On Bended Knee

Chapter 15

Lucy pushed open the door to go to the parking lot after work, grateful for her new coat. She pulled the fur-trimmed hood of the fitted black parka up over her head against the bite of the wind. Flakes of snow were whipping around the parking lot.

Lucy jumped inside her car, shivering a little as the cold vinyl pressed against the backs of her legs. Growing up in Toronto, she thought she knew how to cope with cold, but it was still only fall here. As she waited for the engine to warm up, she worried about what winter would bring.

When Lucy pulled into her driveway, she saw an unfamiliar car parked next to her usual spot. She wondered if Janelle had company. She couldn't have been more wrong.

When she stepped out of her car, Lucy's jaw dropped. On the top step outside her apartment door, shivering in a leather bomber jacket, his dark, curly hair dusted with snowflakes, sat Frederick.

Lucy ran up the steps. "Frederick!? What are you doing just sitting there? Come in before you freeze," she insisted, unlocking her door as quickly as she could.

"This is not fall," he groused. He stood in Lucy's entryway rubbing his hands together vigorously to warm them.

Lucy shut the door against the cold, then stood and gaped like a fish at her unexpected guest.

"I thought of something," said Frederick without preamble. "We need to do a test-run."

"A what?" Lucy asked.

"A test run. You need to spend a week with me in the city."

Lucy's brain struggled to catch up to Frederick's rush of words, never mind his sudden appearance.

"What city?" She asked the first thing her mind latched onto.

"Any city. New York, London, Paris. Los Angeles is warm this time of year."

Lucy plopped onto the couch. "You lost me. What are you talking about?"

Frederick followed her into the living room, then spoke more slowly. "I want you to have a chance to see what my regular life is really like, so I want you to spend a week with me, on my turf, and see it for yourself. You can't decide against something if you've never tried it."

"Oh. You might have a point." She considered his offer for a moment. She unzipped her coat and pulled off her boots as she tried to decide how to respond. "What if I agree to this experiment, and at the end of it, I still don't think I can handle it?"

"I'll quit. I'll retire and move up here with you. We can have a log home built on a lake and watch the sunset together every night."

Frederick painted an appealing picture. Lucy was almost tempted to agree, but it would be the height of selfishness to do so.

"Frederick, that's crazy."

"Not as crazy as never seeing you again."

"I can't let you quit. I've seen you in front of the camera. This isn't just a job for you, it's who you are. You'd go nuts if you weren't acting. You wouldn't be you anymore." He wouldn't be the man she'd fallen in love with.

Frederick pondered for a moment. "I could commute?"

"What, see me for the odd weekend, a month straight once a year? We'd both be miserable."

"Quit pissing in my cornflakes, woman. I'm trying to make this work."

Lucy gave an exasperated bark of laughter.

"We'll just have to give our trial run our very best shot, then. And if it doesn't work?" He swallowed hard. "We know we gave it our best shot and we go our separate ways."