Phoenix (Editing)

Chapter 9 *Edited*

Claire tried to hide the envy that was racing through her as she sat with her family and best friend. She watched as Marcy bounced her baby girl in her lap and relished the gurgles of glee the child emitted. She was happy for Marcy, she truly was, but that didn't stop the pang of mourning from resonating through her.

She forced a smile as Marcy met her gaze and quickly turned her attention to her sisters' conversation about global warming. How they'd gotten on the topic came from a comment Cait's husband made about the incessant heat wave that didn't seem to have an end in sight. It'd been over a week and the temperature was still in ninety degrees bordering on the hundreds and everyone was suffering. The city had just recovered from a power outage that had claimed the lives of two elderly already.

She looked over at her parents who watched with open interest as their two oldest daughters went back and forth debating the cause for the recent dry spell, they'd all been suffering through. It was a friendly debate, and one she'd heard before. Courtney was an environmental activist and believed that mankind was slowly causing the deterioration of the ozone, which was giving cause for turbulent or excessive weather, such as now.

Claire loved her family above all else, but none of them truly realized how much she was suffering watching her family extend their own families while she was stuck. That's how she felt. She'd lost herself when she fell down those stairs five years prior. She didn't know how to make herself continue to grow as a person. She was like a budding flower denied sunlight, but the cloud in front of the sun was herself. She stifled the sigh that was on her lips and looked towards the entrance, her possible escape route, and froze.

It had been almost a year since their last encounter and true to his word, Pierce hadn't bothered her again. Yet watching him suddenly appear didn't change the effect he'd always had on her and for a moment she couldn't remember why she'd found him to be a bother in the first place. He looked just as handsome as before, if not more so. His hair had been cut shorter and he was dressed up quite smartly in a grey, three button, Shark power suit that was obviously custom-tailored for his tall frame. The colors in his tie enhancing the green of his eyes, the eyes that were all of a sudden staring directly into hers.

***

Pierce was just concluding a business lunch with a potential new partner for one of his overseas shipping companies. As he walked Mr. Linghui towards the exit, shaking his hand and promising to have the paperwork drawn up by their next meeting he happened to glance to his left. Everything dropped away as he spotted Claire almost the same time, she spotted him. And she was even more breath taking than he remembered. He quickly excused himself from his Chinese counterpart and went the opposite direction.

***

Claire's heart slammed in her chest as she watched him turn and walk away, a big part of her was disappointed.

"You okay over there?" Courtney asked as she dipped her breadstick in the butter sauce.

"I'm fine. What were you saying?"

"Why are you red?"

"I'm not red." She tried to ignore the five pairs of eyes that were now focused on her as she wondered why he was so quick to walk away when the last time she'd seen him he'd been hot on her heels. Maybe he was respecting her wishes? Aren't you tired of the cat and mouse game? Besides, you don't want to go there anyway. She tried to scold herself. But what if I do?

"Yes, you are." Her mother interrupted her thoughts. "Are you feeling alright? Maybe it's something you ate?"

"She barely touched her food." Her father nodded his head towards her plate.