Love.com (28 page)

Emily couldn’t deny the truth
anymore. She saw things as she wanted to her whole life. She tried to force people into being what she wanted them to be. She set herself up for failure and them by not seeing those individuals as they really were.

It was a hard lesson for anyone to learn. Some never did. They would continue to put people into compartments they would never fit into their whole lives, wondering why they were never truly happy. Emily didn’t want to be one of those people
anymore. She very much saw the way things were. 

Desiree retired
later that year. She made the announcement after Christmas. Emily was relieved some of the old regime was leaving. Ed Combs left for an agency in L.A. not long after. Emily was determined to fill the empty positions with young and hungry graduates from some of the best schools in the country. They were young and untried, her new team, but so was she when she applied at Stone and Watterman. Her team was vital and bursting with potential.

Evan remained hands-on
during most of the meetings these days, but a sudden shift in power occurred that she couldn’t quite pinpoint. It was subtle, his handing her over the reins, leaving more responsibility to her as he spent more time with his family in New York.

Emily wasn’t surprised when
Evan made the announcement. He returned from seeing his wife and daughters after a year of good behavior with Mrs. Stone. He was making his home back in New York. He would be leaving Emily in charge, named full partner, in his absence. Even knowing from Ian he’d planned it all along, Emily was stunned as she sat in the conference room while her team murmured in pleasure over her promotion. Evan eyed her with a look in his eyes she knew to be more than gratitude as the others left them alone.

“What do you say, Em? You think you can handle this? The ad business is tough, babe. You got this?”

“I don’t know what to say, Evan,” Emily said and straightened in her chair, smiling at her boss. “I got this. Go be with your family.”

Evan sat back in his chair and smiled, twirling a pen in his fingers. “I know I said I’d leave it up to you from now on, but I hired a new guy to replace Desiree last week. He starts next week. You’ll be sure to show him the ropes
, won’t you?”

Emily was slightly annoyed Evan hired the new head
of the art department. He left such matters up to her after the fiasco with Tabitha. It was hard to believe a year passed since Ian left. The date almost escaped her notice when she first met Ian Sawyer, a man she could hardly forget; much less not linger on in her more private moments. She dated here and there, but no one ever seemed to fill the gap left by Ian in her heart.

“
You did a full background check on this guy? You made sure he wasn’t your brother from another mother, I hope?” Emily frowned as she closed up her leather agenda folder. “The guy needs more than a good golf swing to run Desiree’s department, Evan.”

“Yeah, he’s legit. No worries. Just be nice to him. I like th
is guy. You will too.”

Emily went home late that night.
She was walking alone in the parking garage when she thought she heard another pair of footsteps behind her. She hitched up her purse and briefcase, walking faster, her heart beating erratically. When she looked about the parking garage was empty, silent. She felt like a fool for thinking she was being pursued. Still, she locked her car doors and exited the lot in all haste, still unnerved by that moment of panic.

It was after seven when she clicked open her garage door, sighing as she drove into the garage, getting out of the new sleek black Lexus sedan before closing the garage door.
The car was her one and only extravagance with her windfall.

She opened the side door that led to the kitchen and chuckled as the rambunctious black Labrador bounded towards her, skidding to a stop on the ceramic-tiled floor at her feet. Willie was barely six months old, liked to chew on everything, and seemed to like to jump into her think tank with her so often, she had to keep the door
to the bathroom shut.

“
How’s my favorite guy? What a good boy, you didn’t eat the house while I was gone,” Emily remarked as she petted him, allowing him to jump all over her as she led him to the sliding glass doors and let him out into the back yard. As she watched Willie run and play, she enjoyed the quiet within the house, within herself now. The news she was made full partner today should have made her ecstatic.

Something was missing. She knew what it was and despaired of it. She was thirty-three years old and was now a full partner of a successful advertising agency. She had money and security. What she lacked was someone to share it all with.

Joan set her up with every eligible guy at the country club. Emily went along just to say she was being proactive. Joan was determined to find her a husband. Emily was determined to act like she wanted one. She wasn’t so sure anymore. So much had changed this last year to reshape her former feelings about relationships and commitments. She would never look at them the same, a byproduct left over from her marriage. She didn’t think about Eddie so much these days, and when she did, she focused on the good times.

Jay was dating a nice woman he met at a trading convention. The pair was inseparable. She had never seen Jay so happy, even with Jenna. He had his kids every other weekend now. Jenna came around as Emily knew she would. The fact her boyfriend was ten years younger
than her and demanded much of her time was no doubt her reasoning. Jenna still believed Jay was hiding his preference for men, even after meeting his current girlfriend, a knockout brunette by the name of Roxanne, who assured Jenna during one of their many catfights over the phone that Jay had it going on.

Joan had a son early that year, named Owen. Emily adored him from the moment she held him, named Godmother once more
to the newest Stein child. She saw less and less of Joan these days. Her friend had three kids and a husband, while she had only her career and a dog.

She took Willie to the park pretty regular, picking up Andy as a favor to his mom while she worked on the weekends. Anne-Marie went through the five thousand dollars within two months as Ida predicted. She always caved when Emily
called to take Andy with her to the park. She must have thought lightening would strike twice. It never did.

Ida died in her sleep a few weeks after the Ambidor ad first aired on TV. The nurses said she had a smile on her face,
after seeing her and her grandson’s ad for the first time. Emily went to the funeral and was disgusted by Anne-Marie and Martin Berkowitz making such a production of their grief. Emily recalled she chuckled when she left the funeral home to know all hell would break loose when they learned Ida put one over on them.

