A Moment Like This (8 page)

"Who's that?" Haruko raged pushing her back into her seat. "What does he mean by 'is he here yet?'"

"Meeting you again made me… uncomfortable. I asked Dante to come to…"

"
Now we need a chaperone?"

"
The last message you sent made me very uncomfortable. The only reason I came was because you demanded it," Selah huffed as she came to her feet beside him, "you're moving too fast for me Haruko. You've ruined your chance."

Angered, he went to grab her but Mike, the closer of the two, intervened. "Unhand her." His demand caught Haruko of guard and he was between the two before the Asian could react. "You heard her. It's time for you to leave."

"
This clown too?" Haruko asked around Michael's shoulder. Selah nodded her head numbly. Discreetly clenching a fist at the height of his waist Haruko faced Michael. "Down boy. The lady and I were just talking."

The waitress that she'd mistreated earlier watched nervously from the counter by the phone looking ready to withdraw it from its cradle; Selah inclined her head calmly then turned back a scream jumping from her throat.

Mike's cheek was grazed by the attack and when Haruko pulled his second hand back again Dante wrapped a tight fist about it and squeezed. The waitress' delicate fingers danced expertly across the ivory keys against the humming dial tone. A general gasp and murmur resonated through the patrons.

Once the police had escorted an irate Haruko away Selah turned to Michael. "Why did you step between us? He wouldn't have hit me!"

"
Yeah," he rejoined in a deep cynicism, "he's just the gentleman not to."

Selah looked into his eyes with wetness gathering in the corners of her own. "I should have listened to you, Mike, but I never thought it would come to this. If I had known…"

"
Cheer up, Sey," Dante heartened tossing an arm about her slim shoulders jovially. "It's all over now."

"
But it's not. Even if I block everything out he'll still come after me. He knows where I work. He knows…"

"
Lighten up," Dante encouraged, "you just have to be more careful for a bit."

"
But if I had listened to Mike," she protested.

"
If you always listened to Mike you would have no fun at all."

"
If she always listened to you," Mike began to growl in return.

"
Please, no more fighting. There's been enough for one day."

"
I agree," Mike concurred.

Defeated Dante stepped back from Selah as her head waitress approached. "Becky was able to come in for you, Miss. Donovan. We can handle it here if you need some time to recover. It must have been scary having that man come after you like that."

Taking a deep breath, Selah exhaled. "What I need is to stay busy." Her hand was shaking almost unperceivable as she removed several strands of hair from her lying on her cheek. "Yes, it's best if I stay here."

"I hate to ask this of you," Promise said switching topics over one of their evening cups of coffee, "but Mrs. Helen has been refusing her pills again."

"Why should that be any bother to me?"

"She's asked if you could come visit her. She said as long as you came she'd take her pills without complaint. She didn't want to lose another man to her stubbornness. I told her it was quite impossible but she insisted. I hate to intrude on your weekends but…"

"She doesn't think I'll buy her more roses does she? That little old lady could make me broke."

"She just wants someone to talk to."

"I bet there are a lot of patients there who just want someone to talk to," he spoke thoughtfully, his fingers running along the smooth surface of the mug. "What's one day a week for such a sweet person?"

"You're a life saver, Colin!"

"Let's not be dramatic, Prick. I know you're at your wits end with Mrs. Helen but I'm hardly a life saver. I haven't saved a single life that's come to my examination table."

"You've hardly had the chance."

"Touché my fine lady," Colin responded with a merrily compliant smile, "just the same I'm not the knight in shining armor you make me out to be. My charm is lost on all but the most time wizened of all."

"You haven't make may advances fair sir."

"My princess is locked away in a tower behind glass walls."

Promise chuckled at his poetic expression and asked teasingly, "and who is this princess of whom you speak?"

Colin choked on his coffee. "You of course fair maiden," he sent back in the most teasing tone he could muster.

"Come on, Colin. Be serious," she insisted between giggles, "who is she? Do I know her?"

"You know her but I don't want her to know. I think it's best if I don't tell you."

"But you tell me everything," she protested weakly. "Please?"

"Sorry Promise. Not this time."

She was quiet for a moment as she sipped her coffee then gave a small smile. "Aidan agreed we need to talk. I'm meeting him at the Half Shell tomorrow."

"Did he still sound upset?"

"Yeah, but understandably so. He was really looking forward to that weekend." Promise cocked her head at Colin's pressed lips. "What's wrong now?"

"I bet he was looking forward to that weekend," Colin muttered to himself.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He's still after the same thing he was in high school, Prick. Open your eyes."

"He wants to marry me," she insisted as always.

"Perhaps but that's not the only or first thing on his mind if it even is."

"What do you mean by that?"

"He wants your body, Promise."

"Is there something wrong with that? Am I not allowed to be attractive now too?"

"You know that is not what I mean. Please just be careful. I'm a guy too. I know what he's thinking."

"Then I guess I know what you're thinking too," she bristled. Colin opened his mouth to respond. But before words passed his lips she bowed her head and rested it against her fist. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. I know you're not like Ai…that."

