Here's a short update, hope ya'll like it. Read and review. Thanks.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 9
Love is not love which alters where it alteration find,
or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
William Shakespeare, (sonnet cxvi)
Seven years had not been kind to Summer Roberts. After Ryan's departure, she had valiantly trusted that he would phone her, or even write a letter, but as the days dragged on, her hope diminished. However, she vowed, let it not be said Summer Roberts was a bad actress, she put on a brave face and never let on that Ryan's disappearance bothered her. She had never told anyone about what had transpired between herself and Ryan the night prior to his departure, let alone Marissa. It was her secret and her story to treasure…
The summer before Summer went to college was rapidly drawing to a close. She was supposed to go to NYU to study design, deciding to put as much space between herself and Newport when she received the news that would send shockwaves through the entire community and shatter any dreams she might have had. A woman who claimed that her facelift was botched because Dr. Roberts was drunk opened a malpractice lawsuit against her father. Because he was negligent and there was a lot of evidence to prove that he was in fact drunk, Dr. Roberts' malpractice insurance refused to pay and they were forced to sell everything they owned and left them homeless. To make matters worse her father couldn't take the scorn and tried to commit suicide, his attempt failed and left his in a complete vegetative state, leaving a eighteen year old Summer to take of her father and be their small family's breadwinner. Yes, seven years had not been kind to Summer Roberts.
She started working at the Crab Shack, but the embarrassment was too much for her, she hated the way her former friends looked at her and if it were not for the fact that her best friends, Marissa, Seth, Luke and even Anna, were all still in Orange County she would have left a long time ago.
From the Crab Shack she graduated to working at a paediatrician's office as his secretary. That job, Summer thought, was at least not as demeaning as her previous one. The doctor was an old friend of her mother and had taken pity on Summer when he saw the circumstances she and her father were living in.
She finally settled into the job of real estate agent she had been doing for five years when she realised she could use her natural ability as salesperson. She also liked the job because it allowed her to buy the house she and her father currently lived in for a peach, gave her maximum profit for minimum input and gave her enough free time to make sure her dad was properly looked after. Her life finally resembled some sort of normalcy. Sure, it was in the numbered streets in a three-bedroom house without a pool and a maid but to Summer it was as normal as she could hope for.
She thought of the day as a success when she thought of Ryan only once. She still saw him everywhere and seven years did not do a lot to the hurt she felt when she thought about the hole he had left in her heart. It also did not help that he seemed to be the darling of the paparazzi. She stopped watching TV when they spontaneously aired snippets of his interview with Oprah and she stopped reading newspapers and magazines when a storm broke loose about Ryan's affair with a well-known model. Her friends, especially Marissa, respected her wishes not to talk about Ryan, even though she had not said so aloud.
Luke had been living with Ryan since the second half of his first year in college after it became public that his father was gay and he could not take the public scrutiny. When Luke died four years ago Summer almost called Ryan to give her condolences because she knew how he hard he took loss but she changed her mind when she saw Ryan in a toy store with a little blonde boy. The boy looked so much like Ryan that it broke her heart again.
She had stood rooted and watched the scene in front of her, "Hey kiddo! Have you picked something? We have to go." Ryan told the boy and the boy thrust the package in his arms towards Ryan, "Uh huh! I want this! It's a laptop. Just like Daddy's!" Ryan ruffled the boy's hair and said, "Yeah. Just like Daddy's…" She didn't miss the sorrow in his eyes but she realised that he had the mother of his son to support him in his hour of need and no longer needed her and he probably never did.
She was shaken out of her memories when she realised she was going to be late for a meeting with a prospective client and the way the market had been moving she couldn't afford to lose a sale. She grabbed her keys and ran out of the door, her memories were once again just that, memories.
When she arrived at the house she was showing her client, Elizabeth Dawson, was already there and her Mercedes C320 clearly showed she was "old-money", and for a second Summer resented her for it before she pulled herself together and switched to her professional persona.
"Ms. Dawson, my name is Summer Roberts; it's very nice to meet you!" Summer said as she approached the woman who strangely resembled Anne Hathaway.
"Please, call me Elizabeth, just not Lizzie, it's very nice to meet you as well, Summer…" Her voice was jovial as she responded in a tell tale English accent.
"Shall we start? I took the criteria you gave me and compiled a list of houses that fit, but I think you will like this one the best… It has five bedrooms, four bathrooms, two of which are en-suite, a large kitchen, lounge, dining room and entertainment area with a pool…" Summer started, rattling of the house's statistics.
Elizabeth put up her hand, indicating Summer should stop, "What about a pool house? My fiancé was adamant that it needed a pool house. My brother is going to come and visit frequently and we don't need him cramping our style…"
"Yes, it has a pool house as you requested. Shall we take a look around?" When Elizabeth nodded her head, Summer lead the way.
