Elena Undone

by Nicole Conn

  “I mean we’re talkin’ as early as Plato where he explained in this megasymposium that humans were first identified as a body with four legs and four arms but only had one head but—get this—one head that had two faces. Zeus wasn’t havin’ it because he believed that this being was too powerful so he ripped it in two—yeah right down the middle which left these two halves disembodied and endlessly on the prowl for the other half so they could become unified and whole. Isn’t that wild?”

  “Yes, Tori…yes, it is.” Elena smiled, put the last dish away. “Okay, sweetie, as always—”

  “Get this, it was a mystic Hindu belief, and I memorized this, that man ‘yearned for a second. He became as large as a man and a woman locked in close embrace. This self he split into two; hence arose husband and wife…Oneself is like half of a split pea.’ Isn’t that crazy? I mean people think soul mates are relatively new—but Tyler’s entire Soulemetry religion goes as far back as the origins of mankind.”

  “Okay, Tori, I understand…it’s been around forever and please do not start harping on the ultimate flame—or whatever it is that Tyler’s always going on about.”

  “That would be the Twin Flame, Momma Bear, and you already got that in Poppa Bear.”

  But even as she said it, Tori’s voice got quiet. They glanced at one another.

  “Well, gotta get back to Nash. Help him with that science.”

  Tori left Elena in the middle of the kitchen. Sighing, she looked at this kitchen she stood in every single day. Suddenly it seemed far more drab than she remembered. Maybe new wallpaper. A splash of paint… Whatever she was going to do, she had already decided she was not, NOT under any circumstances, going to look at her e-mail again tonight. But within moments she returned to her laptop.

  She sat there. Sighed. What was wrong with her? Why did she even care? She was never going to see this person again. Well, she thought, the reality is that she just wanted to make sure that the nice woman knew that Elena was grateful for her help. She shook her head, closed her laptop. Done.

  *

  Peyton sat at the counter at Pinot Latte the next morning as Wave finished with a customer then joined her friend.

  “Lombard, I’m not sure what language you need to hear it in, but you are NOT—I repeat NOT—going back to that psycho.”

  “Look, I know it’s easy to make her the villain...and what Erin did to you was really crappy. But Wave, Erin was—”

  “Look, you think I didn’t know Erin was a momentary lapse in judgment? You think I don’t know I’m like…like the lesbian Jennifer Aniston—without the looks or the hair. So—I’m lousy awful picking girlfriends...what can I say?” Wave furiously wiped thsly wipe counters.

  “Wave.” Peyton put a hand to Wave’s arm to stop her. “I’m not excusing what she did to either of us. It’s just I have to take some of the blame.”

  “So that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your happiness to make it up to her.” Wave stopped then, sat next to her friend and coyly moved into the fold of her arm. Peyton looked at her as if to say, What’s up with you?

  “Now don’t think I’ve gone and lost my last burner here Peyton.” Wave seemed a bit sheepish which was completely out of character. “But there’s this love guru who does these amazing readings that’s helping people find their one true love.”

  Peyton laughed.

  “And we’re going, Saturday night.”

  Peyton just shook her head, didn’t take Wave seriously.

  “I mean it. I’ve already got us tickets.”

  “Wave, I’m not going.”

  “Come on. What have you got to lose?”

  Another customer entered. Wave got up, leaned into Peyton’s face. “In the meantime—can you skip the I’m-just-dandy diet and all-I-need-is-my-work distractions? And under no circumstances are you to have anything to do with Mata Hari.”

  Wave scribbled hastily upon her pad. “Listen to me. You are under strict orders to only do things that make you feel good. Good. Not bad. Good. Very simple instructions to follow.”

  Wave set the order down before her: You just need to do stuff that makes you feel good. Good. Not bad. Peyton smiled and picked up her prescription, folded it and put it in her pocket.

  *

  Elena’s hope for getting a response from Peyton soon faded. It had now been nearly a week since she had sent the e-mail. She found herself usually checking at night, before she went to bed, but then decided this last night she was done. She looked for the final time.

