“I selected and ordered all the food and flowers, I just never worked it all into the room.” Maxine glanced at her watch. She couldn’t believe it was already seven in the morning. “I think the day snuck up on me. I’m going to blame Cassandra. She’s the event coordinator here.”
“Hard for her to sneak anything by Tony in his own hotel. Besides, the last time she tried to help you, you shot her down. I bet she figured you’d let her know what you needed.”
“What makes you say that?”
Maxine turned to look at Sarah, who smiled a very sarcastic, sweet smile. “Because that’s what I do.”
“Yeah? What have you done for this party?” Maxine teased, knowing exactly how hard Sarah had worked.
“I mailed 500 invitations and logged RSVP’s. Quite a bit more labor intensive than deciding between yellow roses or Gerbera daisies for the centerpieces.”
Ignoring Sarah’s sarcastic jab, Maxine checked her phone. “I still haven’t heard from Jacqui.”
Sarah frowned. “How are we going to run the games if she isn’t here?”
“Maybe we just won’t have games,” Maxine said. “How were we going to do it with 500 people, anyway?”
“We ordered the supplies she needed, and we have the game instructions, so we’ll just have to do it for her,” Sarah said. “It’s a baby shower. You have to have games. That’s what you do.”
Maxine spotted Derrick DiNunzio coming through the far door. “Derrick!” she called, waving her hand.
She crossed the carpeted floor with long, graceful strides. Sarah followed, almost at a run compared to Maxine’s fast walk. Derrick nodded and lifted his hand in greeting. By the time they reached him, Maxine felt a huge grin on her face. She loved Derrick and had since the first day she met him.
Three years ago, Derrick had shown up at Tony’s office with a worn business card in hand, following up on an employment promise Tony had made him. As good as his word, Tony took Derrick in and made him his protégé. At present, Derrick was finishing up college. Surrounded by the luxury of the Viscolli ballroom, wearing a thick cream colored sweater and navy slacks as easily as he wore a quiet inner strength and outer confidence, Maxine could not pick out anything about Derrick, his demeanor, his accent, or his countenance, that suggested he hadn’t grown up surrounded by anything other than love and riches.
Though Derrick made eye contact with Maxine first, and though Maxine reached him first, it was Sarah to whom he first spoke with an ironic lift of a single eyebrow and an undeniable teasing tone in his voice. “Hiya, sweetheart.”
After Robin and Tony’s wedding, Sarah and Derrick had lived under the same roof with Tony and Robin for a full year while Sarah finished nursing school. Even so, instead of treating each other like acquaintances, they barely tolerated each other. Maxine watched in fascination as her younger sister’s lip curled in unfeigned loathing, astonished by the force of her sister’s reaction this morning. Sarah’s increasing vehemence toward Derrick never ceased to amaze Maxine. The way Derrick invited it – nicknaming her petite half sister “sweetheart” for example – also presented a perpetual puzzle.
“I told you not to call me that.” Sarah’s voice came out low and laced with loathing.
Derrick appeared utterly oblivious to Sarah’s venom. “Whatever you say, sweetheart.” Before Maxine could give much more thought to the interplay between them, Derrick’s grin grew wide and his eyes danced with genuine mirth as he took in the sight of her. “Maxi! You look like a hundred bucks.”
Maxine laughed at his teasing and explained, “I’ve only had one cup of coffee so far.”
Derrick’s eyebrow quirked and he said, “We’ll have to fix that.”
Maxine opened her mouth to enthusiastically agree when Sarah unexpectedly piped up, “As if you could fix anything. Where’s Cassandra?” Sarah crossed her arms and glared at Derrick from beneath her strawberry curls. Rather than making her appear threatening, her stance comically transformed her into a Little Orphan Annie double.
Instead of reacting, Derrick insinuatingly winked at Sarah before turning his attention back to Maxine. “I have an army of help ready to place tables and chairs where they need to go. I also have confirmation of a flower delivery at noon, and Chef Armand called up from the pastry kitchen to let you know that the cake is ready for you to view.”
