Romance Through the Ages

by Amy Harmon

  “They are. It’s me. I’m excited to do it and I don’t want to stretch it out so long. I’ll get more out of it if I do it like it’s a real job. This is what I hope to do someday.”

  Matt was quiet for a long time. I ate my salad and worked on a list of tasks.

  “So when are you taking this vacation?” He said vacation like it was a curse word.

  “I’m going to make appointments and purchases during the next two weeks. The Kellers are going to Hawaii for two weeks so I’m taking my vacation the same time they take theirs and I’ll get as much done as I can while they’re gone. I have eight days of vacation. I have a pretty good timeline set up and if everything goes according to plan, the job will be finished when they get home.”

  Matt’s expression was hard to read. His face was serious, his jaw clenched.

  “Why is this bothering you so much?” I asked.

  “I’m not bothered. I just don’t understand why you’d use vacation time for a job. Let’s not talk about this anymore.”

  And with that Matt quit talking completely. He ate his sandwich and flipped through a stack of papers on his desk. It was like I wasn’t in the room.

  I finished eating my salad and put my notebook in my bag.

  “I guess I’ll head back to work,” I said.

  “Sounds good,” Matt said without looking up.

  I put my hand on his shoulder, hoping to soften things before I left. “Thanks for lunch.”

  “No problem.” He kept his gaze on his desk.

  I walked out of the bookstore, confusion mixed with relief. Confused by Matt’s reaction to my plans; relief that Meg was nowhere to be seen and I wouldn’t have to expend the energy to dress my face in a fake smile.

  * * *

  The weeks before the Kellers left were busy. Mrs. Keller sold or gave away some of the nicer things from the living room and dining room and then hired a moving company to haul everything else to Goodwill.

  “I need a vacation after emptying out these rooms,” Mrs. Keller said as we walked through the now-empty space.

  “It looks so much bigger,” I said.

  “I thought the same thing. I just had too much stuffed in here.” Mrs. Keller clasped her hands. “I’m so excited about this. I’m so sorry you’re using vacation time for this but I’m thrilled to have it finished sooner.”

  “I really don’t mind. My dad used to say ‘a change is as good as a vacation.’ This change is going to be fun for me.”

  While I was there I hung large plastic sheets over the doorways to the rest of the house to keep the mess and dust to a minimum. The living room had no light fixtures and felt dark and forbidding. I couldn’t wait to see the room with the new light fixture and wall sconces. I made a note to bring a couple of lamps from home to use until the lights were in.

  “I’m going now,” I told Mrs. Keller.

  “Here’s the key and I wrote the code to the garage down in case you need to get into the garage for anything. There’s not a lot of food here, but you’re welcome to whatever you can find and you’re welcome to use the kitchen.”

  “Thank you. I guess I’ll see you in two weeks. Enjoy the warm weather.”

  I squealed with excitement as I drove away from the Keller’s. After work tomorrow, I’d begin stripping wallpaper. I offered a little prayer in my heart that everyone I had lined up over the next ten days would be prompt and responsible.

  Please let tomorrow speed by. I was ready to leave my bank clothes behind and be a real interior designer.

  * * *

  “Matt’s in a meeting with Dave and Ally,” Meg said when I walked into the bookstore the next day.

  “Oh, he didn’t mention we weren’t having lunch today,” I said.

  “I don’t know what Matt’s plans were. I’ll check.”

  Meg called Matt and a couple of minutes later, he and two of his employees emerged from the office.

  “If you’re in the middle of something, we don’t have to do lunch today,” I said.

  “We’re finished.” He kissed me lightly on the lips. I hated it when he kissed me in front of Meg. I could feel her eyes boring into me. “Let’s walk over to Bardo’s and get a sandwich.”

  “Are they all set for next week?” Meg asked Matt.

  “All set,” Matt said and held the door open for me to walk through.

  “What’s happening next week?” I asked as we walked the block to Bardo’s.

  “I’m heading up to Seattle. With Meg.”

