Kevin sat in his apartment, emptily gazing out over the patio. The sunset was nearly a distant memory as the pink clouds began to darken.
He stood up and walked over to his jacket pocket and pulled out the engagement ring that Lalie gave back to him.
He looked at it and tucked it away in the top drawer of his bureau.
There was a knock on his door as he shut the drawer, and he went to answer it.
"Hi, Kevin," Vivian started, noticing his melancholy _expression. "How are you?"
"Perfect," Kevin replied, walking back into the apartment as Vivian remained standing in the hallway.
"You don't seem like you're perfect," Vivian called out, as she walked in and shut the door behind her. "Is something wrong?"
"Not at all," Kevin replied. By the tone of his voice, something was indeed wrong. "Why are you here?" he asked.
"That was polite," Vivian sarcastically said as she walked over to him. "I just wanted to know if you and Lalie wanted to come over tomorrow night for dinner. You know how fond I am of her," Vivian told him with a smile. "I told James to invite Georgia over."
Kevin took a deep breath as he turned away. "I guess you didn't hear about it yet."
Vivian pretended to look confused. "Hear about what?"
"Lalie and I won't be getting married anytime soon," Kevin replied in a serious tone.
"What do you mean that you're not getting married?" Vivian wanted to know in shock. "Lalie is such a wonderful girl. What happened?"
"It wouldn't be fair to either one of us to focus on marriage when I can't fully commit to it," Kevin answered, but also reflecting on the conversation they had about Phil.
"You have no idea how sorry I am," Vivian told him, trying to sound convincing. "If there is anything I can do to help you or Lalie out during this time, you know I'll be there."
"There's nothing," Kevin quickly replied. "I'm sorry I can't make it to your dinner."
Vivian swallowed as those words came out of his mouth. "Surely, you can still come."
"I can't watch James and Georgia like that," Kevin told his mother with a shrug. "Sorry."
Vivian forced a smile. "Kevin, dear," she started. "I know you're hurting but you can't let yourself go through this pain by yourself," she advised him. "Just come over for dinner tomorrow night."
"Why is me being there so important to you?" Kevin wanted to know.
"It's important that I have both of my sons there," Vivian firmly told him. "I'm going through such a hard time right now and now you won't accept my invitation for new beginnings," she cried, wiping away some tears.
"Mom," Kevin started, walking over and hugging Vivian. "If it's that important to you, I'll be there tomorrow night."
Vivian's tears quickly disappeared as Kevin agreed to show up, a smile came across her face as she thought about her plans.
The sound of the piano played elegantly as the waiter showed James and Georgia to their cozy table in the corner.
"I love the atmosphere in this restaurant," Georgia noted as she lowered the shawl from her shoulders, revealing a sleeveless gown.
"I love the atmosphere at this table," James pointed out, his eyes glistened with a twinkle as he opened the menu while not taking his eyes off of Georgia.
Georgia coyly looked down at her menu upon hearing that suggestive remark. "Filet mignon," Georgia groaned. "That was the main meal when we had dinner at my parents house that night."
"Georgia, the evening wasn't bad at all," James assured her, as Georgia made eye contact with him.
"You mean the evening before 7:00 and after 9:00, right?" Georgia asked him.
James didn't answer that. He simply put his hand over hers as they listened to the tune the piano was playing.
"You know," James started. "I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this but I'm going to ask you, anyway."
Georgia tilted her head. "Ask me what?"
"My mom is having this 'new beginnings' dinner party tomorrow night," James began to explain. "She had this crazy notion that we should be there."
"Dinner party," Georgia repeated with an impressed tone. "Why is it a crazy notion?"
"You wouldn't want to go to this dinner party," James assured her.
"Come on, James, I think it would be fun," Georgia stated in an excited tone. "I want to go."
James sat back in his seat. "You do?"
"Of course!" Georgia exclaimed. "Is it casual?"
"Formal," James replied. "All right, we'll go," James sighed. "But, if something happens to our relationship within 24 hours after that dinner…" he began.
Georgia smiled at him prompting him to abruptly stop whatever he was about to say. "Nothing will happen," she assured him. "I'm interested to see how your family functions."
"I'm sure you've never seen anything like it," James guessed, as Georgia let out a slight laugh at that remark.
The next morning, Vivian pushed the vacuum across the living room carpet as she waited for the right time to take the rollers out of her hair. She and her house needed to look perfect for the dinner party.
