Chapter 10

A long, long time ago I was really into Enrique Iglesias.  Ok, I still really, really like him but don’t really follow him closely anymore.  I even wrote fanfiction.  Yeah, I was one of THOSE girls.  Anyway, I found Chapter 10 of the one story I wrote on my computer tonight.  I can’t even remember the rest of the story or where the other chapters might be.  It actually wasn’t AS BAD as I thought it might be but like I said, if I ever write a book, it probably won’t be fiction.  Click through to read the whole chapter…

Enrique bent his head to Gracie’s neck as he stood behind her, holding her lightly at her shoulders. Gracie’s hands holding her cup and spoon at her tea stilled and moved to the edge of the counter to hold up her weak knees. Enrique moved to turn her around and…

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Gracie’s toast popped out of the toaster making her jump out of her daydreaming and nearly spill her tea. Gracie wondered how many times she had caught herself having daydreams about Enrique in the past few days. She wasn’t sure what made her more angry-that she couldn’t stop them or that she just couldn’t do anything about them. There was some special feeling she felt when she was with him. He didn’t really do anything special to her. There was just that look, that stare, that had all the words inside of them. When she looked at him she just knew what he was saying and that’s when she felt special. When they could communicate without even speaking. Gosh, she missed him! She had written out four different letters to him trying to explain her leaving a little better. But, she had stacked them all in her diary rereading each of them and realizing every time none of then said exactly what she wanted. Gracie took a seat at the bar and pulled over diary to read her letters one more time. She opened one she felt was the best and reread it one more time.

Enrique,

What a wonderful week I had with you. You will never understand how much it meant to me. Call me silly, but I have thought about a week like that for a long time. You might be wondering why I haven’t called. I do regret not having the opportunity to say thank you for the flowers.

Gracie glanced up from the letter and looked at the lilies t hat were in full bloom on her counter. She smiled a tight smile that held regret and returned to the letter.

I hope you’ll understand why from this letter. I need the time away from you for a few reasons. One really was to get back to work and the other was to decide how much you meant to me so I could decide whether to tell you exactly why I needed to get back here to work so badly. If you remember when we were sitting on your patio that first morning, I said I decided to tell you the boy version of my last few years. Well, I think you need to hear the girl version of my story. I should have told you when I was down there, when we were face to face, but I was just, I don’t know, ashamed I guess. Anyway, before this letter turns into a book, I should just spit it all out.

Remember I told you when I was in high school I had developed a little self-confidence problem? Well, by my senior year, I guess you could say I had developed pretty well and I caught the attention of a boy in my town that had graduated a few years before me. He worked at our telephone company as a customer service rep for our the Internet accounts. I had called him a few times with problems our house had been having with our connection since Mom and Dad didn’t know much about it. Once, he offered to personally come fix it at our house. I knew that was weird, but I was exciting because I knew he had flirted with me on the phone before. He came by and was a complete gentleman. We starting seeing each other all the time and I was quickly in love. He was the first boy that had given me a lot of attention and I was soaking it up. By the time I graduated, he had convinced me to move in with him. He knew I was living for MIT that fall, but said he wanted to be around me as much as I could before I left. Mom and Dad had a fit, but I just wouldn’t hear their warnings. I moved in with him 3 days after graduation and we became very close before I left. We had plans to get married and get a house as soon as I graduated. We even got checking account and credit card together so we could start doing some saving and buying for our house. I look back now and wonder where my head had gone. Anyway, I left for MIT that fall with hopes and dreams of a great future. He was moving up in the company, I was going to go to school, start my own business, raise our children and live happily ever after. Well, the first year went great. I came home on holidays and spent all my time with him. My parents had finally decided to live with my decision and we were back on good terms. They were just happy I was going to school and doing well. The second summer, I worked part time as a rep at the telephone company that he of course helped me get. I worked very hard and put all of my money in our checking account. We still talked about our future and both couldn’t wait until I got out of school. During the second year, I came home for Christmas break and he proposed. I was on cloud nine and couldn’t wait until I got out of school. I worked extra hard during the next year and even went to summer school so I could graduate early. I wanted a spring wedding and knew I couldn’t get married during my last semester of college. I guess the end of the third year of school was where it started going downhill. I came home that summer and found he was spending more time with some friends of his. I had only met them a few times, but they seemed ok. I got kind of worried after a few times he had come home late in the mornings with hangovers. I didn’t like the fact that he was drinking, but I thought it was him jus t getting it out of his system before we got married the following year. I was convinced all of it would stop. But, one morning, he stayed out very late and I was leaf ing through the mail when I came across our credit card bill. It had $8000 worth of credit on there. I was stunned and confronted him when he got home. After a long drawn out fight, I found out that this wasn’t the only card there was. He had two more—in my name. One with $2500 on it and another with almost $3000. And to top it off, he owed another $500 to one of his friends. Apparently, he had developed a major gambling problem while I was away. I couldn’t believe it. His friends were rich kids that could afford such high stakes, but he couldn’t. He simply bought them off with tvs, speakers, whatever they wanted to repay his debt. Stupid me believed that he was going to get the help we promised and pay off everything as quickly as possible. We put off the wedding until we got all of it straightened out so we could start with a clean slate. I worked the rest of the summer, not making much of a dent in the balances. I went back to school for my final semester and by mid September I couldn’t find him. He had disappeared and not even his mother knew where he had gone. Well, as you can guess, I was left with something of a mess. I went home on a weekend and found the apartment empty with bills stacked very high. As I assumed, our checking account was empty and our cards were maxed. From the bills, I could tell he had ordered everything online, not needing my signature for even one transaction. I called all the companies and told them my story. The first credit card in both of our names was very lenient and said I was responsible for at least half and they would track him down for the other half. The other two companies said since they were in my name only, I was responsible. I was heartbroken–at the loss of him and our future. After a weeks time and a lot of encouragement from my family, I went back to school with a vengeance. I wanted done with my last semester so I could get a job and start paying off what I could. I planned on tracking him down and making him pay for it all, but I paid the bills in the meantime, not letting my credit go to ruins because of him. It’s been a year and a half since then. He hasn’t turned up since, but I’m still working to repay the money. My parents help out when they can and even his mom will send money when she can, but they all have their own to deal with. I’m getting close, but as you can tell, I can’t stop working now, not even for you, Enrique. It scares me to know I might fall for someone else. It scares me even more to know I fell for you so quickly, just like him. I have a good feeling you won’t leave me with a mile high of bills, but my heart isn’t ready for any pain, no matter the cause. I need to get my life straightened out again so I can begin with something new. I still wonder why I came down to your concert. I guess I was so tired of working and longing for something that reminded me of my childhood-a simpler time. You did it, though. You gave me a week of freedom. Thank you for that. Please understand why I left now and why I can’t come back.

