“I can wait with you if you need to talk!”
“Nah, I don’t want to talk, besides you have talked my ear off more in the last few months than any man could bear in ten lifetimes,” replied Marcus trying to soften his statement with a wry smirk.
“You do know by now that you can’t get rid of me that easily?” asked Sheldon folding his tall frame down until he was seated beside his friend.
“A guy can try can’t he?”
“So, today’s the day you meet with Luce?” asked Sheldon intuitively, while ignoring Marcus’ barbed attempts at putting him off.
“Yeah, it’s my deadline!”
“Well if you want me to detain the DiMinoglio’s at the airport when they arrive, you only need say the word you know!” joked Sheldon jabbing Marcus lightly in the ribs.
“That seems like my only option now to delay this!” replied Marcus with a serious expression.
“Hey, you do know I’m joking about that though!” retorted Sheldon quickly. There was no telling what Marcus thought was serious when he was in this frame of mind. “I am sure that Lucinda wants to sell you her restaurant and she is only doing this in the hope that you and Natasha would work things out!”
“It’s not fair Sheldon, Natasha is the one who left and she is the one holding the cards here too,” Marcus seethed.
“I’m telling you Luce is not going to sell, trust me! I bet she will come up with some other excuse to try and buy you guys some more time again!”
“I hear you but I am not so convinced anymore, besides how can time stop the fact now that Natasha has finally filed for the divorce?” asked Marcus grimly throwing a fistful of sand a few feet in front of him!”
“When?” asked Sheldon snapping his head around now with understanding at Marcus’ foul mood.
“They came last night, by international courier! The rush service no doubt,” he said bitterly.
“Natasha must be crazy or determined to wreck everything that is good in her life!” exclaimed Sheldon angrily. Natasha was his friend too but this situation was wearing thin on him too. He’d looked up to Marcus and Natasha for years quietly hoping that one day he could find someone to love just as much as they loved each other. That dream was rapidly fading and was being replaced by a cynicism and distrust of women that he did not like at all.
“Is this ringing, drawstring bag yours Marcus?” asked Sean one of their teammates as he held out a bag to him.
“Yeah, it is! Thanks!” replied Marcus taking it from him. He rummaged inside and realized he had four missed calls from Lucinda! What was the huge rush that she needed to call him four times?
“Sheldon, I have to make a call, I’ll catch up with you later!” said Marcus rising to his feet. “I am going to skip on that swim today too!”
Sheldon got up quickly with him and matched his long strides as they made their way to the parking lot.
“If I don’t hear you by six, this evening I am coming up to Azure Lodge to find you!” warned Sheldon as he tapped on the roof of the SUV after Marcus got in!
“What would I do if I didn’t have a friend like you?”
“Too bad you’ll never have to find out!” said Sheldon smirking.
Marcus pulled out of the parking lot and drove home. He took a shower and grabbed something to eat quickly all the while ignoring the papers on the counter. He refused to reply to Lucinda’s calls preferring to talk to her face to face instead.
It was a fifteen minute drive to Lucinda’s and already the lunch crowd was beginning to arrive. This restaurant though set out in the countryside was more popular than many located near the city and the oceanfront. It was more than a dream investment.
Once inside he was escorted to Lucinda’s office by the host on duty. Lucinda had given up doing most of the cooking as her arthritis worsened over the years and now supervised and trained specially chosen staff to cook her highly coveted recipes.
“Come in Marcus, did you get my calls earlier?” she asked without waiting for him to sit down.
“Yes, I did but not until the fourth one. I decided to speak to you in person!”
“I see, well the reason I was calling you was to let you know that the DiMinoglio’s will be here tonight instead of next week as planned. They are very eager about the sale and they want to have dinner here tonight and spend some time on the island sightseeing before the meeting next week.”
“But I thought the meeting wasn’t finalized. You said you would call them today.”
“I know and I didn’t call them. They called me! Look Marcus I want you to be the one to have this place...” she began.
“So why all these games then Lucinda? Don’t you think that if I could have gotten Natasha back here without kidnapping her and breaking the law that I wouldn’t have by now? She doesn’t want this marriage anymore. Don’t take that out on me! I know what it takes to run a successful restaurant and this one means more to me than all of the others I own! The DiMinoglio’s could never be as invested in this as I am,” he declared.
“Well, it is the fact that I know that, which caused me to call you today! I wanted to propose something to you that could satisfy both you and the DiMinoglio’s,” said Lucinda.
“What do you propose this time around?”
“I know that your restaurants are a success because you made them so with all your hard work and creative insight. The DiMinoglio’s want this place but they want to live on Derrien Island even more.
Don’t be upset and hear me out first, okay?”
“Okay, I’ll listen,” replied Marcus.
“What if you sold Sands to them instead?” she began.
At first Marcus was about to protest but he stopped himself and thought about it quietly as he promised.
