had one option. As much as she hated it to use it, it would help her until she found a different position or until her inheritance came through.
On Friday she worked late and stayed to enter her notes into a file the team used to track their observations and results. It was well after eight pm and the research area was empty except for her in her office. She looked down at her peanut butter and jelly sandwich without much interest but ate it anyway. In the past few weeks, she discovered that she could not stomach lunch meat. What she would not give for a diet soda and a slice of pizza right now, she thought, but they were not on her diet. She finished typing her last note from the day’s experiment and future ideas then closed out the file. Then she opened up her email program and typed out an email before pressing the "send" button. After closing down her computer, she grabbed her purse and walked out into the warm evening air before heading home.
Chapter 19
Ben drove over to his parents’ house on Lake Washington in the Benny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle late on Saturday morning for lunch. It would be good to see them again after eight weeks away, but he was not looking forward to their response to seeing him looking so gaunt. For weeks he waited for Anne to call his cell phone while he was in China. But she never called, and he knew now that he should have waited until he spoke with her in person before leaving the inn. Maybe then he could have convinced her to forgive him. But he didn't, and now he lost his chance.
He kept himself busy over the last several weeks trying to remove her from his mind once he realized that she would not call. It worked during the day because he had too much business to see to, but at night he would dream about her and remember being with her, seeing her laugh as they watched the ball game, her smile when they were out doing something together, and the glaze of passion that filled her eyes when he made love to her. His body ached as much as his heart. At one point he tried calling her cell phone again, but her number was disconnected, and he did not know her new one.
He was aware that she was planning on being at the meeting on Monday morning, so seeing her there did not come as a surprise. He did not sleep a wink the night before because of his anticipation in seeing her and his fear at how she would react upon seeing him. What did come as a surprise was how much he wanted to take her in his arms the minute that he saw her so that he could hold her, just hold her, and apologize. Even if she did not accept his apology, he needed to give her one. He also needed to be honest and tell her how he really felt about her and face her possible rejection.
She looked good to him even though she looked like she had also lost weight. But it was not the right time to talk to her on Monday. She acted so remotely that he found it difficult looking at her because the pain in his chest was too heavy. He remembered how quickly she removed her hand from his when Rudolph introduced them and how she would not look at him in the eye. After the meeting he decided he could not wait any longer to talk to her face to face and had gotten her address and telephone information from Bernie. His plan was to bring her dinner that evening. But then a call came from San Diego that he was needed there on Tuesday morning, and he left on Monday afternoon. He returned to Seattle around five yesterday afternoon giving him just enough time to change into formal wear and make it to the award's dinner downtown.
The dinner went much as he expected it to, he remembered. He had hoped to see Anne there. Several Stanford Enterprise employees were in attendance. It was not until after the award was given and people were milling around talking that Ben was glad that Anne was not in attendance. The situation would have been too explosive. It began when he was talking with Davis Wynn, the chairman of the foundation, and he