"This will be a fantastic room for Connor! Close enough so we can keep an eye on him but far enough away so we could still have our privacy…" Elizabeth explained when they entered one of the bedrooms. When she saw the confusion on Summer's face, she added, "Connor is my fiancé's four year old son, I love him to bits but he has a lot of energy!"
When the tour ended, Summer was not sure whether things went well or not because aside from the one bedroom, Elizabeth merely nodded her head when Summer pointed something to her. "So, that's that then, what do you think?" Summer asked and when Elizabeth didn't respond Summer added, "There are other options I can show you… Maybe we can set something up for next week?"
"No." Elizabeth said with vehemence.
"No?" queried Summer, unsure what the other woman meant.
"No, I don't want to see other options. I want this house."
"Okay," replied Summer enthusiastically, "I have an offer to purchase on me so we can fill it out immediately. I'll also have someone from the office phone you in order to help you get a bond…"
"Oh no Sweetie, we wouldn't need a bond… It will be a cash sale…"
Of course, they are loaded, Summer thought wryly. "Right, so let's start filling out those forms…"
"If you don't mind," Elizabeth said, "I just want to check where my fiancé is; maybe he can swing by and check it out before I sign anything…"
"Sure, go ahead…" Summer replied, only too happy that she was going to make a lot of commission.
Elizabeth retreated to make a phone call and when she came back, it was with a slight frown, "He's on his way, he's just dropping Connor of at his grandparents…"
"Right…" Summer responded and was suddenly overcome with the awkward silence… "So, why are you guys moving here, if you don't mind me asking…"
"Don't worry about it! We have time to kill, right?" Elizabeth said and Summer could not help but like this British woman, "My fiancé has some business interest here and he thought it would be good for Connor to close to his family because he really one has the two of us in London. That's why this house is perfect; it's close to his grandparents and the rest of my fiancé's family…"
"Cool, around here it's only me and my dad so I can understand why you guys would rather be closer to your family… How did you guys meet?"
"He and my brother were roommates at Oxford and at first I thought he was another stuck-up guy with too much money, too many girls hanging around and who would probably get his degree because his family bought it but then the accent happened and he ad to take care of Connor on his own and I saw him grow up in the span of a few days and I fell for him. It really came as a surprise to me when he asked me to marry him and move out here with him but I was just happy he was finally willing to commit. Wow, I sort of went above the question there didn't I?"
"Don't worry… I like to hear all of these romantic success stories… Makes me jealous…" Summer said sincerely. She saw a car approach and saw Elizabeth's face light up at the sight. She gathered that it was her infamous fiancé approaching.
Even though she did not know a lot about cars, she had to appreciate the silver Aston Martin DB-9 that just stopped in the driveway. A guy with black, shoulder length wavy hair stepped out of the passenger side and Summer saw Elizabeth running towards him and throw her arms around his neck.
"Gabe! Why the hell didn't you tell me you were coming!?" Elizabeth chastised.
"Well," Gabe, as Elizabeth called him, said, "Your fiancé thought it would be a good surprise for you, also Ryan wanted me to help him with a takeover…"
Ryan. That one word hammered in Summer's mind and she could feel all her blood rush into her head and her heart started to hammer in her throat. She started silently praying that Elizabeth's fiancé was not the one person who she once loved with all heart, and probably still did. However, fate had a very strange sense of humour because when the driver's side door opened, an older Ryan emerged.
"Listen Clive, I really don't care what you do. I'm taking over your company whether you like it or not so I suggest you take my rather generous offer or I will cripple you and force you to sell. You know I can have your three biggest contracts cancelled so I would not test me if I were you. Take the deal, make a profit and let me see if I can turn your sinking ship around…" The older version of Ryan almost shouted down the phone. Summer noted that he had to two lines between his eyes, clearly from a frown adorning his face for much too much given his age. "I'll have Gabe set up the paperwork. Who am I kidding, we've done that already!" Ryan said and his frown disappeared.
Running up to Elizabeth, he said before kissing her, "Your fiancé is a genius! I've just saved 200 people from losing their job!"
Summer felt as if she was intruding on a situation she had no right to witness but at the same stage she felt as if she was floating, staring down on her life, watching a farce, a comedy of errors…
"You know as much as I love our little PDA's and surprising me with my brother but I don't think this is the best time for it…" Elizabeth said and Summer thanked her silently. "Let me introduce you to the agent…" Elizabeth added turning to Summer.
"Summer…" Ryan breathed when he looked at her and it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Summer felt the all familiar feelings rush back to her and her heart was not able to process all the information. She could feel all the blood that had previously rushed to her head, rushed right out and she could feel herself falling, registering right before she hit the floor that she was fainting...
