"Surprise!"
Lucy opened the front door to find Eileen, Chloe, and a group of women carrying wrapped presents, food, and balloons, standing on the front step.
"What's going on?" a bewildered Lucy asked as she stepped aside to let them in.
"We're throwing you a wedding and baby shower," Chloe announced as Eileen led Lucy into the living room where she was ordered to take a seat while the other women got to work setting up decorations and laying out food and presents.
Lucy sat back and watched them in awe, "I can't believe you did all this for me."
After the presents were opened, Chloe took a seat next to Lucy on the couch. "So tomorrow's the big day. How are you feeling about the wedding? Excited? Nervous?"
"A little of both," Lucy admitted. "I am excited about it, even though it's not exactly the wedding I'd always dreamed of. The only thing I wish is that my parents were alive to see me get married, especially my dad."
Chloe patted Lucy's hand comfortingly and was about to offer some soothing words, when they were interrupted by a crash. Chloe and Lucy looked up to see Eileen fumbling with her plate.
"I'm so sorry," Eileen said embarrassed. Her face looked flushed. "I'll get something to clean it up."
Before Lucy could protest, Eileen bolted out of the room.
"Is she alright?" one of the guests asked. "She's been acting odd all afternoon."
"It must be all the wedding talk," Chloe suggested. "It can't be easy for her to be around after breaking her engagement with Hector."
"I think I know what it is," Lucy said, raising herself from the sofa. "I'll go talk to her."
Lucy found Eileen at the kitchen sink, trying to wash out a spot on her dress. "How are you doing? Is everything ok?"
"Fine, I'm fine," Eileen answered sharply.
"You can talk to me, Eileen, about anything. You know that." When Eileen looked away and said nothing, Lucy continued, "Despite what you think about Hector I am sorry that you had to go through this break up after you started planning your wedding. I know it can't be easy for you to hear all of this wedding talk."
"No, it's fine and don't be sorry about it because I'm not. You were right about him all along, I'm just glad I found out now and not later."
"Is it about Craig then? You still don't believe that I love him enough? Because I do. He's really good for me and we're going to have a child together soon."
"You don't have to explain yourself, Lucy," Eileen sighed. "I'd wish you'd forget I said anything about that. I only said those things because of what you said about me and Hector. You were right all along."
"Then I give up," Lucy sighed, throwing her hands in the air. "What's bothering you?"
"Nothing," Eileen insisted, but avoided making eye contact with her friend and instead turned to the cabinet drawer. "There's nothing bothering me, so stop worrying." She quickly drew a towel from the drawer and pushed past Lucy on her way back to the party.
As Eileen walked away, Lucy noticed a scrap of paper fall to the floor. When she bent down to pick it up, she discovered that it was a to do list, written in Jordan's handwriting. As she held the note in her hand and gazed over the letters, she sighed and hoped she was doing the right thing.
Justin was standing in the living room of his apartment, looking over an list of events scheduled for the country club, when he was startled by the opening of the front door.
"Oh, hi," Audrey said as she walked into the apartment. "What are you looking at?" She asked. When he showed her the paper, one event on the list stood apart from the others, the Stuart-Sexton wedding. "Oh, I see," she said touching his shoulder gently as she walked past him. "You and I just aren't lucky in love."
He seemed startled by that remark. Not wanting to talk about his lack of a romantic life, he questioned her, "Are you having problems with your new beau?"
"No, just thinking of an old one," she said, her voice trailing off as she disappeared into her bedroom.
As she changed out of her work clothes, let down her hair, and took off her makeup, Audrey's mind was on Chad. She kept thinking about how much simpler her life would be now if she had never gotten involved with him. Even though their relationship had ended long ago and he had taken off again, the bleak ending to their relationship was still lingering on to complicate her life in the form of R.J. Majors. She was tired and she just wanted to be done with it once and for all.
She had considered leaving town, but moving here hadn't done much to help her situation, in fact it only made things worse. The only thing to do was to take a stand and hold on to her new life, career, and relationship no matter what the consequences. She only hoped she had the strength to follow through.
