My heart was beating out of my chest.

“Howie, where are you taking me?”

“My dear, we are headed to San Francisco.”  He smiled that brilliant smile.  “I hope you don’t mind, I have set everything up.  We will fly back late Sunday evening.”

“Wow, I have never been to California.  San Francisco supposed to be beautiful this time of year.”

“Yes, my dear, it is beautiful this time of year, and I ordered up great weather for us.  I have special plans for us tomorrow as well, ever heard of Farallon Islands?”

“Should I?  I am not to familiar with the West Coast.”

“Well then, you should be superbly surprised then.”  He took my hand and leaned in a placed a kiss softly on my lips.

As we drove to the airport, I couldn’t help but think about this weekend trip.  Seeing as we are spending the weekend together, we would be sharing a room, presumably.  Does this mean, he is ready for that all important next step?  My mind raced as I considered the possibilities.  We arrived at the airport, and walked through the terminals to a small one toward the southern end.  There was a learjet waiting there.  I looked at Howie, my mouth hanging open, with questions in my eyes.

“Dear, I told you I know people.”  He smiled again.

We boarded the plane, and settled into the soft leather seats, and buckled up for the trip West.  The flight was about four hours, and would put us in San Francisco at about eleven o’clock their time.  We arrived with no problems or turbulence on the flight, it was the most relaxing flight, I had ever been on.  I had a small glass of champagne, and some chocolate dipped strawberries, that were completely divine.

We arrived at the Argonaut Hotel on the Fisherman’s Wharf at midnight, and was promptly shown to our suite.  I subconsciously frowned at this, it was a two room suite.  We unpacked our suitcases, and he led me to the balcony, our room overlooked the bay, and you could see the Golden Gate bridge, it was a beautiful site, with the full moon in the sky.  He pulled me close to him, and ran his fingers through my hair. “Your eyes are beautiful in the moonlight, dear.”

I blushed profusely but did not break the gaze.  “Thank you,” I smiled up at him.

He leaned in and kissed me, the intensity burned in my veins, I could feel our hearts beating against each other, and I could hear nothing and everything all at once.  I didn’t want him to let go.  I didn’t want it to end.  I could have died in his embrace, and died happy.  It was an amazing kiss, the most amazing kiss I have ever had.  When he pulled his lips away from mine, I thought I might collapse.  His strong arms held me in place, with the balcony railing behind me.  My eyes were still closed, as he leaned in close, and whispered in my ear, “Bethany…”

He took me back in, and lead me to my room.  “I will see you bright and early my dear.  Breakfast will be here at 7am sharp, be ready.

I undressed in a daze, everything seeming dreamlike, and crawled into bed.  I slept soundly, not even stirring.  I woke up early, blaming the weariness of the night before on jet lag, and climbed into the shower.  I dressed in a pair of blue jean Capri’s and a grey tank top, my tennis shoes and my hair up in a pony tail.  I walked into the main room of the suite, and there was a virtual buffet of food.

“I wasn’t sure what your favorite breakfast items were, so I got a few choices.”  My stomach growled appreciatively as I took in all the smells and sight of the food.  It looked as though there were waffles of every flavor, bacon, sausage, eggs over easy, scrambled eggs, omelets, hash browns and so much more.  I sat down at the small table, and just stared at first, then slowly began picking and choosing.  We ate until we were both full, then he took me by the hand and proceeded to walk me downstairs and to a car waiting in the valet.  It was a sporty little Audi TT, black in color, with tan interior.  The valet handed him the keys, and opened the door for me, I slid into the luxurious leather seat, and off we went.  We shot around the corner and down a couple of blocks to the harbor.  There we met up with the captain of a ship called “Mercy Me”, we hopped aboard and headed out to sea.

The trip took a few hours, Howie fished, and I enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.  After traveling the open sea for a few hours, we came to a small island, there were seal lions playing off the coast.  I dragged my camera out of my camera bag and started snapping pictures.  The captain and Howie were talking quietly behind me, when I saw it.  I shook my head and tried to refocus.  Did I just see a shark come jumping out of the water?  I watched the area again, and didn’t see anything of unusual interest, so I focused on a sea lion that was wading out to sea.  I zoomed in with my camera to try and get a good picture of it swimming on top of the water.  Was doing a multi-shot, when it happened right there on the other side of my lens.  A huge shark came out of the water, catching the poor sea lion in it’s jaws, the shark had to have come about 4 feet out of the water and then gracefully went back under.  I almost dropped my camera.  Howie was laughing hysterically behind me.  I turned to see him doubled over with the captain, laughing.

“Baby, welcome to Shark jumping.  I hope you got some great shots of that Great White.”  He stopped laughing long enough to smile at me.

“That was completely amazing!  Will it happen again?  I wanna get some more shots.”  My eyes instantly focused back out to sea.

