Something About You (Just Me & You) (30 page)

“Mom, I—” Sabrina swallowed. She’d been prepared to reject
the offering until she saw her mother’s familiar round script on the signature
line. “Thank you.” She tucked the check in her wallet. “I don’t know what else
to say. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“Just humor me.”

“Humor you? How?”

“Oh, I thought we could do more things together.”

“What type of things?” Sabrina asked cautiously. Knowing her
mother, water aerobics and craft shops would likely be involved.

“It doesn’t matter what things.” Nola waved a hand. “I just
want to spend more time with you. I want you to feel like you can tell me the
same things you talk about with Molly. I’ll always be your mother, but I think
there’s room in your life for another best friend. Don’t you?” Nola’s smile was
worried and tentative.

“Oh, Mom,” Sabrina said, her heart full. “Of course we can
be best friends.”

“Fantastic!” Nola’s smile spread into a full beam. She put
her hands on the table and got to her feet. “I’ve got the perfect
mother-daughter project for us.” 

She disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared wielding
what looked like two large toy rockets wrapped in ivory cloth.

“What are those?” Sabrina asked her.

“Why, they’re frosting bags.”

“What do we need them for?”

“Because, my culinary-challenged spawn.” Her mother smiled.
“It’s about time you learned how to master the art of buttercream.”

Sabrina drove around the block three times before she
finally pulled her car in front of the Chateau du Parker-Cole and turned off
the engine. Sebastian’s Volvo wagon was in the drive. Molly’s quilting circle
convened on Tuesday nights. He would likely be home alone.

Alone and vulnerable.

Sabrina stared at the picture of the Capitol on the screen
of her cell phone and nibbled her bottom lip. That morning, KCAP had aired
another of Gage’s old shows: “Top Ten Breakup Foods for Dudes.” After she had
listened to him enumerate the gustatory comfort factors associated with white
pizza, hot wings with blue cheese dressing and “anything with cheddar and
chili,” she had finally broken down and called him, but his phone went directly
to voice mail. She had left him a message, but he hadn’t returned it.

Then later, she had texted him.

No reply.

Sabrina’s thumb hovered over his name on the cell phone’s
display before she finally stuffed it in her pocket. She glanced at the Parker
house dismally. Like making hang-up calls and late-night cry-bys, this was
beneath her. And none of it would have been necessary if Gage had simply gotten
in touch with her. Certainly he wasn’t so angry that he’d move out without
giving her notice. That wasn’t his style.

There had to be another reason he was ignoring her.

Sabrina took a deep breath and danced up the steps to the
front porch. Here went everything. Or nothing at all. She lifted the knocker
and gave it three sharp raps. No one answered. She knocked again. More silence.

Well, that was odd.

“Sebastian?” She thumped the door with the side of her fist.
“It’s me, Sabrina.”

She walked to the edge of the porch and leaned over to get a
better view into the study. The lamp in the back of the room backlit the
drapery fabric just enough so she could see the outline of Sebastian’s head
slowly dipping under the molding like the sun into the horizon.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, I know you’re in there!” she called,
exasperated. “You’ve done everything but make shadow puppets. Give it up,
Cole!”

There was another long silence, and then she heard footsteps
on the other side of the door. It swung open. Sebastian’s solemn
extraterrestrial eyes stared down at her. He wore old sweats with the
University of Texas seal on the shirt. Without his fussy academic’s uniform —
khakis, button-downs and sweater vests — he actually looked his age. 

“You didn’t come here just to visit Molly,” Sebastian said
as though simply stating a fact.

“Nope.” Sabrina crossed her arms over her chest. “I came
here to see you.”

“That’s interesting, Sabrina.” He stroked his chin. “Very
interesting indeed. And highly suspect.”

“Are you going to invite me in or must I freeze?”

Sebastian bid her enter with a jerk of his head. He didn’t
need to tell her that he was unhappy with her. It was written all over his
face. He was transparent, just like Molly. Only Sebastian had mastered the
detached professorial frown that reminded her of her own university
instructors, and it made her nervous. Sabrina followed him into the study.

