by Katie Dowe
“Oh Auntie Grace! You missed your chance.”
“If he'd really loved me he wouldn't have taken no for an answer,” the woman said firmly. She stared at her niece. “It's not too late for you honey.”
“I'm afraid it is,” Skylar said lightly. “I'm fifty-one years old and I made the decision a long time ago not to get entangled in anything permanent. I've seen what marriage does to my friends and to my own mother. Right now Deloris is going through a very messy separation that is tearing the family apart and Angela’s husband is seeing someone else. I'm not going through that circus.”
“When you find someone you truly love it doesn't have to be like that.”
“You've never been married, Auntie Grace, so forgive me for not taking your word for it,” she said with a wry laugh. “I look back on my life and wonder if I'd settled down in my thirties and had kids, maybe a boy and a girl, what would they be like right now? Would I have made a good mother or would I have turned out to be selfish like my mother?”
Her aunt reached across and took her niece’s hands in hers. “You do not have a selfish bone in your body, honey, and you can take my word for it. Your mother is in a league of her own, there's no one really like her.”
“You two have never been close,” Skylar observed.
“It's not for lack of trying on my part. Delia lives in a world of her own and not a lot of people get to be in that world. I was never one. She's always been beautiful and she knows it. She used that beauty to get whatever she wants and doesn't think of the consequences.” She squeezed her niece’s hands. “You're nothing like her.”
“You and grandma have been more of a mother to me than she ever was and I'm grateful that you were there for me.”
“You're my daughter and I've never regretted being there for you.” She released the younger woman’s hands and got to her feet. “I hope you're staying for dinner.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
Chapter 2
“I honestly do not know how you do it, my dear!” Angeline Forrester said enthusiastically as she stared at herself in the full length mirror. “This is perfect and the emerald green brings out the red highlights of my hair. I'll take the shoes and accessories as well. I have a dinner party on Saturday and this is absolutely perfect.” She looked over at the younger woman who was handing her a glass of champagne. She'd been coming to ‘Skylar’s Boutique' for the past year and six months and had been responsible for several customers who had come by due to her raving of the store as well as the ambience and the excellent service. Skylar Buchanan had decided to open her own store five years ago after getting tired of working as a shopper for one of the biggest retail stores in the country. It had been a rocky start at first, with her wondering if she'd done the right thing, but now she was well established with two people working for her. She'd turned the small space into one of sheer sophistication and beauty with padded sofas and multicolored drapes all around. Her customers were exclusive and women who had money at their disposal. Shopping at her boutique meant that whatever you bought was one-of-a-kind and word had gotten out soon enough. “Why don’t you come?” Angeline suggested. “It’s actually a benefit that my husband is hosting at the Plaza Hotel uptown. It is for a very good cause of course and I would love if you would come.”
“I'm not sure I'll be able to get away from the store in time,” Skylar murmured as she looked at the dress critically. “Saturday is always our busiest day.”
“I'm not taking no for an answer,” Angeline said firmly. “You have two very capable staff here that can lock up for you. Dress up and come out my dear. I'll leave your invitation at the door.” She looked around with keen blue eyes. “I'll take those two lovely blouses as well,” she said, pointing to the display. “I'll be very disappointed if you're not there,” she added as she went into the change room to take off the dress. Skylar stifled a sigh. Angeline was one of her best customers and she couldn't disappoint her.
*****
“A quick lunch is all I can spare,” Skylar said breathlessly as she slid into the booth across from the two women she'd been friends with since college. Deloris Wright was slightly heavy with dark skin and processed black hair that came to her shoulders. She was a detective in the police department where her husband was a lieutenant and with them going through a very messy separation, she was pretty much going through hell. Their children were in college and no longer living at home which was a plus. Angela had been married for the past fifteen years and had a son in high school. She'd discovered that her husband was cheating on her two months ago and had confronted him about it. He'd told her the affair was over but it was clearly not. She was a lawyer who, although was very good at her job, had no idea how to keep her home from falling apart. She was tall and slender with a light brown complexion and graying jet black hair that was worn loose around her shoulders. “I have no idea how it got to be so busy and today is Monday,” she signaled the waiter over to take their orders as she looked at her friends. “Look guys: I know you're both going through a bitch of a time right now but life goes on.”
“Devon is fighting me for custody of the kids.” Deloris told her abruptly as she drank the water that had been put there for them. “The son-of-a-bitch has never had time for the children in the entire time we've been married and now he wants to sue for custody so that he can collect alimony from me. Well he can go and screw himself because he's not getting a cent from me!”
The statement was made with relish as her dark brown eyes glowed with self-righteous wrath.
They waited until the waiter had come back with their orders of shrimp salad before continuing. Skylar had spent the minutes trying to come up with the appropriate response but she had no idea what to say. God! What a mess!
“I know a good lawyer,” Angela ventured as they dug into their meals.
“I already have a lawyer, honey, and he's a shark. It so happens that he owes me. I would rather see him dead before he gets those kids.”
“Did you ever love him?” Skylar couldn't help but ask her.
