Chapter Eleven
Michael was pleased to be home. He could hear FedEx whining at the door.
“Is that a dog?” Ann asked in confusion.
Max, who had accompanied them, just grinned.
Michael entered the house and FedEx was jumping like she was on springs, easily reaching chest height. He leaned down and petted her roughly. She danced and licked his hands excitedly.
“Bout time. Thought you never come back,” FenLei yelled from the kitchen. “You forget you live here Mr. Michael?”
Michael smiled and went to the kitchen where he greeted the housekeeper with a hug. She pushed him away. “That dog wander all over house, looking for you.”
“Hello FenLei,” greeted Ann. She wondered when Michael had gotten a dog.
“Oh! Missy Ann back!” grinned FenLei. “You staying?”
“I will be helping Michael with his recovery,” replied Ann.
Max reached past the housekeeper for an apple and whispered something in her ear. She tittered.
“I hope so!” FenLei cackled. “I make lunch?”
Michael shook his head. He was tired just from the car ride. He yawned.
“I think we will pass,” said Max. “My big brother looks like he just wants to take a nap.”
Max tagged along with Michael upstairs. Ann sat at the breakfast bar and watched FenLei putter around.
“When did Michael get the dog?” questioned Ann.
“One day he bring in. Dog with him ever since. Sleep on bed,” FenLei wrinkled her nose.
“It sleeps on the bed?” Ann could not believe it. Michael would not allow that, would he?
“Sure. It go everywhere with him,” FenLei shook her head. “Good dog.”
“What is its name?”
FenLei cackled. “FedEx.”
“FedEx? You are serious?” Ann laughed as FenLei nodded.
“So, you no answer right. You stay with Mr. Michael?” FenLei put away the mop that she had been using.
“For a few days at least. After that, we will see,” Ann hedged.
“We see,” snorted FenLei. “You go Mr. Michael sad. You stay, make happy.”
“FenLei, it is not that simple,” sighed Ann.
“Sure it is,” FenLei looked at her watch. “Oh! I late. Daughter music show. Must go. You stay Missy Ann!”
FenLei grabbed her purse and hustled for the door.
Max had brought the dog out to do its business. He brought FedEx back inside the living room and petted her. “I really like this dog. You know, we were never allowed to have pets as kids. I never once thought Michael would want one.”
Ann was surprised as well. She knew Michael had a loving heart but never thought he would be a dog person.
Maybe a fish person but not a dog person.
However, he seemed to have adopted FedEx and the dog was more than equally devoted to him.
When Max stopped petting her, FedEx padded upstairs to find Michael.
FedEx would probably crawl into bed with him again.
Ann thought it was funny. She did not see Michael as a person who would let a dog sleep on the bed and yet he did. “When do you leave for the honeymoon?”
“Friday next week,” Max grabbed a glass of water. “Are you moving back in?”
Ann nodded. “For a couple of days at least. Just until Michael isn’t so tired.”
“Are you going to tell him that you love him?” Max cut to the heart of the matter.
When he was deeply in love with the mystery woman? Probably not. Definitely not. She wondered if she should try to find out who this woman was. No. Ann really did not want to obsessively compare herself to perfection as Michael had called his mystery love. “I think that is between Michael and I.”
Max sighed and put down his now half empty glass on the kitchen counter. “As a man who is extremely happy right now, married to the woman who he loves, I am going to interfere a moment.”
“I really wish you would not,” protested Ann. It hurt too much.
“I don’t know what is going on between the two of you, but I think both of you have miscommunicated,” Max came over and put his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her. “Ann, he loves you. He might not say it, but he does.”
Like a kid sister. Like a friend. Like a secretary that he has had for over twenty years. She smiled sadly.
“Okay, I didn’t want to do it, but I am bringing out the big guns,” Max grasped her arm and gently drew her along to the study.
“Max, we are friends. Of course, he loves me. Like a friend,” Ann swallowed and said the dreaded words that haunted her sleep ever since she had learned his secret. “Michael is in love with someone else.”
“That is where you are wrong,” calmly stated Max. He grabbed a journal at random and checked the date. “Ah, here are the good ones. He has got a way with a pen and a word.”
“I have seen the poetry. He loves her, whoever she is, very much,” Ann said miserably.
Max stared at her in surprise. “You are as blind as he is.”
“Max, would you please just stop?” she wiped away a tear. “We should not be invading his privacy anyways. Please put the journal back.”
“Invading his privacy? I have been reading his journals for years,” Max shrugged without concern.
“Sure, Michael doesn’t know that I have been reading them, but I think it is about the only way to get inside his head and know what he was thinking.
Especially when he was being the perfect robot worker for our dad. ”
Ann grabbed the journal and put it back.
“Ann, the poetry is about you. Some of it is even a little suggestive, considering who it is coming from,” Max grabbed another volume. “Her golden hair, her blue eyes, her fair skin… it is all about you. Trust me.”
Was it? It described her and another probably twenty percent of the female population in the country. Ann tried to tamp down the hope that she felt. The poetry never mentioned her name. There was no way to know for sure. “Max, it is not me.”
“‘She makes the office seem more alive every time she enters’. ‘When the sun filters through the afternoon glass, her hair takes on a color like burnished brass’,” Max flipped through another section. “See? It is an office romance. Whose hair does he get to see every afternoon? Hmmn, I wonder who.”
