by Brenda Bone
As soon as Lindsay approached the front porch, she knew something was wrong. “The front door is partly open.”
“You wait outside and I’ll take a look around,” Brant offered.
“I’ll go with you.”
He shoved the door open the rest of the way and surveyed the living room cluttered with cushions and books strewn about on the tables. “Is this the way you left the house or have you been vandalized?”
“I left these things here, Smartie.”
He sighed. “Still the world’s worst housekeeper.”
“It’s gone!” her voice broke miserably after she noticed the new audio mixer was missing from the family room.
Brant joined her and saw that someone knocked over plants and chairs lay sideways on the thick carpet. “You’ve been robbed. I’ll check the rest of the house to make sure no one’s hiding anywhere.”
After he made a quick tour and found no one, he advised, “Have a look around and make a note of everything that’s missing.”
“The computer is gone along with the flat screen TV’s, my gold chains, my coin collection and…”
“Call the police and report everything that’s stolen.”
“No. It won’t help.”
He looked at her blankly. “What do you mean it won’t help? Someone broke into your house and stole your possessions! Don’t you want to try to catch the thief and do whatever you can to retrieve your belongings?”
“I don’t want any of the stolen items back. They’re ‘dirty’ now. Tainted. Already I feel like I should wash everything in the house. The robber made off with more than my possessions; my peace of mind is gone. How can the police get that back for me?” Bitterness filled her voice. “I don’t even know if I’ll ever feel comfortable in this house again.”
“Sure you will. You’re not thinking clearly, honey. If you won’t call the police, I will. You need to also call your insurance agent and report this incident.”
“It’s easy for you to stand there and act rational; you aren’t the one that got robbed!”
“Do you remember if you locked your door the last time you went out? As I recall, you used to be pretty careless about that.”
“I don’t remember.”
His hands in his pants pockets, Brant paced the room. “We’re calling the police, Lindsay. Do you want me to stay and help you clean up later?”
“No. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
After she filed a report with the police, Brant asked again, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”
“I’m sure.”
“Lindsay, I think you need me tonight.”
“No!”
“Have it your way then.”
Hearing the door slam abruptly, she stood alone in the middle of the ransacked room while hot tears silently traced a moist path down her cheeks. She hadn’t felt so depressed and disillusioned with life since Constance’s death. Desperately she wondered if she’d ever achieve an inner peace that wouldn’t desert her the way her personal strength fled from her now.
CHAPTER EIGHT
When Brant didn’t try to make plans to spend Independence Day with her, Lindsay felt disappointed. On impulse she invited a few friends and several employees at WBKB to her house for a cook-out. Desi politely refused, saying he made earlier plans, and Brant told her directly that he wasn’t in the mood for a party. She didn’t feel too festive herself, but decided to have the cook-out so her mind would be forced to dwell on something other than the contest and the friction that hovered between her and Brant.
Tony D’Marco was the first guest to arrive. “I came early in case you need me to help you do anything.”
“Thanks, Tony, but everything’s ready. And my friend, Serita, will be along shortly to help with the food.”
Why couldn’t Brant be so attentive? In the beginning he had been, but he now acted distant toward her since their disagreement. Or was he using that as an excuse and perhaps it was the contest that really disturbed him?
A vivacious brunette, Serita, with bright blue eyes reflecting a zest for life, volunteered to take charge of the grilling. “You work hard at WBKB to entertain us, Lindsay. Now you enjoy your night off and leave the work to me.”
Tempting smells of the tangy barbecue sauce poured over sizzling hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken floated on the balmy summer air. A carefree atmosphere prevailed as old friends and new acquaintances mingled together in cheerful camaraderie.
When it was nearly ten o’clock, the small group sat in wooden chairs on Lindsay’s brick patio and directed their attention toward the heavens. In the distance a colorful splash of fireworks illuminated the sky as the rumbling reverberations shook the earth. Lindsay hoped earlier that Desi would ask her and Brant to attend the Red, White and Boom celebration, so if they were forced to work, at least they would have spent the holiday together.
“Lindsay! Your phone is ringing,” someone shouted.
Finally locating where she misplaced her cell phone in the kitchen, Lindsay answered. Hopefully it would be Brant calling to say he changed his mind and would arrive soon. “Hello?” she said anxiously.
“Connie?” The caller spoke in almost a whisper so she couldn’t identify the voice as being male or female.
Her body froze; she was speechless. Was this someone’s idea of a sick joke?
“Connie? It’s you, isn’t it?” the voice came again.
“You have the wrong number.” Startled, she hung up. Did the caller refer to her sister or someone else? Was it really a wrong number?
Serita chose that moment to enter the kitchen. “Are you okay, Lindsay? You look strange…pale.”
“Speaking of strange…” She proceeded to tell Serita about the peculiar call.
“It’s probably a wrong number,” Serita surmised. “Seeing Constance’s old classmates recently shook you up, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t worry.”
“You’re right.”