“What?” Deloris stared at her puzzled.
“You and Devon have been together since college, honey. I remember how I envied how close you were. You did everything together and knew then that you wanted to be together. What happened?”
Deloris stared at her for a moment and then looked down into her bowl. “Life and the job and two children happened,” she said bitterly. “We got married too young and had this ideal that it would last and that we knew what the hell we were doing and we didn't. We both wanted to be cops and that was probably a huge mistake. We have crazy hours that didn't line up with each other. Sometimes as he was heading out I was coming home. Sometimes it was weeks before we sat down together to a meal. I'd try to make it to the soccer games and the cheerleading practices. When Mia wanted to do ballet I tried and make it to her rehearsals as well. I started noticing that Devon wasn't trying and that's when the arguments started. We drifted apart and we didn't know how to fix it or if we even wanted to fix it. We realized that what we felt for each other was no longer there. We cannot be in the same room without it turning into a minefield. There is nothing there anymore and I just want him gone. The kids are in college now so that’s something.”
There was silence for a spell and then Angela spoke. “I'm thinking of leaving Bruce,” she said quietly as she toyed with the straw in her drink. “He keeps denying that he's still seeing that bitch but I smell her on him each time he gets home. I'm tired.”
Skylar realized that part of the reason she stayed away from her friends was this. The depression and the hopelessness. She'd seen what marriage had done to them and had decided that she wanted no part of the mess.
“I've never been married and never had children but I'm a human being and know for sure that there has to be some way to deal with this in an amicable manner.” She leaned forward and looked at Deloris. “Honey you and Devon have children together. You shared something once e
ven if it's not there again. If not for yourself think about the kids and what they will go through at a time like this. Put your feelings aside and talk to Devon. Try to come up with some sort of terms with him. Do it for them and not for you or even for him. There has to be a way.”
Deloris stared at her and then looked into her drink. “I still love him,” she admitted quietly. “I'd see him at the precinct sitting on the edge of his desk, talking to the other cops and I'd remember this handsome strapping black man who would bring me flowers and chocolate which probably added to my weight problem! I would see him there with his arms folded over his chest and I would think back to those times when we would rush home to make love.” She blinked away the tears. “Twenty-five years of marriage and we reach this point where I want to shoot him!” She drank the water down swiftly as if to soothe her parched throat. “He's seeing someone, another cop from another precinct. He denies it but I've seen them together. I spend the time I'm not working watching him with her. How pathetic is that!”
“Are you sure you can't work it out?” Skylar felt as if she was drowning in her friend’s despair. The girl looked as if she was about to give up.
“I'm sure,” she took a deep breath. “Let’s finish eating. My time's almost up.”
*****
Blaine ran slim tapered fingers through his ash blonde hair and noticed that he needed a haircut that he hadn't gotten around to getting yet. His dark green eyes studied the stubble on his chin and he figured that he could at least shave before heading out. It was Saturday morning and he'd puttered around the kitchen and made himself a grilled cheese sandwich with the strong black coffee he favored.
He lived in an apartment building that that had all of two bedrooms and wasn't sumptuous by any means for a man of his wealth. He could never get used to having so much money. He bought clothes and had bought himself a Porsche along with the truck he used for his journeys to the different locations he went to but he wasn't into flashy things and lived in a small apartment in a building he'd purchased a few years ago. He figured he didn't need anything bigger because he was single and had no one else to share it with, which was indeed fine!
His relationship of one year had sizzled to a stop three months ago when he'd bluntly told the woman that he was never getting married and if she wanted to continue to be with him she'd better accept it. She'd left him right after and he was fine with that.
He had a dinner party that he'd been roped into attending but he was going to head for the club to hang out until it was time to go to the damned thing and then stay a few hours and before excusing himself.
*****
Skylar sifted through the clothing inside her vast closet with a frown as she decided what to wear. She'd left the store early to come home to get ready. The party was at eight but she'd stopped at the hairdresser to get a cut and deep condition for her naturally curly hair. She'd gone natural with a ‘big chop’ two years ago after wearing her hair past her shoulders for years. Now her hair had grown into black lustrous strands and myriads of curls that suited her finely boned face. She sometimes bushed the curls out and twisted them on top of her head but tonight she decided to leave them loose. She picked out a rich burgundy dress with a softly layered skirt that shifted when she moved. It had thin straps that showed glimpses of her flawless complexion. Skylar was aware that even though she'd turned fifty-one on the third of April she didn't look her age and was very proud of it. She worked out and watched what she ate but she was naturally slender with gentle curves and excellent bone structure. Whenever she went out with her friends she was always mistaken for being much younger than they were. They would justify it by saying that it was because her body had never felt the ravages of having children and the stress of being married. She held up the dress to her body and stared at the color against her beautiful skin. Her mind drifted to the conversation with her friends at lunch on Monday. Her heart broke for them and she wished there was some way she could help them. She was friends with Devon as they'd attended college together. With determined steps she walked over to her phone and dialed his number before she changed her mind.
“Hey there beautiful lady! I haven't heard from you in ages.”
