Crossroad To Love (Fab Five Series) Page 3

  And then there was Angie, the career girl of the group. So career-oriented, in fact, that it had been the cause of her marriage breaking up. She and Michael had seemed perfect for each other, both ambitious and driven. They had met in college and the ‘Fab Four’ had all thought he was wonderful from day one. They had been delighted when Angie had announced her engagement. They had all been surprised when Angie told them a few years later she and Michael were divorcing. Marianne had tried to reason with Angie, begging her to reconsider her decision. She had told Angie that if she and Michael loved each other, they could work through their problems. She had attempted to make Angie see that there were ways to balance career with a personal life, but in the end, Angie had not listened to her and had gone through with the divorce.

  “Marriage, kids, and my career just don’t go together,” she had explained. None of them could believe she was giving up Michael for a job, but then none of them had ever been quite as ambitious as Angie was. And her ambition had paid off. She had a very high powered, high paying job now. But Katy wondered if, deep down, Angie had ever regretted her decision to leave Michael. I wonder what Michael is doing now and if he ever remarried. She had not heard from him for several years. He had kept in touch with all of them for a while, but she guessed he had moved on by now. He had been so thoughtful and helpful to her after the funeral. He had helped her deal with a lot of the financial details in the weeks following.

  Unlike Angie, Marianne had chosen her family over her career. She had gone back into nursing recently. Katy wondered how that was working out for her. Marianne had not worked for quite a few years. And she certainly did not need the income. Jon was doing quite well as a surgeon. I hope I get to see Jon while I’m in Texas. They make such a good couple.

  The plane landed on schedule in St. Louis, bringing her back to the present. Katy hurried through the airport, eager for Lizzie and Angie to arrive. This is going to be a reunion to remember. Little did she know just how true that statement was.

  CHAPTER 5

  Marianne stepped into the luxurious suite at the Prava. Everything was perfect, the hotel had followed her instruction to the letter. This was going to be one big week-long slumber party with her best friends, just like the old days. She was so glad Lizzie had thought of it. She made sure there were soft drinks in the fridge, wine, coffee, and snacks. She had ordered a box of expensive chocolates and had fresh-cut flowers sitting in a ceramic floral vase on the gleaming cherry desk. They had all been chocoholics in the old days. The girls are going to love this place. Preparing for their arrival had given her something to do to get her mind off her troubles. She could not wait to see the ‘Fab Four’ again. She was determined to have a good time this week, and face her problems next week, when a decision would finally have to be made.

  She had to decide whether to confront Jon, wait for him to confront her, or to pretend nothing was wrong and hope the affair ended soon. He had been so attentive that morning. His kiss had started out quite passionately, in fact. If she had not pulled away, it might have gone further. Has he ended it with the other woman? He had told Mari not to worry about him and Jordan. He was planning a guy’s night out with Jordan. He was acting like everything was normal in their household, like nothing was going on. Jon was acting like the perfect husband that everyone thought him to be. Could she actually get her hopes up that it was a mere fling and that Jon had come to his senses? Or could he be that good an actor, and was waiting until after her week with her friends to lower the boom and tell her he was leaving her for the young lab tech? Marianne was more confused than ever. She cracked open a bottle of her favorite red wine from the bottles she had stocked the liquor cabinet with, poured it into one of the crystal glasses she found, and sat down on the comfortable burnt orange sofa to enjoy it while she waited for Ang, Liz, and Kate to arrive. I might as well start the party early, she thought to herself. It will relax me before they all get here.

  I wonder what they will want to do first. Lizzie had brainstormed the idea of the trip but since they had decided on Dallas, Marianne had volunteered to take care of the entertainment arrangements. There is always shopping at the Galleria. They would love that. The symphony isn’t too far from here, either. She would just play it by ear and see if they were more interested in gallivanting around town or staying in and visiting most of the time. She poured another glass of wine and sank back against the oversized pillows on the couch. The girls should be arriving within the hour.

  Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Angie stepped off the plane, walked to the main area of the airport and looked around to see which direction she needed to go to meet Lizzie and Katy when her cell rang. She did not recognize the number, but touched the screen and said, “Hello, this is Angela.”

  “My, my, aren’t we formal this morning?” It was Michael! “Take a girl to dinner at a romantic restaurant and she goes from Angie to Angela overnight. Bad for the male ego, Angie, darling.”

  “Sorry, Michael, I didn’t recognize the number, thought it might be business.”

  Apology accepted. I take it you made your flight on time.”

  “Yes, I just landed in St. Louis to meet Lizzie and Katy. We are flying on to Dallas together from here and I need to meet them soon. We wanted to have lunch before our flight leaves. So to what do I owe the honor of this call?” Her heart was racing.

  “Well, business, in a way. I forgot to get the name of the hotel you’ll be staying at in Dallas in case I need to get a hold of you about the project while you are gone.”

  “Can’t you just call my cell?”

  “Well, Miss Prim and Proper, yes, I can call your cell obviously. But I like to have a second number just in case.”

