Unexpected Chance

by Joanne Schwehm

  I had to admit to myself that I was looking forward to it. I had spent so much time with Alex before my accident that I missed the company of a man. I hadn’t realized how much, until I met Chance.

  Chapter 24

  I made my way to my room and pulled out my tablet. I decided to text Julie. The time difference was six hours, so it had to be about ten in the morning. I figured she would be at work, and if she wasn’t at her desk, sitting in front of her computer, she would have her phone since it was always attached to her like an extra appendage.

  4:14 p.m.—Hey stranger, I miss you. How are things?

  My tablet made a ringing sound, indicating an instant message was coming through. I could talk into the tablet, and I could hear the other person, and it would type the words that I spoke. I had to admit, it was pretty cool. However, I decided to call Julie; I missed hearing her voice.

  “Hey, lady! How are you? I am so glad you got a hold of me. I miss you so much. We all do!”

  “I’m good actually. I saw a doctor today, and I’m having a scan next week. Fingers crossed that my vision will come back. I’m not going to get my hopes up, but I want to at least pray for a miracle.”

  “I agree; you need to have hope, Aubrey.”

  “You sound like Chance.”

  “Who’s Chance?”

  “He is a friend I met here while having coffee one day. He’s really nice, and from the reaction of our waitress, he’s good-looking too. Figures, right? And I can’t see him.” I laughed.

  “I’m glad you found a friend, but don’t forget me. I may not be some new, mysterious, hot guy, but I know your deep dark secrets.” She giggled.

  “You’re funny, Julie. I’ll let you go. Kiss Mark and Brett for me!”

  “Okay, we all miss you!”

  “I miss you all too. I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  I rolled onto my side and held the tablet close to my heart. It made me feel closer to my friends. I was a little surprised that Julie didn’t mention Alex. She probably didn’t want me to break our pact of don’t ask don’t tell. Who knows what he’s doing? I missed him so much that I ached all over. I dreamed about the times we made love, kissed, and danced. The man definitely had moves. I guess that comes with the territory of being a club owner. He must have had a lot of practice. Yup, as usual my head went there. I wish I could just erase all the bad memories and just keep the good ones. And really, there was only one truly bad memory; it just happened to be my last one.

  I wish I was in a place where I could text him as I did Julie. He would be happy that I was using the tablet that he gave me. I wondered if he would be happy about my new friend, Chance; probably not, but that didn’t matter.

  Chance was a nice guy or at least he appeared to be. I really didn’t know much about him. What was really funny was that everything he did epitomized romance, exactly what I was looking for. No way would I start keeping a journal about him; that’s what got me into this predicament. My dreams of writing a romance novel were over, and I really didn’t care.

  Frank drove me to the park at noon. I was really excited to be out and about. Frank walked me toward the rotunda and it hit me. This was where Alex and I had come for our walk. I stopped walking and Frank did as well. “Miss Aubrey, is everything okay?”

  What was I doing? Today was about spending time with my new friend. I needed to make new memories. I didn’t want to replace the old ones; I just wanted to make new ones. “I’m fine, Frank; I just thought I heard something. That’s all.” Great. Now I was a liar, not only to myself but to Frank as well.

  “We’re here. Would you like me to stay with you until your friend shows up?”

  “No, thank you, Frank. I’ll be fine. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” Frank left and told me to text him when I was ready to leave.

  I stood still and listened to the sights and sounds of the park. It was really amazing. Apparently, when people said to take time and smell the roses, they weren’t kidding. Since losing my sight, I really started appreciating the beauty of nature without seeing it: the sounds of the birds, the wind blowing through the leaves, and the trickling water in fountains. It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard these sounds before, it was just different now. My brain needed to think about them; before, I just took them for granted, along with a lot of other things. I never thought I wouldn’t be able to see people, the sky, or a tree again, but that was my reality today. I suppose I could have been really depressed and sad about it, but I wasn’t.

