by Anne Stone
“What’s this?” she asked Alejandro.
The room was packed with familiar faces when she noticed Angelina coming towards her from the back of the crowded room. She stopped in front of Gabriella, hugged her tightly, and said, “It’s a surprise party for your birthday.”
“But that was weeks ago,” commented Gabriella. She turned to Alejandro and said, “You… You were you in on this, too?”
“Well…”
“Don’t ‘well’ me—”
Alejandro grabbed her and gave her a big hug and kiss.
“Happy birthday, Sis. I’m so glad I could celebrate this milestone with you.”
Gabriella greeted all of her guests. Her mother and Angelina moved into party mode, ensuring that everyone had everything they needed.
Instead of a sit down meal, Maria had arranged for a buffet to be served so that people could mingle and eat when they wanted to. The room was scattered with large, round tables covered in fall-colored tablecloths, with balloon bouquets being the focal point of each table. The yellow and orange colored balloons swayed in unison, highlighting the Mylar “Happy Birthday” balloons.
As everyone began to eat, Gabriella walked over to Angelina. She grabbed her arm and pulled her across the room where Alejandro was getting a drink. “I’d like you to finally meet someone.” As Gabriella looped her arm through her brother’s, she finally introduced her famous brother to her best friend. “Alejandro?”
“Yes?”
“I’d like you to finally meet my friend Angelina.”
When he thought about it, he remembered seeing photos of her and Gabriella in school. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he finally met her in person. Angelina was beautiful. She had honey colored eyes and long, light brown hair that had been neatly pulled back into a ponytail. Alejandro was stunned by their meeting and was pulled back into the moment.
Before Gabriella could say anymore, Alejandro was reaching for Angelina’s hand. “Finally, we meet.”
“Yes, finally. I’ve heard so much about you through the years.” Angelina grasped his hand and was pulled into an embrace. She was taken aback by the gesture, but realized that she felt like she’d known him forever.
Before Angelina could get accustomed to the embrace, he was being waved down from across the room. “It was nice to finally meet you. We’ll talk later.”
Angelina smiled as he walked away. She was excited that she finally met Alejandro, but also wished they’d had more of a chance to visit in person.
Gabriella was disturbed that he left them so quickly. She gnawed on her lip in disbelief. It had taken her over twelve years for them to meet in person. In the blink of an eye, it was over. She wanted her best friend to finally get to know him since he was such an important part of her life.
Angelina knew Gabriella was upset with her brother. “Gabriella, don’t think twice about our meeting. This is your party. Have fun! Alejandro and I can talk another time. You know he’s just as popular as you, the birthday girl, since he’s been away for so long.”
Gabriella hugged her friend. “I know. I’ve just waited for this moment for so long,” she said as she pulled away from Angelina.
Gabriella’s party went well. The dancing began after dinner, and Alejandro cut in on their father while he was dancing with Gabriella. “Were you surprised?” he asked her.
“What do you think?”
“I’m glad you were. And I’m glad I was able to participate in this celebration.”
“Alejandro?”
“Yes?”
“Will you do me a favor?”
“Sure, if I can.”
“Angelina has been working tirelessly during this party. Will you at least dance with her? She needs a break.” Gabriella was still upset with Alejandro for walking away from his initial meeting with Angelina. She knew her uncle had summoned him, but still. This was an important moment and she wanted her brother to get to know her best friend.
“Of course I will. I am glad that you were able to reconnect with each other. I know she was an important part of your collegiate days. What happened for you to lose touch with one another?”
“I’m really not sure. I guess we became so involved in our new lives. With our first teaching jobs, we were extremely busy that first summer. Getting things together for the classroom, writing lesson plans, coming up with innovative ideas… I remember going into the classroom almost every day that summer after I got my first job. Planning, always planning. I wanted to be the best teacher that I could be, someone my students would always remember. I hope I’ve done that through the years. Angelina was going about it the same way. I remember we always had the same ambitions. We wanted to be the best…”
“Well, from what you’ve told me through the years, you’ve been an influence on many students. I am so proud of you.”
“As I am of you. Now, go and have that dance with my best friend.” Alejandro brushed a kiss across her knuckles and headed towards Angelina.
“May I have this dance?”
“Alejandro, I’d love to but I am busy at the moment. How about later?”
Alejandro reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
He had a funny look on his face—one of surprise that she wouldn’t dance with him. He knew Gabriella had been upset with him earlier when he’d been summoned by their uncle. He wanted to spend some time with Angelina, but he knew his uncle would have made a scene, so he’d left her standing with his sister.
The look Gabriella had sent his way when he walked away was the same one she used to give him when she was a little girl and he wouldn’t give into her demands. She’d scrunch her face and roll her eyes at him. He knew he was in trouble with his sister, and he needed to make up to her by dancing with Angelina.
“Aww, come on.”
“Give me a few minutes to finish this up, and I’ll dance with you.”
