A Summer of Discovery

Chapter Eighteen

Fall was approaching fast, it had been two months now since I had returned from Fairview. I hadn't been able to function that first month home as every corner I rounded in the city I saw her in the crowd, I heard her voice in restaurants and in my sleep she would always visit. The guilt though it was eating me up. Lucy was perfection, she was adorable and sweet and she loved me so much. Lucy was now my priority and my focus. For every bad dream I had about Lilly I would wake Lucy up and make love to her. For every time Lilly would pop up in a crowd I would pull Lucy into my arms and kiss her. Where Lilly was I replaced her with Lucy, it had begun to work, Lucy was my future and Lilly was my past. I had to move on.

***

"Earth to Emery" Came the shrill sound of my best friend and current secretary's voice across my office.

"Emery are you there... Honestly I don't know how you made junior in this company when you're constantly day dreaming" I spun my chair around to face the door and a very dolled up Car (Caroline) She was my best friend in New York and had been my roommate at college, we were best friends from eighteen and of course she was completely aware of my history in Fairview and of my relationship with Lilly. Car had got me through many a teary night back then. I had hired Car when her asshole of a husband had left her with their baby and no money for a much younger girl he had met at a strip joint. She wasn't a secretary by choice and was no good at it either but I would never let her go, she hadn't finished college after getting pregnant and her job prospects were low in the city for the wage she required to live comfortably as a single mother. At least she could make a good coffee. Unfortunately Car's skills behind the computer and her note taking were practically prehistoric, no she would much rather sit at my desk and gossip to pass her office hours quicker.

"Sorry I was away with the fairies" I replied waving my hand over my face and smiling at her unique choice of purple lipstick. I watched as she rounded the desk and sat on my couch lifting her legs and lying there as if in a therapy session. Her hands clasped together in anticipation. "I've met someone" She declared.

I leant back in my chair and picked the red chocolate beans from the candy bag on my desk, chucking them into my mouth like it was a pro sport. "Who is the poor soul" I asked.

"He's in accounts and he's very handsome! A little bit old but still fuckable with your eyes open... you know?" she asked.

I picked her out the green candy beans and threw them over one at a time until she caught them all. "What's his name Car? It's not David is it because he's a douche bag and I have it on good authority he's sticking it to Diane in the press room"

"No not him... but thank you that's gold star gossip for my lunch break. It's Graham. We are going out tonight for a date... do you believe it" She asked with a squeal sucking back on her mouth full of green candy. "Will you and Lucy look after Jacob for me?" she asked with her hands held together as if in prayer.

I rolled my eyes at the prospect of Graham being Car's new boyfriend and sat forward checking my emails that had just pinged on my computer. "We can't have him tonight I would if I could but I'm taking Luce to that new French restaurant in Brooklyn"

"Oh you fuckers I wanted to go there too maybe we can double date then?" She asked sitting up and looking in the mirror above the couch. She brushed through her red hair with her long manicured nails. Caroline was half Irish on her dads side so she had a remarkable pale complexion and red fiery hair, she was a size bigger than she wore in clothes but she wouldn't admit it to herself so she continued to squeeze into her pre pregnancy dresses. Today it was purple and tight and her boobs were threatening to burst out and hit some poor unknowing individual in the face.

"Cant. It's a special night and hey it's your first date with this Graham you can't double on a first date Car"

She spun round, a hand on my desk. "Special how" She asked with a twinkle in her eye.