by Linn Young
One morning, while they were getting dressed, Riley told Heron that she was on the verge of signing a contract with the investors to open a second dance club and bar in San Francisco.
“So, you’re going to be running both of them,” Heron asked, standing a few feet from the bed, dressed in his pants and dress shirt, tying his tie.
“No, actually I was thinking of letting Joe Monterey run the one in Santa Rosa, and I’d be running the new one here in San Francisco.”
He stopped with his tie for a moment. “That means you’d be down here more often.”
“Looks that way. I’ll have to start looking for an apartment pretty soon.” “Why don’t you move in here with me?”
For moment, Riley’s face whitened, as it had that evening when Heron’s mother had asked her if she were in love with her son. Fortunately, Heron did not see her because he was too busy with his tie again.
“Are…are you serious,” she said, trying to sound casual.
Heron turned away to grab his suit coat. “Yes, I am. Why not? I’m always haranguing you to come up here. And the penthouse is pretty large. I think it’ll be comfortable for two people to move around in without getting in each other’s way too much.” Completely dressed in his business suit, he turned back to Riley. “What about it, then?”
“Let’s talk about it later,” she hedged.
“Alright. Come on, get dressed so we can go down and have our breakfast. I need to be at the office for a client at nine o’clock.”
“Go ahead down there and start without me. I still need to take a shower.”
Heron threw his robe at her. “Here, you can put this on and come down with me. You can take a shower later after I’m gone.”
“What if I don’t want breakfast right now,” Riley grumbled as she put the robe around her, which was ridiculously too big for her.
To stop any further argument, Heron picked her up in his arms and carried her out of the bedroom. “Then we can have our coffee.”
He put her down at the top of the stairs. He didn’t really want to admit to himself and to Riley that their time together at the morning table before he went off to work had become important to him. He had come to enjoy sitting across from her the next morning, after having spent several hours the previous night fucking each other long and hard, both of them sipping their coffees, not talking most of the time, each reading the newspaper, she munching on her English muffins spread liberally with melted butter, and he eating his two pieces of toast lightly spread with marmalade.
Over the next several weeks, the discussion of Riley moving into the penthouse never came up, and the two went on with their lives, and their affair, as they had before. In fact, both seemed to have forgotten about the topic. Riley was getting more and more pre-occupied with the preparations of opening another club in San Francisco, and Heron’s workload was demanding all of his attention when he was away from her.
The one person who was getting impatient with the unsettlement of Heron and Riley’s affair was Alana Wait. She hated it when things went on unresolved indefinitely. She felt the two were wasting their time by insisting on maintaining a relationship that held little future for both of them. Both needed to come to their senses and realize how they felt about one another and begin planning for a life together and for a family.
Feeling she had every right, Alana paid her oldest son a visit in his office to try and get to the bottom of his affair with Riley Calderon for once and for all.
“Hello, Mother,” Heron greeted with puzzlement. He looked down at his calendar. “Did we have an appointment this morning?”
Alana sat down in one of the chairs in front of her son’s desk. “Since when does a mother need an appointment to see her own children?”
“That’s a very loaded question, so I won’t bother to answer that,” Heron said ironically. “What is it, Mother?”
“I want to invite you and Riley to Palm Springs for the weekend.”
“I don’t know about Riley, but that would be fine for me.”
“Well, then, why don’t you call her right now and check with her?”
“I think she might be still asleep. I’m not quite sure she’s available for the next two weeks, in fact. The new club is taking most of her time.”
“When will you see her next?”
“I’m not quite sure.”
Alana made an impatient sound. “Heron, I wish you would stop this cavalier conduct of yours with this relationship with Riley. Now, for once and for all, what are your intentions with the girl?”
Heron gave her a polite stare. “I’m sorry, Mother, but are we suddenly in the eighteen hundreds?”
“It is still a mother’s duty to knock some sense in her child’s head when she sees that he is being a complete knucklehead.”
Heron blinked. “A knucklehead?”
“That’s what a man is when he refuses to see what is in front of his very nose.”
Heron thought for a moment. “Are we still talking about Riley?”
“Yes, of course we are. Who else would we be talking about?”
“Okay. So, what am I missing about Riley?”
“She’s a wonderful girl.”
“Okay.”
“She’s not a woman that a man should treat so casually. She deserves much more than that from a man.”
“Okay.”
“And a man only gets one or two chances in life to meet a woman who is perfect for him.”
“And you think Riley is perfect for me.”
“Why you haven’t been able to figure that out yet is beyond me. Everybody else has.”
Heron shifted slightly in his seat, an indication that he was trying to keep his impatience back. “Mother, with all due respect, this is none of your business. And you’ve always respected my private life in the past. Why are you interfering now with Riley?”
“None of your women have ever been Riley Calderon.”
“What makes her so special?”
Alana sat back in her seat and eyed her son challengingly. “Why don’t you tell me? You’re the one who’s going out with the girl.”
Heron pinched his nose. “This parlor game does neither one of us good, more of which I don’t have the time.”