“This would allow them to get a great restaurant and you will be able to have Lucinda’s without any opposition. I never planned to sell this place to them anyway, but I never imagined that Natasha would hold out this long either in her decision to end your marriage. I know this is a strange and unexpected proposal, but both you and I know that Sands is the most troubling restaurant for you right now. You are hardly ever there because it is where Natasha worked and it was where she quit. I also know that you have been placing more effort into building the Shores brand especially with the Sunday family buffet and all the other activities. The DiMinoglio’s are looking to establish an Italian themed place including a dinner menu and they can’t do that as easily here practically in the mountains. But your restaurant will allow them to have that. I want you to dine with them tonight and discuss the details. What do you think?”
Marcus could scarcely breathe, at last for the first time in months something was going in his favour. She was right; ever since Natasha stopped working at Sands he avoided being there as much as possible.
“Sold,” he replied.
Chapter 12
“You did the right thing Natasha by sending Marcus those divorce papers this week. It really was the best thing you could have done to make sure you are at your best,” replied Lucas tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk. Natasha had called him on the phone to let him know that she would be out of town for the next three days in Burbank, California. He was so close to having her finally free of her marriage and here she was once again having doubts. He swallowed a groan of frustration at what her wavering was doing to him mentally.
“Lucas, I know you explained that it would be best for me to get it over with before the album launch to avoid any contract problems or negative publicity that would be caused if he contested it but I don’t think he will. Marcus is not the type of person who would want to cause me any public shame. I would have preferred to speak to him first before those papers arrive in the mail,” replied Natasha.
This was one of the problems Lucas faced by saying he would be her friend. He had to listen to her frequent references to her life on Derrien Island when she was with Marcus and to see how her eyes would still light up when she said his name o
r recalled something memorable that they did. He had thought that by now she would be getting over him and looking toward starting a new relationship with him. But instead Marcus remained an invisible force keeping them apart.
Convincing her to go ahead and start the divorce proceedings had not been easy. He could not advise her from the angle of a jealous want to be lover so he used the business and publicity angles which were going to be very important as she launched her career worldwide. Some might say that it was an underhanded move but Natasha had grown to trust his advice and all was fair in love and war, not to mention business.
“Natasha, I think Marcus is just as ready as you are to take your relationship out of the state of limbo that it has been in for these few months. He hasn’t called you or tried to contact you in any way since he visited you four months ago,” Lucas pointed out.
“I know, but I just think that this approach was too cold and impersonal after all the years I have known him. This whole situation is really depressing me.”
Lucas could hear that Natasha’s resolve to end her marriage permanently was wavering by the day and he was beginning to run out of reasons why she shouldn’t call Marcus, and to let him be the one to call her.
“Look if you don’t leave your place soon you will get caught in traffic and miss your flight and I know that you don’t want that to happen,” Lucas warned.
“Oh no, you are right it is getting late. I will give you a call to let you know that I made it safely okay!” she replied before hanging up quickly.
Natasha made the last minute checks to make sure that her home was secure before turning off the lights. She was on her way to tape an interview with none other than one of TV’s most popular talk show hosts, Ellen. Her first two singles had done extremely well and now she was a two months away from releasing her first album. Her life was completely different now. It was a whirlwind of publicity events planned by her team, hours spent in the studio recording her new album, singing and shooting music videos. But the long sleepless nights had been all been worth it when she listened to the music she was currently recording. She could scarcely believe that she was listening to her own voice sometimes.
Her public life was extremely fast-paced, meeting all those celebrities, enjoying the high fashion and finally doing something she loved. The only thing that she wanted less of was her managers trying to portray her as some kind of sex symbol. More than once they had a few clashes on the set about what she was willing to do and sometimes she found the terms of her contract being thrown in her face. She had signed away full artistic final decisions to the record label. So some of the themes and clothing she’d worn on the video left her feeling bare and exposed to the world. That part was not what she wanted at all. Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind she got ready to leave.
As she was about to do so, her door bell rang. Checking the video monitor she saw a delivery man with a small yellow envelope in his hand looking upward at the camera. She decided that she would sign for whatever it was on her way out in order to be downstairs in time to meet her transportation at the curb. She told him to wait and that she would open the door shortly. When she opened the door, the man asked,
“Delivery for Natasha Nicholls?” and extended to her a package and clipboard.
She signed for the package quickly and rolled her suitcase out of the complex and into the town car waiting for her at the curb. Once seated, she allowed herself to check the package in her hands. Ripping open the envelope a letter and a book fell into her lap. Natasha picked up the book and looked at the cover and saw that it was a copy of Marcus’ latest novel, “Hard Decisions”. Ever since he had last visited her, they had not communicated with each other much at all. She wanted to call him so many times during the last four months to see how he was doing, to hear his voice and just to connect. She missed him so much and that was the part of this entire experience that she wished desperately that she could change. But she had already said so many unthinkable things to him and committed herself to her contract and to her career. She had already pushed him away!
