Scene: Ocean
Café
Diane Davison sits at her table in deep thought as she does her best to tune out the many different sounds around her. Collegians surround her talking about the latest fashion trends; the noise of ferry’s departing echo in the distance. It’s a beautiful clear day in Pacifica Heights, although Diane is not concerned with the present. There is only one day that she can focus on- and that day came exactly twenty-six years ago when she married Steve Summers.
She can’t believe that it’s been over a year now since her divorce from Steve. She remembers all the pain that surrounded her divorce- the bickering between them that tore them apart. Of course, if she wants to be honest with herself, the marriage went downhill many years ago….
"Hello?"
She finally breaks her daze when a tall, dark haired and very handsome man approaches her. She figures it’s a supporter of one of the columns she writes for the paper and finally responds.
"Hello there. May I help you?"
"I was just wondering if this seat was taken. I’d love to join you."
"Oh, well…" Diane becomes a bit flustered and finally ushers for him to sit down.
"I’m Braden. And you are?"
"Diane…I thought you might have recognized my picture from the paper." Diane responds, now unsure of his reason for joining her.
"Your picture in the paper, eh? You’re not an escaped convict I hope…"
"Not at all…although I’m sure there are some people out there that argue my opinions and would see me off better in jail."
Braden smirks. "Well, I love a woman with strong opinions. What can I say? Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you in town. Excuse me for not picking up the press yet, I am fairly new to town."
"Where did you reside prior to your move here?" Diane inquires.
"New York City."
"Oh, what an amazing city. I’ve had the great opportunity to visit there a couple of times."
"And why only a couple of times?" Braden asks.
"Well, I had a family to take care of…children to raise."
"Are they as stunning as you are?"
Diane is taken back, growing flustered once again and realizes she’s probably turning a bright shade of red.
"You are very charming…although I have a daughter that’s probably around your age."
"Age is of no concern to me."
Diane nods, not sure how to respond. "Well, it is to me."
"With all due respect, you don’t even know how old I am. Perhaps I just age extremely well."
"You’re probably around thirty, am I right?" Diane asks.
"Ah ha! I am actually a tad older, but thank you for the compliment. You can never judge a book by it’s cover…remember that, Diane. Now, may I order you another cup of coffee?"
"Sure…" Diane trails off with a bit of apprehension. She soon decides to embrace the situation when he rises to walk towards the counter.
_______________________________________________________________
Scene: The Summers
Estate.
The door slowly creaks open and a quick chill runs down Steve’s spine as he calls out for any sign of life. Utter silence slices through the foyer as he realizes that Kimberly is no where to be found. He realizes that she’s probably out to dinner herself; perhaps she has a date this evening just as he does. He leaves a stack of imperative documents on her desk for her perusal when she returns home.
He shoots a quick glance at the mantel and notices a picture of him and Diane that was taken nearly twenty years ago. He suddenly looks down at his watch and is quite startled when he sees the date. He can’t believe that twenty-seven years ago today he was married to the young Diane Davison.
Steve remembers the day like it was just yesterday…the butterflies in his stomach fluttered quickly and despite acquiring what seemed to be the mother-in-law from hell, there would be many good times ahead. Indeed, it would only be a year later that Diane would give birth to their first child, Kimberly. A few years after that Jason would be brought into the world.
He suddenly grows angry and clenches hiss first when he realizes the huge lie that was looming over their marriage this whole time. There was one thing that Diane hadn’t divulged to him prior to the their wedding day- hell, it wouldn’t become public knowledge for another twenty-five years. The truth was that Diane had lied to him about having a child prior to their marriage- a lie that Steve could never forgive her for.
Now he had to regain his focus, but it was much easier said than done. He was now expected to go on a first date tonight with someone he knew he shouldn’t be seeing…it was the same woman that he came across in the supermarket just a few weeks prior- and, as small as this town seemed to be, it appeared that the young blonde was now his administrative assistant at the office.
__________________________________________________________________
Scene: Chez
Rendezvous.
Felicia shakes her head in disbelief that Emily would even have the nerve to defend Liz Bryant. With all the pain that she supposedly caused her son, Terrence, there was no way that she could have any sympathy for the lawyer. Indeed, Felicia leapt at every chance she could to tear apart the damsel in distress.
"Look Emily, if you ask me, there is only one reason why your niece left town. There is only one reason that Kayla was driven out of town and her name is Liz Bryant. The woman is simply out of control! She knew very well that Rick was happy with Kayla and she still decided to sink her claws into the relationship."