  Guess he thought I was being just a little bit sarcastic, Angie thought to herself as she grinned.

  “I don’t really have the number handy, but I can give you the name of the hotel. It’s the Prava on the north side of Dallas.”

  “Okay, got it. You have a good week now. And thanks for the info.” With that, he hung up, leaving Angie to wonder what that call was really about.

  He certainly cut the conversation short after he had gotten the information he wanted, short and sweet. Oh, well, I don’t have time to worry about that now, she thought as she put her cell back in her bag and looked around for the place she had planned to meet Lizzie and Katy. She got her bearings and rushed to meet them. They were both already there when she arrived.

  After hugs all around, Katy said, “We were beginning to worry about you. What delayed you?”

  Should I tell them? Why not, it will be good for a laugh.

  “I had a phone call just as I was getting off the plane. It was a business associate. His name is Michael Gray.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Angie watched smugly as Katy and Lizzie looked at each other in amazement.

  After the initial shock, Lizzie was the first to find her voice. “Are you telling us that you are working with a guy who just happens to be named Michael Gray?”

  “Or are you trying to tell us that you are now working with our Michael Gray?” added Katy, still trying to wrap her head around what her friend had just said.

  “Believe me, girls, no one was as shocked as I was yesterday when our Michael Gray walked into my office as the architect who will be handling my remodeling project at work. Unbeknownst to me, he recently moved to the Quad City area from Des Moines and joined the architectural firm that I hired to do the work on the expansion.” She stopped to savor the looks of surprise on the two women’s faces and added for good measure, “And we had dinner together last night.”

  “Girl, you’ve got some heavy explaining to do over lunch, which by the way, we need to get to if we are going to catch our flight to Dallas. Marianne will kill us all if we are late after all the work she has done to get ready for our descent on the Big D.” Lizzie hurried them along to a restaurant near their gate.

  “And she’ll hate it that we get to hear the ‘Michael and Angie’ saga be
fore she does,” added Katy with a good-natured giggle.

  After they were comfortably seated in a corner booth at the airport restaurant, Lizzie asked in anticipation, “Now spill it, girlfriend, what is up with you and Michael Gray, after all these years?”

  “Actually, nothing is going on, Liz. Quite simply, I scheduled a meeting yesterday with my architect for the new expansion project at the hotel. I was anxious to get through it since it was my last appointment of the day. Imagine my surprise when the architect walked in and it was Michael, after all these years. I had no idea he had recently taken a job with the firm I hired.” Angie watched her friends’ faces to see if she could read their reactions.

  “I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting,” laughed Katy, as she thought her friend had just a bit of a dreamy look on her face at the mere mention of Michael’s name. Could it be… after all this time… that she still had feelings for her ex-husband?

  “After I picked my jaw up off the floor, we had our meeting. That was all there was to it,” Angie answered with the dreamy look on her face again. Katy was sure of it now.

  “All there was to it, huh?” Lizzie joined the conversation, seriously doubting Angie’s last statement, given the look on her face.

  The waitress came to take their order, so the conversation had to be tabled for a few minutes. Katy, the petite one of the group, ordered a blackened chicken salad and iced tea with lemon, Angie, a club sandwich and a cup of coffee, and Lizzie, ever the junk food junkie, ordered a burger and fries with a Coke.

  “Well, I see some things never change, our eating habits are still the same,” Angie giggled like a school girl, shifting the subject to something other than her meeting with Michael. It was good to be with her old friends again. They had so many wonderful memories together. Memories that included her life with Michael, she gently reminded herself.

  “Don’t change the subject, you’re not off the hook, yet, my friend. What was the part about you two having dinner together last night? You can’t tell me it was just a business dinner,” nudged Lizzie, eager to hear more.

  Angie took a sip of the coffee the waitress had delivered, added creamer, and as she slowly stirred the mixture, she continued, “Well, there is not much to tell, really. He called after I had just finished packing and suggested we have dinner together. I drove my own car and met him at a little restaurant down the street from the condo. We had dinner, I found out he is still single and I went home. End of story.”

  “End of story, my ass,” Lizzie commented wryly.

  “More like beginning of story, if you ask me,” Katy remarked smugly.

  “Oh, come on, I had no choice, I have to work with the guy.” Angie was on the defensive now.

  “Did you invite him back to your place for a drink after dinner?” asked Lizzie mischievously as she took a sip of her Coke.

  “No, I most certainly did not.” Angie was beginning to wish she had never told them about Michael. But she did value their opinions, especially Katy’s.

  The waitress brought their food and as they enjoyed their first lunch together in quite some time, each was lost in her own thoughts for a few moments.

  Wouldn’t it be great, if after all this time, the Grays got back together? Katy thought to herself. She knew from many conversations with Angie over the years that she had never really gotten over Michael, the love of her life. Apparently that still held true from the way she spoke of him now. Katy also was aware of how hurt Michael had been by the divorce and that he had always kept a place in his heart for his ex-wife. He had shared his feelings with Katy after she had lost Bill, during one of the many heart-to-heart conversations the two of them had shared at that horrible time in her life.

