Chapter 7

Shortly after nine o'clock the following morning, Julie was all packed and ready to head out the door. She had a smaller traveling bag this time, one with a shoulder strap, and she positioned the bag firmly on her shoulder as she descended the stairs. Mark had long since left for work.

Although the buses weren't scheduled to leave for a couple of hours, Julie needed to arrive at school early to help herd up all the students along with their instruments and traveling bags. They'd rented out three buses to accommodate the students and a number of chaperones.

Stepping outside onto the porch, she locked the door behind her. It was just a little chilly, but the sun shone brightly, with the promise of a warmer-than-normal day for late March. She caught a sniff of the fragrance emitted by the hyacinths she'd planted in the garden right next to the porch; they were now in full bloom. Several clusters of daffodils were nearby, and tulip leaves were pushing up through the soil, although they wouldn't be in bloom for another couple of weeks.

She stopped for a minute to admire the whole scene; it looked like spring was finally arriving. Julie had spent her entire childhood in upstate New York, and spring definitely came earlier in this more southerly locale of southeastern Pennsylvania. The bright yellow glory emanating from the forsythia bushes around the perimeter of their property was now in full evidence. Recent rainfall had accelerated the grass's annual color transition from the dull brown of winter to springtime's lush green, and Julie knew she'd have to bug Mark to cut it before the week was through. Dandelions were popping up everywhere, and she mentally added the application of weed killer to Mark's chore list.

Julie didn't demand a lot of excitement in her life; she preferred the subtle rush from simpler pleasures, such as the aroma of hyacinth in the springtime, the symphony of sound from a well-trained orchestra, or a phone conversation with a close friend.

Maybe I'm being hard on Mark, she thought as she walked into the garage toward her car. And she wasn't thinking about yard work.

She didn't know what was up with her husband. It was clear that he was focused on something else these days, but what? "Maybe," Julie spoke silently to herself, "I should listen to Beth and cut him some slack. And if he really is having some type of midlife crisis, we'll weather it together. But until I find out for sure, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, we've been married twenty years, he's a good provider, a good father to his son, and has never been verbally or physically abusive."

She suddenly had a thought. Reversing her course, she walked back toward the porch. Being careful not to get dirt on her clothes, she reached down and picked off one of the hyacinth blooms. Retracing her steps into the garage, she opened the car door and slipped inside her dark blue Volvo. She placed the hyacinth on the dashboard, and its fragrance soon filled the interior of the car.

Julie was at ease as she drove off, feeling as though she'd just cast off a burden that she'd unnecessarily placed on herself.

Mark left his office at eleven-thirty, earlier than he judged to be necessary. He'd grown well accustomed to Katie's tendency to be prompt, and had been quite the late arrival on a few too many of their recent dates, although Katie never complained. On this occasion, especially, he wanted to be the first one there; the anticipated presence of her family members had induced him to search for any edge he could grab hold of.

He had traveled no farther than a mile down the road when he encountered a long line of traffic that had slowed to a crawl. The presence of orange signs and plastic road cones ahead of him in the distance told him all he needed to know. "Damn road construction!" he cursed. "Why can't they do this work in the middle of the night?"

Even under the best of conditions, Mark was an impatient driver. He inched forward toward the construction zone, becoming more and more agitated. By the time he got there, a good fifteen minutes had passed and he was in a decidedly foul mood. All of the traffic on the two-lane road was being directed off onto the shoulder, while several workers were in the process of tearing up the road. One was wielding a jackhammer, and the unbearably loud vibrating racket induced a similar pounding inside Mark's head. "This isn't the start I wanted to get off to," he mumbled to himself.

Of course, he was able to resume his normal speed after he cleared the construction area, and he hit the gas hard the rest of the way. He arrived in the parking lot just in time to see Katie walking up toward the entrance along with her sister and brother-in-law. He did a double-take when he laid eyes on Katie, and his disposition instantly improved. "She looks beautiful," he said as he watched her through his car window.

Ordinarily a casual dresser who preferred to wear pants, Katie was decked out in a black dress, with a thin, unbuttoned black sweater resting on her shoulders. Her straight black hair, its color matching the sweater and dress in a striking manner, held together flawlessly in the windless, sunny conditions. The dress was a fairly short one; it stopped a few inches above the knees. It was accompanied by a thin black belt that highlighted a petite figure that was normally not in evidence when she donned her more usual attire. She was also wearing high heels; Mark had never seen her in heels before.

After ogling Katie's glamorous new look for a few seconds, Mark became concerned. What had prompted her to get dressed up like that? Then he looked at her sister, who was similarly attired, and he nodded hopefully. "Aha ... maybe it's nothing more than a little sisterly competition."

Katie greeted him with a smile as he approached, offering her cheek for a quick peck. "You look gorgeous," Mark whispered to her. Upon close examination, he noted that she'd spent quite a bit more effort than usual in applying makeup.

