Chapter 2
Bump. The airplane shuddered. Bump. It shook again. It was a less-than-smooth landing, and after a fitful sleep coupled with the turbulence that had begun even before the descent, Linney felt unsettled and dishevelled. The customs line seemed endless, but eventually she was waiting with hundreds of other people for the luggage carousel to spit out their bags. The conveyor jerked to a halt and she could feel the frustration in the baggage hall rise. Digging around in her purse, she fished out an elastic band and raked her fingers through her hair until she had some semblance of a ponytail. Next was a cloth to clean her glasses. She rubbed it along the lenses, squinting, trying to make the blurry arrivals hall come into focus. No luck. At least the carousel was starting to rumble again.
Bag in hand at last, and clean glasses back where they belonged, Linney joined the crowd to reach the Heathrow Express. When the train arrived at Paddington Station, she splurged on a cab for the last leg. She couldn’t wait to get back to her tiny sun-filled flat, where she shared more nights than not with Mac since that first time after at the awards three years ago. He was at work, so she’d have time to wash off the travel grime, unpack, and rest for a bit before making the promised dinner for two.
“Notting Hill,” she told the cabbie as she slipped into the back seat.
“You here for business or pleasure, ma’am?” asked the driver as he pulled away from the curb.
“Oh, I live here,” Linney said, explaining about her job.
“Well, welcome home then,” he said and Linney realized, with surprise, that while London felt like home, she rarely called it that.
As the cab idled in London gridlock, she pulled out her phone and messaged her Silver Lake friends.
Hey, everyone. Safely back in London. Thanks for a great vacation. That sunrise yesterday was amazing. Love you all and see you soon.
Looking at her watch, she realized it would be a few hours before anyone would be awake to respond. It was time to return her focus to London, and to Mac.
Morning! Headed to my flat to shower and nap. Can’t wait to see you tonight!
Welcome back.
She hoped for more, but Mac was a man of few words, so she closed her eyes until it was time to pay the cab driver.
* * *
A long hotshower had been just the ticket, Linney thought to herself as she wiped steam from the mirror. Leaving her long thick hair to air dry into gentle waves, she threw on some comfortable leggings and an oversized sweater. Yawning, she unscrewed the lid of the mason jar on a slim console table tucked inside the front door next to the umbrella stand and dropped in her newest stone. Among the collection were stones from Vancouver, Toronto, and Halifax in Canada, one from a Florida trip with Kirsten’s family, and a slice of agate from a Lake Superior camping trip. There were English stones from Robin Hood’s Bay and Brighton, and two from Ibiza and the Amalfi coast where Mac had rolled his eyes at her for looking for them when they vacationed together.
Linney padded over to the window and sank into an oversized chintz-covered chair—a re-covered thrift shop find and her favourite reading spot—pulling her feet up under her. She started turning pages of a magazine, not really reading, but glancing at the pictures. Yawning again, she pulled the quilt Gran had made over her lap and her eyes fluttered closed.
It was two hours later when Linney woke with a start. Her stomach grumbled. She hadn’t eaten since pushing away the scone in the airport the day before, and she was suddenly starving. Time to go to the market. She bought a few essentials from Sainsbury’s and then stopped at the Portobello Road vendors for fresh fruit and vegetables before lugging her bags up the steep stairs. That was the other downside of her shoebox-sized period flat. But the tall baseboards, wooden floors, crown moulding, and huge windows more than made up for it. And besides, it was good exercise. A good reason to splurge on a nice meal.
Linney didn’t cook often. Tonight, however, for their first dinner together in weeks, she wanted to make something special for Mac. By that evening, there was salad on the table and apple crumble cooling on a rack on the counter. A glass of chilled white wine was by her side, and Linney took a small sip before she chopped the mushrooms. The broth was heating, and soon she’d start stirring it spoonful by spoonful into a pan of arborio rice and caramelized onions. She looked at her watch. Timing was everything with risotto, so she picked up her phone.
