I wish I could tell you that Anthony was sober and stopped me from kissing him. Unfortunately he had just talked to his dad that morning and needed to drink just as much as I did. So when I kissed him that night he didn't stop it, he just asked me if I wanted to go somewhere and talk. We ended up in his dorm room and I like to think that somewhere in our drunken haze we both knew that what we were doing was wrong and stopped ourselves before we could do anything we might regret. However, when I woke up the next morning in Anthony's bed with a killer headache and a note, I wasn't so sure that nothing happened.
'Hey gorgeous,
There is stuff for your hangover in the kitchen, help yourself and stay as long as you like. My roommate is staying with his girlfriend this weekend so you should have the place to yourself. My father requested I come to Hartford today, so that is where I will be. I hope to be back to school this afternoon or this evening at the latest. Want to meet me for dinner? I was hoping that we could get some take out and talk about last night. I'll call you later.
Anthony'
His note did nothing to calm my fears that nothing happened, if anything it actually made me worry more. As I tended to my hangover I tried to remember what had happened. What could we have done last night that we needed to talk about? I remembered going to the pub and meeting Anthony there. I remembered ordering a Long Island Ice Tea and talking to Anthony about his conversation with his father but that was the last thing I remembered. I didn't have any clue as to how we ended up at his dorm or if we did more than sleep in his bed last night. I knew that sitting around trying to remember wasn't going to help me figure out what had happened, so I went back to my apartment and tried to study. Around four-thirty Anthony called.
"Hello" I greeted.
"Hey it's me, how has your day been?" Anthony's smooth voice responded on the other end.
"It's been quiet; I've just been doing some studying. How is Hartford?" He sighed and I could picture him rolling his eyes.
"It's as well as can be expected. I am definitely going to need some distracting when I get back but I don't think it should come in the form of alcohol. I was thinking we could order Chinese and hang out at your place?" Normally I would use his mention of the night before to joke about not remembering anything but I didn't think that would be a good idea now. Especially since we apparently needed to talk about what had happened.
"Just tell me what time you're going to be back and I will have everything ready."
"I should be home in about thirty minutes. Should I just head over to your apartment?"
"Sounds good, I'll see you when you get here." After hanging up the phone I once again tried to remember what had happened the night before and got the apartment ready for Anthony's arrival. True to his word thirty minutes later Anthony Michaels walked into my apartment. While eating we talked about what had happened with his father and how classes had been going. The one thing we didn't talk about was the thing I was most nervous to talk about. Finally after all other subjects had been exhausted he asked about last night.
"Do you remember anything that happened?" Anthony looked at me with hope and something else I couldn't identify shining in his brown eyes.
"The last thing I remember is talking to you about the phone call with your father. I've tried to remember the rest but I'm not having much luck. Did something happen I should know about?" I smiled at him apologetically.
"We didn't sleep together or anything but you did kiss me. And Anna it was the most amazing kiss I have ever experienced. I like you Anna, a lot. I hate what this Chad guy is doing to you and I think that if you let yourself try, then we could be good for each other. I'm not saying that we have to get married or anything but we could help each other." He looked nervously at me while waiting for me to say something.
"I'm not over Chad and I love having you as my friend but what makes you think that us dating would be helpful?"
"I know you're not over him and I'm alright with that. One of the things my parents talked to me about today was marriage. My dad told me that I needed to start thinking about dating more respectable girls, girls that would make a good wife. If we were dating or even pretending to date then that would get my parents off my back for a while and it might even make Chad jealous enough to want to get back together with you." His reasoning made sense and what could it hurt really? Most of our group thought we were dating anyway.
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea about this. I like you well enough and maybe if this thing with Chad had never happened I would have considered really dating you. I want to keep you as a friend but I can also see the advantages of us fake dating. The second this stops working though is the second we go back to being just friends alright?" Anthony quickly agreed. That was the day we started 'dating'. I didn't start to fall for him right away but I'm pretty sure he was falling for me. He treated me like I was his real girlfriend without the sex or the kissing. I usually let him hold my hand and he kissed me in public when he thought he could get away with it. That was probably my second mistake.
