Chapter 3

“Prague does not have its name for no reason – in truth, Prague is a threshold between the life on Earth and Heaven, a threshold much thinner and narrower than in any other places.”
― Gustav Meyrink

The next day

She hadn’t arrived yet. And it was starting to get weird, because Lisa was never late – it was just not in her. He was always the one with the very personal time zone, and when they were together she would constantly berate him because they were never on time for their appointments.

“Michael?”

Dana’s voice was soft, as usual, and managed to distract him. Michael glanced over at her and, right on cue, she smiled.

“Do you want us to leave the room so you can call Lisa Marie? Make sure she’s OK, maybe? Or Jaroslav and I can take care of it, if you’re not up to it.”

“Oh, no. There’s no need. I’m sure she’s fine and she’s gonna be here any minute now.”

Or so he hoped.

In reality, he was wondering if she had ended up leaving the previous night, after finding out that he was the other investor in the project that had brought her to Prague. The vague discomfort that he immediately experienced just by thinking about it told him that he didn’t want to be the reason for any new drama. He and Lisa had already had plenty of that in the past. Which was the reason why they were done with each other.

He shook his head and kept staring at an indefinite point outside the window, knowing well that, at least from the outside, he looked as cool as a cucumber. It was still snowing, and Prague was enveloped in a soft white blanket that made everything look stiller, quieter. More magical. If only life had been as easy as this city was on the eyes, everything would have been so much better.

Dropping his guard for a moment allowed Michael to realize that he wished that Lisa was there, watching the scenery with him. He wished that they were both there, with their kids. Despite the previous night having been anything but ideal, he still wanted her there. With him. So that he could make sure that she was fine.

But hey, on the other hand whatever was making Miss Pissy late, she should have just gotten over it by now. He certainly had managed to get there. It wasn’t that he was prepared to find himself face to face with her after so long either, but he had gone up to the third floor because he was too intrigued to find out who was going to work on that project with him. He was way too curious to wait until the following day. And then he had stayed, even when it had become obvious that Lisa’s initial shock was turning into some vague bitterness and way too many snarky remarks. His impertinent little princess.

Michael didn’t know why, but while he waited for the elevator to get to the suite he also had had an odd feeling burning deep in his soul. Some sort of weird gut feeling. Instinct tickling the back of his neck. Butterflies swirling in his stomach. The crazy idea that Lisa was way closer than he thought. But never, not even in a million years he would have expected to find her there in Prague, with him. In the same hotel where he was staying, around Christmastime again. And she had stolen his suite, too!

She hadn’t told him anything about her little trip to Europe at all, that time when they had spoken over the phone. Even though he had asked – something that he vividly remembered doing. Yet, she had decided to be as quiet as a mouse. Playing close to the vest, just like he was.

No, scratch that! She had done much worse than not saying anything! She had told him that she was possibly planning to spend Christmas with Danny!

And that was exactly what Michael had asked her the previous night, after they stared at each other for what felt like forever. Both stunned. Speechless.

“Huh… Weren’t you supposed to be with Danny?”

“What?”

He had scanned her face. Damn. She looked so beautiful that he had forgotten about his train of thoughts for a second. How long since he had seen her? Almost a year. It felt like forever, yet it was as if a part of him had never let go of her at all. She seemed to have lost a bit of weight since then, but she was drop-dead gorgeous as usual. Her hair longer and slightly messy, she looked like a dream come true.

He had cleared his throat.

“Over the phone. You told me you would be with Danny and the kids.”

Lisa had frowned.

“What? When?”

He obviously wasn’t the only one whose reality had just been tilted off its axis.

“Lisa?! Will you please focus for a second? The last time you and I spoke. A few weeks ago, over the phone, remember?”

“I don’t recall any of that.”

OK, that was some straight-up nonsense for real!

She had straightened her stance and, of course, she had blushed – because as usual she was never really good at bullshitting him, especially when they were face to face. And she had always been a bad liar, in general. As transparent as clear water in a pond.

“Yes, you do. So why did you lie to me? And why in the world do you keep lying now!”

Without even waiting for an invitation, Michael had pushed the door open and had entered her room as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Glancing around, he had noticed how spectacular her suite looked. His room was great and all but heck, hers was majestic. He had made a face. Dang!

“I didn’t lie. I said that I probably will be with him and the kids for Christmas.” Lisa had slammed the door shut, startling him. “And it ain’t Christmas yet.”

“Oh, so you do remember now!”

“Look, I don’t recall the specifics because I was half-asleep. What the hell is this? What are you even doing here? I really am not in the mood for this, Michael.”