Be here soon?
Just leaving now. 30 minutes.
????
When Mac stumbled through the door with a kiss two hours later, the risotto was a congealed starchy clump, the limp salad was an unappetizing room temperature and Linney was steaming. She’d wanted tonight to be special.
“You’re late,” she said flatly.
At least he had the presence of mind to look sheepish. “The boys convinced me to stop at the pub for a pint. I guess we had more than one.”
“Dinner’s ruined.”
He pulled her close and kissed her again, hungry after a month away from her. “You know it’s not dinner I’m after. I’ve missed you.” He kissed her neck and was rewarded with an involuntary sigh. Linney was losing her resolve to stay mad. She’d missed him too and her body was responding. His hands slid under her sweater and deftly unhooked her bra. Achieving the goal, they continued to roam and the last of Linney’s anger melted. Dinner was soon forgotten in a tangle of bodies and bedsheets as they made up for lost time.
The next morning, Linney scraped wilted salad and cemented risotto into the trash while Mac was in the shower. It was a waste of food, but the welcome he had given her had been something else. She touched her bruised lips with her fingertips and then moved on to her collarbone, slightly irritated from the day’s growth of Mac’s beard. Oh, yes, it had been so worth it.
They left her flat together but headed in different directions—Mac to a meeting with a source, and Linney to the newsroom. The city was already alive, and she revelled in the bustling activity as she entered the studio.
“Bonjour, Marie-Josée. Hi, guys.” Greeting her colleagues as she entered the newsroom, Linney put down her purse and turned on her computer.
“Bonjour, Linney,” MJ replied. “Welcome back. Are we on for shopping soon?” Nodding her head, Linney sat down at her desk. Her laptop had booted up and now several hundred unread e-mails stared back at her. Linney winced. It was going to be a long first day back.
* * *
Derek satat his desk in Toronto, turning a small blue box over and over in his hands. There was a beautiful diamond ring inside that he could imagine on Olivia’s slender finger. He hoped she would like it. He’d risen far beyond his beginnings, where winter coats came from the charity box at Silver Lake, but good as it was, his salary didn’t compete with hers. He’d saved up for several months for the square-shaped diamond.
Linney’s excited reaction had boosted his confidence. They had shared everything for as long as he could remember, and her opinion mattered to him. She’d listened to him lament his father’s absence, and she was the only person he’d confided his fears of alcoholism being hereditary. He hated that she’d been so far away for the past five years. Texting and phone calls were one thing, but it wasn’t like having her in the same city.
He put the box on his desk. Tonight was the night. Derek was meeting Olivia at her office, and the plan was to walk down memory lane through their law school campus. He was going to drop to one knee in front of the law library where they’d met and ask Olivia to make him the happiest man alive before taking her out to one of the hottest new restaurants she had been dying to try. Derek had only been able to get the reservation because it was a weeknight. It didn’t matter. He was more than ready for them to begin the next stage of their lives.
She’d be shocked at first, then she’d say yes. He was pretty sure she’d say yes. He hoped she’d say yes. He ran over the details in his head one more time and reached out for the box again.
“Counsellor!” There was a loud rap on the open door to his office. “Pickup basketball this week. You in?”
Derek jumped at the clipped, but joking tone of his friend and colleague, Aiden. The ring box skidded away from his fingertips and his heart pounded in his chest. “Geez, you scared me!”
Aiden laughed. “You were so far away. Thought I’d put your feet back on the ground. You gonna do something with that ring soon?”
“Go back to work, Aiden!” Derek grabbed the ring box and jammed it into his jacket pocket.
“Just saying! And get back to me on the basketball.” The two men sometimes joined a league of lawyers and other professionals at a gym around the corner from their office. Aiden closed the door behind him, leaving Derek to his thoughts.