Andrew McCrea was nervous. He doesn't usually get nervous; he is after all one hell of a lawyer. It takes quite a bit to get him like this but the lunch date with his children was making him all scatterbrained. He knew that there was a good possibility that Colin and Katie wouldn't be happy with him after this. He didn't want them to be mad but he would deserve every bit of their anger. What he did to Amy he did out of hurt and anger, he never thought about the effect it would have on Katie and Colin. The first time he started to regret it was when Katie married Finn and then again when she got pregnant with Connor. There were times when he noticed that his little girl could really benefit from having Amy around and it broke his heart because he was the reason she wasn't. No matter how much he wanted to he couldn't change the past but he could help fix what he broke for the future. So he picked up the phone and called the one person he thought could help.
"Huntzberger."
"Mitchum it's Andrew McCrea." He greeted the younger man.
"What can I do for you Andrew?" Mitchum asked him. Contrary to popular belief Mitchum Huntzberger could be a decent person when he wanted to be and Amy was one of those people who got to see that side of him. Mitchum used to like Andrew but after what happened with Amy, Andrew became one of his least favorite people.
"I was actually hoping you would give me Amy's phone number. I am about to have lunch with Colin and Katie and I know that along with being very angry at me one or both of them is going to want to get in touch with her."
"I don't have it. The one I do have for her is not right. She moved a few years ago and changed her number but I do have the number to the bookstore if you want it."
"Yeah that would be great thanks."
"This doesn't mean I forgive you McCrea. You broke her heart and drove her away from her family. Now I realize that she probably would have moved there anyway but at least she would have stayed in contact with us. I think that you deserve to have your children stop speaking to you but I'll leave that up to them." After Mitchum hung up the guilt that had been eating away at Andrew for the past twenty years suddenly overcame him and he had to fight back the tears that wanted to escape. He sighed before picking up the phone to call the bookstore; he knew that he deserved Mitchum's anger and whatever his children wanted to punish him with.
"Lucky Page this is Maggie speaking, how can I help you?" A cheerful, female accented voice greeted him. Andrew took a deep breath before answering. This was Amy's best friend and she hated his guts.
"Maggie this is Andrew McCrea and I was wondering if you could give me Amy's number? I know I have no right to ask but will you please hear me out before you hang up on me?"
"You have one minute to give me one good reason as to why I should give you her number." The once cheerful voice said coldly. The sudden coldness of Maggie's voice came as no surprise to Andrew, what did surprise him was the fact that she didn't hang up on him right away. The last time he had spoken to her was right before Amy had moved to Ireland permanently. She came storming into his office in the middle of a meeting and started yelling at him for what he was doing to Amy. Before leaving his office Maggie looked him dead in the eyes and told him that she wished he was dead. That was when he started to hate himself because Maggie was one of the sweetest people in the world and to hear her say something like that so coldly made him realize what a horrible person he was.
"I was having dinner with the Huntzberger's the other night and Colin and Katie were there. Elias brought up Amy and Katie started asking questions. I'm meeting Katie and Colin for lunch later and I know that will probably be the last time they ever speak to me. I also know that one or both of them will want to get in contact with her and I thought that if I gave her number to them then they could be reunited that much sooner." Andrew told her quickly.
"I can't argue with that no matter how much I would like to. I'll give you her number and I am also going to tell her that you called. Please tell Colin and Katie that she will be up until eleven and they can call tonight if they want to." Maggie told him before giving him the number and hanging up. When he was finished with his phone calls he closed down his office for the day, sent his assistant home and headed for The Prince.
When he arrived at The Prince he saw that Katie was already there. She was standing by the entrance to the restaurant talking to Finn. His son-in-law appeared to be comforting her and Andrew couldn't help but smile at how perfect the couple was for each other. Knowing he couldn't delay this any longer he made his way over to the couple.
