The Fifth Avenue Story Society

by Rachel Hauck

  The big man with the sexy eyes dropped to his chair with a heavy sigh. “He means Trudy. I fought with Trudy. If you’re going to tell the story, Ed, know the players.”

  The tension was weakened by a knock on the door. Thank goodness. Food. Coral answered while the others, in practiced motion, set up for dinner, the conversation centered on nothing more than verbal directions.

  Then they filled their plates and ate their tacos, cornbread, and poblano mac-n-cheese in silence.

  Besides the grumpy sobriety from Chuck, tension buzzed around Lexa and Jett. So thick Coral could have spread it across her cornbread.

  What a difference a week makes. Last week those two had talked about the wedding-slash-memorial in rotating dialog. Like an old married couple. He said. She said.

  “I dumped the flowers as a memorial to Esmerelda,” Ed said out of the blue as he wiped sauce from his whiskered chin. “That’s all.”

  “You do know flowers grow better in dirt, Ed?” Lexa’s comment drew a reserved laugh from the group.

  “Yeah, Ed, try dirt next time.” Chuck got up for seconds.

  “Mind your own business, you fat-faced mule.” Ed’s blue gaze snapped red, and he quivered so his plate rattled against his lap. “I don’t know what’s eating you but don’t bring it to the Bower. Think I want to read more of my story to you now?”

  “Fine, no one wanted to hear your sickly sweet love story anyway.”

  “Enough.” On his feet, Jett commanded their attention. “Why are we turning on each other? We’re supposed to be friends. A society.”

  “A society of what?” Lexa said. “And how can we be friends if we’re never really open and honest with each other?”

  She glared at Jett in a way that gave Coral a clue about their week. What’d he do? Or not do?

  “Sometimes friendship requires patience,” Jett said. “Giving. Serving.”

  “Sometimes it’s just not worth the effort.” Lexa didn’t even pause. Just fired right back.

  “Can we stop?” Coral raised her hand. “Start over?” She exhaled, waiting for Chuck to sit again. “Okay. Hi, everyone, how was your week?”

  “Rotten,” “stinky,” “who cares” bounced around the circle.

  Not good, but it was a start. Recently her life journey had taught her if she wanted something from someone else, she had to be willing to go first.

  Setting her plate aside, she faced her friends. “My CEO and CFO have been embezzling. I’ve called the FBI, and probably sometime this week, they will be arrested. The evidence is there.”

  “I knew it wasn’t the lip gloss.” Lexa, with boldness.

  Coral gave them the social-media version of her troubles, each member rapt with attention.

  “So that’s my life. Anyone want to top it?”

  “Trudy bawled me out for bringing you to the party.” Chuck glanced sideways at her. “Threatened me with taking the kids away. Jakey was so excited I came, so excited about his Magic Book poster, he let slip that he saw me at the schoolyard.”

  Coral pressed her hand over his.

  “I tried to bluff my way out of it but I’m pretty sure she knows. I wake up every morning wondering when I’m going to hear from her lawyer that they filed the final restraining order.” He jumped from his seat. “Those are never removed. It would take years and thousands of dollars to try. I’m not going to see my kids grow up. Ah, serves me right.”

  “What did you do, Chuck? I can’t imagine,” Lexa said. “How does it serve you right?”

  At the food table, he picked up a wedge of cornbread, then put it back down, his jaw taut, his posture stiff and unyielding.

  “If I say, you’ll hate me.”

  “Maybe we’ll understand,” Jett said.

  “Let someone else talk.” Chuck returned to his chair and slumped down, legs splayed.

  “Do you want to know why I left Gus at the altar?” She’d been thinking of confessing for the last two weeks. It was time. Plus, recently she ached to share good news. The Good News.

  Chuck sat up. Lexa leaned in. Jett and Ed ate, watching her and waiting.

  “I, um . . .” She inhaled, her unspoken confession manifesting in tears. “I met Jesus.”

  “Jesus who?” Ed’s curled lip accented his question.

  “And you called me a fat-faced mule?” Chuck said. “You know, Jesus, God. Didn’t you ever go to church?”