Please think of me.

Gracie

Gracie wiped another tear as she read this letter. It was the most detailed letter of the four she had written. One she realized that was more of a cleansing for her rather than an explanation to Enrique. Gracie shook her head and stuffed the letter back in her diary and shoved it across the counter. She set her teacup in the sink and headed for her office.

Gracie was soon wrapping up the last bit of her proposal for the hotel chain. She had scheduled the presentation for the next week and was anxious to get down there. That presentation meant a great deal to her. She had already been sending out emails to her previous coworkers getting feelers for any openings in case it didn’t work out. If she didn’t get some money coming in soon, she might have to ask her parents for some help. They had already done so much she hated to do that. Gracie opened up her browser to check one more time if there were any cheaper flights to take to Miami. She knew the hotel would probably reimburse her for her expenses, but just in case, she wanted to save as much as she could. Gracie’s cell phone rang somewhere in the house and she ran to find it. After glancing at the couch, the coffee table and the kitchen table, she finally grabbed it up from the kitchen counter and answered when she saw Jackson’s number displayed.

“Grace Adams.”

“Gracie! I told you not to answer…”

“OK, Jackson, I don’t want to hear it,” Gracie took a seat at the counter and fiddled with her diary she had left there, “What’s up?”

“Are you on the Internet? I couldn’t get through.”

“Yeah, I was just checking some of the flights.”

“Gracie, I told you I would help out if you needed it.”
”Jackson, I’m fine. Once I get this contract, everything will be just fine.”

“You know, I never said anything that day at lunch when I found out, but I can’t believe you started your own business. I mean, isn’t that kind of risky with the situation you’re in?”

“Well, I didn’t think it was. You can make a lot of money IF you have some contracts going. Maybe I did make a big mistake.” Gracie’s shoulder’s slumped.

Jackson heard the defeat in her voice and knew a lecture was not what she needed. “No, Gracie, you know, you’re right, once you get this contract, it will be fine. You’ll do a good job, make lots of money and then you’ll get another contract and make lots of money and then you’ll just be a kazillionaire and you’ll have to buy me my Corvette I want.” Jackson had them both chuckling.

“Jackson, you’re so stupid. What did you really call for besides to order your dream car?”

“Well, I was calling to see if you needed a ride to Ashlyn’s wedding rehearsal tonight.”

Gracie jumped off the stool, grabbed her keys and her purse and ran out the door. “Jackson…” umph! Gracie’s purse got caught in her door and she backed up quickly to open the door. “Jackson, I forgot! Oh my I forgot. I have to go get my dress. I forgot!”

“Oh no, Gracie! Ashlyn is going to be frantic.”

