A Little Push
by matahari2
Summary / Disclaimer, Etc.: See Chapter One.
Chapter Four - Dinner With Friends
Amanda hadn't seen Reed in about fifteen years, gosh, had it been that long? They'd kept in touch once or twice a year, just a friendly note in a Christmas card or a birthday greeting of some kind, if they remembered. So it had been a little bit of a surprise when he had called her last Friday and asked if they could get together for dinner when he came to DC the following week. He suggested they ought to 'paint the town red' as he called it, starting with dinner at the Monticello, a very fancy restaurant in the posh, 5-star Jefferson hotel, and then they would 'play it by ear'.
By now it was 6:30 p.m. and Reed would arrive any minute now, and Amanda wasn't quite ready. She had two dresses and the appropriate accessories laid out on her bed-should she wear the black dress with the spaghetti straps and pearl-button trim? She seemed to remember that Lee had liked that one on her-whoa! don't go there, Amanda. He may finally appreciate you as a friend, but that's as far as it goes. Besides, tonight's date was with her old friend, okay, old boyfriend, Reed Davenport, so no, definitely, it would be the low-cut royal blue silk dress. She'd wear her white sequined jacket over it, just in case it was a little chilly in the restaurant. She was just slipping on her high-heeled black shoes when the doorbell rang.
"Hello, Mrs. West! It's been a long time, but you look as young as ever!" Reed gushed.
Dotty answered "Welcome to our home, Reed. And that kind of flattery will get you everywhere! Come have a seat in the living room. Amanda's almost..."
"I'm right here, Mother, " Amanda said, as she gracefully descended the stairs. Smiling cheerily, she said, "Hello, Reed! It's so good to see you again!"
Reed met her in the entryway and took both of her hands in his as he exclaimed, "Amanda! It's wonderful seeing you! You look fantastic!"
"Why thank you, kind Sir. You're not too shabby yourself, " she said with a grin. He wasn't, either. Shabby, that is. Unless you consider someone who is 6' 3" tall with jet-black hair, midnight blue eyes, a stunning smile and a great physique 'shabby'.
They said their goodbyes to Dotty, and Amanda told her mother not to wait up for her, it might be pretty late. Reed took Amanda's hand and helped her into his black Mercedes for the ride into DC to the Jefferson hotel.
While this scene was playing out, Lee Stetson, wearing one of his devastating deep navy blue suits with a stylish blue silk tie, had just allowed the valet to park his silver Corvette, and was knocking on Lady Emily Farnsworth's hotel room door. Emily opened the door and invited Lee in for just a moment. She needed his help in fastening her necklace, and they would be ready to go down to the restaurant, the Monticello, she was sure it was called.
By 7:15, Lee and Emily had been seated in the restaurant and had placed their orders. The two old friends chatted about cases they'd worked on together and good times they had shared, notably the case they had worked on with Amanda in Salzburg, Austria just a year before. Emily remarked on how clever Amanda had been in picking up the letter-clues she had left for them in her sketches.
"Yes, Emily, she definitely does have moments of insight," Lee admitted. "In fact, it appears that she may be the catalyst to us finding a way to better protect the Pope at the large public gatherings scheduled for later this week."
"How so?" Emily asked.
Lee proceeded to tell Emily how Amanda's questions about disguised weapons and stolen ID badges caused the Agency's Research Department to look harder at those possibilities, and that they actually had seen some disguised 'self defense' weapons in a mail order catalog that could have been shipped anywhere in the country.
All of a sudden, Lee's jaw clenched, and he turned his head abruptly, as his smile transformed itself into a scowl.
Emily couldn't help but notice the change in his demeanor, so she turned her face in the direction he was looking, only to see her dear friend Amanda walking into the restaurant, arm in arm with a dashingly handsome dark-haired man. 'Aha!' Emily mused. 'So that's what's upset him.' "Is there a problem, Lee?"
"What?" he said, trying to pull himself back together and recover. "Oh, no," he said with a half-smile, "I mean, I knew she had plans for this evening, I just didn't know they would bring her here, to the same restaurant. I guess I was just a little surprised, that's all."
"She looks stunning tonight, doesn't she?" Emily prompted.
"Yeah..." he said, staring in Amanda's direction, before he could stop himself, then looking back at Emily, "...well, uh, she does look very nice." Good, Stetson. Embarrass yourself.
Emily asked, "Lee, dear, may I ask you a very personal question, as an old friend?"
"Sure...I suppose so," Lee said, haltingly.
So Emily plodded on, "Why does it upset you so to see Amanda with someone else? It's not very fair of you, you know."
"It does not-" As soon as he said it, he knew he was lying to himself. "Okay, I guess it does upset me, and I can't explain it. And yes, I know it isn't fair, since I still date other women, and I've done just about all I could to let Amanda know I wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with her, but..."
"Still?" Emily interjected.
"I beg your pardon?"
Emily continued, "Just now, you said you knew it wasn't fair to be upset with Amanda for dating someone else, when you 'still' date other women. That sounds like something you say when you're working up the courage to stop doing something, like, for instance, smoking. You might say, 'Six months ago, I smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day, but although I'm still smoking, I've reduced that to one pack every two days.' Is that what you mean by 'still'?"
While Emily was talking, Lee had suddenly found the tablecloth very interesting. Finally responding to her question, he looked up and said, "You don't miss a trick, do you Emily? Okay, yes, I suppose 'still' means something like that. As you know, I used to play the field quite a bit. But I have narrowed that down recently. I'm dating only one person, if you want to call it that. We've only gone out two times, and I've managed to miss out on three other dates with her because of work. So I really don't know if that relationship will develop, either, or where it will go from here if it does."