He could not possibly be right. Maybe Michael’s mystery woman was from the office. Ann would give Max that much. She grabbed the journal and put it on the shelf. “Max stop.”
He raised an eyebrow and grabbed another volume, holding it over her head so that she could not grab it from him.
“‘I lent Ann my umbrella since it was raining, and she didn’t have one. What neither of us counted on was the wind. When she returned from her dentist appointment she was completely soaked through’. ”
“I remember that,” reflected Ann. “There was nothing special about that day except I ruined the umbrella. I don’t know why he even put it in the journal. He lent me his suit jacket and let me go home early.”
Max smiled wolfishly. “Really? You two sure have different memories. After you left, he wrote this entry and it describes your lovely curves as those wet clothes hugged your body.”
“So, he is a red-blooded male like any other and can appreciate the female figure,” Ann glared at Max. “Put the book back.”
“Nope,” Max grabbed another and flipped to a random page.
“‘Ann is dating some guy named Greg Wilson’. Did you know he had each of your boyfriends fully investigated? Not only is that illegal but it is creepy when your boss is checking out your love life. I wonder why he did it? Could he be jealous? Greg seems to be a nice guy, but Michael certainly didn’t like him if this entry is anything to go by. ”
Ann put a hand over her eyes. “It is odd, I will admit.”
“He is obsessed with you,” Max grabbed another book and read from a random page.
“‘Her colors are as vibrant as the brightest butterfly, her smile a caress against dreary skies, she exudes perfection in every way, she grows more beautiful every day, soon there will be no words that understand, how to describe my ever-lovely Ann’.”
Max looked extremely satisfied. Ann grabbed the book from him and scanned the lines, finding it word for word what he had recited.
His Ann. His ever-lovely Ann.
Max poked her on the shoulder with each word. “He. Loves. You. He loves you.”
Ann believed him. Michael loved her. All those beautiful poems about her. She hugged the journal.
“I believe my work here is done,” Max bussed her on the forehead and let himself out, whistling merrily.
∞
Michael absently petted FedEx as he reclined on the bed after his nap.
He was sick of this cat and mouse sort of game that he and Ann had been playing.
He was feeling better and really didn’t even need to nap anymore but if she thought he was not fully recovered she might stay longer.
He wanted her to stay in his life permanently.
That meant that he was going to have to make her want to stay.
Michael had to tell her that he loved her.
He had to gamble that she might choose to stay and try to love him in return.
And he knew exactly how to tell her. He got up and padded, barefoot to the study, grabbing the very last journal that he had written in.
The words were right here, for her to read.
All he had to do was get her to read them.
Then she would know. Then they could figure out what they were going to do with their lives.
Ann would either want to be with him or she would look at him with pity and move on with her life.
He looked around the house and finally found her sitting on a window seat, a throw blanket over her lap, a mug nearby and a book in her hand. It was not just any book. It was one of his journals. She flushed when he caught her reading it.
“I am sorry. I know I shouldn’t have. It is just beautiful, the poetry,” she was embarrassed.
Most of the poetry was about her. It was fine. She could read every single one of them. Right now, Michael would like her to read one particular entry. He took the journal out of her hand and put it to the side.
Ann took it as an admonishment. “I am sorry. I will never do it again. I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy.”
Michael kneeled in front of her and flipped through the pages until he found the entry he was looking for. He held out the book to her. It was nearest to all the blank pages which made it easy enough to find.
Surprised, Ann took it and read, “’Ann has quit. I am drowning’.”
She looked up at him with devastation in her eyes. “Oh, Michael. I am so sorry. It was the worst timing, quitting the day you got your prognosis.”
Michael shook his head and pointed to the opposing page.
Ann turned her attention to the words. His last words that he wrote the morning before the board meeting, before the surgery. There was a hitch in her voice. “These may be the last words I ever write. I love you Ann.”
She pressed a hand to her mouth and stared at the page. It was right there in black and white if anyone had known where to find it.
Michael had never felt so scared in all his life.
Not even of the possibility of dying or waking up from surgery knowing that a huge hole in his life had happened with the damage to his brain.
This mattered more than all of that. This was Ann and he loved her.
He stayed kneeling in front of her, waiting to see what she would do, what she would say.
Ann started crying.
Michael closed his eyes for a moment, letting the despair wash over him. He then removed the book from her hands and hugged her close. Whatever Ann wanted, it would be okay.
It would not be okay, but he would pretend it was.
He held her until her tears were spent. Ann pulled back and wiped her face on the cuff of her sweater. “Oh Michael. Why didn’t you tell me twenty years ago?”
He had not had the words then. He barely had the words now.
She gave a bubble of laughter and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly before whispering in his ear. “I love you.”
She loved him?
She loved him. Michael could feel joy spread throughout his chest. Then he kissed her. Tentative, then with desire. He picked her up, brought her upstairs and to his bed. He was not going to waste another moment. As he joined her, Ann is smile dimmed and she put a hand to his shoulder.
“I am not on any birth control, and I happen to know there are no condoms in this house,” she warned.
Michael put a finger to her mouth, silencing her.
His hand crept along the hem of her shirt, and he raised it so that he could put a gentle kiss to her abdomen.
He would give her as many babies as she wanted.
When he looked at her, Ann was smiling with tears in her eyes.
He leaned forward, hungrily kissing her and she didn’t protest.