Second Chances – Chapter 58 July 28, 2010
A few hours later, Rob found himself on an airplane taking him to Czechoslovakia. He kept going over the events of the previous night over and over and smiling. She had made him happier that he had ever been. He hoped that his new lover was as happy as he was. The idea of Beth, her kids and he at the vineyard sounded so nice, almost like a family. He felt like he was being given a second chance at a life he had screwed up years ago. It had been seven years since his ex-wife had died and never had the chance to say how sorry he was for the pain he had put her through. He had put his career first, the children second and Jane had come in a distance third. Looking back, he was surprised that she had lasted as long as she had, but the money began to come in and he was eventually able to provide a nice life for them. A roomy flat in London, good schools for Sarah and Will, food on the table and clothes to wear kept them together probably longer than they should have been together. Now things were different. Rob didn’t have to look for work, it found him and if he wanted, he never had to work again once Mercy Street had won their first Emmy and now that Ondovi’s production was almost breaking even and gaining a valued reputation.
This trip was going to be good for him. It would give him a chance to think things through. If he’d stayed in LA with Beth so close, he knew he wouldn’t be able to think straight around her. When he was with her, all he could think of was being near her, feeling her in his arms, kissing her, making love to her like he had done not eighteen hours before. Beth was an intelligent and creative artist, who had only begun to dip into her talents. Talking with her, she forced him to think, to use parts of his mind he had not used in years. What she lacked in experience she made up for in spades with passion and drive. Working with her on Aria’s Song and helping her prepare for Mac Beth, Rob watched her skills become more and more refined with every scene they worked on. He could remember when he was at that stage in his career, his first major picture, and remembered that he had to learn many of the lessons the hard way but Beth was not him and he never got seven million dollars for his first script nor the unspecified amount she had and would earn for acting and producing. Rob could see her surpassing him in both salaries and skill in no time at all.
The night when her family had returned to New Jersey, his first thought was of her in the pool but his thoughts tended to dwell on the dinner they had shared and the conversation in the living room afterwards.
Leave a Reply