  “Oh.” I was surprised this was the first I was hearing about it.

  “We’re closing on the house Monday and then spending the week getting the renovations set up. Too bad you have a job already. You could have been our designer.”

  I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to Matt. “Would you have actually hired me for the job?”

  “Why not?”

  “I can’t tell if you’re serious, Matt. Would you really have let me do that?”

  Matt shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d have turned the whole thing over to you. I mean, you don’t have any real experience. But I’d have let you work with a designer. But it doesn’t matter. You have your other job.”

  Matt continued walking and it took a moment for me to catch up to him. My chest felt tight and I was no longer hungry. Matt opened the door to Bardo’s. I folded my arms tightly and tried to control my anger as I walked by him.

  Matt wouldn’t have hired me. He just wanted me to feel bad that I was doing a job for Chad’s parents. And he was going to Seattle for a week and hadn’t said a word. And he was going with Meg, who didn’t like me. And she’d probably say rude things about me. She’d probably try to make him even more uncomfortable with my job and she’d probably make fun of my tights.

  “I’m going to have a veggie burger,” Matt said. “What would you like?”

  I looked over the menu board. “I’ll have an order of onion rings and a chocolate shake.”

  Matt arched his eyebrows. “Really?” he asked. He sounded like he was talking to a naughty child. I nodded.

  “That’s what I want,” I said. “And make that a large order of onion rings.”

  Lunch was long and the little conversation we had was stilted, but my onion rings tasted delicious and my chocolate shake was perfect.

  Chapter Nineteen

  In the bank bathroom after work, I traded in my skirt and blouse for an old pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. I drove through Subway and bought a turkey sandwich and lemonade. I was so excited to get started it was difficult not to speed as I drove to the Keller’s.

  The house was dark and quiet when I pulled into the driveway. It felt strange to let myself in the front door. Hopefully the neighbors had been brought up to speed about my coming and going for the next ten days. I didn’t relish the thought of dealing with curious neighbors.

  I put my sandwich in the refrigerator and unloaded supplies from the back of my car. I hauled in a stepladder from the garage and two lamps. Within an hour I was in the dining room, steaming the rose-covered wallpaper.

  When I had the corner steamed, I scraped the edge back with a putty knife until there was a section of paper large enough for me to grip. I took a deep breath. This step would tell me how long I’d be at the Keller’s tonight. If the wallpaper peeled away in large pieces, this job would go pretty quickly. If it tore away in tiny shreds, I’d be in for a long night.

  I pulled the paper back gently and evenly. Barely an inch had come free from the wall before it broke down into a wimpy scrap of paper in my hand. I reapplied the steam, careful not to leave it long enough to damage the sheetrock beneath it and tried again. It tore into little shreds almost immediately.

  “Dang!” I said aloud. I looked at the three walls of wallpaper. Hundreds of pink rose bouquets waited to be removed. I sighed. It would be a long night.

  I had most of the first wall finished and my shoulders were aching when my phone rang. I placed the steamer on the ladder tray and
pulled my phone from my pocket. It was Matt.

  “Hey, there,” he said. His voice sounded artificially chipper and reminded me of a game show host.

  “Hi Matt.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m at the Keller’s house. Working.” It annoyed me that he asked. He knew where I was.

  There was a pause. “So, Elizabeth, I’ve decided I’m leaving for Seattle tomorrow instead of Monday. I just wanted to let you know.”

  “Oh. Well thanks for telling me.”

  “I figured you’d be busy there anyway, so it wouldn’t really matter,” he said. “Listen. About today.” He paused and I waited. “I could tell you were upset. I just don’t understand why.”

  “Really? You don’t?”

  I didn’t want to have this conversation. I had a ton of wallpaper to get off the walls. I needed to have both rooms primed and painted by Monday so the floors could be put in. And it bothered me that he didn’t know what was wrong. He was a smart guy. He should be able to figure this out. It wasn’t molecular biology to know that taunting me about this job was mean. And dangling the renovations of his bookstore in my face when he never had any intention of letting me do it was even worse.