“Yes, my dear, they will be jumping all day, not sure how many, but as long as the sea lions are here, they will be as well.”  We spent the next four hours watching the water, and in that four hours, we saw maybe two more Great Whites jump.  I caught one more with my camera, not sure what kind of picture I got, though.  On the way back the sun was starting to set, I took some shots of the sunset on the brilliant blue water.  We arrived back in the harbor, as the sun finally dipped below the horizon.  The stars came out, and the moon graced us with her beautiful presence again.  We went back to the hotel, and cleaned up, and then went to a casual dinner in the hotel restaurant.  We went back to our room a little while later, and we sat on the balcony and talked.  I thanked him for the amazing day, and told him I couldn’t wait to see the pictures.  He stared deep into my eyes, while I talked to him, it seemed as though he was in a far off place.  I took the opportunity to crawl into his lap, and wrap my arms around his neck.  He pulled me close as I lay my head on his shoulder.

“Bethany, dear.”

“Yes, Howie.”

“We leave here tomorrow a bit earlier than I thought we would have to.  Work needs me.”  He stared deep into my eyes, almost pleading with me, asking me to understand.

“Howie, this has been an amazing trip.  If you need to go, then we will go.  Just stay with me tonight.”  My eyes pleaded back.

He sighed into my hair, and wrapped his arms tight around me.  He whispered in my ear, “Bethany…” and carried me in his arms off to his room.  The rest seemed like a wonderful dream.  The soft kisses, touches and caresses, it was as though I were looking at it from a different view, instead of being right there, I was there looking down on us.  We fell asleep in each other’s arms.  My heart ached the next morning when I awoke to find him missing.  There was a note on the pillow.

Went to grab breakfast and a surprise for you.  Be ready and packed when I get back, I have to head back to the office.

Yours,

Howie

I crawled out of bed, took a quick shower, threw on jeans and a t-shirt and pulled my hair back in a quick braid.  I took the opportunity to check my voice mail at the house, and there was none.  I had purposely left my Blackberry there, so I wouldn’t be bothered.

Howie came back with donuts and coffee, and we loaded up in the Audi and headed off to the airport.  He dropped me off at the terminal and took the rental car back.  An hour later we were headed back to Texas on the same plane we flew to California in.  I fell asleep on the flight back, I blamed the jet lag.

We arrived a few hours after take off and he drove me home in the Mazda.  He walked me to the door, gave me a kiss, and told me he would see me soon.

I walked into my empty house, and immediately missed Howie.  My heart sank in my chest, as I realized I would be sleeping alone tonight.  I headed for the office in the house, where my laptop sat, along with my Blackberry.  The light on the Blackberry blinked at me furiously, meaning I had several messages.  I ignored it and booted up the laptop.  My email was overflowing, I replied to the ones that seemed important, my best friend, my aunt and my cousin, then sat there staring at the screen.  Something just didn’t feel right.  I picked up  the blackberry, checked the text messages first, just a few from friends, then the email, work needing me to cover a story.  Same old thing, I sighed.

I went back to my room, and grabbed my camera bag.  I pulled the SD card out of the camera and put it into the card reader attached to my laptop.  The folder opened up and I pulled up the pics from the Zoo the weekend before and the trip from this weekend.  The shark pictures turned out amazing!  The sunset pictures were beautiful.  I kept looking through them though, and had this nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I couldn’t place what it was, but there was something missing.  I saved the files to a folder on my external drive, and decided I needed a hot steamy bubble bath.  Wandered up the stairs feeling lost and empty, and ran the water, I used a peppermint bath salt to help ease the aches and soreness away.  I got undressed and stepped into the hot water gingerly, slowly sinking into the tub.  I let the scents invade my mind and the soothing sensation of the peppermint salts ease my tired body.  I replayed the weekend over in my head, trying to remember it all.

After soaking for a good thirty minutes, the water was turning lukewarm, I pulled my tired self out of the tub, dried off and slid in between the satin sheets naked.  I drifted off to sleep, and had sweet dreams of Howie.

The following week was busy at work.  No calls or flowers from Howie.  I mustered through my week, hoping for some sign of him, come Friday morning.

I woke up Friday morning, and took my shower, and ran downstairs and flung the door open, hoping to see something on the doorstep.  There was nothing.  No flowers, no card, no Howie.  My heart sank.  I called work and told them I wasn’t feeling well and went back to bed.  I lay there trying to figure out what might have gone wrong.  I thought back to the previous weekends, my mind racing, trying to remember every little detail.

I sat bolt upright in bed.  The pictures, that was it.  They were missing.  The pictures the Captain took of him and I against the sunset.  The pictures of us at the Zoo.  I ran down the stairs to my office.  I plugged in my external harddrive, booted up the laptop and pulled up my photos.  They weren’t there!  The number sequence was off.  What the Hell!!!

I immediately picked up my Blackberry.  I scrolled through the list, looking for Howie’s number.  It wasnt’ there!  Holy Hell!  I know I am not imagining things.  I ran back downstairs, and pulled the card off the refrigerator from the flowers.  There was his note.

I started pacing the floor.  I pulled up the Internet and searched for the law office he worked for.  Not listed.

My heart dropped again.

I picked up my phone, and dialed a number I hadn’t dialed in a while.

“Sam, it’s Beth, I need a favor.”

(To Be Continued)