Growing Fonder

Summary: I watched this movie again a few weeks ago and have been thinking about it a lot since then. Giselle is just too fun of a character not to write fanfic for! So, this is a Giselle and Robert vignette that I wrote on a whim while procrastinating other life duties! This is a second full day for Giselle in New York. Imagine that the "date" at Bella Notte basically ended the first night – no argument afterwards between Giselle and Robert – and Edward comes a day later than he actually did. I wouldn't change any of those things but am just inserting an extra day in the mix. The night after this story takes place is when the argument and almost-kiss would resume the movie. I just like the idea of another day of unofficial "dating" for Robert and Giselle.

Rating: G

Robert Philip leaned back in his office chair and sighed quietly. He looked from an irate Rodney Smith to an even more furious Ellen Denato-Smith. Apparently this time a marriage was on the verge of failure because Ellen spends too much money at Pottery Barn whereas Rodney spends too much time at the casinos. Receipts were strewn across the table and Rodney was thrusting one at his lawyer while Ellen pushed an Amex bill towards Robert.

"Do you see this?" she cried to Robert, "Month after month there are thousands charged on here. The Borgata! Caesars! Online poker! I didn't even know he went to AC in most cases!"

"As if that even comes close to all of these!" Rodney spat back, waving a particularly unsatisfactory receipt in his wife's face. "Three thousand dollars at Pottery Barn dot com! On what?"

Ellen quickly surveyed the slip of paper. "That is for your son! He needed some things for his room. You know he is getting too old for a crib so he needed furniture!" She sighed audibly. "He never even thinks of that poor child," she stated to nobody in particular.

"Oh, yes, and a two and a half year old needs $1200 in shelving for his room. I forgot." The sarcasm was colder than the air conditioning in the large conference room where they were seated.

Rodney's lawyer, a particularly pompous fellow with a suitable name to fit his demeanor – Wallace Alastair Sanders IV, Esq. – began speaking but Robert's mind was elsewhere. He picked up his Blackberry and opened a web browser. A-N-D-A-L-A-S-I-A he googled. No results. Only Andalucia, a region in southern Spain. Could she be Spanish? His mind drifted to the fair red-head who had been fast asleep on his sofa when he left earlier than usual for a 7a.m. breakfast meeting with a colleague a few hours ago. He vetoed this idea. She doesn't have an accent and even Europeans have at least heard of New York even if they have never been here! But she could pass for one of those flamenco dancers in that dress she had showed up in…

"Don't you think so, Robert?" Robert instantly snapped back to reality and put his Blackberry down on the conference table. Ellen was asking him something as she gathered credit card bills and leafed through them. She stared at Robert for a minute, awaiting his reply before repeating herself. She was practically in tears at this point. "He's squandering money away at games while I'm buying necessities for my son. That is much more important. Don't you think so?"

What Robert felt was an uneasiness in his stomach as he thought about that poor toddler, soon to be part of a broken home. He knew about that firsthand, although he had not consciously made that choice when his ex-wife had abandoned them when Morgan was barely able to sit up on her own. "Well, what I think is that we need to break for lunch so that we can all refocus on our goals for this meeting."

Wallace glanced at his watch. "It's twelve o'clock. Everyone be back at two p.m. prompt." He looked at Robert, who nodded.

The group dispersed outside of the conference room and Robert walked over to Sam's reception area. "Hey," he said to catch her attention as she sat with her back to him filing some papers away. She turned around to face him. "Thanks for entertaining Morgan this morning before school. I hate having to get her up and out the door so early. At least I don't have these things too often," he said, speaking of his early meeting.

"No problem, you know Jake likes when pretty younger women come over to the house," she joked of her nine-year-old. "Charles made them breakfast while I got ready. He's good like that. You know how he likes to cook." Robert nodded. "At least one of us does," she said with a roll of the eyes.

"Well, thanks again," Robert said with a smile.

Sam waved it off as if to say forget about it. "So what are you doing for lunch today? Do you need me to order some sandwiches for your meeting? Maybe some wine or some tranquilizers," she added under her breath, "sounded brutal in there."

Robert sighed and shook his head slightly. "Ask me again why I am in this profession?" he said. Sam patted his hand reassuringly as it rested on the counter. "Go get some lunch. You need a break."

"Actually we're reconvening at two so I'm going to stop home today since I have two hours. Tell anyone who calls that I'm unavailable until later today, ok?"

"Will do. Hey, whatever happened with the red head from the island of contentment?" Sam laughed. "Giselle, was it?"

