret. It was a comfortable relationship for both of them. It offered friendship, companionship, and sexual release. Yet, Garret was not in love with Karen. Karen was not in love with Garret.

  Garret could honestly say, in his entire life, he had only made love with one woman.

  Chapter 32

  Halloween was around the corner. Five months had elapsed since Ryan’s death. Sometimes it seemed as if it had been just five days and other times, five years. Alex was restless. She felt a bit like a derailed railroad car, desperately plodding along, clumsily attempting to jump back on the track. She sputtered along, awkward and unsure, yet regaining her self-assurance bit by bit, day by day.

  At work, the crew managed to regain a sense of normalcy. Alex, in her own way, came to terms with Ryan’s death. She soon discovered that being a single woman was far more peculiar for her than being a single mother. It seemed as if the single men she encountered, along with many of the philandering married men, believed she was ready to join the dating circuit. She found their advances offensive and in bad taste. In the past, she had endured her share of come-ons from male customers. Those she managed to good-naturedly avoid, sweetly reminding the suitor that she was a married woman. Her favorite retort was, I don’t think so; my husband gets grouchy when I date the customers. Now that she was considered fair game, snappy turndowns were not easily delivered.

  It was an especially slow Friday evening at the restaurant. Taylor stood akimbo behind the bar, leaning against the closed door leading to the locked liquor room. The bartender studied the dining room. Not a single customer sat at the bar, and only a few tables in the dining room were occupied. It would be an early evening.

  He watched Alex, who stood at the opposite side of the restaurant. She wore loose-fitting denims and a jade-colored silk blouse. He guessed that she had lost a good twenty, maybe thirty pounds since Ryan’s death. Taylor never thought of Alex as a big woman; her tall frame could conceal weight. He often thought of her as voluptuous. Yet, now she appeared almost petite. He worried about her.

  The previous Saturday night, the crew teased Alex about the obvious advances of several regular customers. She shrugged off the crew’s observations, yet Taylor suspected Alex was more keenly aware of the attentive overtures than she had been when Ryan was alive. It was equally obvious to Ta
ylor that the attention bothered her. She simply wasn’t ready.

  “I want something different,” Alex declared as she sat on a barstool twenty minutes later and slapped the bar top with the palms of her hands. “What do you suggest, Taylor?”

  Taylor, who was busily towel-drying a wineglass, flashed Alex his half smile and raised his brow. He hadn’t seen her this cheerful since—since before. Setting the glass down, he tossed the towel to the stainless steel counter beside the bar sink. Taylor approached his employer, crossed his arms over his chest and studied her.

  “Sweet or sour?” Taylor inquired with his crooked grin.

  “Neither.” Alex licked her lips mischievously. “How about daring?”

  “Interesting...” Taylor pondered Alex’s request as Rosa and Steve joined the bar for their end of shift drink.

  “You planning on getting drunk, girl?” Rosa hoisted her small frame onto the tall bar stool next to Alex.

  “I thought it sounded like a good idea.” Alex chuckled. “Adam is gone for the weekend.”

  “Where’s Adam?” Steve pressed himself into the empty bar stool next to Alex.

  “He left this afternoon with Jimmy. Doing some serious male bonding.”

  “Give her a Mai Tai!” Rosa ordered Taylor.

  Alex balked. “I never drink those.”

  Rosa, Alex, and Steve were the only customers sitting at the bar. The dining room was dark, void of customers, and the chairs were neatly stacked atop the tables. Choices of drinks were debated. Alex reluctantly agreed to a Mai Tai.

  It tasted fruity, cold, and refreshing. Taylor topped the drink with a generous amount of Myer’s Dark Rum, and Alex enjoyed the gentle buzz. When was the last time she felt this content? She joked with Rosa, Steve, and Taylor. They laughed about the day’s events and shared humorous anecdotes concerning their clientele.

  One Mai Tai felt good, yet two felt wonderful. Why hadn’t she ever had these things before? She felt warm, alive, and suddenly… very lonely. Alex became quiet, reflective and gently sipped what remained of her second Mai Tai.