Alana suddenly rose to her feet and gathered her purse. “Oh, I should have known I wouldn’t get anywhere with you. Harvard sure trained you well as a lawyer for the courtroom, but when it comes to your personal life, they failed miserably. Any child without an advanced education could see what was going on. But you’re too smart, aren’t you, to realize it.”
“What is there to realize?”
Alana turned to stare at her son, shaking her head pityingly. “You have no clue, do you? You have no idea what you’re doing to Riley. And you have no idea the way she feels about you.”
“Jesus Christ, Mother! The hell are you talking about?”
“Riley, you idiot. You’re not only a clod but a clod with a debilitating short term memory. I’m talking about Riley, as I have always been talking about. All this time, while she’s been eating her heart out for you, you’ve been blithely going on with your life, thinking that this was just another temporary affair, that when it ends, which surely it must, both of you will be able to walk away unscathed.”
“Why would Riley be eating her heart out for me?”
“Oh, you are pig-headed, aren’t you. Because, you idiot, she’s in love with you.”
Heron froze and his face went white. “Did she tell you that?”
“More or less, yes. You know, dear boy, I was going to ask you out to lunch, but I’m so upset with you right now, that I think it’s best if save it for another day. For now, I’ll take my leave of you, before I’m driven to thump you over the head with my Gucci purse.”
Alana slammed the door after exiting through it. But Heron did not hear it. He was in too much state of shock. He wasn’t even aware that he was left alone in his office. He sat in his chair, staring sightlessly at hi
s closed door for a long time.
Several minutes later, he came to the present, realizing that he had been sitting at his desk, staring at nothing. He stretched his arm to reach for some papers, but then, he ended up getting to his feet. Thrusting his hands in his trouser pockets, Heron paced back and forth in front of his desk. One minute he was going over and over in his mind his mother blurting out to him that Riley was in love with him. The next minute, his shock would make his mind go blank and he’d be pacing not unlike a zombie. He’d realize what he was doing, throw himself back in his chair, but would only end up just staring down at the rug. He’d snap out of his trance again, get to his feet and pace some more. Then he’d lower himself again to a chair, but in one of the guest’s chair that faced his desk, and he’d be staring at his own empty chair, as if invisibly facing his own self.
No love was supposed to ever enter his affair with Riley. Ever. He didn’t want it to. He never wanted Riley to love him. He certainly never wanted to love her. When he had taken up the affair with her, he had been smarting acutely from Roberta’s spurning him in such a manner that she did. He had always believed and, to some extent, he still did believe that Riley had influenced Roberta’s defection. He supposed that he had wanted his own back at Riley. Somehow, he had thought, to make her pay for what her sister had done to him.
By drawing Riley into an affair, Heron had wanted to prove something. He was never quite sure what it was, though, that he needed to prove, and to whom. In his life, he had never been rejected by a woman. It had been the biggest shock he could ever remember experiencing in his life. He hadn’t liked the experience at all.
Like everything else in his life, such as his work, his education, his family, his social network, Heron had always felt in control of his personal relationships with women. Every since he met Riley, he had lost that sense of balance and control, not quite feeling as if things were on even keel in his relationship, even though that relationship was with Riley’s sister. But, somehow, he had always sensed that losing control of his relationship with Roberta was intimately linked with Riley. That was why his rage had been more directed at Riley than at his own fiancée.
At the time, it seemed perfect that in his need for revenge he should take his nemesis as his lover.
That’s why it seemed so ridiculous to Heron that she would tell his mother that she was in love with him. He didn’t want her love. He wanted her pride because she had been behind the injuring of his. But he couldn’t imagine ever wanting her love.
It didn’t matter that he might still want her physically. In fact, he still craved for her, and could only think about when he wasn’t working the next time he would be drawing her into his arms, and when next he could devour her lips, when next he would be slipping into her tight glove. But, surely, Riley wasn’t the only woman he had felt that way about. Heron was sure of it. He just couldn’t remember the woman just right then.
And Heron was sure that Riley wasn’t the only woman his family took a liking to. They took a liking to Roberta just as much. If his family barely tolerated all of the other women, that wasn’t his fault. He might enjoy being with Riley outside of bed almost as much as he did inside of the bed. That only stood to reason, since she was a very intelligent, insightful, humorous, honest woman. There had been plenty of other women he had seen whose company he had enjoyed.
But none of that meant that Riley should be in love with him.
Heron took Riley out for a late dinner in San Francisco. During dinner, she noticed that he was silent more than usual. It wasn’t that he was ever very loquacious normally. Or, even, that he was a particularly warm person to be with in the first place. Heron lived his life being detached from those around him. Riley had gotten used that.
But that night, she noticed that he seemed absent minded, pre-occupied with something that was weighing on his mind. Riley felt as if she might as well have dined on her own for all the attention he was paying to her.
After dinner, Heron drove her back to his penthouse and took her to bed. If he had been detached and unavailable at dinner, in bed, he was completely the opposite. There, they spent hours making wild and passionate sex, staying entwined whether they were resting from the last bout of sex or during it. Sexually, Heron was just as hungry and savage as he always was, holding nothing back from her, and wanting everything from her.
