Даниэла Стил - Turning Point

“Do you want me here? It’s not just my decision.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

“What do you think?”

“I think I love you, and you need an apartment with bigger closets.”

“I think we could work that out.” He was smiling at her and had never been happier in his life.

“You can come over to France for a holiday in July, the way we planned, and I’ll come back with you at the beginning of August, and start teaching in September. I can give them a decent notice at the COZ when I go back. That gives them three months to replace me.”

“I want you to do it, if you’ll be happy teaching,” he said seriously. She nodded. She liked the idea, and she was ready for something new. The savagery they were seeing in mass crimes in Europe was too disheartening, too cruel, and inhumane. She had wanted to leave it for a while, and now everything had fallen into place. “I love you,” he said simply and kissed her. They looked at the valley together. She was full of surprises. She was the woman he had always wanted and needed and didn’t even know it. He had found her at last.

—

When Stephanie joined the group again after Ryan got out of the hospital, there were two weeks left. She’d only been gone for a week, but it felt like a century. Ryan was doing well, but they were keeping him home for several weeks. And Andy didn’t complain when she said she was going back to the team. He encouraged her to go.

The others had talked Gabriel into staying, and he put on a tragic face whenever Stephanie was around. He didn’t speak to her, and avoided her whenever he could, which she understood. It was awkward for her too, but she tried to behave as normally as possible. He had a right to be upset. Ryan’s illness had brought her to her senses and ended their affair.

Things weren’t perfect with Andy but they were better. The terror of almost losing Ryan had woken them both up to how foolish they had been, how careless with their relationship, and about what mattered to both of them. They were heading in the right direction again and he was going to look for a job, which Andy realized he needed for his self-respect.

Valérie told them all that she was coming back to San Francisco in August to teach at Stanford, after she told Marie-Laure her plans. Marie-Laure said she was going to miss her, but she was happy for her. Their job had gotten harder and harder in recent years and the burnout rate was high. She knew Valérie had been approaching that point. And she knew Valérie wanted to write again, as well as teach.

The last two weeks flew by, and Wendy gave a farewell dinner for them at her house with Bill at the barbecue again. Neither of them said anything, but they all had the feeling that something was happening there. They were both very private people, but the way they spoke to each other had changed. Bill seemed very familiar with her house, and she was helping him decorate his apartment. They were talking about a summer trip to the Grand Canyon with his girls. She was happy that Valérie was coming back, and she admitted to her privately that she and Bill were seeing each other when they had time off.

“And to think I almost didn’t accept the exchange,” Wendy said thoughtfully. “Life is so odd. You think you’re on a path, and then suddenly everything changes. It happened to all of us. We all woke up in one way or another since we’ve been together. Not one of us is the same as we were before.” She said it with wonder in her eyes. They all stayed late at her house, talking and laughing, and drinking a lot of wine, because they had a driver to take them home. They promised to visit each other, and get together when they could. Tom was going to be in France with Valérie in July, helping her pack up her apartment. Bill and Wendy promised to go to Paris sometime with his girls. Stephanie wanted to go over in a year or two with Andy and the boys.

And Paul admitted to them that he had decided to go back to Doctors Without Borders. He said the tribal wars he had dealt with before were cleaner than the urban ones he had experienced since. He missed his work in Africa, and felt it was time to return there for a while.

Gabriel finally stopped playing wounded hero that night, and Stephanie found a quiet moment with him by the pool when the others drifted inside for dinner. He hadn’t spoken to her since she’d rejoined the group, and she didn’t want to leave it on an angry note.

“I’m sorry, Gabriel, I truly am. I didn’t expect things to go this way. I really wanted to come to France with my kids.” She had been sure they would get married, but she didn’t rub it in. “I think whatever happened, it would have been wrong for me to give up my job here. I love what I do. We all do. We’re all married to our work in a way, sometimes more so than to the people we’re with. We work hard for it, even if it’s difficult at times. My father is still delivering babies at seventy-two. I wanted to do it for you but it was too big a leap, and when Ryan got sick, I realized that I owed it to Andy to give it another try. I don’t know if it will work or not. Maybe it doesn’t matter. But it wasn’t the right time to quit yet. I thought it was, but it wasn’t. It all happened too fast. I never meant to hurt you. I’m sorry for us that it turned out this way.”

“I’m not sure if I could have done it either,” he admitted to her. “Old habits die hard. I thought I could too. My wife and I don’t have enough life in our marriage to revive it, and I don’t think either of us wants that. But the way we live works for us. We’re used to it.” It was the most honest he had been with her, and with himself, since the beginning. She had given him time to think in the past two weeks, and he had come to his own conclusions. Their flame had burned too hot, and they both might have been wounded in the end. “Take care of yourself, Stephanie. You can always call me if I can help you in any way.”

“Thank you.” They walked back to the others then, and joined the merriment over dinner.

Wendy hosted the dinner on Thursday night, and they were all leaving on Saturday. They spent their last day doing final errands and shopping for friends. Valérie, Marie-Laure, and Wendy had met Stephanie’s children by then. And Ryan was back to his old bouncy self by the time they left.

—

Stephanie, Bill, Tom, and Wendy met them at the airport before their flight. It was a beautiful spring morning. Wendy and Bill were going to lie by her pool afterward. It was an emotional farewell. Tom didn’t know how he would survive without Valérie for the next three months, except that he was looking for apartments and she had given him a list of all her requirements, a decent bathroom, lots of closets, a garden, at least one fireplace, high ceilings, and a view.

They all hugged and kissed, even Stephanie and Gabriel, and they both got tearful for a minute, thinking of what might have been. “We would have been wonderful together,” he whispered, but she was no longer so sure. Valérie had a good point, he hadn’t been willing to give up his job for her, and expected it of her. But it didn’t matter anymore.

Their four French friends went through security waving and blowing kisses. Paul said he had fallen in love eleven times in four weeks, which was a record for him, and Valérie texted Tom while he stood there, his heart aching to see her go. He read the text, “Look under your bed,” and laughed as he touched his heart and waved again.

And then they were gone, and the others went back to their cars and drove home. Andy and Stephanie were going to the beach with the boys, and she was on duty at the hospital that night. It was her first day back at work. She made no apology for it. She had learned that lesson now.