“Ah, Molly’s home in an hour.” He took a seat in front of
his desk and began shuffling around the clutter. “We can all hang out together.
Drink hot chocolate. Watch that television show everyone likes where the high
school kids sing. What is it called? American Idol?”

Surely Sebastian wasn’t so square as to be completely disconnected
with popular culture, Sabrina thought. “I came by because I need to talk to
you. Hey, we can talk. Right?”

“Please, Sabrina,” Sebastian said patiently. “The only time
any of Molly’s friends want anything to do with me is when they need to borrow
jumper cables or have me knock wasps’ nests out of the eaves. You didn’t really
come here to ‘talk’ insofar as you want us to engage in true and meaningful
dialogue. You came here to pimp me for information.”

She couldn’t believe he was getting precious about
semantics. Okay, maybe she could. “I can’t imagine what you mean by that,
Sebastian.”

He gave her a discouraging look. “Oh, I think you do. You
want me to rat on Gage.”

So they
had
spoken with each other, Sabrina thought.

“If you want to put it that way—” Crossing her arms, she
leisurely slung one leg over the other. “—Okay, fine. I came here to pimp you
for information.”

Aping her body language, Sebastian crossed his leg over his
prosthetic one and touched his forefinger to his lips contemplatively. “Hmm.
Doesn’t seem to be working, does it?”

“Guess not,” Sabrina sighed.

“Just tell me your side of the story. The abbreviated
version, please.”

She couldn’t believe that she was about to tell Sebastian
Cole, the man who’d mastered the scholarly frown,
girl stuff
.

“Okay, Sebastian. Here’s the short of it. I didn’t want to
rent out a room in my house. I
really
didn’t want to rent it to Gage.
But I needed the money. Then I had the worst Christmas of my life with the
partials—”

“—And how did the partials become part of this unholy
alliance?” Sebastian used his “Tell me about your childhood” voice as he tapped
a finger against his lips.

“I suppose they don’t matter,” Sabrina said quickly. “What
matters is that Gage and I had sex. Really good sex. A
lot
of good …
sex. I got confused and—”

“—Ah!
Ow!
” Sebastian plugged his fingers in his ears
as though in excruciating pain. “Too much information, Sabrina. Way,
way
TMI. All I will say is that if you’re trying to channel Katherina in ‘The
Taming of the Shrew,’ your performance is falling flat. It’s a little too late
for that now.”

Her mouth fell agape. Gage as Petruchio? Sebastian had to be
joking.

“What do you mean when you say it’s too late?” Sabrina
asked.

“You want me to be blunt?”

“If you must.”

“Gage has far more important things on his mind right now
than a bruised ego,” Sebastian said with candor.

“Look, I haven’t heard from him.” Sabrina gave him a
beseeching look. “I don’t know where he is. He doesn’t return my calls. I just
need to know that he’s okay.”

Sebastian’s solemn eyes softened. She’d seen that look
before, although never expressly directed at her. What was it? Pity?

“So, Sabrina,” he began slowly. “You don’t know me very well —
yet. But I’d match dimes to doughnuts that you quickly inferred that I’m not
one of those guys who talks to my friends’ wives and girlfriends about their
personal business. But I will throw you a small bone because you’re Molly’s
best friend and therefore practically an in-law—”

“Don’t do me a favor because Molly would want you to,
Sebastian,” Sabrina demurred.

“—
and
because you’re clearly not leaving until you
get an answer,” he added.

“What’s the bone?” she asked, her heart thudding dully.

“I know where Gage is,” Sebastian said in measured tones. “I
know that he will be okay. You will also be okay. Whatever happened between the
two of you? It’s life. But life moves on, and so will you and Gage.”

That was it? Sabrina was relieved that she didn’t corner the
market on confusing relationships that fell in the vast gray zone between
casual sex and commitment. But neither was she entirely sure that she could put
her confidence in someone whose personal creed was “Life moves on.”

“Gage won’t leave you dangling. He’s got some things—”
Sebastian clamped his lips shut. “—He
will
call you. When he does, I
suggest that you file everything under ‘Bygones.’ Just some advice from someone
who considers you both friends.”