  “There you are.” I heard Chance. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long. He kissed me on both cheeks.” I was taken aback, but didn’t say anything; I just took it as the European way of saying hello. I remembered when I was in Italy with Alex that everyone kissed hello. I wish he wasn’t in every one of my thoughts.

  “Nope, just a few minutes. I was just listening to everything.” I could feel myself smiling. He told me that we were going to head straight and then to the left where he had laid a blanket on the grass for us to sit on.

  I could feel the grass on my toes as my feet flip-flopped to the blanket. When I felt the warm cotton, I set my never-leave-home-without-it tote bag next to me and leaned back on my elbows. I was looking toward the sky and felt the sun on my face, so it must have been a clear sky.

  “Chance, can you answer some questions for me?”

  “Of course. I will answer them to the best of my ability.”

  “Is it a nice day out? I mean, I can feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, but are there clouds?”

  “The sky is a pale blue. There are a few clouds, but they are the cotton-ball type.”

  I laughed. “When I was little, I used to think I saw things in the clouds like animals or cartoon characters. Once I swore I saw Mickey Mouse.”

  There was a pause. Was he looking at me as if I were nuts? Then he said, “Let’s see. There is one cloud that could pass for a ship, which is pretty cool because the sky looks like water. Then there is another one that has a skinny little cloud coming out of it like a tail. I guess it looks like a puppy, and the next one just covered the sun, so that one I shall call a blanket.”

  I turned to him. “Thank you, Chance.”

  “You are welcome. I really did not do too much. I actually never thought about the clouds before. Okay, what is next? What else would you like to know?”

  I could hear voices, young and old, male and female. “The people who are here, are there a lot of them? What are they wearing?” I felt myself having to squint. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

  “Are you okay? Do you need something?

  “Did the sun just come back out from behind the blanket?”

  “Yes, can you see it?” He sounded excited and scared at the same time.

  “Not really, I saw a bright light, as if I’d been staring into the sun, but it’s gone now.”

  “Did it hurt? Are you in pain?”

  “No, I’m fine; really, I am. Okay, where were we? The people . . . What are they wearing?” People-watching was another one of my favorite hobbies, which I could no longer partake in.

  Chance laughed. “Well, this man just walked by, and he was wearing pants that are not long and not short; I think you women call them capris. Growing up, we would get picked on for wearing those; kids would call them ‘floods.’ Now there is a woman—I guess she is in her mid-fifties—but apparently she did not get that memo. She is wearing a skirt that if she bends over right now, I am going to wish I was blind.”

  I burst into hysterics. I was laughing so hard that my stomach ached. “That’s hilarious, Chance. That was a total visual that I could see blind or not. I’ll be laughing about that forever; you’re too funny!” I tried to catch my breath and wiped the tears that were streaming down my face due to my irrational laughter. I was taking deep breaths. I hadn’t laughed like this in what seemed like forever.

  I turned my head toward Chance. “How come you don’t have a girlfriend? I know you said that you recently got ou
t of a relationship, but you’re a good guy, funny, and apparently good-looking for a kidnapper anyway.” I winked. “And you keep your word, so you’re trustworthy. Any woman would be lucky to have you.”

  I felt the cotton blanket we were sitting on shift. Was he leaving? I reached my arm out and my hand landed on his thigh. “Oh my God, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to touch you. I felt the blanket move and thought you left me. We don’t have to talk about girlfriends or anything you don’t want to. I was just curious. That’s all.”

  “I would not leave you stranded in a park or anywhere for that matter. You are not the type of woman a sane man would walk away from.”

  “See that’s what I mean. You say all the right things, and you have that amazingly sexy accent.” I decided to get off the girlfriend subject. “Can you teach the French accent to me?”

  “You seem to have an accent of your own.”

  “Ha-ha, yes, I’m from New York City, but we don’t have an accent—other people do. Now about this hot French one, teach me some words I can say in English, but so I sound like you.”

