Layover Read Free

Someone ambitious who is not afraid to leave the comfort of corporate America and start her own business. Someone eloquent and refined who compliments her man well and makes him shine. Yeh, someone like you.”
    “I appreciate the compliments. But if you want something more, just tell Lisa she is not the one, and go find yourself someone else.”
    “There is no one else. You are the only one like you and you just so happen to be married to my brother.”
    “So you think you should have me because Kenny doesn’t deserve me?”
    “Don’t make me answer that,” he said cynically.
    “Allen, I’m going to be perfectly honest with you only because it seems that everyone has been harboring these feelings and there is an unspoken rule that no one must ever speak of such things. Everyone from your mother to the waiter thinks that you and I would make a great couple. So what? Everyone knows that Kenny is party boy. So what? You have very strong feelings for me. So what? I have very strong feelings for you. So what? None of that matters because there isn’t a thing any of us can do about it. Even if Kenny and I were to divorce and you and Lisa did the same, could you and I honestly get together without there being absolute pandemonium? I doubt it. It’s not going to happen. The best we can do is love the ones we are with. I wish to God that I had met you first, but it just did not happen that way. Now, if you will let go of my hand, I need to get to my room so I can schedule a flight out of here. Are you alright to drive? You’ve had quite a bit to drink.”
    “I’m a Reilly. I’m alright because I’ve had plenty to drink.”
    As I got out of the car and headed into the hotel lobby, I watched Allen pull off swerving. I was a little concerned until I heard him slam on breaks to keep from hitting a column, then I became very concerned. I ran inside the lobby and called him on his cell phone.
    “Allen, I think you should come back to the hotel until you sober up a bit.”
    “What do you care?” he asked coldly, “Worry about your own alcoholic husband.”
    “I do – every day of my life. Now I’m worried that he won’t have a brother if you don’t get back here.”
    “Maybe I want to die. So, just leave me alone.”
    He hung up the phone on me. I called back and he hung up again.  I continued to try him until he turned the phone off and my calls rolled straight to voice mail. I was beside myself. I would just die if something happened to him. After all, I think I am in love with him. I guess I did not want to admit it to myself because I knew there was nothing that could be done about it. I went to my room, plopped down on one of the beds, face-first and cried into the pillow. I tried not to think about my feelings but I just could not help thinking about what Allen had said and how right he was about everything.
    There was a knock at my door. I got up to answer it. It was Allen.
    “I don’t want to die. As long as I’m alive, there is something to hope for, something to live for.”
    I closed the door behind him.
    “You really love that fool don’t you?” he asked, changing the subject.
    “With all my heart.”
    “But you said you wish you had met me first.”
    “Why are we still talking about this, Allen?”
    “Because I have to know.”
    “What are you trying to establish, that you are better than Kenny? Does your ego need a boost that badly?
    “I want to know that everything I’ve ever worked for in my life wasn’t for nothing.”
    “Most of what we do in life is for nothing. Most of it is just to pass the time until God gets ready to take our souls. So, yes, most of what you did in your life was to please other people but that doesn’t mean it was for nothing. If you learned anything, then it wasn’t for nothing.”
    “The only thing I’ve learned is that you have to do something to please yourself. You have to do at least one thing in this life to please you. One moment of pleasure makes