Four hours to think about Levi and the look on his face when she told him they could never have a relationship. Four hours to remember their own hours-long meet-cute many weeks prior, to remember the sinking in her stomach and the soaring in her heart when she laid eyes on him at the meet-and-greet, and to remember how on the airplane he had inspired her to share about herself and her life with her mom. Usually on the side of getting to know others’ lives, it was a surprisingly easy shift with Levi to find that he valued her words and her stories.
It was easy to replay every conversation. Not only had they not had a whole lot of them, but each one burned in her mind like a favorite memory she didn’t want to lose. She would de-clutter her mind of plenty other items before losing anything related to Levi. Such as the text she got from her audio-visual team this morning: a meme depicting an owl turning his head in the creepiest way. They could have expressed their awe at the Gala budget for audio-visual a different way.
If she closed her eyes, Virginia couldn’t help but to imagine Levi leaning down and kissing her. They were positioned just so in his office the other day, and she would’ve been putty had he attempted.
When she opened her eyes, Virginia saw his smile and his crinkling eyes and the dancing they did whenever he found something funny or when he accomplished something even so small as getting someone to laugh at one of his jokes.
If she looked through her texts, she wished he would text her.
If she stared out the window, she wondered what he was doing at that moment with his family. She imagined them exploring the Museum of Natural History and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, though she had no basis for either of those.
Finally, a text message from Sophie jolted her out of her Levi trance.
How’s the ride so far?
Fine. Long.
Spending all your time wishing you hadn’t told Levi you can’t be together?
[thinking face emoji]
Hey, I’m all for separating business and pleasure. We’ve seen enough flirt-and-fails from me. I’m just saying—you two can barely be in the same room without having a moment.
You know I can’t handle the public stuff.
Because of something that happened 25 years ago.
Sometimes, as my best friend, you do not say nice things.
If ‘nice’ means the things you don’t want to hear but need to hear, then you are correct my dear.
“Ugh,” Virginia grunted quietly in her seat. She had her own row, so it’s not like she had to worry about another passenger wondering what that noise was. Her phone landed on top of her purse, which sat at the bottom of her feet. No more truth from her friend. She was conflicted enough as it was.
What happened twenty-five years ago was a long time ago. A lifetime ago. Her mom had certainly learned how to move on, though she hadn’t had to choose between moving into the public eye and staying behind closed doors; she could stay private at their lakeside cottage, raise her daughter, live her life. Plus, her mom didn’t have a celebrity—a kind-hearted, personable, incredibly handsome celebrity—in the balance, looking at her whenever they were together like she was the only person in the world.
Virginia watched the last of the mostly rural, sometimes suburban and kind-of urban scenes pass by before she heard the conductor announce they were pulling into the Rochester station. Quickly pulling her purse and small bag together, Virginia was ready for some quality time with her mama.
Stepping down two wide stairs, Virginia could see her mom waiting near the building. As beautiful and young as ever, Maggie May Sharpe still had her hair long and dark, Virginia’s favorite inherited trait. She stood at Virginia’s height, slender and fashionable, content and energetic, the picture Virginia would always carry of her favorite person in the world.
“Mama!” Virginia yelled, hurrying toward her mom.
“Hey, sweet daughter of mine!” Maggie May wrapped her daughter in a hug so tight Virginia dropped her bag. They shared a giggle as they both bent down to pick it up.
“Trying to squeeze the life out of me, are you?” Virginia joked.
“Trying to squeeze the New York out of you so you’re sure to return after the Gala,” Maggie said with a thousand-watt smile. Virginia playfully reprimanded her mom with a simple expression. “I know, I know. It’s your dream. I’m on board. Just miss my ice cream buddy,” she said, pulling Virginia in by the elbow.
“Are we all stocked up?”
“We will have to stop on the way home. I didn’t know if New York had changed you,” Virginia’s mom said, all in jest and as much in love.
Virginia laughed. “Great. I need comfy pants, the sunroom, and rocky road. Or All-American Moose Tracks. Or chocolate chip cookie dough. Or all three.”
“Hunny! You have barely started the Gala planning. That bad already?”
“No, it’s going fine so far.” Virginia filled her mom in on all the teams she had met, the meetings that had gone well, and the creepy meme she had received from the audio-visual team.
“Why so creepy?” Maggie asked.
Virginia smiled. “They didn’t expect the number I gave them. When we met, they had brought this fabulous idea for projecting holograms into the air, vintage images of New York City from the late 1920s and 1930s.”
Maggie May’s jaw was slack and her eyes were wide. “That sounds out of this world, Virginia.”
“It does. I didn’t let them know at our initial meeting that I was pretty sure it would be within budget. They had also brought three completely doable plans should budget be much lower. I ran the hologram component by the board, and it was instantly approved.”
“Great job, sweetie. Do you have to approve the photos?”
“I do,” Virginia said, letting out a long, deep breath. The list of items that fell under her to-do list continued to grow. “But you know me. I prefer a long to-do list with a deadline to keep me moving.”
“Ginia, you’ve been moving since you were six months old, and you have never needed a to-do list to keep you a-step.”
