Contracted To Love

“Michelle, I know that you’re not really looking forward to this whole thing but you cannot let every man you meet pay for everything Jean did…I mean there are good men out there. I know that for a fact. Somehow, you have to let go of Jean being such a disappointment.”

Michelle bit her lower lip. She knew that Vickie was right. She took off the bathrobe she had on and pulled on a pair of leggings before she put on the dress and the boots. She walked to her full-length mirror and exhaled loudly. As she stood there, she realized that the dress Vickie had picked out was just what she’d been looking for. It was a knee length fitting dress with a cut out design on the shoulders. The dress was just what she needed to look as sexy as she felt and still look classy. That dress coupled with a pair of stiletto boots was exactly what she needed for that damn dinner her mother was making her go to. She held her hair in a high bun so that she could show off the pair of silver African continent earrings she had on.

She turned around and looked at Vickie, who was grinning widely.

“Seriously, that outfit is perfection on so many levels,” she pointed out as she walked to where Michelle was.

“I don’t know… is this a little too much, maybe?” she looked around. “Maybe this is all a bad idea.”

Vickie shook her head.

“Please, come on.You’ve been in this shadow state for a long time. Long before your divorce even. I mean, even Andrea could see it but she’s just too young to understand what was going on.”

Michelle turned to look at her.

“You’re always blaming Jean for you not moving on and I get it, but the longer you hold out on putting yourself out there, the longer you continue giving this insane power to Jean.” Vickie put an arm around her and began leading her towards the bed. “You need to break that yoke he has on you, Michelle. You need to live your life as you once did.”

Michelle took a long deep breath. She usually hated it when Vickie was right because it meant that life had dealt her a bad hand… well, maybe a tough one and she needed some tough love. Vickie was the only one who ever gave her that much needed tough love, and even though it hadn’t happened a lot, Michelle still hated when it did happen.

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll meet this David Favre, but—” she put up her index finger. “—I am not particularly excited about this.”

“I wouldn’t expect otherwise,” Vickie said, smiling.

                                                            *****

David knew all about Michelle, why wouldn’t he? They grew up in the same circles. Even though they might have lost touch once they grew up, he took comfort in knowing that he wasn’t meeting with a complete stranger. However, at the same time, he wasn’t up to seeing Michelle just yet. Matter of fact, he wasn’t sure if he was ever going to be up to seeing her. The idea of marrying someone he hardly knew… his father had to be joking! The only reason he was going to show up for dinner in the first place was to make his mother happy. He could pick up his own women. He was David freaking Favre after all. He didn’t need help getting women and certainly not his mother’s. And then there was the fact that his mother had picked out Michelle Smith of all women. It wasn’t that he didn’t find her attractive. Hell, she was one of the most eligible women in New York. Perhaps the fact that he found her so attractive was the real reason he found himself always watching Manhattan Voices Television even though MVTV didn’t have such high ratings as some of the other TV stations. In the back of his mind, he knew that there was no maybe about it; Michelle was the only reason he paid so much attention to MVTV. There was something about her smile when she started reading the evening bulletin. The grace of how she carried herself, sheer maturity that she displayed when she conducted interviews… He didn’t know many journalists that could keep their cool the way she did when interviews got out of hand.

He exhaled deeply as he pulled into Preto’s parking lot. Preto was one of New York’s leading Brazilian restaurants and as much as he tried to stay away, David could never really get enough of Brazilian food. The food was the only thing he was looking forward to that evening. As far as seeing Michelle, talking to her? That would have to be decided after the fact.

                                                            *****

As far back as she could remember, Michelle had always chosen steakhouses when it came to dates. You could never go wrong with a steak, a side of garden salad and maybe some fries or baked potatoes. Sometimes, an Italian restaurant worked just as well. But a Brazilian joint for a first date? That was a first.

Michelle was nervous as she slowly made her way into the restaurant. She wasn’t so sure what to expect first from the restaurant and secondly from the whole situation. Being set up by her mother. That was a move that might have worked in her twenties but for God’s sake, she was thirty-five and a mother.

She walked to the hostess and smiled at her.

“Hi, I’m here to meet David Favre,” she said in a soft voice.

“Yeah, sure. He just got here.” The woman looked up at her. “He is at the….” Her voice trailed off when she noticed who she was talking to. It wasn’t something that Michelle could get away with: being unnoticed by people. “Wait, you’re Michelle Smith. The girl from the news!” she said excitedly and Michelle nodded.

“Oh my God… this is so great. It is such a pleasure to meet you,” she said as she stretched out her hand. “I’m Bridget… Bree is what I go by.

“Nice to meet you, Bree but I’m already kind of running late here,” Michelle said politely.

“I’m sorry.” Bridget shook her head. “It’s not every day that you get to meet a celebrity and suddenly, you meet two in less than ten minutes.”