“The contest between you and Brant also has your nerves on edge, too, I’ll bet.”
“True. It took me a long time before I felt close to Brant,” Lindsay recalled sadly. “Now because of this horrible contest and also a silly argument we had, I’m afraid I may have lost him.”
“Then maybe you’ll feel better if you think about that old saying, ‘If you love something, let it go free…’”
“And if it doesn’t come back, it wasn’t meant to be yours, right? If it does return, then I should love it forever.”
“That’s the one. If Brant is in love with you, he’ll make a move to reunite with you.”
“I hope it’s soon. Our relationship at work has been strained and our personal relationship is also starting to deteriorate.”
Several days later, Serita returned to visit. “Would you want to know if Brant was out with another woman?”
“Of course!”
“Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but last night I saw him with an attractive woman at a nightclub in Columbus.”
Feeling hurt and betrayed, Lindsay absorbed this news before she said, “He must not have taken his relationship with me as seriously as I did.”
“Maybe there’s a good explanation. You’ll never know unless you ask him.”
“You think I should confront him?”
“That seems like the best way to find out where you stand with him.”
“You’re right. If Brant and I don’t talk things over, the love we developed toward each other will crumble just as anything else will if there’s not a strong foundation.”
“Why don’t you try to make that foundation firmer if you really think you could be building for your future?”
“Good idea. I’ll go over to Brant’s place later.”
“Think you should call first? Just in case he’s dating the woman I saw him with?”
“You’re right. I should call first,” Lindsay decided.
“See
you later. Good luck.”
“Thanks for telling me about seeing Brant. Although I’m not pleased to hear the news, I need to know.”
Several minutes later she nervously tapped out Brant’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“It’s Lindsay. Can we get together? Something’s been bothering me.”
“If it’s about the contest, I don’t think we should discuss it.”
“What I want to talk about has nothing to do with WBKB.”
“Okay. I was about to go for some pizza. Care to join me?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
“I’ll pick you up in a few minutes. Bye, Lindsay.”
Hurriedly she changed into white jeans and a cool periwinkle top. Brushing a few tangles out of her hair, she dabbed rose perfume on her wrists. She finished buckling her leather sandals just as Brant rang the doorbell.
“Hi. I’m ready,” she told him, stepping outside. Why did she feel like they were strangers meeting for the first time?
It took only minutes before the warm rapport they shared returned. Enjoying a pizza in a corner booth that offered privacy, they made small talk and then Brant came straight to the point. “What did you want to talk to me about?” he asked, unable to control his curiosity a minute longer.
“Us.”
“Let me go first, Lindsay. If I offended you the other day or appeared like I tried to get you to change your personality, I didn’t mean to do this.”
“I’ll be direct—I thought you and I were supposed to date each other and no one else. Do you want to call off this arrangement?”
She held her breath until he replied, “No. Why should I? Just because one of us will eventually be forced to give up our job, we don’t have to quit caring about each other, do we?”
She wished she could find reassurance in his words, but instead she found it necessary to ask, “Why were you with another woman this week? A friend of mine saw you and…”
“So that’s what this is all about.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry, I don’t wish to talk about her.” He offered no explanation or apology.
Feeling rejected, Lindsay was too proud to ask more questions. Undoubtedly Brant knew she wanted him to provide her with a reason, but he didn’t offer to make excuses or give her more details, so she didn’t pry. Maybe being a one-woman man is too difficult of a task for Brant, she thought sarcastically.
“Anyway, I’m glad you called,” he changed the subject. “There’s something you need to know and I thought it would be easier if you heard it from me first. Desi contacted me earlier today. He said I took the lead in the first round of the contest.”
Aware that he studied her face to measure her response, she forced herself to appear noncommittal. “Congratulations. Don’t get too comfortable with the job yet. You may be in the lead now, but it could be only temporarily.”
“I realize that. You’re tough competition, I admit.”
Does he mean it or is he trying to butter me up so I’ll be vulnerable?she wondered. Hearing his next confession further boggled her thoughts.
“The brief time I spent away from you made me realize how empty my personal life is if you’re not part of it. I don’t want to lose you, Lindsay.”
“But you still need to date another woman?”
“Even if you see or hear about me being out with other women, please trust me when I say I prefer being with you.”
“You could have been with me, but you chose to go out with someone else.”
“It’s more complicated than that. I really can’t explain.”
The waitress brought their check, so Brant was spared having to continue. Lindsay sighed. How could he act as if it were normal for him to date other women besides her and still have the right to expect her to trust him? Deep inside her heart, she feared that she could never adjust to his contemporary lifestyle. As long as these were the circumstances, how could they ever maintain a permanent relationship? Feeling as if their love was hopeless, she sighed dejectedly as she left the pizza parlor with Brant.
Driving her home in his Jaguar, he said, “We’ll start the second round of the contest on Monday. This contest is extremely important to me, but you should know that my position at WBKB means little compared to the way I feel about you.”
