|
A Walk on the Cliffs
C H A P T E R 1
I never
could decide what to pack. I was about to leave to spend a week on
the
Northern California coast and I had
an image of myself looking casually seductive.
I wanted everyone to believe that I
just threw something on without thinking;
a person they would feel
comfortable to be around, but also like I was
someone they would want to touch. I
remembered a cream colored, thick-cabled
fisherman’s sweater that I had
bought with just such an occasion in mind. It, with
a pair of denim jeans and some
boots, might create the atmosphere I was going
for. Then I wondered what Robert
would think if I wore this outfit, but
reminded myself to return to the
task at hand. I spent way too much time worrying
about what Robert might think of
this or that. My time was now better spent
figuring out which clothes to pack
so that I wouldn’t freeze to death on vacation
once the fog rolled in.
Finding
warm clothes wasn’t going to be a problem in my closet. I live in
New
England; Central Massachusetts to
be exact, in a place where the winters can be
frigid and brutal. But what I
needed now was a good mixture of casual and nice
clothes for both warm and cold
weather. And, of course, they all needed to fit
into the one large suitcase that
lay open on the bed in front of me. Finally, I
located the fisherman’s sweater in
my drawer of winter clothes. I held it up to my
body and looked at the mirror,
trying to imagine how Robert would see me. I saw
a fairly attractive woman in her
late twenties with light brown hair, slightly longer
than shoulder length, and with the
sweater approximating how it would look
being worn, I felt that my natural
‘girl next door’ look was enhanced. Satisfied, I
folded the sweater and was able to
squish it into the last small corner of
available
Page 2 A Walk on the
Cliffs
space. As I was latching the lock
on the luggage I heard a sound coming from the
kitchen.
“Mary Ann…
you home?” Brad asked, as he dropped his keys on the
table.
“Yes, I’m
in the bedroom packing,” I said.
“Are you
about done yet? We need to get going to the airport if we’re going
to
make our flight,” he
said.
“Yes, I
just finished. Are you sure that you packed everything that you
need
before you left this morning?” I
asked.
“Yes… I’ve
got enough to get by and if we need anything else we can just
buy
it there. It’s not like we’re going
to a foreign country.”
He then
came into the bedroom, grabbed both of our suitcases and
headed
outside to the car. It was at times
like this that I was reminded how nice it was to
have someone take care of me. Brad
was always dependable, as well as fairly predictable
after all these years. I quickly
looked around the apartment to make sure
that all the appliances were
unplugged and that the windows and doors were
locked. I smiled as I thought about
what a comfortable home we had created in
seven years of marriage. Everything
seemed in order so I closed and locked the
door and then hurried out to the
car.
The trip
to Logan Airport, checking-in our luggage and going through
security
went uneventfully. After we settled
into our first-class seats, we ordered a
couple glasses of wine. It was a
long trip from one coast to the other and we
wanted to be
comfortable.
The
stewardess brought miniature wine bottles over to us and said, “Mr.
and
Mrs. Radcliffe, the captain has
informed me that we will be taking off on time
this morning.”
When I
heard Brad say “Thank you,” in an oh-so-serious tone of voice
I
started to quietly chuckle to
myself.
Brad
leaned over to me and whispered, “Hey, stop laughing or they’ll
know
that we’ve never flown first class
before.”
I just
smiled at him and gently laid my hand over his on the seat rest
between
us. He had a tendency to be serious
and worried about what people thought of
him. But it was just that trait
that had served him well during our years together.
After college he had started a
software consulting business with a classmate of his,
and a year or so ago he had bought
that partner out. The business, which had
been doing well with both of them
at the helm, blossomed under his lone leadership.
At the time of the buy out I had
given up my old job and taken on the position
of Marketing Coordinator for his
company. Although we could easily afford
the extra cost of these first-class
tickets, it was important to him that
people
Margo Reasner Page
3
believed that he was born enjoying
such luxuries. And it was this same thinking
that had kept us from buying our
first home. Brad wanted to stay in our small
apartment, saving money, until we
could afford to buy the only house we’d ever
want to own. The idea of a
first-time fixer-upper, that we could eventually sell
and move up from, never even
entered his mind as a possibility. And maybe his
way of thinking was correct,
because I could see that soon we would be able to
afford the home of our
dreams.
“Did you
get a hold of Robert or Melissa?” he asked.
“Yes, I
talked to both of them. Melissa said that she’s going to be in
town
while we are visiting. I made plans
to meet her in San Francisco, at her studio,
but if I’m lucky I’ll be able to
get her to stay overnight at our place once as well,”
I said. “And Robert said that he
and Crystal will be arriving at the house before
us.”
“Do we
have a meeting time?”
“No, he
made arrangements to pick up the keys from the Realtor and
will
leave our copy under the doormat.
He said something about checking out the
area while they are waiting for us.
And he seemed to think that he picked out
exceptional accommodations for our
vacation this time.”
“Given how
picky Crystal is, I can only imagine that it will be pretty nice,”
he
said. “Can you believe that he’s
been with her for over a year?”
“No, I
figured he’d be with someone new by now. But I’m guessing that
she’ll
insist on having the best bedroom
again. That’s for sure,” I said, not wanting to
remember Crystal’s behavior during
our last get together. “It’s funny that their
relationship is the one that’s
lasted the longest. I’m still trying to figure out what
he sees in her, but at least he
hasn’t asked her to marry him yet.”
“And how
serious can he be if he’s not at least thinking about marrying
her?”
Brad asked, with a twinkle in his
eye. “Do you think that he’ll ever marry anyone?
