Adversaries and Lovers (17 page)

But as the scene on the screen unfolded, Ben’s mind fooled him again, and instead of the pair of hired models going through the motion of swimming together, he envisioned him and Kate gliding through the water, and the image refused to leave. He couldn’t dismiss the all-consuming thought of how Kate felt in his arms, or how it could be if she’d just let it happen. A part of him resented her vow of chastity and the physical restraints it placed on them. Yet another part admired her for it. He reflected on the willing women who'd warmed his bed over the years and how detached it had been. These women were easy to spot: a bold stare, a suggestive smile, a little teasing banter about your place or mine, and then
wham, bam, thank you ma’am
. That was it. They went their way, and he went back to work. But with Kate, he couldn’t seem to get back to work. And now, no other woman would do. He felt trapped, and wondered why he couldn’t simply put his life back on track.

He also realized there was only one acceptable film clip for the swim fin commercial, and he had no idea how he could convince Kate to give her permission to use it. His only hope was to point out to her that neither of their faces were evident in the scene, except for the split second when they resurfaced and stared at each other in shocked surprise. No, it wasn’t shocked surprise. It went much deeper. But it was that moment that captured the essence of the scene, the wonder of... falling in love? Was that when it happened? Had she felt it too?

He looked around at the board members, who were, once again, waiting for his response, and said, “I’ll see what I can do.” The meeting over, he went to call Kate.

It was two hours before she finally got away from work to join him in the projection room to view the different takes. But this time it was just the two of them who'd be watching and reliving the three minutes that changed his life, and maybe hers too. He also knew that if what happened between them in the water boiled down to dollars and cents, she’d never sign the model release. Turning on the projector, he took Kate through the five sessions they’d shot of the models prior to theirs, and the three sessions shot after she’d left.

When it was over, Kate said to him, “Like I told you before, this pair just doesn’t work. Can’t you hire new models and try again?”

“I already have too much invested in it as it is,” Ben said, before he could catch himself. “But the cost isn’t the issue,” he emphasized. “There’s no feeling, no connection between the models. I just want you to look at this next one.”

“If you plan to run through them again, don’t bother," Kate clipped. "None work.”

“It’s not with the models, honey," Ben said. "It’s with us.”

Kate folded her arms. “That’s out of the question.”

“Just look at it.”

For three minutes Kate sat in silence as the scene unfolded and filled the large screen. While viewing it with the board members, Ben felt detached from it, as if looking at a commercial. But now, watching it alone in the darkened room with Kate, it seemed even more intimate than when it happened. The underwater cameras had moved in close, until a pair of entwined bodies filled the screen. He hadn’t realized how perfectly their bodies fit together, or how hungrily their lips clung. And when they spiraled toward the surface, with their legs intertwined, and their arms encircling each other, it was as though they were one body, one soul, one life-force. But it was that moment after they surfaced, when they stared at each other in shocked surprise, that was the essence of it. When the clip was over, they sat in dull silence, until Ben shut down the projector and snapped on the light.

He moved to sit beside Kate. Resting his arm on the back of her chair, he said, “It really works, honey. It’s everything we wanted. It would make a great commercial.”

Kate turned to look at him, eyes glistening with outrage. “Is that all you saw, Ben? A great commercial? Those were not a couple of paid models we were looking at, they were you and me, during a very intimate moment in our lives, and I feel as if those cameramen violated us. And now you want to flash it across every TV screen in the country. How can you even consider using it as a commercial?”

“Nowhere are our faces evident, except maybe for an instant at the end," Ben said. "But even that was in profile, and it goes by too fast to register.”

Kate stared at the blank screen, arms folded across her chest, and said in an agitated voice, “You really don’t get it, do you?”

Ben shrugged. “Well, I thought since we weren’t recognizable you wouldn’t mind. And it's the only one that works.”

Kate shoved her chair back and stood. “For a smart man you can be amazingly dense. Or maybe you’re just an incredibly good actor and this was your command performance.”