Maxine looked at her watch again and mentally structured her day. “Okay. I have a nine-thirty meeting in the restaurant here, so hopefully I can get everything organized and still be able to put in a couple of hours this afternoon at the office.”
“My shift starts at eleven,” Sarah said, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time. “So I can help until ten. My roommate is going to cover for me this afternoon, so I should be able to be back by four.”
Derrick reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out several sheets of graph paper. “I knew you hadn’t met with Cassandra yet, so I sketched a few possible ideas for layout of the room.” As Maxine took the sheets from him, he looked at Sarah. “How many people RSVP’d?”
“Four eighty-six,” she said, “but there was also an announcement made at church. I’d count on at least fifty more.”
“Maybe we should plan for six hundred.”
“Maybe we should plan for five-forty,” Sarah sneered. “Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a bunch of empty tables.”
“I think you’re going to get more than fifty from an open invitation at a church that size.”
“Why? Because the Viscollis are so amazing?”
Maxine watched Derrick’s eyes look Sarah’s petite body up and down. “Someone certainly is,” he observed.
Sarah gasped as Derrick turned his attention back to Maxine once again. “Well?”
“Let’s split the difference,” she said. “Five-seventy?”
Derrick nodded and pulled a two-way radio from a clip on his belt. “Rubert? Five-seventy, as we discussed yesterday.”
“As you discussed?” Maxine laughed.
Derrick waited for the confirmation from the catering department’s head sous chef before turning the volume down on the radio and re-clipping it. He shrugged. “I guessed.”
“Hotel and restaurant management was a good major for you to pick, then.”
“Speaking of which,” Sarah interrupted, “why aren’t you in class? Playing hooky?”
“It’s seven in the morning, sweetheart. Even BU doesn’t start before nine.” As if on cue, the double doors leading to the kitchen hall opened and a uniformed waitress pushed a room service cart into the room.
“Breakfast, ladies?” He gestured to the cart, “I even accounted for the herbivore,” he said to Sarah, “with a fruit platter and some dairy-free, egg-free muffins.”
Despite herself, Maxine shook her head and giggled, overcome by Derrick’s relentless wit at Sarah’s expense. “I’m dieting, but if there’s coffee on that cart, I’ll love you forever.”
Derrick covered his heart with his hand. “Another conquest. And so easily won.”
Two more waiters brought in a table and chairs, and the trio sat down to breakfast and coffee while they planned, and bickered, over the layout of the room.
ON the commute into work, Barry pondered how badly things had deteriorated since that day six weeks ago. In the time since that morning conversation with his wife, a great deal had changed.
Barry stopped reading his Bible, though it remained a fixture on his breakfast table. He stopped attending worship services. He started dodging calls from friends and family, and avoided seeing them in person as often as possible.
An irrational part of him felt that the humiliation of his personal life could be plainly seen by those who knew him best. So he didn’t go to any friends with his problem. It seemed too enormous. He figured he knew what they would say, anyway, so why bother? Maxine would advise him to just ditch Jacqueline and all of the evil and drama Jacqueline constantly introduced into his life. Tony would counsel him to
pray and seek the will of the Holy Spirit.
Barry kept it all inside and, after a few weeks, he called Jacqueline. They met and he told her he was willing to forgive her, raise her child as his, and love them both. His condition was that they begin living together as husband and wife with the same bedroom, the same vacations, and the same social activities.
He also asked her to begin attending church together with him every Sunday and, after services, spending time in fellowship with friends. He said that if she didn’t think she could do these few things, they likely would have no way of working things out.
After he finished speaking, she had stared at him for a very long time. For the life of him, he could not read her expression.