While Angelina was cleaning up, Alejandro got an emergency call. He had to rush to the hospital to tend to a patient who’d had a kidney transplant and was exhibiting signs of infection. Alejandro hated getting these calls. He apologized to Gabriella for having to leave early. She understood but thought he needed to have some fun in his life.
She was going to see that he did, now that he was home and living close by.
Chapter Two
The following Monday morning, Gabriella couldn’t wait to see Angelina. She ran directly into Angelina’s classroom, hugged, and thanked her for helping her mother organize and plan her surprise party. “I had such a wonderful time.”
“I did, too. It was great seeing everyone. I was happy to finally meet Alejandro in person. Were you surprised?”
“Surprised? Yes, that’s an understatement. Shocked is more like it. I wasn’t sure what was happening at first, but then you came running up to me. All I can say is Alejandro did a fabulous job of keeping it from me. I thought it was his idea to take me to Miss Saigon.”
“It was his idea. We weren’t sure how to get you there, so he volunteered. It was really important to him that he take you to the play since you wanted to see it so badly. He wanted to make it a special memory for you since he missed so many important happenings in your life. He was like a kid in a candy store helping your mother plan this part of the surprise. He even met with the hostess at the restaurant so she knew who he was and could guide you directly to the party without question.”
“Huh, so that’s what that wink was about.”
“What wink?”
“Never mind. Getting back to Alejandro… I thought you hadn’t met before the party.”
“We hadn’t. Your mother arranged it all. I didn’t meet him until you introduced us.”
“Oh. Did you two have a good time dancing?”
“We never danced. I told him I was busy. I was getting the party favors together because one of your mom’s friends was leaving, and I wanted to be sure she had one. I asked if he could wait a few minutes, and when I went looking for him, he was gone.”
“After all of these years, I was just glad to finally meet him in the flesh. I’d talked to him while we were in school, and I’ve met Alec and Joe many times. It’s just nice after all of these years to finally meet him in person. I always enjoyed talking with him. He always knew the right thing to say to brighten my day.”
*****
Mid-October was upon them, and with it came Colleen’s field hockey sectionals. Colleen, Angelina’s sister, played for her high school team. She was the star of the team and a team player who always thought of her teammates first while on the field. She’d broken many of her high school’s prestigious records. She was only a junior, but had already received letters from various universities that were interested in her playing field hockey for them.
The team had a game scheduled in Kansas City, which was a four hour drive from St. Louis. Colleen’s parents and brother, Wyatt (who always attended her matches), were going to follow the bus to Kansas City. Wyatt loved watching his older sister play. He played ice hockey himself and was a well-respected player in his own right.
Angelina declined to take the early morning car ride to Kansas City with her parents. She was preparing for the end of the first quarter and wanted to spend the weekend working on grades. She never liked waiting until the last minute to complete the quarterly report card.
They were originally scheduled to leave directly after school ended on Friday afternoon, but at the last minute the plans were changed. The new plan was to leave at seven o’clock Saturday morning.
Angelina spent Friday evening at Gabriella’s house. It was the first time Angelina had been to Gabriella’s. As soon as she pulled up to the curb, she fell in love with it. The sidewalk was lined with flowers. She remembered how much Gabriella loved flowers—she had always been buying bouquets of whatever flowers she could get her hands on for their dorm room.
Gabriella had told Angelina that her home was a starter house and Angelina couldn’t believe the size of it. The house fit the neighborhood. It was a typical red brick two-story with an attached garage. Angelina couldn’t wait to see the inside as the outside was so Gabriella, between the size, red brick and swing that sat on the front porch.
She rang the doorbell and Gabriella answered instantaneously—she had been waiting for Angelina right by the door. She gave Angelina a quick tour of her four-bedroom home. It had a gourmet kitchen that any chef would envy, as well as a formal dining room that held a table she was sure wild fit at least eight, and maybe even twelve when opened fully. She had a quaint living room that fit the house, and a huge family room that overlooked a fairly large backyard. The backyard was strewn with flowers blooming in pots and baskets of flowers hanging from a multitude of shepherd’s hooks. Fall was in the air and, thankfully, St. Louis hadn’t experienced a frost yet, so Angelina could fully enjoy Gabriella’s brightly colored backyard and patio area.
Gabriella had ordered pizza. As they waited for the deliveryman, Angelina commented on her home. “I thought you said this was a starter home.”
“It is.”
“If this is what you consider a started home, I can only imagine what your next house will look like.”
“It’s not that big, Angelina. I’ve done a few updates over the years. You should have seen it when I first bought it.”
“All I can say is this house is so you, inside and out—between the flowers, the red brick… and I love how you decorated it.” She barely finished her comment when the doorbell rang. They’d decided to eat in as Gabriella wanted Angelina to experience pizza from the neighborhood pizzeria. “Doesn’t this remind you of our late-night pizza parties that we held in our dorm room?” asked Angelina.