  “Hmmm, try this. I like z feesh.”

  “Feesh? What is feesh?”

  “You know feesh. They swim in the water.”

  “Oh, fish!” Laughter consumed me. Okay, this wasn’t going to work if I didn’t stop laughing.

  “How about we have lunch? You are having a hard enough time keeping it together today. Maybe you need some food in you; you might be getting delirious on me.”

  Chance unpacked the basket, telling me everything he was doing and where everything was located on the blanket. He did it the same way Frank did. The wine was at one o’clock, the fruit was at four o’clock, and so on. I was really enjoying myself.

  “Thanks for doing all of this. I haven’t laughed this hard in a very long time. I had a feeling today would be like this.”

  “What do you mean? Today would be like what?”

  “Well, sadly my last visual memory was not a pleasant one. It’s almost as painful to remember it as it is not to be able to replace it. But today, thanks to you, I have. Unfortunately, now it’s a woman bending over in a miniskirt.” I started laughing again. “I’m just kidding. My visuals are now clouds that look like puppies, blankets, and ships that sail on blue water surrounded by feesh.”

  Chance was the one laughing now. “That’s eet!” He started tickling me, and I fell back onto the blanket.

  Through my laughter and gasping for air, I said, “Eet? Do you mean ‘it’?” He had a great laugh. It sounded a little muffled as if he was covering his mouth with his hand, but it was genuine. He was genuine. I pushed his hands away and sat up. My laughter stopped, and I felt tears instead, and not happy ones.

  “I’m sorry, did I do something wrong? I did not mean to touch you anywhere personal. It was an accident if I did.”

  The memory came back as if it were yesterday. I was with Alex in my apartment, and he was tickling me, and that was such a great time in my life. I missed him terribly; I really wished I didn’t, but I did. “It’s okay. I just . . . The tickling reminded me of a time back home. I really like you, Chance, and you’re my only friend here in France. I don’t want to lose that. I just freaked out a little. That’s all.” What I really wanted to say was that I felt as if I were cheating on Alex, on my fairy tale romance, which was completely stupid because I’d been gone for weeks and there was no way he was thinking about me and not sleeping with someone else.

  “I have an idea. Is it okay if I look at your tablet?”

  “I guess so; it’s in my bag.” I wondered what he wanted it for. I started to get nervous. I didn’t think he would text or call anyone.

  “Let’s see. What about this one? Disastrous by E.L. Montes.”

  He was going to read to me? I missed my romance novels and the authors who’d written them. I felt so connected to them when I read. I tried to picture myself in their situation: what the characters were going to do and what I would do if I were in their position. Who knew that my life, which I wanted so badly to be like a romance novel, would turn into a tragedy?

  “I was going to start that series before my accident, but I never had the time. I heard they were really great books, and I was really looking forward to the series.”

  “Well then, there is no time like the present.”

  He leaned me back until I was flat and my head was on his lap. I felt the warmth from the sky on my face and his warmth everywhere else. He read the first couple of chapters, and I didn’t want him to stop. Not only was it a great book but I liked hearing him read it to me. It was the nicest thing anyone had done for me in a long time. The best part about it was he didn’t seem as if he were doing it because he felt sorry for me or out of obligation or because I asked him to. It was just the kind of guy he was, sweet and genuine.

  After about five chapters, Chance said, “To be continued.”

  I pouted. I always tried to read a book from beginning to end because I couldn’t take the suspense.

  “How about I pack up our picnic and we take a walk?”

  He helped me up and told me he was packing up the blanket and picnic paraphernalia. I wished I could help, but I knew I couldn’t. He took my elbow and guided me around what must have been other picnics.

  A walk sounded great, and I wanted to spend more time with him, but my head hurt. “Actually, I’m getting tired and I have a headache. I don’t mean a cliché headache. I mean a real one, and to be honest, it is starting to hurt a lot.” I started rubbing my temples. I bent at the waist to lower my head, trying to alleviate the pain in some way. I felt his hand on my back, trying to steady me.