"Yes Felicia, I understand your obvious dislike for Liz- especially where it concerns your son- but there has to be something more to the story," Emily replies. "Kayla is a very strong young woman. She simply wouldn’t give up like this. No, there’s just no way that one single person could drive her to the point of insanity like this. There just has to be more to the picture that we’re not seeing."
"You mean something happened that was so horrible that not even Kayla could tell you. Something so terrible that Kayla couldn’t bear to look at her husband again- and even worse, she couldn’t take care of her daughter. I’m telling you Emily, I think I know what happened…"
"Oh, and would you please enlighten me?"
"I think that Liz and Rick slept together and that Kayla somehow found out. That’s the only thing I could think of…Come on Emily, you’re such a smart woman. No friends are as close as Liz and Rick without….you know…"
"I suppose you might be on to something." Emily mulls over the idea that Kayla could have caught them. "Still, why wouldn’t she fight? It’s just not like Kayla to run away from her problems like this. We were so close too….I mean, I would think she would have told me if something that extreme happened."
"When you really love someone there is no telling how you’re going to react to a situation like that. All I’m saying is that if you really want answers there is only one place you’re going to get them right now."
"And where is that, Felicia?"
"I think you need to pay Liz Bryant a visit."
"I think you might just be right…"
"I’ll get the bill. You’ve already wasted enough time, Emily. You need to head over there now and not waste another second. You have to put the pieces together and find out what’s really going on. She lives at Pac Towers- condo seven. I’m sure she’s home at this hour."
_______________________________________________________________________
Scene: The Ocean
Café.
Diane walks back towards her table and suddenly she feels a knot in her stomach. She has always trusted her gut reaction about someone and something tells her that things are terribly wrong with this situation. This man seems so charming and complimentary, yet he is considerably younger and is presumably new to town. Why, Diane wonders, would he show such an interest in her. Perhaps he could have lied and truly recognized her from her picture in the paper, but why if he was such a fan had he never written her a personal response to any of her columns. Things just didn’t seem to add up with him and she simply didn’t feel comfortable conversing with him further.
However, if it was Diane’s true fault, she was always too trusting and never wanted to blow someone off. She thinks back to a time so many years ago when she first met Steve. She remembers how persistent he was and that he never took no for an answer. She also remembered how charming he was when she first met him and how he consistently made her feel like a million bucks.
In fact, the more she thought about him, there were more than just a few similarities between her former husband and this new man. Indeed, the more she thought about her relationship to Steve, especially this being their anniversary day, the more she felt sick to her stomach.
Her gut told her that she wasn’t ready. Her gut told her that something was terribly wrong with this charming young man.
"Is something wrong?" Braden inquires as she stares at Diane who appears as if she’s in another world.
"Yes…I suddenly feel a bit ill. I’m sure it’s something I’ll get over, but I think I need to get home and get some rest."
"I’m so sorry. I truly hope you feel better and I regret we can’t talk more while you’re here. Perhaps I can give you my number and you can call me when you’re feeling better. Maybe we could do dinner later this week?"
"I don’t think so…" Diane trails off and stands there in shock that she uttered such words. She realizes that perhaps she just mastered the art of blowing someone off. Was this how it really felt?
She thinks that she should feel remorseful for saying such words, but damn, she realizes it feels so good.
There was only one man on her mind right now and that certainly wasn’t the gentleman that was sitting in shock behind her as she walked towards the door.
The man on her mind was the man she married all those years ago….and she was now convinced that it was time to pick up the phone and make amends.
____________________________________________________________________________
Scene: The Summers
Estate.
Steve jumps at the vibration of his phone and he slowly reaches down into his pocket and pulls it out. He notices it’s Stacey calling and he contemplated for a moment whether he should answer it. Although the two had only arranged the dinner plans earlier in the day, he would feel horrible about cancelling on her. Furthermore, he realizes that work could be quite awkward the next day if he blew her off at the last minute.
He apprehensively answers the phone and greets her with a smile.
"Hey good looking! Are you just about ready?" Stacey enthusiastically responds to his hello.
"I…I just needed to make a quick stop before I picked you up. I’m here at the old house…"
Steve continues to look around the room at the pictures of him and Diane that adorn the walls. His head lowers to the ground as he remembers all of the good times they shared together and he truly wonders if he is ready to move on.
"You seem a little down…is everything okay?" Stacey senses something is wrong in his tone.
"I suppose so…" Steve trails off. He realizes the time is now or never. If he wasn’t ready for this he should never have made the plans with her. Of course, as he tries to convince himself, this is just an innocent dinner. Who said he had to rush into anything? And when does a forty-nine year old divorced man receive so much attention from a young blonde bombshell. Certainly not everyday he realizes.
