Impossible Dreams, page 13
Saturday night, they would appear on TV to see if they qualified for the Grand Prize—whatever “qualified” meant. Did W.L. have a love meter, like an applause meter? Could he invite Chance and her onstage and test the depth of their affection? The heat of their passion would blow the needle off the scale if they could test that. Infinite Dreams was looking for a couple in love. Chance would be an easy man to love.
Nina emerged from the dressing room. “I hope,” she confided, as she dug some crumpled bills out of her purse, “the next time I come in, it will be to look for a wedding dress. You will have some, yes?”
Lori nodded, and watching Nina Gigliotti leave the shop with a huge smile on her face and a dress bag in her hand, Lori sighed. Love changed people and their lives.
* * * *
Locking the shop, Lori thought about her dream of driving a ’Vette, breezing home, looking and feeling cool. It was hard to act jaunty, swinging a shoulder bag that doubled as a briefcase, with the temperature crowding the hundred-degree mark. The hot pavement burned through the thin soles of her summer sandals. Perspiration soaked the nipped-in waist of her dress and stuck it to her back. Strands of hair clung to her neck in sweaty tendrils and her half-bangs plastered themselves to her forehead.
If it got any hotter, she’d have to take a cab to work.
A house meant toilets to scrub, floors to polish, and who knew what else was required? Sure, she had to clean her apartment, but not much, and it was small. You could drive a car through a car wash and sit inside all the while and keep cool.
Will o’ wisp Apartments lay wrapped in summer haze, patios deserted, the whir of window fans the only sound. Kait had gone to Kansas City to visit her college roommate for a few days and her drapes were drawn.
After stripping down to her cotton bikinis and undershirt, Lori folded her arms across her chest. Her underwire bra hung on the doorknob to her closet and her new clothes hung inside—a reminder of who and what she could be. Torn between her casual self and the sexy woman who’d spent a weekend with a sexy man, she paused. Sneezed. Shrugged. Her allergies kicked in whenever she came home from work, and after the long walk in the late afternoon sun, she felt beat.
Dressed in cutoff bib overalls and a stretchy halter-top, she poured juice into a cartoon glass and dumped animal crackers into a yellow plastic bowl. Looney Tune characters, mismatched plastic dishes, and frankly fake sunflowers in a pot on the windowsill tickled her sense of humor before last weekend, but looked silly now. She’d known exactly who she was and who she wanted to be until she went on her Dream Date. Nothing felt right since she came back.
Lori dragged her little patio table into the shade and sank into a chair where she began sorting the day’s mail. Bills, ads, nothing more. She lifted her head, hoping to catch a breeze, and a snuffling noise caught her attention.
The snuffling was followed by a cold nose against her leg, and she looked down to find a wide-eyed collie pup studying her. “Lucky?”
The dog wagged its tail and licked Lori’s ankles.
“Aren’t you supposed to be home with Calvin?” she asked, scratching behind its ears. A dog would be company if she never married. She didn’t want to be the stereotyped spinster with a cat, but a classy career woman with a collie and Corvette was acceptable.
Lucky sniffed at Lori’s bowl of animal crackers, and she fed her some. When they were gone, the collie whined for more. “Now, I’ve done it. Spoiled you,” Lori said, but chuckling, she touched its head. “Stay right here and I’ll get you some.”
Grabbing the box out of the cabinet, she rushed back to find the patio empty. “Lucky?”
“Lucky!” She was digging up marigolds next to the sneezing lady’s porch. Taking hold of the dog’s collar, Lori scolded her all the way to Calvin’s. A high-backed wooden rocker was the only piece of furniture on Calvin’s patio. Thinking he could use some flowers or something bright to liven it up, Lori hung onto Lucky and knocked. No answer. She knocked again, then tried the patio door and found it unlocked. “Go inside,” she told the collie.
Lucky strained at her collar, trying to reach a bee that buzzed around an empty Coke can under the rocker. “Stop, you’ll get stung. This is where you live. Go in and find Calvin.”
When the dog didn’t cooperate, Lori hauled her inside. “Anyone home?”
Calvin had a minimum of furniture. A tan leather Lazy Boy chair was flanked by wooden tray tables that held neatly stacked magazines. Lori looked at the magazines and found GQ, Money, and Home and Garden. An interesting window on the world of Calvin.
Surveying the couch, a brown leather model set opposite a large screen TV, she noted that the remote control, TV Guide, and two plaid throw pillows were neatly aligned against the cushions. “Anyone home?” she called again, edging toward the kitchen.
Lucky ran to her water dish and began lapping so noisily, Lori couldn’t tell if anyone answered. By the window, a small wooden table was set with two place mats and chairs stood on either side. She brushed a crumb off the place mat facing the window and wondered if Calvin sometimes invited a date to sit across from him.
