An August Harvest

by Ben Marney

  So there she was, in her tight blouse, barefoot with her tanned muscular legs shining in the light wanting to talk to me. It was a breathtaking image. “Sure,” I said smiling, staring directly into her eyes. “What do you want to talk about? Do we have a problem with the project?”

  “No, it’s not about work,” she said softly, sitting down on the couch, “It’s...it’s about something personal.”

  “Personal huh?” I grinned. “Are you having boy troubles?”

  She tucked her legs under her body, actually sitting on them. Then she tugged at her short skirt, trying to adjust it down a little, but it didn’t work. I could easily see her pink panties peaking out from underneath, so I looked away.

  I gave her a few moments to hopefully readjust her skirt before I looked back, but she hadn’t readjusted anything, so I made a point to look into her eyes.

  Her forehead was wrinkled and she was frowning. “It’s not boy trouble,” she whispered. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously? Why not?”

  She sighed deeply. “I had one for a long time. His name was Drake Davis. I met him in the first grade and we dated all through high school, but I broke up with him when I went to college.”

  “Why did you do that?”

  “I really don’t know. He was just so immature. He never grew up and I couldn’t take his crap one more day. It broke his heart, and he called and begged me to go back with him for years, but I couldn’t do it.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “He finally stopped calling me and moved away. I haven’t heard from him, or anything about him, in a few years. He was really sweet and a good guy, but just didn’t want to grow up and I did.”

  “It sounds like you really cared about him for a long time. And it also sounds like Drake was madly in love with you.”

  “Oh yeah, he was, and I really did hurt him.” She dropped her head. “I was pretty mean. I think about him often. I really do hope he’s met somebody that makes him happy. I hope he’s doing okay.”

  “First loves never go away. They’ll always hold a piece of your heart and you’ll always wonder about them. What about other guys?”

  She smiled. “Well, I do get asked out a lot, but boys my age are...again, so immature.”

  I laughed. “Annabelle, you need to give ‘em a break. They’re young and supposed to be immature. Maturity comes with age. You can’t force it on someone. It doesn’t come overnight. Don’t worry so much about that. Just go out and have fun. That’s the biggest problem about being young like you. You can’t appreciate how great it is to be young...until you’re not.”

  “Did you just make that up?” She was staring into my eyes, “That was very profound. You are amazing.”

  I chuckled. “No, I’m not. I’m just old. It will happen to you one day and then you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about. What I said wasn’t profound at all. It’s just the simple truth.”

  “You are not that much older than me,” she said softly, gazing into my eyes. You are the perfect age.” She looked down. “I think you are amazing.”

  I turned in my chair and looked out the window. My mind was spinning. The depth of my naïveté had been astounding, but suddenly, like being hit on the head with a hammer, I got it, and everything became clear and made sense. Annabelle was falling for me. That explained her gradual change of wardrobe and appearance.

  When she first started working for me, she usually came to work wearing jeans or pants with a simple blouse. She rarely wore makeup, maybe a little eyeliner and lipstick, but not much else. The first time I saw her all dolled up, in full makeup, was at a party thrown by the developers of the Beverly Beach project. When she walked in, a hush fell over the crowd and every eye in the room followed her through the doorway. She was absolutely stunning. And, I foolishly made it clear that night how amazing I thought she looked.

  Molly had come down with a fever that day, so Melissa couldn’t come and missed the party. So that night, Annabelle jokingly announced that she was my date for the evening. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but apparently Annabelle did. That night, she never left my side, holding on to my arm, and would laugh and smiled wide when people would tell us what a great looking couple we made.

  That party was almost a month ago. Thinking about it now, I realized that was when her transformation began, when she started coming to work with full makeup and began wearing sexy shoes, short skirts and tight blouses.

  “Grant, have I done something wrong?” She asked.

  I spun my chair around and looked at her. She had tears in her eyes. “Of course not. You are doing a great job. Why would you ask me that?”

  She wiped her eyes and stared down at the floor. “This isn’t about my work,” she said so softly I could barely hear her. She slowly lifted her head and looked at me. “It’s...it’s about me.”

  I thought I knew exactly what it was about, but didn’t have a clue of how to respond, so I played dumb. “About you? Annabelle, what are you talking about?”

  She wiped her face with her hand and stared back down at the floor. “Do you think I’m ugly?”

  “Ugly? Are you kidding?” I said. “Annabelle, look at me.” She lifted her head. Tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Come on now, don’t cry. Of course I don’t think you’re ugly, you’re a beautiful girl. What’s this all about?”

  She took a tissue out of her purse and wiped her eyes. “Then why do you ignore me all the time? Why won’t you look at me? It’s like I’m invisible or something.”

  I leaned forward. “Annabelle, you are a young and very beautiful woman, but I’m your boss. I can’t look at you.”

  She wrinkled her forehead. “So...you’re doing it on purpose? That’s why you never look at me?”

  I nodded and smiled. “It would be improper. It might even be considered sexual harassment.”

  She stared into my eyes and smiled. “Even if I want you to?”

  “Especially if you want me to. Annabelle,” I said with a sigh, “we shouldn’t even be having this conversation.”