How he loved and hated that annoyed expression on her face, and the way she had said his name. A testament to their old fights – which would usually end up becoming something different and much more pleasurable. Something that he had tried hard to not think about as he did his best to understand what the hell was going on.

“This, what? We’re just talking!”

“Yeah, exactly that! I don’t wanna talk to you! Otherwise – guess what? I would have fucking called and talked to you! And who told you that you could get in, anyway? Go back to your room! Or wherever you came from!”

She had pointed at the foyer and had stared at him.

Scoffing, Michael had turned around and had headed for the door. Fine. Let her be the spoiled brat he too often tended to forget she could be. Whipping the door open again, however, he had found himself face to face with a butler and his cart.

The surprised look on the man’s face couldn’t be ignored. The poor guy was confused and had no idea how they all shared that same feeling.

“Uhm. Good evening sir. Is… Miss Presley here?”

Lisa had pushed Michael out of the way and had smiled at the guy sweetly.

“Yes, thank you. I’m so sorry.”

“Your chamomile tea, Madam.”

“Thank you. And I’m sorry for the… ruckus.”

“Nothing to be sorry about, Madam. Good night. Sir…”

The butler had tipped his head in Michael’s direction and he had done the same in return. Then Michael had slowly pushed the door closed and locked it too – for good measure. Well, maybe Lisa wasn’t wrong when she had told him that he had walked in there as if he owned the place.

But anyway, he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at the whole thing. He just couldn’t help it. Because to be really honest, to see Lisa all flustered and out of her depth always had a funny streak to it.

“What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing.” He had to force himself to wipe that grin off his face and eventually managed to look serious again.

“So? What do you want? Why are you even here?”

She had cleared her throat and was now facing him, holding her head up high. Proud, stubborn woman. He had felt the intense desire to kiss her. Or maybe strangling her. Or both.

“Calm down! Why are you being such a bitch? I am here because they invited me.”

“Who?”

“The Mazeks.”

Lisa had opened her mouth to say something, but then had just ended up exhaling a long breath.

“So it’s you. It was you all along and my mother was right. God damn it!”

“Your mother was right about what? What are you talking about?”

Michael was starting to feel even more confused about this whole predicament. It was pretty obvious that he and Lisa were the two investors involved in the project, albeit unbeknown to each other. That much was clear at that point. But Priscilla being right about something sounded new to him.

“You being involved in this. My mother had heard rumors.”

Of course. Old Cilla always managed to keep tabs on him just like she did with her own daughter.

“Yeah, so? You hadn’t?”

It was hard to believe that none of the whispers had reached Lisa’s ear. They sure always managed to reach Michael, when it came to her.

“I don’t care about the rumors. I never did. And I don’t pay attention to them. You, of all people, should know that.”

That was real’ funny.

“Should I, now? That’s so weird. You seemed to care plenty about the rumors when we were together.”

Lisa had rolled her eyes and shaken her head. She had also blushed again. Of course she cared. When people from her entourage would tell her that he was fooling around with other women, she would always care. Even though, deep down, she knew that he had never done anything like it to her. But the very idea that Michael could care so little had hurt her, nonetheless. The methodical and relentless poisoning of their relationship had slowly but surely worked on both of them, whether they admitted it or not. A well-executed inside job that had brought them where they were now. The foundations of their reciprocal trust had been thoroughly eroded.

“Too bad you and I being together has absolutely nothing to do with this. And since you know fuck-all about the reason why I’m here now, could you please refrain from commenting?”

“I didn’t comment. I stated a fact because that’s what it is. Besides, it’s not that I was following you around, you know? I’m not a stalker.”

“No? Then why are you here in my suite?”

His eyes had widened.

“Because you let me in!”

He was starting to lose his patience. He and Lisa simply did not work together.

“You pushed the door open and strolled in there as if you own the place! Get the fuck out of here!”

“You mean metaphorically? Or for real?”

“Oh my God…” She had let herself fall on the couch and had covered her face with both hands. “I can’t believe we’re going through all this all over again.”

Damn. Michael too had felt deflated all of a sudden. To see her react like that, to perceive that hint of desperation, of hopelessness in her voice and demeanor, had done something to him and all his irritation had vanished, just like that.

Quietly, he had poured some chamomile tea into a cup and handed it out to her.

“Here… You ordered it, after all.”

She obviously needed to relax. And he did too.

Eying him suspiciously, Lisa had taken the cup from his hand and then had tucked her feet underneath her body. So fucking cute. He had shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not really knowing what to do with himself now that the room was quiet again.

His reaction had caused her to glance up at him again.

