Happily Ever Afton (19 page)

‘That’s it – now, darling –
now!
’ he encouraged in a raw rasp. Once her last cry of release faded, Cooper hurriedly flipped her over on to her back and drove himself deeply inside her reigniting her desire and taking it to even higher levels of need.

‘Please, Cooper, don’t leave me –
not yet
...’ her hands clutched tightly to his sweat-slickened back, pulling him closer, ever deeper inside. Urging him on as he stroked into her in a paroxysm of rapturous pleasure, the climax he reached so earth shattering his shouts of ecstasy almost drowned out the crashing thunder from above.

Afterwards he shook in her arms for long moments as Afton whispered soft soothing words in his ear, cradling him tightly against her breast where he found the deep peaceful sleep he’d been missing the last few restless weeks without her.

When he next awoke, the pale morning sun was slipping through the windows of the tiny tree house perched in the old oak tree with the sky cleansed by the rain to a crystalline blue. Cooper raised his head stiffly from his arm to find he was alone – with only a wilted crown of crushed fading flowers – and his grandmother’s ring left behind on the empty pillow beside him.

Chapter Eleven

‘LOOKS LIKE WE’RE
the only ones here for the movie this afternoon.’

Afton paused in the hunt for her notepad in her purse to return the greeting of her sole movie-watching partner walking up the aisle with a huge tub of popcorn held in her arms.

‘Yes, I feel a little like an over-indulged Elvis,’ she smiled up from her chair at the woman who looked a little frazzled, her hair mussed, dark circles etched beneath her eyes, ‘renting out a movie theater for my movie viewing pleasure alone.’

‘Well I’m happy to share it with you. I just had to escape for a while – my baby is teething – she’s my first and it’s been
quite
an experience. I snuck out of the house for the first afternoon showing after I saw it was playing in the paper and left my poor husband behind to deal with things for awhile,’ she confessed with a guilty smile. ‘I feel like an escaped prisoner – but this is one of my favorite movies of all time!’

‘I won’t turn you in to the warden, I promise,’ Afton laughed.

‘You’re taking notes!’ The woman asked surprised as Afton extracted her pad and scrawled down some of the movie’s basic facts as the lights began to lower and the first frames rolled on to the screen in front of them.

‘I’m the movie reviewer at the Chronicle,’ Afton confided, ‘my editor asked that I review this film for my ‘oldies but goodies’ column next week.’

‘Wow, that’s great – I have to say it’s so nice to talk to an adult with a
real
job after all the baby talk lately!’ they both laughed. ‘Well, I’m going to go sit up front and leave you alone then, so you can work.’

Afton nodded her appreciation. ‘Enjoy the movie,’ she said, ‘– believe it or not this will be my first time seeing it.’

‘Really – oh you’re going to love it! I have to warn you though – it’s a three hanky film…better have your tissues handy…’ The woman whispered the warning before she wandered off down the aisle and disappeared into the darkness of the first rows of seats in the empty theater.

Afton smiled to herself, hoping the worn out new mother enjoyed her two hours of solitude. She could
certainly
understand the need to escape a hairy situation. Afton sighed, determinedly shifting her thoughts in new directions. She reached over for her soda stuck in the hole in the armrest of the velvet chair. Taking a sip, she contemplated she couldn’t quite believe either this would be her first time seeing the classic film whose opening scene was unspooling on screen. She’d missed classes with a bad case of mono the week it had been shown in her film appreciation class in college. The few times she had meant to rent it since, it had either been checked out or she’d been waylaid by some other newer feature film she’d had to review.

But her editor had specifically requested it for next week’s ‘oldies but goodies’ column as the singer featured in the title role was coming to town for a rare concert. Afton had noticed that the artsy movie theater downtown was currently showing it as part of a retrospective of past industry award winners. She’d decided to pop over during her lunch hour to see it, preferring to view it in wide-screen splendor rather than rent it for watching later at home.

If she was completely honest with herself, Afton admitted, it also allowed her to escape for a short while the fear of another call from Cooper since her cell phone was turned off and safely tucked away in her purse as per the somewhat bossy, dancing soda cup on screen’s movie watching etiquette tips.