Virginia fell into the comfort that was her and her mom’s relationship. She wrapped herself up in it like a blanket on a cold day.
“If your meetings are going well and you’re enjoying your to-do list, why the triple threat of ice cream flavors?”
Virginia hesitated. She had so rarely held anything back from her mother, especially when it came to romantic interests. Think of the coolest mom on the block—the one who always listened and never judged, threw the best backyard taco bar parties for your friends, and brought you high-quality coffee every morning before finals during junior and senior years of high school. That was Maggie May Sharpe.
Because of those qualities and more, when her friends lied and hid from their parents, Virginia openly shared. When her friends rebelled and talked for hours about not being able to wait to get out of the house, Virginia felt the exact opposite. In fact, the day Virginia left for college was one of the saddest days in her life, and the day she returned from college one of the happiest.
Could she do the same now? Could she talk about something that wasn’t really anything? Did she dare let the giddiness escape? The foolish happiness over a handsome celebrity who seemed to kind of like her?
“Earth to Virginia…”
Well, that choice was made for her.
“Sorry, Mom.”
Maggie May regarded her daughter with arms crossed and hips pushed to the right. “Who’s the guy?”
Flush-and-blush wasn’t supposed to happen with her own mother! Yet, she felt the lead-up, the actual experience, and the fading of it.
“Let’s wait until we get home. It looks like we definitely need ice cream to talk about this one,” Maggie said, a mischievous smile forming on her face.
Thanks to the early-evening twilight, pale yellow sunflowers that met her eye line greeted Virginia on her walk from the car to the house. They stood tall and proud in a small garden of mini elephant ear plants. The pale blue sky held ju
st a few small, puffy clouds, and beyond the cedar shingles that gave her house the cottage feel, the lake shined blue and bright. No place like home.
Once inside, ice cream bowls were quickly served up. Virginia kept her original plan: one scoop of each with a strong helping of whipped cream atop. Cozied up in comfy pants, Virginia and her mom made their way to the sunroom.
In their cushioned rocking chairs, bowls of ice cream to their chins and lips, the dishing could begin. She had always known how incredibly fortunate she was to have grown up with this view. The smooth-like-glass mornings came all year-round, it was only the backdrop that changed. Full, vibrant greenery in the summer that gave way to a complete autumn pallet in the fall; barren, gray branches dotted with pine trees here and there in the winter, but then bloomed slowly and surely between March and May.
Surrounded by cedar planks that made up the walls around mostly windows, Virginia could breathe. She loved New York City and her desire to live and work in the Big Apple remained. Even so, here, with her mom’s blue, white, and gold angel blanket around her legs and the charcoal glass-like lake lapping quietly behind them, her heart could still and she could see as clear as ever.
“Okay, missy. Dish.”
Virginia took a long, deep breath, readying her lungs for such a story that she had yet to tell. She had divulged the plane ride to Sophie, but Sophie had been present for the following two meetings between Virginia and Levi, so no full-blown, have-I-got-a-story-for-you session had been necessary.
Her mom waited with wide, eager brown eyes.
“It all started on my flight to New York in the spring…” She didn’t time it, but the twilight turned to firefly territory by the time Virginia took her last breath in the saga that was becoming the story of her and Levi. Her mom had listened to every word, of course, and had offered appropriate oohs, aahs, and wide-eyed expressions that made it abundantly clear she could not believe what she was hearing.
No detail was abandoned. Virginia hoped that by spelling it out clearly for her mother, beginning to end, that her heart would calm down a bit and come to the same conclusion her head had, that they couldn’t be together even after the Gala was over and done with.
Ice cream bowls were cleared, spoons licked for last bits, legs curled up to their chins, and Virginia wanted to know one thing.
“So what do you think, Mama?” Virginia asked, quietly picking at the middle angel on her blanket.
Generally, Virginia’s mom dispensed advice when asked. She was not a woman who believed that the world should think how she thinks. However, when asked, the receiver should be prepared for a heavily weighed opinion.
“You really want to know?”
“I really want to know,” Virginia answered, nodding loosely.
“First. Why didn’t you tell me about Levi in the spring?”
Virginia’s eyes went downcast. “I was embarrassed. What a silly fantasy to have a ‘thing’ with a celebrity? One that I’ve had a crush on from afar for years. Embarrassing.”
Her mom smiled. “I can see that. But remember, no matter the light and friendly mocking, I will listen judgment-free. Even if you tell me you’re joining the circus with a guy named Orange Julius who wears snuggies in public. Judgment free. Got it?”
“Got it. Second?”
“Second.” Maggie May paused.
She held a small mug of chamomile tea in her hands. Her eyes traveled beyond Virginia and out to the lake.
The darkness outside was heavy, but twenty-seven years of living in the same house meant that they knew exactly how many paces from their patio to the lake, and they knew exactly what the water looked like as it rippled and bobbed, even in the dark.
“I think,” she finally said. “I think you finally like someone who could really, and I mean really, like you back.”
Virginia huffed. “What makes you say that?”
“Your eyes when you say his name, the words he has said to you, your ridiculous attempt to keep him at bay by telling him you can’t be with someone in the public eye.”
