Chocolate Reality (17 page)

I certainly didn’t think that I would be spending the next hour cleaning up my kitchen. Nor did I think that I would be too exhausted to even want to look at my computer once I had finished replanting my poor plants, winding up a ball of yarn that was all over my kitchen, vacuuming my kitchen rugs and then washing my floor to get rid of all the dirt marks. Yet, I wasn’t willing to let the opportunity to write Rich back pass me by, so I gathered my laptop and sat on the couch, arranging myself so that I would be comfortable. Turning up my music just enough to have the relaxing feel of jazz swirl around me, I reread Rich’s email from early and thought about how I would answer.

To the curious Rich:

So you want to hear about a dream. Would the one where I found

myself dressed as a clown amidst a huge crowd of children suffice?

Or how about when I found myself locked in a room filled with

mountains of mouth watering chocolate?

Or would you rather hear about a dream where I was standing on the shore

with my feet in the water. The sound of the waves was romantic and I wasn’t

alone? Hmmm, maybe you’ll just have to ask me in person :)

Can I ask you a favor? Please give me advanced warning when you plan

on surprising me. You know how much I hate surprises.

It would be nice to actually talk to you. Do you think we could do that soon?

Smiling, Wynne.

I smiled as I re-read the message I wrote. I hope he smiles when he reads it.Close to an hour later I was done social networking and paying bills and just as I was about to log off a new message appears.

Rich had written me back.

To the night owl Wynne;

You don’t play fair when it comes to your dreams. Just for that, no phone

call before I arrive, but I will warn you that it will be soon, and at the exact

moment that you are not expecting it. That should keep you on your toes for

a little while.

I will be out of town for the next couple of days. All work and no play make

Rich a very boring boy. Or so I’ve been told. I’ve been invited to stay with

some out of town friends over the weekend, so if you don’t see a response

from me before then, that is why.

Behave yourself over the weekend, and eat some chocolate for me (like that

will be too difficult for you.).

Tired, but happy – Rich.

My initial reaction was sadness that I wouldn’t be hearing from him for a few days. Then I began to try to piece together what exactly he said. He is going away and he would see me soon. Would that mean that he is coming here this weekend to see me? Heather and Matt wouldn’t be the ‘friends’ he talked about that invited him away. There’s no way Heather could have kept something that big of a secret from me. I thought of my mother and this ‘mystery’ date, but not even my mother could pull this one off. My imagination is obviously working overtime tonight, and I need to go to bed.

Knowing that there is no possible way of achieving sleep anytime soon until this gets resolved, I quickly call Heather, praying that she answers and not Matt.

“Hi there.” Heather greets me as she answers the phone.

“Oh, I’m glad it’s you. I was a bit hesitant calling, thinking you might be sleeping, and I would wake up Matt.” I told her with relief in my voice.

“Nope, I’m just finishing off those desserts I told you I would make, and Matt is just watching TV. What’s up?”

“I have a question for you and I’m hoping you’ll be able to answer.” I told her.

“Okay, ask away.” she told me.

“You wouldn’t by chance be involved with my mom in setting me up with this ‘mystery date’ for Friday night, would you?” I asked her.

“Why would I be involved in that? Your mom can play matchmaker all by herself, she doesn’t need my help.” She answered as I could hear the timer on her oven go off.

“Just a sec,” she said to me as she plopped the phone down on the counter. I could hear her in the background opening drawers, turning the buzzer off and then in the background I could hear her whispering to Matt.

“It’s Wynne.” I heard her whisper.

“Why is she calling this late?” I heard him ask in a normal tone.

“Shhhhh. She’s on the phone. She’s asking me about Friday.” Heather whispered to him.

“Oh man. I’m going to bed.” he answered back, and then I could hear doors closing and Heather was back on the phone.

“Sorry about that. The squares were done and I didn’t want them to burn.”

Should I mention what I heard or just ignore it?

“Why were you just whispering to Matt?” I decided to take the plunge in.

“What? Oh, yah, Matt was just heading off to bed.” Heather answered a bit hesitantly.

“So why were you whispering?” I persisted.

“Um, the birds are sleeping. So what was it you asked me earlier?” she evasively asked me.

“Okay, I’ll leave it alone. I asked you about this weekend and what plan you concocted with my mother.” I told her. Two can play at this game.

“I’m not in cahoots with your mom on anything. I learnt my lesson long ago that when you play with your mom, you always get burnt one way or another. Why, what’s going on?” she asked me innocently. I’m not sure if I should believe her or not.

“Well, I just received an email from Richard tonight, and well, I think I just read too much into it.” I conceded defeat.

“Oh, okay. Sorry I couldn’t help you. It’s late, and we have a busy day tomorrow.” She said to me hastily before she hung up.

I just looked at the phone. I wasn’t even given a chance to say good night. I’m not sure what is going on, but either I just caught her at a bad time, or she’s in with my mom big time. She didn’t even ask me what Rich said in the email. That’s not like her at all.

I knew that this whole evening’s happenings, from dinner at my parents, to the email I received, and now this conversation with Heather, would play out in my head over and over and over again. So I head off with my book and have another hot bath. That should relax me enough so when my head hits the pillow, I will go to sleep right away.

Or at least I hope that will happen.

Chapter 14

Friday morning began way to early for me.

