Romance Through the Ages

by Amy Harmon

  It was one of the most pleasant evenings I’d ever spent with Matt. My halibut was delicious with its candied lemon and salty picholine olive confit. It was difficult not to lick the plate. Matt was extra cheerful and sweet.

  The snow had become more energetic while we were eating. The roads were black and shiny but snow was collecting on everything else. Matt paused just outside the door and wrapped my scarf around my neck before he took my hand to walk to the car.

  “Do you want to see the sun porch?” he asked when we reached the car.

  “Right now?”

  “Sure. Unless you’re too tired.”

  “No. Yes. Let’s go see it.”

  The Pink Salamander was dimly lit by a few outdoor lights. From somewhere inside, probably the parlor, a dim light glowed. Matt unlocked the door and quickly punched a code into a pad behind the counter to disarm the alarm. Then he turned on a few more lights. At the back of the store, just beyond the parlor, was a set of French doors. I’d never paid any attention to them before because they were always closed and covered with curtains.

  Matt walked ahead of me and turned on another light. It was hard to see the details of the room. It was big but cluttered. A television and a treadmill were set up on one side. Boxes were stacked randomly around the room. Two bicycles leaned against one wall. There were two Christmas trees, one still decorated and a car tire.

  “What’s that doing in here?” I asked, pointing at the tire.

  “I don’t even know. It’s going to be a lot of work just getting this cleared out.”

  It looked like the sun porch had been added onto the house. One wall was clapboard siding that had once been the exterior. The other three sides of the room were drywall up to about my waist and then windows up to the ceiling.

  “Do you know the dimensions?” I asked.

  “I think it’s about thirty-four feet long by sixteen feet. Maybe that’s not exact, but it’s close.”

  “This will be a big room. You might have to stock more children’s books.”

  “I’m already planning on it. This will be good. I’ll expand the women’s fiction section into both of the upstairs rooms.”

  “Ooh, I can’t wait to get started,” I said. “I’ll probably be up half the night drawing out ideas.” Matt smiled and pulled me into his arms.

  “It looks like I’m hiring the right girl.”

  “It’s about time you realized that,” I said.

  Matt kissed me—long and slow—until my knees were weak and my mind wasn’t anywhere close to thinking about bookstores and places for children to read. “It’s good to be home,” Matt said as he took my hand and led me out of the bookstore.

  * * *

  It wasn’t easy going back to work at the bank. I tried to keep my mind on my work but all I wanted to do was draw up plans for the children’s room. The only bright spot was when Matt came through my line.

  “I started cleaning out the sun porch this morning,” he said as I counted out his cash.

  “I’ll help you during lunch,” I said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Definitely. Just get me a sandwich I can eat while we work.”

  “Great. Thanks.”

  “With meat,” I said, and Matt smiled.

  “With meat.”

  We cleared and sorted and cleaned through our lunch hours, after work each evening, and on Saturday morning. We would have worked all day, but Matt had to quit about noon—he was meeting with some people over the weekend—but by the time we quit, the room was cleared out. It was a bright, cheerful room. We took the final measurements and Matt kissed me goodbye. Secretly, I was glad he had a meeting. I couldn’t wait to get home and start designing.

  * * *

  I’d just ended a call with Sam Vaseedo. He’d been an art major and I’d had a couple of classes with him. While I was trying to train my artistic eye, Sam was the real deal—an artist who could do just about anything. I had an idea for a mural and I knew Sam was the perfect artist to pull it off. I circled the number several times as I thought about how to present the idea to Matt. The mural wouldn’t be cheap but if I could help Matt see my vision, I hoped he’d want to go ahead with the idea.

  When my phone rang, I thought it might be Sam again. I was surprised to see Chad’s name.

  “Hi Chad.”

  “Lizzie, how are you?”

  “I’m really good. Thanks.”

  “You sound good.”

  “You’re partly to blame for my good mood. Because of the job you helped me arrange with your parents, Matt is hiring me to design the children’s room at his bookstore.”

