by Tina Martin
“No. I don’t.”
“Okay, then. What about your mother? Is she there, too?”
“Got some coffee for you two,” Edith interrupted, setting two cups on the table. “Enjoy.”
“Thanks Edith.” Kalina and Bryson said in unison, catching the other’s gaze.
Kalina took a sip of coffee. Afterwards, she said, “I don’t want to talk about my parents. Ask me something else, and I’m not talking about personal things.”
“How else will I get to know you if I don’t get personal?”
Kalina shrugged. That’s not my problem, now is it?
Bryson quietly sipped on his coffee while he came up with another topic of conversation. “So, how do you know Isaiah Russell?” He’d been dying to know this since he saw them having lunch together.
“Isaiah was my realtor,” Kalina answered. “I went to him a couple of years ago, told him I needed a three-bedroom home with a finished loft over the garage and less, than a week later, he found my house.”
Bryson nodded. “Must be some man to land a date with you.”
Kalina smirked. “He’s decent, but us having lunch together wasn’t a date. I promised him lunch after he found my house and I had completely forgotten about it until recently, and after all the stars aligned with the moon, we were able to make it happen today.”
“Oh. I see.”
Bryson took a sip of coffee. He still wanted to know about her mother and he planned on finding out here and now. Everson had told him a little, but he wanted to hear the story from Kalina, and he knew he had to be strategic about it. So using the little information he already knew, he asked, “Do you know a woman named June Blackstone?”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. She’s a good friend of mine.”
“You know her husband?”
“Yes. I know Everson.”
“He’s my brother.”
“Really?”
“Yes. You know what I find odd?” Bryson asked, narrowing his gaze.
“What’s that?”
“That you didn’t even mention you knew some Blackstones when you met me.”
“That’s not odd. I just didn’t see the relevancy.”
“Blackstone is a rare surname.”
“And?”
“And there are not many of us.”
“I know what rare means, Bryson.”
“So when I told you my name, it didn’t cross your mind to ask me if I was related to June or Everson?”
“No, it didn’t cross my mind. I have a lot on my mind these days, Bryson…like these emails I should be replying to instead of answering your questions.” Kalina quickly typed a response to an email, clicked send, then looked up at him again.
“How do you know June?”
Ugh. Make it stop. “I met her three years ago at a walk we did together.”
“A walk?”
“Yes…an Alzheimer’s walk we did to help raise awareness for the disease.”
“And why is it that you chose to do an Alzheimer’s walk?”
The way he asked the question gave Kalina an indication that he already knew the answer. Still, she wasn’t going to talk about her mother with him. She took a sip of coffee and said, “Because I wanted to.”
Bryson reclined in his chair. “So it has nothing to do with your mother having the disease and living in an assisted living facility?” There, he said it. He didn’t want to say it that way, but he knew Kalina would keep alluding him if he hadn’t.
Kalina frowned. This guy had some nerve. “Don’t talk about my mother,” she snapped. “Don’t ever mention anything about my mother. You don’t know me, and just because you answer a few emails doesn’t make you an expert on people, it doesn’t make you my friend and it does not give you the right to talk about my mother.”
Kalina slammed her laptop closed, stuffed it inside of her bag and left the café without even saying goodbye to her aunt. She was that upset.
As soon as she exited, Edith came from behind the counter and, sitting in the chair Kalina had gotten out of, she asked, “Goodness, Bryson. What on earth did you say to make her storm out of here like that?”
Bryson released a heavy sigh. “I was trying to get to know her...particularly trying to get her to open up about her mother.”
“Why were you talking about her mother?”
“Because I know she’s in a facility, Edith, and I simply wanted to talk about it.”
Edith shook her head. “That’s a painful subject for her to discuss, Bryson. It’s difficult for me to talk about Madeline at times and it’s especially hard for Kalina. She won’t even talk to me about what it’s doing to her.”
“Exactly. So why am I trying, starting from scratch, walking blindly into this situation and I don’t know all the facts? I’m still new to her. Why should she trust me?” Bryson leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “I need to know her past. I need to know why she’s putting up a wall and hiding behind this premise of helping other people to forget the troubles in her own life.”
Edith sighed. She didn’t want to tell Bryson everything about Kalina. She wanted him to find out some things on his own, but that didn’t look too promising. “Okay…um…her mother, Madeline, who’s also my sister, is in an assisted living facility. She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease at age forty-eight. Madeline doesn’t know who Kalina is anymore. She doesn’t know who I am, either.” Edith shook her head. “The thing is, I know she doesn’t have long to live. Kalina knows it too, but she’s in denial and she doesn’t like to talk about it. She goes to visit her mother every Saturday and stays for as long as she can tolerate without completely falling apart and having a breakdown like she used to do years ago when she would visit. We both try to be there to support Madeline, but it’s hard, you know, when the person doesn’t even recognize you anymore. Doesn’t even know your name.”
