Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
5. Zinnia
As the weeks passed by, and the weeks turned into months, it became painfully obvious to Tony that he had been wrong about Angela. He had been wrong to assume this thing with Barry was just a fling and that he was just some guy who would disappear as quickly as he entered the picture. Long dinners had turned into nights on the town and cozy evenings at home and finally long weekends out of town. As he saw Angela's relationship with Barry become more and more serious, he felt his future with her, and even his friendship with her, slip farther and farther away. At first he had bided his time, spending quiet evenings at home, hoping that she would come in the door and tell him it was all over with Barry. He'd watched a million old movies, played a thousand card games with Jonathan, drove Samantha up the wall by hounding her dates, and had seen Mona through at least five bad breakups, before he realized just how serious the relationship was. Angela wasn't going to come home to him anytime soon; at least not in the way he wanted her to. He missed her. It had never occurred to him that you could live under the same roof with someone and see them day-to-day but still miss them. As he watched Angela leave the house once again with Barry's hand resting on the small of her back, guiding her out the door, he decided he needed to find a life or else he'd go crazy with the situation. There was always the gang back in Brooklyn to see or he could stop by that new sports bar on the other side of town. Yeah, it would be good to go out and have a bit of fun again. If Angela could have a life without him, maybe he could have a life without her too. He got off the couch and headed upstairs to get ready, determined to find this new life as soon as possible.
If Tony had felt the passage of time weighing heavily on him, Angela felt just the opposite. The past few months were a whirlwind of activity and emotions, and she was still looking for a chance to catch her breath. She was enjoying her time with Barry. He respected her and her position, but also took every opportunity to treat her like a queen. He surprised her with flowers and cards and sweet attempts at home cooked meals. He found just as much pleasure in hearing the opera as he did in hearing a baseball game on the radio. On top of all that, he appeared to genuinely like and care for her family, despite their best efforts to discourage him from it.
She hadn't gone into the relationship with any long-term plans. All she really wanted was someone to have a few good times with. Somehow though, he'd won a place in her heart, a place she couldn't bring herself to let go of. So one date led to another and before she realized it, she was in a 'relationship'. A relationship that seemed pretty close to the ideal she'd always dreamed about. And the first time they'd slept together; he'd made her feel completely beautiful and secure.
In spite of all that was good, she couldn't help but feel the lack of a certain sparkle in her life. Sometimes she missed her family, what with work and dating taking up so much of her time. It seemed that whenever she did free up some time for them, they were all too busy for her. She tried to convince herself that it was just a matter of everyone being caught up in their own lives, but it still hurt a bit. Mona was on the prowl again, and Sam was preoccupied with boys, friends, and school (in that order). Even Jonathan had an expanded social circle since joining the science club. And Tony... She'd worried about him when she'd first started seeing Barry. He seemed lonely and a little at a loss with what to do with his evenings. Now though, especially since he'd started taking classes at Ridgemont, he was never around. There were days where she longed to sit down with him and have one of their infamous chats. The ones where they would settle into the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a movie and discuss everything under the sun, from what he thought of her latest sales pitch to debating whether Deborah Kerr was better in 'The King and I' or 'An Affair to Remember'. Moments alone with Tony were rare occurrences these days. When they were together, they were more likely to be picking a fight than joking over her morning orange juice. She wondered why she couldn't have one good thing come into her life without it pushing the other good things out of the way. She sighed to the empty house, flicking off the television. As she slowly made her way towards bed, her mind only barely registered the vase of dried and brittle flowers sitting beside the stairs. She made a mental note to ask Tony about it, but forgot about them the instant her head hit the pillow.