The next day
Michael sat in his office trying to get the red head out of his mind. Who was she? What kind of person did something like that for a living? Michael shook his head as if to clear it. But the image of her walking towards him came fresh to his mind despite his efforts to banish her from his head.
She looked so much like Sara.
And that was just it, Michael told himself. If she hadn't looked like so much like Sara, he would have completely forgotten her by now.
He thought again of Sara. She had been on his mind a lot lately. He had done a web search on her that morning. He felt his heart ache now as he recalled the newspaper article he had pulled up.
The article in question had been almost a year old. It seemed Sara will have been married, ironically a year on the date he and Jennifer had set for their own wedding ceremony.
Sighing deeply and leaning back in his chair Michael rubbed his hands over his closely cropped hair.
He knew he should head home to be with Jennifer, but for some reason going home wasn't what he 'wanted' to do. What he wanted was to go to the strip clubs to look for the red head. He told himself he only wanted to see her to prove to himself that it was the booze that had made her look so much like Sara, but somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that he is hoping she did look like Sara.
Sighing again Michael pulled his briefcase from under his desk and loaded it full of papers and blueprints.
Just as he was pushing out from the desk his cell phone rang, so settling his long frame back in the chair he flipped it open and brought the phone to his ear.
"Hey", he said warmly into the phone.
"Hey yourself, stranger, any chance I will be seeing my fiancé' tonight"? She said in a sweet low voice. Michael smiled as he imagined her twisting her hair sexily.
He opened his mouth to say he was on his way, but what came out instead was, "I think it's going to be a late night for me, Jenn, I'm sorry".
"Oh, I made lasagna", she said sounding disappointed.
Michael leaned his head back in the chair and closing his eyes he did the one thing he had promised himself he would never do. He lied to her.
"I know, I just…I'm sorry Jenn. If there was some way I could skip this I would. You know how much I love your lasagna", he said feeling like a louse.
"Yeah, I know you love it", she said and Michael could hear the smile in her voice.
"The best thing about lasagna is it tastes just as good reheated. Maybe I'll wait up for you".
Michael's eyes snapped open.
"No, I mean I think I will just head home tonight. It's going to be a pretty late night and I don't want to keep you up. I know you have to get up early tomorrow", he said feeling like a lowlife.
"Okay", she said in what Michael thought was a hurt tone. "I love you Michael", she said softly.
"I love you too, Jenn", he said and flipped the phone closed.