“Kalina’s father…where is he while all of this is going on?”
Edith shook her head. “He left Madeline and Kalina shortly after the diagnosis.”
“He did what?” Bryson asked in disbelief.
“He left her, or them, I should say…said he couldn’t watch Madeline die a slow death. So he packed up his stuff and left. When I found out what had happened, I moved them both in with me. Kalina was only thirteen at the time.”
Bryson rubbed his hand across his mustache. “Unbelievable.” Now, things were starting to make sense. They say a person was a product of their environment and Kalina was definitely a product of hers. No wonder she’d never been in love. She didn’t believe in it. It must have been devastating for her to watch her father up and leave her mother while she was going through such a tumultuous time in her life.
“Bryson, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I believe if you take the time to really talk to her and get to know her, she’ll eventually talk to you about all of this. For now, why don’t you tread softly…continue to assist her with the emails and slowly let her open up to you? A person can only keep things inside for so long. When she gets comfortable with you, she’ll eventually talk about it.”
Bryson gave Edith an inquisitive glance. “Edith, I need you to level with me. What’s the real reason why you want me to help Kalina? I know you didn’t just wake up one day and decide to ask me to do this.”
“No, I didn’t,” Edith said. “I figured you had the time when I noticed you coming in the café more frequently during the last month or so. And almost every one of those days, I saw you staring at Kalina. Since you were staring at her so hard, I assumed you had some interest in her, but with her negative view of men, I also knew you didn’t stand a chance unless I interfered. Trust me, other men have tried to talk to Kalina and she fanned them all away like flies.”
“Why didn’t you interfere on their behalf?”
“Because I didn’t like them. I know you. You’re a decent, sophisticated, hardworking man, Bryson. I don’t know any details about your divorce and, honestly, it’s none of
my business, but if I could choose any man on this earth to be with Kalina, it would be you. That’s why I came up with the bet. You must like her because you’re still helping her out. And, as I recall, you did inquire about who she was.”
Yes, he had inquired about her. It was when Edith told him that Kalina was her niece. “So this was all a set up?”
“Not necessarily. It was a way for you to get to know her. And she really does need the help, Bryson, and I’m not just talking about with the emails.”
Bryson stood up and said, “Okay. I’ll focus on helping her with the emails. If she opens up to me about other things in her life, fine, but I’m not going to press her for any more information.”
Edith smiled. “Thank you, Bryson. I really appreciate this.”
“Yeah, no problem,” he said, heading out the door. In his car, he sat there for a moment and thought about what Edith had said:
I don’t know any details about your divorce and, honestly, it’s none of my business, but if I could choose any man on this earth to be with Kalina, it would be you.
He shook his head. Yes, he had been staring at Kalina. Yes, he was impressed by her emails and yes, she was a beautiful woman. But the last thing he wanted to do was get entangled with a woman who didn’t believe love existed, and he wouldn’t. He would help her with the emails for a month and that would be the end of it. His life after divorcing Felicia had been free of headaches. He planned to keep it that way.
CHAPTER 13
Kalina headed upstairs to her bedroom. She stripped off her clothes and jumped in the shower, letting the warm water calm her down. She ran her fingers through her hair as water rained down on her. Talking about her mother was a sensitive subject in itself and she couldn’t help but wonder why Bryson almost insisted on doing so.
After she towel-dried her hair and slipped into a comfortable, cotton pajama set, she called the assisted living facility to check on her mother. After the nurse assured her Madeline was fine, Kalina sat on the bed, removed her laptop from the bag and placed it on her lap. Since she wasn’t able to get any work done this evening, she was even further behind. All thanks to Bryson…
She blew an angry breath and shook her head. Her inbox had grown by another three hundred emails. How on earth would she ever catch up if all she did was fall behind? After scanning the new emails that had come in, she saw that Bryson had sent a message with a subject line of please read. What did he want? More answer to his intrusive questions?
From: Bryson Blackstone
To: Kalina Cooper
Subject: Please Read
Kalina, the evening didn’t go the way I expected it to. I simply wanted to know a little more about you, but I can see how insensitive I was to your feelings. I’m sorry I upset you.
I do owe you some emails, so please go ahead and send as many as you want my way. I’ll turn them around as fast as I can. Hope to hear from you soon.
--
B. Blackstone
_____
If she didn’t need the help, she would ignore him altogether, but she needed his help. She needed all the help she could get. So, she began sifting through emails, starting with the oldest first, sending them to him one by one until she’d sent close to a hundred. Then she began reading and answering emails, the norm for her during bedtime.
When 3:00 a.m. rolled around, she was so exhausted, she amazed herself that she could still read an email, understand the question and reply back with an answer. In four, short hours, she had to be up again. Lizette would be there at eight on the dot to get started tweaking the blog. So, deciding she’d had enough for the night, well morning, she folded her laptop closed and rested.