“Since you’re here and all… Maybe you could just be polite and sit down, instead of towering over me like a freaking bully.”

Michael had shrugged. He could still recognize Lisa’s weird peace offers – however lame.

And so he had sat down on the smaller sofa across the couch. Close to her, but not enough to touch her. Without a word and noticing a couple more cups on the tray, he had poured some chamomile tea for himself, as well. After all, they both needed to calm down and try to rein over the obvious surprise of finding each other again so unexpectedly. In the same city. In the same hotel. At the most magical time of the year. And in a room together.

“You think we can try to figure out what is going on without sounding like two lunatics?”

He had to bite his tongue not to tell her that she was usually the eye of the storm, when it came to lunacy. It didn’t matter how odd and eccentric he could be. In Michael’s mind, Lisa had always been crazy in all the best possible ways, and sometimes those best ways overflew into absolutely delirious conversations. Just like the one they had just shared.

“Of course.”

There. A much more diplomatic response than she deserved.

“OK… So… Are you the other investor?”

“In the Threshold project? Yeah…”

“And when did you get involved?”

“I don’t know. A few months ago, something there about? The Mazeks told me you’ve been part of this thing right from the beginning.” He had shifted in his seat. “I mean, they didn’t tell me it was you. Just that there was someone else in this.”

Lisa had kept staring into her cup of chamomile tea as if she was sure that she would find all the answers she needed in there.

“They’re right, I was. Michael… please, be honest with me. Did you know that you would find me here?”

She finally was able to meet his eyes.

“No. I didn’t know it was you until five minutes ago.”

Biting the inside of her cheek, she had just nodded her head. He could tell that she believed him.

“Well, just so you know, I’m not giving up on this just because we’re both here.”

“I don’t expect you to.”

“Are you gonna pull out?”

He had looked at her, frowning. This girl was crazy for real.

“What? Why should I pull out?”

“I don’t know. Because you expected someone else to work with you?”

“Look, I didn’t expect anyone specific. Or anything, really. Besides, it’s not that we have to work on this together. The project is Dana’s and Jaroslav’s – not ours. We’re just funding it.”

Bullshit. They both knew very well that they would have to work together, at least to some extent. They couldn’t just bitch and moan at each other until they flew back home.

“True, but still… We’re gonna stay here for a week and take part in…” Lisa had looked startled suddenly. She looked as if she had just had an epiphany. “…Are you gonna stay here for the whole week? Just like me?”

“That was my intention, yes.”

And if she hoped that he would leave earlier than planned just because he would have to share his time and space with her, she was even crazier than he thought.

Sighing, almost in a deflated manner, Lisa had just kept sipping her tea.

They had shared a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, and then her phone had gone off. It had started to buzz on the coffee table. Glancing over at the caller ID almost out of impulse, Michael had noticed a name that he didn’t recognize: John.

John? Who the fuck was John?

Come on, brother. Make an educated guess. What kind of guy do you think might be calling her in the middle of the night?

All of a sudden, he had felt the incoercible need to leave. To go back to his room and pretend that Lisa wasn’t in Prague at all… at least until the next day, when likely he would have calmed down and his jealousy – a well-kept secret – would have subsided. And so he had stood up and wished her goodnight before she could even understand what the heck was going on.

He usually was much more controlled when it came to his reactions, and possibly he had given a bit too much away. However, he was exhausted and still way too out of his element to refrain from letting her see all that was going on inside of him.

And now, about eighteen hours later, Michael was starting to wonder if it had been his abrupt reaction, what had caused Lisa not to be at the meeting that the Mazeks had planned for both of them.

Lisa was well aware of being late. And one of the reasons why she was, was that she had been unable to sleep for hours after seeing Michael, the previous night. It was nearly dawn when finally her body had given up and had allowed her to rest. And she had been out like a light, right up until noon.

When she had woken up again, the return to reality had been abrupt and harsh. She had sat up on the bed and found her reflection in the mirror on the wall, noticing that she looked like a hungover panda bear. Checking the time, she had also discovered that she was already way behind her schedule.

Jumping out of bed, Lisa had catapulted herself into the shower as fast as she could. Then she had eaten a bagel while she dried her hair. Finally, the very moment she was putting her foot out of the suite, her mobile phone had gone off again. Lucky for her, it wasn’t John, but the nanny. The kids wanted to talk to her and, of course, they were her priority. That had stolen another fifteen minutes that she didn’t have.

Knowing well that the meeting would be held in a building in the city center, Lisa had clumsily decided to venture herself in the beautiful streets of Prague on foot. After all, she was pretty sure that she could maneuver herself in the city.

Wrong.