“K, bye Jackson, I’ll call you later.”
”Well, do you want a ride or not?”

“Yes! Pick me up on your way. K. Bye.” Gracie hurried over to the bridal store and burst through the front door when she got there, scaring everyone in the store. They were all staring at her, so she gathered herself and put a composed look on her face and smiled. “Sorry.”

After looking for the gown, the clerk returned with nothing. “Ma’am, this dress was already picked up by someone. Here, someone signed the ticket, I believe it says, ummm, I don’t know what that says, can you read it?”

Gracie leaned over and saw Emma’s artistic signature and grinned. “No, but I know who it is. Thank you, ma’am.”

Gracie headed back out the car, sure that she looked like a lunatic to the people in the store and dialed Emma’s number on the way.

“Emma. Please tell me you have my dress.”

“Gracie!! Where have you been? I’ve left you like 8 messages and you haven’t returned any. Where are you? What happened last week? Are you coming tonight? Why…”

Gracie laughed, “Emma! I’m fine. Calm down. Just please tell me you have my dress.”

“Well, of course, if you would have checked your messages you would have known!”

“I’m sorry! I’ve just been so busy. Listen, let me check my messages and I’ll be on my way over there.”

They said their good byes and Gracie reluctantly checked her messages. She had tried to avoid her messages, knowing at least one would be from Enrique. She wasn’t quite ready to hear from him, but was afraid she had missed more important messages. She got to her last message without hearing Enrique’s voice and got a final message from Emma. Hmm…he hadn’t called. What did that mean? Was he mad she hadn’t called him? Had he already forgotten about her again? Now she wanted him to call. Maybe she should call him and at least say thank you. Or, maybe she should send him that letter. She did say she would try to keep in touch. She was still undecided when she pulled in at Emma’s.

“Hey, Gracie!” Emma pulled Gracie into her apartment with a swift hug. “Sooo…how was it?” Emma was practically rubbing her hands together with mischief as they sat down in the living room.

“Oh Emma! I don’t know. It went great and then it went bad and now it’s just awful!” Gracie took the next hour describing the week with Enrique in almost every detail. Emma was almost speechless the whole way through.

“So I don’t get it. Why haven’t you called him? You told him you would call him and he sent you flowers. What else do you want him to do?”

“Nothing. He doesn’t need to do anything else. He just has to look at me and I about do anything he wants. It’s…I don’t know…it’s just me. Emma, you know how hard it’s been for me lately. I’ve worked hard to get as close as I am now and I just don’t want to lose it, you know. I mean, if let up even a little, the interest kills me all over again and I just can’t do that. I just can’t.”

“Gracie, the man hasn’t asked you to give up everything, follow him around and be his slave. He probably just wants a phone call at this point!”

“Yeah, but that’s how it all starts. Just a phone call and a weekend here and a weekend there and then bam! Everything is out of your mind and you just spend time with each other, forgetting everything else.”

“Yeah, but, look at you with Jason. You got through MIT with him. That never stopped you, even after everything. You accomplished so much!”

“Yeah, and look at how hard I worked at that! I wouldn’t wish those last six months of school on my worst enemy!” Gracie slumped back down in her seat after getting worked up and said resolutely, “I would just feel better if I had Jason and all that stuff behind me and then I could start fresh.”

“Ok, but I think you are insane! If I were you, I’d be dropping everything, running down there and eloping and then getting his people to find Jason and get all that money back!”

“Emma! Eloping?”

“Well, you know I’m kidding, but Gracie, think about it. You loved Enrique forever, you finally get him and then you go running scared. Gracie, if you just tell Enrique what is going on, he will understand. It’s not like you’ve done something bad to be ashamed of.”

“I know. It just makes things more complicated. I mean, if we had a relationship, it wouldn’t be easy anyway. And what if Jason shows up? I’ll have to deal with him. It’s all just too much.”

Emma bent to catch Gracie’s downcast face and said quietly, “Gracie, you can’t live life on what ifs. You’ve got to grab what you can out of life and run. If you want Enrique and he wants you, go for him. He’ll understand that you need to work and you’ll get that all paid off and if Jason shows up, well, at least you’ll have someone by your side to get through it.”

“Oh, Emma, you make it sound so easy. You always do.” Gracie leaned back on the couch and sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

Emma jumped off the couch and grabbed Gracie to pull her up too. “Great! Now let’s get our butts to the rehearsal. Ashlyn’s probably having a fit by now.”

They made it to the rehearsal dinner just before Ashlyn had a nervous breakdown. She was fine, though, after she saw that everyone was there and knew everything was in place. The rehearsal went rather smoothly. Gracie was proud of Ashlyn for handling the busy night so well. She was so detailed-oriented she tended to get a little stressed when she had to make decisions. The only thing that had gone wrong was the groom’s cake was chocolate instead of vanilla, a disappointment since Sam, the groom, was allergic to chocolate. He feigned great disappointment, claiming eating a cake shaped like a football was going to be the highlight of the weekend. Ashlyn, of course, gave him the good elbow punch rather swiftly.

