Chapter 2 #2
“I used to fantasize about having a twin,” she admitted, “and now I have twin siblings. I don’t know how my mother is going to manage.
She goes on location with Zack a lot. I guess they’ll leave them home with a nanny.
” John got the feeling that Lillith had lived comfortably.
She’d gone to private school in New York.
Her mother had only moved to L.A. when she remarried.
Lillith said she had bounced back and forth between her parents as a child.
Gabby had no idea how lucky she was for the stable family she had grown up with, and how fortunate she had been.
“And why is it that there was no man with you last night?” he asked, curious.
“I broke up with someone six months ago. I’ve been working like crazy, no time for a social life,” she said, and he nodded.
“I haven’t been out since my wife died,” he said quietly. “Last night was the first time. Isabelle threatened to come to my apartment and drag me out, so I decided I’d better go. I’m glad I did. She and my wife were best friends, and so are our daughters.”
“I’m sorry about your wife,” Lillith said gently, and sounded as though she meant it. She was a sweet person.
“Thank you. What about dinner? Are you hungry?” he asked her. “I’m starving.” She smiled when he asked, and nodded.
“I’m hungry too,” she admitted, looking shy for a minute.
She hadn’t expected him to invite her for dinner, but it sounded nice.
He was easy to talk to, and she had learned a lot about him over their wine, and he had learned even more about her.
She seemed so fresh and young, vulnerable but levelheaded.
She was used to taking care of herself, since no one else had.
It didn’t seem right to him, but she had survived it in one piece, without blaming anyone.
He could see why Isabelle liked her and had invited her to dinner, and referred to her family as screwed up.
Both her parents sounded like selfish people to him, more interested in their love lives than in their daughter.
She had turned out well in spite of them.
He couldn’t say as much for his daughter.
She had a great career, but she blamed her father for everything she didn’t like about her life.
Lillith was surprised by how comfortable she felt with John over dinner.
They had walked from the Carlyle to Elio’s on Second Avenue.
It was a brisk walk in the cold, and it was warm in the loud, cozy restaurant when they got there, with delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
The headwaiter gave them a quieter table in the front of the room so they could talk.
They looked like a father and daughter having dinner.
They clearly enjoyed each other’s company, and John made Lillith laugh.
They had soup to start, to warm them up, and delicious pasta.
By the end of dinner, they’d had a nice evening.
John had texted Sam, who was waiting outside when they left the restaurant.
They drove Lillith home, and John walked her to the outer door.
It didn’t feel like a date. They felt like friends after the confidences they’d shared.
“Take care, Lillith. I’ll call you when I get back, we’ll have to do dinner again sometime,” he said, and she thanked him for dinner and a lovely evening.
“I had a really nice time,” she said, smiling at him.
“So did I. Try to do something fun over Christmas.”
“I will. Our office will be closed till after New Year. I’m going to catch up on books and movies.
And sleep!” She laughed. He gave her a warm hug, and when she unlocked the outer door, he walked back to his car and waved as he got in.
She was inside as they drove away, and he sat thinking of her on the way home.
He hadn’t had an evening as easy and pleasant as that in a long time.
It was nice having someone to talk to again, to tell old stories to, and laugh at insignificant things.
He hadn’t realized how much he had missed being with another human being, and making a new friend.
John slept fitfully that night and woke up several times, thinking about Lillith.
He hardly knew her, but it pained him to leave her alone on Christmas, to sleep and read books.
She deserved so much more than that at her age.
He sat staring out the window as he ate his breakfast, which he made himself.
The housekeeper came after he left for work.
He texted her from his car on the way to the office, and asked her if she wanted to take a walk with him after work.
She texted that she had to supervise an installation that day, but she thought she’d be finished by six or six-thirty.
“I’ll meet you at the entrance to the Plaza at six-thirty.” He knew there were heaters there and she wouldn’t get cold waiting.
She was wearing a big down jacket when he got there, with a knit cap and earmuffs, and looked even younger in combat boots and mittens. She smiled and waved when she saw him get out of his car.
They walked along side by side. The wind had died down and it was a beautiful December night.
It was the third day in a row she had seen him, but it seemed totally natural to be striding along beside him.
They stopped at a bench when they got to the zoo and sat down. They could hear the big cats roaring.
“I had a crazy idea today,” he said to her.
“Fate seems to have put us on each other’s path.
You’re going to be alone this Christmas, without your family, and this is going to be a hard one for me without my wife, and not even my daughter to spend it with.
It’s my first Christmas alone. I have a boat in St. Barth.
And my offer is completely respectable. Would you like to come to St. Barth with me?
There are five guest cabins on the boat, and you can have any one you want.
We don’t have to tell anyone. No one has to know.
We’re two adults and we could spend Christmas together as friends.
It’s a big sailboat and you can do whatever you want, but it would be nice to have company.
” They were two lost souls alone for the holidays.
There was a pleading look in his eyes as he said it, and it sounded crazy to both of them, but incredibly appealing at the same time.
She looked at him, not sure what to think.
He seemed like a kind man, and she knew he was sad about his wife.
He was old enough to be her father at least, but his loneliness was palpable, and she was lonely too and secretly dreaded the holidays alone.
They were both being offered a miraculous opportunity.
She wasn’t sure what to do. She hardly knew him, but they felt like old friends.
He didn’t feel old when he was with her.
She made him feel young again. This wasn’t how he had expected to spend Christmas, with a girl he barely knew, but maybe they would turn out to be friends.
Maybe Isabelle was right and young people offered another dimension, another layer, a boundless sense of freedom and joy to share, to do whatever they wanted with nothing to stop them.
“Yes,” Lillith said in a gush of air, as the frost flew from her mouth, and they hugged each other, sitting on the bench.
They walked back to the Plaza making plans.
She couldn’t believe what she was doing.
She was flying to the Caribbean with a man she had met two days before, who had been incredibly nice to her, hadn’t laid a hand on her, and had been a perfect gentleman.
And if he was a friend of Isabelle’s, she knew he must be all right, and she trusted him.
He seemed solid and reliable. She felt like Santa Claus was scooping her up in his magic sleigh and sweeping her away for Christmas.
John was leaving in two days, and she would fly to St. Martin and he would pick her up with his boat there.
It all sounded like a dream. He said he would arrange everything.
He put her in a cab and walked back to his apartment.
He wondered if he was momentarily insane.
But if so, it was a delightful way to go mad, with a beautiful young girl at his side.
It was their secret and no one would ever know.
His wife and daughter’s absence made the holiday seem unbearable, and Lillith was lonely too.
Their trip together was a valiant attempt to turn it around and have some fun.
Unlike most of his decisions in the business world, he wasn’t hurting anyone, and neither was she.
Her family didn’t care where she was or with whom, so what difference did it make?
Lillith had every right to decide for herself.
Her decision was to spend Christmas in St. Barth with John.
—
Lillith couldn’t believe that John Williams had invited her on the boat.
It had to be a mistake of some kind. She wondered if he was drunk, but he didn’t seem to be as they walked in the park, and he sounded relatively sane.
It was just that being invited to spend Christmas on a sailboat with a man she had just met seemed completely unlikely to her.
But she felt safe going with him. There were few people she would have gone on a trip with, let alone someone she had seen three times in her life.
She called him on the cell number he’d given her the next morning, while he was eating breakfast, and he was startled to hear from her.
“Am I disturbing you?” she asked cautiously.
“Not at all. I was having coffee and reading the paper,” he said pleasantly.
“Did I imagine all that yesterday? Did I misunderstand? Did you invite me to spend Christmas on your boat? Or did I dream it?” She sounded so earnest that he smiled before he answered.