Twenty minutes later, she had realized that she had no idea of where the hell she was and she didn’t even have a map with her. Thankfully, a couple of locals had taken pity on her and had directed her toward the right street and the right building. At that point, claiming that she was late for the meeting would have been a massive understatement.

When Lisa finally entered the room, Michael and the Mazeks had been waiting for her for almost an hour and she was embarrassed beyond belief. She hated being late and it was also so unlike her!

“Uh… Hello everyone…” She sounded adequately breathless. “I’m so sorry.”

Michael was sitting at the table at the opposite corner of the room, across Dana and Jaroslav, and playing with a pen. His eyes and Lisa’s met for a moment. At first he seemed startled, then his face relaxed and she understood that he was relieved. The realization gave her pause. What was going through his mind? Did he really think that she would bail on this just because he was there? Yeah, fat chance. He was not that important.

Yeah, right…

It wasn’t easy to keep up the charade, given that she hadn’t exactly taken the news of him sharing her same hotel lightly, the previous night. However, not for a second Lisa had thought about going back to the States. Of course, claiming that she was indifferent to Michael would have been nothing but a big, fat lie, but so would have been stating that his presence was so intolerable to her to push her out of the door and the country.

To her, the only intolerable thing was how quickly he had fled when John had called. And she knew exactly why it had happened.

Dana and Jaroslav both stood up, and Michael did the same after a slight hesitation.

“Are you OK?”

“Yeah…”.

Michael cleared his throat.

“That’s all that matters. Hi, Lisa Marie.”

Once again, their eyes met. Then Lisa averted her gaze and noticed that Jaroslav was pulling out a chair for her. Out of the corner of her eye, she also saw that Michael had been about to do the same, but then had sat back down in his chair.

“I am so very sorry. I gotta be honest – I overslept. I must be jet-lagged, still. I want to once again apologize to all of you for being so late. Usually I’m not like that at all.”

She avoided mentioning that she had also managed to get lost on her way over.

“Michael is right, as long as you’re OK everything is fine. Don’t worry about it, Lisa. We’re not in a hurry anyway, right? We were just making small talk.” Jaroslav stared at her for a moment, smiling. “Can I get you anything? Water, maybe?”

Of course he had noticed how flustered she looked, after her mad dash to the building. Why hadn’t she taken a taxi, again? Oh, right. Because she had thought that walking would help her get rid of the anxiety that seeing Michael had provoked. As a matter of fact, Lisa had walked with a certain commitment.

“Yes, please. Water would be great.” She sat down and extracted a paper bag from her purse. A delicious smell suddenly seemed to invade the room. “Oh, by the way. I got these on my way over. They looked so good that I had to have them… I don’t remember how they’re called, but I’m sure they taste amazing.”

She was also starving, given that eating a bagel while drying her hair didn’t exactly qualify as having a meal.

“Oh, it’s called Trdelník,” Dana chimed in. “It’s some of our most delicious street food. You chose well.”

Lisa reached out and neatly put the rolled pastries on some paper napkins.

“Yeah, and I’m glad they’re still warm.”

“They are. Thank you, Lisa.”

Lisa just smiled at the lady, and her eyes softened. Michael could tell that those two clicked just fine, which was absolutely reasonable. Dana was sweetness personified, and Lisa… well, underneath the tough veneer, she was too.

Glancing across the table, Lisa met his gaze for the third time in a handful of minutes. He was still staring at her with an odd look on his face. She wondered if he was mentally making fun of her disheveled appearance, her drenched boots and pants and her crazy hair. Well, if he was, he could very well fuck off. She wasn’t there to catwalk for some Fashion Week and couldn’t care less if he found her ridiculous or unattractive. She was over him.

“Lisa?”

His voice soft, polite.

“Yes?”

She too could play that game pretty well.

“Can I have one too?”

His question surprised her, because Michael’s relationship with food wasn’t passionate at all. He mostly ate out of necessity, and only rarely pleasure. He had always been a picky eater and even though, when they were together, she tended to feed him well and he would usually gain weight, she hadn’t been expecting that he could be interested in those rolled pastries at all.

She raised her eyebrows.

“Sure, you can. I think you might like the cinnamon one.”

“Oh, so you bought one for me specifically?”

Smirking, he took a little pastry and observed it before taking a bite.

“No, I just bought plenty, so there’s enough for everyone.” Lisa clasped her hands and sat back in her chair, taking a deep breath. She looked over at the Mazeks. “Shall we begin?”

The following two hours were genuinely interesting for all the parties involved. The Mazeks finally had the chance to know more about the reasons that had brought Michael and Lisa to fund their project, while Michael and Lisa were told precisely what the whole thing was about and how it had started. Dana and Jaroslav once again explained, in detail, what their work entailed and what their organization had planned to do with the funds now at their disposal.