"Thank you, sir," she replied breezily. Then she stepped aside to make her introductions. "This is my sister, Cynthia, and her husband Phil. Cynthia and Phil, this is Mark Baxter." Cynthia was a year older than Katie, and was taller and somewhat heavier. Phil, also of Chinese ethnicity, was a short, round, jovial fellow with a perpetual smile on his face.

Inside the Italian restaurant, they were seated almost immediately at a four-person table. Mark and Katie sat on one side; Phil and Cynthia on the other, facing them. It was warm and a little stuffy, and Mark helped Katie remove her sweater as they settled into their seats. Her dress was the sleeveless variety, and Mark's hand briefly rested on the soft, cool bare skin directly under her shoulder. He let it linger there for a split second, and then removed it. He sensed that Katie was as nervous as he was, and didn't want to push his luck.

Mark was immensely relieved to find that both Cynthia and Phil had scientific backgrounds; this allowed the conversation to flow easily, without turning toward uncomfortable topics. Interestingly, her sister and brother-in-law did not share Katie's vegetarian preferences; both had ordered generous portions of meat-stuffed ravioli for lunch. This, Mark hypothesized, was no doubt responsible for the fact that Cynthia had a much fuller figure than her slender younger sister, and that Phil was seemingly almost as round as he was tall.

But he enjoyed their company a great deal, and at no time did the conversation steer towards "what are your intentions with my sister", as Mark had feared. He observed that Katie seemed to grow more and more relaxed as the minutes passed; at one point, she slipped her hand into his under the table, her small fingers intertwining with his larger ones. He'd planned for a long lunch, and before he knew it, almost an hour and a half had flown by.

Cynthia flagged down the waiter and attempted to pick up the tab, but Mark had already slipped him his own credit card earlier. This was a common ruse of his; he didn't like playing the "who'll pay the bill" game, and always had a few tricks up his sleeve to avoid it. In typical fashion, both Phil and Cynthia responded, "You shouldn't have!" but thanked him profusely.

As they left the restaurant and walked out into the early afternoon sunshine, the two ladies walked on ahead toward Katie's car, while Mark chatted briefly with Phil. Out of the corner of his eye, Mark detected a few enthusiastic nods and giggles from Cynthia. This led him to believe that he'd passed whatever test he'd been subjected to.

Mark had parked his car in a different section of the lot, and the four of them grouped together once again to say their goodbyes. "Nice meeting you both," Mark told Phil and Cynthia. He handed Phil his business card. "Keep in touch, and let's all get together again next time you're in town."

Katie motioned for Phil and Cynthia to walk on ahead, and they started off in the direction of her car. When they were out of earshot, Katie turned to him and said, "Whew. That went pretty well, didn't it?"

"Don't tell me you were nervous."

"You mean you weren't?"

"Maybe," Mark allowed, understating the truth.

"Okay, Mr. Cool," Katie said with a giggle. "I need to scoot." She turned her cheek upward and sideways toward his face, expecting another chaste peck in deference to the presence of close family members.

Mark was having none of that. He moved his face to the side as well, pulled her whole body close and kissed her directly on her thin, soft lips. Startled at first, Katie was nonetheless unable to fight the human impulse and found herself locked in a prolonged, passionate smooch. The sudden clapping and whistling emanating from the direction of Katie's car informed them both that Cynthia and Phil had been watching the whole scene intently, and were now expressing their amusement. A few passersby joined in with applause of their own. "Katie's got a boyfriend," Cynthia sang out.

Katie pulled away from Mark's grasp, embarrassed beyond belief, but grinning and giggling through clenched teeth. Narrowing her eyes in pretend anger and wagging her index finger, she paused briefly to catch her breath, and then declared, "I'll get you for this, mister. Big time." She laughed and ran off toward her car, her hands pressed up against the sides of her face, her heels making a sharp clip-clop sound on the pavement.

As he headed back to work, Mark was in high spirits; higher than he'd been in quite a while. This lunchtime get-together had gone better than he could have hoped.

With Katie, things just always seemed to work out; their connection was simple and uncomplicated. Although they'd acted on the mutual attraction between them on many an occasion, he'd come to regard her as a good friend first and a lover second. Much of the time, they treated each other like buddies. He'd seen Katie in a different light today, however. A good part of it, he knew, was due to the appearance makeover and therefore superficial. But on top of that, he'd perceived a sensuality about her, which up to now had eluded his detection. And there was no denying the electricity of that spontaneous kiss in front of her family members; Mark could still feel the blood pumping through his veins at an accelerated rate.

In his crazy, mixed-up life, Katie was as constant as anything else. Mark seldom, if ever, indulged in any romantic fantasizing; he simply had too many other things on his mind. But for a good part of the afternoon, he was Katie's Prince Charming, and she his exotic Asian princess.

