Frank POV
I am standing at Juniak's front door; I have no idea how I got here. I knock then sit down on my usual seat on his front porch and close my eyes. I am just replaying the spitefulness that spewed out of my wife. I don't know what is more shocking, that she is THIS horrible or that I have been THAT negligent not to have noticed. As I'm always lost in thought these days I don't notice that I'm being watched until someone clears their throat.
I open one eye, expecting to see Juniak and I have a smart ass comment at the ready for him but the words are stalled when I see a familiar beautiful woman standing there.
"Well Frankie this is a very odd place to decide to nap." She says to me. I get up to give her a hug.
"Xandy, what are you doing here? It is very good to see you again." After I hug her, I ruffle her hair like I use to do when we were kids.
"Geez Frank aren't we to old for that" She scolded me with a smile on her face while she fixed her hair. "I decided I needed a vacation and sometime to unwind. Two of my friends are getting married next weekend in Connecticut so I thought since this is about half way there I would stop and spend some time with my dear sweet brother and his crazy life. How are you Frank?" She asks in her professional persona.
"Shit I don't know." I say and sit back into my seat. I close my eyes again searching for that calm I use to have in spades.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" again the therapist in her can't help but come out.
Joe's little sister has always been compassionate and caring when we were little kids. Alexandra 'Xandy' Juniak has a way about her that lets you know you can talk about her about any and everything. I guess that what makes her a good psychologist. Joe is always telling me about his sisters accomplishments. But I haven't seen her in about 15 years, and damn have the years been good to her.
"Not right now, maybe later after you tell me what's been going on in your life." I tell her.
"Ha! Like my brother hasn't told you already. I'm working down at Walter Reed in D.C. helping the soldiers reacclimate back to civilian life. I'm sure you remember how hard it can be." She tells me.
"I was lucky Xandy, I had to concentrate on my new family. I didn't have the time to worry about not being a soldier anymore. I had to get a job so that I could support the daughter I never met and the wife I married moments before shipping out." I explain.
"Frank I understand." She pats my hand. We sit there in silence for a few moments.
"So tell me about this wedding." I ask her, just wanting to gloss over the horribleness of the day and get lost in this long lost friend.
"Ah, this is a love story for the ages. It started out 30 years ago when a society girl gets pregnant at the age of 16. Instead of getting married like their families wanted, the girl runs away to raise her daughter how she wanted to without the pressures from said society and parents. When her incredibly smart and driven daughter is 16 the mother has to go back to her parents requesting financial help so that she can send her daughter to a private high school so that eventually her daughter can get into Harvard. This brings mother and daughter back into the society and her parents' way of life." She speaks softly like she is reading this to a child at bedtime.
"Now this very bright teenager has been raised in a shelter kooky little town and by a very quirky mother. When she attends this private school she is a bit out of her element. But have no fear she quickly learns to adapt and make the experience her own. During the same time there was a boy that was raised deep in said society. He was raised to be an heir not a son, that money and power will get you everything. His world is turn upside down when this innocent intelligent beauty is not impressed by him. He has no idea on how to handle the feelings that this girl brings up in him. So he results to 3rd grade tactics to make his feelings known, calls her names and antagonizes her to gain her attention. Through the school year there has been a first boyfriend for the girl and series of a lot of short term girlfriends for the boy. But the stars aligned and over a 24 hour period the boyfriend of the girl and the girlfriend of the boy break up with our hero/heroine. This leaves the teenagers sitting alone on a piano bench at a party having their first real conversation. Unable to believe his luck and her kindness to him the boy slowly moves to kiss the girl. And kiss her he did, unfortunately for our innocent girl she was confused by the feelings this boy caused in her and she left the kiss, room and him crying."
"Confusion is an understatement to this budding couple. The next day at school they get assigned to a group assignment. After a long talk, where the girl explained she hadn't wallowed over the boyfriend and the boy deciding he needed a break from the type of girls he dated they forged a very tentative friendship. This naïve girl wasn't ready to give up on the ex-boyfriend so when he comes to the school hoping to woo her she takes him back. The boy however decides to get a part time job so that he can buy on his own tickets to a concert that he thought she would like. His hope to have a date with her is crushed when he sees her kissing the ex-boyfriend. This leads to the spiraling self destruction path he fell down on. After one stunt to many the boy's parents had enough and sent him to military school the night of the school play where he played Romeo and the girl played Juliet."
"Now you would think that this would be the end of this fairy tale but it isn't, it seems that this was what both needed, time to grow up and discover who they wanted to be. The girl went on to be valedictorian from the private school and decided to attend Yale instead of Harvard so that she could be closer to her mom. The boy graduated valedictorian from military school and went on to attend West Point. After the years progressed they each had their own success and failures both professionally and personally. Finally when the fates decided they were at the right place in their lives and brought the couple back together when she was give a writing assignment from her job at the New York Times to cover the current returning soldiers from the Middle East. Thus bring her back into boys' world where he was the commanding officer of the soldiers. It didn't take the couple any time for them to become a real couple and only a mere six months for the couple to become engage and have the wedding of her dreams at the inn that her mother owns back in that kooky little town she was raised in."
What a tale she has woven, it does seem like fiction when she tells it to me in her calming voice.
"So how do you know this young fated couple?" I ask her, wanting her to continue in this escape from my reality.
"Oh, I've met Tristan through the years helping his soldiers become civilian; we have become working friends during that time. I was there working at the hospital the day they found each other again. I have become very good friends with Rory, she is incredible and has him totally smitten." She explained.
A/N: I make no dollars or cents for this, the characters all belong to Janet.
OK the love story that Xandy told Frank is not mine! It belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino and I have taken a slight A/U twist to it… sigh
I have decided that I am going to pull Sentinel of My Heart with in the next month and re-write it. In the mean time I will continue to work on this story arc and post on it on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday until it is finished. I have also started a new story called Self Pity which I will post on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I hope y'all enjoy both! I am sorry if I haven't responded to the reviews that have been written. I wanted to get some chapters under my belt on both these stories so that I can keep to my posting schedule through the holidays. I WILL respond to each review soon! Because of my gratitude to each of you that have taken the time to read, review, favorite and follow that I am trying to be more consistent on posting! THANK YOU ONE AND ALL!
As always thank you Margaret, aka whymelucylu for being there as my cheerleader while I write!