Dreams in Moonlight

Part 3

Tina ignored the admonishment and didn't bother to alter her position on Mallory. "Yes, he's made it, which means Greg can have any woman he wants. Let's be honest here, here, Mallory had a brief spell as a dancer, garnered ten seconds of fame, but she's hardly what one would call an A lister, is she? Hardly the type Greg is going to bother with now? Is he? I'm just stating facts. They may not be palatable, but that doesn't stop them from being true." Tina ignored Harriet's glower. Mallory ignored Tina period. There simply was no point in arguing with Tina. It just gave her an incentive to voice even more vitriol. Tina was the type who thrived on being the centre of attention. She liked the adulation.

In any case, Tina was right. Mallory's claim to dancing fame was short lived and it was hardly likely that Greg would be interested now.

Mallory, at eighteen, had won an international dance scholarship. But even that had paled into insignificance when Greg proposed to her. It had been one the happiest moments in her young life. She had accepted the proposal with almost dreamlike happiness, from the then nearly twenty-year old Gregory. It was for her, really a dream come true. He'd proposed. Gone down on bended knee to ask her to marry him. As far as Mallory was concerned it was the most romantic moment she had ever encountered. Her dreams still constantly replayed the event, and every time the ending was different to the reality. In her dreams she walked down the aisle, floated down the aisle of a small chapel, dressed in an ivory silk and lace dress, clutching a small bouquet of yellow roses, and married Greg, the man of her dreams.

But before even one week had elapsed since his proposal, he left. He'd just taken off. Left town. No notice. No letter. Not even a measly note. Without any sign or warning. His departure, out of the blue as it was, had rocked her confidence and clarity of thought. She had cried for days. Then, in her naivety and shock she had listened to her uncle. Having lost both parents in a boating accident, Mallory had lived for five years with her uncle Claude and his family. Her uncle insinuated that Gregory left the small town on the Kapiti coast obviously because he didn't want to be tied down, and had probably only proposed because he'd felt pressured by her. As her uncle pointed out, there were very few twenty-year old men who wanted to be tied down at that age. Claude told her it was in her interests to invest her energy in her dancing to take her career forward and one day she would no doubt look back at Greg's departure and thank him for not going through with his spur of the moment proposal to marry her. But still she couldn't believe he would just leave. Without any discussion, or apology, or well, anything.

It had taken a couple of days to defog her brain and to think things through. So, a few days later, and despite her uncle's advice ringing in her ears, Mallory went looking for Greg. She wanted to find him to ask him why he had proposed to her one day and left the next. She wanted answers. She wanted to hear his reasons for changing his mind. But she couldn't find him. His relatives weren't talking. They seemed far from pleased with her, which puzzled her, given she was the injured party. She'd tried to pry information, find out where Greg had gone. But no-one told her anything, other than he'd left. They claimed not to know where he'd gone. Claimed not to know when he'd be back. So, with her cousin and her uncle repeatedly reminding her that Greg had left town because he did not want to marry her, and believing Greg had left her because he regretted asking her to marry him, she eventually left for the States to take up her dance scholarship.

That was nearing well over a decade ago.

Mallory knew from local talk that Greg had made his fortune. It was the talk of the small town that he had returned to his birthplace. Everyone knew that he had bought a huge tract of land up the Gorge and was building, what was rumoured to be a substantial house. A family home. That was the gossip. He was here to settle down. Building a family home in the area he had grown up in.

"Have you spoken with him, since he's moved back into town?"

"No." Mallory replied quietly, doing her best not to fidget or squirm as the mere thought of meeting him again turned her insides to jelly. "I doubt he'd remember me." Though she remembered him well. He'd been her first and only love. Even after all this time, his defection hurt. For that period in her life, it had been near perfect. She loved him, she thought he loved her.

"How long did you go out for?"

Mallory shrugged, hoping that her hurt would not show and wanting the conversation to move onto another topic. She and Greg had dated long enough to have been on intimate terms. He'd taught her all she knew about sex. Even now, a decade later, she could still remember the first time they had made love. He'd been gentle and patient and very determined to ensure that her first time was good for her.

"You really think he's forgotten you?" Harried sounded far from convinced. Mallory had the kind of beauty that was timeless: Classic bone structure, flawless skin, lustrous hair and sultry eyes. She was lithe but not skinny and had the carriage of a trained dancer.

Mallory hurt: On the inside. "Easily. It's over ten years. He's moved on." Mallory replied as she silently wished that she was able to forget him and what they had. But the years had not dulled the ache. The men she'd dated in the States called her frigid, because she didn't respond to their advances or their propositions. She couldn't. She just couldn't. Her heart was tied to another. Now, over ten years on, she knew that in all likelihood, she never would simply be able to give her heart to another man. And without that, she was unlikely to share her body with another man. Not when she knew her body did not react to the presence of other men, but her body reacted on sight to a man unlikely to ever want her. What she'd shared with Greg had burned deep and on her side, was everlasting. Greg was the only man she'd been with, and was by the looks of things going to be the only man she was ever going to want to be with unless she did something about getting over him. Which was problematic. "Probably got a girlfriend in tow..."

"No, he hasn't!" Tina replied superciliously, "But he wants to settle down, that's why he's come back. Putting down roots where he grew up." Not for the first time, she wished she hadn't been hasty in agreeing to marry Amanda's cousin, Euan, all those years ago.

"Guess he'll be in touch then. To pick up where he left off. With you." Harriet smiled at Mallory with gentle encouragement. "That would be so romantic. If you two got back together again. That would be perfect. True love. After all these years, reunited. Maybe that's why he's come back. For you. How romantic." She all but sighed.

Thanking her ability to keep her emotions to herself, Mallory laughed at her friend's whimsy. "Doubt it." She smiled at her friend but couldn't say anymore, because Amanda joined them. Conversation veered onto introductions and new topics.

Some five minutes later, Mallory knew the Gods were working against her this evening. Either that or they were testing her to her limits.

"Greg!" Tina's voice carried, and not surprisingly Greg turned in their direction. Mallory saw him stiffen when he saw them. To her credit Mallory did not drop eye contact. Her spine remained straight as she kept her features blank and kept her eyes on him. Tina beckoned him toward them. He murmured something to the man beside him and then made his way toward the four women.