Tender Journey by James P. Gills

Author:James P. Gills
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781599795096
Publisher: Charisma House
Published: 2012-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning, events at the café seemed even more remote. Had he dreamed the whole scenario? And Stephanie’s late-night call. Had he dreamed that, too? No to both. He started to piece things together. Upset that she had not heard from him, she had awakened him after midnight out of a dead sleep and verbally pounced on him with both feet. When he begged off for not feeling good and promised that he would update her in the morning, she let him go.

From the moment he woke up, his stomach churned. He formulated what he would say, so as not to alarm her. The phone conversation went better than expected. He started with the good news—a New York cop had said he would get personally involved in trying to help them locate Michelle! That was far more than they had to date. “Why would the guy go out of his way to do that?” she wanted to know.

Well, he, Michael, had lent a hand in stopping a restaurant robbery in progress. No big deal. He did not have to tell her the whole story, he rationalized. Just enough to keep the wolves away from the door. To his surprise, she sounded a tad proud of him, and said she missed him. She then proceeded to fill him in on the MarriageMaker class. He did his best to sound interested when she tried to explain the purpose for marriage. In reality, he could not care less. He was obsessed with hitting the streets.

He trekked around all day and into evening, focusing his efforts on the Middle East Side, as far south as Gramercy Park. Now he found himself heading west on Forty-second Street, toward Seventh Avenue. The sidewalks were crowded, and there was still plenty of traffic. Cars occasionally slowed down enough for an occupant to talk to one of the pretty young ladies walking by.

“Great,” he said to himself. “Hookers already putting in an appearance.” It would be worse on Eighth, with all the X-rated shows. He would be sure to go further north before cutting over. Even here, the girls drew the attention of men out cruising. They seemed to attract one another like flies to flypaper. Michael’s face reddened at the nasty image that flashed through his mind. What was the city doing to him?

He longed for a breath of fresh air. Not the exhaust fume mixture he had been breathing, but clean, fresh country air. That left Central Park, the closest he could get. He took a last look around and set off toward uptown. He would be at Columbus Circle within a half hour or so, he estimated. Once he got there, he looked both ways on the street, saw a break in traffic, and trotted across. The entrance to the park was only a few feet away. Again, he sensed the tug to go in. He had ignored the urge the night before.

At this hour, his favorite scenic oasis started losing its appeal. Anybody could be hiding in the off-the-main-path areas, waiting for some naive passerby to happen along.

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