She’d not
seen
nor talked to Cooper since the morning after the Fourth of July two weeks ago. Not since she’d climbed down the ladder of the tree house in the early dawn and begged a ride back to town with a befuddled newspaper deliveryman in his battered pick-up truck that she’d waved down in the neighborhood, telling him they were technically ‘coworkers’ since she also worked at the paper.

She just hadn’t known
what
to say to Cooper.

The magical night with him in the tree house while
incredibly
sexually fulfilling, she recalled with a remembered shivering of sensation – had also been a
big
mistake. Afton acknowledged she was taking the chicken way out by avoiding him completely.

But how much longer can I do that
?

She’d been ducking him for the past two weeks, even executing a wild u-turn on her motor scooter when she’d happened to spot Cooper before he’d spotted her, waiting patiently on the bus bench out front of her apartment building one night. She’d enlisted a reluctant Mickey as a look-out just in case since then – and she’d even sent a thrilled Jason down to shoo Cooper out of the newspaper’s lobby.

Twice.

But she was becoming
very
jumpy wondering where he might pop up next, since he seemed to be revisiting all the places they had ever gone together checking them off some kind of Afton and Cooper failed romance checklist.

He might even show up here
.

Afton looked nervously over her shoulder expecting to see a tall dark figure hovering nearby in the aisle. She sighed with relief spying nothing but rows of empty seats. Her gaze lingered on two empty maroon velvet seats at the end of the third to the last row of the theater. They reminded her of the last time she’d been here. It had been with Cooper, of course – and they’d filled those two exact seats.

She’d brought him to see a midnight showing of
Strangers on a Train
– the movie that had literally brought them together. Cooper had been caught up in the plot of the suspenseful black-and-white thriller, munching on his box of Milk Duds. Totally engrossed by the dramatic scenes projected on the large screen until Afton had reached over in the darkness for the popcorn held in a tub in his lap and accidently missed, grabbing
him
instead.

From that one touch, they’d both forgotten the movie completely, kissing so passionately that an irate movie watcher seated behind them had showered them with popcorn kernels, telling them in annoyance to
‘go get a room why doncha?’

They had immediately taken his advice at a nearby motel for the remainder of the night.

The heart-tugging romantic music swelled and Afton’s full attention was now devoted to the movie she had to review for her column, her pen raised in anticipation of copious note taking on the pad in her lap. As the movie’s scenes unwound, her pen slowly lowered and the pad dropped unnoticed to the sticky popcorn-strewn floor as she was drawn in to the classic story of opposites meeting, falling in love and then slowly destroying all that was best about each other.

The dreamy romantic male lead – who looked an awful lot like Jason – was clearly in love with the quirky, curly haired, off-beat beauty who was the romantic heroine, but in the end their differences proved too much and they each went their separate ways.

When the climactic final scene came where they meet by accident on a New York street and each pretends to be happy with their new lives and loves, Afton felt tears streaming down her cheeks she could not stop, not even when the movie ended and the award winning song about misty water-colored memories began.

‘Hey, are you going to be all right?’ her movie watching partner asked in concern, placing her hand on Afton’s shoulder comfortingly on her way out the theater, ‘that
was
a pretty sad love story wasn’t it?’

Afton managed to nod, thinking –
Lady, I could tell you one much sadder!

But the new mom said her quick goodbyes before she had the chance, and scurried out the exit door anxious to get home to her husband and baby she confessed. Alone in the dark as the movie’s final credits scrolled by Afton knew finally what she had to do.

In the end, like the movie characters on screen – she and Cooper were too dissimilar – wanted two
completely
different things in life. He was on the fast track to a fortune-filled life of penthouses, million dollar lakeside homes and yacht clubs, while she was a simple girl at heart, looking for a more sedate, uncomplicated, pressure free life.

