Love in San Francisco ; Unconditionally

by Shirley Hailstock

  The question was, would they still be a couple?

  He was gazing into Meghan’s face when their seatmate arrived. The guy cheerfully said, “Hey, man, I’m Gary.” He offered his hand and Leo shook it. “Leo.”

  Gary, an African American in his midthirties, smiled in Meghan’s direction. “Sleeping beauty. You two together?”

  “Yeah,” Leo said and smiled at Meghan.

  Gary stowed his bag in the overhead compartment and sat down. “Lucky man. Me? I’m still looking.”

  Then they had a long conversation about women and the fact that neither of them truly understood them, but the sisters were definitely worth all the effort.

  In San Francisco, they took a cab from the airport to Loews Regency on Sansome Street. Meghan especially enjoyed the scenery. She was rubbernecking while Leo was checking his phone, into which he’d put the trip’s itinerary. “We don’t check in until four,” he was telling Meghan. “The three-hour difference puts us at only two o’clock here. But we can leave our bags at the hotel and go sightseeing until it’s time to check in.”

  “And get something to eat,” Meghan said. “It feels like mealtime to me.”

  Leo chuckled. “Of course, my love. I’m sure we can find somewhere nearby to have a bite to eat, but I made reservations tonight at a West African restaurant in the Mission District. They have good Senegalese food and great cocktails. Plus world music to dance to.”

  “Is it a place you discovered on your book tour?” Meghan asked. Leo had told her he’d been to San Francisco on a book tour three years ago.

  “Yeah, and after we get something to eat, we can go to City Lights. It’s a bookstore on Columbus Avenue. Great place.”

  Meghan squeezed his arm in excitement. “I’ve heard great things about that bookstore!”

  The Loews Regency San Francisco occupied the top floors of a forty-eight-story tower in San Francisco’s Financial District. Leo held out his hand to Meghan when they arrived and helped her out of the cab. Both of them gazed up at the tall building. “It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights,” Meghan commented dryly.

  “You won’t know you’re on one of the top floors once you’re up there,” Leo said. “The views are spectacular. You can see a lot of the city and the Bay.”

  A doorman greeted them and directed them to the front desk. At the desk, Leo told the clerk they had a reservation and needed to leave their luggage with them until it was time to check in.

  “No problem,” the young man, a redhead with light lashes and a ginger beard, said happily. He attached tags to their luggage and handed Leo a couple of brochures about the hotel, which Leo passed on to Meghan, who leafed through them while their luggage was being taken care of. Only a few minutes later, the two of them were walking across the luxurious lobby in the direction of the exit.

  “This says there’s a restaurant here called Brasserie S&P,” Meghan said, reading from the brochure. “Says it serves innovative San Francisco cuisine daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But it probably costs an arm and a leg.”

  Leo smiled. “Don’t worry about the price. I can afford a sandwich, I’m sure.”

  She was right. The prices were high, but the food was delicious and the service exceptional.

  As they were leaving, Meghan joked, “No wonder rich people are so slim. It’s painful paying that much for so little food.”

  Next they took a cab to City Lights Bookstore on Columbus Avenue. Meghan noted how the old merged with the new in San Francisco. Old buildings were juxtaposed with skyscrapers like the hotel they’d just left. The streets were uphill and downhill, and the sidewalks were busy with pedestrians.

  The bookstore had hardwood floors and aisles of bookcases. Every inch of space was used, which made it feel a little claustrophobic, but it was the type of atmosphere she loved, and she immediately felt at home.

  Leo saw the expression on her face and smiled to himself. She was indeed a woman after his heart—she loved books as much as he did. “Your books could be on these shelves,” he said. “All you have to do is let someone read them besides me.”

  He’d read all three of her finished novels and told her they were brilliant. He didn’t think she believed him, though.

  “Maybe one day,” Meghan said distractedly. She was busy reading a passage from a book.

  She bought two books, Leo bought one and they got a cab back to the hotel to check into their suite. The suite had a king-size bed, trey ceilings, luxurious furniture in caramel and lighter earth tones, and a spa bath with a huge soaking tub plus a glass-enclosed shower. The views were breathtaking. The day was clear and Meghan could see all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge as she stood at one of the two big windows. Leo hugged her from behind. “Happy?”

  She turned in his arms to look up at him. “You are a beautiful man!” And she kissed him, which led to their christening the bed in that elegantly appointed room.

  That night they dressed up and went to Bissap Baobab Village, a West African restaurant that served Senegalese food, and dined on maafe (with lamb), a peanut stew and seafood coco, which was prawns in a spicy coconut curry. For dessert they had the bananas flambé and a chocolate soufflé. A live band played world music while they danced. Afterward, when they returned to the hotel, they sat on the terrace, Leo’s arm around her and her head on his shoulder, admiring the city’s night lights.