  “Don’t call me a fat-faced mule. She may have met a Latino gentleman. A Jesús.”

  “Will you two hush?” Jett, sounding like a father. “Let her tell her story.”

  “Start from the beginning, Coral,” Lexa said. “Leave nothing out.”

  “My journey started a few months before our wedding, when we were finalizing the ceremony. I kept reading all of these references to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as part of our wedding vows. We were to honor God as much as each other. To serve God. To recognize Him as the head of our home, our family, our nation. Gus vowed to serve Him.

  “One evening, I asked him about it. I thought we should change the wording since neither one of us were religious. I do think a man’s word is his bond and if I’m going to vow something to God, I want to mean it.

  “Gus said I was reading too much into it. That the vows were the rites of the church and nothing more than custom. He said no one expected the bride and groom, the royal family, to actually follow Christian truths and morals. I asked how I would know which vows he intended to keep.

  “We fought about it but the more I considered what we were to pledge, the more I wanted to know. I talked with the archbishop. I read a book. I actually picked up a Bible. I didn’t want someone telling me who God was without seeing for myself.

  “I didn’t want to say vows at my wedding then toss them the moment we walked out of the nave. As I read the New Testament, I couldn’t believe the love and hope I saw there. I cried myself to sleep every night. I had to know this Son of God, Son of Man. Gus thought I was being silly, and too literal. He had no interest in studying the Bible with me.

  “So I asked him who steered his moral compass. Who or what was his moral and spiritual governor. He said himself. He was his own highest power, supreme commander, and chief architect of his life.” Coral pressed her hand to her chest, reliving the magnitude of the moment. It had been horrendous. “In an instant, this fear hit me. Not like anything I’d ever felt before. As if God heard and wrote down what Gus claimed. I begged him to reconsider God as part of our life. To read the Bible with me. He refused.

  “The fear increased daily. I know now it was the fear of God, the good kind that makes you want to know Him, obey Him, love Him. If Gus’s highest authority was himself, then to whom did I appeal when I had an issue with him? When we didn’t get along? When I was worried about the choices he was making and could not get him to see reason? If he was his own boss, then I was at risk. How was I to know his self-convictions would keep him faithful to me and our family? He respected his father, and his brothers, but Gus was his own lord and master. I started to see it more and more. I didn’t want to be my own lord and master, so I surrendered.” She wiped her cheeks as she scanned the circle. “Do I sound like a TV evangelist if I say I was ‘born again’? All I know is I met Jesus and my heart is not the same.

  “Gus wanted no part of my religious experience. Meanwhile, we were speeding toward the wedding. Parties, fittings, plans, portraits. A month before the wedding I was going over the RSVPs with the wedding coordinator and the head of the king’s office, and I knew I couldn’t marry him. But I convinced myself I had cold feet. I buried myself in the preparations. My mom came over for the last month. Then my dad and brother showed up for the last two weeks. My friends were flying over. Gus’s family and friends were celebrating. I loved his family, I truly did. Still do. How could I walk away for fear of a God I barely knew? We were both so invested in the relationship, the wedding.”

  “You needed the society, didn’t you?” Ed was at her feet, ben
ding to one knee, patting her arm. “We’re here for you.”

  She laughed through her tears. “And I’m grateful.”

  “How’d you manage the courage to leave?” Lexa said.

  “On the day, I woke up excited. Gus and I had been getting along so well. He’d been super sweet. I’d been praying for him, for us, every night. I just knew we’d come together on the issue of faith. But when I put on my wedding dress, my beautiful, exquisite gown with five thousand hand-sewn pearls, I felt sick.” She pressed her hand to her middle. “I could not marry His Royal Highness Prince Augustus of Lauchtenland.” Fresh tears dropped to her skirt. “You cannot imagine the horrible, horrible feeling that claimed me. I either had to marry him knowing it was wrong, or break both our hearts. Humiliate both of us. We had over a thousand guests from across the globe making their way to the church. Millions of dollars had been spent. There were two wedding dresses, two receptions, not to mention the wedding rings, my tiara. People say Christianity is for the weak but let me tell you, it takes courage to follow God. To obey Him.”

  “So you ran?” Chuck said.