Riley awoke the next morning alone in Heron’s bed. When she showered, dressed, and went down stairs, she was informed by Canton that his master had left for the office an hour ago.
Close to three hours later, Riley arrived at her home to find a message waiting for her on the answering machine from Heron to call him. When she called him, his voice was oddly formal, as if he were discussing a business decision that he had just made.
“I think it’s better that we end this between us,” he said stiffly.
She did not say anything for several seconds. When she did, her voice was cool, almost as detached as his. “Alright. Then, I guess we can consider it ended.”
She hung up, went upstairs, undressed, pulled on her sweatpants and tee-shirts, slipped into her bed, pulled the bed covers over her head, and wept hard and violently for several hours. When it was time to get up and get to work, she made herself get out of bed, take a shower, scrubbed the layers and layers of tears from her face. After stepping out of the shower, she packed an ice pack, laid back on her couch, and put the ice pack over her eyes in an attempt to ease the swelling of her eyes.
Riley did not tell anyone that Heron had broken their affair off. She simply went about her life, using up all of her waking hours at her club and to go over the contracts and plans to open up her new club in San Francisco. When she went home and laid in her bed, the tears would fall again as she stared in the darkness.
Heron did not tell anyone either of his decision to end things with Riley, and went about his own life, which mostly consisted of work. He seemed little affected by his decision to stop seeing her. He seamlessly picked up the life he had been leading before her. On nights that he was not working or was not exhausted from work, he took out various women to dinner and theaters and galas, as he had before.
One evening he was escorting a lovely blonde, the daughter of a shipping magnate, to a charity function when he bumped into his parents.
“Heron, I didn’t expect to see you here, tonight,” Alana said. Her eyes glanced briefly at the woman who was at his side. “Riley’s not with you, tonight? Where is she?”
Heron gave her a bland look. “She’s not with me, tonight.”
“Who’s Riley?” the blond said a bit peevishly.
“I left a message last week at your home and at your office to bring Riley over for dinner last Sunday. But I never heard from you,” Alana said. “I hope everything is okay.”
“Who’s this Riley?” the blonde asked again.
“Everything is fine, Mother,” Heron said smoothly. “I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you. I’m afraid work has been quite hectic. If you wish, I can come over this Sunday.”
“And Riley?” Alana prompted with a raised eyebrow.
“Who’s Riley?” The heiress was getting a little impatient at being ignored, as if she was were a small bothersome house pet.
“I’m afraid it will be just me, Mother, if that is okay with you.”
Alana gave him a knowing look that edged with disapproval. “Oh, I see. So, Riley is no longer in the picture, is that it?”
Roy tugged at his wife’s arm. “Alana, leave the poor boy alone. Stop interfering with his life.”
The blonde stamped her foot. “Who is Riley?”
“No one for you to be concerned about, my dear,” Alana said to her imperiously. Then to Heron, she gave a cool smile. “Of course come by Sunday, if you want. But, please, call before you do. We might be out.”
She sailed past her son, her head held high. Roy gave Heron a look of apology before following in his wife’s footsteps. Heron watched them with a grim look.
“Should I be worrying about this, Riley, is it?” the blonde pouted beside him.
Heron slowly turned his head and studied her for a moment. Normally, he would have either ignored a woman’s jealous prompting, whether or not she was in any reason to, or would have a given a smooth answer of denial and quickly divert the lady’s attention. As it was, fatigued from having just coming down from a full work week of more than sixty hours, irritated at having to unexpectedly confront his parents tonight, and incensed at his mother’s blatant display of her disapproval of his decision to stop seeing Riley, Heron was t the end of his ropes and had no energy for diplomacy.
He said carefully, as if instructing a particularly dimwitted child, “Have I given you at any time during our short acquaintance any indication that you would be in a position to consider your situation in relation to what other women there might be in my life?”
The heiress flushed painfully and cast him a look of resentment. She had been told by others that Heron Wait was known to be a one cool customer, could be a cold bastard at times. But he had been too rich, too attractive, both in looks and in his forceful personality, to pass up. Now, she understood why so many women were leery about seeing the rich lawyer. “He may be easy on the eye, but, honey, he can be murder on your ego,” one acquaintance had informed her.
The following week, Roy Wait visited his son at his office.
“So sorry for the other night,” Roy said as he sat in a chair in front of his son’s desk. “That was quite unpardonable of your mother. Of course, it is your private matter as to whoever you choose to see in your personal life.”
“Thank you, Father. I appreciate that.” Heron watched Roy, noticing that for all of his usual bonhomie, his father looked a little pre-occupied, even agitated.
But Roy proceeded to discuss business for the next half hour. When he asked his son if he would accompany him to the Russian Tearoom at St. Francis Hotel for lunch, Heron looked at him curiously but agreed.
At the sumptuous dining room, the two men dined on spinach and walnut salad and chicken piccata. After which, the table was cleared of the lunch dishes, and coffee was served.