  “This has been one of the best days I’ve ever had,” Meghan said softly.

  “I’m glad,” Leo said. “You deserve lots of days like these.”

  Meghan peered into his eyes. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

  Leo’s heart thudded in alarm. “Why do you ask?”

  “You seem more pensive than normal, and you’re already quiet and absorbed in your own thoughts.”

  “Am I?”

  “You know you are,” Meghan said softly.

  “Okay, babe, yes, you’re right, I do have something on my mind, and all will be explained soon. I promise.”

  Meghan snuggled closer. His arms tightened around her. “I’ll try to be patient. But you know that’s not my strong suit,” she warned lightly.

  Leo laughed, “Yes, I know that about you.”

  The next couple of days were spent attending the conference, which had sessions running concurrently. They attended different sessions, picking and choosing what interested them most. Each of them sat on panels and met like-minded individuals with whom they traded ideas. Meghan found it very illuminating, and she wound up exchanging contact information with a couple of the conference attendees.

  They dined at a different restaurant each night and went dancing afterward. By the last day of the conference, they felt as though they’d absorbed a lot of knowledge they could take back with them to Duke.

  There was a ball the last night of the conference, during which the attendees were encouraged to wear formal attire and mingle with each other over drinks.

  Meghan wore a sleeveless high-neck lace-and-glitter gown in pale salmon with her long, wavy black hair down her back. Strappy sandals in gold leather were on her feet, and she kept her jewelry to a minimum, with just a slim gold bracelet on her left wrist and simple gold drop earrings.

  Leo wore a tux with a white silk shirt, a black bow tie and highly polished dress shoes. His beard was neatly trimmed and had a healthy shine. Meghan took one look at him and cried, “Damn, you’re fine. There’s nothing finer than a gorgeous black man with a beard in a tuxedo.”

  Leo grinned appreciatively and secretly hoped that she would still believe that after the ball. “I’m happy you’re pleased, my queen.”

  They had to descend a winding staircase to enter the ballroom, and Leo noticed that there was a photographer snapping pictures of couples as they entered. Undoubtedly the photographer would be selling copies of them, and he made a mental note to make sure he g
ot one later.

  There was a band playing songs Leo considered American standards by composers like Gershwin and Sondheim. As the evening progressed, he also heard some Duke Ellington. He and Meghan danced every dance, enjoying the feel of their bodies moving smoothly together. It wasn’t their favorite music to dance to—that was salsa—but they were definitely enjoying themselves.

  Toward the midnight hour, he said in Meghan’s ear, “Let’s get some fresh air.”

  There was a terrace through French doors across the ballroom. Leo took Meghan by the hand and they walked out there. Meghan was once again captivated by the view, so she didn’t notice Leo removing a couple of folded sheets of paper from his inside jacket pocket.

  “Meghan, um...” he began. He took a deep breath and started again. “Meghan, I have to tell you something that’s been weighing heavily on my mind for months now.”

  Hearing this, Meghan’s attention was riveted to him. Eyes wide, she cried, “Oh, my God, you got the results from the doctor and it’s not good news!”

  Leo placed an arm around her. “Now, don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s not all bad news. I’m just going to tell you—Meghan, my heart is fine. Dr. Lindsey says medical incompetence kept me from learning that years ago. Or miscommunication. At any rate, no one was thorough enough to examine me more closely. Otherwise they would have found out my heart is healthy.”

  Meghan burst out crying and hugged him tightly. “Thank God for that.” She kissed his cheeks repeatedly. “I’m so happy.”

  “I hope you’ll keep that feeling,” Leo said ominously. “Because the bad news is, I’m sterile. I went to see a fertility specialist because I’d been told that I was born without the vas deferens, the main sperm pipelines from the testicles. It’s a birth defect.”

  Meghan went still in his arms. He hoped she wasn’t going to pass out like she’d almost done when he’d told her about his heart condition. He held on to her.

  After a moment she rallied and sighed tiredly. “Keep talking,” she said softly. “You’re not finished telling me everything.”

  “It’s not totally a lost cause,” Leo told her. “Twenty-five to thirty-five percent of couples will eventually have children. There’s no guarantee, though. So, if you decide to leave me, I’ll understand. I’ve held this inside for months because I was afraid of losing you. That was a cowardly thing to do, and I deserve anything you dish out.”

  He pressed the folded sheets of paper into her hand. “These are copies of the results.”

  Meghan gave them right back to him. “I don’t need to see them. Give me a minute to think.”

  Leo stuck the papers back into his pocket and waited. Emotions threatened to choke him if he didn’t plead his case, but he remained silent.

  Meghan stared at him with an expression of disbelief on her face. She just shook her head. The disbelief transformed into sadness. Leo looked up at the sky. She hadn’t pushed out of his arms yet, and he took that as a good sign. She wasn’t finished crying, though. He heard her sniffling. He couldn’t bear to look into her sweet face.