"Hi Finn, Katie how are you?" The older man greeted the younger couple.
"Just fine Mr. McCrea. Love I'll see you later alright? And if you need me too I can take off early today." Finn nodded at his father-in-law before saying goodbye to his wife with a kiss. Katie didn't turn to look at her father until Finn was out of sight.
"Hi Dad. Colin is already here and I have a feeling that this is going to be a very emotional meal so let's get it over with." Katie told her father before leading him to where Colin was sitting in a secluded part of the restaurant. The three of them exchanged pleasantries and placed their orders before getting down to business.
"I know that the two of you want to know who Amy is and I'm going to tell you but before I do I need to know how you feel about your mother." The older man told his children. At first neither one of them knew what to say but Colin spoke first.
"Sometimes I hate her for leaving us, but then there are times when I'm convinced that she loves us and something must have happened for her to stay away like this." Colin said calmly.
"You told me that she left because she didn't love us anymore and I can't understand what could have possibly happened to make her stop loving her kids. Even Mitchum loves Honor and Logan in his own twisted way. Ever since you told me that I have hated her." Katie said.
"Katie I never meant for you to think that your mother didn't love you. She left because she stopped loving me. I don't want the two of you to ever think that your mother doesn't love you because she does. Amy is Elias Huntzberger's oldest daughter and your mother. I want the two of you to know that I love you and after you hear my story you will probably be pissed at me. I expect that and I understand. But you should know that when I did this I was young, stupid, and heartbroken." The two siblings nodded and waited for their father to continue.
"I met your mother at Yale. A bunch of friends and I were celebrating the end of the week at the campus pub. The place was packed which wasn't unusual for a Friday night, I don't know what made me look up at the door when she walked in but I was glad I did. She had this beautiful red hair and this look on her face that was somewhere between determined and pissed. I went over to her when she got to the bar and invited her to sit with us. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I wasn't attracted to her right away because I was. But there was something about her that made me think she wasn't like all the other society girls I had grown up with. I also stopped drinking when she joined us because it seemed like she needed to do some serious forgetting and I didn't want her to do something stupid that she wouldn't remember in the morning. The more she drank the more she talked. Towards the end of the night, after all my friends had left, she started talking to me about some guy named Charlie. I figured he was her boyfriend or something. But as I walked her back to her apartment I learned that he was an almost boyfriend. Charlie was someone that she could really see herself living happily ever after with. Your mother believed in happy endings no matter how much she tried to deny. She used to tell me that it was pointless because nobody lived happily ever after." Andrew paused to take a breath and pull something out of his briefcase.
"I don't know how I managed it but somehow I got her into her apartment that night. When I woke up the next day I couldn't get her out of my head, so I got the stuff to make my hangover cure and headed over to her apartment. We spent the entire day together just talking. She told me about not liking society but felt obligated to stay because of her family. She told me about her two best friends that she had met at boarding school and how much she missed them. I in turn told her how I wanted to do anything but be a lawyer and do what was expected of me. We understood each other and understood what being a member of our respective families meant. Then one night a few weeks into the spring semester of our freshman year, she kissed me. She was drunk because she had talked to Maggie, her best friend, who told her that Charlie had a new girlfriend. When she kissed me I let myself believe it was real for a little bit. It was the greatest feeling in the world but I had to stop it. I knew that if I didn't then we would do something stupid and I would lose Amy as a friend. The next day after spending all day in Hartford we sat down and talked about it. Your grandfather had just given me the 'you need to grow up and date respectable girls' speech. I came up with an idea that Amy and I could pretend to date. That way I could get my father off my back and maybe then Amy would get over Charlie. To this day I don't know how I convinced her to go along with it. I know that I started to fall for her before she started falling for me. I treated her like she was my real girlfriend except I got none of the benefits. She would occasionally let me kiss her but that was it. We had been together about two years before it became real. I have her friend Maggie to thank for that. Apparently Amy had told Maggie about our arrangement and Maggie told her that it was a bad idea to continue pretending to date me if that's all it was ever going to be. Amy told me later that kissing me that night was an experiment to see if she had feelings for me. She did. That was another of the greatest days of my life. We started to act like a real couple in love then and we made plans for the future. I like to believe that she had finally come to a place where she could forget about Charlie." Andrew stopped speaking once more and showed them what he had pulled out of his briefcase. It was a picture, taken about thirty-five years before, of a young man who was obviously Andrew and a gorgeous young woman that looked exactly like Katie. Andrew had his arms wrapped around the young woman from behind and was kissing her cheek, the young woman had a beautiful smile on her face with her arms laying on top of his. Her eyes were closed.