  “Listen Elizabeth. Don’t make me guess. Just tell me what you’re upset about.”

  “I honestly can’t believe you don’t know,” I said.

  Matt laughed. “Well I don’t. So let’s just eliminate the guessing game and tell me.”

  “It isn’t just one little thing, Matt,” I said.

  “Uh oh. I must really be in trouble.” Matt laughed again but I didn’t. “Elizabeth, I can’t fix anything if you don’t tell me.”

  “All right, fine. If you really want to know, I’ll tell you.” I stepped off the ladder and went to the kitchen to get my sandwich. “I don’t like that I can’t even talk to you about this job because if I do, you get all weird and moody about it.”

  “But Elizabeth, you have to admit, the job is a little unusual. And it’s an old boyfriend who arranged it. Any guy would be bothered.”

  “I don’t think that’s true and it doesn’t matter who arranged it. This is important to me and it would be nice if you were supportive about it.”

  “Okay, I’ll do my best to give you my support.”

  “And I don’t like that you pretended you’d give me a job helping design your bookstore when you wouldn’t trust me to do it anyway. You just wanted to make a dig about me doing this job.”

  “Come on, Elizabeth. None of these things are a big deal. Surely you understand why I’d want to have a professional work with you. That wasn’t meant to hurt your feelings. I’d think you’d like the experience of working with someone else. Besides, you’re already tied up so this is a moot point anyway.”

  “No it isn’t, Matt. I graduated from college in this. I know what I’m doing. The Kellers are trusting me and they’re not insisting a professional hold my hand through the whole thing.” I did air quotation marks with my fingers when I said professional, even though he couldn’t see them over the phone.

  “Yeah, well, the Kellers may be paying you for this but it isn’t exactly a regular job is it? You wouldn’t have this job if that guy hadn’t set it up for you. Am I right?”

  I could hardly speak. If Matt had called to try to make peace, he was doing a bang up job. I shoved the sandwich away from me. “That guy is my friend. And he has a name. All Chad did was set up an appointment for me. It was never a sure thing. I had to put together a proposal they liked and it was handled like a real job. They hired me because they liked my ideas and they trusted me.”

  Matt sighed. “This isn’t going well. I called to smooth things over and I’m just making you more upset. I don’t want to leave with you angry at me.”

  “I appreciate that you called, but you’re not making me feel better by putting me down and by ripping this job apart.”

  “I don’t think I was doing that. I think you’ll do a great job. How about this? I promise, if we open another Pink Salamander, we’ll hire you to do the interior.”

  “I’m sure you’ll have to check with your partners on that, won’t you? I doubt Meg would go for that.”

  “What’s going on with you and Meg?” Matt asked.

  “Meg doesn’t like me,” I said. Oh, I hated the way that sounded—so petty and insecure.

  “Meg likes you just fine. She thinks you’re great.”

  “Of course she does,” I said.

  “She’s told me.”

  “Oh Matt, guys are so blind. I’m not crazy about you traveling with Meg because I can tell how she feels about me and I don’t really like you talking about me with her.” I sat down at the granite counter and unwrapped my sandwich.

  “You’re being silly. We don’t talk about you any more than we’d talk about anyone one of us was dating,” Matt said.

  “Oh really? You talked to her about my tights. And you had her buy me pantyhose. Do you have any idea how weird that is?”

  “What’s weird about it?”

  “I can’t believe you have to ask that.” We were both quiet for a moment. “Why do you hate my tights anyway?”

  “This is a ridiculous conversation.” Matt’s voice sounded frustrated.

  “Is it? It doesn’t feel ridiculous to me. I like my tights and you don’t. I’d like to know why.”

  “I just think they look childish. I’ve never seen a grown woman wear colored tights. Or tights with flowers and patterns on them.”

  “I like my tights,” I said. “And I’m not the only grown woman who likes tights. Tights factories aren’t making them just for me.”

