might have the answers, someone who didn’t think I was crazy.
“Yes, Chance, I can have lunch.”
Maybe it would turn out to be that after being married for so long I just wanted a change. But within my psyche I knew there was more. There had better be more because I was gambling my life on the slim chance that there was.
“Give me a minute.” Chance smiled at me, then went out the door. I wondered briefly what he would tell his staff. Surely, they were curious.
He came back, then smiled at me from several feet away. Again, I knew he was sensing hesitation on my part, but I wouldn’t change my mind, not now. I wanted to know why I felt an intense connection to him. Was he really my husband from a previous life, the dark-haired lover from my dreams?
“Are you canceling patients?”
“Of course not, I would never do that.” He must have sensed my doubt because he continued, “Not even for you would I leave my patients hanging.”
“What about the day we met? You said you heard me calling you and came. Didn’t you have patients that day?”
“Michelle, I didn’t cancel patients the day we met. It just so happened that my calendar was clear. I do take time off from work. I’m a cardiologist but I’m also human. I need down time.”
That was the right thing for him to say. I wondered how he’d known just the thing to say that would allow me to release the last little bit of hesitation. It was a little spooky, as if he could read my thoughts. I peered at him, wondering if he could be psychic.
“Where would you like to have lunch?”
I looked in his eyes. There was no hidden meaning. “I want to see where you live. Is that possible?”
In a way I was challenging him. If he was lying about being unmarried, he couldn’t take me to his home. There would be pictures. If his wife was working, there would be some sign to let me know. It was amazing that I wondered if he was married while my own marriage hung like an albatross around my neck.
“I would love for you to come home with me. I’m a great cook. My specialty is Chinese.”
I stood, licking my lips. Okay, I’d come this far. I heard Larry’s voice screaming at me in my head. Then I saw our daughter Erica with her disapproving nod and her unruly kids by her side. I thought of my husband’s ordering me to be done with this foolishness. I was tired of taking orders. “I love Chinese food,” I answered.
“Would you like to follow me in your car?”
For an answer I smiled, then followed him out the door saying a hasty good-bye to the receptionist. The woman barely glanced at me but I felt as if Adulteress was written across my forehead.
In the driveway of Chance’s home I killed the engine and looked around. His house was not what I expected. Somehow he’d found Utopia in the midst of the Chicago suburbs. His home stood alone on a small manmade hill and looked to be very old. I glanced up and down the block. The other homes were lovely, huge, yet half the size of Chance’s. They had lots of trees and thick well manicured lawns but they all appeared to be rather new, no older than ten years. In fact I knew the subdivision hadn’t been there twenty years ago. I wondered if this was really an old refurbished house, or a modern dwelling made to resemble its predecessor.
I followed Chance through the widest, thickest pair of oak doors I’d ever seen. A rush of strong emotions hit me squarely in the chest and I stumbled and clutched my breast, suddenly afraid. Never in my life had I felt something so powerful. The energy in the room rapidly wrapped around me, enveloping me in warmth and love.
I knew this place, these things. I was overcome with the strangest sense of deja vu. I had never been here before, and even if it was as Chance had said that I had a past life, why would these objects in his house be so familiar to me?
“Are you all right?”
“Something’s wrong, Chance. Your furnishings feel so familiar to me. This is
“Yes, Chance, I can have lunch.”
Maybe it would turn out to be that after being married for so long I just wanted a change. But within my psyche I knew there was more. There had better be more because I was gambling my life on the slim chance that there was.
“Give me a minute.” Chance smiled at me, then went out the door. I wondered briefly what he would tell his staff. Surely, they were curious.
He came back, then smiled at me from several feet away. Again, I knew he was sensing hesitation on my part, but I wouldn’t change my mind, not now. I wanted to know why I felt an intense connection to him. Was he really my husband from a previous life, the dark-haired lover from my dreams?
“Are you canceling patients?”
“Of course not, I would never do that.” He must have sensed my doubt because he continued, “Not even for you would I leave my patients hanging.”
“What about the day we met? You said you heard me calling you and came. Didn’t you have patients that day?”
“Michelle, I didn’t cancel patients the day we met. It just so happened that my calendar was clear. I do take time off from work. I’m a cardiologist but I’m also human. I need down time.”
That was the right thing for him to say. I wondered how he’d known just the thing to say that would allow me to release the last little bit of hesitation. It was a little spooky, as if he could read my thoughts. I peered at him, wondering if he could be psychic.
“Where would you like to have lunch?”
I looked in his eyes. There was no hidden meaning. “I want to see where you live. Is that possible?”
In a way I was challenging him. If he was lying about being unmarried, he couldn’t take me to his home. There would be pictures. If his wife was working, there would be some sign to let me know. It was amazing that I wondered if he was married while my own marriage hung like an albatross around my neck.
“I would love for you to come home with me. I’m a great cook. My specialty is Chinese.”
I stood, licking my lips. Okay, I’d come this far. I heard Larry’s voice screaming at me in my head. Then I saw our daughter Erica with her disapproving nod and her unruly kids by her side. I thought of my husband’s ordering me to be done with this foolishness. I was tired of taking orders. “I love Chinese food,” I answered.
“Would you like to follow me in your car?”
For an answer I smiled, then followed him out the door saying a hasty good-bye to the receptionist. The woman barely glanced at me but I felt as if Adulteress was written across my forehead.
In the driveway of Chance’s home I killed the engine and looked around. His house was not what I expected. Somehow he’d found Utopia in the midst of the Chicago suburbs. His home stood alone on a small manmade hill and looked to be very old. I glanced up and down the block. The other homes were lovely, huge, yet half the size of Chance’s. They had lots of trees and thick well manicured lawns but they all appeared to be rather new, no older than ten years. In fact I knew the subdivision hadn’t been there twenty years ago. I wondered if this was really an old refurbished house, or a modern dwelling made to resemble its predecessor.
I followed Chance through the widest, thickest pair of oak doors I’d ever seen. A rush of strong emotions hit me squarely in the chest and I stumbled and clutched my breast, suddenly afraid. Never in my life had I felt something so powerful. The energy in the room rapidly wrapped around me, enveloping me in warmth and love.
I knew this place, these things. I was overcome with the strangest sense of deja vu. I had never been here before, and even if it was as Chance had said that I had a past life, why would these objects in his house be so familiar to me?
“Are you all right?”
“Something’s wrong, Chance. Your furnishings feel so familiar to me. This is
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