  “I know and I’m sorry to bring it up.” She dropped her head. “This may sound awful, but I want you to look. I spend hours every morning trying to pick out what to wear so you will look. Is that wrong of me to want that?”

  “Annabelle, you’ve put me in a very awkward position here. I don’t want to say the wrong thing and upset you. If I do, I apologize, but I have to tell you the truth. As long as you are working for me, especially since there’re just the two of us in this office, I have to treat you no different than if you were a man. It’s actually against the law for me to treat you any other way. I can’t even make a comment on how you look. That’s considered sexist and sexual harassment.”

  “That’s stupid,” she said.

  “I don’t disagree, I think it is too, but that’s the way the world is these days. So, if you want to keep your job here with me, that’s the way it has to be. Do you understand?”

  She grinned. “So...no more short skirts?”

  “That would make my life a whole lot easier,” I said with a grin.

  She stood up and walked to my doorway. “So…you were looking,” she said excitedly, obviously flirting. “Actually, I have a skirt even shorter than this one. I think I’ll wear that one tomorrow, but don’t you dare look.” She giggled and hopped down the stairs.

  When she left, I looked down at Charley. “This is all your fault. You took me to her. What am I supposed to do now?”

  From that day forward, Annabelle stopped trying to hide her attraction to me. But thank God, she never showed it around Melissa. However, when she came over to spend a beach day with us, her bikinis seemed to get smaller and smaller.

  I fought it off with all my might, but my attraction to her grew slowly as well. I wanted to talk to Melissa about it, but never got up the nerve – she had gone through so much in her life, I just couldn’t do it.

  For t
he next several months, my life got more and more confusing. My feelings for Melissa continued to grow and our relationship got stronger, but unfortunately, my feelings for Annabelle, although very confusing, grew as well.

  My physical attraction toward her was obvious and easy to understand, but that wasn’t what was doing it. It was working with her so closely every day and realizing just how brilliant she was; watching her interact with other people on the job site; listening to her conversations on the phone with her friends and family, hearing her sincere concerns for them... I could go on and on, but the more I got to know Annabelle, the more I adored her. She was truly genuine, a good person with only love and kindness in her heart. The only thing that contradicted all the good things I had learned about her was her obvious and blatant attraction to me. Knowing about my relationship with Melissa and just ignoring it didn’t fit who she was.

  The fact that she no longer hid her feelings toward me, and could continue to be, or at least very convincingly, pretend to be a good friend to Melissa, and at the same time seem to be absolutely head over heels in love with Molly...absolutely confounded me. It kept me up at night, jarring me awake. I knew I had to do something about it, but because nothing had actually happened between us, other than her obvious flirtations, I just let it go on.

  On the weekend of the grand opening of the first phase of the Beverly Beach Project, Brenda and Marshall flew in for the big celebration. Melissa was my date that night and Annabelle came alone.

  When Annabelle arrived, she immediately went into hostess mode and did her usual amazing job of making sure everything went smoothly. She was constantly switching from greeting the arriving VIP guests with her dazzling smile, to making sure the buffet table was replenished and clean, to filling everyone’s glasses with more champagne. She was incredibly efficient that night. She also looked like she’d just finished a shoot for Vogue, in her long form fitting Emerald Green gown and her very sexy, sparkling matching stiletto heels. Melissa and Brenda had both commented on how beautiful she looked. When they said that, I nodded. I had to agree, because she did look amazing.

  The next morning, I fired up the grill and cooked a brisket. I invited Annabelle over to join us for a beach day and dinner. I wanted her to get to know Brenda and Marshall better. That day, she wore one of her larger bikinis, but when she took off her cover up and ran into the water, I thought Marshall’s eyes were going to pop out of his head.

  “Holy shit…” he whispered under his breath.

  I shot him a quick look. “Amen, brother,” I said, grinning.

  Fortunately, I had trained myself well and was able to take a few quick looks and not get caught by Melissa, but Marshall wasn’t so lucky.

  “Would you like me to go get the camera?” Brenda said, glaring at him, “The one with the telephoto lens?”

  He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “Naw, I’ll just put on my shades, so you won’t catch me again.”

  That night after everyone left, the three of us - Marshall, Brenda and I - settled on my back deck to talk and catch up.

  “Has Melissa heard anything about Jerry?” Brenda asked.

  “Not a peep. He’s disappeared. Her lawyer hired a private detective agency to keep an eye out, but they lost track of him. The only thing they’re sure of is that he’s not in Asheville, North Carolina anymore.”

  “I don’t like that,” Marshall said. “We need to know where he is. There’s no telling what a guy like that might do.”

  “I don’t like it either, but wherever he is, he’s staying off the grid. The detective agency her lawyer hired is a big company with offices all over the country. So far, they can’t find any signs of him. They think he must be living on the street somewhere. I just hope it’s not somewhere in Florida.”

  “Me too. I think that guy could be dangerous. Do you own a gun?”

  I frowned. “A gun? No, I don’t. You think he might come after me?“

  “Well, just think about it. He was living pretty high on the hog until you showed up. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to buy a gun, just in case. At least until this agency can track him down.”

