Best Laid Plans

Part 1 - Hitting the Mark

It was snowing hard when Helen arrived at the mall. She made a beeline for the coffee shop and sat down at a table where she could watch the door. She peeled off her winter coat and brushed the snow from her blonde hair with her fingers. She was dressed for the cold winter weather. Her heavy sweater and long pants were hardly the clothing to attract a man's attention, but Helen knew there was more to flirting than what you wore. She ordered a plain coffee and rested her legs on a chair while she waited.

Helen spotted the reason she had braved the horrible weather right away. Ryan was only a few years older than she was, but he looked much younger. He sauntered into the coffee shop and sit down at his usual table. She attempted to make eye contact, but he didn't look in her direction. She pouted for a moment while she watched him get comfortable with the newspaper. "Maybe if I went over there and gave him a good swift kick," she thought.

She finished her coffee while Ryan became totally buried in his newspaper. She picked up her coat and hat and slung her purse over her shoulder. Helen moved slowly towards Ryan as the coffee shop crowd came and went. She started through the narrow opening between the tables at just the right moment, making it look as if another patron had elbowed her into his lap.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said as she looked into his face. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I guess." Helen smiled at Ryan as she struggled to remove herself from his lap. "Would you mind?" she asked. Ryan stared for a moment at her hazel eyes and demure smile. He wasn't used to pretty women just falling into his lap. He really wasn't in any hurry for this one to leave, but he could see that she was. "No, of course not," he lied as he helped her to her feet.

Helen could see that she had ripped his newspaper and spilled his coffee. This was her chance to make points with him. "Oh, look what I've done! Can I buy you another paper, or at least another cup of coffee, I seem to have ruined that too."

Ryan looked at the spilled coffee and then back at Helen, "Don't worry," he said, "It was cold anyway."

"But your paper..." she protested.

"I can afford a new one," he replied. "Why don't you have a seat?" Ryan said as he moved a chair.

"No, I can't," she said shaking her head. "I have to go...I'm going to be late and I don't want to lose my job."

Ryan watched her as she hurried down the promenade and became lost in the crowd. He hoped that she would be there tomorrow so that he could ask her for her name and maybe just talk a little.

Helen hurried through the crowd and quickly made her way to Harrison's Department Store. She rushed for the escalator to the second floor, smiling broadly as the moving steps carried her. She knew that she had Ryan's attention and that he would be waiting for her tomorrow, if she were to give him that long! Helen approached the toy department and stopped to rearrange a few boxes on the shelves. She was feeling very proud of herself and greeted her boss cheerfully.

"Do I have to ask how it went?" he asked.

"Hook, line and sinker!" she winked at Joshua as she sat down next to him.

"When do you see him again?" Joshua picked up a toy and began to carefully examine it.

"Tonight," she abruptly replied while pulling the toy from Joshua's hand. "I moved into his building yesterday while he was still out of town."

"You don't waste time, do you?" he asked while retrieving the purloined toy from her.

"No, I don't!" she answered as she bounced out of her seat and started towards the mall exit.

Joshua watched Helen as she walked out of Harrison's. She had a body that just wouldn't quit, even under that horrible sweater she had chosen to wear. Even in flat shoes, she wiggled irrepressibly when she walked and it was next to impossible not to watch her walk away from you. "Poor bastard doesn't stand a chance against that woman's charms!" he commented while tossing the toy into the play area.

Helen took the mall elevator down to the first floor and then re-entered the department store. She didn't want to be seen leaving by Ryan who was no doubt still at the coffee shop. She bundled herself up against the storm and plunged outward into the parking lot in search of her car. Her pale blue Metro was nearly buried from the snow and she was forced to brush it off with the arm of her coat. She stepped into her car and shook the snow from her coat before yanking the door shut. She had barely closed the door when her cell phone rang. "Oh, hell," she muttered under her breath as she pulled the phone from her purse. "What did you forget?" she barked into the phone.

"Helen, what's wrong?" the startled voice of her mother asked.

"Oh, nothing, Mom," she lied. "What about you, is everything all right?" Helen didn't usually take calls from her mother on her cellular, not unless something was wrong.

"It's your father," she began, "He's worried because he hasn't heard from you lately!"

Helen's parents divorced when she was very young and her father had never worried about her then. Lately, he had started to insinuate himself back into her life. She remained unimpressed. Even his dating her mother made little impression on her.

"I've been busy, Mom. You know how my job gets!" she hated to tell her mother the truth that she just didn't want to talk to the man.

"I'll tell him that you are busy at work, OK?"

"Sure, Mom, tell him whatever... So how are you, anyway?" The car was starting to warm up and so was Helen. "I'm sorry that I don't call you more often, I really miss you." Finally, she had told her mother something that was true; she really did miss her mother, but she didn't want to risk having to talk to HIM and so, she hadn't been calling home as often.

"I'm fine. Did I tell you that your father was moving back in?" Helen's mother said cheerfully.

Helen was somehow not surprised by her mother's sudden revelation. "No, Mom, I don't think that you mentioned that last time we talked." She resisted the urge to ask if he was really that good in bed, deciding that there were some things she didn't need to know about her parents. "I hope things work out for you Mom, I really do. Look, I really have to go before my car gets covered again. We'll talk later, sometime, I promise. Goodbye Mom, I love you." The words were barely out of her mouth when she hung up on her mother. She dropped the phone onto the passenger seat and headed out of the mall parking lot.