Then why hasn’t he dropped out of the contest?she wondered, still not knowing whether she should follow her heart and trust him or listen to her mind shouting, “Beware!”
Through sheer determination and working long, exhausting hours of overtime, Lindsay was pleased when she won the second phase of the contest. Now she waited to hear the final results which Desi would announce soon.
CHAPTER NINE
A week later, Brant paused at Lindsay’s desk and declared, “This is it! Desi wants us in his office. He’s ready to announce the winner of the contest.”
She drew a deep breath and headed down the hall. Seeing Desi look at her, then Brant, squarely in the face, she was unable to discern from his expression who won or lost. Sitting down, she stirred uneasily in her chair.
“The results were close,” Desi began, “but Brant is the winner.”
A heaviness centered in her chest, but she quickly regained her composure. The possibility of becoming the loser, of being unemployed, remained with her all along, but that knowledge still didn’t prevent her from feeling a sense of shock. She was vaguely aware of Desi’s words as Brant tried to pretend he didn’t study her face for a hint of her emotions.
“Lindsay, I hope you realize that this in no way indicates that you haven’t done a marvelous job for WBKB. We’re sorry to lose you, Lindsay.”
You’re not losing me, she thought bitterly, but firing me and all because of this stupid ratings war!
“I’m sorry you’re disappointed, Lindsay, but I don’t think you will be for long. Just be patient,” Brant advised her sympathetically. “New opportunities will arise.”
I lost my job because of you. Is that all you can say?she wanted to scream. There was a cool tone in his voice that made her wonder if he sincerely cared about her predicament. He behaved now like he did when they first met, when he treated her casually, acting as if he looked upon her with a slightly superior attitude. Why did she believe Brant changed? Simply because she hoped he would?
Lindsay politely excused herself and went to clean out her desk. Within an hour after she received the contest results, Desi approached her. “Don’t finish packing. If you want your old job back, you’ve got it.”
“But I thought--”
Desi didn’t wait for her to finish. “Brant just informed me that he received a better offer from WQXL, my mortal enemy. I can’t match their offer, so he’s decided to work for them. I should’ve stuck with you, Lindsay, and never forced you into the contest. I’m sorry. If I’d known Brant was just an opportunist, using WBKB to further his career goals…”
“Can you really call him an ‘opportunist?’ He probably reacted as any guy would if he were offered a chance to better himself. If you were in Brant’s situation, wouldn’t you have been constantly alert for enticing new offers?”
“I’m surprised you’re defending him.”
Frankly, so was she. The strange turn of events left her befuddled. Did Brant stay in the contest only to win and obtain more bargaining power at WBKB’s rival station? Remembering past conversations with him, she realized suddenly that he hinted of a better offer and didn’t care much anymore about his position at WBKB. At the time, she assumed he tried to intimidate her because of the contest.
A little later, Brant passed by her to discuss final details with Desi and Lindsay remained at her desk. Alone with her thoughts, she wondered why Brant hadn’t confided in her and told her the whole story about his job offer at WQXL. She recalled how he recognized Mike MacDonald of WQXL when she hadn’t even known what the man looked like after listening to him on the radio for three years. Remembering that Brant mentioned meeting him prior to the time he accepted a job at
WBKB, she realized that WQXL must have been Brant’s first choice from the beginning. Since he knew he’d probably leave WBKB eventually, why did he agree to compete against her? Did he feel it was necessary to prove he was the best disc jockey to satisfy his ego?
Or did he want to humiliate me because when we first met, he didn’t want to work with a partner any more than I did? An hour passed. There’s only one way to find the answers, she thought.
Searching for Brant, she found him downstairs in the lobby and approached him. He tried to avoid answering her questions by saying, “You’re probably upset with me, Lindsay, but I have a lot on my mind right now. At the moment, I’m too busy to discuss anything with you.”
“But I want answers, Brant! Now! Did WQXL’s offer to you come out of the blue, or did you know they might hire you?”
“I knew there was a possibility; that’s all.”
“And you didn’t ever think about mentioning it to me?”
“Is it necessary for me to report every detail of my professional life to you?” his sharp voice lashed at her.
“I would’ve thought you might have wanted to share it with me.”
“If you don’t mind, I really don’t feel like talking now. Desi already told me how displeased he is with me. Nevertheless, I expected you to be thrilled that I’m leaving. You didn’t want to give up your job, and now you don’t have to. Excuse me, but I’d like to be out of here before I have to muddle through another confrontation with Desi. I’ll call you in a few days.”
Watching him leave, she almost yelled, “Don’t bother. We have little left to say to each other,” but her instincts told her to let him have time to adjust and cool down after the heated exchange she felt certain he’d been engaged in with Desi. She feared their close friendship reached an end, but she wanted to do everything possible to assure that they remained friends.
The next morning Serita arrived while Lindsay, still in her pale green cotton nightgown, cleaned up the living room. “I heard the results of the contest, so I came over to take you out for breakfast in case you need cheering up,” Serita told her. “Get dressed. I’ll wait for you.”