Later that evening, Kevin stopped over his mother's on his way home from work. He remembered his conversation earlier with Georgia about his father while he waited for Vivian to answer the door.
"How are you?" Kevin asked, walking into the living room.
"I'm fine," Vivian replied, her eyes a shade of red.
"You don't look that fine," Kevin observed, looking into her eyes. "What happened?"
Vivian took a deep breath as she walked over to the table and showed him the envelope. "Read it."
Kevin read the contents of the letter and looked up at his mother, briefly silent. "It's official, Mom."
"I know," Vivian whispered, turning around, a tear rolled down her cheek. "I feel so relieved."
"I'm not sure if you really feel like that," Kevin suggested, tapping her on her shoulder to turn her around. "Look at you, crying."
Vivian took the envelope from Kevin's hands and held it up. "This doesn't upset me."
"I'm sure it does," Kevin once again added.
"Kevin!" Vivian shouted. "To finally be able to forget and move on is a feeling that satisfies me. I know it's hard for you to hear but this is how I feel."
Kevin didn't question her feelings further. "Mom," he began. "This is kind of what I came over here to talk to you about."
Vivian gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"I want to know if you know where I can contact Dad," Kevin told her in a serious tone. "Did he leave you a number before he left? I can't believe he'd do that to James and I."
Vivian thought back to earlier when her ex-husband gave her the number for Kevin and James to contact him. "He didn't leave anything," Vivian slowly lied as she eyed the contact number on the pad, subtly walking over to it and standing in front of it.
Kevin looked disappointed as Vivian said that, as he followed her with his eyes. "Not at all?"
"I'm sorry, Kevin," Vivian told him, still standing in front of the pad. "I guess this tells you where he stands."
"Thanks, anyway," Kevin said in disappointment, picking up his briefcase.
"Certainly," Vivian called out as she watched Kevin leave.
Kevin shut the door as Vivian turned around and held up the pad with the contact number. "You will never be in contact with each other again," she declared, clutching the pad close to her chest.
Carole walked out of the kitchen and headed over to Lalie who was sitting in front of the TV. She poured the empty cup that sat in front of Lalie with warm coffee that Carole had just made.
"Thanks for that," Lalie smiled, putting up the cup to her lips. "Sit down, Mom."
Carole set the coffeepot down and sat down on one of the soft chairs that was across from Lalie.
"I'm going to do something about these unresolved Phil memories," Lalie stated as she set the cup down on the saucer.
"Well, you have to do what you have to do, Lalie," Carole replied. "What do you have in mind?"
Lalie thought for a moment. "There are a couple of ideas I have running through my head," Lalie began. "I'm either going to go back to St. Paul and come face to face with my problems or I'm going to talk to a professional here."
Carole looked worried at the first suggestion. "I don't know if I want you going back out there like that," Carole replied. "Why don't you just talk to someone here and see what you can do?"
Lalie smiled. "Mom, Marcia is in a mental prison," she reminded her. "But, I probably would rather talk to someone here first before I would think of leaving town."
"I'm sure there's someone downtown that you can find," Carole suggested.
"Tomorrow I will be doing that," Lalie let her know. "Who knows, maybe once I resolve this problem, I can concentrate on reconciling with Kevin."
The next day, Georgia sat at Lalie's old desk trying to find a certain file on a client when she noticed Frankie step off the elevator and knock on Kevin's office door. "Interesting," Georgia muttered.
"Come in, Georgia," Kevin called out, hearing the knock on the door.
He finished filling out a piece of paper and looked up expecting to find Georgia standing there. Instead, he found Frankie wearing a black mini skirt and a maroon tank top with a very low neckline.
"Not Georgia," Frankie corrected him, slanting her hips as she stood in a standing position next to his desk.
"Are you sure you're the same Frankie Stone?" Kevin wanted to know as he looked at Frankie's attire.
"This is how I'm going to look at our 10 year reunion coming up," Frankie told him with a smile.
"I didn't even know we had a reunion coming up," Kevin replied. "When is it?"
"I don't remember the exact date," Frankie answered. "It's coming up, though. I didn't even think of going but now I wouldn't miss this for the world," Frankie declared. "Would you like to go with me?"