Sabrina contemplated what Sebastian said. “Well. This
conversation has been…”

“An exercise in self-recrimination?” Sebastian interjected
helpfully. 

“I was going to say ‘embarrassing’,” she told him. “I’ll see
myself out. Tell Molly I came by, will you?”

On the drive home, Sabrina suddenly rounded the block and
headed in the direction of the Zilker Park tree. As the giant structure
appeared over the last swell of the expressway, she felt a rush of loneliness. 

The lights seemed even brighter than they had the night Gage
took her there. No cars lined the sides of the street. Sabrina pulled onto the
shoulder in front of the tree and gazed at the intertwining strings of color.
Everything around her was silent and still. She couldn’t help but to think that
the Zilker Park tree looked a little bit lonely too, as though it knew it was
only a moon tower adorned to appeal to the holiday masses. This was its final
effort: to shine for her and her alone. 

As Sabrina’s gaze drifted to the star on top of the tree,
the realization came to her in an instant. Gage wasn’t her catharsis.

He was her resuscitation. 

The Capitol was punctuated with brief spurts of activity as
legislators and staff, still in a holiday frame of mind, dodged in and out of
their offices to finish up busywork before the New Year’s weekend.

Theo had informed Sabrina that he would be back in his lair
at the crack of dawn, so she had set her alarm accordingly to get in her
morning workout before going to the office. She quickly made her way across the
rotunda. Without the voices of tourists and guides bouncing around the walls of
the whispering gallery, her heels clattered across the terrazzo tiles loudly,
almost drowning out the sound of her cell phone’s ringtone. Only one person
ever called her this early. She fished around for the phone in her messenger
bag as she bounded up the stairs that led to the west wing.

“Theo, I’m almost there,” she said into the phone without
looking at the display.

There was a brief silence. “It’s not Theo. It’s me.”

Sabrina slowed her steps. Gage’s voice sounded clear. No
early-morning huskiness. Of course it would sound that way, she thought,
remembering his work schedule.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Where the hell are you is a better question. Sounds like
you’re at the Louvre.” She thought she heard a smile in his voice. Had he even
been to the Louvre? She hadn’t thought to ask.

“I’m in the whispering gallery. Gage—?” She’d rehearsed what
she would say when he called.
If
he called. Now she couldn’t remember
anything that she’d planned to say to him. That she needed to say to him. The
echo bouncing off the tile was also distracting her.

“Sabrina—?” His tone was slightly mocking.

She looked around. No one would be in the House Chambers at
this hour. She slipped through the heavy wooden doors.

“Just tell me why you left,” she blurted.

“I had to get out of Austin for a while. I don’t know how
long I’ll be gone. I have it on good accord that you’ve been wondering about my
whereabouts.”

Sebastian.

“I am,” she said. “You disappeared, Gage. I was so worried.”
She found herself using her hushed “in Chambers” voice even though the large
room was empty.

There was a pause on the other end. Then he said, “Yes, I
did. For that I do apologize. I should have called sooner. But maybe a little
distance between us isn’t such a bad idea.”

Sabrina’s heart sank. This was precisely the fallout she’d
dreaded.

“That’s not the reason I left, though,” he went on. “I have
some things I need to take care of in Iowa.”

“Are you okay?”

“Everything’s fine on my end,” he said nonchalantly. “How do
you feel?”

“Not wonderful, Gage. I did a reckless, selfish thing when I
practically forced you into bed with me. Then I made it worse by being even
more reckless and selfish. I regret—”

“—Don’t,” Gage interrupted firmly. Then he sighed. “You have
nothing to regret. You didn’t make me do anything I hadn’t wanted to do since
the minute I set eyes on you.”

During the brief pause that followed, Sabrina wrestled to
curb the effervescent feeling that rose in her chest like the froth on freshly
poured champagne. Gage had wanted her from the very start. But instead of
forcing himself on her, he had waited for her to come to him.

Waited until she was ready.

