Chapter Eight

Alex woke up on Christmas morning with a huge smile on her face. She knew even before opening her eyes that it was too early to get out of bed. Then again, it was Christmas. If little kids could get up early and run to the tree to see what Santa had gotten for them, then why couldn’t she?

Except, Alex didn’t have to sneak a peek at what was under the tree. She knew. She knew what Billy was getting for her, and it was exactly what she wanted. What she had wanted for a long time.

“Why are you sitting up in bed?” asked Billy, groaning and pulling the covers up to his chin. “It’s not morning yet, Lex. Go back to sleep.”

“It is morning,” Alex replied with a quick glance at the clock at her bedside, just to confirm. “It’s almost seven. And it’s Christmas morning. Time for us to open presents.”

“I thought we were going to open presents at my parents’ house.”

Alex paused. It would make sense that he would want his parents to be there. They had wanted this to happen almost as much as she did.

Unfortunately, Alex just couldn’t wait.

“Let’s open presents now, then we can open them again with your parents,” she suggested, slipping out from under the covers and getting down on all fours to find the box she had wrapped and hidden under the nightstand.

“Here,” she said, almost shoving the shiny red package with a lopsided silver bow in his face. “You go first.”

Knowing what Billy had gotten her, Alex wished she could have thought of something better to give her boyfriend than a set of cufflinks from his alma mater. But she couldn’t do anything about that now. She’d only found out about Billy’s present for her the night before while putting away Billy’s underwear. The box, which was from the best jeweler in town, was peeking out from in between layers of Billy’s boxer shorts.

Alex hadn’t opened it, of course—she did have some modicum of self-restraint—but she didn’t have to open it to know what was inside.

He was going to do it. He was going to propose.

She should have guessed Billy would do it even before she’d found the box. Alex had heard him on the phone the week before talking to someone about ‘availability’ and ‘taking him through the process.’ It hadn’t even occurred to her then that he might have been calling potential venues for the wedding. It was only after she’d accidentally uncovered the velvet box hiding under Billy’s striped blue boxer shorts that she had put two and two together.

Billy heaved a sigh as he took the present from her, pulling himself into a sitting position. With a flick of his fingers, Alex’s poor attempt to wrap the gift was completely undone, and Billy lifted the lid of the box to reveal two glossy blue and white cuff links depicting the profile of a lion.

“Where’d you find these, Lex? They’re great!”

He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. “Thanks, babe.”

Alex fixed her eyes on her boyfriend expectantly, hoping he wouldn’t make her ask outright for her present.

Billy sighed. “I suppose you want to open your present now, huh?”

She nodded, hardly able to keep from squealing with excitement. She would call her mom and dad first to tell them. They would probably insist on having some sort of engagement lunch or something at a fancy restaurant near their house. With the trip to Israel the following evening, her parents would have to wait until the following weekend for a visit, but that was okay. They’d waited years to celebrate their daughter’s engagement. What was a couple more weeks?

Alex started smiling again, not that she had ever truly stopped. Billy was going to be her husband. She was going to be his wife. Her mother would finally acknowledge Billy’s existence and welcome him as part of the family. Everything would change. Everything would be right. It would be the way it was supposed to be.

Caught up in her musings, Alex didn’t notice that Billy had slipped out of bed to retrieve her present until the black velvet box suddenly appeared in her hands.

“Go on,” said Billy, excitement shining in his own eyes. “Open it.”

She almost asked him if he wanted to say something first but then stopped herself just in time. Billy was proposing to her. He should be allowed to do it in whatever way he wanted to.

Holding her breath, Alex cracked open the box, smile growing wider and pulse racing faster. Then her heart stopped. It stopped and it squeezed and it fell from her chest as she sucked in a sharp breath. Almost immediately, tears welled up behind her eyes, building pressure even as she willed herself not to fall apart.

“Do you like them?” asked Billy, timidly.

She nodded as the tears blurred her vision, making the two diamond earrings look like one stone.

