Chapter 32: The Big Meeting

Saturday rolled around for the guys the same as it used to do. They exercised together as weekend warriors. They met and ate at the diner. But one thing was different. Each felt the absence of Laura for the week, which left their hearts a tad emptier and hope at being chosen by her a little bleaker.

Alex, who had been absent from the guys’ weekend ritual, felt it harder than the rest. Last weekend she was in his arms 24/7 in his California King sized bed. This Saturday he was sitting on a hard booth bench with two other guys, each of whom felt like she was no longer interested in seeing or speaking to them, let alone dating them exclusively.

Naturally, instead of politics, sports, or other local current events, the topic on each guy’s mind was the lovely Laura.

Alex, much less confident after a week without their lovely lady, articulated what was on everyone’s mind at that table, “What happened? What went wrong? Were we the objects of catch and release? Did we come on too strong with the flowers and gifts?”

Don patted him on the back, “There, there, man, that’s a lot of questions.”

“Yeah, it may be a lot but what’s on all our minds, no doubt,” Ricky said.

“I thought women liked getting gifts and flowers and love notes.” Alex looked down and shook his head.

“That might be true of your characters, but Laura is a difficult nut to crack,” Don reasoned.

“She cannot be bought, that’s for sure. Which begs the question, what does she want?” Ricky wondered.

“Do you think we did anything wrong?” Alex asked his two friends.

“I can’t speak for you two, but when we parted at the end of our date she definitely had a smile on her lips,” Ricky bragged.

“Yeah, yeah, likewise,” Don and Alex agreed without revealing too much.

“And I like to think, as a romance novelist, that I understand and appreciate the female psyche as much as I do the female form.” Alex laughed for the first time with his friends in a long time.

“One thing for sure, I don’t want this Laura thing to break us up as friends,” Ricky said.

Ricky put his right hand on the table and the others put theirs on top of his.

“Let’s make a pack, guys, no matter who Laura chooses, we will never lose our friendship. We have a wonderful, lifelong brotherhood thing going on and I’d hate to jeopardize that over a woman. Agreed?” Don asked.

“Agreed,” Ricky and Alex replied.

“So, should we add to our rules before we go any further or fall any deeper?” Ricky asked.

“Yeah. Rule one: we don’t kiss and tell. Right Don?” Alex suggested, all three aware of Don Juan’s penchant for bragging about his romantic conquests.

“Okay!” He agreed.

“Rule two: No violence against one another because of this woman,” Ricky added. How soon they forgot about how they had wrestled in the aisle at one of her concerts.

“Last rule: we cannot dominate her time. I think that is what happened this time. Every free hour of every day was appropriated by one of us: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She had no time for herself and not enough time for her craft outside of her three work shifts. She is already a busy, independent lady. We’ve gotta respect that. That’s part of why we are attracted to her after all,” Alex advocated for Laura.

“Does that mean I need to have my assistant create a spreadsheet?” Ricky stated, reaching for his smartphone to make a reminder.

“No!” Alex and Don shouted.

“It will happen naturally or not at all,” Don explained.

They shared a banana split together and after they finished up with dessert, left the diner feeling a lot better than they did going in to this meeting of old friends. They shook hands, high fived, fist bumped, and wished each other luck with their lovely Laura, confidently believing that she would pick them over the others.

# # #

Back at Laura’s loft, she had managed to eat through the entire box of Belgian chocolate truffles in 24 hours. She noticed that she had no texts, no voicemail, no email, no instant messaging and no visitors during that period, a virtual demonstration of what she felt she no longer had: the guys’ care or concern for her.

She wondered what was going on but recognized her own role in and responsibility for this silence. Was the universe giving her the solitude and strength that she thought she wanted now that she had changed her mind? She had pushed them away and now they were respecting her choice.

“Okay universe,” she cried out. “I misspoke. I want them back. I want all three of them back, p-l-e-a-s-e.”

Nothing happened that she could notice on her end, but with her admirers everything was changing and they were gearing up to work to their individual advantage. Laura spent the rest of the day alone and practiced her cello. Unlucky in love but lucky in work? She did not feel lucky in anything.

She just felt incredibly alone due to her own choices. She wished she could reach out to the guys, but something inside advised her to sleep on it and everything would look better in the morning. Not even a warm and fragrant, relaxing lavender bath by candlelight with a cup of chamomile tea would solve her feelings of desperation and regret.

“No Caitlin, no Luke, no Alex, no Don, and no Ricky,” she pondered, “it’s just me and I feel lousy.”

“H-e-l-p me find my true love,” she whispered a quick prayer, then turned the light off, eager to drift off to dreamland where nothing was impossible or complicated and there were no conflicts. If everything could change in a week, what difference would one day make in guiding her decision, if, in fact, they still wanted her to decide on one of the three billionaire bachelors?