"This was taken at Yale at the end of our junior year. I love this picture because your mother actually seems to be at peace and happy. That summer the two of us went to Ireland together. She wanted to introduce me to Carter, Maggie, and Maggie's family. The people I met in Ireland that summer were wonderful and I could see why your mother loved it so much. I didn't meet Charlie. He was with his girlfriend I believe, but I think he made an appearance. I only think this because at one point the phone rang and after talking to the other person Maggie came and whispered something in your mother's ear. She disappeared for a while after that. When she reappeared she asked me to go for a walk with her and while we were walking she told me that she loved me. That she knew she could love me freely and completely. During our last year at Yale together we discussed more concrete plans for the future. We would be hanging out at the apartment and she would start talking about what would happen after graduation. She decided that we would keep her apartment to live in while I went to law school and that we would find a house that was as far away from our parents as possible, once I graduated. And after I proposed to her at Christmas, she started talking about where we would get married and have our honeymoon. She would even talk about names for our kids. From the very beginning the name Katherine was talked about, she told me that it was Maggie's middle name and she loved it. Boys names were always changing, she never could decide what boy names she liked the best or went better with McCrea. As the wedding got closer I started to see less of her. She was always off with one of her girls or on the phone with Maggie, who was flying over to be her maid of honor. One night a few days before graduation she asked me something that I will never forget. She made me promise not to change completely, which confused me at first. Then she explained that getting married and going to law school was bound to change us a little. We were both probably going to become a little like our parents and she was ok with that but she wanted to know that I would do my best not to change completely. I didn't see a problem with making that promise to her, so I promised her and she promised me the same. We got married that summer in Cape Cod, it was beautiful. We had invited Charlie and his fiancée and while I didn't see them your mother told me that he snuck in right before it started and left right after it was over." Andrew paused to catch his breath and showed them the picture of him and Amy on their wedding day.
"For the first few years things were great, it was just the two of us and that was the way we liked it. Then one day a couple months into my last year of law school your mother came to me and told me she was pregnant. We were both ecstatic, we prepared for the baby together. I went to all the doctor's appointments, gave my opinion on names, and how we were going to decorate the nursery. But somewhere around mid-term things changed. Classes became harder and your grandfather expected me to be in Hartford when I wasn't in class. That upset Amy because she wanted to do stuff for the baby when I wasn't in class. We started fighting and if Elias hadn't noticed how upsetting it was for Amy I don't know what would have happened. Elias talked to my father and the trips to Hartford stopped for a while. But by the time you two came into the world at the end of May things were tense again. Your grandfather was overworking me at the office and your mother expected me to help with the midnight feedings. I tried so hard because I loved you two and your mother more than anything in the world, but things were changing, I was changing. And no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop it or keep up. One day when the two of you were six months old your mother brought you to the office to surprise me for lunch. One of the new interns had chosen this moment to make a move on me. Amy saw the whole thing and gave the intern a piece of her mind before telling me she would see me at home and leaving. That night when I got home she told me she had had enough and wanted a divorce. That I wasn't her Andrew anymore. She told me that we could split everything right down the middle and have joint custody of you two."
