Among the Ducklings (18 page)

“I'm OK,”
Isabel replied.
 
On any other day, Isabel
would have calmly discussed the issue with Frank and Melinda in spite of
Melinda's rudeness. Today, the day that she had sacrificed her love to honor a
promise she made three years ago, wasn't one of those days.

Chapter
Twelve

When Stacy
knocked on Phil's door, he was amazed how good she looked.

“You
haven't changed a bit,” Phil said.

“Liar,”
replied an amused Stacy. “You look pretty good yourself.”

“I don't
feel it,” Phil replied.
 
Stacy thought he
was talking about his injury and asked, “How is your ankle?”

“It's
getting there,” Phil replied. “I didn't get the chance to ask, are we coming
back this evening?”

“Don't be
silly. There is so much to do down there.
 
I promise you that we’ll be back in two days tops,” Stacy replied.
 
Phil was looking forward to the trip to take
his mind off everything.
 
Simply sitting by the ocean with a book in
his hand would be very therapeutic,
he thought.
 

“Where are
we staying?” Phil asked.

“I have
rented this oceanfront house.
 
My
concierge said that it has everything we can possibly need, from jet skis to
scuba gear. Let's hope she's right,” Stacy replied. Phil grabbed his carry-on
bag by the front door and he and Stacy walked out to the car.

“What a
beautiful car!” Phil said as they approached the rented yellow convertible in
Phil's driveway.

“I had to
ditch the limousine this morning. I know that you don't like it when people
look pretentious,” Stacy said with a nice smile.

“That's
funny,” Phil said. He thought that Stacy was joking about the limousine.

When Stacy
pulled out of her driveway, he noticed Stacy was going the wrong way and
remarked, “You need to get a map of Miami. The Florida Turnpike is the other
way.”

Stacy
turned and winked at Phil, “You didn't think that we were going to drive to Key
West, did you?”

##

It took
Stacy and Phil less than half an hour to reach the Tamiami Airport. As they
boarded the chartered plane, Stacy hoped that
Vanna
had already left for the Keys. Stacy calculated that it would take
Vanna
almost four hours to get there.
 
She couldn't wait for Isabel to see racy
tabloid photos of her and Phil on the beach. At the beginning, she just wanted
to confront Isabel and let the pictures do the talking later.
 
Now, what better way than
to bring the pictures herself for more drama.
 
But the first thing she needed to do was to
make sure she was in Phil's arms when the pictures were taken. This was why the
miscarriage story would have to be told on the private beach tomorrow, when she
would be crying, and with
Vanna
clicking away.

The
house was a 7 bath, 5 bedroom oceanfront villa, with a separate guesthouse. It
was surrounded by lush landscaping and was very spacious with a four-car
garage.
 
Phil thought this must have cost
a fortune to rent. He made a very nice salary that allowed him to afford nice
hotels when he traveled.
 
This one was
beyond his means.

“This must
be very expensive to rent,” Phil said.

Plus the hefty last minute arrangement fee
.
 
“Money is made to be spent.
 
I
hope you like it,” Stacy replied.

When
they opened the front door, a delicious smell of home cooking invaded Phil's
nostrils.

Noticing
Phil's surprise, Stacy laughed and said, “The chef prepared some food for us
for lunch.”

“You have a
chef, here?” Phil asked.

“It’s part
of the costs.
 
Don't
worry,
we don't have to eat here.
 
We can go out
if you like.”

“Are you
kidding?” Phil said. “I'm famished.” Besides lunch on the dining room table, there
was also a basket of fruits and wine on the kitchen counter, waiting for them.

“Where is
the chef?” asked Phil.
 
Except from the
sound of the waves coming from outside, the house was quiet.

“He only
comes to cook. He doesn't live here,” Stacy said. Phil didn't complain.
 
It was nice to be pampered once on awhile.
Sometimes he could get tired of his TV dinners.

As they
were having lunch, Phil tried to talk about what happened between them.

“Phil, can
we talk about it later?
 
It was a sad
time in my life,” Stacy said.

Phil didn't
push and felt sorry to have brought up the subject so soon.
 
He would wait until the appropriate time.

They spent
the rest of the afternoon riding jet skis. Later in the evening, they rode two
of the bicycles they found in the shed to the nearby
Tiki
Bar and Restaurant for dinner. By the time Stacy and Phil returned to the house
much later, they were both exhausted. When Phil decided to stay in a separate
bedroom, Stacy didn't protest. She expected that.
 
She knew, however, it was only a matter of
time.

##

Stacy and
Phil woke up the next morning to the smell of basil, garlic and eggs, which
penetrated their rooms as if challenging them to resist.
 
After a nice breakfast, they walked toward
the outdoor swimming pool which overlooked the ocean below.

A few hours
later, Stacy was lying on a towel by the swimming pool reading a screenplay
when the call came in.
 

“All set,”
her concierge simply said.

“Thanks,”
Stacy replied and hung up.

“Who was
that?” asked Phil.
 
He was lying next to
Stacy reading a detective novel. He wondered what Isabel was doing. Neither he
nor Isabel had therapy sessions on weekends. He decided that he would try to
get Isabel out of his system for good.
 