  “Smart move on his part,” Chad said. “Hey, I talked to Mom this morning. They’re flying home tomorrow.”

  “Oh wow. I’m so excited for them to see the rooms.”

  “That’s what I’m calling about. Mom wants you to be there when they see them. In fact, she told me if you weren’t there, they’d just have to stay at my house tomorrow night.”

  “Ooh, threats.”

  “Exactly. I don’t want to have to make up the bed in the guestroom, so I’m hoping you can come tomorrow.” I thought of what Matt would think and I must have stayed quiet a little too long because Chad continued. “I’m picking them up at the airport at three. I could come and pick you up before that if you want and we could go over together.”

  I wished I was imagining the hopeful sound in Chad’s voice. The thought of spending time with him sounded way too good. If it were up to me and me alone, I’d say yes. But I needed to stop being selfish. I needed to think about Chad.

  And Matt.

  But this was a job and I was just going over to meet with the clients. Right? I berated myself for my pathetic attempts to rationalize.

  “Thanks anyway, Chad. I think it would be better if I just drove myself over and met you.”

  “Oh.” Barely a pause. “Of course. That’s no problem. We’ll probably be back at the house at about four.”

  I congratulated myself for saying no the same way an alcoholic congratulates herself for declining the wine menu. Then I rolled my eyes at my melodrama. But all the way to the Keller’s’ home, I felt sorry for alcoholics.

  * * *

  I parked in front of the house just before four. Chad’s car wasn’t in the driveway so I waited, my hands a little clammy and my heart rate a little erratic. I knew I’d done a good job but I so wanted them to love it.

  A few minutes later, I saw Chad’s car down the street. Chad waved and pulled into the driveway. I wiped my hands on my jeans and got out of the car.

  “Are you as excited as I am?” Mrs. Keller asked.

  “Excited and a little nervous, to be honest,” I said.

  “She’s got nothing to be nervous about. She did a great job.” I returned Chad’s encouraging smile with a weaker one of my own.

  “You want to open the trunk?” Mr. Keller asked Chad as he gave the trunk a knock knock.

  Mrs. Keller grabbed his hand and headed for the front door. “We can unload the car after we look at the house,” she said.

  “She’s the boss,” Mr. Keller said as he shrugged and gave me a helpless look.

  Chad fell into step beside me. “Don’t worry. You killed it.”

  “Thanks. I hope they think so.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Keller were waiting just inside the door with their backs to the living room.

  “Oh no,” I said. “Did I forget to turn off the lights in here?” I hadn’t been here for a few days now. They’d think I was terribly irresponsible.

  “No. I stopped by on my way to the airport and turned them on so they’d have a great first impression.” I looked at Chad in surprise, but he didn’t look back at me.

  “Can we go in now?” Mrs. Keller asked.

  “Of course,” I said.

  Mr. and Mrs. Keller turned around and faced the living room. “Oh my,” Mrs. Keller said quietly. They walked into the room slowly, taking in everything around them. Mr. Keller
bent down and ran his hand over the rug. Mrs. Keller touched the silk drapes before moving on and picking up a bright orange pillow and clutching it to her.

  Mr. Keller walked over to the oversized chair by the fireplace and sat down. “I think I’ve found my new favorite place to sit,” he said and then before he’d settled in, he sprang back up and examined the glass tile fireplace. “This is phenomenal,” he said. He turned to me. “Did you do this?” I nodded. “It’s fantastic.”

  Mrs. Keller had moved to the dining room where she stood looking at the plates scattered on the wall above the buffet. She still clutched the orange pillow in her hands. I walked in and stood beside her.

  “Oh Lizzie,” she said and hugged me, the pillow between us. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. I turned to see if Chad had seen his mother’s tears but Chad wasn’t there. I stepped back into the living room. He wasn’t there either.

  “I knew you had a good plan,” Mr. Keller said, his hand on my shoulder. “But I’d be lying if I didn’t say you exceeded all my expectations. This is extraordinary.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” Mrs. Keller said. “It’s so beautiful.”