"I tried to understand but something inside me snapped that day. Amy broke my heart and I wanted her to hurt as much as I did. So I did the only thing I could think of, which was fighting her for full custody of you guys. I don't know how I did it but when it was all said and done I had won. I had expected her to move to Ireland after the divorce was final but she didn't. I cut her off from you completely and she stayed to try and convince me to change my mind. For five years she tried to get me to let her see you, I never gave in. I don't know what happened to make her finally move to Ireland but I think Charlie had something to do with it. Every year until you were eighteen she would try to change my mind or fight me for custody and every year I managed to block her attempts. When you two were little her attempts were stronger but the older you got the less she tried. I think that was because she knew that she had already missed out on so much and soon there would be no point. I hate myself for what I did and there is no excuse for my behavior. No matter how badly your mother hurt me I should never have taken you from her. I don't expect you two to ever forgive me and I know there is nothing I can do to make up for it. But I thought that her phone number might help. I'm also supposed to tell you that she will stay up until eleven her time waiting for you to call if you want to." As Andrew finished his story, the siblings tried to wrap their heads around it. They had a mother who loved them. Colin felt like somebody had knocked the wind out of him and couldn't catch his breath for a minute. He hated his father so much in that moment that he felt like he could reach across the table and strangle him. He knew that he would never forgive the man but he also knew that he had to be the one to speak because Katie would be more pissed then he was and he didn't want her to make a scene.
"Dad you had no right to keep us from mom. I don't understand how you could have justified that to yourself. No matter how much Stephanie hurt me I could never take Rebecca from her. What you did is pretty unforgivable and as of right now I'm pretty sure I won't be speaking to you anytime soon and I'm sure Katie won't be either. Don't call us we will call you if we want to speak to you. You made your bed and now you have to lie in it. Let's go Katie." Colin told his father angrily before standing up and taking Katie with him. As he watched the twins leave the restaurant Andrew tried to figure out how things ended up this way. How did he end up hurting the three people that meant the most to him in the world? He should have known that getting involved with Amy was a bad idea the moment she sat down on that barstool and started telling him about Charlie. Why wasn't he able to keep himself from hurting Amy and his children?
The siblings took the elevator up to the penthouse apartment, Colin was still fuming like an active volcano but Katie wasn't. For the first time in her life the red-head's usually fiery temper was dormant. As she listened to her father tell them what happened and who Amy was she felt herself become numb, like someone had given her a strong dose of vicodin. For the next hour Katie listened to her brother rant and rave about what Andrew had done, stating that he had no intention of forgiving him. While Colin was ranting Katie was thinking about the story Andrew had told and trying to figure out why it seemed so familiar. When Colin had stopped pacing long enough to ask her if they were going to call Amy she thought of something.
"Colin remember that book Rory was reading that I thought sounded familiar?" Her brother looked at her confused.
"Yeah what about it?"
"I think Mom wrote it."
"What in the world makes you think that?"
"Well besides the fact that what Dad just told us is pretty much Anna's relationship with Anthony in the book, nothing just a feeling."
"Ok I guess I could see that but we have no proof and the book is irrelevant right now because it has nothing to do with whether or not we are gonna call her."
"I think we should." Colin smiled at his sister and went to grab the paper with Amy's number on it. He went into the living room, put the phone on speaker and dialed. After a couple of rings someone finally picked up on the other end.
"Hello" A woman answered, her voice sounding hopeful.
"Is Amy there?" Katie asked.
"This is Amy; may I ask who is calling?"
"Well my name is Colin and my sister Katie is here as well." Colin answered her.
Hi guys. I'm sorry that this is so late but real life and writers block kept me from updating. I'm not sure how many more chapters are left but I'm guessing about two or maybe three. I'm not too sure if there will be anymore actual excerpts from The Book because now that the Author is going to be a present day character I think I will be able to tell her story that way. If you want me to keep doing excerpts from The Book then I will just let me know in a review. Once again I would like to thank you all for reading this and I also want to thank my beta. You rock chica. Please leave me you thoughts and comments, I love hearing from you!
Brianna