  “So, oh God, this was like, so random.” Erika, a twenty-seven-year-old Italian bank manager shakes her head like she still can’t believe it. “I was supposed to be babysitting my niece, but my sister gets sick and asks if I’d fill in at the PTA. I’m like are you kidding me? What am I going to do at a PTA. I don’t know the first thing about kids and school, and…”

  “And my mom is the niece’s teacher,” Bruce adds, smiling. He’s in his early thirties and as tall and slender as Erica is petite and chubby. “I had to go pick her up because her car broke down. I got there early, thought, oh well, I’ll go check out her classroom.”

  “I’m standing outside,” Erika continues, “trying to get m ing to y nerve up to go inside when this football—

  “—Yeah out of nowhere completely mashes into her, knocking her over and this casserole she’s got like totally spews all over everything—”

  “I would have totally freaked if Bruce hadn’t run over and saved the day. The minute I looked into his worried eyes I had this flash— I’m going to marry this man.” She looks astounded, laughs sort of shocked, like it’s just happening again. “I mean it. No shit—it just literally flashed through my head as if I knew it for absolute certain.”

  “And I just took one look at her and I was like...I’m in love.” Bruce stares at her adoringly. “It really did happen that fast.”

  “We were both somewhere neither of us remotely planned to be—”

  Both finish at the same time: “Some things are just meant to be—”

  “Yeah...,” Erika sighs, “even when you try like hell to un be them!”

  Twinkling lights completely enveloped Tyler’s Soul-Blim-In-Nation gardens to celebrate his “A Night Under the Stars” event in the courtyard surrounding his sanctuary. Tyler fastidiously lit candles, refinessed their placement, humming “Dancing Queen” as he moved about in lyrical anticipation.

  Lily approached and placed a large platter of crudites on the food table as Tyler fussed about. Wearing her chicest Armani, Lily walked right in front of him, stopped him a moment, and looked directly into his eyes.

  “It’s going to be stellar, honey.” She planted a gentle, yet passion-filled kiss to settle him. “Because you are!”

  *

  Elena completed the final touches on her wardrobe. She stood in front of the mirror, clad in one of the few dressy outfits she owned, her sleek Diana Von Furstenburg; the shape accentuated her slender figure, the pearl black tone highlighted her dark features. She tied a red floral scarf around her neck as a subtle accent, finished her lipstick and went to the kitchen to put a casserole in the oven for everyone’s dinner.

  As she made her way into the dining room, she bumped into Tori who was clad in black tights, a black turtleneck and semi-assembled all over her body was a half-baked Halloween design filled with data, research components, bits and numbers.

  “Information,” Tori announced to Elena, “that’s what I’m going as.”

  Elena admired Tori’s creative design and knew all the hard work she had put into the scientific attire to make the statement of her most sacred passion. “Tori—you’re a genius. That costume is priceless.”

  “Thanks Momma Bear. I’m not nearly finished.” Tori smiled proudly at her achievement. “Now I just gotta figure out what Nash is going as. A professor, a mad scientist—”

  “Mad scientist, please.” Nash walked in, checked out his mom. “You and Dad goin’ out tonight or what?”

&nb
sp; Barry walked in at that moment, stopped to admire his wife. “Whoa... Where are you going so dolled up?”

  Nash and Tori began to giggle. “We’ll give you two some privacy.”

  Elena smirked. They ran out being silly and Elena shook her head. Barry tilted his head, admiring her, his eyes burning over her body. “Anything I should know?”

  “You know very well I’m going to Tyler’s event.”

  Barry shook his head. She realized he had completely forgotten, as he did most things that were on her calendar. He nabbed a beer from the refrigerator, then settled against a counter, took a swig and then grimaced in appreciation as he got a much better vantage point to view his wife.

  “God, Tyler was on his way to being one of the most amazing directors in film school and gave it all up for this nonsense.”