As she pushed the vacuum cleaner across the floor, allowing the machine to collect dust and other unwanted particles, she thought about taking Frankie out for her new wardrobe as soon as she took the rollers out of her hair.
Her foot got twisted in the wire as she did more daydreaming about Frankie and the dinner party rather than focusing on her housecleaning.
"The floor looks good enough anyway," Vivian muttered, untangling the wire from her foot, and placing the vacuum back into the closet.
As she headed for the stairs to take the rollers out of her hair, the sound of the doorbell interrupted her from doing that.
Vivian opened the door to find Frankie standing there.
"Is this a bad time?" Frankie asked, noticing the pink and blue rollers. "I'm sorry, I didn't know if you were picking me up or if I was supposed to meet you here."
"Frankie," Vivian said, as she pulled her inside the house, glancing outside to make sure no one saw her standing there with rollers in her hair. "I was supposed to pick you up," Vivian told her, shutting the door behind her. "What if Kevin or James were here?"
"I didn't think about that," Frankie admitted, looking disappointed but then her eyes lit up again. "I went to Walgreens last night and bought the same makeup and hair products that you used on my hair and face yesterday."
"You look wonderful," Vivian pointed out. "What did your mother think of the new look?"
"She couldn't get over it!" Frankie exclaimed.
"I'm glad," Vivian replied. "Let me go take these rollers out and then we'll be on our way."
"Sure thing," Frankie replied, watching Vivian walk up the stairs and turn into the bathroom. Frankie heard the bathroom door close, and reached into her pocketbook that was draped over her shoulder and whipped out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hi," she spoke into it with a smile.
Later that morning, Vivian and Frankie walked into Bergman's Department Store and looked at some of the different dresses and outfits.
Frankie went into the dressing room to try some selections on, coming out after every fitting to show Vivian what she looked like.
"Well," Vivian started, looking at all the selections. "I think this gown would look amazing on you tonight," she pointed out. "The rest would be perfect for casual wear."
Frankie beamed as she agreed with Vivian's choices. "Let me go pay for this, then!"
"All right," Vivian replied, handing her the gown and watching as Frankie stood on the long line that lead up to the cash register.
Vivian continued to look around the store when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and turned around.
"I thought that was you from the back," a woman noted.
"Carole!" Vivian exclaimed.
"What are you doing here?" Vivian and Carole asked in unison.
"I'm just browsing," Carole took the honor of answering first. "What are you doing standing in the young women's department?"
"I can't find the twenty something apparel appealing?" Vivian asked with a laugh.
"I suppose you could," Carole replied. "I'm really sorry about you and your husband."
Vivian smiled. "Thank you," she replied. "I suppose Lalie has told you some horror stories about me, right?"
Carole remembered what Lalie said about Vivian. "Look, I'm remaining neutral with that," Carole simply replied. "Lalie's just upset about Kevin right now."
"It's not my fault Kevin feels that way," Vivian defended. "I even had a talk with him about not letting my problems interfere with his relationship with Lalie."
"I don't have any reason to doubt that," Carole answered with a sincere look on her face. "Knowing Kevin and Lalie, they'll find their way back to each other in time."
Vivian felt uncomfortable as her eyes subtly glanced over towards the line and didn't see any sign of Frankie. "I have to go," Vivian nervously said putting an outfit that she was holding on the rack next to her. "It was nice seeing you, Carole."
"Same... to you," Carole softly called out in confusion, as she noticed Vivian fly out the department store doors.
Vivian raced outside and looked around for Frankie. She saw her standing by the window on the street looking in at the window design.
"There you are," Vivian called out in relief.
"Sorry about that," Frankie apologized. "I saw you talking to somebody and I didn't want to interrupt."
"Don't worry about it," Vivian told her in a relieved tone, as they began to walk down the street.
Carole continued to look around the store, taking outfits off the rack and putting them against her to see if they would fit.
As she made her way towards the check out line to pay for some outfits, she heard the sound of the security alarm going off by the doors.
Carole turned around alarmed.
"Stop!" the cashier screamed but the man ignored her and continued to make his way out of the door. "Oh, God! Wait right here," she told the customer at the desk, as she ran towards the door.
Carole put the outfit she was holding back on one of the racks and made her way towards the door to see what was going on.
Chapter 6
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I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
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