Chapter 3

It was the day after Valentine's Day; a crystal-clear, bone-chilling Tuesday morning. As usual, Mark was driving in to work, waiting for the heat to kick in fully. The days were getting longer, and his inbound commute took place in the dawn twilight, rather than full nighttime darkness of a few weeks ago. On this particular morning, Mark was in no rush; Shauna needed to run a few errands before coming to work, which meant no furtive quickies were on the agenda for today. In many ways, Mark was not disappointed; yesterday had been one for the books.

He had been dreading the fourteenth of February for several weeks leading up to it. In prior years, he had found the challenge of making the day memorable for one woman to be a daunting one. This year, because of the bizarre twists in his life that had occurred in recent months, the challenge had been multiplied several times over. Which, he felt, made some kind of conflict almost unavoidable.

He still felt that his first priority was Julie, the woman who had stood by his side for twenty years, given birth to his son, and put up with his quirks for that entire time span. Now, due to what he freely admitted to himself was a severe character deficiency, he was involved with several different women on an intimate level. Each was special in her own way; each fulfilled a need in his life.

First, there was Mandy, whom he had never met face to face, but provided him with indirect sexual experiences, the likes of which he had never imagined. Then there was Katie, the ideal intellectual sidekick; Lauren, the ultimate physical partner; and Shauna, the seemingly perfect romantic companion.

And then there was Angela Mancini.

The latest object of Mark's desire was a tall, slender, twenty-four-year-old hairstylist with an infectious personality that made him feel years younger. She had long, wavy hair, the color of which she changed often, depending upon her whim. Of late, it was auburn with slight traces of burgundy. Angela had gorgeous long legs; she enjoyed inline skating, and it showed. She was a trendy, imaginative dresser; she often wore short skirts to accentuate those legs, even when the weather was less than summer-like.

Mark had first met her a couple of months ago, back in the late fall. He had gone to a bar with a couple of younger, single male co-workers after work on a Friday. Angela was there with two girlfriends, who soon became paired up with Mark's cohorts. But Angela was no booby prize, Mark realized; she soon had him in stitches with her ribald, wisecracking sense of humor. Angela was a second-generation Italian-American who grew up in the Bronx, and she was every bit the loud, outspoken New Yorker.

He ran into her again the following week, on one of his trips to the grocery store, which happened to be in the same shopping center as the salon at which Angela worked. He saw her standing outside, taking a break, and went over to say hello. They exchanged phone numbers. Things progressed from there, fairly quickly.

But on Valentine's Day, Angela was the least of his worries; she knew all about his situation at home. A card, and a quick phone call, and she was all taken care of. Similarly, Shauna knew the score with regard to Mark's home life, although that particular relationship was of a much deeper nature. He bought her a nice set of earrings, which she was thrilled to receive, and met her for their typical early-morning get-together.

Mandy, likewise, was easily handled; her situation was much the same as Mark's. Their "relationship" consisted of alphanumerical characters in cyberspace and listening to each other's voices on the phone. He called her quickly from work that morning, and that was that. Neither one of them had time for late-afternoon phone sex on this particular day.

Katie and Lauren, on the other hand, presented problems for Mark. Big problems.

He managed to accommodate everyone concerned, but it took a great deal of effort, and cost him a half day's vacation. The previous evening, he found reason to "work late" (or so he told Julie) and spent a few hours with Lauren. He used the same "working late" excuse on Lauren to explain why he was unable to see her the following day. "On Valentine's Day?" she had protested mildly. "What kind of unromantic jerks do you work for?" But that was the extent of her dissatisfaction, and Mark was thankful for that. He knew that Lauren was the most difficult to please of all the women involved.

That left Katie; Mark took her out to lunch the next day, at their favorite Italian restaurant. He then spent the afternoon at her apartment. He knew that Katie had classes, and was working on a thesis; her time was limited too. And besides, he thought, they were just good friends who understood each other.

And of course, he reserved the evening for Julie. He made reservations for dinner at a nice restaurant, and they took in a movie afterward.

Mark steered his BMW into his parking space, and his mind quickly shifted to focus on today's challenges. "If I could get through yesterday," he said to himself, "I can get through anything." At that moment, he felt unconquerable.

Mark's phone rang, and he bolted into his office to pick it up. "Hi there," Julie said. "I know this is short notice, but I need to go down to Atlanta this weekend. The orchestra is doing a series of performances down there, and the other instructor just backed out."

Mark had grown deft at handling sudden changes in plans, but this one disoriented him for a minute. "That's only a few days from now. When are you leaving?"

"Thursday night. Performances on Friday and Saturday; I'll be back home on Sunday. You wouldn't believe the air fare on a last-minute ticket, but hey, that's not my problem." Mark knew the school district would foot the bill.

"Well, if you have to go, you have to go," Mark replied. Knowing full well the response to come, he asked with a chuckle, "Will they buy a ticket for spouses also?"

Julie laughed. "Are you kidding? Besides, I wouldn't be much company. I have a lot to do. You'd be doing your own sightseeing."

"I'll hold down the fort here at home, and remember, you'll be returning the favor in May when I go out to San Diego for that conference."

"That sounds fair enough. Sorry hon, for the sudden change in plans. Sure you don't mind?"

"Not at all," Mark replied. His mind was already lost in a swirl of possibilities.

Mark picked up the phone and started to dial Lauren's number, then put the phone down again. His first impulse was to whisk Lauren away for a couple of days for that getaway they'd been discussing. But would she be satisfied with two days? Mark wasn't sure. His mind drifted to the conference in San Diego, which lasted a full week. The logistics in that endeavor would not be hard to manage at all. Rather than a quick weekend retreat, perhaps Lauren would better appreciate a leisurely seven days in California, and Mark decided to bounce that idea off her later.