"Yes, Giselle. I will let you know when I come back. She's at my house still."

Sam gave Robert a skeptical look. "You left a stranger at your house? Have you not lived in this lovely city for the past thirty five years? Even the pretty ones need to be watched, Robert," she chided.

"I know," Robert replied with a sigh. "I just….she seemed so harmless and I couldn't put her out on the streets. I can't explain it, Sam, but I just couldn't do it. We'll figure this out sooner or later. In any event, I'm going home to check up on things. And if my apartment is cleared out when I get there, I give you full permission to say 'I told you so,' he quipped. He turned to go. "See you at two."

"I'll be here," Sam said. She waved and went back to her filing.

Robert walked outside of his building and was about to hail a cab when he decided to go next door and order some deli sandwiches to go first. He surely wouldn't have anything in the house for lunch and hopefully Giselle would not have already had another bowl of cereal by the time he got there. She had been absolutely captivated with Frosted Mini Wheats when he had offered them to her the day before; apparently food did not come in cardboard boxes in Andalasia. He smiled at the remembrance of her thorough observation of the little frosted rectangles, both before and after he poured some milk on them for her.

He opened the door to the deli and walked inside. After perusing the menu, he decided to get one turkey hoagie and one pastrami sandwich. Women usually like turkey, right? At least Nancy does and his ex, Cynthia, also had. Less fat, they both claimed. Cheese was always off limits for Nancy, who always seemed to be watching her figure, even though she didn't need to. But Giselle had raved about the cheese pizza they had had the night before at Bella Notte with no complaints about not being able to fit into her dress the next day – or having to find more curtain to make a bigger size, he thought with a small laugh to himself. So that settled it – one turkey with American cheese and one pastrami on rye. Pastrami was his favorite but if she wanted to try it, they could split the sandwiches in half and share. He placed his order and was on his way.

Several minutes later, his cab stopped at 116th and Riverside Drive and he stepped out after paying his fare. He ascended the elevator but stopped as soon as he stepped off onto the 8th floor – there was quite a din coming from down the hall, in the direction of his apartment. He quickened his pace and as he paused at the door to find his key, he realized the sound was indeed coming from inside. Suddenly, he heard a familiar Cottonelle commercial. So, she's discovered the TV, he thought to himself.

Robert opened the door just as Days of Our Lives resumed, if not at full volume, very close to it. For a few seconds of shock, he stood still in the doorway, taking in the sight. Standing a few feet in front of the television was a very flustered and teary-eyed Giselle, frantically pressing buttons on all three of the remote controls that he kept on the coffee table. Words kept popping up on the screen and at one point she even turned the channel to a rerun of Friends, but the volume remained blaring.

Robert placed the sandwiches and his keys down on a nearby table and rushed to the scene. He walked up behind Giselle and reached over to take the remotes out of her hands, unintentionally startling her even more.

"Robert!" she screamed over the noise, obviously very happy to have him there to rescue her from this calamity. "I don't know what…" she continued in a very loud and frantic tone.

"…happened," she finished at a normal decibel as Robert muted the television and then proceeded to turn the volume down. He shut it off. Giselle had tears in her eyes and was actually shaking. She looked absolutely humiliated to be caught red-handed in her technical faux pas.

"I'm…so sorry," she stammered, raising her hands to her eyes and wiping away her tears. She ran her hands through her hair. "Morgan had told me what wonderful things you can see on that," she said while pointing at the TV, "so I thought I'd try. I didn't realize it would be so difficult to use!"

"It's ok," Robert said softly, trying to console her.

"And truthfully it wasn't wonderful at all. It was awful! All of those people dating other people while their true loves are at work. And they were not just going out to eat and discussing their interests, if you know what I mean." She opened her eyes wide and shook her head with disbelief. "And the arguing! Robert, there were people like the ones you know at work, ones that want to separate forever and ever!" she continued, speaking of the soap opera she had just glimpsed. "It was awful," she reiterated while sitting down on the sofa.

Robert sat down next to her, opting not to remind her that although soap operas are fantasy, these types of things do happen in the real world.

Giselle continued speaking. "But I am sorry for all the noise. I just didn't know what to do to make it stop," she said.

"Giselle," Robert began, taking her hand when she did not calm down, prompting her to stop fidgeting and to look up at him. "Giselle, calm down. It's ok. It could happen to anyone, especially if you have never seen a TV before."

"Really?" she asked, becoming calmer.