  “Did you see the rug?” Mr. Keller asked his wife.

  “No.”

  “Well, come see it. It’s something else.”

  “Chad said that’s where he’s going to sleep when he comes to visit,” I said.

  “Well, I don’t blame him,” Mr. Keller said. “He might have to shove me aside first.”

  For the next ten minutes the Kellers examined every detail of the rooms, gushing and admiring every new discovery. They sat on each piece of furniture and pronounced them all comfortable. They thanked me so many times I began to feel self-conscious.

  At one point I saw Chad carry in a couple of suitcases but I didn’t see him again. I waited a few minutes longer than was comfortable so I could say goodbye to him, but when he didn’t reappear, I finally gave up.

  “I really should go. I’m so glad you like it.” I shook Mr. Keller’s hand but when I put out my hand to shake Mrs. Keller’s she pulled me into a warm embrace.

  “You’re a talented girl, Elizabeth. No wonder Chad thinks you’re so special.”

  I felt the color rise in my cheeks. I managed an embarrassed thank you before I left.

  I was proud of what I’d designed and glad they had liked it. So why did I feel like crying?

  Chapter Twenty-four

  I felt different as I walked up to The Pink Salamander. I’d decided if Matt was going to pay me like a “real” job I was going to treat it like a real job. In my left hand was my portfolio case and in my right hand was my sample board. I tucked the sample board under my arm and opened the door.

  Meg was standing behind the counter. I hadn’t seen her for nearly two weeks and was surprised again at how stunning she was. She smiled but it didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “Hi Elizabeth.” Why did her voice sound so insincere? “Matt’s on the phone.”

  “I think I’ll just head back to the sun porch,” I said.

  “Matt says we blew it when we didn’t hire you to be our designer.”

  There was no good answer to that statement. “Well, I’m excited to do the Children’s Room. Will you tell Matt I’m back there?” I walked past Matt’s closed office door and continued back to the sun porch. A few minutes later, he joined me.

  He laced his fingers in front of him and smiled. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  I showed him the floor plan and began pointing out the features. There were six-foot wide shelves at each end of the full wall. “I don’t want them to go all the way to the ceiling. That would be intimidating to children. I thought we could leave about three feet at the top. Look at these big blocks with letters and numbers.” I handed Matt the picture. “They’re each a square foot, so we could stack them. The colors are perfect with the rest of the design.” Matt nodded.

  The shelves would continue around the sides. Along the long wall of windows, the shelves would be broken up every ten feet by low box seats for children to sit in. A low table and these painted wooden chairs would be placed on one end of the room and an assortment of beanbag chairs in the same colors would be scattered throughout the rest of the room.

  “Look at this great carpet,” I said. “It’s bright without being obnoxious. I like how speckled it looks. It’s really durable and it wouldn’t show everything, so you guys wouldn’t have to be vacuuming it every night.”

  “You’d go with carpet instead of wood?” Matt asked.

  “Yes. It will help keep down noise and there’s less chance of a child being hurt on carpeting than on a hard floor.”

  “I hadn’t thought about the sound.”

  “I also like the colors in this because I’d like to paint all the bookshelves these old-fashioned colors— pistachio green, vermillion red, maize yellow, and then this cornflower blue. They pick up all the specks in the carpet.”

  “I like the colors.”

  “Me too. They’re child-friendly but they’re also sophisticated and a little more subdued than something like primary colors would be.”

  “What is your plan for this empty wall?”

  This was the part I was most excited about. “We have two choices. We can either put more shelving or…” I pulled out a rough sketch of the mural I’d discussed with Sam. It wasn’t good. I’d drawn it myself and I was afraid Matt wouldn’t see what I was envisioning. I held it up to my chest, hiding it from him. “Now promise you’re not going to laugh at my bad artwork. I promise I wouldn’t be doing the mural.”

  Matt was smiling at my enthusiasm. “Now I’m really curious,” he said.

