WHERE ENDS MEET

CHAPTERFOUR

When anna was born, George and Elia had been dating for three years. George had met Elia, a sophomore at Stanford during his senior year there. He had majored in biochemistry and had always dreamt of running his pharmaceutical company. A dashing young man with dreams to sell, George had won Elia within two weeks of meeting. They had dated till she finished college and then got engaged soon after. Elia was by then heavily pregnant with Anna and so opted to be a stay-at-home mom to take care of their daughter. They got married before anna turned one and continued to live their dream of a perfect small family. This was before the troubles started. It started with him working on project that kept him out late at night and then conferences out of town for days and weeks at time. The fighting and heated arguments started. Elia moved out on several occasions, taking Anna with her, only to come back after weeks of pleas and apologies that proved to be lies in the end. Anna had been a child through most of it. She had been so blinded by childish love and devotion to realize just how bad her parents’ marriage had been. By the time she was fourteen, the signs couldn’t be ignored. All anna could do was drown herself deep into her books. By the time Anna got to college, she chose to focus on business, she thought if she was closer to her dad at work, he would find his way back to the family fully.

Anna had decided to intern that summer at the company. It was a day just like any and anna had decided to go see if her father was ready to go to lunch so they would have lunch together. She had noticed a new restaurant not far from the office and thought it would be a good place to try. She entered his office and found it empty. George had a mini lab adjoining to his office and often worked there sometimes when he was working on projects he wasn’t ready to share with his team. The door to the lab was opened slightly and Anna could hear noises from inside. Anna had been through college and the noise coming from inside wasn’t something she hadn’t heard before. She knew her father was no faithful husband but seeing him here, now, that changed everything for Anna. She made sure they both saw her in the office, turned around and left. From then on, till George passed, Anna barely spoke two words to him that didn’t involve the business.

Anna took over the business after George’s death and realized they had been running on fumes. The company had been running trails on an insulin resistance drug. The trial had run longer than expected without yielding results as projected. They had run through the company’s funding and had to resort to borrowing from the banks. The company had been neck-deep in debt, the banks had began calling immediately after George’s funeral. Anna had no time to mourn or do whatever she had to do for a man she had blocked out of her heart. Whatever emotions had been there, Anna used it to fuel her drive to restore the company. This worked so well and at the turn of the year, the company was able to make a full recovery.

For all George’s flaws, Elia remained a hopeless romantic. They got a divorce after Anna finished college and Elia moved back to California. She got a good settlement after the divorce and bought a beach house in Malibu. Anna visited as much as she could, but it became less frequent when she married her current husband. The had met during a cycling class and hit it off hard. Within six months of dating, they were engaged and got married by the end of the year. The main reason however for Annas infrequent visits were Elia’s incessant prying into her dating life. Elia recognized her and George’s role in making love seem abominable to Anna and felt it was her duty to ensure Anna found the right man to love. Every visit Anna made to visit her mother, Elia set up a blind date or tried to hook her up with young men they encountered. Anna grew tired of her mothers’ antics and avoided visiting her altogether unless when necessary. When Elia noticed. Unabated, Elia continued her matchmaking schemes even without Anna visiting. She was quite sociable and so had a lot of friends whose sons needed wives. At a point she began thinking Anna preferred her gender and decided to try her luck setting her up on a date with a lady. That had caused anna an embarrassed apology and Elia had received an earful from her daughter. Still determined, Elia still wished for the day her daughter would find love.

In Anna’s new search for a husband, she recalled as many blind dates as she could remember. She thought of whom amongst the numerous men her mother had set her up with. It wasn’t just a question of getting a man, but also getting one who would fit the role perfectly. Anna wondered how many of them sought marriage to get their mothers off their backs and if they would be willing to go with her charade. The thought of suddenly showing up the sons of one of her mother’s friends and the divorcing shortly after would be suspicious to even an infant. It was too risky to take. There was just one person Anna could rely on to get a man who would love strings attached. They were her M.O and Anna had no doubt she would have some in stock. Kathy was the only person crazy enough to pull this off for Anna and this was just the reason they had remained best friends, but first, she had to think of how to explain this situation to Kathy without sounding like a lunatic.