Imperial Hotel by Diane Marina

Author:Diane Marina [Marina, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aspen Palms Press
Published: 2014-05-28T23:00:00+00:00

New York City, 65 Years Later

I sat in the ornate chair while friends and family hurried about. Flashes from too many cameras created a constant strobe of light, blinding me. I looked up at the ceiling. Funny how I had been in the Imperial Hotel countless times before and had never noticed how beautifully ornate the ceiling was. My hand rested on the locket that hung from my neck – the same locket Lily had given me during our first Christmas together.

I sat at a round table for eight, set with a pristine tablecloth and vases of pink roses. Lily sat across from me, her smile no different than it had been when she was seventeen. Our great-granddaughter Natalie was sitting between us, taking notes and asking countless questions. She had chosen us as the subjects for a paper she was writing for one of her high school classes, which would document this momentous day. I had related the story of how her Great-grandmother Lily and GG, as she called me, had become a family, leaving out the more salacious portions, of course.

Natalie scribbled something on her notepad and tossed her strawberry blond hair back over her shoulder, and I smiled as I recalled the color of Lily’s hair so long ago.

“So, GG, how did you guys hide the fact that you were together all those years?” she asked.

Lily spoke up. “Oh no, sweetie. We never hid. Never. I tried to hide myself long, long ago, and all that did was to bring pain to everyone involved. I promised myself, never again.” She took a sip of her champagne. “We didn’t announce that we were a couple, of course, but we never denied what we meant to each other. Never.”

Natalie pondered this and then gave a nod, indicating that she understood. “And now, here you are, all these years later. Can you believe you got married today? Like, legally married?”

I looked at Lily and saw the tears. She slowly shook her head as she accepted the tissue that was offered to her by one of the well-wishers who had gathered around the table to hear our story.

“No,” she replied. “Never in a million years did I think this could ever happen.” When she smiled at me, I could see the love in her ice blue eyes, the love that had never faltered over all these years.

“And to think,” I said, never taking my eyes from my bride, “it all started here, at the Imperial Hotel.”

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