Spinner Ch. 03

On Friday night at the concert, I watch her as she enjoys the music. She seems bored with the Handel, but absolutely loves the Vivaldi! Afterward, as we walk to the car, I look across the crowd to see Gillian with a date moving toward their car. She looks over at me and gives me a wry smile as she turns and continues along with her date. Angela sees this interchange and says,

"Michael?"

I pull her to me and kiss her, before continuing to my car. She still has a worried look on her face, so once we are in the car, I turn to her and say,

"Angela, you are my little love ... not Gillian ... not anymore. You are the one who has been so constant and unfaltering with me, and if you still want me, I am yours!"

"Oh, Michael! Yes! Yes darling, you know I do, and I ... I always will. Take me home honey!"

I move into Angela's apartment the next day, with her father helping us. I know it is rather soon to be moving in together, but it seems right, and her Dad has no problem with it. Apparently, she has been talking his ear off about me! It turns out that he is also a Two-A baseball fan, and we find other things we connect on, not the least of which is his pretty daughter. He turns to me and says,

"You know Mike I have always been worried about my little Angela. She is too beautiful for her own good, and attracts a lot of male attention due to her looks ... quite a lot of it is from fellas just wanting to take advantage of her. I am happy that she found you. She can't shut up about how wonderful you are to her, and I thank you for that. Angie is my special little girl, and I just want to see her be happy. She is happier lately than I have ever seen her."

"Well, your daughter is easy to love, John. She is so smart, and has such a quick wit that it is hard for me to keep up sometimes. We have an amazing girl, don't we John?" He laughs claps me on the shoulder and says,

"We sure do Mike, we sure do!"

It turns out that Angie's roommate, Becky (Rebecca) moved in with a writer friend of hers a few weeks earlier. She remains a close friend to both of us, and comes over quite often for dinner, with her significant other, Cynthia (Cindy). Both girls are delightful people, and great conversationalists. Becky is an artist, and Cindy is already a published writer at age twenty-one.

Angela and I are so close, and so loving, that it makes our friends nauseated sometimes, but we just look at each other and laugh. We both bought identical bicycles, and ride all the time. I found out that Angela is a talented tennis player, and playing with her is a challenge since she is much better than I am. I beat her consistently at racquetball though ... and backgammon!

She also has her time with her friends, and I have my time with Jake and my other friends. I never ask about her clubbing nights out with her girlfriends. I trust her implicitly. Becky questioned me about that once, and I told her that Angie has always proven to be trustworthy. All she would say is,

"Michael, you are one of a kind ... and ... your trust is not misplaced!"

Some months later, on a particularly quite night at home, I am reading to my darling Angela, and it is a novel where at one point the boy proposes to his girl. Angela is listening intently and moaning at the romantic setting, and as I start to read the proposal scene, I switch to real life pretending that I am still reading as I say,

"...and then Michael, having asked permission from her father, throws the book aside, and kneeling in front of his darling girl, proposes to her."

I throw the book aside, drop to one knee in front of Angela, and continue, "...and then Michael says 'Angela my darling, will you marry me?"

It takes her a moment to realize what is happening, as she looks down at me, holding a small black velvet box. I open it and show her a beautiful three-quarter carat diamond ring. She gasps and says,

"Oh Michael! Oh my God!! Yes! YES!! Oh my God, yes Michael I will marry you!!"

She is still in shock as I put the ring on her finger. She lunges off the couch at me knocking me over and lying on top of me starts covering my face with kisses. We rise, and she is a mess of tears and jitters watching her ring sparkle in the light, as I pop the cork on a small bottle of champagne, and pour us both a glass. Angela is crying as hard as it is possible for her to cry, with her tears of joy.

That is when I give her an engagement present; it is the pub napkin she wrote her name and phone number on those many, many months ago, that I had mounted in a handsome frame. Over joyed with her present, she throws her arms around me and wets my face with her teary kisses. I have to hold her as she sobs and sobs until it is all out.

I tell her that we have reservations at a nice restaurant, so she changes into her nicest dress. We walk into the restaurant, and the host shows us to a table where her Mother, Father, and little Brother already there. Also at the table are Jake and his date Mindy, along with Becky and Cindy. Angela is beside herself sharing her moment with family and friends. It is a late supper, but we become a loud and happy crowd for just the nine of us.

At one point, Angela looks across the table at me with a sweet and loving look and mouths the words,

"Thank you so much darling! I love you!" I reply in something just above a whisper,

"I love you too, my Angel!"

Angela and I are in the same class at the university, and graduate together. I receive a B.S.B. degree in finance, and Angela, a B.Arch degree, cum laude. Her degree program was five years, but with her father's influence, the university accepted her into the program after her junior year in high school because of her high grades, and she is able to graduate with me.

She joins her father's firm and John offers to help me with a job at a friend's company, but I decline, telling him that I prefer to find a position on my own merits. I actually do find a good position at a local corporation in the finance department, starting as a junior vice-president, which in real terms means that I do all of the grunt work for the VP's and the Senior VP.

They are all great mentors. But, one of the VP's, George, can't lay off hitting on Angela at company parties. She becomes quite adept at sidestepping his advances though.

Angela and I make love every night we possibly can, but she has some travel, as I also do. We never fail to talk on the phone for at least some time—whether it is a minute or a couple of hours each night we are away. After our second year in our positions, Angela becomes pregnant, and struggles to work as long as she can, with her doctor finally ordering her to take some time off.

A week later, she gives birth to a baby girl we call Janine after her Mother. Janine is pretty, and has brown eyes like her mothers. She is smart, and is reading to us at age three each night when we put her to bed. Angela and I watch as our little girl grows into a pretty ash-blonde and an object of admiration among her male fifth-grade classmates. Uncle Jake dotes on his honorary niece, to the point of irritation to Angie and me.

He marries Misty, and they have a son of their own. Misty and Angie are not happy with Jake and me meeting at the Fifth Avenue pub periodically, but they find some haunts of their own. On one occasion meeting Jake at the pub, Jake quietly says,

"Mike, see that one at the bar?"

I look up and see Gillian sitting at the bar with a book and a lite beer. She is still very pretty and petite, and wearing the same white shorts, pink halter top and tennies as when I first met her. Jake nods to me, and I get up to greet her. Coming up behind her say,

"Buy you another, doll?"

She turns quickly and seeing me says,

"Mmm, no thanks honey. You're cute n'all, but I just stopped in for a quick one."

"Very funny, Gillian! So how are you?"

"I'm fine, Michael. I have my B.S.N. degree, and I am a nurse at Children's Hospital. I love my life, and share a flat with my friend Sherry. I hear from Jake that you and Angela have a little girl! Congratulations, Michael."

"Thanks Gilly!"

"Tell me Michael, do you ever think about your little spinner?"

"Sometimes!"

"But you have finally lost my number?"

"Yes Gilly, I have!"

End.