“Yeah, but now we can at least enjoy our food without being interrupted by the guys from the other side of the dorm. I swear they had a homing device when a pizza crossed through the elevators doors.”
“I know. They were crazy.”
They finished their meal, and then Angelina helped Gabriella prepare the pictures that would hang on her bulletin board dedicated to the special events from the quarter. They learned the importance of this in one of their education classes. It helped with parent teacher conferences, as the bulletin board tied up the quarter, highlighting the field trips, parties, and whatever else occurred that was special. It was a fabulous way for parents who couldn’t attend the special functions to see what occurred in their children’s lives. Angelina had put the finishing touches on her display while they waited for their pizza.
During their evening, many topics were discussed. Angelina started talking about the special events they attended while in college. “Gabriella, do you remember when we had to go on that urban experience for one of our education classes, were dropped off in the middle of the city with hardly a map, and were expected to visit the city schools and find our way downtown?”
“Yeah, I do. I really enjoyed seeing all of the old, turn-of-the-century schools. The architecture was beautiful. I wish the buildings would have been maintained more.” Pausing, Gabriella added, “I can understand how the buildings fell into the condition they’re in. Some, in fact many, of them have since closed. Some of those neighborhoods were pretty scary.”
They continued their reminiscing and hardly noticed that three hours had elapsed when the doorbell rang. “Are you expecting anyone?” asked Angelina as Gabriella stood to open the door.
“At this hour? No. I’d intended it to be just a girl’s night.”
Before she could get to the door, the bell rang again. “Wait a minute… Just wait a minute… Who is it, anyway?” called Gabriella. She turned to Angelina and whispered, “One should always ask before opening the door especially at this late hour.”
“Me,” a voice called from the other side of the door.
“Who’s me?”
“You know who it is. Open the door, Gabriella.”
Gabriella threw open the door and was pulled into a hug. “Alejandro, what’re you doing here?”
“Saying hello to my favorite sister.”
“Favorite? You mean only.”
“Okay, okay. Enough of that.”
Gabriella led Alejandro to the family room where they’d been working.
“What’re you doing this evening?” asked Alejandro as Gabriella led him down the hallway.
“Angelina and I are working on our quarterly bulletin boards. We take pictures throughout the year and post them in our classroom at the end of the quarter. That way the students and parents can experience some of the fun activities we did throughout the quarter.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” he said as he moved into the room. “Hi, Angelina. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” Angelina smiled at Alejandro. “And you?”
“I’m great!” Alejandro said with a grin. “I’m off service with the hospital for the week and can finally take it easy. Thankfully, I just have office hours. These last few weeks since Gabriella’s party have been a blur—I’ve worked non-stop. I’m so looking forward to some down time.”
“Want something to drink?” Gabriella asked as she turned towards the kitchen.
“Sure, whatever you have,” he called out as she disappeared around the corner.
Alejandro stood looking at Angelina as she put the finishing touches on Gabriella bulletin board. “So, are you the creative genius behind this project? I heard you made the invitations for Gabriella’s party. They were beautiful.”
Angelina put down the last of the pictures. Smiling, she looked over her shoulder at him. As she flashed her smile, she chuckled and said, “No, I’m not the genius. Your sister did much of this herself… And thank you for your compliment. I had a lot of fun helping your mother.”
“From what I hear, you more than helped. I know my mom really appreciated everything you did to make it a special day for my sister.”
Gabriella returned with a glass of wine
. They sat around the table, catching up.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to have that dance with you, Angelina.”
“It’s not a problem. I understand. I was trying to get the party favors together for one of your mom’s friends and, when I went looking for you, you were already gone. Gabriella explained that you were called into the hospital. We can have that dance anytime.”
Alejandro truly loved his sister and Angelina saw it first-hand. She had no idea that he’d missed Gabriella as much as he had while he’d lived out of state. Alejandro was a kind, caring man who seemed to really enjoy his job. Even with the demands of his profession, he spoke highly of his peers and co-workers at the hospital. He was unlike any doctor that she knew. He was compassionate and didn’t talk down as he spoke of his colleagues.
Angelina saw a much different side to him than she imagined when she looked back on her many conversations they’d had while she was in college. She saw the serious side to him, but also the jokester that loved to kid around. But now he was different. He seemed much more intent—serious, but he was still a loving brother.
She caught him staring at her a few times and, several times, she smiled back at him, causing him to look away.
They talked until two in the morning when Angelina finally decided to go home. She explained that the following morning she wanted to be sure and be up to wish Colleen good luck before she left for her tournament. Angelina said her good-byes while Alejandro decided to stay with Gabriella. “It’s been a long time since we’ve done this.”
“It has. So how come you came by tonight?”
“I hadn’t seen you since your party and wanted to spend some time with you.”
Gabriella decided to change the subject abruptly, “I’ve got a question for you.” She’d noticed him staring at Angelina several times while they talked.
“And that is?”
“Are you seeing anyone?”
