Tickled Pink

by Debby Mayne

  “Did he follow his dream?”

  Felicity nods and blushes. “Yes, but he and I had become such good friends, it was tough to see him go. I think I sort of knew he was the one because I missed him so much after he left.”

  “That must have been tough.”

  “It was, especially since I figured we’d always just be good friends. I was thrilled when he decided to give up his commission and stay here in New York. Of course, at the time, I didn’t realize he was planning to take our relationship to a more romantic level.” She sighs. “I’ll never forget his proposal.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Felicity shares how Reggie had asked her to go on a picnic on Staten Island. “It started out such a pretty day—not a cloud in the sky—but the air was a bit nippy since it was October. I forgot to bring a sweater, so he pulled a blanket out of his trunk and wrapped it around both of us.” She rubs her arms. “It gives me goose bumps just thinking about how I felt, being so close to him.”

  “Did he propose then?”

  “No, not yet. I could tell he was nervous, but he insisted we go to a certain spot at the park, even though there were other really pretty places. I went along with him, but I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him.” She giggles. “He says he was bitten by the love bug, and that’s why half of what he did made no sense.”

  “So did he propose during your picnic?”

  She shakes her head. “No, we ate mostly in silence. I kept asking him if he was upset because he didn’t eat much, and he kept looking around me for something. Finally, I’d had enough. I stood up and told him that I was disappointed in how little attention he was giving me, and if he wanted to be elsewhere, then go right ahead. He stood and told me there was nowhere else he’d rather be, and he started to lean down to kiss me. We’d kissed before, but this one was different. It was so . . . ” Her eyes practically roll back in her head, and she makes a swooning sound. “So heavenly.” She straightens up and squares her shoulders. “Then suddenly, he was distracted again. Right when I was about to let him have it, he pointed to something behind me. I turned around, and there was a beautiful horse and carriage. Come to find out, that’s what he’d been watching for. We tossed all our picnic stuff into his trunk so we could go for a ride in the carriage. We’d barely rounded the first corner when he told me he couldn’t wait any longer. I was never so surprised as I was when he pulled that little box out of his pocket and asked me to marry him.”

  “That’s very sweet.” I wonder if anything even close to that romantic will ever happen to me.

  “I know. And remember, we didn’t start out with all the bells ringing between us. Our relationship was more like a pair of comfortable sneakers, until we both decided we were perfect for each other.”

  “Okay, that’s fine for y’all, but Tim’s and my relationship is nothing like that.”

  “Whoever said it was? All relationships are different. You can’t compare yours to mine, but don’t try to compare it to something in a fairy tale either.”

  17

  Tim

  I’m sittin’ here watchin’ Priscilla on TV, when that woman calls in and asks about the magazine article. Priscilla looks like she done seen a ghost. Her reaction sorta hurts my feelings, but I do understand. Me and her’s got somethin’ special, and TVNS isn’t the place to talk about it.

  Uncle Hugh calls, and we talk about business for a few minutes, even though I know he’ll bring up Priscilla since he don’t miss a single time she’s on. “Tim, you need to quit messin’ around and make that woman yours. Even her audience agrees.”

  “It’s not that simple, Uncle Hugh. Priscilla has a mind of her own.”

  “So you do love her.”

  “Yeah, I reckon I do. But that don’t mean she loves me back.”

  “Then give her a reason to.”

  I been givin’ her plenty of reasons to love me back. I listen to her when she needs to talk—somethin’ Mama always says is the best thing a man can do. I help her when she needs me, like for her class reunions. When Uncle Hugh’s company has specials on products, she’s always the first to know.

  “Timmy, you still there?”

  “Uh . . . yeah, I’m here.”

  “Priscilla needs to see your value as a man she can fall in love with.”

  “But I—”

  “I’m not talkin’ about stuff you do for her. She needs to understand there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

  “That sounds like girl talk.”