He’s been single and bouncing
around from woman to woman for as long as
we’ve known him.”
“I’m not
really sure if he’s the marrying type. He’s seemed really wrapped
up
in his career over the years,” I
said. “Although it’s got to get depressing… defending
those corporations against the
sue-happy American public.”
“Well, the
money probably makes it bearable,” he said, with a
chuckle.
I had to
laugh too. Seven years ago, after college, Robert had decided to
stay
and go to law school while the two
of us had headed off to make our fortunes in
the corporate world. We had chided
him about remaining a poor student and he
had called us business raiders, but
now he was probably making more money
than the two of us put together.
Crystal, on the other hand, never really
worried
Page 4 A Walk on the
Cliffs
about working hard to make a
living. She made it clear that she came from a
well-to-do family in England and
was pursuing a modeling career. During the
time we had known her, she’d had
some minimal career success, landing a magazine
advertisement or two. But it seemed
she mostly spent her days dieting, exercising
and telling charming stories about
the famous people she had met at this
party or that event. When you saw
Robert and her together, it wasn’t really clear
which of the two of them was the
more socially desirable; they made a handsome
couple and appeared to enjoy going
to the same sort of benefit dinners and charity
balls. He was always networking for
new clients while she was showing off her
beautiful persona and playing up
her foreign credentials.
The
dinging of the airplane’s intercom speakers interrupted my thoughts
and
then I heard the captain introduce
himself and the co-pilot. He then informed us
that we were fourth in line for
take-off.
After the
stewardesses finished showing us how to inflate our life preservers,
in
the unlikely event that we would
need them, Brad turned to me and asked very
worriedly, “You didn’t tell them
that they could do the grocery shopping for us,
did you?”
“No, are
you kidding? We are going to make the dinner this time around.
I
don’t even want to think about what
Crystal would whip up for us.”
Since
college it had been a tradition with the three of us that we try out
new
meals and cook for each other. The
last time we had all gotten together Crystal
had made an effort to fit in by
cooking us dinner. I’ll never forget the look on
Robert and Brad’s faces once they
tried a bite of her beef stew. I, myself, had
never had anything quite like it
before and couldn’t figure out what was making
it taste so bitter. Robert locked
eyes with us over the table and had then been
bold enough to ask her what she had
put in it. She had proudly announced that
she had made her beef stew out of
liver and kidneys and eagerly awaited our
favorable verdicts. Robert, always
the diplomat, had told her that he had never
tasted anything like it before.
Brad and I were able to truthfully agree that indeed,
it was unlike anything we had ever
had before. For the rest of the meal I tried to
concentrate on the conversation as
I trained my mind to believe that this was
probably some traditional English
recipe that was eaten everyday by people on
the other side of the big pond. We
finished our meals and then were treated to
party favors that included paper
hats that we wore for the rest of the evening.
“I was
thinking we could slow cook some babyback ribs and have coleslaw
this
time around,” I said, reassuring
Brad.
“Okay.
Just as long as you make the whole thing low carbohydrate so
Crystal
can eat it,” he
said.
Margo Reasner Page
5
“Of
course. I think that one of the best things about meeting Crystal
has been
learning her low-carb dieting
trick. It was even worth eating that meat stew just
to learn how she keeps her figure
so trim. And maybe this time I can get her to
teach me how to put on make-up,” I
said as I jokingly nudged Brad with my
elbow.
“That will
be the day.”
Brad knew
me so well. I never was one to wear a lot of make-up. It wasn’t
that
I thought I didn’t need it; it was
just that I didn’t like to take the time to put it on
and then to be careful all day long
to keep it from coming off. I wore just as much
as I absolutely felt that I needed
to. Maybe a little lipstick, mascara and some
cover-up dabbed on my occasional
blemishes or freckles. I generally wore my
blondish-brown hair loose and it
tended to go a little wild when I would forget to
brush it. I kept my rounded figure
trim, but I certainly wasn’t model material.
Crystal, on the other hand, always
looked like she was ready to have her photograph
taken; like she thought that today
was the day she was going to run into a
talent agent and be discovered. She
carried a large handbag and was always digging
into it, looking for something new
to use to enhance her appearance. Truthfully,
she was an absolutely beautiful
blonde goddess, but for the life of me I
couldn’t figure out why Robert
wanted to be with her. That is, why he wanted to
be with her rather than with me.
But that really wasn’t a fair statement. He
wasn’t the one who had done the
picking. It had been me, and I had picked Brad
over Robert.
It had all
started so long ago. I had grown up in Northern California but
when
it came time to go to college I
decided that I wanted a big change. So I had
applied and been accepted at an
East Coast university. Deciding to attend meant
that I had to pack up and drive
off, leaving everything and everyone I knew
behind. It was during that first
week of school that I met the two men who
changed my life
completely.
The first
time I saw Robert; it had felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I
had
been sitting on the grass in the
main campus quad one afternoon, watching the
marvel of fall-colored leaves being
swirled by the wind and eating my lunch,
when I looked up and saw him walk
by. He was a striking figure, dressed all in
black, on that sunny and warm
autumn day. The color of his outfit matched his
dark hair and he moved gracefully
as he passed in front of me. When he was but
a few yards away, he paused to
check the time on his watch and I caught a
glimpse of his brilliant blue eyes.
Later I would discover that depending on what
he wore his eyes were either an
intense blue color or a deep green. I remembered
thinking at the time that I didn’t
believe people could fall in love at first
sight,
All
rights reserved.
 |