  “I have a friend from college who’s an amazing artist and I’d like to have him paint a mural on this wall,” I said, still clutching the drawing.

  “Are you going to show me?” Matt asked.

  I reluctantly handed over the drawing, embarrassed at its sloppiness. “It’s five children in a row. They’re all sitting cross-legged and holding a book in their laps. Adventures are flying off the pages. For this boy, it’s airplanes. This girl could have princesses dancing. This little girl would have Dr. Seuss characters. This girl would have all kinds of animals and this boy would have a variety of Harry Potter things. Like Harry on a quidditch broom or whatever. Really, the adventures could be anything we want. The point is that reading takes us to new places and lets us have all kinds of adventures.”

  Matt was nodding. “And your friend is better than this?”

  I punched Matt in the arm. “He’s amazing. But don’t make fun. It’s a good idea even if I’m not a great artist.”

  “I agree. I really like the idea. How much does he charge?”

  I cringed. “It’s not cheap, but have you seen the mural on the side of the Tres Hombres Cantina?”

  “I’ve seen it.”

  “Sam did that. He’s really good.” I told him the price Sam had quoted. “He said he could have it done in time if he could start in the next couple of weeks.”

  Matt continued looking at my amateur picture and then nodded. “Let’s do it…”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “This whole plan is great. I like it so much better than the Children’s Room in Seattle. Alan’s going to be jealous.”

  I threw my arms around Matt. “I’m so excited.”

  “It’s really good, Elizabeth. But I’m not sure this reaction, or this hug, is very professional.” He laughed. “And neither is this.” Then he kissed me. I’m sure it was a good kiss but I could hardly think about it. My mind was already starting the job.

  “Ahem.” I stepped away from Matt. Meg was leaning against the doorframe looking way too sexy in her tight, gray skirt and three-button-unbuttoned silk blouse. Did she really need to look like a high-priced escort to work at a bookstore? Matt’s bookstore?

  “Did you need something, Meg?” Matt asked.

  “I just wondered if you’d talked to your mom since she got home,” Meg said.


  “I’ll probably talk to her later tonight,” Matt said. He suddenly seemed uncomfortable.

  “Be sure to tell her thanks for including me at dinner Saturday night. It’s always so nice to see her.” Meg gave me a pointed look.

  Saturday night? He’d had meetings Saturday. Suddenly it dawned on me. Matt hadn’t ever said it was a work meeting. He’d just said he was meeting with some people. Had those people included his mother?

  “I’ll tell her,” Matt said. He turned back toward me, dismissing Meg.

  “I’m so glad she could come see my condo. Now she can tell my mom how great I’m doing here. Maybe my mom will finally come and visit.”

  Matt looked frustrated. Or was it guilty? I’d been trying for weeks to arrange for Matt to meet my parents. I assumed he’d want me to meet his family, but his mother had just been in town and he hadn’t introduced me. But Meg had been invited and they’d even taken a tour of Meg’s condo.

  “Have you already closed out the register?” Matt asked.

  “Yes. I’m just getting ready to go. Have a nice evening.”

  I turned around and leaned over my portfolio, putting all the pictures back inside in a haphazard way. Tears were stinging my eyes and I blinked furiously. “I’ll give Sam a call and tell him we want to go ahead,” I said when I could trust my voice.

  “Elizabeth,” Matt said. I couldn’t look at him. I took the drawing from Matt’s hand and shoved it into my case.

  “This should be fun. I’ll start placing the orders. Did you want to give me an expense account or a credit card?” I lingered over my papers, not wanting to look at him.

  “Elizabeth.” Matt pulled me up and turned me toward him. I still couldn’t look at him so I focused on the third button of his blue shirt.

  “I’ve got to go,” I said.

  “I think we should talk.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so.” My voice broke. Matt tried to pull me into his arms, but that was too much. I wrenched myself away and started toward the door. I forced myself to walk, refusing to create extra drama. “You can tell me later how you want to handle the money,” I said.