It was painful to think about her and more painful to try to forget her.
But what choice did he have?

“It was my
concierge telling me that something I ordered had arrived,” Stacy said.
 
“Let’s walk to the beach.
 
I want to clear my head.”
 
Stacy was wearing a yellow bikini with blue
stripes.
  
Before receiving the phone
call, Stacy had done her hair and made her face up as if preparing for a photo
shoot.
 
Actually, it is a photo shoot
, she thought, now wondering if she
had chosen the right bikini colors for the pictures.

As they
strolled on the beach,
click,
click, click
, Stacy recounted convincingly the miscarriage story to
Phil. “It was the darkest period of my life,” Stacy said, as shiny droplets of
tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, glittering under the sun. Stacy
looked so fragile, and Phil then took her in his arms, consoling her.

“I am
really
sorry,
I was not there for you.
Click, click,
click
.

“The truth
is I never stopped loving you and would trade everything to have you back,”
Stacy said as she sobbed
.
 
Click, click,
click
.
Phil didn't respond. All Phil could think about was how bad a person he was for
letting Stacy down, for not being there when she needed him the most. Had he
been present during her photo shoots, maybe she wouldn't have
fallen,
maybe their child would be alive today.

A great
performance dictated that an actress abandon part of herself and become the
character that she was playing. As Phil was holding her, Stacy knew she nailed
it when she felt as if she had really lost a baby.
 

##

Not too far
away,
Vanna
was packing her camera.
 
She couldn't wait to talk to the
tabloids.
 
She was going to get some good
money for this.

##

Phil and
Stacy returned to Miami early on Monday morning.
 
Stacy, marveling at her progress in her quest
to get Phil back, and Phil, content to have gotten away from Miami and
everything that reminded him of his love for Isabel.
 
Unlike Isabel, who was required to attend
daily therapy sessions during the week, Phil no longer had therapy sessions on
Mondays. Sometimes he would go just to use the exercise equipment at the Center
and to see Isabel.
 
But
no more.
 
He was going to stay in
his office from now on.
 
No more Isabel.

He was
still in his office in the afternoon, when Stacy called him.

“Phil, I
hope you can forgive me.
 
I didn't know
you were at work and I went to the Center looking for you,” Stacy explained.

“What is
it?” a concerned Phil asked.

“Apparently,
when we were on the beach, some paparazzi followed us and took pictures of us that
will be published tomorrow in one of the tabloid magazines.
 
Someone just gave me an advance copy.”

“What does
it say?”

“They have
pictures of you and me hugging on the beach, asking who the new man in my life
is,” I'm sorry, Stacy said, her voice cracking.

“Don't be
sorry,” Phil said.
 
“It's not your
fault.”

Stacy was
relieved.

“Apparently,
they found some witness who said they saw us kissing,” Stacy said.
 
Whatever
the concierge had paid the witness was worth it
, Stacy thought to herself.
“You're not mad at me?”

“How can I
be mad at you?” Phil said. “I hope that being with me does not ruin your
career,” Phil jokingly said.

“I don't
care about my career.
 
I just wanted to
be with you,” Stacy said, mixing lie and truth in the same sentence.

“I'll be
OK,” Phil said. “Don't worry.
 
Besides,
no one reads those tabloids anyway.”

You could not be more wrong
, Stacy thought as she hung up.

##

One hour
earlier, Stacy with the magazine in her hands, had gone to the Center looking
for Isabel.
 
As she had stood by the
empty bench, a young pretty woman had come to talk to her.

“Hi. Ramon
said you have been looking for my sister,” Rebecca said.

“Ramon?

“Ramon is
our landscaper.
 
I am Rebecca, Isabel's
sister.” Stacy's mind was racing. She didn't expect this.
 
How could she be so lucky? “Nice meeting you
Rebecca,” Stacy finally said.

“Wait a
minute. You look like the actress in a movie that I saw last year.”

“Maybe.
Actually, I was not looking for your sister.
I was looking for my fiancé that day and they told me that he was talking to
Isabel and I wanted to know where he was.”

“Your
fiancé?”

“Yes,
Phil.”

Rebecca's
eyes widened. “Phil is your fiancé?”

“We'll,
yes,” Stacy said, and with a wink she added, “We had some tough times lately
and I wanted to make it up to him.
 
But
don't worry I found him that day. Tell me, is Phil here today?”

“I started
to work here only yesterday at the front desk.
 
I don't know the therapy session schedules yet. But I’ve not seen him.”

“He must be
at work.
 
He wasn't at the house. I have
to talk to him about the news.”

“The
news?”
Rebecca
asked.

“Actually,
some paparazzi took pictures of us together when we were spending some quiet
time on the beach and I wanted to warn him in case the press came to ask him
questions,”
 
Stacy said as she handed the
magazine to Rebecca.

Rebecca
looked horrified as she saw Stacy's picture on the cover, in a slim bikini in
Phil's arms on the beach. “Should I tell Phil you were looking for him, if I
see him?”

“Don't
worry,
I’m going to call him now.
 
Thanks again.
 
It was nice meeting you,” Stacy said as she left.
 
Rebecca kept the magazine and Stacy pretended
that she had forgotten it.
 
Stacy's plan
had worked perfectly.