“They’re beautiful,” she managed to reply. And they were. The diamonds were huge—at least half a karat each—and prominently displayed on rose gold mounts. But they were not an engagement ring.

“Excuse me,” she whispered, sliding out of the bed and running into the bathroom across the hall. As Alex locked the door, she heard Billy’s footsteps approaching.

“Lex, what’s wrong?” He sounded confused, and she didn’t know which was worse—the fact that he hadn’t proposed or that he really had no idea why she was upset.

“Nothing,” Alex squeaked, her tears flowing freely as she suppressed a sob. “I’m fine. I just—I just need a minute.”

“Don’t you like the earrings?” he asked, causing her to choke down another sob.

“Yes, I like them.” Her voice came out high-pitched. She sounded hysterical.

Alex shook her head to clear it and drew in several slow breaths in succession. She had to calm down.

“That’s not the only thing I have for you.”

Alex paused her breathing exercise. Could the earrings possibly be a prelude to the real proposal?

Hope stirred within her again, and she swiped at her eyes with trembling hands.

What if he was building up to the big question? What if her outburst had just ruined what Billy had been planning?

Ashamed, Alex set the box of earrings down on the counter and turned on the faucet to splash cold water on her face. Toweling off and taking another deep breath, she unlocked the door and opened it.

“I’m sorry,” she said. She felt she should elaborate, but Alex knew there was nothing she could say that wouldn’t make the situation worse.

Thankfully, Billy didn’t press her. Instead, he handed her an envelope.

“I know you’ve mentioned doing this in the past,” he began, “but it didn’t seem to be the right time. I didn’t want to commit, and you have to commit so you can do it right, you know?”

Alex nodded wordlessly as she took the envelope. Her breath came in short spurts as she tore open the flap.

She had barely taken the paper out of the envelope when she realized what it was.

“A gym membership?” Alex looked at Billy incredulously. “You bought me a gym membership?”

“Us,” he clarified, clearly missing her point. “I bought us a membership. So we can work out together, like we talk about doing every year.” Billy shook his head, frowning. “I don’t get it. Are you mad at me?”

“Am I mad at you?” she repeated, tears welling up again. Alex let the envelope and its contents fall out of her hands and ran for shelter in the bathroom once more. This time, however, Billy grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Don’t go back in there,” he said sternly. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“What’s wrong?” Apparently, she was only capable of repeating his last statement in the form of a question.

“Yes,” he replied patiently. “Tell. Me. What’s. Wrong.”

She shook off his grasp. “I thought you were going to propose to me,” she cried, unable to control herself. “That’s what’s wrong!”

Then she dashed into the bathroom and slammed the door in his face, immediately sinking to the floor, back against the door. Alex wrapped her arms around her legs and brought her head down to rest on her raised knees. Sobs racked her body—guttural sounds that she hardly recognized as her own—but she didn’t care. Not anymore.

“Lex, baby. Please.”

She could hear Billy slide his body down the other side of the door, assuming a seated position similar to hers, if she had to guess.

“I don’t understand why this is happening,” he continued.

Alex squeezed her eyes shut and held her legs tighter.

“You know I love you, Lex. I just don’t want to get married. You’ve known that from the beginning.”

“Why not?” she replied in a small voice that was not hers. “We’ve been out of school for five years, Billy. We’ve been together for almost eight. When I heard you on the phone talking to someone about ‘taking you through the process,’ well, I just thought…”

“What? You thought I’d suddenly changed my mind?”

“Yes!” she admitted, suddenly feeling very foolish. Billy was right, after all. He’d never been unclear about his position on marriage. How could she have let herself think that now, out of nowhere, he was going to propose to her? “I thought you’d changed your mind,” Alex whispered, wishing she had never found the box with the earrings or overheard his conversation on the phone. If she hadn’t let herself believe that he was going to ask her to marry him, she would have been thrilled to get the diamond earrings and excited to be starting a workout routine with him. She wouldn’t have felt this—heartbroken.