  “Now the casserole takes about forty-five minutes.” Elena continued to buzz around the kitchen readying everything for her departure. “Don’t forget while you’re watching the game. You’ll burn it and the kids are really hungry.”

  “He had it all, El…I just don’t get it.”

  “Come on, Barry, you know he lives for this.”

  Elena moved to him, pecked him on the cheek, but he set his beer down, and pulled her to him. “And I live for,” he eyed her with absolute appreciation, “…this.”

  He held her a second, nuzzled into her neck, whispered, “Maybe you can wear this next date night.”

  “If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll be home early.”

  He was about to make a rejoinder, when she popped the rest of a cookie into his mouth. She winked at him and strolled out seductively for his benefit.

  *

  Peyton felt paralyzed sitting in Wave’s car as Wave examined the finishing touches to her makeup in the visor mirror. How Peyton loathed having to get dressed up. She’d much rather be attending this event in jeans and a T-shirt, instead of wearing her black slacks, turquoise silk top and black brocaded light wool duster. Wave had pestered her to wear her hair up, which she did on occasion, but now she wished she hadn’t. She just was not comfortable in public forums like this, her OCD was easily agitated and thrown into hyper-drive. She could do the small talk, but it took work and she wasn’t fond of large social gatherings involving people that she knew, much less one where the only person she could count on was Wave. That’s why she had always been such a loner.

  ont collack">“That chick I went out with Friday?” Wave was curling her eyelashes and brought Peyton back to the moment. “Yeah, that bugger was dating Erin and my ex.”

  Peyton rolled her eyes. “Look you knew she was a player and you said your eyes were wide open.”

  Wave stopped what she was doing and stared at Peyton. “Yeah, well—I’m legally blind in my left eye—”

  “You’re…you’re defenseless-hopeless.” Peyton couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Why the hell do you think we’re going to this thing?” Wave joined her, laughing at herself, and then turned mock serious. “Lombard, look—just so we’re clear, this so isn’t desperation speaking here—this ‘love guru’ is supposed to be the absolute best there is.”

  “Yes, you’ve said that several times now.” Peyton shook her head in futility.

  “And the wholly undesperate part of me is willing to try anything at this point.”

  “And why is it that I have to be here?”

  “Because, if I meet my soul mate—you MUST approve. And I figured, we could find you one as well, while we’re at it.”

  Peyton opened her car door. “This isn’t a Macy’s two-for-one sale.”

  As Peyton and Wave walked through the thick crowd, the event had moved into full swing. Wave immediately dragged Peyton to the cocktail table and they both downed a flute of champagne.

  “Much better then!” Wave announced. “Let’s mill.”

  “You mill. I think I’m going to sit right here at this table and have another drink.”

  “Good idea, but don’t get too snockered or your soul mate might not recognize you.”

  “Just go.” Peyton made a shooing motion to urge Wave to leave her be. She stood and watched people, one of her favorite things anyway.

  A chime rang three times and suddenly Peyton heard the most beautiful male voice sing, “In love, one and one are one…”

  She was riveted by his extraordinary tone and soon forgot she was in this ridiculous place that seemed to her to be full of desperate people. Love came when love came. You couldn’t force it. She had learned to be very pragmatic about such things.

  Tyler, dressed in a rich blue paisley shirt covered by a beautiful camel suede jacket, was fairly beaming when he turned to the crowd, as he lit two matches, pulled them together to ignite into one flame and from that lit one candle in symbolism. “It’s so unpredictable, yet as certain as the sun coming up every day—love.”

  He smiled in celebration at the word, waited a moment, glancing over his audience. “Simple. Complex. Pure. Frenzied. All those many expressions we apply to this intangible thing…this thing we all want so desperately—always trying to explain the inexplicable. You cannot quantify or qualify love. It just is. But there are many kinds of love…what we all yearn for is that highest form of love. The soul mate…”

  Peyton was only half listening. She was more amused by watching Wave scope out the women in the crowd. She knew Wave had “me system, which is pretty infallible. I look ’em over, gauge the gaydar, sniff out the psychos, and head straight for the most dysfunctional one of the bunch.”