"Yes," he said. "Actually, my mother has seen a TV and actually owns one and I'll say that you know how to use it better than she does." He chuckled lightly and smiled.

"Ok," she said softly as she smiled back at him. They sat in silence for a moment before Robert dropped hold of her hand and stood up. He walked over to the bag of sandwiches. "Are you done with work for the day? Giselle asked.

"Unfortunately, no, but I have a long break for lunch today so I thought I'd come back to see how you are doing," he said.

"And just look at the mess you found me in!" Giselle laughed.

Robert smiled. "Did you eat lunch yet?" he asked, while taking out the sandwiches.

Giselle shook her head.

"Oh good, because I have a true New York specialty for you to try: deli sandwiches," he continued as he unwrapped both packages. He described both sandwiches to Giselle, who opted to try a half of each.

"Mmm, this is so yummy," Giselle said as she took another bite of the pastrami. "People in Andalasia are really missing out on so such good food. They mainly eat plain vegetables and meats, but nothing like this." As she put the sandwich down, Robert glanced up at her to see a small spot of mustard on her upper lip. He smiled at her, obviously amused by something.

"What?" she asked, eyes wide.

He reached for a napkin and wiped the mustard off of her face. "That," he said, pointing at the small yellow stain on the napkin.

"Oh," she chuckled, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. "Thanks."

He crumpled the napkin up and placed it on the table.

"So," Giselle began after a long pregnant pause, "How was your meeting this morning? You certainly had to be there early."

"Yes I did," Robert said, "luckily I don't have early meetings too often. But anyway, it was fine. Same old story – one of my colleagues got a call from a man who found out that his wife is cheating on him and told him that she wants out of the marriage. He wants me to take the case. Same story, different faces," he continued wistfully.

"Cheating on him?" Giselle asked for further clarification, "Were they playing a game or something?" She looked at him wide-eyed, awaiting his reply.

Robert stared back at her, half not believing that she was being serious, but after surveying her for a moment he knew that she was. He had forgotten (again) whom he was talking to.

"Well, not exactly a game, Giselle," he said, treading carefully. "When someone cheats on his or her spouse, they basically are not being true to that person, if you know what I mean." Giselle shook her head and continued to stare at him, still appearing utterly confused.

He continued speaking. "Maybe they will go out on a date with a person they are not married to…and maybe they will become, eh, intimate with another person." At this point Robert hoped she would understand so he would not have to provide further details.

Giselle's hand went to her mouth in shock. "You mean kiss?" she asked softly.

He nodded. "Among other things," he added.

Giselle looked like a child who had just lost her pet. "Oh, Robert. Just like in that show I had on when you got here."

He nodded again.

"I don't understand how someone could do that to someone they love," she said, looking truly broken at the notion.

Robert shook his head, a sad expression taking over his countenance. "Not everyone here cheats, Giselle. I never could. I know too well what it's like to be the one who's hurt. Left behind, wondering what you possibly could have done differently to prevent it. And with a baby to care for."

Giselle knew then that he was speaking in the personal sense, no longer about his client or people in general. "I'm so sorry again for what you have been through. You're a kind man who deserves so much more." She caught his gaze and held it. "I hope that you find every happiness in the world, Robert."

A moment of silence ensued as they locked eyes. "…with Nancy," Giselle continued softly.

"Yes…Nancy…," he repeated as he finally looked away from Giselle. He cleared his throat and glanced at his watch: 1:15p.m. "Well, I should get back to work so that I'm on time for my afternoon meeting. My client has to finish by 4 so I was going to walk over and get Morgan early today instead of having her stay at school all afternoon. Probably around 4:30."

Giselle smiled at the thought of the little girl.

'Would you like to walk over with me?" he asked Giselle. "Morgan will be ecstatic if I bring a princess to pick her up at school," he joked.

Giselle smiled up at him again. "That would be lovely, Robert."

"Wonderful. I will stop home and pick you up around 4:15. It's less than a 15 minute walk to the school."

"Perfect," Giselle said, standing as Robert got up to leave. She gave him a smile. "Thank you for lunch, it was delicious."

"You're welcome. I'll see you later," he said as he walked to the door and opened it. He waved goodbye and walked down the hallway towards the elevator.

Giselle waited until she could no longer see him before she retreated back inside. She let out a deep sigh and leaned against the door for a moment after she locked it, closing her eyes. She hadn't needed to ask this time; instead she knew deep down that she had just experienced her first true date. And the part that scared her was that she hadn't wanted it to end.

THE END