Chapter 2: Remembering When

LIVE: FOR ONE DAY ONLY

COME AND MEET

OUR CITY’S BEST AND BRIGHTEST

NEW AUTHOR:

CARRIE STENSON!

Carrie was so proud of that sign. Her parents had taken countless pictures of the sign: pictures of the sign with her beside it and then with them beside it, and then with each of them beside her. It was her very first book signing, and she was so excited. After two years of struggling and writing occasional columns in the city’s newspaper, Carrie Stenson had become an overnight sensation and rocketed straight to the top of the New York Times’ Best Seller’s List. The smalltime bookstore in her neighborhood could not wait to have her in for a signing. It was quite a coup for them. Well, there was that and the fact that the owner of the bookstore, Lea, was one of her best friends.

They set up a table in the back of their store right by the cappuccino machines, where the book lovers came to browse the dust jackets of their books in the inviting and comfortable leather chairs before they opted to buy another treasure and take it home. If they were anything like Carrie, they would devour the words between the pages in one gulp. Here, in this spot, Carrie was sure to get noticed and she did.

Carrie patiently sat for hours chatting and signing books. It was 3:00 in the afternoon and she had been at it since ten that morning. Her parents had told everyone they knew, so proud they were of their only child’s greatest accomplishment thus far. Her hand hurt form signing so many books, and her face hurt from the endless smile that she had plastered across it, hoping against hope that if they remembered her she would be more then a one hit wonder in the literary world. By 4:00, the crowd had straggled off and she was ready to pack it in. Carefully packing up her briefcase and anything else she had brought with her; Carrie rose to leave and she almost did until she saw him.

Over top of the bookshelves, towering over them at a height of 6’3” stood a gorgeous blond-haired, blue-eyed man. He was glancing through the shelves in search of something in the self-help section and appeared not to notice her at all. Carrie sat back down and waited, eventually he would come over that way; at least she hoped he would. He never did, he picked out his selection and meandered over to the cash register without so much as a fleeting look in her direction. He made his purchase and left the store.

Carrie sighed and picked up her things. She headed over to Lea to say goodbye and patiently waited while her friend finished the phone call she was on.

“I’m going to pack it in and go home Lea. It’s been a long day.”

“Uh huh, but can you do me one teeny tiny favor on your way home?” Lea asked.

“Oh sure, but I am really tired, Lee.” Carrie said knowing full well she would not hesitate to do anything that Lea asked for her, especially after today.

“Okay, the guy that just left, he accidentally left his credit card here. His name is Jon Benton, and he lives at 2^nd and Market. It’s right on your way home.”

Carrie laughed, Lea had eyes in the back of her head and almost as keen a sense of human emotion as Carrie herself possessed. Lea knew that Carrie was eying up that Adonis as soon as he walked in the store. And she began planning this little arranged meeting from that point on. Lea was determined that Carrie should find someone and be as lucky in love as she had been with her husband, Chris.

“Alright Lea, he’ll probably think I am some crazy stalker, but I’ll take it to him.” Carrie said and taking the card and the address, with a smile and a wave, headed out the door and over the four blocks it would take to get to his apartment.

It was unlike Carrie to do something so completely spur of the moment, but whenever Lea was around, Carrie couldn’t help herself. They had the kind of friendship that always led to new adventures. So that was how Carrie found herself wandering down Market Street and planning what she would say to this man, when the skies opened and graced the city with one of those soaking rains that can have no other purpose besides cooling things off when the temperature was near 100.

Hurriedly running under the nearest doorway, she waited the few minutes it took for the storm to pass before she continued on her way. Carrie looked in the windows of cars parked nearby, hurriedly attempting to fix her hair. Not that it mattered much; she resembled a drowned rat. At this point there was no delaying completing her mission. bFinding Jon’s apartment was easy, getting up the courage to ring his bell was not.

As fate would have it though, as Carrie stepped up to the door to ring the bell, Jon opened it looking very agitated. His ash-blonde hair that had looked impeccable from afar was tousled as if he had gotten out of bed and forgotten to comb it. His glasses were askew, and his hands and cheeks were streaked with grease. Distracted, he was not looking where he was going, he walked out of his apartment and right into poor Carrie who promptly landed on the floor in the puddle she had created.