She’d already had a front row seat to how the relentless pursuit of money could ultimately
kill
you in the end. As it had her father. She just couldn’t watch that happen to someone else she loved, Afton thought pained. She needed to keep away from Cooper and move on with her life – and let him return to his. She couldn’t afford to see him or talk to him.

Not yet
.

For there was
something
about that deep compelling voice and those magnetic turquoise eyes, that made her
do
things she shouldn’t do,
feel
things she shouldn’t feel –
want
things she could never have. Afton forced those thoughts away, jumping up, quickly gathering her purse and retrieving the empty pad from the floor then rushing from the theater. When she got to the deserted lobby, she pulled her cell phone from her purse with a kind of dread, looking down, her heart in her throat.

Two more missed calls from Cooper
.

She mechanically deleted the messages he’d left without listening to them as she’d done with all the others. Then with a grim look on her face, she selected a name to dial from her list of contacts and held the phone anxiously to her ear, waiting with heavy heart for it to be picked up on the other end.

‘Hello?’ said a familiar male voice.

‘Hello…’ Afton paused, closing her eyes for a brief anguished moment, ‘hello, Jason. It…it’s Afton,’ she swallowed painfully. ‘I…I’d love to go out to dinner with you tonight – if your offer is still open that is.’

Chapter Twelve

‘WHERE ARE YOU
off to this time, Mr. Carrington?’

‘Katmandu,’ Cooper replied handing the ‘hold mail’ request over the counter to the postal clerk with a smile.

‘Katman –
who?
’ she asked puzzled, while kicking herself, wishing she had known her
most
handsome customer was coming in today so she could have fixed her hair from her usual ponytail and put on a tad more cherry lip-gloss.

Cooper laughed. ‘Kat-man-du,’ he repeated more slowly, ‘it’s the capital of Nepal.’

‘Oh,’ she stamped his hold request still confused, his smile always making her feel a little hazy and off-kilter, ‘er…so what’s there anyway?’

‘Mount Everest,’ Cooper said zipping his jacket up over a grey T-shirt bearing the red logo of a vaulted expedition crew, ‘the highest mountain in the world and the last on my list to climb all of the Seven Summits. I’ll be back for my mail in about a month.’

‘Bye, Mr. Carrington! Good luck!’ she called out to his already retreating back. ‘I hope you reach the top of your mountain!’

Cooper froze in the doorway upon hearing the words he’d last read written in a birthday note. He turned back. ‘Thank you,’ his expression was solemn, ‘I hope so too.’

Cooper pushed open the door and walked slowly out of the post office with his thoughts diverted back to Afton – as most of his thoughts were lately. It had been three long months now since he’d seen or talked to her – although it wasn’t for lack of trying on his part.

She hadn’t answered any of his repeated calls to her cell phone, finally changing her number, his many letters had been returned unopened and he’d been escorted out of the newspaper offices –
twice
– by security when he had tried to barge in to see her there with a gloating Jason watching – from a safe distance in the lobby. Even Mickey had sheepishly advised him he had to leave the building’s premises the nights he’d waited for her endlessly outside her apartment seated on the bus bench.

Cooper sighed deeply, turning up the collar to his khaki jacket against the chilled breeze. It had been an unusually hot summer for Seattle and now they were experiencing an unusually cool October – but he’d soon be someplace much cooler. Over twenty-nine thousand feet up in the air on the top of Mount Everest, to be exact!

It had been a call out of the blue with the offer to join an expedition to Katmandu that usually had a long waiting list. One of the climbers had cancelled at the last minute with a sudden change of heart about taking on a mountain that had already claimed over two hundred climbers. The guide who’d led the McKinley expedition he’d been a part of, had immediately called Cooper and extended the offer knowing the exorbitant cost of the trip would be no problem for him to come up with quickly. Cooper had hesitated at first, but when he’d mentioned it to Baxter his boss had been insistent.

‘You should go, Cooper!’ he’d urged over a business lunch at one of Seattle’s highly expensive, packed downtown restaurants. ‘You’ve closed the Anderson Corp acquisition to much success and you have
months’
worth of vacation you haven’t even used with all the long hours you’ve been putting in lately.’