  The girls finished their lunch in relative silence, and prepared to board the plane for Dallas. Excited to get to their destination and to see their dear friend, Marianne, they dropped the subject of Michael Gray for time being, much to Angie’s relief.

  The flight to Dallas was uneventful and when the plane landed at DFW airport, the girls gathered their luggage, picked up the rental car as planned, and drove to the hotel. Angie drove, Lizzie sat in the front with the directions and Katy sat in the backseat, watching happily as her two friends joked together in the front seat. Soon, they arrived at the Prava, handed the valet the keys to the rental, and made their way to the suite. When they entered, they were greeted by a very cheerful Marianne who held up her glass of wine as she toasted her three best friends.

  CHAPTER 7

  “I see you’ve started the party without us,” Angie chuckled, slightly taken aback at the glass of wine in Marianne’s hand. It was so unlike her to drink alone.

  “Come here, you guys, I’ve been waiting patiently for hours for you to get here,” replied Marianne with a forced laugh.

  With that, the three friends rushed to her. After much hugging, kissing, and crying, finally reunited again, the four friends sat down, each with a glass of wine in their hand now, ready to catch up on each other’s news.

  “So, who wants to go first?” Marianne ventured.

  The three looked at each other and giggled like schoolgirls. Lizzie and Katy both looked pointedly at Angie, who turned beet red.

  “You already know something, don’t you?” asked Marianne, her curiosity building.

  “Tell her, Angie, you know you are not going to get away with not telling,” Katy coaxed her gently.

  “Alright, already, I can see I’m going to have to tell my story first or you two will burst.” She looked at Marianne and continued, “Well, Mari, I got the biggest surprise of my life yesterday. I had scheduled a meeting with an architectural firm to work on a new project for the hotel. It’s an expansion project.” She paused, took a sip of wine, and continued, “I pitched the idea a few months ago and it was wholeheartedly approved. I am basically in charge of the whole project, which is a major undertaking. I’ve been working long hours on it,” she explained, “which is why I am so looking forward to this week with you guys. I really needed a break before the bulk of the work begins.” She was taking her time telling the story, savoring every word.

  “On with the good part, Ang,” Lizzie said impatiently.

  “I’m getting to that. All in good time, my friend, all in good time,” Angie replied. “Anyway, when the architect walked in the door, it was none other than the still-gorgeous Michael Gray. There he was, a blast from the past after all these years, and still as hot as ever. He waltzed right in and sat down. Now are you happy? I’ve said it.” Angie waited for Marianne’s reaction, while her other two friends burst into yet another fit of giggles.

  Marianne looked at each of her friends in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me. What in the world did you do?”

  “After I picked my jaw up off the floor and stammered a little, I acted like the professional career lady that I am and conducted the meeting, of course. He really had some wonderful ideas and I think I’ll like working with him, actually. On a professional level, of course,” she quickly added.

  “What about on a personal level?” Marianne ventured to ask.

  “That remains to be seen. We had dinner together last night. He is still single in answer to your next question,” Angie offered.

  “Wow, you didn’t waste any time, now did you?” Marianne looked at her friend warily.

  “Now what is that supposed to mean? It was a friendly business dinner. That is all.”

  “Sure it was. Honey, we all know that you never got over the man. Why you ever let him go in the first place is beyond me. You guys were great together. You should never have let your careers get in the way. You could have made it work, lots of couples have high-powered careers and stay married. They lead successful lives and do just fine.” Marianne had finally put into words what they all had been thinking.

  “But, at the time, it just didn’t seem to be working. You are right about one thing, though, and I never thought I would ever admit it. I never got over the m
an, plain and simple fact. And I probably never will.”

  “Well, now is your chance to rectify the mistake of letting him go in the first place. You may never get another chance like it,” Lizzie, who had been listening intently, added.

  “But so much time has passed.”

  “Did he act interested?” Katy asked, knowing full well that he was.

  “Maybe, I just don’t know what to think. I have to work with the man for the next several months.”

  “There’s that work thing getting in the way again,” Marianne replied.

  “You have got to find a way to work with him and a way to get to know him all over again. You might just like the man he has become even more than the Michael you fell in love with all those years ago,” Katy said.

  “You are both established in your careers now, sounds like you are both doing well for yourselves. You are both available and obviously neither of you has found anyone else, which should be telling you something. It may be destiny’s way of stepping in where you two have been too stubborn to go,” Lizzie offered.

  “I agree,” said Marianne, who had always been a great believer in fate and destiny.

  “Well, I do feel better after talking with you guys. I knew I would. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens from here, I guess. Enough about me, who wants to go next?” Angie was glad to get the conversation going in another direction. They did not know everything about her breakup with Michael. She had never told them. She had never confided the most personal thing in her life to her best friends in all the years since it happened. Actually, she had never even told Michael the real reason she had set him free.

  “I’ll go next,” Katy offered. The others leaned forward to listen, eager to hear as she began.