Angela whipped her head around.

"Who's there?!"

But instead of an occasional hoot from an owl, the chirping of crickets, and a croak from a frog all she heard was silence.

"Oh just great, now I'm hearing voices."

A tinkling laugh made its way through the air.

Angela went to her car door and pulled it open. She grabbed her purse and took out the bottle of pepper spray she kept in there.

"Whoever you are, I have pepper spray!" She held it up.

"It's okay Angela. I'm not here to hurt you." A voice-the same voice said.

"Who? Where?" Angela frantically looked around.

"Look to your right."

Angela did and saw a figure emerging. It was a young woman in her late twenties. She had shoulder length dark hair and dark eyes. Her smile was warm and genuine.

"Who are you? And how did you know my name?" Angela demanded.

"I know everything about you Angela."

The woman walked closer and Angela was able to get a better look at her.

She looked just like Sam.

And there was only one person in the world Sam looked just like.

Marie.

This woman was Marie.

But that couldn't be. Marie was dead.

Angela nervously laughed. "This is going to sound funny but you look like…" She couldn't go on.

"Marie? Yes, I am Marie."

"But,it can't be you! You're…. Wait? Am I dead? Is this what this is all about? Are you here to escort me to heaven?"

Marie laughed. "No, you're not dead."

"Then, what's going on?"

"I'm here to help you. Well you and that stubborn, pig-headed man we both love."

Angela blushed and looked away.

"Hey, it's okay. I know you love him and I know he loves you. The two of you were meant to be together."

Angela turned back around. "Oh no, Tony loved you with all his heart."

Marie smiled. "I know he did and we had a wonderful marriage and a beautiful daughter. But you are his true love."

Angela felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

"And I know considering all that happened these past few months it doesn't feel like it."

Angela scoffed. "Yeah, you can say that again!"

"Here let's sit down." With a wave of her hand a bench appeared.

"Wow! That's.."

"Impressive? Amazing? Yeah, I know." Marie smiled and sat down.

With a brief hesitation Angela walked over and sat down beside her.

"Okay, so I'm sitting here with you- Tony's late wife and Sam's late mother."

"What am I late for?" Marie laughed. "It's okay. You can say it. I'm dead."

"Ok. you're dead."

"That's better. Now I think we need to have a long conversation….

############################################################

Tony pulled into a local gas station to fill up his jeep. He had been driving around for two hours looking for Angela. Mona had called back and told him that she wasn't at Isabelle's or Wendy's but promised to call him the moment she heard where she was.

Was she at Andy's? Could she right now be accepting his proposal? Were they….'celebrating?' The image caused a sick and woozy feeling to overcome him.

"Oh God, what if that's it?" He rubbed his hand over his face. After a few more minutes the jeep was filled and he went inside to pay.

The clerk behind the counter was an older man.

"Good evening sir!"

"Uh yes, good evening" Tony said. He pulled his wallet out and removed his credit card and handed it to the clerk.

"Are you okay sir?"

"What? Yes, I'm fine."

"Really? You don't look it. Would you like to talk about it?"

Tony looked at him. "Uh, no offense sir. But if I did have a problem why would I confide in you?"

He shrugged. "Well you know what they say. Sometimes it's easier to talk to a stranger."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

"Okay then. What's on your mind?"

Tony took a deep breath. "It's a long story."

The clerk shrugged. "I have time. As you can see no one else is here."

Tony looked around. He was right. They were all alone.

"Well the thing is I have really screwed things up with the woman I love."

The clerk leaned his hands on the counter. "Oh, I get it. You did something stupid?"

Tony groaned. "Yeah, you can say that. You see the woman I love-well I don't feel like I'm good enough for her."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because she's my boss and my best friend. I'm her housekeeper."

"Her housekeeper?"

"Yeah, I know. A man doing housework and cooking for a living. Believe me I've heard all the stupid jokes." Tony growled and rolled his eyes.

"Why would I make a joke about it? You're doing what you can to make it in this world. I respect that."

Tony looked at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes. For some bizarre reason he felt like he knew this man. But that was silly because they had never met before. He shrugged it off, blaming it on his worry for Angela.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. So getting back to it. Why don't you think you're good enough for-what's her name?"

"Angela.' Tony said sadly.

"Angela. That's a beautiful name."

"It is. She is. She's everything to me. I've been in love with her for years and we were building towards something but a few months ago I blew it."

"How so?"

Tony looked away in shame. "I got involved with another woman."

"I see. "

Tony looked back at him. "Yeah, I know. It's just this other woman-Kathleen-well she's more-she's at the same level I am. It's easier and safer being with her."

"But, you don't love her."

Tony shook his head. No, I don't, I love Angela."

"Have you told Angela you love her?"

"Yeah, a few hours ago. But it wasn't how I was planning on telling her." He proceeded telling him about the argument he had gotten into with Linda and him shouting that he loved Angela and not Kathleen.

"Yeah, so you see I messed everything up. And Kathleen? Well I planned to break up with her but before I could she told me about her aunt having a stroke. "

"And you figured it would be like adding insult to injury."

Tony nodded. "Exactly. But that's not the whole story."

"What else?"

"Angela is dating a guy named Andy. A doctor-no less-and a few weeks ago he proposed."

"And? Has she accepted?"

"No, not yet. But I keep having nightmares where I'm at their wedding. And after everything that happened tonight-hell in the past few months- I don't know if I would blame her for accepting."

The clerk ran Tony's card through the machine and handed it to him.

"Thanks." Tony put it back in his wallet and stuffed his wallet in his back pocket.

"Look sir. You made a mistake getting involved with Kathleen."

"Yeah, I know."

"But, it isn't the end of the world. If you and Angela are meant to be together then you will be."

"You really think so?"

"I do. You just have to have faith and stop with all this nonsense about you not being good enough for her."

"You sound like her mother."

"I do?"

"Yeah." Tony laughed. "If it had been up to Mona, Angela and I would have been married the second we met."

The clerk laughed. "A little impatient?"

"Yeah, you could say that. She's been our biggest supporter from the beginning-well her and our kids."

"So they all wanted-want the two of you together?"

Tony sighed. "Yeah, and I was the one who was holding back."

"Maybe it's time you stop holding back."

"You're right. I just need to find her."

"You will."

Tony smiled at him. "Thank you for listening."

"Anytime. Have a good night.'

"You too."

Tony walked out the sliding glass doors.

"Take care of my little girl Tony." The clerk whispered.

##########################################################

"A talk? Okay. Yeah, sure. This is perfectly normal. I'm sitting here talking to a dead woman. No, make that the dead wife of the man I…"

"The man you love. Come on Angela, you can say it."

"Okay, fine. The man I love." Angela threw her arms in the air.

"But, of course at the moment you want to strangle him?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Believe me I know the feeling. I remember when I told him I wanted to take art lessons and he just blew me off. "

Angela nodded. "Yeah, I know. And he regrets how he treated you."

"I know. But that's not important right now. The two of you are. "

Angela shook her head. "I thought at one time we were but now I just don't know anymore."

"Because of Kathleen?"

"You know about her? About them?"

"I do and I know you were hurt, angry, and devastated. But Kathleen was just a bump in the road."

Angela scoffed. "Yeah, a bump. A bump that he went farther with in one night then we had in six years. A bump when I asked if it was over he told me he didn't know!" She wiped her tears away.

"Angela, I know he did something stupid and I know he hurt you."

"Yeah, he did."

'But, as I said before, the two of you are meant to be together."

"How do you know?"

"Because, you're his Ingrid."

.