  “Let us sit down; there is a bench about four feet to your right.”

  I sat down and felt Chance next to me. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m telling you I feel as though I live in someone else’s body ever since my accident. I have these flashes, and I have no idea what they mean. Then I get these headaches that come on all of a sudden and I get tired. I never used to get tired in the middle of the day.”

  It dawned on me that I hadn’t had a panic attack since my accident. I guess what I didn’t see couldn’t hurt me. There was no real explanation for it; I hadn’t even thought about them. That was a good feeling.

  “Would you like to call the doctor? Maybe he can answer your questions. Your headaches concern me. Maybe they have something to do with the flashes of light that you are getting. Do you always get headaches after seeing light?”

  “No, it’s random.” I shook my head in hopes that would clear it and we could move on with our day. “I know that it doesn’t appear this way, but I really had a good time today. This is the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. I’ll remember it forever.” And I truly would. Chance was definitely getting under my skin and slowly into my heart.

  He walked me to the entrance, and I texted Frank to let him know I was ready.

  “I think your ride is here because there is a large man glaring at me as if he wants to kill me.”

  I chuckled and pictured this burly man glaring at us, when I had no idea what he really looked like. “Yes, that would most likely be Frank. I don’t want to send mixed signals here, Chance, but would it be okay if I hugged you good-bye?”

  I was pulled into the side of his chest. It wasn’t too tight; it was friendly. He let me go and rubbed the tops of my arms. “You have my number and email address, so please contact me if you have any more episodes or just want to talk.”

  “I have your number?”

  “Yes, I programmed it in your tablet the other day at the café. I was hoping you would find it on your own. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, of course not, I’ll talk to you later then.”

  I got in the car with Frank and we went home.

  Chapter 25

  Morning came quickly, and I didn’t know what was in store for me that day. Every day was different in Paris because I didn’t have a job to get to; my day was unstructured. I g
rabbed my tablet to check on the time and found it was only 6:00 a.m. I hated that I couldn’t sleep past seven. It was almost comical since the sun or any form of light couldn’t wake me up. The house was so quiet; I was left with my thoughts.

  My picnic with Chance had been wonderful even after my freak out over being tickled and my headache. But he read to me. Who does that? What guy does that? No guy that I knew. Did Alex even enjoy reading? I didn’t know the answer to that question. I thought about it for a while and about Chance. If I were ever going to get past Alex, I needed to move on. The sad thing was I didn’t really want to get past Alex. I learned a lot about myself through him. I didn’t want to forget about the good times we shared or my love for him. I would always have that. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore; I felt confused. All I knew was that Chance meant something to me and I needed to tell him that.

  Having my tablet in my hands, I decided to email him, so I began speaking into my tablet’s microphone.

  Hi Chance,

  I wanted to tell you what a wonderful time I had yesterday. Also, I wanted to apologize for my Sybil impression. I hate that I run hot and cold all the time. I love being your friend, and I’m so glad that you found me in the café. There are certain things about you that are so familiar and comforting that it makes me believe we were meant to meet that day.

  There is so much I want to tell you about myself. I’m a better writer than a speaker, so here goes. I went to school and graduated with a Master’s degree in English. I worked as a copywriter for a marketing company, but I really wanted to be an author: a romance novelist. Oddly enough, that led me to where I am today. So, when you started reading to me, you had no idea how wonderful that was.

  I never had a real boyfriend, well, not before Alex. I wasn’t expecting to meet Alex. I just wanted to find someone who could teach me what romance really was. For example, what types of things do men do for women and to women that are considered romantic? I kept a journal and made daily entries about some of my dates with Alex. In the beginning, I guess I did intend on using him a little, but that was short-lived. Please understand. I didn’t know if he was using me.