  “Yes, because if I saw Gus I’d never go through with it. And honest to goodness, I’ve never told anyone this, I heard the audible voice of Jesus saying, ‘Coral, follow Me.’”

  * * *

  Chuck

  Hearing her story humbled him. He’d been working so hard to diminish her in his eyes, to quell his feelings, he’d set aside her strength, her kindness, and her vulnerability.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been so rude,” he said.

  If she could leave her prince for the sake of faith, he could be a bit more tolerant of Trudy.

  “Yes, you have been.” She dabbed the mascara from her face with a greasy napkin. Chuck dug his clean handkerchief from his pocket and passed it over.

  “You can keep it.”

  “Thank you, but I’ll return it, clean. And if I had the courage to leave Gus and confront embezzlers, I’m quite certain I can handle you. But stop being so grouchy. I’m on your side.”

  “Me too.” Sweet Lexa. Still hiding her torch for Jett. Something had been different between them, but this week it was the same ol’ same ol’.

  “You know I have your back, Coral.” Jett pounded his fist with Chuck’s.

  “Chuck, I have a question,” Lexa said. “If Trudy cheated on you, why is she calling the shots?”

  So they were back to his story.

  “Well?” Ed. Good ol’ Ed.

  “Because.” For a guy not afraid to jump into a fight, he was a coward. Sure, he rolled up his sleeves and threw a few punches at a wedding reception brawl. Sure, he unleashed his temper on Trudy and Will when he caught them a second time.

  But share his fears and failures? Confess the things that made him weak? It physically pained him.

  Jett passed around cold waters while they waited. Chuck twisted the cap from his and drained the bottle in one tilt.

  “We had this cat named Red when I was a kid.” He wiped his mouth with his wadded-up napkin, then crushed his plastic bottle. “A sixteen-pound red tiger tom. Sweet but with a devilish mean streak. He clawed half of our family and friends. It became a rite of passage to get scratched by that cat. I can still see my two-year-old cousin sitting at the sliding doors looking out. Red sat next to him. They looked at each other and next thing we know . . . swack. And Seth was screaming.

  “Red loved dogs though. Weirdest thing to see him in our backyard sitting under the nose of a hundred-pound Akita. Have you seen that breed? Got heads as big as a bear’s. But bring around a two-pound kitten, and Red hightailed it. Hid under the bed.” The society’s laughter fed his courage. “You guys are the kitten to me. You scare me. I’d rather arm wrestle than tell you how I feel.”

  Jett and Ed nodded, agreeing.

  “Here’s the facts between Trudy and me. I hope you don’t hate me for this. But I beat the stuffing out of her hedge-fund boyfriend.” Head down, hands loosely linked between his knees, he went on. “Destroyed furniture, vases, Limoges, and crystal. Took a sledgehammer to his Beemer, then hers. Word to the wise: Carrie Underwood can sing about scratching up a cheater’s car, but it’ll land you in jail. What I didn’t know is I knocked over Riley in my rampage. Jakey was hiding behind the couch and saw it all. And I might have waved a gun around.” He stopped their surprise with raised hands. “Unloaded. I didn’t fire at anyone. I was arrested.”

  There. He’d confessed his anger and lack of self-control. How jealousy and pain made him blind with rage.

  “Makes more sense why you helped me at the wedding,” Jett said.

  “I might have been aching for a fight.”

  “Still, Trudy let you come to the parties. Isn’t that a good sign?” Lexa said.

  “Not if she figures out I saw Jakey at his school.” He motioned to Coral. “She claims I upstaged her by bringing Coral around, which added to her venom.”

  “I take it she’s not going to invite me over again?”

  Chuck appreciated the light tone of her question. “No, and probably not me either. I thought I’d gotten somewhere with her. Proven myself. If she files for the final protective order I won’t see the kids until they’re eighteen. Maybe not even then.”

  “Is there anything we can do?” Jett said.

  “Like what? Trudy has the connections, the money, the support. I’m just an Uber and limo driver with a record.”

  “There is a higher authority,” Coral said.

  “Don’t preach here, Coral. God and me, not on speaking terms.”

  “It never hurts to ask Him for help, Chuck. Humility is a magnet for His affection.”