“Look, Sabrina, I take responsibility for my part in this.”
His tone was a bit too reasonable, like it was when they discussed divvying up
the bills. “I tried to push you into a relationship you didn’t want. You were
right. You really don’t know me, and I sure as hell don’t know you.”

For that Sabrina had no words. No arguments. She only knew
that she wanted to beg him to please,
please
come home. Only the house
had never really been his home. Just a dust-off pad in between work and play.
Hadn’t she seen to that by making it clear that the only reason she’d tolerated
his presence initially was for the rent money? And then later, for the sex?

“But you’re really okay?” she asked.

“No worries,” he said lightly. Now she heard other voices on
his end of the line growing louder. “I’ll be fine. Everything will be fine.”

Sabrina stared at the cell phone display after the call
terminated. It took a while before frustration settled in. Looking at her list
of recent calls, she saw an unknown number with a 515 area code at the top of
the queue. Gage was
so
not getting away with the gratuitous telephone
call. Not one so cryptic and short.

He owed her a better explanation than that.

She studied the rows of empty wooden desks facing the podium
and the brown chairs behind them, each embossed with the state seal. The
stillness of the chambers and its lofty upper viewing gallery failed to calm
her.

She redialed the Des Moines number.

A woman with a pleasant South Asian accent picked up
promptly. Sabrina’s processing skills were still running in low gear without
her morning caffeine. She had difficulty comprehending the sing-song tumble of
syllables. 

“Excuse me, come again?” Sabrina asked.

“Meercy Medee-cal,” repeated the cheerful voice.
Mercy
Medical.
That’s what Sabrina thought the woman had said.

“Mercy Medical? Where is it?”

“We are in Dee Moines, meece.”

“Am I calling a hospital?” Gage and Des Moines made sense.
After all, he was from Iowa.

“Yes, meece. You are trying to reach Meercy Medee-cal,
correct?”

“No, I guess not. Wait—” Sabrina said quickly. “—can you
tell me if someone has checked in as a patient?”

“Name, please?”

“Fitzgerald. First name, Gage. No wait — it’s Michael.
Michael Fitzgerald.”

“I do show a Mee-kel Fitzgerald, meece. May I transfer you
to the room?”

“No, thanks.” Sabrina quickly ended the call and sank into
one of the chairs. How could Gage assume she’d be so unconcerned that she
wouldn’t care he was in the hospital? He’d seemed healthy. At least everything
was in functional order that she could ascertain. Perhaps he was having routine
surgery. But for something less serious, he would have surely stayed in Austin.

He had people in Iowa, he’d said. A support network.

Sabrina’s thoughts leapt forward, and her imagination
projected the worst-case scenario.

What was she supposed to do now?

What
could
she do?

She walked back to the office slowly. Inside the Think Tank,
Carlton and Moira were reading through a batch of Senate bills she had
recommended Theo sponsor. Sabrina couldn’t concentrate. Returning calls seemed
nonthreatening enough. But when she realized that Josiah Tide had been rambling
on for five minutes and she had no clue what he was talking about, she asked
Carlton to answer the phones and began the mindless task of replying to email
communiqués instead.

A deliveryman brought in a parcel postmarked from an online
menswear boutique after lunch.

“Fashion,” Carlton sighed gratefully. He retrieved an X-Acto
knife from his drawer, neatly cut through the packing tape, opened the box, and
shook a black fedora out of the tissue paper. He twirled it around lovingly
before putting on top of his thick mop.

“If I’m stuck doing the Warehouse District crawl, at least
I’m ringing in the New Year in style,” he said, adjusting the hat at a jaunty
angle. “What about you two?”

“My housemate and I are having some friends over for
Balderdash, Chex Mix and beer,” Moira said. “I bought sparklers.”

“Festive,” Carlton commented with an edge of snide. “And
you, Sabrina?”

“I’m going out of town for the New Year,” said distractedly
as she opened her desk and plucked a blank Unpaid Leave form from a hanging
folder. The scene that would take place in Theo’s office later that afternoon
after she slid it across his desk wouldn’t be pretty, especially when he saw
that she’d left the return date blank. The Hon. Rep. would be fit to be tied,
but there was nothing she could do about that.

