For a year I was afraid to fall asleep because I thought that if I closed my eyes, she wouldn’t be there when I opened them. I had the genuine fear of being alone…a genuine fear of feeling alone…I just didn’t want to be all by myself…but I guess in the end…being alone was much more of a better feeling than being heartbroken.
My heart wasn’t only broken, it was shattered…it was destroyed and thrown in the toilet to be flushed away. I spent the next few months recollecting what ever was left of the embarrassment that I called “my life.” I focused more on finding myself through my work and ended up becoming one of the junior writers for the company after a shift of luck came in my direction. My senior writer Jessica Conroy read a piece I wrote about Alana and Victoria and decided that it was good enough to put on paper after someone walked out before posting his column.
Last I heard of Victoria she moved down to South Beach and moved in with her mother. But before she left, she told me something I will never forget…”you’re the one girls wait to marry.” It was something that replayed in my mind over and over again…it was something that almost made me forgive her for what she had done.
I found myself sitting and writing everyday…everything became so ordinary, so routine. Until a phone call at the office changed everything…
“Hello?” I answered, unexpected of the phone call…
“Hey, it’s Jessica…come out for lunch I have someone to introduce you to…”
I picked up my laptop, sports coat and sunglasses and headed out. As i stood there waiting for the elevator to open up…a girl passed by me and her perfume was so distinct…I didn’t pay any mind to it, no matter how tantalizing the smell was. I put my shades on and walked into the elevator as the doors opened. I looked back towards the girl and I saw Gayle White.
I tried to push the doors to open, but I failed to do it in time. It was no longer than two minutes as the elevator went down to the first floor…i don’t have to say how long those two minutes were. I pressed twenty-four and headed back to the office but before the doors closed a hand came and blocked the door from closing…it was Jessica.
“Hey, did you leave something upstairs?” She said to me
There was utter shock on my face still from the moment that had just befallen on me as I stuttered to say “yes.” She rode the elevator up with me to make sure that I got to her lunch date with her. She was telling me how she wanted to meet someone very important to the company, someone who could publish my book, but all I could think about was getting to that floor and getting to Gayle…
The doors open and I immediately begin looking around for her. Frantically and anxiously i walk around everyone’s cubicles and look and look…and then I saw the dress. The same black dress that I saw Gayle in as I was leaving for the elevator. The world stopped as I began walking towards her, I had no idea what I would be saying or what I would even do to say “hi” but it was her and that’s all I cared about.
Before I could reach her Jessica interrupted “Oh you found her!”
I turned remembering that Jessica was still there and said “ummm, who?”
“Come let me introduce you.” She took my hand and tapped the girl in the black dress. I held my breathe waiting for Gayle’s eyes to once again be against mine. She turned and to my surprise…
“This is Isabel Horn…Isabel this is the guy I was telling you about.”
It wasn’t Gayle…but what did me seeing her mean? It didn’t make sense to me.
“Hello,” I said before my stare became any more awkward than it already was. You could sense the disappointment in me just by the face I was making. She smiled though and shook my hand. “Jessica told me a lot about you, will you be joining us for lunch?”
I nodded and agreed to lunch with a Isabel and Jessica. We sat there and talked about a donation Isabel had just made to the company and how she would love for me to begin writing a romance novel for her publishing company. I stopped for a smoke as Jessica and Isabel were headed back to the office.
All I could think about is how I know I saw Gayle today…I wasn’t wrong…it was her, it had to be her…could I have been wrong? What does all this mean? Is this a sign? It has to be a sign…
Then the sound of a car horn startled me, but the sound of what came after shocked me even more…
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