Lucky checked out her food dish, and with her quiet, the apartment was as still and lonely as Lori’s own. The collie found the dish empty and lay down with her head between her paws. Deciding to make sure Calvin wasn’t home before she left, Lori checked the other rooms. A stereo with a tape deck stood beside the bed where he lay and talked to her. His navy blue spread was pulled neatly into place. A laptop computer and brief case rested on an economy model desk.
The bathroom was white the same as hers, but her towels were multicolor striped and his were black and red. She’d never remembered to buy a throw rug, but Calvin had a black one. His toothbrush and drinking cup were red. Masculine and well planned.
“He’s not here,” she announced to Lucky, who came whining. The collie led Lori back to the empty food dish in the kitchen and looked at her with soulful eyes. “You had some animal crackers. Be good and lie down to wait.”
The dog lay on her back with all four paws in the air, as if she were about to croak from starvation. Lori laughed, and a sucker for a great act, looked in a cabinet for dog food. She found nothing but a good supply of food for a human, categorized. Soups together. Vegetables. Fruit. Calvin was impressively, depressingly, organized. Her dozen cans of whatever sat in no particular order.
A rocking chair sat in the corner of the kitchen. The wooden arms were worn and so was the patchwork cushion, but it looked cozy and Lori wondered how he happened to own it. The rest of his furniture was bland and modern. The chair had character like the clothes she sold. She stroked the smooth spots on the arms where someone’s hands had rested.
Lori apologized to the collie and was about to leave when she noticed a bulletin board on the wall by the telephone. On it was a magazine picture of a house. Rough drawings that looked like they might by a layout of the same house were stapled together and thumb tacked beside it. Next to them was a letter that began “Congratulations, you are a finalist in...” She shot a glance at the letterhead. Infinite Dreams, Inc.
“Anyone here?”
Calvin.
Chapter 9
“Anyone here?” was a silly question to shout in his own apartment, but something didn’t feel right to Chance, when he unlocked the hall door and stepped inside. A familiar scent tickled his nostrils and he wiggled his nose like Lucky following a trail. It smelled like Lori’s cologne and he didn’t remember touching her at lunch, much as he wanted to. He’d hoped she’d turn out to be less beautiful than he remembered, less tantalizing. But every time he looked at her, he wanted to twine his fingers in her hair and kiss her. And make love to her.
“Lucky?” His dog always came running, and finding both her food and water dishes empty, Chance thought maybe she’d overstuffed herself and fallen asleep somewhere. “Lucky?” he called louder than before.
He’d tried to tell himself it was just hormones that made him respond to Lori the way he did, but they were more selective than they were ten years ago, and so was he.
Why did he keep thinking about a woman who didn’t want to get married? Maybe ever? Especially when he planned to marry next year.
“Lucky?” The collie had never played games, but Chance checked under the bed and behind the TV, in case she’d learned. With his minimum of furniture—no sense investing in a lot of pieces that wouldn’t suit his future home and wife—it didn’t take long to exhaust the places a rapidly growing collie pup could hide. He didn’t see how Lucky could have gotten out, but he checked the patio door anyway and found it unlocked.
He must have forgotten to lock it, but who would steal a collie through a courtyard door where they could easily be spotted? Fear sent adrenaline racing through him. If he couldn’t take care of a dog, what kind of husband or father would he make? He’d never had a pet growing up. They couldn’t afford to feed one. And he’d never been around kids; none lived in their isolated neck of the woods. “Lucky?” Chance shouted, opening the sliding door.
A yipping noise came from the next patio and Lucky came running. “How did you get out, you naughty girl?” Chance asked, picking up the dog to hug her. Lucky licked his face until he chuckled. Thinking it was nice to be greeted with such enthusiasm, Chance wondered what it would feel like to be welcomed home with a kiss from a wife.
* * * *
Lori, cowering on the other side of the redwood wall, was relieved when Lucky ran home. Breathless from her quick exit and unnerved by her close call, Lori slipped inside her apartment, sank into a beanbag chair, and sneezed.
She’d dashed out the patio door, nearly tripping over the collie that’d raced out ahead of her. Lucky, who thought they were playing a game, kept licking Lori’s face when she crouched down. And to top it all off, she’d nearly turned blue in the face, trying not to sneeze.
Lori was furious at Calvin for coming in before she could read his letter from Infinite Dreams. Limp in her chair, she watched her sun catcher send colored lights dancing across her living room, her thoughts tumbling with them. Could he be the sandy-haired contestant in the tweed jacket? Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the other contestants, but only Chance’s face came to mind. Once she’d seen him, no one else on that stage mattered. After spending a weekend with him, she saw his handsome face every time she closed, opened, or batted her eyes. She couldn’t believe she’d turned into a lovesick female. And over a handsome guy, at that.
Lynne would have a field day if she knew.