“Lex,” he said, his voice soft and soothing, “I love what we have together. I love being with you. I love coming home to you. I love that you’re the last person I see before I go to sleep, and I love waking up beside you. Being married or not being married won’t change how I feel about you. It won’t make any difference. It just doesn’t matter.”

But it does matter. It matters to me.

Those thoughts, however, Alex kept to herself.

****

Val had to admit that the timing of his break-up with Ginny was not ideal. Despite having a lot to do to plan for his trip the following day to Israel, it would have been nice to have somewhere to go, someone to meet, on a day when almost every store was closed and every movie on TV was about family, peace, and joy.

Merry Christmas to me.

Shrugging off his self-pity, Val tried his best to spend Christmas Day getting up to speed on everything Kurt Donovan had done since Val had introduced him to FiberTech. IT had downloaded all of Kurt’s work emails onto a flash memory stick, and Val spent most of the morning and early afternoon reading one email after the next and getting more and more frustrated and angry with what he hadn’t expected to find: Gideon Krantz had developed what seemed to be a very strong relationship with Kurt Donovan. Gideon trusted Kurt’s opinion, went to him with questions big and small, and connected with him even on a personal level.

Yes, the situation was much worse than Val had expected.

By the time he pulled up to Alex’s townhouse the following afternoon, he was convinced that they were fighting a very uphill battle. If not for the amulet, Val would have canceled the trip altogether and resigned himself to defeat. The amulet, however, had carried him through many a tough situation, and although part of his adult self naturally doubted that a rough-cut stone could possibly possess any type of “magic,” the other part of him believed, just as his grandmother had before him.

Alex must have seen him drive up through one of the cozy townhouse’s windows because before he could get out of the car to knock, the front door opened. Val smiled as he watched her balance a laptop bag and a purse on her shoulder, hold the storm door open with her foot, and drag out a carry-on roller bag that looked like it was packed to the gills.

Quickly exiting the car, Val took a few long strides and was at her side in moments. “Let me help you with that,” he said, reaching for the carry-on.

She opened her mouth to protest, but Val had the bag in his hand before she could utter a sound. “Thank you,” she said instead.

He carried the bag easily to the car, popped the trunk, and placed it carefully beside his own bag. She approached and placed the laptop in the trunk, as well.

Once the bags were loaded, Val closed the trunk and went over to the passenger side to open the door for her. “Is this because I’m a girl, or do you always treat your passengers with such care?” Alex rolled her eyes playfully as she stepped into the car. Laughing, Val shut the door behind her.

A few seconds later, he was sitting beside her and putting the car into drive.

“So, are you ready for this little adventure?” he asked, allowing himself a quick glance in Alex’s direction as they came up to a stoplight.

Alex must have mistaken his question for an inquiry as to whether she was prepared for the meetings with FiberTech because she began to give him a report.

“I did a lot of research yesterday afternoon about FiberTech online—the history of the company, the key players and their backgrounds, the products and services they provide, that kind of thing. I went through their last five years of Annual Reports for investors…”

“Wow, five years’ worth,” Val remarked, amused.

“…just to get an idea of the company’s goals and strategy for growth and how this acquisition is going to help them meet those goals. I also tried to learn more about the history of your company, but there wasn’t that much information on the Internet, and I figured I could just ask you about it in person, so I didn’t spend too much time on that. I developed a list of questions for you, instead.”

“So, you’re not going to let me just watch movies and sleep on the plane?” Val looked over at Alex and gave her a mischievous grin. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether he was being serious or joking, then smiled tentatively.

She was nervous, Val observed to himself. She wasn’t her relaxed, confident self. Was it him? Was he making Alex nervous? Val had only been in the car with her for a few minutes. He was wearing a polo shirt and jeans, and he had a small red scratch on his face where he had cut himself shaving a few hours ago, for crying out loud. His mere physical presence couldn’t possibly be making her nervous. Any thoughts to the contrary could only be attributed to vanity, and possibly also some wishful thinking.