"Do you mind telling me about her? What is she like?" Emily asked.
"No, I don't mind. Well, let's see...her name is Leslie O'Connor. She's an interpreter at the UN, but she's been doing some work in diplomatic circles here in DC recently. She's tall, about 5' 9", slender, has long, dark hair, and a great smile. Dresses pretty conservatively, compared to many of the women I used to date. And I guess you could say she's what most people would consider 'normal'. "
"Somehow your description sounds very familiar. Has that thought crossed your mind?" Emily pushed on.
"No...well, it hadn't, not until last Friday, when Amanda and Leslie met. I guess the similarity in their looks and lifestyles did cross my mind then, and when I called Leslie 'Amanda' by mistake...that one definitely goes in my memory book as one of life's most embarrassing moments!" What was this, the confessional? Now he'd really done it, admitting this slip of his.
Emily smiled at him and shook her head slightly, then asked, "How did that happen?"
"Well...confession time continues," he grinned, "I had done something really dumb. Of course, I guess, being a guy, I didn't even realize it at the time. Anyway, Amanda and I were out working on the Agency's 'Spring Cleaning', you know, following up on crackpots and splinter-groups, etc., and in between a couple of those
follow-ups, that's when I did it. I mentioned a dress Amanda had worn to the New Year's eve party at the Soviet Embassy the year before, talked about how we danced and had such a good time, and how beautiful she looked that night. I remember her smiling at my compliments. And then I went on to ask her where she got the dress, because I had a friend that I thought would look wonderful in a dress like that one."
"Lee! You didn't."
"Oh yeah. When I mess up, I do it 'royally'. Amanda took it just the way you'd imagine. She stormed off and we went our separate ways. Then this smart guy here" he said as he slapped the top of his forehead with the heel of his hand, "went ahead and bought a dress as close to Amanda's as I could find, and had it delivered to Leslie's hotel room. On Friday, Leslie managed to get the doorman to let her into my apartment so she could make a surprise dinner for me. Only thing was, when Amanda and I came back to my apartment after apparently winning a round with the 'bad guys', Leslie was there, and the two of them met. And to make matters even worse, Leslie had brought 'the dress' and even told Amanda how special she thought it was that I'd given it to her. Amanda couldn't get out of there fast enough, and she was more than a little angry with me. At the time, I thought it just had to do with my ideas about the case we were working on. The more I think about it, I'm not so sure...anyway, after Amanda left, Leslie went to try on the dress, and I was pouring the wine for dinner, and it just came out, 'Amanda, I...'. I caught myself, but not before Leslie heard me. She tried to pass it off, saying that Amanda was very nice and that I was lucky to have her. I said that 'yes, Amanda is very special.' I smiled at Leslie, letting her know that I thought she looked very pretty in the dress, although to be honest, it wasn't exactly the look I'd expected. At any rate, work interrupted once again, and we never did share that dinner."
"When will you see Leslie again?" Emily asked.
"Tomorrow evening, if my luck finally changes. Only time will tell."
It wasn't until Lee and Emily were leaving the restaurant that Amanda saw them. Her face must have registered either surprise or alarm, because Reed noticed her change of expression and asked, "Amanda, is something wrong?"
"What?" Amanda was caught off guard, then answered, "Oh, no, it's nothing, really. I just saw a couple of friends of mine. I didn't know they'd be here, too. That's all. I was just surprised to see them here, and we didn't get a chance to say hello."
"Who were they?" Reed inquired.
"Oh, well, the guy is someone from work, and the lady, Emily, she's a friend I met a little over a year ago. I took her on a tour of DC, and later, we had a nice visit in Europe, Austria, actually. What a beautiful country! Anyway, it would have been nice to see her."
"And the 'guy' you work with - he knows her, too?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say we have a 'mutual friend'."
"So you're friends with this guy?" Reed was getting a little irritated, but he was trying hard not to let it show.
"Well, yeah, I mean, Lee and I work together just about every day, and we talk a lot, sometimes go to lunch together, you know, the kinds of things that good friends do."
"Oh?" he said, raising his eyebrows questioningly, meaning to imply that 'friends' didn't usually become visibly shaken when one or the other entered or left a room.
"Yes. We're friends, that's all." Goodness knows Lee's made that clear enough. "Now, can we please drop this subject, and get back to OUR evening?"
"Of course, Amanda. Now, where were we..."
Amanda and Reed continued their conversation of pleasant reminiscences and talk of plans and dreams for the future. This evening had turned out all right, but somehow it wasn't as exciting as she had imagined, hoped it might be.
Lee Stetson had yet another restless night. The thoughts that Emily had forced him to face were churning through his mind, and when he did finally drift off to sleep, The Dream started again. Lee and 'the woman', as he thought of her, were together at a party. This time, though, the woman was wearing a royal blue dress with a white sequined jacket. She smiled and looked at him with her lovely, chocolate-colored almond-shaped eyes. Then she walked away from him, on the arm of a tall dark-haired man. Then the dream ended, and he woke up, thinking, 'No. It can't be. Just because I saw her with that lothario tonight, and okay, I got a little irritated about it, that doesn't mean...no, of course not. My dream was just mixed up, what with seeing them there at the same restaurant, and all that Emily and I talked about...yeah, that's all it is.' But he didn't do a terrific job of convincing himself, and sleeping was a lost cause once again.
TO BE CONTINUED