Did Chance like sun catchers and simple things? A vision of a sunny living room in a big white house on a hill came to mind. A sun catcher caught the rays of light and cast rainbows on the carpet where Chance lay propped on his elbow playing with a blue-eyed, dark-haired baby boy. A little girl with red hair clung to Lori’s leg while she cooked dinner.
Cooked? Dinner? Her? Her stove was a secondhand apartment-size she’d barely used. Her microwave was a mini just big enough for a single dinner. Her furniture came from Tar-jé, better known as Target. Brightly colored fun stuff for a fun period in life. If she decided to marry, she’d opt for softer colors and fabrics.
“You have to snap out of it,” she told herself, over her lonesome potpie that night. All she could think about was having dinner with Chance the following evening, and where they would go from there. Sharing a house didn’t mean having children together. Thank heavens, they’d found a condom. Not that either of them would have considered irresponsible sex. She grinned wryly. Calvin would be proud of her sense of responsibility.
Poor Calvin, she thought as she slipped into bed. Even though he acted like he’d had a really hot weekend, he was probably crushed when he failed to win the Dream Contest. She didn’t think he went out much except to work. Was his rocker something he’d brought from home? Sitting up against her pillows, she waited for him to come to bed. She’d grown fond of their nighttime conversations, and tonight, she had some questions for him.
“Lucky got out today.”
She hadn’t had to wait long. Any other time, she would have told him he should lock his doors and be more careful with his pup. But she didn’t want him to know she’d been in his apartment, snooping. “Hmm,” she said loudly.
“She came back from your patio. Did you... uh... borrow her?”
“Borrow a dog? Why would I?” she snapped.
“I thought maybe you were lonely with your friend across the courtyard gone.”
“Not lonely enough to walk into your place and—steal a dog.” She gulped at the half untruth and regretted her answer. If she’d admitted she’d been there, it would have been easier to question Calvin about Infinite Dreams.
Eager to rectify her mistake, she cleared her throat and chose her words carefully. “She was outside, digging up my other neighbor’s flowers. I brought her home and found your door unlocked, but she wouldn’t go inside. So I dog-sat until you called her.”
“I just remembered.” Calvin groaned. “I told the realtor I’d leave my patio door unlocked, and he must have let her get away. She’s developed a keen interest in bees and butterflies. Sorry I thought you...borrowed Lucky.”
As well he should be. And as fast as that dog skittered through doors, it was no wonder she got away. “If my sister was your realtor, she’d have been glad to see Lucky go. She’s terrified of dogs, big or small.” Lynne’s fear of dogs rivaled Lori’s phobia of flying, before she and Chance flew home from Magical, at least. After making love with him, she was flying high anyway. She smiled just thinking about it.
“Why did you have a realtor over?” Lori asked, as an afterthought. An important one that caused her to sit up straight. If Calvin was moving, that explained the picture and drawings of a house on his bulletin board. But it looked like a big house for a single man.
“I’m going to have a house built, with lots of space and a big backyard for a collie and a couple of kids. With new apartments featuring central air-conditioning ready for occupancy in the next block, it may take a while to find someone to take over my lease.”
He must have gotten serious, after all, with the woman he’d spent the weekend with. Before she could ask if he was getting married, he turned “Dream the Impossible Dream” louder. He always played music in the background, but tonight, he filled the air with it.
Feeling lonely and deserted, Lori turned her back to the wall. Unless she took Chance’s offer to share the house, she’d soon be alone again.
* * * *
Chance combed his hair. He smoothed his clothes. He shined his shoes. He dressed as carefully as he had for modeling jobs. If the spies from Infinite Dreams were watching, he and Lori would wow them tonight. Tomorrow evening, they’d appear on the follow-up show and do it again, to seal their fate. “Love and marriage...” He found himself whistling the tune they’d been regaled with on the boat.
He and Lori had to convince W.L. Graham they were in love so they’d win the Grand Prize. They were meeting in the foyer at Nick’s—a four-star restaurant across the street and down a few doors from the cable station. Chance had done a little snooping and learned the Dream Team ate there almost every weeknight.
He had to convince Lori they should opt for the house. She’d acted cool at lunch the other day, so he had too. And I thought I might be in love. “Shows how much I know,” he told himself. He looked forward to love and marriage and wished it were time for that step in his Plan.
He wanted to make a good impression and considered taking Lori a corsage. He’d dashed next door earlier, to ask Red’s opinion, and was standing at her door when he remembered he’d given her a false description of himself. He liked the anonymity of their relationship. His life was complicated enough. He left without knocking.
The saleslady at the flower shop suggested a single rose. The stem was in a tube of water, hidden by ribbon streamers, and the fragrant red rose was as soft as Lucky’s ear. He hoped Lori didn’t think he was tight, bringing her just one rose. Chance, straightening his tie—a tie was required at Nick’s— opened the heavy stained glass door.