Colin fidgeted as he stared at the top of her head. She was a very attractive woman and he was only human. Shaking his head slightly he came back to the conversation. She was looking at him with plaintive eyes begging forgiveness.

"I stepped out of line with the comment," he assured her, "I said I was going to step back and let him see him with your own eyes and I interfered."

"You do it because you care," she said staring down at the remnant of her coffee with a small smile, "I can understand. I'm not sure I could be so patient if there was a girl with questionable intentions pursuing you."

"Would you be jealous?" he teased without thinking. When she didn't reply immediately he felt his cheeks flush ever so slightly.

"I can't say," she dodged, "you never really know until you're in the situation."

It was as obvious as a candle in the dark she was avoiding the question but in his discomfort he let it slip away. It would have been an entangling trap to hear her reply.

Promise donned her attire carefully, taking great pains with the application of her makeup and choice of dress. Discarded outfits littered her tiny apartment. Powders of earthen hues dusted her bathroom floor where her eye shadow had fallen. Staring intently in the mirror she traced the edges of her lips with liquid color. After stepping back and observing her person she frowned but gathered her things and hurried over her home's threshold. She was late.

She spotted his casually clothed back through the storefront glass and hurried towards his pleasing persona. In her haste she caught her heel on a grasping a tree nearby she gasped and took inventory of her extremities. She had been startled by the jarring but thankfully not bruised or broken anything but her ego.

Readjusting her skirt she pushed her hand against the glassed entrance. As she watched a young woman looking vaguely familiar to her sashayed over to where Aidan sat and slid in comfortably across from him. Placing her hand upon his she began talking in low tones, her eyes flirting as she ran her fingers across the back surface of his hand. Promise held her breath unable to remove her eyes from the blurring figures. She must be his sister. Yes that was why she looked familiar but there was no resemblance between the two is face or posture.

Spellbound by what she was witnessing she failed to notice the woman's eyes falling on her. Her lips twitched in annoyance and when Aidan went to turn about she set to her characteristic theatrics.

Promise slipped away as the curtain was rising unwilling to see the final act. It would only end as it had before. It would only end in tears.

After not hearing from Selah several days he sought to initiate conversation. Boosting up his computer he logged on IM and typed up a wary yet nosey email.

So how'd it go? Even if it went badly I hope you remained unhurt. You can tell me anything good, bad, and ugly. I'm here for you, Heaven.

Tears dripped from the heartbroken email he received. He pushed back from his keyboard and paced about the room. She was so scared but she wasn't coming to him. She was coming to Eden, some stranger she didn't know she knew. What was there about Eden that Michael didn't have?

He should tell her. His mind screamed he should tell her. Neither of them was benefiting from this charade anymore. She needed someone there. Furthermore, it was breaking him watching her suffer from such a close distance. When he sat back down at his computer a giddy ding greeted him and he shifted her head degrees from straight. Questioningthestars had sent him a message. Why was a man contacting him?

"What gotten into you, Shannon?" he asked her withdrawing his hand and straightening how he was sitting in his seat. "You're on pretty shaky ground to be making such bold moves."

"I know, Aidan, but… I just want you to listen to me," she said biting her lip and pushing her shimmering mane behind her ear. Her eyes darted away from his.

"Words can be conveyed without the use of hands."

"But, Aidan, you don't understand," she pled with watering eyes, "I'm desperate. You have to…"

"I don't have to do anything for you, Shannon," he told her bitterly, "as a matter of fact I'm doing you a favor by just meeting you here. Any wiser man would have stayed away."

"I know," she whimpered, "I know but I just had to see you. When Austin found out about… about…"

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked hoping not to have their mistake mentioned again; there was still a void there, a tender one.

"He told me that if he had known..." Her continence crumbled and large tears rolled down her cheeks. Burying her face in her hands she sobbed quietly. Sensing the looks that had shifted their way she whispered, "Austin said that if he had known about Aven he never would have looked my way. He left me out in the cold, Aidan. I don't have anywhere to go."

Promise didn't know about Aven either. Shannon looked so broken at the moment he could almost forget her vengeful temperament. Almost.

A sense of responsibility choked him. Aven had been their son. At graduation Shannon had nearly been showing. She hadn't wanted to put the small child up for adoption but neither of them had the means to support him. Well he had but if his father had found out…

Shaking his head he put the past out of his mind. "You knew we couldn't hide him forever."

"But I thought it wouldn't matter to Austin. He told me he…"

"Loved you? That's what you told me as well if I recall."

"Please don't bring up the past, Aidan,"

"Ah but, Shannon, it's what has brought us together once again." When she looked up at him with red rimmed eyes he sighed and got to his feet. Coming to stand beside her he pulled her gently to her feet. "Perhaps we should continue our business somewhere else. People are staring."

Sniffling, Shannon grabbed her purse as he slipped some change onto the table for their coffee. As they turned to leave she wrapped herself about his arm and laid her head on his shoulder. Aidan frowned but led her out of the restaurant. His only joy that could come from this morning was that Promise hadn't seen him with Shannon. He could fib about not feeling well and postpone their date until later. Promise wouldn't have a problem with that.

