“I will pick something up. I am heading over to my Mom’s now. What do you feel like?”
“Italian.” He had told her immediately. “I wish I could meet her.”
“Soon.” She had told him. “I hate to hide things from her but in her excitement she might just tell her best friend and you know what will happen after that.”
“I know.” He had sighed. “How are you? Did you get some sleep?”
“You mean after you kept me up last night?” She had asked with a laugh.
“I feel badly about that. You must have been jet-lagged, and I should have left you alone.”
“If you had done that, I would suspect that you were with someone else. I am happy you didn’t.”
“You really would have thought that I was with someone else?”
“Maybe….!”
“You know that could never happen, right?”
“I know darling. See you later.”
Now seated inside her mother’s tiny office, she wished she could tell her how happy she was and how wonderful it was being married to Alan! Instead she had to talk about anything else except the fact that she was secretly married to one of the most eligible bachelors in the country.
“How was the photo shoot?” Debra asked as she poured some coffee for herself.
“It was not too bad,” Athena straightened out her legs and crossed them at the ankles. She was planning on stopping at her apartment to clean it out and maybe unplug the fridge. She was still paying for it because her lease was not up for another three months and she had to keep up the appearance that she was still living there. The pretense was killing her, but she was prepared to live with it for now. “The flight back was horrible though, lots of turbulence due to bad weather. There was a storm brewing when we were leaving.”
“I saw the news this morning and the storm is unleashing its fury on the island. It’s fortunate that you guys left yesterday. You would have been trapped.”
Athena shuddered as she thought about it. “They were suggesting we spend an extra day, but we were advised against that.” She smiled at the woman seated at the desk. “How have you been?”
Debra played with the rim of her cup. “Things between Melvin and I have progressed.”
“That’s wonderful! When am I going to take you two out to dinner and be officially introduced?”
“We are taking things slow.”
“You mean you?”
“Okay, fine. I am taking things slow. I spent a long time loving your dad….”
“Who has been dead for too many years to count.” Athena pointed out. “I think it is commendable that you loved someone so much that you are faithful to their memory, but I think it is time to move on Mom.”
“I loved him since we were in elementary school,” She murmured as she looked at her daughter. “I knew from the first time I saw him that he was going to be my husband. I know that sounds silly….”
“It does not.” Athena told her quietly. Before she met Alan, she would have scoffed at the idea of love at first sight but the minute they had seen each other at the bar that night, there had been something between them that had only grown much stronger.
Her mother nodded. “We never argued, and people might think that that is strange, but we would discuss our disagreements. He was this tall and handsome man and women were drawn to him, but he only had eyes for me, and I always knew that. We shared everything. Our innermost thoughts and our dreams and aspirations. We never ran out of conversational topics. But most times we were silent together. We would be sitting inside the living room snuggled together and not say anything to each other, but it was a comfortable silence, not an awkward one.” She shook her head. “I am never going to have that with anyone else.”
“What do you feel for Melvin?”
“He makes me laugh and forget where I am. He is a good man and I am attracted to him and he understands that your dad will always be the love of my life.”
“Then I would tell you to go for it Mom. You have been without someone for years now and this is a man who really cares about you.”
“I am more interested in you darling. I found the love of my life and I want something like that for you.”
Athena stared at her for a moment and almost blurted out the happy news. She had that as well. She had a man who was like the better half of her. Whenever she was not with him, she felt incomplete, so she knew exactly what her mother was talking about. “I will,” She said quietly. “I have no intention of settling for anything less.”
*****
“I think we should consider selling the airline.” One of the board members who had been at the company since Alan’s grandfather had been CEO piped up. George Atkins was teetering towards ninety-year-old piped up. It was his usual role. Everything they propose at the board meeting he always objects to, but they never usually paid him any mind.
“The airline is making a profit George,” Daniel McGregor told him with equanimity. George had been his father’s best friend and had been kept on the board because of sentimentality. Alan had suggested to his father to let him go into retirement, but he had been reluctant to do so.
“He does not contribute to anything Dad and he interrupts the meeting with trivialities.”
“He feels like he is making a contribution. He does not have a family and McGregor’s Enterprises is the only family he knows. It would break his heart if I told him to leave.”
“Is it really?” George croaked. He had been on oxygen for the past few years but still managed to walk without the aid of a cane. “I read somewhere that airlines milk money and the profit they managed to eke out goes back into the overheads. With the threats of terrorist attacks and hijacking, it is a wonder airlines manage to stay in business. I say get out before it is too late.”
“We will think about it.” Daniel told him with a smile. “Now onto the next….” He stopped as a beeping sound came from his son’s phone. “Do you have to take that?”
Alan turned it over and saw that it was Rachel. “I will call back when we are done here.”
*****
He called his wife first as soon as he went into this office.
“Hey.”
“Hey you!”
“What are you doing?”