Julie stretched her legs out onto the open adjacent seat, her back against the side wall, headphones gently sending soft music into her ears. The bus was about two-thirds full, and many of the kids were still chatting excitedly, although the clamor that ensued immediately after boarding the bus had died down. A few students had even drifted off to sleep. Across the aisle was a middle-aged female chaperone who, like Julie, was occupying an empty adjacent seat with her legs propped up. She likewise had fallen asleep, with her mouth hanging wide open.

With no one to share conversation with at present, Julie stole a quick peek out the window and took in the scenery. As they flew by on the turnpike, the rolling central Pennsylvania countryside served as a foreground for the summit of Blue Mountain looming in the distance.

She reached into her purse and removed her cell phone. Mark should be leaving work soon, she thought. Maybe I'll catch him before he leaves.

Thinking it over a little more, she put the phone back in her purse. "Cut him some slack," she mouthed softly, repeating her earlier mantra.

Also inside her purse was a Ziploc bag. She removed it carefully; it contained the hyacinth bloom, which was now beginning to wither. Opening the bag, she took a gentle sniff; yes, the familiar fragrance was still present.

Taking off her headphones for a moment, she listened to the animated conversations surrounding her, replete with teenage vernacular and punctuated by occasional loud bursts of laughter. Then, putting the bag and its contents back inside her purse, she donned the headphones again, and began to nod off herself.

Mark locked the front door, stepped out onto the porch and squinted as the late afternoon sun greeted him. He glanced briefly at the green grass, thinking, it needs to be cut sometime, but it can wait.

His normal route north passed through the same construction zone he'd encountered earlier in the day, but Mark knew all the back roads and managed to bypass it. He was a little bit ahead of schedule, anyhow. He lowered the window; it was a nice day and he enjoyed the feeling of fresh, albeit cool air rushing past him.

Mark was in an unwieldy, in-between state of mind. He was coming down from the high experienced earlier, when he'd stolen that kiss from Katie. And he was concurrently ramping up toward the upcoming high associated with finally meeting Mandy after all this time. The net result was that he was unable to savor either one at this point in time. There's just too much going on, he thought.

Gradually, his thoughts shifted fully to Mandy. He wondered if he'd be disappointed upon seeing her for the first time. All he had to go by was a verbal description of what she looked like, as well as a few photos she'd emailed him. But how did he know they were really pictures of her? For all he knew, she could be a three-hundred-pound, formerly incarcerated great-grandmother who had been deceiving him all along.

With some success, he put such thoughts out of his mind. After all, he said to himself, she doesn't know what I'm like, either. I could be a serial killer or something like that. He knew that they were both taking a chance, to some degree. And he knew that Mandy was also married, and had issues to deal with that were similar to his. He found reassurance in the fact that finally, he was getting together with someone who understood all the complexities involved with discreet extramarital encounters.

Sunset was approaching as he reached the steak house where he was supposed to meet Mandy. "I wonder if she's here yet," Mark muttered. He was mildly apprehensive; for one thing, he wasn't sure he could spot her on sight, another potential complication involved with this kind of meeting. Mandy had described to him in detail what she planned to wear, and he in turn had done the same for her. He hoped that would be sufficient identifying information to allow them to find each other.

She'd instructed him to look for a woman in a blue sweater, a white top and a blue-and-white floral print skirt; once inside, Mark saw no one who even remotely fit that description. He reserved a small booth for two, in a secluded part of the restaurant up against a wall, and sat down and waited. Even at this peak dinner hour, the eatery was not terribly crowded.

This was his second meal today in a restaurant, Mark reflected. Lately, it seemed, he'd been eating out more than eating in. He already dreaded receiving his next credit card statement. He'd paid for a party of four earlier, and expected to foot the bill this evening, as well. And then there was the hotel.

He looked up toward the entrance, and saw a woman of average height and build, wearing the prerequisite outfit, just arriving through the front door. "That's her," Mark said out loud. Even from a distance, she looked exactly the same as in her photo, and Mark realized he would have been able to spot her anywhere.

And on top of that, she had seen him already and was now making her way toward him. He greeted her with a hug, and took her jacket and hung it on a nearby coat hook. "So you're the pervert who's been saying all those nasty things to me on the phone," Mandy said with a wink.

"That would be me," he acknowledged with a grin. "But if I remember correctly, the perverted conversation ran both ways."

He quickly looked her over as they got seated. She'd come straight from work and hadn't had time to change from her on-the-job attire. Mark was pleased with what he saw; he liked her expressive brown eyes, long, somewhat curly dark brown hair and fair complexion. Even the slight hint of extra padding around the middle didn't detract from his favorable first impression. To be sure, she wasn't a head-turner like, say, Lauren or Shauna, although she was roughly the same age as both. But, Mark saw in front of him an attractive, well put together, sexy woman, and he thought to himself, this could have been much, much worse.