Once Within A Lifetime (9 page)

He
held her, kissed her, and told her, “I will call with the arrangements for the upcoming trip. Hang in there, my precious princess, we will be together again soon. I have a short time to wait here and would like you to leave and go back home while I remember this last morning together when I am flying far away from you. You will be filling my heart and mind as I know I will be in yours the same way.”

“
Oh, yes, my handsome prince,” she sighed. “You will never ever truly leave me again for you are a part of my very being,” Another kiss, and she turned to walk from the terminal, turned back, waved, and walked to her car. It was frightening, she wanted to run after him and beg him to take her with him, but she got into the car and prepared to drive home. She stopped a ways out of the terminal drive and watched his plane as it lifted off like a giant bird taking half of her with it as it disappeared into a clean, beautiful, sunlit sky.

How
I will miss his presence! What will I do for two weeks? How will I ever concentrate on my work?
But she knew she must and realized it would help pass the time faster until they could meet at Geneva again and be together for a while longer.

As the plane went out of sight she started back to her home. She drove up front, got out, went right up to her studio and her special window to think for a while. She looked out over the garden and reflected on the time they were just there. He was so close, so warm, so wonderful and now so gone. How could he be gone from her? How could they be apart? They seemed like one. How could such things happen? She lingered there for the rest of the afternoon until Nancy called up to her and asked her about dinner.

“
I will be down,” she replied, “to eat in the dining area of the kitchen.” It was the one place that did not hold memories of their being together and may help a little. She did not have much appetite and picked at her food trying to appreciate Nancy’s efforts. Nancy knew she was unhappy and uncomfortable and patted her on the shoulder, bent her head down and laid it on top of Triessa’s for a moment. Their love for each other was obvious.

As
soon as she finished, she went up to her bedroom and sat and looked outside for a moment and saw places they had walked together and talked of their plans and their love. This just deepened the hurt but she could not avoid it; they had been together everywhere. After a while she took a shower, undressed, and lay down and looked up at the ceiling for some time in reverie and finally drifted off to sleep and dreamed of their meeting just a short time ago. Yet in a way it seemed so far away, like they had been together for a long time.
How could two people survive such deep, lonely feelings?

His
flight was pleasant and nonstop. He ate on the plane and arrived home late at night, went to the hotel where he decided to stay for the night and prepared for his drive home tomorrow. It was a ways out into the countryside and he loved to see it in the daytime. Now his thoughts went to the time he could take her there with him.
Soon, very soon
. He was so eager to show it all to her; how he wanted the time to fly. Would it ever pass?

When
he got to his room, he showered and decided to go to bed so he could awake early and return to his home. He was looking forward to being back in familiar surroundings again. He wondered just where she was now and what she was doing, no doubt she was in bed by now. He knew that she, too, was reminiscing and missing him as he was missing her, longing to be together again as soon as was humanly possible. He must give her a call to tell her that he had arrived, to say goodnight to her and hear her voice again. She took the call in her bedroom and was so thrilled to hear his voice. It seemed to bring him back here beside her. She felt like her body was having many little electrical shocks taking place igniting her love even higher and stronger.
How could this
be possible? How could I love him more?

After
a while he hung up and got ready for bed, holding her close in his mind and heart, always close, protecting her, loving her.
What would it be like when they were married and truly together forever,
never to part again?
There, at last, he said it. I
want to marry her; how and where shall I propose? How soon can we marry and always be together? I have a lot of serious thinking to do.

Tuesday
dawned bright and clear and he rose and got ready to go to his home. He was eager, now that he was this close, to get back to familiar surroundings again. If he could not be with her, then home was the next best place, though it would never be the same again until he had her there with him. He knew it would be easier for him because he had no memories of her at his place as she did of him in her favorite spots. Yet nothing could take away this bitter, painful longing inside him. He had the memories of them together in the rose garden.

Triessa
arose and asked Nancy to bring her breakfast to her studio in an hour. She showered and dressed in casual clothes for her work session and tried to think where to start. She had to get ready for her trip, for it was already planned except for the details. She must come up with a new wardrobe to have as she spent time with him, something she had made especially for him. This may be the one thing that could get her going on her work. She also must plan on what material she needed to look for and bring back from there once she arrived. Each area had its own unique items and specialties. She had not yet shopped there and was very excited as she thought about doing so. She longed to search for soft, filmy materials for summer fashions.

It
was very difficult to concentrate on her work, not at all like before when she just came up and got into it. She hoped she could get back into the production mode again soon and wondered what he was doing and how he would manage to get things done. The distance and time factor was certainly going to be a difficult thing to handle. How would she ever manage? How could she get back to work, yet she must. Certainly something must be done to end this separation and pain. She wondered what he had in mind. We would see in a couple of weeks.

She
tried to psyche herself up.
Look, you have been doing this for years, just going on trips, getting back, planning and doing the styles
and fashions. You can do it now,
she scolded herself. But something inside her could not handle this talk and she began to cry. This was hard for her to believe, she could not remember the last time she cried. Things were so different and would never be back to what used to be normal for her. She knew she could not talk herself out of this. This was for keeps.