  “Your soul mate could be standing right next to you,” Tyler continued, “and you wouldn’t know it...”

  Wave continued to check out the possibilities as Peyton nursed her drink.

  “...this is because you have your true self, and what I call your ‘celebrity self’—the one that’s obsessed with ego, the one that wants that hunk, the thick brown hair, another ‘celebrity self.’”

  Wave nudged Peyton in the arm and whispered, “See? This is good stuff.”

  Peyton nodded, unconvinced, and then saw that Wave was actually referring to the gorgeous blonde standing across the way next to a tall dark haired woman whose back was turned to them both and that Wave, was, in fact, arching her best flirty eyebrow toward the slick-dressed blonde.

  “These pairings never last and after each one, you wonder the same thing with your broken heart and bruised ego.”

  Wave nodded vehemently. She definitely had this one down.

  “Don’t confuse the attraction to the physical with the yearning of the soul. Your higher self, the soul-self, will always break through that and find its true soul partner—and, trust me—” he winked at Wave’s current target, the blonde, “it could well be the last person in the world you’d think of!”

  Across the courtyard, Elena crooked her neck as she studied the hors d’oeurves, then checked her watch trying to figure out how long she had to stay for Tyler’s feelings not to be hurt, and considered how early she would need to be back home to fulfill her suggestion to Barry, and whether she really wanted to get home that early. Neither direction was particularly appealing.

  Maybe she would just hang out here. She shook her head, angry with herself. She was near ovulation. She might as well be with Barry tonight and make him happy. She really needed to give him more affection in that way. She knew she held back—Oooh, a shiver went up her neck. It was getting cold. Maybe she should find her coat. Or better yet, another drink.

  Peyton turned to look her way as Elena moved to get a drink. Elena suddenly felt that strange time shift, like weeks ago in the park. She turned. Looked around, confused. But before she could pur gehe coulsue it more fully, Lily smashed up against her.

  “Oh my God, some of the crazies Tyler draws to these events.”

  Elena smiled sympathetically. She knew that if she thought Tyler’s world was a bit on the woo-woo side, Lily with her sharp-as-a-tack corporate raider personality had no patience for it at all. Surprisingly, she had alwa
ys been completely supportive of everything Tyler did, and if she was annoyed at times with Tyler’s incessant need to share his philosophy of love and to examine the elements of Soulemetry at every turn, she was also his most ardent and determined advocate.

  Lily glanced behind her then whispered, “There’s a woman over there trying to hit on me.”

  Elena gulped on her drink, smiled a bit uncomfortably, and then saw the woman with the flaming red hair saunter toward them.

  “Seriously. Oh my God, she isn’t coming over here!”

  But when Elena turned to really check her out she no longer saw the redhead at all.

  Peyton.

  There stood Peyton, the woman from the adoption orientation, the woman she had sent her silly e-mail to, the woman who had not answered it. She was struck again, by how attractive Peyton was, but in that uniquely authoritative manner. It unsettled her momentarily. She tried to figure out whether to go to her or to absolutely avoid her.

  Peyton had been engaged in small talk when she felt a pull so strong that literally without even thinking she turned, and the moment she did, she saw her.

  Elena. The woman from the adoption orientation. She looked different. Peyton recalled from the orientation that she was exotic, but she hadn’t remembered her being so…so, well, stunning. Oh my God, she had sent that e-mail and Peyton had never written back. God, she felt so stupid now. Why hadn’t she just sent something—anything—back to her?

  They both held one another’s eyes for a long moment. Smiled.

  As if she didn’t know what possessed her, Peyton moved toward Elena at the same time Tyler was joining her.

  “Hey...I got your e-mail.” Peyton shrugged apologetically. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you.”

  Elena shook the gentle hand she extended: no problem.

  “Hello gorgeous.” Tyler embraced Elena, then pulling away, looked her up and down. Tyler turned to Peyton, as if he knew her. “Could she be any more dazzling? I ask you!”