When Audrey returned to the living room, Justin was still looking at the same paper, but when he saw her enter, he quickly put it back in the desk drawer.
"You really do love her, don't you?" Audrey remarked. When he struggled to answer, she looked at him sadly. "Then fight for her. Tell her how you feel before it's too late."
"It's already too late," he said simply before turning and walking away.
Alma and Vanessa walked through the cemetery in silence, the stone of the gravel walkway crunching beneath their feet. They stopped before a simple gravestone where Vanessa placed a flower in the empty vase before it.
After a moment of silence, Vanessa asked, "What was she like? As a mother?"
Alma paused in through, not sure how to answer that question or where to start. "She was strict. She had to be tough to raise us on her own after Dad died. She was difficult to get along with most of the time. I guess I never really knew what she thought or how she felt about things. I didn't know anything about her past until after she died. I was around her everyday of my life, but now it's almost like I never knew her at all."
"I know the feeling," Vanessa said quietly, thinking about her recent marriage. The stood in silence, reverently looking at the gravesite.
"I'm going to have my name changed," Vanessa announced. "Sebastian is out of my life for good now and I don't want to keep his name. I'm thinking of taking the name Summers. Do you think she would have liked that?"
Alma shrugged, "I wouldn't know."
"Once I get all of these legal matters settled, it's going to be like making a fresh start. I'll have a new name, a new home, a new family," she laughed softly to herself. "And to think when I was younger, I thought I'd have it all settled by now. But back then I thought 35 was ancient." Alma smiled. "I was sure I'd be a famous actress by now touring the world with some handsome, charming man at my side. Why didn't anyone tell me life isn't a straight path?" she mused before turning to Alma. "Where did you think you'd be at your age when you were a kid?"
Alma looked thoughtful, "I don't know. Before Mother got sick the plan was for me to work for the family until Alma finished school."
"Then what? What did you want for yourself?"
"Before Mother died, when I had to quit work to take care of her, more than anything I wanted to live my own life and make my own decisions without Mother telling me what's best. I just wanted my own home and my own life."
"It sounds like you have that now."
"But now I want something else," Alma said quietly, ashamed to admit that fact. "For so long I just wanted to be free from everyone else, but now . . .I never thought I'd get lonely," she looked away and almost mumbled the last words. She never felt comfortable sharing her feeling with anyone like this, but Vanessa was so receptive and easy to talk to, she seemed to draw out the words without even trying to.
"Whenever you feel that way, just give me a call, ok? I have a feeling I'm going to have some lonely days ahead of me as well."
Veronica was in her office finishing up some paperwork before going home for the evening when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in," she called.
"Hello Veronica. I hope I'm not interrupting," a deep voice said.
"Not at all, Ed. What brings you by?"
"I wanted to talk to you about our patient. How are things going with Miss Barrett?"
"They aren't," Veronica said, putting her notes aside and walked away from her desk. "Since we spoke about her she's cancelled her appointments. I got the impression that she was only coming to them because her father insisted and now that he's out of the picture, she's stopped coming."
"Are you concerned about that?"
"Not overly concerned, no," Veronica answered. "She seems stable and in good mental health. Though I think keeping her appointments would have been good for her, I think she'll be fine without them."
"You, of course, mean aside from her so called premonitions and fainting spells."
Veronica shrugged, "Even with them. I can't say whether or not she has a sixth sense," Edward scoffed and frowned at the suggestion, but she ignored him and continued her line of thought. "But believing that she does is important to her. I believe it fills a void in her life and the more I think about it, I don't think the fainting is a direct symptom. I think it was probably related to stress . . .surely you can't disregard that possibility."
Slowly an ironic smile crossed Edward's face. "No, I can't . . .You know I've missed our debates. You always kept me on my toes." When Veronica smiled, he leaned forward slightly and said in a more serious tone. "And I've missed you."
Veronica backed up and Edward immediately regretted his words and knew he had gone too far. He could see Veronica struggling to find the words to let him down easy and he decided to spare her the trouble. "I won't keep you. I should be going. Have a good evening," he said nervously as he retreated out of the office.
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