At last, she had said, “Barry, I appreciate all the thought you’ve put into this. But the fact is that I just don’t love you anymore. I’ll tell you the truth for once. I don’t know if I ever really did. If I ever did, I certainly haven’t for a very long time. I think I just want a divorce. The thought of us playing house again after all this time, honestly, is disgusting to me. Charles and I have been talking and he is going to leave his wife. We’re going to get married and have our baby.”
This morning, he reflected on the fact that he had no idea where Jacqueline even was. The next time they met, he would hand her the divorce papers he had quietly drawn up and he fully expected she would sign them.
That fact, that fact alone, paralyzed Barry. He would be a divorcé – a childless divorcé. After nearly twenty years of marriage to the same woman, he had nothing to show for it. The shame of that burned his mind like hot coals. Ultimately, after all of his successes, he had utterly failed in his marriage.
God, he silently prayed, if You are the author of this situation, then You already have a plan to spare me from any shame. Please spare me from this shame.
His entire life all he had ever wanted to be was the very best husband and father he could be. Since he had married Jacqueline, the only thing on this earth he craved – more than the adoration of 20,000 cheering fans and more than the grateful praise of any of his clients – was to be seen as a hero by his wife.
Why did she have to ruin everything? Was his enduring love for this woman, his wife, was that just God mocking him for a fool? Just ripping his heart and life to shreds even as God had allowed Job to suffer?
Was it something as common as pride that made him want to reconcile with his wife? Was it just that base and banal? Or did he really love her?
The shame of it alone would crush him. The weight of that shame loomed over his head like the sword of Damocles. For the first time in his Christian life, Barry felt a constant speck of mistrust in his relationship with the creator of the universe.
One thing was certain, Barry would never again let a woman undo him so completely.
CHAPTER 3
MAXINE unzipped her boots and slipped her feet out of them, thankful for the privacy of the hotel room that allowed her to grab a few hours of comfort before she had to put the boots back on.
Her meeting at nine-thirty ran over. It was originally intended to be an informal meeting. The client wasn’t certain she wanted Maxine representing her as her advertiser for a local veterinary hospital, and Maxine wasn’t really ready to put too much effort into a proposal that might or might not be selected. When the morning meeting turned into a lunch meeting, and they haggled over details and concepts and price, she left the meeting feeling like maybe she had won the client over.
After shooting a few e-mails from her phone to her secretary and adding another meeting later in the week with this almost-certain client, she secured a room at the Viscolli hotel to get back to party planning details.
She checked her watch then dialed Jacqueline Anderson’s number. Up until a few weeks ago, she’d been actively involved with Maxine and Sarah with the party planning and insisted on running the games for them. But for the last two weeks, she’d not returned Maxine’s calls. Maxine couldn’t figure out what kind of game she was playing. Where was she?
As close-knit as Maxine and Robin were, Jacqueline’s position – as the wife of her brother-in-law’s best friend – forced Barry’s wife into her life far more often than Maxine enjoyed. She found the woman plastic, stuck up, and rude.
Maxine loved it when Jacqueline was out of town because Barry seemed to be happier, more relaxed, less on guard. He always seemed more open to watching a football game or talking about basketball scores or anything. Though the second Jacqueline showed up, he turned reticent, withdrawn, noncommunicative, and obviously unhappy. Maxine couldn’t figure out how they’d stayed married for almost twenty years.
Every Sunday after church, family and friends gathered for lunch at the Viscolli home. Tony and Robin would have a soup and sandwich bar and they would eat and fellowship and rest before evening services. In the three years since Robin married Tony, that tradition had been something that kept Maxine going to church even on her most “exhausted from the Saturday night before” Sunday mornings.
Tony and Robin had close friends at their church who joined them on a semi-regular basis, and almost always some pastor or visiting evangelist joined as well. In attendance without fail, in addition to Tony and Robin, one could nearly always count on: Derrick; Sarah and a few boyfriends here and there over the years; Barry, but rarely with Jacqueline; and an always unescorted Maxine.