"This is the first I'm hearing about this," Kevin told her. "Sure, though. I'll most likely go."
"Great!" Frankie exclaimed as she looked down at her watch. "Well, are you almost ready for lunch?"
Kevin looked at his watch. "Wow, I didn't realize how late it was," he said, as he shut down his laptop and grabbed his keys. "Let's go."
"Phone call," Georgia called out, as Kevin and Frankie were just about to step on the elevator.
"Tell them to-" Kevin started.
"Don't worry about it," Frankie cut him off. "I'll wait in the lobby."
Once in the lobby, Frankie whipped out her cell phone and dialed a number as she watched the elevators. "Hi, Ryan. I'm just sitting around the house. Are we still on for tonight? Okay, great. I love you, too," she smiled as she saw Kevin get off the elevator. "Mom is calling so I have to go for now. See you tonight."
"Who was that?" Kevin asked as he walked up to Frankie.
"My mom," Frankie replied. "Shall we go?"
Frankie smiled as she pushed her way through the revolving glass doors. Maybe, carrying on two relationships at the same time wouldn't be as hard as she thought.
Kevin and Frankie sat in the food court of the outside mall as they ate their respective lunches.
"Italian has always been my favorite," Frankie mentioned, as she put some of the food in her mouth.
"I remember that you joined the Italian club in high school," Kevin remembered. "Did you join the one in college, too?"
"Oh, yes," Frankie replied matter-of-factly. "The Italian club has been very good to me," she smiled, thinking about Ryan.
"I'm glad we're friends," Kevin told her. "I can't make the same mistake by rushing into a relationship again," he continued as he looked to the side and looked back quickly.
"What's wrong?" Frankie wanted to know.
"Lalie's here," Kevin replied, quickly glancing over in her direction. "She's wearing that blue shirt."
Frankie looked over and saw the person he was talking about. 'So, that's Ryan's cousin,' Frankie said to herself, finally seeing who she was.
Lalie strolled through the outside mall before she headed downtown to look for a specialist to talk to about her problems.
She looked in the window of the dress shop where she bought her bridesmaid dress for Heather's wedding. She looked over at the spot across from the store where she learned about Heather's secret and the control Vivian had over her.
"At least Vivian finally learned her lesson with that," Lalie told herself, trying to get that awful flashback out of her head.
As the bushes came out of Lalie's view, she spotted Kevin sitting with a woman in the food court.
Kevin made eye contact with Lalie and stared at her for a few seconds before turning back to the woman. The woman then made eye contact with Lalie and turned back to Kevin and then the woman threw her head back and laughed.
Kevin glared at Frankie laughing hysterically over something. "What's so funny?" he wanted to know.
"Your ex is just staring at us," Frankie replied. "Can we say, desperate?"
"No," Kevin replied. "Lalie's not like that," he told her in a serious tone. "We went through a lot together. Let me go over there."
Frankie put her hand over Kevin's, stopping him from doing so. "You were always so kind but let's leave this be," Frankie told him. "That's what I love about you!" she shouted.
Lalie saw the woman's hand fixed over Kevin's and heard her shout, "That's what I love about you!"
Lalie made eye contact with Kevin once again. Lalie shook her head at him and turned around for a second, before turning around again to look at Kevin and the woman.
"She seems a little obsessive," Frankie observed, as she took a final mouthful of food.
"She just shook her head at me," Kevin told Frankie, as he stood up. "I have to fix this, Frankie."
Frankie immediately stood up and held onto his arm. "Kevin, take care of it later!"
"Why don't you want me to see Lalie?" Kevin demanded to know.
"She's the one who couldn't understand why you needed to take that engagement slowly," Frankie replied. "She should come and apologize to you! Look, we're finished eating, let's stroll around some more."
Before Kevin could reply, Frankie grabbed his arm and led them away.
Lalie folded her arms as she made eye contact with Kevin as Frankie led them off to the other side of the mall.
Lalie reached into her pocketbook and dialed a number on her cell phone. "Are you busy? Can you meet me at the outdoor shopping mall right away?"
Chapter 10
Non-Nsync Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
Email Tracia