  “You know what, Elizabeth. The tights are fine. I can get used to the tights. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings about the tights. If I’d known they were such a big deal to you, I’d never have bought you the pantyhose.”

  “Matt, you didn’t buy me the pantyhose. Meg did. It’s humiliating to have someone who I know doesn’t like me discussing my choice of legwear with you. And then she had to figure out the size and the color and then I’m sure she was watching me to see if I wore them or not. It’s embarrassing.”

  “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t know it was a big deal. I won’t do that again. But I’m certain Meg didn’t give it a second thought. And you’re wrong about how she feels about you. She thinks you’re really nice.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I didn’t want Matt to leave with things ugly between us and I didn’t want to point out what I suspected was true—that Meg was interested in Matt and wanted me out of the picture. What if I pointed it out and Matt realized he liked the idea. No way did I want to lose him. There had been glimmers of the charming, generous Matt lately. I needed to be nice and accept his apology and leave things alone.

  “Well, whether she likes me or not, I appreciate you calling,” I said. “I was pretty upset at lunch.”

  Matt let out a laugh. “I could tell. That’s why I’m calling. I want things to be okay with us. I promise I won’t talk to Meg about what you wear and I’ll get used to your tights if they’re that important to you.”

  “I like my tights.” I tried to laugh. “I know it sounds silly but I do.”

  “I get it. And I’m sorry if I haven’t seemed supportive about this job. I hope it goes really well for you and you’re able to leave the bank and be a full-time designer.”

  “Thanks Matt.”

  “If I didn’t have so much going on with the Seattle Salamander I’d come and help you.”

  “Oh, I wish you could. I’m dying with this wallpaper tonight.” I paused a second, hoping Matt would offer to come over and help me. When he didn’t, I continued. “But I know you have a lot happening. I hope things go well with your trip and the new store.”

  “I wish I could see you before I leave,” Matt said. “I wish I could give you a big hug and kiss.”

  “Me too.”

  “So are we good?�
� Matt asked.

  “We’re good at my end. Are you good?”

  “Better than ever. You know I think you’re pretty great.” My heart warmed at the compliment.

  “So are you.”

  “When you’re through with this job and I’m back from Seattle, let’s plan a nice celebration dinner. You can pick any restaurant you want.”

  “Thanks Matt. That’ll be fun. I’m really glad you called.”

  “Me too.”

  “I’d better get back to work.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow night,” Matt said.

  “Goodnight.”

  I finished my sandwich while I thought about Matt. Tall, dark, brooding and sometimes arrogant. But he was coming around. Just like Mr. Darcy had. And he thought I was pretty great. I couldn’t help but smile.

  It was after eleven and I was exhausted. My arms ached. Removing the wallpaper was a tedious process. The steamer was heavy and after I’d held it up to steam a section, I’d set it on the ladder tray and peel and pull the paper until nothing else would come. Then I’d repeated the process again and again and again.

  I still had almost the entire large wall left and my arms were screaming in rebellion.

  “Knock, knock.” I nearly fell off the ladder. “Don’t be scared. Oh Lizzie, I’m sorry.” Chad stifled a laugh when he saw my face. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I promise.”

  “Chad. Hi. What are you doing?”

  “I told Mom I’d stop by and water her flowers and get the mail. I drove by earlier and saw you were here but I didn’t want to bother you. I’ll just put this in the office and get out of here.” He waved a few envelopes in the air.

  “Why would you think you’d bother me?” I asked.

  “You know. You’re… working and… I don’t know. I don’t want things to be… weird.”

  “Don’t be silly. We’re friends, right? We should be able to run into each other without things being weird.” I wasn’t sure I believed my own words even though I wanted them to be true. I wanted us to be able to be around each other without it being awkward. I wanted us to be friends. My mind went back to the last time I’d seen Chad. Hopefully he’d think my flushed cheeks were about the hard work I was doing and not from the memory of the long hug under the streetlight that had just popped into my mind.