Indelible Love - Emily's Story (17 page)

“Well, there’s not much to do. Bobby
went out to pick up the flowers and the caterers and servers will
take care of the food. The table is set already. Why don’t you just
sit and have a cup of tea with me?”

“Oh, I forgot. I have a little
something for you and the family. It’s not much, but I wanted to
thank you for such a special trip and say Merry
Christmas.”

“You are so sweet,” she said as she
hugged me like only a mother could.

“Jake told us that your parents have
passed away already.”

“Yeah…” So many years have passed and
yet tears always accompanied any talk about my parents being in
heaven.

“Oh, Emily.” Sandy hugged me and cried
with me. “How lonely you must have been all those years without a
mother and father. Holidays could not have been very joyful for
you.”

I nodded in agreement. “But this
Christmas is different. I don’t think you’ll ever know how much I
appreciated the four days I spent with your family. It truly felt
like I was a part of a family again, and I thank you for giving me
that sense of belonging.”

“Emily. Regardless of where you and
Jake are now, or where you will be in the future, I want you to
come to me when times are tough, or when you think of your mother.
I know I can’t substitute, but I would like to be there for you if
a need should arise, OK?”

“Thank you, Sandy. I’ll do
that.”

We took a few minutes to compose
ourselves and then talked about everything from Jake’s childhood to
mine to details of everyone coming to dinner tonight. Jake had so
many family members living nearby. I would meet many aunts and
uncles and cousins tonight. An hour had flown by when Jane arrived
ecstatic to see me here.

“Emily! Why didn’t you tell me you
were coming early? Does Jake know you’re here?”

“No. I actually don’t know where he
is. He and I had a big misunderstanding this morning, and I need to
work my way back into his good graces,” I said
kiddingly.

“I can’t imagine him being upset with
you. I’ve never seen him so in love with anyone. Right,
Mom?”

“I would have to agree. It’s unusual
the way he looks out for you and loves you. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen him so passionate about anyone,” Sandy said wistfully. “I
think he’s forgotten about all the other women in his life—namely,
me.” She was happily laying on the guilt like a real mother
would.

“No. He speaks highly of you all the
time. He loves you and Jane very much.”

“No, he loves
you
very much.” Jane
shook her head no. “Emily, come with me. I’ll show you around the
house and you can see what my room looks like.” I followed Jane
through a vast hallway and up a grand staircase. All of the
bedrooms were on the second floor with the exception of the guest
suite up on the third floor. Jane’s room was larger than my living
room and dining room combined. It was filled with memorabilia from
all over the world.

“Jane, have you really been to all
these places?” I marveled at a large map with different colored
pushpins. Each member of the family had his or her own color
displaying all the places they’d visited. There wasn’t a continent
that didn’t have a pushpin. Even Antarctica had Bobby and Sandy’s
color pushed into it.

“OK, what’s going on? You might be
able to fool Mom but you can’t fool me. You look as though you’ve
been crying all morning.”

“Am I that obvious?” Was that the case
or was Jane so in tune with me already that she could read my face
so readily?

“You didn’t go into hysterics by
yourself about this whole my life is a dream, when is reality
coming crap, did you?”

For the first time today, I laughed.
As much as I wanted to bring Jane into my confidence about what
happened this morning, it felt a little too raw. Rather than
discussing this further, the topic of San Francisco came
up.

Jane, too, was curious about how I’d
reacted to Allison.

“I didn’t get upset with your brother.
I told Jake I didn’t want to hear anything about her, but I’m dying
to know what happened between them. Will you tell me?”

“Ally and I were roommates for two
years. She’s Jake’s age and was up north modeling.”

“Yeah, I thought she was unusually
tall and gorgeous.” I shuddered at how pretty she was. “I felt like
Smurfette next to her.”

“Emily, you’re so funny. Anyhow, she
was after Jake since the day they met. She finally told me during
lunch that she and Jake hooked up briefly while she worked in LA.
She was really upset when I told her how much Jake loves you. I
don’t think she’ll be bothering you anymore.”

I felt grateful toward Jane for taking
my side over her old roommate’s. There was a bond that had been
created between us during my weekend up north. This bond was
different than the one I had with Sarah. Jane and I felt like true
sisters rather than close friends. I wished more than anything we
could become sisters one day.

“So, why did she want to talk to
Jake?”

“I don’t know. She won’t tell me. I’ll
get it out of Jake next time I have a chance.”

“Thanks, Jane.” I hugged my dear
friend.

“So, I want you to know that I booked
tickets for you to come visit me in New York over Martin Luther
King Jr. weekend. I hope you don’t have plans already.”

“No way. Jane…you didn’t have to do
that.”

“I told my dad how I wanted you to
come see me in New York, and he immediately bought you a
ticket.”

“Oh, he didn’t have to do that. That
was so nice of him. I’ll have to thank your parents when I see them
at dinner.” I put my arms around Jane. “I’m excited to be spending
time with you.”

“So this is what I have planned for
us. Saturday, let’s go to the flea market, then lunch at Gotham,
then maybe spend the afternoon at the Met. We’ll have dinner in
Brooklyn and go see my friend’s art show. Sunday morning I’ll take
you to the Green market in Union Square, we can have lunch at Lupa
or maybe Union Square Café. Let’s shop afterward and then for
dinner, how about Le Bernardin?”

“I was just there over Thanksgiving.
Your generous brother sent me and Sarah on a gastronomic adventure
there. It was amazing.” Vividly those courses continued to linger
on my mind and palate.

“Then how about Masa? Maybe Jake will
foot the bill for that meal.” Jane looked hopeful. “Of course,
you’ll have to go up the Empire State Building at night so you can
see the city all lit up. On Monday…darn, I think I hear Jake.” Jane
spoke with disappointment knowing our time together was
over.

