Friday, August 5, 2011

The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 2 Middle Daughter


Lalique Flynn
Errol and Olivia Flynn's second daughter


Lalique Flynn was weary. Weary of what she considered her boring life, her same old way of doing things, of dating man after man; then still being alone. She knew she should be happy that she had a good job, a beautiful—if small—home in a nice town, and a wonderful family, but contentment still eluded her.

She read, practiced her piano and had lots of friends, but still she felt things were stagnant. And she was lonely.  No one really knew how lonely she was. 

  
She dated many men, nothing had panned out for long, except for her relationship with Bob Blackford which had limped along for almost two years. Finally she decided he was too old for her and she just couldn’t make herself fall in love with him although she had tried. 

Devon Brecht, her old high school sweetheart had written a best seller a few years ago and then dumped her without even a goodbye when he took off on a book tour. Later he tried to romance her again but by then she looked at him with new eyes. He was still living with his parents while she had traveled, come back to Pleasantview, climbed to the top of her career in teaching, and bought her own home. 


Devon was good-looking and intelligent and he still made her heart flutter but she decided he was a wimp for all that. She’d couldn’t make up her mind if she should just accept that he was a weak man and make a life with him anyway or tell him to stop calling her. She’d been crazy over him since she was 15 and his former girlfriend, Grace Lassiter, had thrown him away. The question was moot now, though, because he was married. Lalique had nearly fallen over when she’d heard he’d wed Grace last year. After all these years, Lalique thought, he goes back to the girl who broke up with him (to go with Alex Goth). Grace was co-Chief of staff at the hospital along with Jody Broke, Grace’s former sometime lover. She was a strong-minded woman and maybe Devon needed that, Lalique supposed glumly. She could just picture them together in Grace’s little bungalow (he still had never bought his own house).

Grace and Devon: 

“Hmmph, she probably makes him wear a studded dog collar when they get romantic,” Lalique groused to her sister Yvette, who laughed at this. Yvette was a couple years older than Grace but knew her and liked her.  Yvette also  knew that Lalique used to like Grace, too, but she was just broken-hearted about Devon and had been so for a few years now.

Weeks and weeks Lalique spent doing nothing but wonder where she had gone wrong in life. It was like she had missed some class in high school or college that all her female friends attended. Like “How to Catch a Husband 101”. She knew this was not a fashionable thing to want--to land a man, but sometimes you had to just tell the truth. She'd done the career thing and while she was proud of her work and happy to be independent, she was still not content nor at peace with herself.

One night, in despair, Lalique ended up at the Galaxy Arcade, the business Bob Blackford owned and managed. She was totally startled; she almost did not recognize Bob. She hadn’t seen him since the block party, it was true, and that was probably 18 months ago, but he seemed to have aged overnight. In fact, at the block party he drank too much and was watching her with Jacob Black every minute, she remembered that now. She hadn’t even seen Jake since then, but evidently Bob thought at the time that she and Jacob were a big romance and was jealous.  A long time widower who had three grown sons--the oldest was the same age as Yvette--he’d always looked quite young for his age. The years had suddenly caught up with him. It made her sad even though it was the natural course of events in life. He appeared glad to see her, and they talked for several minutes, but the whole thing was depressing to Lalique and she was sorry she’d gone there at all. She knew that her desperation would drive any alert man out into a snowstorm to get away, but she just couldn't seem to get rid of it, it came out through her pores.


Afterward she chided herself for even going there,

“So I thought there might be someone new and exciting at an arcade? Get real, Flynn. So much for that idea.”

The next morning she was up early and had a can of bland instant breakfast then was on her way to work. Bland was the word, she thought, just like my life.


Later in the week, lonesome and hungry for conversation that actually took place in her home rather than on the phone she called Jody Broke to come over. He was someone she liked as a friend but had also dated from time to time. He loved games and they played SSX3 but soon were making out on the love seat. Jody was a player like his brother, Beau; like Nicky Ferguson, like David Lassiter; like Lonnie Hammond. Hmm, the town seemed to be full of these handsome reprobates now that she thought of it; all allergic to commitment. Nicky and Lonnie may have reformed but not the others. For that matter, who knew if the reformation of Nicky and Lonnie would take? Lalique felt she was too smart to fall for a player. Too smart too late was more like it, she thought with a grimace. In her opinion there was nothing wrong with a little kissy-face with Jody, though. She had her eyes wide open.  Deep in her heart she knew she had called Jody to send a little prick of pain to Grace. Probably, though, Grace wouldn’t ever know and probably wouldn’t care anyway.


Lalique had always been self-deprecating and had a dry sense of humor. It was a defense mechanism probably. At some point in the evening, though, Jody said quietly,

“You know, Lalique, I've always thought you to be a witty, intelligent woman. And I wanted to be more than a friend to you. But somehow you’ve become very bitter; I'm not sure about what. You’re very beautiful, but this chip on your shoulder makes you unattractive in the long run. My life has been a struggle at times and I just don’t want to be around negativity anymore. So I’m afraid to get closer.”

“Gosh, don’t hold back, Jody, tell me what you really think."

Truly she was stunned and her first thought was to belt him and kick him out the door, but her basic honesty kept her from it. He was right. If she didn’t watch it she’d turn into an alienated and resentful old woman, lonely yet pushing people away. Yikes, she probably already was that now. She appreciated his abrupt candor in one way. 

"Still," she thought defensively, "Who asked him?"

In deference to the years they'd been friends Lalique didn’t belt him but…she did kick him out the door. For the night, anyway.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

AWwww! I am sure she isn't SO bitter?! lol She will find a man, there is someone out there for everyone ya know.

Lorelei said...

Not as bitter as Jody thinks anyway. Ahem, as for "there's someone out there for everyone", that's what my mother told me, too. I know she believed it, but it just isn't so. I've made peace with that though, finally.

Lorry said...

LOL, that was very brave of Jody.

Lorelei said...

Hee hee! It sure was, but he's always been pretty plainspoken;I just haven't played him in a long time. The only time he gets to go public is when he's a visitor to someone's home or a public lot. On top of that, the girl I had planned for him has fallen for someone else. Poor boy.