She
got up and laid out her regular tools so she could get to work. These things really had to be ready by the time she went to meet Todd. She placed her sketch pad on the easel to sketch some ideas, and decided to begin with a few ties. Her hands flew for she thought of seeing them on him. After she had done a dozen designs, she began to try her hand at some men’s suits. She worked on a couple of ideas and then laid them aside for a while turning her mind to planning what clothes she would take along on her trip.
Just what would he like on me? I need to think of his reactions to what I have worn.
She would need at least three lovely evening gowns with capes or some sort of wrap. It was amazing how the situation brought different design styles to mind. After all, pleasing a man was different, and other ideas came to mind on how to style and make a dress. She envisioned a beautiful shade of blue for a gown with blue embroidered flowers all over it. What else? Certainly special gown and negligee, some leisure outfits, and some dresses for town. It was summer and was easier to plan a pretty feminine wardrobe to use. A couple pair of slacks, which would be good for walking and she had pretty jackets for evening in case it got cool. It would be good to plan for a number of possible changes from the norm. This was a totally different lineup of clothing from any she had done before because she would be doing many different things.

A
few sketches were worked out before lunch, then she came back and worked some more after eating a snack. She was glad to be back into her work and it did seem to make time pass faster. In a few days she would have her wardrobe all designed and planned. She decided to try her hand at making them herself. A sewing machine was in the corner, although she had not used  it for some time, and she went over to uncover it and get it ready to use. Of course, it would need oiling, so she looked for the oil can, but could not remember just where she had put it when she had last used it. There was a shelf in the pattern closet with a basket on it, so she took it down to look inside. There she found the oil can and set about to do the job. She wondered if Todd was handy with machines, some men are as was her dad, but some are not. Then she wiped off the machine and began to sew on a piece of cloth to clean the oil from the needle and machine. She set up her cutting board to cut out one of the patterns for her dress using a lovely print from the shops she and Todd visited and shopped in together, and she knew he would remember it. It would be just right for the pattern she had designed; in fact, she had the idea in mind when she saw the fabric. This happened often after she had been in the business a while and it was a tremendous help in cutting down on the struggle to think up new ideas. Soon she got back into the hang of sewing and the job proceeded well and quickly and her progress pleased her.

S
he pressed and hung the dress up once it was finished. Pressing was a very important step when sewing and she worked through all the steps she had learned along the way. A jacket made from one of the pastels would blend perfectly with the dress. It was back to the cutting board to cut it out and she selected a lovely pale print for the lining. All went well and she soon had it sewn, pressed, and hung up with the dress by early evening. The rest she would do tomorrow, for now that she was back in the groove, things would go a lot faster. Prior preparations like these today wouldn’t be necessary.

She
got everything readied to work on tomorrow, then left her studio to go down to the living room to play one of her tapes on fashion to relax herself before she went to bed. Watching the parade of lovely models wearing gorgeous styles, some of her own and some of others were relaxing and reassuring. These definitely made her feel she would be able to continue tomorrow and get everything ready. She had a special goal now. Once she finished the tape, she was off to bed to relax and rest and possibly dream of Todd and their upcoming meeting.

The
next day she awoke and was eager to get started on her new clothes. She began with the second dress made with one of the pretty colors she had selected in the last shop on her trip. When it was finished she hung it up with the other items; things were looking better all the time. Next she did a pair of slacks with a pastel top to blend with them. Then the second pair was attempted, done, and they, too, joined the collection. Everything was looking really good. Todd would be very proud of her.

Tomorrow
was a week away from the trip date. By staying busy the time had seemed to go much more quickly and it was easier to do the projects when she thought of pleasing him as she wore them. She had done a wonderful selection of ties to take to him when she went. She got her portfolio ready to take with her and set it aside. She had a few more days yet before she had to leave to meet him.

An
idea to try to design some fabric herself came to mind and quickly she went to her easel and began to make some strokes over the pad, then sketched some flowers and patterns here and there. She was doodling to find some ideas. At last one of the patterns seemed to stick in her mind and she began on a fresh page to work with it making various prints of the flower. It began to show some promise but would need a little more work. She worked on a few more pages to take with her and had several different patterns and ideas done after a while. She would try to find someone to look at them while she was there to see if she could sell them and see if there needed to be any changes made. She could hardly wait to tell Todd about this and show him her ideas. It was difficult to believe all the ideas she was coming up with.

The
time had come down to two more days before leaving and she planned to take the time to recheck everything to be sure she had it all together as she wanted it. The telephone rang; it was Todd calling with final plans on where they would stay and telling her that he would be waiting at the airport to pick her up. She told him what she had been doing and that she had a present for him that he would really like. He sounded excited about her ideas and projects and was so eager to see them. She didn’t tell him about the ties she had made for him; it would be more interesting to see what he thought of them when he actually saw them.

“
You will be arriving here at about three o’clock in the afternoon and we will have a little time before dinner. You can check into your hotel, change, and freshen up first if you wish. Then I know a great place we can dine later. This will be day after tomorrow. I can hardly wait.”

“
Oh, me too,” she exclaimed, “and talking with you now makes me want to get right on the plane and get there as fast as it can go. I have been able to get some things done and am quite pleased with the results. I am sure you will be also. I will spend tomorrow getting things wrapped up and ready to go early on the next day. Oh, is it really here? We will soon be together again. I cannot take too many of these separations.”