Aiden was right. Derek had been holding on to the ring for a while now. And while he said it was so he could tell Linney first, he knew there were other reasons for the delay. He pulled the box out of his pocket again, opened it, and looked at the ring. Derek hadn’t grown up with a male role model at home. Yes, there had been his uncle, his mother’s bachelor brother, who ran Silver Lake’s small hardware store, but he didn’t have a healthy marriage to emulate.
Derek had only a few fuzzy memories of his father. He remembered his dad roughhousing with him in the living room and kicking a ball around in the yard. But he also remembered a lot of empty bottles on the kitchen counter and raised voices when he was in bed. He remembered his father napping during the day, sometimes on the couch, and once or twice on the floor—he’d been a teenager before he’d realized what those “naps” were. And he remembered his mother crying. By the time Derek started kindergarten, it was just the two of them in their little house. Santa didn’t bring much that year. When Linney arrived a couple of years later, his mother was just scraping by, keeping the books for her brother’s store. They often had dinner with Linney and her grandmother, and in his memory, those meals were feasts. A teenaged Derek understood better, and he showed his gratitude through his own acts of giving back to the community.
By then, his mother had explained about his father’s relationship with alcohol and that one day he’d just left. Disappeared. They’d never heard from him again and she said it was for the best. She had never given Derek many details, but he understood that there had been some difficult years for her. He’d been careful around alcohol since his first bush party. It didn’t do much for his popularity, but he didn’t want to give his mother anything new to worry about.
Derek didn’t talk about his dad to many people. Only Linney knew the whole story. She knew him, and back in Silver Lake on the dock, she’d understood what he was hesitant about. Her encouragement had helped. The ring twinkled under the harsh office lighting as Derek turned the box in his hands. He snapped it closed and gently put it in his pocket until later that day. It was time.
* * *
“That,mon amie, is stunning on you.” MJ made a motion for Linney to twirl and she complied. The floor-length black dress she was modelling hugged her in all the right places. It had a high slit and showed more cleavage than she was used to.
Linney bit her lip with indecision. “Are you sure?” The dress was far outside her comfort zone, but she trusted MJ’s fashion style.
“Mais oui. We will need to find shoes, of course, and a bag, but you must buy this.”
Linney twirled again as MJ disappeared into the dressing room. She did look good, and it would be a perfect dress for the gala awards event, even if it was still a month away. She was nominated on her own this time, which was a huge honour. Mac was nominated too, as he was most years, and she was sure he’d win again. Linney twisted her hair and held it up on her head, imagining the updo she would have her hairstylist create for the event. She looked in the mirror, turning back and forth to see every angle. Almost, but not quite right. She took off her glasses with her free hand. Would that be better? Squinting suddenly at her fuzzy reflection in the mirror, Linney blinked several times, but couldn’t make anything come into focus. Her shoulders slumped. Contacts had never been an option for her given her particular condition, so she was stuck with the glasses, even if she thought they marred the sophisticated image MJ was helping her create.
The door squeaked and a blurry figure approached. Linney jammed the offending eyewear back on and her jaw dropped. MJ was wearing a cobalt-blue dress with jewels embellishing her slim waist. Linney’s eyes opened wide. “Wow,” she said, as MJ turned around. “Just wow.” The high-collared dress was conservative in front, but the back was where the drama was.
MJ swayed back and forth, looking at the way the fabric draped low showing off the small of her back.
“I think this will do,” she said finally. “We’ll be the two best-dressed reporters there. Let’s go find shoes.” They laughed and put their street clothes on before heading down to the shoe department.
“You’re good for me, MJ,” Linney admitted, as she stood in black patent stilettos with heels far higher than she would ever have considered on her own. “You push me to try new things.”
“Ah, but this is my job as your friend, Linney. To stretch you a little bit. You should know how beautiful you are. You know, you can do far better than Mac.”
Linney sighed inwardly. MJ rarely let her thoughts about Mac slip out. “Drop it, MJ. I love him and he loves me. We’re very happy.” Linney knew her voice was louder than it needed to be. She slipped out of her heels and led the way to the cashier.