“That’s because you don't call,” she told him with a smile as she sat on the edge of her bed. “How are you?”
“I'm good. What are you up to?”
“We're friends, right?”
He hesitated before responding. “I would like to think we are but I know how these things work, Sky. You're going to side with Del and I get that.”
“I don’t want to side with anyone Dev,” she said softly. “You're both hurting. “I had to sit at lunch on Monday and listen to one of my best friends sink into despair that I'm afraid is going to have her do something drastic. You have the power to change all that.”
“It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not,” she said firmly. “You were in love with each other and certainly so many years of marriage cannot go down like that. You have to try, Devon.”
“You don’t know what’s like, Sky. We fight all the time. We can't be in the same room with each other without it turning into a war! We both carry pieces and I am afraid that one day we're going to get into it and that will be it for us. I don’t want that so I stay away.”
“You need to fix it,” she insisted.
“We tried therapy for several years and it didn't work. Something's breaking inside our marriage and it can't be fixed. And frankly I don’t know if I want to try.”
“Because you're seeing someone else?” Skylar asked him.
“She told you that huh?” He said with a sigh. “It’s not really serious. She's just someone I talk to when I'm pressured. I have no intention of getting serious with anyone again right now, Sky. It’s too hard and I have the kids to think about.”
“So think about them and stop trying to take them away from her.”
“She's drinking Sky. Did she tell you that?”
Skylar closed her eyes in despair. She'd suspected but hadn't wanted to believe it. “How long?”
“For years now and that’s one of the things we fight about. I can't have my kids facing that.”
“They're not kids anymore, and she's still your wife and needs your help.”
“She doesn't want my help. I've offered it and she refuses it. It’s only a matter of time before they find out. Try and get her to open up to you. I've tried and failed.”
*****
Skylar was sitting at the bar having a martini when he came over and ordered a gin and tonic. She'd arrived at the dinner party and had been greeted by Angeline around a table filled mostly with bankers who'd made the same tired, tasteless jokes over and over. She'd prayed for the dinner to end so she could get out of there and go home. But she'd made a detour to the bar before leaving. “I guess we both had the same idea,” the deep voice said at her left.
She turned her head and her eyes were caught by the deepest green eyes she'd ever seen. They looked like shining glass or dark swirling ocean, deep at the bottom of it. “Excuse me?”
“I noticed you at the table opposite where I was seated.” He turned to face her and she noticed the ease with which he wore the black tuxedo. He'd loosened the bow tie and it hung around the collar of his shirt. “You were trying not to yawn,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“I hope no one else noticed,” she said with a reluctant smile as she sipped her drink.
“Maybe not.” He extended a free hand. “My name is Blaine Mallory.”
“Skylar Buchanan,” she told him as she furrowed her forehead and tried to remember where she'd heard the name and seen the face before. “So you're on your way out as well?”
“I'm afraid so,” he said with a nod. “There's only so much bad humor I can take and no more. How about you?”
“Definitely leaving.” She stared at him curiously and then her brow cleared. “You're the real estate guy.”
He laughed at that. “That’s o
ne way to put it,” he said in amusement. “So, Skylar Buchanan, what brought you to this dinner of misery?”
She laughed softly. “A client that I didn't want to upset. She invited me and I couldn't say no.”
“Client?” his thick ash blonde brow lifted as he sipped his drink.
“I own a high-end boutique for women,” she explained.
“Where?”
“On Pritchard Street.”
“I've passed it several times. I'm going to need to come and take a look.”
“Maybe I can interest you in buying something for your significant other,” she told him.
“No significant other,” he told her lightly.
“I see,” she said slowly as she looked at him. He was very attractive, with a hardness about him that was etched into his face. She'd read somewhere about him being hands on with his work. “You could always come in for the champagne. It’s free.”
“You serve free champagne?’ he said in amusement as he studied her face. “Isn’t that counter-productive and eat into your profit?”
“Typical business man,” she said dryly. “But I happen to be a very good business woman as well. The champagne isn't exactly free. It's tied into the cost of the things there, and besides, you have to show your customers how special they are.”
“I agree with you.” He lifted his glass in a toast. “So would I have to purchase anything in order to taste the champagne?”
She thought for a moment and then responded. “Free the first time.”
“Then I'll certainly stop by,” he told her with a smile, crinkling his eyes and giving him a carefree look. “I'm beginning to be happy that I decided to come after all.”
“So am I.” Their eyes met and held for a moment before he looked down into the drink. “How about letting me buy you another one?” he suggested.
“I would like that.”
*****
Skylar eased out of her shoes and sat down on the sofa inside her room. The night hadn't turned out too badly after all, she thought with a small smile. Their drinks had turned into three and it had been almost eleven before she'd told him that she had to leave. They'd exchanged numbers and promised to call each other in the coming days. She'd enjoyed talking to him and was determined not to make it into a big deal. They were both mature adults! She'd been surprised when he'd told her that he'd turned fifty-three in October and he'd been shocked when she'd told him her age. “Are you sure?” he'd asked her, his eyes going over her face.