“Okay, one, he could get any girl he wants and I bet he has said similar words to other girls. And two, I can’t be with someone in the public eye. That’s as true a statement as any.”
“Because of something that happened twenty-five years ago?”
“That’s what Sophie said. Perhaps you two forget that because of the way Dad died, and the fact that he was running for a seat in the senate at the time, we had to hide out at Grandma’s for weeks before we could return home. I knew back then that I would never voluntarily put myself in the public arena.”
“Your father couldn’t help that he died at the hands of a drunk driver. We’ve always talked openly about it, and after the initial shock you never seemed to carry the burden of his death.”
Virginia would feel horrible if her mom got the wrong idea. “I was seven years old. You’ve done Mom and Dad so well. And the last time I felt sad-sad was middle school. But I still set my decision many moons ago, that I would never put myself in a position where I was guaranteed to be in the public eye. And being with Levi would definitely put me in the spotlight way more than I would want.”
Maggie May shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe so. What would you be giving up?”
“I don’t know that I’d be giving up anything. Attraction does not equal rightness. We learned that in 1999 from Runaway Bride, remember?” She sent her mom a hopeful smile, and it was returned in kind.
“It’s always your choice, Virginia. Maybe consider considering it after the Gala. I would hate to see you write off something that clearly already means something to you.”
“Yeah. I suppose,” Virginia said softly.
She knew her mom was right. She also knew that the feeling of hiding out at Grandma and Grandpa’s when the press wouldn’t leave her and her mom alone was maddening. She didn’t have her own room, her own clothes, her own books, her own spot at the dinner table or on her favorite oversized couch in the living room. For weeks, she had stayed somewhere that felt a little like home but was far from home.
Virginia worried it would be the same with Levi. Looking in his eyes, she felt at home, but could she, a non-celebrity, be at home with such an international celebrity?
Time would tell, she supposed.
Time would tell.
Chapter 14
The resting, ice cream eating, jogging, and working over the long weekend at her mom’s did Virginia’s heart good. It would hold her over the two months until she was back in Rochester at the end of the summer for her favorite non-New Horizons bash of the year. Before everyone closed up their boats and their kayaks and their tubing inflatables, Virginia’s lake community threw a massive end-of-summer party the Saturday before Labor Day. Growing up, there had been sparklers and fireworks, a movie showing on the wall of the community center, and, one year, hundreds of kids around her age running around in the largest game of children’s freeze tag ever played, as counted by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1995.
Now back in New York City, Gala planning could resume. While Virginia was gone, Sophie had taken the weekend off so she could explore more of the city, which she had done with Amber and Louis, the stationery team from D.C. The couple had come to the U.S. through New York City and had lived there for five years before relocating to the nation’s capital. Sophie had absorbed much information on their treks around the city and so had plenty to say upon Virginia’s return.
“Did you know that the Jackie Kennedy-Onassis Reservoir holds about a billion gallons of water, but that if the city needed it for an emergency it would only last for about four hours?”
“I did not know that,” Virginia answered. “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen on or before December nineteenth.”
The two were walking out of the hotel, preparing to call a cab so they could ride over to a floral market. Virginia’s choice of capri pants and a feather-light top proved appropriate. A small heat wave had hit the city over the wee
kend, and today was the tail-end. Sophie donned one of her favorite work-summer dresses, a blue-and-white number that was light, airy, and fitting for a visit to the flower market.
“And did you know that the term The Big Apple originated from horse racing?” She had so much energy this morning. So much new passion for the city.
“No kidding?”
Sophie shook her head emphatically. “In the 1920s, Big Apple referred to the big money prize for horse races around the city.”
As a cab pulled over to the curb, Sophie continued her trivia monologue. “Oh! And cabs used to be red and green. That was way long ago, though. 1912 I think? 1910? Somewhere around there. And—”
“Soph, take a breath.”
Sophie halted before getting into the cab. “Am I boring you?” she asked sincerely.
Virginia smiled. “Not at all. I love New York. And I’m glad you had such a great weekend. I just want to focus on the flowers this morning.”
Sophie smiled, rebounding quickly. “Oh. Well, you can focus when we get there. I have more to say.”
And she did. The twelve-block, twenty-five minute ride was filled with more New York City trivia than Virginia had been prepared to hear. This building and that, the courtyard to the right and the empty storefront up ahead, one park after another explained in such vivid detail. One of Sophie’s strongest and most endearing traits—her attention to detail—was one of New Horizon’s most hailed “services”, as brides and organizations relied on Sophie’s attention to detail coupled with Virginia’s unparalleled focus to carry out top-notch events.
The yellow cab pulled up to the market and Virginia handed him a wad of cash she had counted out while Sophie had been on her trivia binge.
“Scoot,” Virginia said, shooing Sophie out of the cab. “Can we move on to the Gala now?”
Sophie stationed herself on the sidewalk with both hands on her hips.
Virginia exhaled sharply. “I’m sorry. That information was very interesting. Thank you for sharing.”
“Not great but I’ll take it,” Sophie said, again rebounding quickly.
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