Ashleigh's Dilemma Read Online Free Page B

hand in hand, they gathered in the glory. The path followed a river, black and still, reflecting the dark overhanging branches against a seamless sky....
     
    Later, she told him she thought his writing wasn't bad, pretty good in fact. Still, she didn't know what to think. She had never been the focal point of the written word before, and it unsettled her. Besides, the story was really about nothing, nothing whatsoever. At no time did the character, who was obviously Patrick, kiss her or otherwise make a pass at the character who was obviously herself. They just met in a library, talked, and walked. It was a nice day, and it was a nice walk, but that was all. Why would he write about that? She recognized the time and place in the words he chose as well as the tone and the imagery, and saw a glimpse of the day from a different perspective. Although the intent was love, they were not lovers. This puzzled her, too. It directed her to repeat what she knew rather than what she felt: his story described, sometimes beautifully, what was a just a walk in the park on a nice day and nothing more. Ashleigh was therefore forced to conclude that Patrick had an obsessive character. He might not only be obsessed with nature and beautiful things, but also with her. Was he falling in love with her, she wondered? As unlikely as that might be, could it be all that unlikely? Ashleigh had been waiting for love, true love, her entire life. Could this be the beginning of it? Her heart flipped at the thought as her stomach fell away. She quickly decided it wasn't, not with this man. There was too much that was wrong. They were simply too different. He was a gardener and not all that handsome either.
    Patrick, and the fact he was obviously interested in her, was a new experience for Ashleigh. Nothing like it had happened to her before. Most men simply did not seem to be interested. She knew she was physically attractive, but no one had yet approached her. Not in the way Patrick was currently doing. She knew why, of course – she was the why… She smiled inwardly and with some satisfaction. So why did Patrick persist? It puzzled her. She could not comprehend exactly what he wanted – an easy conquest, perhaps; perhaps he thought he had discovered a lonely woman only too willing to throw herself in bed for him. Boy was he in for a surprise! No, she decided, it was not that. That is not what he thought, or felt. He was more complicated than that. She could tell he was different from all the others, but exactly how, and in what way, she could not be sure. It was true he was trying to get close to her, and she wasn't certain if she liked that. She decided that after reading Patrick's story she had to be careful. After all, she didn't know him at all.
    Sitting across from him at the Subway she did eventually ask steeling herself, “I guess I should really know…” She closed her eyes and quickly finished, “Is that how you feel about me? Are you in love with me?” He quickly rejoined with, “No, no! It's a just a story, just a story!” Later, though, as they were standing to leave, he cryptically added, obviously referring back to his story, standing close to her, wanting their eyes to meet, “Well, there is some truth to it, I suppose.” She wondered what he possibly could mean by that.
     
    Their lunch hours continued, and lunch hour by lunch hour their conversations evolved so that each eventually knew the history of one another’s life. She told him how her father died - heart attack - and how she sat by her mother's side day after day until she died less than a year later – pancreatic cancer.
    “Why aren't you married?”
    Ashleigh opened with, “I loved a man once. He started fooling around... and it was over.” It was a lie. There had never been anyone.
    “Boyfriends?”
    Hesitation... “There was someone... he was almost perfect. I would have chased him myself, but... he liked someone else.”
    That half-confession, in