In those three years of Sunday lunches, Maxine and Barry had become really good friends – great friends. They typically found a corner somewhere in the massive apartment and spent hours talking, laughing, planning lunches or, to Barry’s dismay, golf outings. They both loved football and a few times when Jacqueline was on one of her regular out of town excursions, Maxine would head to Barry’s house after Sunday evening services to watch the day’s games that he’d recorded. He usually let her fast forward through the commercials and the endless game replays. She looked forward to that time with him and had really grown to count on his friendship.
Shaking her head at the train of her thoughts, she brought herself back to the present. Shooting Barry text number three of the day, worried about why he hadn’t texted her back yet, asking him if he knew where Jacqueline was and how Maxine could reach her, she went ahead and placed a call to the kitchen and reconfirmed the schedule for the night ahead.
Checking her watch and calculating the time until the party, she determined she had about two hours to do some office work before she had to refocus on party work. She knew she owed the bulk of the party preparation credit to Derrick and the rest of Tony’s staff. She wasn’t even going to pretend that she could have done this without them.
Her phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She caught a glimpse of the caller ID as she answered it. “Hey, Sarah.”
“Hey. I got your text. Thanks for getting a room. My roommate is dropping my clothes off on her way in to cover for my shift.”
“Awesome. I thought about what you said and I agree. I think it’ll just be easier to have a command center here.”
“Are you staying there tonight?”
Maxine looked around the luxury of the suite. “Probably. We’ll be here rather late. What about you?”
“Definitely. It isn’t every day I get to stay at the Viscolli.” She laughed. “Any news from Jacqui?”
Maxine felt herself frown. “No. It’s not like her not to be in the center of the party planning. I can’t help but feel like something’s wrong.”
“It’s possible she’s just having too much fun to come back to town.” Sarah answered drily.
“I can’t even get Barry to return my calls,” Maxine said.
“Well, the world must be coming to an end if Barry isn’t calling you back,” Sarah observed.
Maxine frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
“Nothing. Sorry. Did you read over the game instructions?”
Maxine sighed. “I did. They’re easy and will be manageable with the size of crowd we have. Hopefully the wait staff will be available to help
us.”
“Since it’s Tony’s hotel and Tony’s wife’s baby shower, I’m sure the wait staff will be more than available,” Sarah offered with a wry smile. “We can’t spend a lot more time worrying about Jacqui.” Maxine could hear noise happening around Sarah. “I have to run, Maxi. See you whenever Melissa gets here to relieve me. Love you!”
“Love you, too.” Maxine hit the button to disconnect the call and frowned. Trying to ignore the sense of foreboding, she removed her laptop from her bag and turned it on, determined to get some work done before she had to go supervise the placement of the centerpieces.
BARRY didn’t recognize the incoming number on his mobile phone’s caller ID at 10:26 that morning. Since he was in the middle of a conference call with a client he ignored it and let it go to voice mail. Two minutes later at 10:28, he let the same number go to voice mail again.
A little over one minute later his secretary, Elizabeth, burst into his office. The look on her face alone silently informed him that he needed to end his conference call immediately. So he did.
As soon as his handset hit the receiver, he said, “My cell’s been ringing constantly …”
Elizabeth interrupted, “Please pick up on line two, Barry.”
Barry noted that she did not address him as “Mr. Anderson,” or “Sir.” He noted that she cut him off and heard the hint of anxiety in her voice as if it were a scream.
“What is it?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s the hospital up by your ski resort in the Berkshires. They won’t tell me anything.”
A cold, sinking feeling hit Barry in the pit of his stomach as he punched the blinking button and brought the phone to his ear. He heard his own voice, sounding numb and distant in his ears, saying, “This is Barry Anderson.”
The cold, sinking feeling turned to a frozen ball of iron when he heard a distracted voice answer, “This is the Trauma Center. Can you hold please, Mr. Anderson?”
Emerald Fire (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series) Page 3
