Chapter 19
Nora
Katie left for work again, after we spent a torturous lunch together where she plowed me with question after question regarding my relationship with the Stone family. I didn’t have answers to her questions. I, myself, didn’t know why I had accepted the dinner invitation, why I kept allowing myself to get tangled up in their lives.
Alone in the apartment again, I stayed away from the couch. I was horrified by my own actions from before, and instead, I focused on doing some cleaning around the place. So, when my phone rang, I didn’t hear it for the first few minutes. It kept ringing, and I finally ran to my bedroom to look for it in my bag.
“Hello!” I exclaimed, slightly out of breath from rushing to get to the phone.
“Ah! Is that you, Nora? It’s me, Helen!” I froze on the spot when I heard Felix’s mother’s voice. This was not the call I was expecting.
“Oh, yes, it’s me…hi,” I spoke meekly, afraid of what she might have to say.
“Don’t be astonished; I got your number from one of the girls at the hotel. I told her I knew you personally. They had your number on file,” Helen explained. I could hear Cici’s voice in the background, begging her grandmother to speak to me.
“Okay, well, now you have me. How can I help you?” I was pacing around the room as I spoke, while Helen sounded calm and composed.
“Oh, nothing, I was just doing a bit of cooking tonight, and I was wondering if you would like to join us for dinner again? Maybe you could finish telling me all those wonderful stories about your little town,” Helen said. Suddenly, my throat felt very dry.
“Tonight? Well, does Felix…is he…will he be there?” I asked and Helen laughed mildly.
“Well, you know my son, I’m sure. Who knows what he’ll do? He might be in New York already for all I know. It doesn’t matter…it can just be us girls. I gave Anne the day off. Cici has been spending a lot of time around strangers, and I just want her to have a cozy family dinner,” Helen continued.
“Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Stone…Helen, but I’m not sure if I’d want to intrude. It might be best if it’s just you, Cici, and Felix, don’t you think?” I suggested, beginning to feel almost faint with nervousness now.
“Oh! Don’t be silly, dear. We would love to have you! Cici can’t contain herself with excitement at the thought of having you for dinner two nights in a row. Something about how she wants to organize a tea party,” Helen said, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll think about it. I do have a lot of work to get through today,” I replied.
“Oh, good! We will look forward to seeing you after you’re done with work then, dear. I’m sure it’ll be a lovely surprise for Felix, too, if he decides to join us,” Helen said.
The call ended soon after that and I sat down on the edge of my bed with a thump. Helen had gone behind her son’s back to invite me, and I wasn’t sure how Felix would react to that. I hadn’t seen him or spoken to him after he roughly pulled away from me and stormed out of the dining room the previous night. I could sense that he regretted his decision to kiss me…and why wouldn’t he?
I was nothing more than an employee at his hotel. And now his mother was inviting me to dinner. I knew there was tension between mother and son already, and I didn’t want to make matters worse by turning up at his house without him knowing.
I didn’t know what to do. I was sure of what Katie would have to say if she found out about my dilemma—she would tell me to stay away from the Stone family! She strongly believed that Felix Stone was behaving inappropriately, that he was using me in some way.
It didn’t matter to her — or she just didn’t see it — that somehow, it made me feel good to be around them. Just like Cici, I had grown up pretty much without a family too. It had always just been Granddad and me, and even though he had tried very hard to give me a normal childhood, it had never felt normal to me. I loved him, with all my heart…but I had grown up lonely and feeling lost.
Around Cici, Helen…and even Felix, suddenly I felt like I had a family. Helen was warm and generous, Cici was cheerful and attached to Felix and me…well, he was the kind of man I never thought I would meet in my life.
I was aware that I was fooling myself. That none of this was going to last. Helen was going to go, and then Felix would not need someone to keep his mother occupied. Cici had her nanny. This was all just make-believe, and in the end, I would hurt myself. I would be left alone, possibly without a job, and the family scene would be just a distant memory. I knew the right thing to do was to not go to this dinner, to just stay at home and move on with my life.
But right now, I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of spending another evening in the Stone household. I couldn’t help but be excited about sitting around a table, talking and laughing with Cici and Helen. I also couldn’t help but wonder if Felix might kiss me again, if he wanted me the same way I wanted him.
But it was so wrong.