  He laughs. “It is, and it’s obviously not something that comes natural to any of us guys. I learned it from Tammy. She once told me she always thought of me as a nice guy, but it’s my mysterious side that grabbed her heart.”

  “You have a mysterious side?”

  “Obviously I do.” He chuckles and clears his throat. “So you need one of those intangible qualities that will make her heart go pitty-pat.”

  “Um . . . how do you spell that?” I pull a pen from my pocket and hold it over some scratch paper.

  “How do I spell what?”

  “That word . . . that quality you said I need.”

  “Oh, intangible?”

  “Yeah, that’s the word. I’ve heard it before, but I don’t know exactly what it means.”

  He tries to spell it but can’t, so he tells me the definition. After we hang up, I think about what he says the word means. Something you can’t touch, feel, smell, or see, even though it’s real. Like life insurance.

  So I need to make her see my value without coming right out and showing it to her. I’m not sure how I’m gonna do that, but it makes sense in some sort of, well, intangible way.

  All this talkin’ about what it’ll take to make Priscilla love me leads me to believe I’ve been too easy. She obviously don’t mind workin’ hard for what she wants. Maybe if I don’t hang around her so much, she’ll have to work to get near me. It might backfire, but I figure I don’t have nothin’ to lose since it’s been more than a decade of me wantin’ her and her seein’ me as just a good friend. I don’t think that’ll change, but it’s worth a shot.

  Now I have to find some way to be nearby but not too available. That’s my challenge, and I can only hope I’m up to it. It’s just gonna be hard not to run to her rescue if she gives even a hint of bein’ in distress.

  I’m on my way to the office early the next morning when my cell phone rings. I see that it’s Priscilla, and I’m half tempted to not answer. But that don’t seem right, so I click the answer button.

  “Did you see the show yesterday?” Her tone is a tad strange, almost like she’s hopin’ I didn’t see her.

  “Yes, I saw it.”

  “What did you think?”

  “You done good, Priscilla . . . I mean you did a nice job.”

  She don’t speak right away, but I hear her breathin’. It takes every single solitary ounce of self-restraint to not say more, but I hold back. “We sold out early.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “Tim, are you okay?”

  “I’m just fine, Priscilla. Why?”

  “Because you’re acting rather strange. You don’t sound like yourself.”

  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but once again, I resist my urge to explain the real reason. “I’m on my way to work.”

  “Oh, that’s probably why. So how do you like running the company?”

  Sounds like she’s in the mood to chat. “It’s okay.” What I would have said before was that I would much rather be back on my route so I could see her more often, but I don’t. “I still have quite a bit to learn, but Uncle Hugh seems to think I’m doin’ a fine job.”

  “No doubt you are.” Do I hear a hint of disappointment in her voice? My heart aches for her, but I have to stand firm on this intangible quality thing. It’s time for her to see somethin’ she can’t really see rather than have me at her beck and call. “Sounds like you’re busy.”

  Oh man, I’m dyin’ to se
e if she has time to hang out after I get off work, and I’m about to say somethin’ along those lines, but I bite my bottom lip ’til the urge goes away. “I reckon I better run now. I’m at the office buildin’, and I have a ton of work to do.”

  “Call me soon, okay?”

  “You bet.” I click the Off button and drop the phone into my pocket. This is gonna be much harder than I ever imagined. I need to come up with that intangible thing soon, or I just might lose my mind.

  Good thing there’s a phone call waitin’ for me when I get to the office ’cause it instantly gets my mind off my feelings for Priscilla. After that, I have a meetin’ with a new product manufacturer, and then it’s lunchtime, which turns out to be a workin’ lunch on account of there’s so much to do. Seein’ how much goes into runnin’ a company my respect flies sky high for Uncle Hugh. No wonder he was ready to take off and move to his fish camp in Vancleave. He still calls me every single day. I tell him he don’t need to do that—if I need him I’ll call him. And he says he’ll quit, but he don’t.

