STRINGS of COLOR Read Online Free

nerve-wrecking."
    "The nerve-wrecking I get, but how was it refreshing?
    "For two years it seemed as if neither of us had been willing to put our feelings out there. I knew he was wondering if I loved him and I wanted him to know how much."
    "Don't you think he would have asked you eventually? Wouldn't it have been better to wait?"
    "What difference does it make, who asks who, as long as it happens?"
    Simone looked at a woman reading a newspaper. She looked at the confidence of her smile, the way she sat, and even the way she held the paper.
    She noticed one thing—it wasn't about independence. It was about being comfortable in your own skin.
    Simone spoke in a clear, simple, and to the point voice.
    "Look, I'm okay in my skin. I'm okay with asking the man I love to marry me. It doesn't mean that I'm taking the lead, it just means that I'm leading him to me forever."
    She didn't flinch. She didn't cross her legs.
    "Wow, that's something. I mean, I don't know how I would react if a woman asked me to marry her."
    "All you would have say is… yes, if you really loved her. It's not rocket science."
    "I think the whole idea of marriage is."
    "The whole idea of marriage is what?"
    "Rocket Science."   
    They both laughed again and Jake felt like now he could get the story he came for.
    He watched as she displayed a look of seriousness. He could tell she was about to ask him something.
    "My turn," she said.
    "Your turn for what?" He asked.
    "My turn to ask a question."
    "Ask away."
    "Is she going to read this?"
    He knew what she meant by that.
    "Yes, she has to approve every chapter. Why?"
    "I guess I asked because, while I want her to know about me, I'm not sure if I'm ready to tell her directly."
    "Why is that?"
    "It just is, for now.
    Jake waited.
    "I know that in the end, when it is all said and done, she'll be waiting."
    "Waiting for what?"
    "Waiting for me to call her mother."
    Jake looked at her. "Simone."
    "Yes."
    "I think that maybe we need to try this a different way."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Well, I think that maybe it would be better for you to take this."
    "You're giving me your tape recorder? What am I supposed to do with it?"
    "Talk into it as if you were talking directly to me. Tell me all about you."
    Simone hesitated, but then after a few minutes she reached out her hand.
    If he listened carefully, Jake was sure he heard a sigh of relief.
    Watching her walk away, he caught sight of the ice cream man again.
    Every boy wants their father to be proud of them. Even when you're grown and the gray starts to come in, that feeling doesn't go away. The only difference is that now you're a man still waiting for your father to say that he's proud of you.
    I'm still waiting.
    Just before he opened his car door, he reached into his jacket pocket and produced another tape recorder. He checked it to be sure it had recorded everything and placed it back in his pocket.
    "I am going to be a bestseller, no matters what it takes. Finally, I am going to give my Father something to boast about."
    He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror as he said those words out loud.
    He started the car up
.
    As he drove along he realized that he left his notebook at the coffee shop.
    Jake pulled up behind a black Lexus and parked his car. He caught a glimpse of the driver. She was staring at the coffee shop window.
    Shoulder length hair, smooth caramel complexion. He guessed she had to be somewhere in her late forties, maybe even crossing the fifty year starting line.
    He watched her turn as she reached for something in her back seat.
    It's her.
    It was the woman he had seen at The Clue a month ago. The same woman he had listened to on the phone as he hid in a stall next to hers in the woman's bathroom that night. She had been calling her attorney, ordering some contracts to be sent to Carl for Simone. She had sounded upset. No, she had sounded angry and he remembered how sharp her tone had been.
    He had liked that about her, it told him that