CHAPTER 14
In the morning, Kalina sat straight up in the bed when she heard the chimes of her doorbell. She glanced at the clock, seeing a bright, red 8:13 a.m. “Oh my gosh. Lizette!”
This wasn’t the first time Lizette had stood outside, waiting for Kalina to answer the door and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Kalina threw on a robe and rushed to the front door. She opened it and said, “I’m so sorry, Lizette. I was up late again and lost track of time.”
“No need to explain, Kalina. It’s fine,” Lizette said, stepping into the living room.
“It’s not fine. I need to be more professional.”
“No, what you need is more than two hours of sleep every night.”
“A girl can only dream…”
Lizette giggled. “I’m going to head on up and get started.”
“Alright. I’ll be up there in a few.” Kalina hurried back to her bedroom, took a quick five-minute shower before slipping into a blue, jean skirt and a yellow tank top. She grabbed her laptop and rushed upstairs to the ‘headquarters’ to start the workday.
At her desk now, she opened her laptop but didn’t pay any attention to it. She stared out of the window for a while, thinking about how freeing it was to run her own business. At the same time, it came with a lot of stress. There had been times when she thought about giving it all up and doing something less stressful, but during those times, she’d think about her mother and the high healthcare cost associated with her living in a facility. How would she be able to afford her mother’s care if she quit?
So, through a long yawn, she opened her inbox and saw a bunch of emails from Bryson. She’d sent him eighty-nine emails to answer and it appeared he’d done them all. The last email was sent a little after two in the morning. Impressive. She began reading his responses and sending them on to the recipient after she approved his answers.
“Hey, Kalina…I have the true love blog post ready,” Lizette said. “I’m sending it to you as we speak.”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
“Welcome.”
Kalina scrolled up to the top of her inbox to find the email from Lizette when she saw one from Bryson – an email he’d sent a few minutes ago. She clicked on it:
From: Bryson Blackstone
To: Kalina Cooper
Subject: Emails
Can you call me? Cell is 910-555-8849.
--
B. Blackstone
_____
Call him? Why did he want her to call him? His emails from last night had been acceptable. There was nothing to discuss about them and, even if she had found a problem, she would simply email him back and ask him to make some revisions. She shook her head. I don’t have time for this today…
From: Kalina Cooper
To: Bryson Blackstone
Subject: Re: Emails
I’m very busy today. What is this about and can it wait?
--
Kalina Cooper
Editor | CEO
The Cooper Files
_____
After sending the response to him, Kalina clicked on Lizette’s email to read the blog post. She’d written a healthy size article, almost a full page.
“I see you really got into this article, huh, Lizette?”
Smiling, Lizette said, “I did, and it took a lot of research, too. But I enjoyed writing that one.”
Kalina would spend the next hour or so going through it – sifting through the post for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, not that Lizette made many. She’d add to it where she felt more details were needed and take away parts that contained too many details. It was all a part of the revision process. Kalina took pride in having content-rich material on her blog and this was one way to ensure that she did.
CHAPTER 15
Bryson sat behind his desk, reviewing his employee’s work schedules for next week. He had his cell phone next to his computer, just in case Kalina decided to call, not that he thought she would.
When his phone rang, he quickly snatched it up, without even looking at the display and said, “Hello.”
“Mr. Blackstone. Hey, it’s Isaiah Russell.”
“Oh,” Bryson said, deflated. He was hoping it was Kalina instead.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Isaiah asked.
�
��No. No. You’re good.”
“Cool. I was wondering if you had a chance to look at the listings I sent to you late last night.”
“I did, and I would like to see all three.”
“Okay, what does your schedule look like today?”
Bryson glanced at his watch. “I can get out of here at noon today. How about I meet you at one o’clock?”
“That works for me,” Isaiah responded. “Meet me at the house on Saint Ives Place. We’ll take a look at that one then head to the others.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Alright. Later.”
Bryson checked his email when he ended the call with Isaiah. There weren’t any emails from Kalina. He sighed. For some, unexplainable, nagging reason, he got the feeling Kalina wasn’t going to show up this evening at the café and that bothered him. He couldn’t let her dictate this working relationship. He wasn’t a pushover and he didn’t want to be perceived as such. Kalina may not have liked him, but she would respect him.
With his phone still in his palm, he dialed the café. He’d get Kalina’s number one way or another.
“Edith’s Café. How can I help you?”
“Hi Edith. It’s Bryson.”
“Oh, hi there. How’s it going? You hear from Kalina today?”
“Yes. I emailed my phone number to her and told her to call me. She replied back that she was too busy which leads me to the reason why I’m calling you.”
“Which is?”
“I need her number.”
“Oh, ah…Bryson, Kalina is very strict with her cell phone number.”
“I understand that, but I need to talk to her.”
Edith hesitated again. If Kalina found out she’d given Bryson her number, she wouldn’t hear the last of it.