  I tackle paperwork all afternoon, with one interruption after another from our sales managers wantin’ this or needin’ that. Makes me feel awful for all those times I didn’t think twice about callin’ up Uncle Hugh for stupid stuff. Maybe if he made me sit in his office for a whole workday to see how hard he worked, I woulda not bugged him so much. I look back and remember how he always seemed to have time for me, no matter what time of day it was. How he managed to keep his wits about him is beyond me. As it is, I wanna open the window and holler as loud as I can, just to let off some steam. Now I see why all the bars is full after quittin’ time. Them people just need to unwind.

  If I hadn’t seen such carryin’ on from Pete Moss when he got all liquored up, I mighta joined the fellows down at the After Hours Pub. But I don’t have enough confidence in how I’ll behave to risk doin’ that. I’m afraid once I start drinkin’, I might like it so much I won’t be able to quit.

  18

  Priscilla

  Something is happening between Tim and me, and I’m not so sure I like it. He’s acting distant—something I’ve never seen him do before. Maybe it’s his new position with Hugh Puckett’s company, or maybe he’s just lost interest in me. If that’s the case, it’s probably for the best.

  My flight back to Jackson is uneventful, with the exception of a crying baby. But even that doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. In fact, I have a powerful urge to lean over and see the child, and when I do, my heart does a flip-flop when I take in her chubby little cheeks and pouty lips. Lord, what is happening to me?

  As my business grows, so does the amount of luggage I have to check. The folks at TVNS have asked me to have a change of clothes for each segment of airtime. They’ve offered to let me wear some of the clothes they sell, but until I get there, I never know what they’ll have, so I bring my own wardrobe. Beth Fay wasn’t able to travel with me this time, so all the work falls on my shoulders.

  It takes me an hour to get my bags, pile them into my car, and drive home. As soon as I open the door, a feeling of comfort surrounds me. No matter how many condos I have up and down the East Coast, this place feels the most like home.

  I mentally swat away my feelings of needing stability that have haunted me more frequently over the past several months as I toss the biggest suitcase onto my bed to empty it. After a trip like this, I used to come home exhausted, but now I’m restless. Something isn’t right with me, and I have no idea what it is. I don’t want to go anywhere, but I have the urge to do something familiar.

  After all my things are put away, I change into sweats and pad barefooted into the kitchen, where I pour myself a bowl of sugary cereal. I take that to my favorite chair in front of the TV, pick up the remote, and channel surf until I find a rerun of an old sitcom. Nostalgia washes over me and swirls around, bringing comfort to my soul. And then during the first commercial break, it hits me. I know exactly what’s wrong. I’ve accomplished all my goals, and now I don’t know what to do without something to strive for. Now I’m on that hamster wheel that I’ve been avoiding all my adult life. Ugh.

  I force myself to finish watching the show that I remember seeing at least fifteen years ago. As soon as it’s over, I lift the remote and turn off the TV before going back into the kitchen and pouring another bowl of cereal that I place on the small bistro-style kitchen table, where I do my best brainstorming. I have to come up with another goal, or I’ll never be happy again. That saying about enjoying the journey pops into my mind, so I jot that down on the notepad I keep on the table. Whatever I choose to embark on next must have a journey worth traveling, or I’ll lose interest and be right back to where I am now.

  This isn’t as easy as it once was, now that I’ve forged a path in the beauty business. Whatever I choose to do has to make sense to where I am today.

