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May 1977
"So, any plans for the holiday weekend?" Amy Chen asked as she shifted through the small pile of mail that had been dropped off on her desk, putting aside two envelopes that required immediate attention.
"Not really," Greg Ryan, who had just delivered that mail, replied. "I'm not in much of a holiday mood."
"None of your friends are going to the beach or having barbecues?" Amy asked as she put the rest of the mail down.
"Yeah, sure, but... I guess I don't feel like being around a bunch of people," the twenty year old clerk said.
"Greg, it's been nearly four months," Amy pointed out.
Most of the staff at Russell and Clarke Investments had already left for the day, getting a head start on the Memorial Day weekend. Still, Greg paused long enough to turn from the Asian woman and look around them, making sure that none of the few still remaining were listening to their conversation.
It was hardly a secret that the two of them were friends, unlikely as it might seem, given the difference in their ages and backgrounds. Greg was barely out of his teens, having celebrated his twentieth birthday only last month, and, even if she didn't look it, Amy's next birthday would be her forty-eighth. Somehow, though, they'd found enough in common to form more than a casual office relationship.
"It could be four years and I don't think it would make any difference," Greg said, once he was satisfied that no one was paying them any attention. There was nothing wrong in the two of them having a conversation, of course, it was just that the young man didn't like everyone knowing his business -- especially about this subject.
-=-=-=-
A clerk down in the back office, Greg spent part of his day delivering mail and supplies to the upper two floors of the company. He'd met Amy about a year before when, on what had also been a Friday afternoon, the executive secretary had a problem with her IBM Selectric and no repairman had been available until after the weekend. The younger man had told her not to worry as he wheeled her typewriter off on a small cart just before the lunch hour, returning with it before she got back from her break. And it was now working.
It wasn't until the following Monday that she figured out what had happened. Greg had surreptitiously switched her machine with one from the desk of Charlotte Myers, the secretary for Karl Wagner, head of media relations. It was pretty common knowledge that Charlotte hadn't been hired for her typing, or any other work related skills, and if the repairman Greg had called Friday hadn't shown up to fix the machine, it probably could've been weeks before the buxom redhead even knew it was broken. Impressed and grateful, Amy had told Greg that if there was anything she could help him with, he just had to ask.
As it turned out, Greg did have a problem, one a bit outside of what she had meant, but one that she turned out to be uniquely qualified to help him with. The then nineteen year old had a girlfriend, or at least a friend that he very much wanted to be his girl. How she viewed the situation was a matter of considerable debate.
Her name was Kathy Chu, and Greg had met her the summer following high school. At first, they had just been fellow members of the local library's book club, but as time progressed, their relationship grew into more. Greg was smitten by the vivacious brunette, and while she had feelings for him as well, her life, as she tried to explain to him on numerous occasions, was complicated.
The youngest of three daughters, and the only one unmarried and still living at home, Kathy was responsible for taking care of her widowed mother. Actually, it was a responsibility that should've been shared by her sisters as well, both of whom were at least a decade older, but they'd had the foresight to move just far enough away that their mother was willing to visit, but not live with either of them.
Still, even the idea that Kathy and her mother were a package deal hadn't been enough to deter Greg. The real problem was that, no matter what he did to win her over, Mrs. Chu couldn't see him as a future son-in-law. It wasn't that she saw any particular fault in him, she'd conveyed through her daughter since she spoke little English, it was the simple fact that he wasn't Chinese. And that wasn't something he could change.
Greg, however, had been unwilling to accept that. He'd asked Amy if she could help him better understand Kathy's mother and possibly suggest ways he might get her to look at him in a different light. Although certain that any such effort was foredoomed to failure, Amy agreed to do what she could.
What she couldn't get Greg to understand was that, even though she and Mrs. Chu were close in age and of similar backgrounds, their life experiences had been vastly different. Both women had been born in China before the revolution and both had moved to the States with their families afterward. That was where the similarities ended, however.
Amy's family had embraced their new home, learning the language and customs as quickly as they could. Mrs. Chu, on the other hand, never saw it as anything other than a foreign land and tried to preserve as much of the world she grew up in as possible, even insisting that her children speak only Chinese at home. The loss of her husband a few years later only caused her to even more firmly withdraw into her small world of compatriots.
Having promised, Amy did what she could, tutoring Greg in Chinese culture and even teaching him some rudimentary Chinese. In the end, though, Mrs. Chu remained unimpressed and the only thing his efforts really did was highlight to her the lengths the young man was willing to go to influence her daughter, and the possibility that he might succeed.
Kathy had always been honest with Greg about the fact that, even though they went out on a more or less regular basis, she also felt obligated to spend time with young, and some not so young, men that her mother introduced her to. Feeling those dates were just obligatory outings to keep her mother happy, Greg didn't pay them much heed, at least until the night four months ago. Mrs. Chu's latest favorite, a recently graduated medical student, ten years Kathy's senior, had asked for her hand. And Kathy had said yes.
Greg had been crushed, even though Kathy had reminded him that this could happen. Part of her had always seemed to hope that one of her sisters would step up and take the burden of care off of her, but neither seemed interested in doing so. So, in the end, she gave in to what was expected of her.
"I really did care about you, Greg," she had told him, "but I've come to care about Jun-feng as well, and being with him is just the easier path. I'm sorry."
-=-=-=-
"Don't worry, Amy, after tonight, whatever I feel about Kathy won't matter anymore," Greg assured her when he saw the concern on her face.
"What happens tonight?" Amy asked, not understanding what he meant.
"Oh, that's right, I didn't tell you," Greg replied. "It seems, now that she's made up her mind, Kathy's not wasting any time. A mutual friend from the library, Kelly Moskowitz, called me the other day asking if I was going to Kathy's wedding this weekend, and if so, would I like to share a ride? Just as friends of course."
"They're getting married tonight?" Amy said in a surprised tone. "They've barely been engaged four months."
The most obvious reason for a rushed wedding was the first thing that came to Amy's mind. It definitely was a possibility, one that she hoped Greg hadn't considered because it might make him feel even worse. It was also just possible, however, that Kathy's mother didn't want to give her daughter a chance to change her mind.
"I really didn't want to explain why I hadn't been invited, so I said that I was going out of town for the holiday weekend."
"Oh, Greg, I'm so sorry," Amy said.
Greg just lifted his hands in a what are you going to do gesture, then picked up his basket with the remainder of the mail, going off to deliver it.
'I wish I could do something for him,' Amy thought as she watched him walk down the corridor.
-=-=-=-
Two hours later, Amy was the only secretary still at her desk. Her boss, who had left at lunchtime, had asked her to wait around for a special delivery letter and fax a copy of it to his lawyer. She didn't mind, as she had no plans other than a quiet dinner at home, and besides, she only lived a short walk away from the lower Broadway offices.
"Here's that letter you've been waiting for," Greg said as he approached Amy's desk. "The mailman just dropped it off, so I brought it right up."