Willie was digging under the
privacy fence again. She knocked on the glass door to get his attention. The puppy was a handful. She didn’t know what possessed her to get a dog. She was tramping through the flea market with Joan one Saturday and came across a guy with a whole litter of puppies. Willie dove over his yipping siblings into her waiting arms. She recalled Ian always wanted one of these dogs. It must have prompted her to take Willie home with her that day.

She hadn’t heard from Ian in almost a year, not since he sent her the email after the meeting with Ambidor. Evan said the ammunitions company wanted to renew his contract another year. She pretended the news he would remain in Germany didn’t bother her. The truth was it caused an awful ache to
form in her stomach. She pawned it off as indigestion from her business luncheon. The news Ian wasn’t coming back to the States didn’t surprise her. She should have forgotten about him by now.

Emily chided herself for clinging to hi
s memory still, for holding onto something that could never be hers. It dismayed her that the six months she spent in therapy hadn’t quite erased Ian from her mind. Dr. Simon would clench his pencil in dismay to know she was obsessing again.

The therapist thought Ian
was exorcized from her heart and mind when she discontinued her treatment with him. She was assured by him her projection issues with her grief and coping crisis the year before was resolved. Dr. Simon didn’t need to know the truth; or the one lie she allowed herself daily. The only lie she told at all these days; that she forgot Ian at all.

~
~ ~

Emily wasn’t looking forward to this weekend. Her sister Kathy and her mother were coming to visit
for a week. Their plane touched down an hour before. While she would enjoy time with her sister, Leila would no doubt ruin the visit with her man-bashing and incessant complaints.

Emily was eager to get the visit behind her. Evan
was leaving for New York the following week. Desiree’s replacement started on Monday. She had three huge accounts she was juggling and now she had to train the new guy.
Thanks a lot, Evan
, she thought as she waited for the airport shuttle to arrive with her mother and sister. She would have picked them up, but Leila insisted it was no trouble. Since when did her frugal mother want to spring for the fifty bucks for a shuttle?

Emily was worried her mother would find something wron
g with the guest bedroom she just redecorated before their arrival. The room had two queen beds, decorated in neutral floral tones, her mother’s favorite flowers, peonies, sat in a vase on the bureau. 

She cringed to think of her mother’s assessment of her house the last time she visited. The words ‘rattrap’ and ‘pesthole’ made her stiffen with dread. Leila Jones was very vocal and verbal of what she thought
about Emily’s former husband too. She would no doubt have fresh digs for her deceased son-in-law, despite it being rude to speak ill of the dead.

Kathy would roll her eyes and say nothing. Neither of them wanted to fight with their mother
anymore. You couldn’t win; just ruin your own day. They accepted her negativity, learned to ignore it, even find humor in it these days. Emily could hardly tell them now was a bad time to visit.

Emily
couldn’t take vacation with Evan leaving and so many new faces at work. She had to work the whole following week they would be there. Kathy assured her they would rent a car to get around. It was no trouble.

Emily wanted everything to be perfect but knew Dr. Simon would shake his head at her if he heard her thoughts, saying she was
doing
it again. She trained herself to deal with these neurotic tendencies now, instead of going into a full panic attack to think of spending a week with her mother.

The truth was
; spending a week with Leila was pure torture. Dr. Simon felt it important she confide in her sister the secrets about Eddie. Kathy shocked her by saying she knew he was gay all along, suspected it, and said nothing. Kathy said a lingering look passed between Eddie and one of the male ushers at their wedding, something she never quite forgot.

Kathy promised to never say anything to their mother, assuring her little sister Leila was the last person she would tell
about her former son-in-law. That would just set her own therapy back another decade, she had joked over their two-hour long phone conversation. Emily was shocked to know Kathy sought help to deal with her own issues with their mother over the years. While Emily left home after high school, Kathy stayed on in Greenwich, dealt with Leila on a daily basis, and knew all about antidepressants.

For the first time since they were kids, Emily felt close to her sister again. She was looking forward to seeing her. She couldn’t believe Kathy’s husband
, Doug allowed her to travel to California alone to visit her this time, without all four of their kids along.

Doug was one of those types who thought he babysat his own children
. He lamented his wife’s absences within the home, leaving him in charge. She could never understand what Kathy saw in him, but never voiced her opinion. Doug was keeping the kids this visit. Interesting. It was just as telling as Leila springing for the shuttle; unheard of on any given day. It was a sign all was not well. Emily sensed it even before they arrived. Something was definitely wrong back home.

~
~ ~

Leila looked the same
. Her bouffant frosted helmet-like hair was artfully arranged as she stepped into the foyer. She always reeked of Chantilly cologne and Virginia Slim menthols. She wore pink polyester pants and a matching top. She wore bright pink lipstick that seemed to stick to her teeth no matter what she did.

Emily could see Kathy was helping the driver at the curb with their bags. Her sister looked thinner
to her, dressed in a plain grey cardigan and mom jeans. Kathy never wore make-up, had a no-frills attitude about her appearance, and it showed. At thirty-seven, she looked ten years older, the lines around her eyes growing deeper with sadness every year.

One look at her and Emily knew something was wrong. Her mother was looking around, complimenting her on the
changes to the house, gushing over her decorating. Emily waited until Kathy tipped the driver and closed the front door. She looked at her sister with real fear in her gaze.

“What’s going on? Tell me now
!”