  I write beauty, fashion, and passion across the top of the page before listing my ideas beneath them. Whatever comes to mind is what I write, without editing or deleting anything. As the ideas flow, my lists grow longer, and it doesn’t take long before I see a plan emerge. My passion is still beauty related, and I like the idea of being on TVNS. However, I don’t enjoy the travel as much as I thought I would, so I need to find another way to have my product line on air without physically being the one to go to New York every time. Now that I’m fairly certain that Beth Fay is harmless, I think she just might be the person who can help me out with this. She’s expressed her desire to become famous, so I’m thinking I might be able to train her to be the TV spokesperson. I’m sure she’ll be much happier doing that than sitting on the sidelines, behind the cameras, watching me and waiting for whatever comes next. She’ll be the person in the limelight, and if I can keep her from becoming a diva, I think she’ll be perfect. As it is, she’s using most of my products and looking absolutely stunning because of it. I glance up at the clock and see that it’s too late to call her, but that’s okay. At least I’ll be able to go to sleep, knowing I have a plan . . . or at least part of a plan that I’ll be able to finish once I have her trained.

  I wake up early the next morning and resist the urge to call Beth Fay. This is something I’d like to discuss with Mandy first, which shows me how much I’ve come to trust and depend on my assistant.

  Her car is in the parking lot when I arrive a half-hour before she’s supposed to be there. As soon as I walk in, she comes to the door of her office. “What are you doing here so early? I figured you’d be in late since you just got back from New York.”

  “I couldn’t wait to talk to you about a new idea.” I gesture toward her office. “Let’s sit down and get started.”

  “Want some coffee first?”

  “Sure.” I start to follow her, but she tells me to go sit down, and she’ll get it.

  Once we have our coffee, we settle into position in her office for what I suspect will be a long meeting. The instant I tell her my thoughts, her eyes light up. “Perfect! That might be the very thing that’ll light the fire under that woman and at the same time give you a chance to regroup.”

  “So you like it, huh? I wasn’t sure you’d go along with it.”

  “I love the idea, and I think Beth Fay will too. Just don’t expect this to hold her interest more than a couple years, if that.”

  “You don’t think it will?”

  Mandy shakes her head. “Not being the drama queen she is. She’s nice and all, but she likes to keep excitement stirring in her life. Your plan will give her that for a while, but we’ll need to keep a careful watch on her to prevent some sort of disaster once she gets bored.”

  “I think you’re right.”

  “Oh, trust me, I know I am. I’ve hired enough drama queens to know them when I see them.” When I don’t respond, Mandy continues. “And based on the nature of being on air and people fawning over her, this plan might hold her interest longer than anything else.” She smiles. “I wondered how long she’d be satisfied with being your shadow.”
>
  “You know that’s never how I saw her.”

  “Of course I know that, but she’s different.” Mandy drums her fingers on her desk, and I lean back to think about what to do next.

  “I guess I’ll need to do some rehearsing with her,” I say.

  Mandy nods. “Maybe even have someone videotape her so she can see how she comes across.”

  “That’s what the production people at TVNS did with me. Oh, that reminds me. Before I go through with this plan, I’ll need to talk with the representative there to make sure it’s okay.”

  “Even before you do that, why don’t we feature Beth Fay in a print ad to give her some visibility and some celebrity status?”

  “Great idea, Mandy. You’re brilliant.”

  “That’s why you hired me, right?”

  “Yes, of course.” She and I both know that’s not exactly how things started out with us. I hired her because I was desperate for a warm body to sit in the reception area of my corporate office, and she just happened to be in the right place at the right time, but we never discuss that because it’s pointless to bring up the past with everything being just fine between us now.

  I call Beth Fay to find out when she’ll be free again. She says she’s not sure, but when I tell her we’d like to feature her in an ad, she’s suddenly available next week. I’ll be in Piney Point for the reunion, but I trust Mandy to take care of the details.

  Mandy and I plan what needs to be done while I’m away. Blair has turned out to be efficient and seems satisfied with her job, which is refreshing since by this time, most of the receptionists Mandy has hired have one foot out the door.

  “I have a feeling Blair sees this as a career position.” Mandy slowly shakes her head. “I don’t get it, but it’s nice to have someone who isn’t always on the phone, trying to sneak interviews with other companies. There’s something different about her. She seems content all the time.”