  “May I change the subject?” Brenda asked. “I don’t like guns.”

  “Sure, I don’t like them, either,” I said. “So what would you like to talk about?”

  She gave me a funny look, tilting her head, grinning wide. “Well, how about Annabelle? I’d like to know a little more about her.”

  “Ahh, well, there’s not much to tell. She’s from Boone, North Carolina, she just graduated college with a degree in Construction Management...and she’s my assistant.”

  “And…” she chimed, stretching out the word.

  “And what?”

  She rolled her eyes, “Come on, Grant. It’s me. Spill it. What’s going on between you two?”

  I grinned. “Nothing! There’s nothing to spill. What on earth gave you that idea?”

  She moved her hand up and touched her chin, exaggerating a thinking pose. “Hmm, let me think. Maybe it’s the way she looks at you with stars in her eyes every time you talk. Or, perhaps the fact that you never once looked at her today on the beach. Remember I make my living studying people’s body language and actions. I know for a fact that you are not gay, but only a gay man would not have stared at her in that bikini, but you didn’t even look...not once.” She lifted her eyebrows and smiled wide. “Grant, you can’t fool me. So come on...spill it!”

  I leaned back in my chair and sighed. “Is it really that obvious? Do you think Melissa knows?”

  “She didn’t say anything to me, but she’s not blind. It only took me about ten minutes to see it, but that’s what I do. Grant, it’s obvious Annabelle’s head over heels for you. What I want to know is what’s going on inside of your head? Do you have feelings for her? Has something happened between you two?”

  I looked away. “No, I swear, absolutely not. Nothing has happened.” I turned and looked in her eyes. “But to be completely honest with you...I think she’s amazing, but...”

  “But what?” Marshall asked.

  I shifted in my chair and looked down. “I couldn’t do that to Melissa. She’s been through so much in her life. I just couldn’t do something like that to her.”

  Brenda glanced at Marshall then looked back at me. “Do something like what exactly? Follow your heart? Tell her the truth? Grant, you’ve done nothing wrong. You can’t stop love.”

  “I didn’t say I was in love with Annabelle. I’ve never even kissed her!” I shouted. “I’m supposed to be in love with Melissa!”

  “Supposed to be?” Brenda repeated with wide eyes. “What does that mean?”

  “Hell, Brenda, I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what anything means anymore. I’m so confused. If I’m not supposed to fall in love with Melissa, then why in the hell did Charley bring me here, to Florida, to this house, next door to the woman who has Rita’s liver inside of her? That has to be my fate. What else could it be?”

  “Grant, I can’t answer that. I don’t think anyone can, but I agree with you. I believe you are here for a specific reason. Maybe your fate is to be with Melissa, but what if it’s not? What if you’re here for some other reason?”

  “What other reason could it possibly be? And why would we both have those feelings when we touch, the shocks and tingles? What about that?”

  “I haven’t a clue. I’ve never understood why that happens, anyway. The only thing I know for sure is time will eventually reveal the truth to both of you. Grant, if you have feelings for Annabelle, you need to be honest and tell her. It’s not fair to either one of you to hide them. She has the right to know what’s going on in your heart.”

  Brenda lifted her wine glass and took a sip. “And so does Melissa. You especially owe that to her, because of what she’s lived through in her life. Grant, you can’t lie to her. She’s lived through Jerry’s lies all these years. I know it would be very hard on her, but I believe she’s strong enough to get over los
ing you. But I know for sure she would never survive knowing that another man she loved has lied to her. That would completely destroy her.”

  I stood, grabbed my beer off the table and leaned back against the rail. “Don’t you think Annabelle’s too young for me?”

  Marshall laughed. “Not really. Do you think Brenda’s too young for me? They’re almost the same age.”

  I looked at Brenda. “No way! How old are you?”

  “Thanks for the compliment!” She fired back with a frown. “How damn old do you think I am?”

  “I didn’t mean I thought you looked old, but you’re a doctor, you have to be at least thirty something, right?”

  She smiled. “Wrong. I graduated medical school at twenty-two, got my doctorate in psychology at twenty-six. I’m twenty-eight years old.”

  “Holy shit!” I yelled. “How old were you when you graduated high school?”

  She lifted her eyes and smiled. “Thirteen.”

  I looked over at Marshall, “Well, I know one thing for sure; she may not be too young for your old ass, but she’s way too smart for you!”

  Marshall shrugged. “Interestingly, I don’t find her all that intelligent.” She gave him a good whack on his arm and we all laughed.

  “Can I be brutally honest with you?” Brenda asked, setting her wine glass down on the table.

  I sat back down in my chair and faced her. “Absolutely. Fire away.”

  “When I first laid eyes on Annabelle and realized that this was the girl you had been telling us about, the young girl you had hired as your assistant, the brilliant one, the super efficient one...her image didn’t fit the picture I had conjured up in my head. Oh, I had assumed that she would be young and pretty, but I was not expecting Christie Brinkley. And to be honest, I took an instant dislike to her. And it didn’t help that your friend there,” she reached over and whacked Marshall again, “almost dropped his champagne glass when she walked up and introduced herself to us.”