Jon Benton stared down at the woman in front of him for the very first time. He was so taken aback by the fact that there was anyone there that he nearly forgot to offer his assistance to the lady in distress. After an excruciatingly long moment, he held out his hand.

Carrie eyed the gentleman in front of her. She liked him; he had a sort of sexy Hugh Grant quality to him. She had the distinct impression he was very intelligent and yet for some reason, she pictured him to be very clumsy, kind of a jack of all trade but master of none.

Jon stared at the little drowned waif of a girl standing in front of him for a full minute before he thought to introduce himself to her. The slick maneuvers and smooth words of other men were not second nature to him. He was honest and forthright and considered himself backwards in matters of love and yet he would have been very surprised to discover that that is exactly what women found irresistible about him. This girl in front of him was sweet. She wasn’t the brainy type that he met in most of his college classes. She wasn’t the sleazy type of girl he met sometimes in bars. She was somehow wholesome and pure, like she stepped off a country bus and yet was definitely all city. This girl was all of 5’3”. Her strawberry-blonde hair was tied back in what was once a neat bun at the nape of her neck. Several strands had escaped and she nervously tried to put them back in place, conscious of his scrutiny. Her eyes were a hue that he had never seen before, gray with specs of green and blue. Her mouth was playful and sweet, her lips parted in a friendly smile that he doubted she was even aware of, so lovely, so….

“Ummm, Mr. Benton?” Carrie’s greeting interrupted his reverie.

“Yes,” Jon said, awkwardly extended a greasy hand to her in greeting, and he was surprised when she took it without a second thought about getting her own hands dirty.

“Hi, I’m Carrie Stenson, I saw you at the bookstore earlier and I took your credit card. I mean, oh that came out all wrong…” Carrie stammered and seriously considered kicking herself for sounding like a stalker and a thief. He must think I am completely insane, she thought silently.

“Hmm, well then, shall I have you arrested or invite you in for a Coke and some dry clothes?” Jon laughed and Carrie’s face turned the prettiest shade of pink he had ever seen.

“I think I’ll take the Coke.”

Arm and arm they went into his apartment and Jon got her a Coke while she used the privacy of his bathroom to change into one of his large but dry t-shirts. It came to her knees. When she came out, she was self-conscious of her attire, but Jon thought he had never seen anything lovelier.

“Here,” she said nervously as she handed him his credit card and took the Coke he offered her. “My friend owns that bookshop you were in today and since your place was on my way home, she asked if I could bring your credit card to you. You left it there.”

“Ah, so that explains it, funny I could have sworn I got it back with the receipt but oh well, it brought you here and that’s all that matters.” Jon said and Carrie reminded herself to thank Lea for her mischievous nature.

“I was buying this book on plumbing. My sink seems to be clogged up and of course the landlord is off gallivanting somewhere so I thought I would try and fix it, only I’m afraid I don’t know much about pipes. I was just about to give up and go and buy another book when you came around.”

“Hey, perhaps I can help. I know all about plumbing, my dad made sure to teach me all sorts of things like that so that when I went out on my own, I would be able to handle it.” Carrie said as she jumped down off her counter stool.

“A girl who knows plumbing, how can I go wrong? Let me show you the way.” Jon led her around the counter to his kitchen sink and watched in amazed silence as this wisp of a girl deftly removed the elbow trap at the base of the drain and unclogged it. He had no snake, so she asked him for a wire coat hanger and ran it the length of the pipe, clearing it out.  Once reassembled, she turned on his water and the drain ran as smoothly as it did the day it was installed.

“Wow, that’s twice you rescued me if I weren’t so modern, I would be offended. Can I make you dinner? I promise I am a much better cook then a plumber,” Jon said sheepishly.

“You would have to be,” Carrie giggled, “But I really have to get home and do some research for my next book or my editor will have my head.” Jon looked crestfallen. “But I’d love a rain check. Besides, I must return your t-shirt.” His face brightened immeasurably. Carrie reached into the pockets of her jeans and pulled out a very damp but still readable business card.  “Ummm, when that dries, give me a call.” She said as she planted the card in his hand.

“It’s a date.” He said and walked her to the door. “Bye Carrie Stenson and thank you for returning my credit card and for unclogging my sink.”