Ben stood, took her by the arms and looked at her. “Is that what’s bothering you? That I didn’t feel what was happening between us? I felt it. I got as caught up in it as you did. I can’t stop reliving what I felt with you in my arms, so close, yet not quite there. It haunts me during the day, and it haunts me at night, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Eyes glistening, Kate said, “
Then how can you want to share it with the world!?
”

Ben's hands tightened on her arms. He bent down to look into her angry eyes, and said in a plaintive voice, “I don’t intend to share what I was feeling inside with the world, only what was photographed. It’s just a swim fin commercial.”

“
No! It’s not just a swim fin commercial
!” Kate glared at him.

“All right, I won’t use it then,” Ben said, irritated. “But you’ll have to come up with a different idea for the fins because the only way this one will work is if we use a couple of people who are genuinely in... volved.”

“In love, Ben. They need to be in love.” She stared at him, and when he said nothing more, she turned and rushed out of the room, hot tears of anger and frustration running down her cheeks. To her mortification, she ran directly into Linda.

“Katie! What on earth!”

Kate waved an evasive hand. “It’s Ben. He’s the most thick-headed, insensitive... He just doesn’t get it.” She darted passed Linda, and although she heard Ben call after her, she didn’t look back, and he didn’t try to follow.

CHAPTER TEN

Kate sat on the window seat in the alcove off the living room, staring blankly at a sky that at one moment was alive with dazzling gold-edged clouds, and the next, as dark and gloomy as her mood. It had been four days since she’d rushed out of Ben’s office, and he hadn’t called. Nor had she tried to get in touch with him. She knew he was angry about her refusal to let him use the swim fin session in the commercial, and she had nothing more to say to him about it because, as with everything else with Ben, it all boiled down to money. Yet, she wanted more than anything to be with him.

From the kitchen came the voices of Grandma and Henry cooing to each other like a couple of love birds. Henry had come by every day since he’d brought the roses three weeks ago, and there was no question, the old flame still burned. Henry fussed over Grandma like she was queen of the prom, and Grandma was as kittenish as a school girl with her first love. Some days Henry puttered around Grandma’s house fixing things, and other days they’d spend at his winery or at his house, which was on the same property as the winery. It was becoming increasingly clear that they were headed for the altar in the very near future.

Grandma reaffirmed that ten minutes later, when she and Henry stood before Kate, and Grandma announced, “Henry and I are getting married. Now before you get that prying, interfering look on your face, you’ll hear me out. Henry’s heading for seventy-five and I’m not far behind him, so our time’s running out, and we want to spend our best years together as husband and wife, and that’s that!”

Henry curved his arm around Grandma’s shoulders and said, while addressing Kate,  “There’s no need for a long engagement. Rosie and I go back fifty years. And we want to be together the right way.”

Kate looked at the elderly pair. How ironic that they could so easily set their bumpy past behind and get on with a future together, yet their grandchildren had such a hard time merely understanding each other. Seeing that they were waiting for her response, she said, “I’m glad for both of you, and when do you plan to tie the knot?”

“The Sunday after the zoning meeting, not that it has anything to do with it," Grandma said, "But it’s the only time we could get the church, the preacher, and the reception room on the same day.”

Kate hugged them both and gave them her best wishes. After they left for Henry's place, Kate decided it was time to snap out of her morose mood. She’d been thinking about painting again, and maybe now was the time to start. The sky was changeable, yet the day was mostly sunny, and the weather was unusually warm for so late in the year. It could be one of the last fall days when she could paint outside without the inconvenience of sitting under an umbrella dripping with rain or shielding her from snow. And painting would keep her hands occupied, and her mind off Ben.

In her bedroom, she dragged her collapsible combination paint box and easel out from under the bed, then she went around to various cabinets and closets, collecting her boxes of brushes and palette knives and paint thinners and tubes of oil paints, and other painting supplies that had been stashed away for years, and hauled them into the living room. She’d just propped a new stretched canvas against the stack of boxes when several sharp knocks startled her. Thinking it was Ben, she rushed to the door and swept it open, surprised to find Linda standing there.