"I’ll be by soon, okay? I’m sure everything will be okay…I really just don’t like having to come here…It brings back too many memories."
"I understand. Well, I’ll see you soon then? You have the address?"
"I do indeed. I’ll see you soon."
Steve shuts off his cell phone and takes a deep breath. He tries to convince himself that he will take things slowly, but he knows very well what she wants. He’s certainly not stupid and realizes that a man of his stature in the community would be sought out by women for his money. He just wishes he could go back to a time where money and status weren’t issues.
There seemed to be only one woman that really seemed to love him for all those years…there seemed to be only one woman that had truly seemed to value him as a person and respected him for who he was- and that woman was not Emily Landon. That woman was certainly not Stacey Sawyer. The woman was Diane Davison, and he now lived in constant regret that they didn’t try harder to work things out.
Instead the two had seemed to give up on each other…a life they had built together and a family they had raised together.
He soon feels another vibration in his pocket and he rolls his eyes in disbelief. He just got off the phone with Stacey- was she really calling again so quickly?
He pulls out the phone and is ready to call off the dinner when he notices the familiar number that is displayed on his screen. He looks up above in disbelief as if some miracle was just performed. Was this really his second chance?
There was only one way to find out, and that was to face the woman he had hid from in the last year. The time was now or never…and Steve realized that he had to do all he could to win back the woman he loved.
________________________________________________________________________
Scene: Liz Bryan’s Condo.
Pac Towers.
Liz Bryant is sipping on a glass of Merlot and reading a magazine when she hears a loud knock at her door. She can’t imagine who it could be. A beaming smile appears on her face when she realizes that perhaps Rick has dropped in for a surprise visit. She rushes to the door and gasps when she sees Pac Heights’ most feared face standing in her doorway.
"Liz Bryant I presume?"
"Yes, that would be me…may I help you with something?"
At first Liz thinks that Emily is here for legal advice- after all, she had won quite a few high-profile cases in the last year in the area. She is still unaware of how Emily knew she lived though.
"May I come in? I think we need to have ourselves a friendly chat."
"Okay…come in."
"I understand you knew my niece. Her name is Kayla…"
Both women stare at each other as Liz’s mouth drops. She now understands why Emily is here and she suddenly feels sick to her stomach. She can only imagine how this conversation is going to go.
"I did, yes…I knew her quite well. Is this about her recent disappearance?"
"You’re a smart woman," Emily replies sarcastically. "I was tipped off that you might have some answers for me."
Liz looks back with wide-eyes. "Excuse me? I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t think I can be of any help. I was just as shocked as everyone else when Rick told me."
"Don’t play stupid with me, Ms. Bryant. It’s certainly not becoming of you. Let’s just be honest with each other and lay out everything on the table. We both know that you and Kayla despised each other- if I could think of a stronger word I would use it. We both know that you and Rick became extremely close in the last year and I’m certainly not stupid. I can put two and two together, Ms. Bryant. I’ve certainly been around the block in my time."
"I’m sure you have," Liz cracks a smile. She’s in disbelief that Emily would say such things.
"Look missy, don’t get an attitude with me. I was once your age and remember how cocky I was. I felt that I knew it all….but you must remember one thing- wisdom is acquired through age and experience. That’s an area you lack in, Ms. Bryant. So, one more time, let’s be honest with each other. What in the hell did you do that caused my niece to leave town like this?"
"I didn’t do a damn thing and I don’t appreciate you talking to me with that tone in my own house."
"You mean condominium, Lizzy. This is no house." Emily smirks.
"I may not live in some overly-sized mansion on the hill, but I’m doing pretty damn well for myself and I don’t need a jealous old hag coming into my home and putting me down. I think it’s time you leave, Emily."
An enraged Emily glares back and she violently raises her hand to meet Liz’s face, but Liz quickly reacts and stops Emily by grabbing her hand.
"Do you have a fucking hearing problem?" Liz raises her voice. "Get the hell out of my house before I call the police. And if you try and come here again I will put a restraining order on your ass so fast. Don’t mess with the law, Emily- that’s my ballgame and you have no idea who you’re dealing with."
Emily glares back as she feels defeated. "Fine, Ms. Bryant. But I will get to the bottom of this, don’t you worry about that. And when I do find out what happened I will expose you for the trashy lying whore you really are. And I guarantee you that not many things, or people, will be on your side soon."
To be
Continued...