“Here you are. I searched all over the
house for you,” Jake said looking relieved. “We need to talk.” Jake
grabbed my hand and started leading me out of Jane’s
room.

“Hey!” Jane protested. “We were
planning Emily’s trip to New York. You can’t just drag her out of
here. We’re not done yet.”

Jake turned to me with a surprised
look. “You’re going to New York, again? How come you didn’t tell
me?” He looked hurt.

“Jane and I just made plans about
thirty seconds before you came into the room. Your dad bought me a
ticket so I can spend some time with her over MLK
weekend.”

“I’m not letting you go off to New
York again without me. Nuh, uh. I’m coming too. Plus, why would Dad
buy you a ticket and not me? I’m sure he purchased two
seats.”

“Jake!” Jane protested. “I’ll never
see Emily if you’re there. Come on!”

I tried to smooth the situation over
by reminding Jake that there was no way he would get another three
days off from the hospital so soon after his Hawaii
vacation.

“I have so much vacation time, I will
make sure to take those three days off. So what do you have planned
for Emily?” Jake gloated while Jane frowned.

Jane regurgitated all the places that
she wanted to take me to when Jake rudely cut her off. “Hey, where
do I fit in? I want to take Emi to some of my favorite places. You
are taking my girlfriend away from me.”

“Maybe, you shouldn’t come on this
trip, Jake!” Jane was serious. She did not want Jake spoiling it
for us.

“Jane, you’re being unreasonable. If
I’m taking time off to be in New York with my girlfriend, then I’d
like to spend some alone time with her. I don’t want you tagging
along everywhere.”

“Whoa,” I calmly stated. “Let me break
this up. I have a solution for us.” I turned to my love. “Jake, why
don’t you see if Nick wants to come to New York with
us?”

“Why would I do that? I don’t need to
add another wheel.”

“You do realize that you are the third
wheel on this trip? It was a girls’ weekend, remember? You wanted
to tag along?”

“That’s right,” Jane declared. “You’re
the tag along, not me.”

I turned to Jake and lovingly asked,
“Will you invite your brother so that you will have a friend when I
spend some quality time with my friend? Please?” I did my best to
break the stare down between the Reid siblings.

“All right. I’ll bring Nick and we’ll
have some quality brother bonding time. So much for a romantic trip
to the city.”

“Jake,” Jane said. “I have one
favor.”

“What is it?”

“Can you pay for a meal at Masa? I’ve
always wanted to eat there but can’t afford it on my budget. You
make a lot of money. Will you treat us to this meal? If not for me,
will you do it for Emily?”

Masa could be summed up as the most
expensive restaurant in New York, maybe even in the entire United
States. Each meal costs somewhere around $400–$600 per person,
before drinks, tax and tip. This twenty-six-seat, Zen-like sushi
temple has a small pond, bamboo garden, and Japanese Cypress Hinoki
wood as the sushi bar. Depending on which pre-fixe menu we chose,
we’d eat five appetizers, about fifteen to twenty sushi courses,
along with dessert and tea. It was French Laundry—sushi style. My
mouth salivated at the thought of this meal.

“Would you like to dine at Masa,
Emi?”

I gave him an
are you kidding me
look
while answering coyly, “Only if you want to take me
there.”

“Why did I bother asking? I’ll call in
a reservation if you’ll stop bothering me,” he told his sister.
“You want to see my room?” He asked, but was already pulling me out
of Jane’s room.

“Um, OK. I’ll see you at dinner,” I
said, turning to Jane.

“Yeah, I’ll save you a seat and Jake
can go sit with the aunts and uncles.” She turned to stick her
tongue out at Jake, but he quickly grabbed my hand and led me out
the door.

Jake’s room was a palace compared to
Jane’s. It was so large and filled with so much furniture, the
giant king-sized bed looked dwarfed. I never realized anyone could
have so much furniture in one room. There was a desk along the west
wall as well as rows and rows of shelves filled with books. These
were the kinds of shelves one would see in movies, where old men
went to retire in their libraries. He had one of these libraries on
one wall of his room.

If the west wall was for intellect,
the south wall was purely for entertainment. On this wall hung the
largest TV I had ever seen. There were probably invisible speakers
mounted everywhere. In front of the TV sat sleek couches, chaises
and lounge chairs—the kind for video game purposes only. The east
wall had two doors. One led to a giant bathroom that looked bigger
than my master bedroom. The other door led to a walk-in closet that
was definitely twice the size of my master bedroom.

“How do you not get lost in your own
room?” I half joked. “Your room is practically the size of my
entire house.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. It’s not
that big, is it?” He looked around trying to gauge the
dimensions.

“Why would you want to move out and
get a place of your own when your room is this palatial? If your
room looks like this, what does your house look like in the
Valley?” I wondered in amazement.

“My house is small. It’s probably
smaller than yours. I think I’m going to rent it out and move back
into my parents’ home to be closer to you and the hospital. Nothing
is keeping me in the Valley anymore.”

“And, there was somebody keeping you
there before?” I tried to ask nonchalantly.

“I’m digging this jealous tone, but it
wasn’t anybody, just a hospital. Remember how I told you that my
residency was at a hospital in the Valley? I hated the commute back
home in the wee hours of the morning so I bought a house out
there.”

“I see.”

“So, are we OK?” He sounded so
un-Jake-like, so unsure of us.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that? You
were the one upset. Here lies a permanent scar etched on my heart
because of your meanness!” I pointed to my heart and added an umph
for effect. “Jane was right. You can be really nasty when life
doesn’t go your way.” I giggled as he tugged me to him.

“This is going to be another Allison
situation, huh? You’re going to use my folly against me for the
next month.”