During the actual rehearsal, Gracie couldn’t help but think of Enrique. Her thoughts had not stopped all week and even more ran through her head as she walked down the aisle in place of Ashlyn as the stand in bride. The long aisle ended with a vision of E standing tall and proud with a smile on his face that couldn’t quite be contained. He rolled back on his feet and then his toes, as if anxious to run to meet her, not quite able to handle seeing her as beautiful as she was on her wedding day. Her breath caught as the image of the church faded into a picture of their wedding night. There, too, that smile in his eyes was there, but no longer did he wait patiently for her to come to him. Gracie found herself being hugged by Ashlyn. “Aww, sweetie, you don’t have to cry like I will too…” Gracie tried to laugh it off as Ashlyn rubbed away her tear that had escaped. “I’m sorry. I’m just so happy for you, Ashlyn.” It was almost not a lie. She was happy for her, she just was crying for a different reason at the moment.

It wasn’t long before all the walks down the aisle had been walked, songs had been sung and bows had been tied in preparation for the big day.

Gracie stopped to say goodbye to Ashlyn on her way out. Jackson and Skylar were ready to take her home. She bent down to give her a hug and said, “Congratulations, sweetie. It’s going to be beautiful tomorrow.”

“I hope so.” Gracie went to straighten back up and Ashlyn stopped her, “Hey! Emma told me a little about Enrique.” Gracie rolled her eyes and grinned. “I agree with Emma. You should call him. I know that’s what you’ve been thinking about all night.”

Gracie didn’t realize she had been so transparent. Of course, with such a good friend, it was hard to hide anything. “I know. I’m still deciding.”

“No she’s not. She’s going to call him as soon as I get her home.” They all laughed as Emma walked up and heard the conversation. She leaned down to give Ashlyn a good-bye hug too. “Bye, Ashlyn. Get a good night’s rest. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

The girls caught up with Jackson and Skylar, who were waiting at the back of the church for them. “Hey, Jackson, don’t worry about Gracie. I’ll take her home.”

Jackson peeked over Skylar, who he was holding tightly beside him, “Alright. I think Skylar and I are going to watch a movie we rented last night.”
They all parted ways with reminders of when to be at the church the next day. Gracie and Emma were soon crashing in Gracie’ living room, ready to crash from a long week and tiring night. Gracie leaned over on her couch and pressed the button on her answering machine sitting on the end table. The first message was a hang up, but both Gracie and Emma straightened when they heard the next message. “Gracie, it’s Andres. Well, I know you haven’t called E, and I don’t really know what’s going on, but I thought maybe you needed someone to talk to. Well, just, um, give me a call if you need it. It’s 569-859-1236.”

“Awww. Gracie. How sweet was that?”

Gracie fell back on her couch. “Oh, Emma. He’s so sweet.”

“Here give me the phone.” Emma grabbed for the phone on that was sitting on the coffee table. Gracie shrieked and grabbed for the phone. Emma twisted the phone away from Gracie after she got it. “OK. What is the problem with calling Andres?”

Gracie leaned back and hesitated, “Emma, it’s just too hard. If I call him then he’ll tell Enrique and Enrique will think I’m interested, but just being shy again and then Enrique will call me and then I’ll just have to say good bye to him all over again. Or what if I call Andres and he tells Enrique and Enrique thinks I’m interested in him and not Andres. Or what if he gets his feelings hurt because I called Andres to talk, but I didn’t even call him to thank him for the flowers?”

“Girl, you have got to quit that. It is just a phone call. Andres was so nice to leave you that message and I’m not leaving here until you quit acting like a goof ball and call him.” Emma held out phone for Gracie, “OK, my arm hurts, take the phone.”

Gracie took the phone from Emma. “Ok, ok, you’re right. I’ll call him, but I’ll make him swear up and down he won’t tell Enrique.”

Gracie played the message again to get the number and slowly dialed the numbers. She put the phone up to her ear and stared at the ceiling, not sure if she wanted him to answer or not.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Andres this is Gracie. I just got your message.”
”Gracie! I’m so glad you called. Enrique has been worried about you and I was tired of hearing about it—I mean, no offense—anyway, I decided to call myself. I guess you’re ok, then?”
”Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I just’ve been busy, that’s all.”

“Well, good. Listen, I gotta get off of here, but I know E is worried about you. You might want to give him a call.”
”I don’t know Dre. I’m just not sure I should call him. I mean…” Emma leaned over and yelled into the phone, “She’s coming to Miami next week.”