Aidan hurried to catch up with the familiar silhouette that was exiting the hospital. Promise wasn't returning his calls and the only person he could think to probe about her was her childhood playmate, Dr. Frankenstein. He was competition but if he worked this right Mr. Minstrom would never be the wiser about his persisting troubles with Promise.

"Colin," he called on ahead stopping the coroner in his tracks; the addressee turned about and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?" he asked from where he had paused on the sidewalk.

"May we talk?"

"If this is about how you think I'm stealing Promise away from you I swear…"

"No, no it's not about that," Aidan assured him, "it's just she's not talking to me and I can tell there's something bothering her."

"Well if she didn't see fit to tell you don't think I will." Aidan turned awkwardly to go hearing from behind him, "I wish I could give you the displeasure that it was you who was bothering her but I can't; she's not talking to me either."

Aidan took a small measure of comfort in the fact that knowledge she hadn't divulged her secret to the grim reaper but in the large scope of things it was a negligible benefit. She still wasn't talking to him and he still didn't know why.

"I'm here to see Mrs. Helen," a voice told her patiently as if repeating itself. Promise started looking up from her absentmindedly filled out sheet. Another piece of work to recheck she frowned. She smiled slightly seeing Colin beaming down at her.

"She's been waiting for you all morning," Promise informed him, "bur I'm afraid you're in the wrong wing if you're here to see Mrs. Helen."

"I suppose I've been caught, "Colin grinned sheepishly.

"Caught?" Promise echoed in inquiry.

"I came to see you more than Mrs. Helen," he told her slipping back behind the nurses' station. He pushed a roller over in front of him and sat down in it across from her. "I'm worried about you."

"I can't talk about this now, Colin," she chided in a wavering voice, "I've got work to do, patients to see, and files to, well, file. I don't have time to…"

"You're not even making an effort at being discreetly evasive," he observed out loud as he watched her roll about and file.

"I'm tired of games," she told him with mournful eyes, "I've had enough games for a lifetime."

"What are you talking about, Promise?"

Her lower lip quivered but she pulled up tight and straightened from her chair. "I told you I can't talk, Colin. Please let me get back to my work." She bustled out of the nurses' station and down the hall, turning back when one of the elder men went to rise from his chair. After chiding him she hurried on to the dinning rooms filled with hungry noonday patients, leaving him to find his own way to the dementia unit.

When he arrived there he checked in at the desk. Mrs. Helen was in her room, he was told. She had been moping since lunch because he wasn't there. He gave the nurse an amused smile and headed to room number one twelve. Mrs. Helen brightened the instant he entered the room.

"You came!"

"I promised I would," Colin reassured her returning her smile. "Did you take your pills for Prick today?"

"Prick?" The older woman sounded horrified. "That's how you refer to your girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," he felt in inclined to begin, "and as for her nickname… what's wrong with it?"

"Do you know what it means?" Her horror hadn't decreased.

"It doesn't mean anything; it's a nickname. I thought because she was poking holes in people all day it was appropriate." He added in a thoughtful tone, "I think she'd get nervous if I actually called her Promise."

"Well I suppose if you explain it that way," Mrs. Helen sighed, "it's not too bad."

Smiling Colin moved deeper into her room and began running his eyes over the interior. It was homey and inviting considering where the tiny room resided. He'd always thought of nursing homes as sterile and austere. There were still times he thought he'd rather be determining his own cause of death than living in one.

When his eyes settled on her nightstand he glimpsed a black and white of a man and woman both very smiling happily. The picture didn't look as old as it looked he pondered as he scrutinized their dress.

"That's a picture of Henry and I," she said with a nostalgic sigh as she picked the frame up and caressed the picture with her finger, "Henry and I thought it would be delightful to get our twenty fifth anniversary photo done like old times. Oh, but I'm being silly." She said, waving of her actions. "Now did you remember to give that rose to Miss. Promise yet?"

"I haven't given it to her yet. It's not her birthday for several months and if I just gave her one she'd think…"

"That's the whole idea, young man." Mrs. Helen chortled at his expense. "It's obvious to all us old folks about here you've got your eye on our Miss. Promise. You young folks are so shy. She'll never know you love her until you tell her and I would tell her," she reiterated, "someone else is going to snatch her up if you just keep your mouth shut like that."

"Someone else already caught her eye," he confessed, all the while internally demanding to know why he was telling this nosey old woman his plight.

"All the more reason to speak up young man!"

"She's made her choice."

"But you do not approve of him," she observed as she laid her wrinkled hand on his. "He's not good enough for your Promise right?"

"She's not my Promise."

"Well I can promise you this," Mrs. Helen said in a huff that told her patience was waning, "unless you speak up, she never will be." Nodding her head for emphasis she bustled over to card table and pointed a nail down at the box-looking rise on the surface. "Up for a rousing game of Yatzee?"

Romantic advice and rousing games of Yatzee…what had he gotten himself into?