Linda gave her an uncertain smile. “Honey, do you mind if I come in?”

Kate blinked several times. “Uh, no.” She moved aside for Linda to pass.

Linda stepped into the room, then turned and opened her arms, and said, “You look like you need a hug.”

Kate rushed into Linda’s arms for a motherly embrace. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “I wanted to explain—“

“There’s nothing to explain. Ben told me all about it.” Linda sat on the couch and patted the seat for Kate to sit beside her.

Kate lowered herself to the couch and looked at Linda. “Did Ben send you here to try and change my mind?”

Linda shook her head. “He doesn’t know I’m here. And yes, he’s being thick-headed and insensitive, and... well, he’s being a man. He sees a TV commercial. I saw two people in love.”

Hot tears of embarrassment stung behind Kate’s eyes. “How could he have shown that to you? To anyone. It’s so humiliating. I never expected things to be like that with Ben. It just... happened. And now, I’m not sure if I even want to see him again… ever." She twisted her hands in her lap. "With Ben, it’s always all about money.”

“You’re right," Linda said. "He’s been so involved with growing and expanding his business over the past six years that he’s lost touch with what’s truly important. He also needs to readjust to having a special woman in his life again. He’ll come around, but it might take time.”

“Well, I’m not sure I want to stay on this roller coaster with him. It was so uncomplicated when we agreed to be friends. But after what happened in the pool, it’s just not the same, at least not for me. And Ben seems totally out of touch with my feelings. All he can think about is how much money he stands to lose if I don’t sign the model release and let him have his way.”

Linda covered Kate’s hand with hers. “The problem is, honey, with women it’s all about feelings and emotions, but with men it’s all about testosterone and being the alpha male. Ben’s no different from the rest in that respect, which is why he can look objectively at something we see as personal and intimate. But I also saw the look on his face when he was watching the two of you on the screen, and I can tell you this much, he
was
affected by what he saw. He loves you, Katie. He may not have told you yet, but he does.”

Kate stared at Linda. “Did he tell you that?”

Linda shook her head. “He didn’t have to. It’s written and all over his face and in his eyes whenever he talks about you, which is most of the time.”

Kate gave Linda a joyless smile. “If that’s true, he may have to choose between me and his business, because if he gets his zoning change and levels the block with the Hayden building and the Corner Cafe, and all the other little nooks and crannies that Grandma and her friends have been roaming through for the past fifty years, then I don’t think he’s a man I want in my life.”

“Trust me, Katie. I know Ben won’t disregard the old people and their needs. I don’t know how he’ll resolve it, but he
will
be fair.”

Kate attempted a smile, but it shriveled. “It’s not about being fair," she said. "Ben’s means of being fair is to generously compensate everyone for whatever they stand to lose. But what he doesn’t understand is that no amount of money can compensate them for the loss of familiar surroundings and a neighborhood that grew old with them. I just need to work this out myself, if it can be worked out.”

“I’m sorry, honey, I shouldn’t have stopped by,” Linda said. “This is between you and Ben, and I’m acting like a meddling mother.”

Kate looked at her, anxiously. “No! Please don’t think that. I’m glad you’re here, and acting like a mother. That’s something I’ve wanted and haven’t had for years. I just need to get used to it. Grandma never filled that role very well.”

Linda let out a little snigger. “And I’m trying to get used to having a young lady to fuss over again.” She eyed Kate with affection and said, “It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it, honey? Ben has given me someone to mother, and he's given you someone to—” she smiled, “—well... meddle in your matters of the heart.”

Kate grinned. “Well, I like that you're meddling in matters of my heart. I just wish you could do something about Ben's heart.”

Linda patted her hand. “Enough about Ben.” She eyed the art supplies piled near the door. “It looks like you’re ready to start painting again. I’m so pleased.”

Kate shrugged. “I thought it would help keep my mind off... other things.”

Linda gave her a knowing smile. “I’d love to see some of your paintings.”