It was funny how getting what she thought she wanted opened her eyes to the fact that she’d seen her life through a tinted lens before. The more she thought back to her previous life, she realized that Marcus had been more than good to her. He had even in the last year suggested that she need not work anymore at the school because he could more than afford to support them and she could just focus on singing at Sands. But the words of her parents and her own ambitions caused her to lash out at his gesture instead of seeing it for what it really was.
He loved her then and she messed that up forever. That realization had become harder to accept than she thought. He deserved to be free to start a new life again with someone who could appreciate all he had to offer them.
It was all so clear now that her world had become so much larger and so much more impersonal. Finding someone to connect with and to trust was very hard, especially in this industry where it was easy to be taken advantage of. She was sure that after their last conversation that he had moved on with his life by now. After all he was a very attractive and successful man. That thought twisted her gut in knots!
“Natasha, there really is no point going over this now, you made your decision and you are going to have to live with it,” she whispered to herself softly.
Opening the front of the novel she read the dedication page and gasped in surprise. It read,
‘To Natasha, you are still the love of my life and my heart is forever tied to yours!’
The book fell to her lap and the front page closed slowly, as Natasha stared at it like a hot potato. After all these months Marcus still loved her? After all she’d said to him? How could that be? Natasha stared at those words incredulously. She did not dare hope that they could be true. Shaking with disbelief, she checked the publication date and confirmed that it was his most current book which meant he’d published it since he was last here in Georgia and they had the fight that reduced her to a puddle of tears and depression for a whole week.
Being alone these past few months and thinking back on Marcus’ last words to her about his willingness to relocate and even his generous gift of Lucinda’s, she often wondered if she had not been too hasty in telling him to leave. As much as she prized her success she was realizing that she loved Marcus a lot more than she realized and that truth caused her to become more and more agitated as the months passed without him. The truth was that it was driving her crazy and was causing her to lose focus during studio recording time or more than one occasion. Nothing was more telling than her recently concluded recording session with Graham Chaucer for “Fire Heart”. Only after she fantasized about Marcus to complete her shoot did he muster a grudging nod in her direction at the end of the project as his sign that she’d done well to redeem herself. By all reports even that nod was a stretch for him so she was still counting her blessings that the rug hadn’t been pulled out from beneath her as yet.
Lucas kept looking out for her by suggesting and reminding her that she needed to bring closure to her marriage in order to regain her focus and to produce her best work and keep her contract. Sure she had managed to record her songs in fine voice but more and more she knew that the things she said and did to force Marcus to let her go would have driven any sane man away by now.
Suddenly remembering that there was also an envelope inside the package, she drew it out and opened it. As soon as the flap was raised she could see the cursive imprint of Marcus’ handwriting.
“Natasha my love,
These words simply cannot express how much I miss you and how empty my life feels without you here. I know you made your decision very clear to me so I will continue to respect your request for space while you pursue your career.
I want to say that it was never my intention to stand in the way of you fulfilling your dreams. I just wanted to love you and give you a quality of life I thought you deserved. I never wanted you to have to worry about working.
But I know you were trying to keep the peace with your parents by not becoming dependent on me. I realize that my chance of having you as my wife may be over but I cannot get you out of my mind or my heart.
I don’t want to either.
That may seem like a stubborn or even foolish position to take but it is the only one I can live with. I have dedicated my latest novel ‘Hard Decisions’ to you. I want you to read it because we are the hero and the heroine and it is a story of all I would have done differently had I only known how to make you happy. You will forever be the one my heart loves.
Marcus.”
Natasha was broken and in tears by the time she reached the end of the letter. She felt so awful because she had tried to take her happiness at her husband’s expense. Where she was unfaithful he remained faithful. Yes, she had her dream of singing and being recognized for something other than as Marcus’ wife but more and more she wished she could at least have that honour once again, if only for a moment.
She had finally got the life she dreamed about but cast aside the man she always wanted to share it with in the process and she had no one else to blame but herself. The terrible thing was that she was not even enjoying the experience like she thought she would. Life was not just about achievements but about relationships and now that she had disconnected from so many of the one’s that mattered to her, just for a dream, she was now battling feelings of regret.
“Miss, we are here at the airport,” said her driver before getting out and opening her door.
Natasha knew that she probably looked like a wreck and frankly she didn’t care. The irony of the situation suddenly occurred to her. She’d just sent off the divorce papers to Marcus’ while he’d had been sending this profession of love to her. This would surely be the last straw that Marcus’ could possibly take. It would be ridiculous if he did sign them considering that she was yet to sign her copy too. What was she going to do? She was scheduled to appear on TV tomorrow in the biggest interview of her career to date and her life was in total shambles all around her.
Forgotten Love (Derrien Island Trilogy) Page 14