“Anytime,” Carrie replied and shook his hand before turning down the hall and heading home.

Carrie did not do research that night, so was too distracted by the events of the day. She turned on her happy playlist, made herself a salad and let the music continue her state of buoyancy. All was right with the world. She did remember to stop and call Lea and thank her.

Carrie managed to fit some research in the next day and was busily typing away on her computer when the phone rang. She was expecting her agent to call and had to think for a moment before she made the connection with the voice on the other end of the line.

“Hello,” Carrie answered the phone in her usual cheerful manner.

“The card dried,” was all he said.

“Excuse me?”

“The business card you gave me is dry now and I want to collect on that date you promised me.” Jon said.

“Oh, Jon, hi,” her voice softened a little, “I thought you were my agent. I was expecting her to call me.”

“Oh, Sorry, I can call back if this is a bad time.”

“Oh no, oh sorry I was just in the middle of a chapter, I get so caught up when I am writing. I actually could use a break; my eyes are starting to get tired.”

“Well how about dinner then?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

“Alright, see you then.”

“Bye.”

Carrie looked at the clock. An hour just gave her enough time to save all of her work and get ready. She was in the process of doing that when the phone rang a second time.

“Hello?” she said hurriedly as she cradled the phone on one shoulder and gathered up her notes with the other. Multitasking was not her strong suit.

“Hi,” Jon said sheepishly, “I forgot to ask where you live.”

Carrie gave him directions to her apartment, finished gathering up her things and started to get ready.  Jon arrived exactly an hour later; a bouquet full of daylilies in his hand. They were magnificent oranges, and yellows, and blushing reds; it looked like a bouquet of fire.

“You seemed like a different kind of girl, so I figured I would go with the non-traditional.” Jon said and she took it as the compliment it was.

Jon took her to a little out of the way restaurant called “The Casbah.”  Not fitting with its name, it was a trendy little jazz club that served a great burger. They laughed and talked through dinner, dessert and coffee. When the restaurant closed, they walked along a nearby park and talked some more.

Carrie told Jon all about her novels. He discovered that she wrote romance-mystery novels that almost always portrayed bumbling cops and humorous cases. She took her stories right from the odd news that she found reported from around the world. The main characters in her books were a male and a female detective that were teamed together despite their obvious dislike for each other, creating of course the necessary sexual tension that makes a book a great seller. Her novels were all dedicated to her dad who, as a member of the city’s finest for many years, provided her with her inspiration.

Jon was still in college, on a full scholarship. He was studying architecture. He wanted to change the world one building at a time and as they walked along the city streets and he pointed out the magnificent details in the buildings around them, she believed he could. He had revolutionary ideas, and they were interesting and intelligently founded.

Their relationship progressed from there. They laughed, they played, and they had a great time. She took him to meet her parents, and they flew to London to meet his mom. His father had been in the army and was stationed in England, but his mother chose to remain there after his father passed away. Each parent greeted their child’s friend with open arms and loving acceptance. Everyone thought they would get married; everyone – including Jon.

And the question of why they shouldn’t get married was what Carrie was trying to answer now as she sat on her black leather sofa and stared at the fireplace. They were 28 years old.  When Jon was 26, his career had taken off. He was employed by one of the most well-known architecture firms in the city. He bought a beautiful house in the suburbs, the perfect spot he said, for raising children. They had invested many hours refurbishing that house to its original state.  Her writing career was successful beyond her wildest imagination. They had been together for six years now. They spent weeks with each other at her apartment or his house. They were as in love today as they were when they first met – but there was something missing.

Carrie knew the problem did not lie within Jon but within her. She couldn’t understand it. Her parents had been happily married for thirty years. They were each other’s best friends. Carrie had no reason to believe that marriages were failures. She was not from a dysfunctional family. They were two kids from a happily ever after life. Still there was something about settling down that bugged her. Maybe it was the lack of romance in her life, even when Jon proposed it was spur of the moment. But Carrie didn’t think that was it. If she was going to be totally honest with herself, missing romance had a little to do with it. Carrie felt like there was something else that she was meant to do. She could not escape the feeling that someone or something needed her. Right now, what she needed most was sleep.