When Richard and I were dating in college, we would often come back here on the weekends and visit my parents. Just outside of town is a little park, complete with its own stream. One day Rich decided that he wanted to teach me how to skip rocks. We had just started to date, and the newness of everything was so unique and special. Before we arrived we had stopped at the ice cream shop in town and bought a large sundae to split. I love chocolate and he wanted caramel, so we combined the two flavors together. There was a little bench in front of the stream where we sat and ate our sundae together, and then Rich showed me how to skip rocks. I can still feel his arms around me, holding me close, guiding my hand in throwing the rock in just the right way onto the water. I never learnt how to make it skip. Mine would just plop into the water, while his would glide across the water as if it were ice.

In my dream we were at this same spot sharing the same sundae. But instead of skipping rocks, Rich was declaring his undying love to me. We were standing by a tree that was close to the water. My back was against him, he held me in his arms. It was a comfortable feeling. As if this was the place that I was meant to be. In my ear, Richard was professing his love, his commitment and his desire for us to be together. It was such a sweet romantic dream. Until my kittens decided it was time for me to wake up. One was at my ear licking it and the other managed to find my toe at the end of the bed and had decided it was a new toy. This was not the way that I wanted to end my dream.

Noticing the clock said 7:35am, I decided it was way to early for me to be up and after nudging the kittens ever so gently to move and play elsewhere I rolled over to try to find my dream once again. Someone else had other plans though. The phone began to ring.

“Good morning sweetheart” I heard my mother greet me.

“Hmmm. That depends Mom. Why are you calling me so early?” I mumbled to her. All I wanted to do was close my eyes and go back to la-la land.

“Wynne dear. Wake up. I’m outside your door. Come open it please. It’s not exactly warm out today. I have coffee and bagels if that will help.” My mother was trying to tempt me to get out of bed, and it was almost working.

“Coffee? Bagels? Hmmm, I’ll be right there Mom,” I told her.

I make myself roll out of bed, hop around the floor trying to find my slippers and grab my robe as I walk out my bedroom door. I am not a morning person.

I can hear my mother banging on the door. I try to make my legs walk faster, but it is still to early so I shuffle across my hardwood floors until I reach the front door.

“Brrrr.” I feel the wind hit me as I opened the door. When I look up I see not only my mother but also the rest of the Latte Ladies greet me with huge smiles on their faces. They are all bundled up against the chilly winter wind, so I quickly reach for the coffee and bagels that my mom is holding in her hands and motion for everyone to come inside.

I led the way to my kitchen. On the way I call out to the ladies.

“Now you know that if you had come this morning without coffee I would have barred all entry into my home, don’t you?” I teased them as they followed me into the kitchen.

“Why do you think we brought coffee and bagels?” Judy said to me as she gave me a quick hug.

Judy McNeil, my second mother knew me so well.

“I hope you don’t mind that I joined your Latte group this morning?” Mom said to me as she began to distribute the coffee around to the ladies.

“Not at all mom. You should join us more often.” I encouraged her while I took the coffee that she handed me. Just feeling the heat of the coffee was enough to begin to wake my senses.

“Why are you all here so early though?” I asked them all. “Weren’t we meeting later this morning?”

Joan handed me a bagel to place in the toaster I had sitting on my cupboard.

“Honey, we have so much to do today, that we wanted to get an early start.” Joan informed me.

I looked around the room feeling like I’m missing something.

“What all do we have to do today that makes an early start so necessary?” I asked them. As far as I was concerned, the timetable was already set. A group of ladies would convene at the church around noon to begin decorating. Those who had to make desserts and finger food were either to bring their plates during this time or anytime after 5pm when I had decided to be at the church overseeing any last minute details. That basically left the morning free, or so I thought.

This time Tracey spoke up.

“Wynne, you’ve had such a busy week, that we all decided that you needed a little pampering today. You have an appointment this morning at 9:30am at The Pampering Palace for a full morning of spa treatments. Then at lunch a few of us are taking you on a shopping trip to pick out a stunning dress for tonight. Once we find that dress, you have an appointment back at The Pampering Palace for a makeover and a style. You are going to look like you walked out of a magazine by the time tonight comes around.”

Everyone but me giggled. Did they not realize it was way too early in the morning for giggling?

The Pampering Palace was the only spa place in town. The last time I was in there was the morning of my wedding three years ago.

“We can’t have your mystery date seeing you tonight looking like you just spent the week organizing the whole event. He needs to see you in the very best light, relaxed and stunning.” My mom informed me while placing her hands on her hips.

“Mom, come on.” I said to her. “I’m not even going to have time for the guy tonight. I’ve told you that. Don’t expect anything to come about, okay?” I pleaded with her. I really don’t want her getting her hopes up only to have them dashed. Now that I’ve actually heard from Richard and know that there is a possibility to explore whatever is between us, I have no interest in getting to know anyone else.

“At least try. You can do that for me can’t you?” she asked me.

I really didn’t want to get into this with the other ladies around, so I just smiled and sighed. I think she took that as my acceptance because she produced a huge smile and clapped her hands together in delight.

“Well, the past couple of days have literally flown by it seems,” I hesitated when I noticed the hopeful gazes in everyones eye.

“Who could pass up a day of pampering and being made to feel like a princess?” I asked them feeling somewhat resigned. Amongst the squeals of delight that I accepted so easily, I could hear Judy whisper in my ear to enjoy the day and just rest in God.

After an early breakfast of coffee and bagels combined with laughter and fun, I managed to convince the ladies to leave me in peace to get ready for my spa treatment. Tracey stuck around; I don’t think she quite believed that I would actually go.

“Wynne.” Tracey shouted. “What’s taking you so long?” she knocked on my bedroom door.

I opened the door with a sigh.

“Come on you. Let’s get going.” Tracey said as she pushed me out the door.