Val watched her out of the corner of his eye as he accelerated onto the interstate. Her hair hung loose down both sides of her face, and she was looking down at her hands, which were folded in her lap. Hands clasped firmly together, she was rubbing her thumbs on the backs of her hands, almost absentmindedly. The air felt heavy all around her.

Val modified his theory—Alex wasn’t nervous. She was preoccupied. She was thinking about something, something unpleasant or disappointing. And she looked—tired.

“Did you sleep well last night?” he asked, searching for some clue as to her current disposition.

Alex glanced at him, then attempted a half-hearted smile. “Not really. I kept waking up. That always happens to me before I travel. Even if my flight is at night.”

“That’s understandable,” Val replied. “Well, you’ll have plenty of time to sleep on the plane, if you can tear yourself away from the annual reports you’re committing to memory.”

She looked down, as though she hadn’t even heard his teasing remark. What was going on with her?

During the twenty-minute ride to the airport, Val prattled on about the weather and other inconsequential matters, pausing only once he’d parked and began unloading their bags. They checked in and got in line for security within ten minutes, but Val was still unsure of what was bothering her. He had also run out of things to say, and they had been creeping forward in line in relative silence.

“Do you travel a lot?” Alex asked as they picked up their bags to move one more step forward in line, then put them back down again. It was the first time she had initiated conversation since he had picked her up, and Val was relieved.

“A fair amount, but not too bad,” he replied. They moved forward and stopped again.

“How much?”

“Oh, maybe once every three or four weeks,” he answered.

“For how long?”

“Sometimes a week, sometimes only a couple days. It depends.”

Alex glanced over at the TSA Pre-Check Lane, where passengers seemed to walk right up to the TSA agent and go through security in a matter of a couple of minutes. “How come you don’t have the Pre-Check thing if you travel so often?”

“I do,” replied Val, “but you don’t. We have a lot of time until our flight boards, anyway. Wait here or wait in the lounge. It’s all still waiting.”

“The lounge?”

Val smiled. “You’ll see.”

They finally made it through security, and Val grabbed his bags, shoes, and other personal belongings and moved to the bench where Alex was already standing. Her back was to him, and he watched as she slipped on her shoes and put a thick black leather belt back around her waist. Val liked her outfit—a turquoise blue short-sleeved button-down shirt with black dress pants that fit nicely, and that black belt that went around the smallest part of her waist, over her shirt, pulling the whole look together. It felt strange to watch Alex get dressed like that, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Alex left her sweater and jacket off, and Val was secretly grateful that she hadn’t decided to cover herself back up with all those extra articles of clothing.

Finally, Val forced his attention to his own shoes and belt and tried to push the image of Alex dressing out of his mind.

They followed the signs down the hall, past shops and restaurants, until they came to the airline lounge.

“Am I allowed to go in there?” Alex asked, looking up at him innocently.

“Of course,” he said. “It comes with our business class tickets. It’s part of the reason the tickets are so ridiculously expensive.”

He led the way through the doors of the lounge and up to the hostess at the counter. The well-coiffed woman looked at their tickets briefly, then welcomed them in.

Val motioned for Alex to enter before him and couldn’t help smiling as she looked around in wonder. There was a buffet of fresh fruit, nuts, and other snacks, as well as a few hot foods and a variety of drinks. Alex turned her eyes to him after surveying all of it, and Val knew what she was thinking: Is this all free?

He grinned and motioned toward a large room past the food, near some windows. They put their bags down near a couple of empty seats. “You can go get something to eat,” said Val. “I’ll stay here with the bags until you get back.”

She nodded, and he watched as she walked toward the food. A few minutes later Alex came back with a plate full of fruit and nuts and a glass of water. She sat down next to him, then leaned closer and whispered, “I’m not even hungry!”

Val laughed. “Well, you’d better pace yourself. All they do in business class is feed you, and it’s all actually pretty decent food, especially on this flight.”

Alex smiled as she picked up a pistachio. “I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy the next few days.”