  “I don’t know.” He squirmed, feeling like Red the cat facing a one-pound kitten. “Feels fake.”

  “I felt that way in the beginning too. And none of us hate you.”

  “I’ll think on it.” With his confession, he decided he had more room for the last bit of cornbread. “Anyone else want cornbread?” No? He reached for a new plate and the last large piece.

  “Jett, how’s your dissertation?” Chuck said.

  “Good. All set to publish.” He reached into his backpack and passed around embossed invitations. “The Roth reception is on the seventeenth. I stole these from faculty mailboxes.”

  “Jett, aren’t you a rascal.” Coral tucked hers into her large fancy handbag.

  “Don’t worry. New York College is ripe with absentminded professors. They’ll get in without the invite.”

  “So, another invitation,” Ed said. “Wonder what mystery this one will unlock?”

  * * *

  Jett

  “Good point, Ed. We still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the society’s invitation.”

  “Guess I’m in if you guys are,” Chuck said. “I’ve been reading your Mars book, Jett. It’s good. I want it to be a movie.”

  “From your lips to God’s ears. But since no one but you and ten other people have read it . . .” Jett passed an invitation to Lexa, but she refused. He returned it to his backpack with a flare of ire.

  She was one person he really wanted there.

  Since their failed burger date, he’d given her space. But he was going to try again. To tell her how he felt. Tell her about the faculty meeting, how it raised his fears.

  Tell her they weren’t wrong for each other. They just needed to learn to communicate.

  “Did you ever call that agent?” Chuck again.

  “Not yet.” Jett swigged from his water bottle. “Maybe when the semester is over.”

  “Coral and Chuck were honest tonight, Jett.” Lexa angled toward him. “Why won’t you tell me, us, what happened on Eiger with Storm?”

  She wasn’t going to leave it alone. “You know what happened, Lex. He died. Jumped and plummeted to the ground.”

  “Ed, did Esmerelda jump?” Chuck’s question shot a line drive through the conversation. “From the GW?”

  “Young man, your persistence is hindering my enjoyment of the soci
ety.”

  “Did she? You can trust us, Ed. Why did you really drop flowers off the bridge?” Chuck wasn’t letting up, and to be honest, Jett was relieved. Get the focus off of him.

  “Ed?”

  “Chuck, leave him alone. He’s told you he proposed up there.” Coral squeezed his hand. “Besides, Gilda will kick us out soon.”

  “Indeed, Gilda will be here soon.” Ed cradled the thin folder against his chest, his eyes flooded, his chin quivering.

  Coral moved over next to him and the pressure of emotion rose in Jett’s chest.

  They were wrestling with one another tonight, getting to the heart of issues.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “We’re here.”

  Ed peered at her, shaking his head. “I can’t. I can’t.”

  “Did she jump, Ed?” Chuck repeated with a surprise tenderness.

  “No, no, she just, she just leaned too far. That’s all. She liked to climb the steel suspension and spread her wings. She fell, that’s all. She fell.” Chin to his chest, his soft sobs echoed. “She loved me. She loved me.”

  Out of her chair, Lexa wrapped her arms around the old man and rested her head against his.

  “It’s okay, Ed. It’s okay.”

  Jett glanced at Chuck. You happy?

  Chuck stood and clapped Ed on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ed.”

  “Are you?” Tears spilled from Ed’s eyes when he looked up. “I miss her. Every day.”

  Ed’s sobs filled the Bower. Jett remained seated, head bowed, wishing for a moment he knew how to talk to the God Coral mentioned.

  After a few minutes, a hush, a peace coated the room and Ed collected himself, blowing his nose on the handkerchief Chuck gave to Coral.

  Then, without asking, the heiress released her faith over them, praying softly, asking God for things Jett never dared ask. Peace. Comfort. Help. Wisdom. Love.

  Gilda knocked on the door. “It’s time, children.”

  They filed out slowly, Chuck with his arm about Ed, Coral and Lexa whispering together.

  And Jett was alone in the Bower. Alone with his thoughts. Alone with evidence of the truth. And not just the manuscript on the bottom shelf. But within himself.