Carlton put the fedora back in its box and looked at her
with renewed interest. “Are you going someplace exciting?” he asked her.
“Dallas? Houston?”

“I’m thinking slower-paced,” Sabrina replied as she filled
out the form. “And a bit farther away.”

“Acapulco?” Moira jumped into the guessing game. “Cancun?”

“Nope.” Sabrina tapped the piece of paper with the end of
her pen then signed the bottom line with a flair. “Somewhere very cold. I’m
thinking …
snow
.”

**

“Are you sure this isn’t a crazy idea?” Sabrina asked.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Molly kept her eyes
focused on the road as she drove down the highway.

“I’m flying to Des Moines on New Year’s Eve. I am not
thinking this though.”

“You’re not, and you shouldn’t.” Molly slid Sabrina a knowing
look. “If you ask me — which you are, come to think of it — I think
that flying to Iowa on the spur of the moment is one of the sanest things
you’ve done in your entire life.”

That’s what she was afraid of. Molly’s blessing could well
be the kiss of death. Sabrina’s stomach was still in knots from the
dressing-down she’d received from Theo for not only taking personal time off
right before the busiest time of the year but refusing to tell him why. Her
stress levels had shot up further from planning an impromptu pack-and-dash and
from the caffeine in the extra-large double latte she’d just gulped down.

Molly navigated the old Volvo around the afternoon traffic
like a Formula One driver, nipping around a semi-trailer truck.

“Are you trying to get me to the airport or get both of us
killed?” Sabrina squeaked as she glanced at the speedometer in alarm.

“I’m getting you to Des Moines on time,” Molly told her. “If
you miss this flight, the next one’s not until morning.”

Sabrina instinctively clutched the edge of the seat as the
wagon veered onto the exit ramp sharply. She could hear the squeal of planes
dusting off the runway and the thunder of several others directly overhead.
She’d never been to Des Moines or anywhere in the Midwest. She wondered what it
would be like. Definitely colder than Texas.

Molly pulled into the passenger unloading lane and the two
women quickly pulled Sabrina’s luggage from the back of the vehicle.

“You do intend to come back?” Molly eyed the mountain of
Louis Vuitton.

“I didn’t know what the weather would be like, so I packed a
little bit of everything,” Sabrina explained. “My shoes took up most of the
room.”

Molly smiled and rolled her eyes. “Here.” She stuffed
several folded papers in the side of Sabrina’s messenger bag. “I printed out
the directions to the hospital and your hotel. I made reservations for two
nights. I also wrote down the number of the local taxi service.”

“Thanks so much, Molls.” Sabrina felt grateful. Leave it to
Molly to take care of the small details. “What if Gage doesn’t want me there?
What if he sends me away?”

“You’re working yourself up over nothing, Brini,” Molly said
by rote. Her next question took Sabrina by surprise. “Are you in love with
him?”

“God, no. We’re just friends. That’s what you wanted for the
two of us, right?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Sabrina sensed
the burden of her lie. It wasn’t just physical attraction or the thrill of mad
sex. She was in love with Gage Fitzgerald. There was no other explanation for
the unpredictable rollercoaster of emotions she’d felt since he moved in.

Molly put her hands on her hips and eyed Sabrina critically.

“Okay, you win,” she sighed. “I’m crazy about Gage.”

“If he’s given up on you, then you’ll come back home,” Molly
said practically. “I’ll pick you up, and you’ll have a good cry — or we’ll
go out to a pub and get smashed on strong, warm European beer.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sabrina replied, unenthused.

Molly looked at her sympathetically. “I can’t walk you
through the rest of this, Brini. Gage is a proud man. You’ll have to prove to
him that you’re worth a second chance.”

“This has never happened to me before, you know,” Sabrina
told her. “Falling in love is scarier than I ever thought it would be.”

“I know, sweetie. It’s supposed to be.” Molly wrapped her in
a big hug. “Have a Happy New Year, hear?”

Sabrina watched the Volvo pull away from the loading zone.
She suddenly felt terrified. If her worst fears were playing out in a Des
Moines hospital room, there wouldn’t be much to be happy about.