  After a few minutes of silence, Meghan cleared her throat and asked, “Is there anything else?” She looked him in the eye and with the force of her will alone demanded he maintain eye contact with her.

  “No, that’s all,” he said softly, hopefully.

  “Because if you come back months from now with something else world-shattering to tell me, I’d have to slug you, Leo Wolfe. And don’t think I can’t lay all six feet three inches of you out, because I can. I only threaten violence so you’ll understand how serious I am at this moment. I’m normally not a violent person. But you’ve pushed me to the limit. This is the limit. I can’t take any more secrets! Now, I’d like to hear a better reason for not telling me about this when you told me about your heart condition.”

  “I guess I thought I’d lead with what would probably kill me first,” he joked. “At any rate, I tried to warn you off me, didn’t I? I made every excuse I could, but I just couldn’t resist you. Then, when I got the good news that there was nothing wrong with my heart, I started hoping I’d be lucky twice, so I went to a fertility specialist, but unfortunately my luck had run out. If you’re brave enough to marry me, babe, I’ll be the best husband and, hopefully, father to our adopted children I possibly can be!”

  “Wait,” Meghan cried. “Did you just propose?”

  “Not formally, but I did have plans to, if you didn’t freak out and tell me it’s over between us after I told you I’m sterile.”

  Meghan huffed. “Do I look like I’m freaking out?”

  “No,” Leo admitted. “You look in control.”

  He reached into his pocket and produced a beautiful five-carat white diamond in a platinum setting. He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger. “I adore you. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife and the mother of my future children, whether they’re adopted or by some miracle come here the old-fashioned way?”

  Meghan smiled at him, her expression tender. “Yes, you crazy man, I will. And we will have children because we’ve got a lot of love to give. Chauncey and Malcolm can’t be the only creatures we lavish love on. Besides our families, of course.”

  Laughing, Leo bent down to kiss her. “I love you so much!”

  After the kiss, Leo gazed lovingly into her eyes and said, “In the beginning of our relationship I jokingly wondered what miraculous thing you would do that would compare to your sisters’ acts of heroism.”

  Meghan smiled. “You mean like Mina rescuing Jake from that plane crash? I could never top that.”

  “But you did,” Leo said softly. “You made a cynic like me believe in love again.”

  Meghan’s response was to kiss him soundly.

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A Taste of Passion by Chloe Blake.

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  A Taste of Passion

  by Chloe Blake

  Chapter 1

  Maya North waved her key fob over the lock of her apartment door and heard the latch pop just as an arm snaked around her waist and twisted her into a hard kiss. She melted into him a little, liking the surprise display of affection, wondering if tonight should be the night that they finally made love.

  “I had a really nice time tonight,” he said, sliding his lips to the corners of her mouth and down her neck. Her gaze darted to both ends of the hallway, curious if her neigh
bors were at their peepholes. She and Rick had been seeing each other for several weeks, sometimes twice a week, prompting her married neighbors, Chris and Christopher, to show up at her door one night with a bottle of wine and their French bulldog Shania in hand, saying in unison, “Girl, you sent him away again? What are you waiting for?”

  Honestly, she didn’t know. A spark? Was there such a thing? She and Rick had a lot in common. They were both business consultants, both born and raised in California, both liked Archer and Star Wars and had an ongoing debate on whether Harrison Ford’s character in Blade Runner was a replicant. Of course he was! Yes, Maya was a sci-fi nerd—a nerd with a thing for designer bags, but still—and she thought she’d found a kindred spirit in Rick.

  They’d both had one too many when she literally bumped into him at a consulting conference in Florida, sending him stumbling into the indoor koi pond at the hotel. She’d given him her card, promising to pay for ruining his custom Italian shoes. Realizing they were both vice presidents at rival Los Angeles consulting firms, he’d reached out to have drinks instead.

  But her gut told her it wouldn’t last. Their chemistry was off, like now, when he could have held her hand at the restaurant or taken her in his arms during the car ride home. She understood an aversion to PDA, but he really only touched her when no one was around. And living in LA, people were always around.

  “I did, too,” she said, feeling the hardness of his bicep under his crisp suit. God, she loved a good suit. Gently, she pulled back, stopping him when he began to push open her door with their bodies. “But I have an early flight in the morning.” It was true, but not really the reason she was ending the night.

  He looked disappointed, almost angry. And the twist in her stomach reminded her of the other reason she was hesitant. He might be a closet jerk. Pretty on the outside, rotten on the inside. It was the way he talked to waiters, dismissed his associate who had still been at the office when he called her during dinner, and sometimes made Maya feel like her lack of knowledge of certain subjects was inexcusable.