“We founded The Care Shelter about ten years ago…” Jaroslav scrunched his forehead. “No, wait, possibly earlier… Berlin was still split in two back then, right, my love?”

“Right,” Dana nodded her head.

“It was just a very different time back then. The Eighties, I mean. The US and the USSR were somehow leading the world, and most Eastern European countries were under a specific political influence that made some things… Ah, I would say difficult.”

He sipped his water.

“Czechoslovakia was one of the countries where the authoritarian government was tougher. There was a strong control over personal freedom and there were strict limits to Western foreign visitors. For the first few years, even attempting to raise funds for our projects outside the national borders was problematic, to say the least. Then, with time, it became much more manageable and now, of course, everything has changed for better. But still… never, not once before we had the chance to collaborate with people like you, guys. It’s wonderful, and Jan and I are so thrilled about the inauguration. So this meeting is mainly to thank you, and tell you that without your help we don’t think The Threshold would have been completed so quickly and effectively.”

“Believe me, it was my pleasure,” Lisa simply replied. And it was the truth. It really had been beautiful to help this couple realize what they had been working on so tirelessly for years.

She saw Michael smile.

“Mine too. I was… I am happy to help. Thank you for involving me… and Lisa Marie.”

Him mentioning her with that sweet tone made her feel in some type of way. He had spoken the words so naturally, so easily. As if they were there as a couple, or a team, and not two individuals who had nothing to share any longer in their everyday life.

Realizing how easily he could turn her heart to mush, Lisa tried to steady herself. She had to never forget where she stood in all this. She had to stop looking at Michael as if she still knew him. Yes, he had been her friend, her lover, her husband. He had been her everything. But that was the past, it was a long time ago. She and Michael had parted ways because there was no way they could ever learn to truly understand each other. And that meant that, ultimately, they had become strangers.

She did all she could to focus on Dana and Jaroslav. She loved how they had kept the meeting informal and private – involving just the investors and heads of the organization. She also loved how obviously in tune – and in love – they were. It was clear that they adored being in this together, sharing their dreams and making them become a reality.

Without Lisa even noticing, her mind returned to that dangerous place where hope and regret beat in unison.

It occurred to her that, in other circumstances, this whole encounter could have been so different. It would have been a meeting of two couples that had chosen to dedicate themselves to charity. Instead there were the Mazeks, and then there was Michael, and then there was Lisa. They were three separate entities. It made her feel sad – even though she had no reasons to be sad at all in the grand scheme of things. She had tried and failed. They had. Shit happened to everyone, and sure as hell she had never been immune from heartbreak.

“…We know our country…”

“And our city,” Jaroslav chimed in quietly, forcing a smirk out of his wife.

“…And our city, well enough to put our plan together pretty quickly. We know all the answers to the right questions. Who we want to help, why, and what our volunteers will get out of it. That allowed us to find the perfect location – just outside the city center. We invested part of the funds you so kindly donated and we were able to purchase the entire area. It used to be an industrial lot. It will now officially be anything but. And it’s ours, it belongs to the organization.”

“I really can’t wait to see it.” Michael seemed very much pleased to finally get to know all the details concerning the project. “You said a theater too will be included?”

Jaroslav scratched his stubbly cheek.

“Yes. But it wasn’t planned, at first, because we had no idea that you and Lisa Marie would be so generous. As a matter of fact, when we first got in touch with you and you agreed to take part in this, Dana and I were pretty sure we would have had enough money to pay off our mortgage earlier than planned, but not in a million years we would have fathomed having the chance to actively own the place and work on it to such extent right from the get-go…” His eyes sparkled. “I mean… Demolishing those three old hangars, redoing the access and perimeter, building and decorating the new buildings, pretty much redesigning the entire area. Who would have thought?”

“And that’s what caused us to hurry up and plan every single thing to the smallest detail,” Dana touched her husband’s forearm in an affectionate gesture. “I don’t know if you realize it, but you and Lisa Marie made it possible for this whole thing to be ready in record time.”

“Well…”

“I’m being honest. Michael, what you will see is what was supposed to happen in only God knows how many years. And instead it’s already there. It’s pretty much finished. Small details aside, it is ready.”

Michael squinted his eyes.

“What do you mean, what I will see? Lisa won’t?”

Dana laughed, as if she had just remembered to have overlooked an important detail.

“Oh, right. I’m sorry. No, Lisa will be there too, of course. With us all. But she has already seen the place. She was here with us last summer – working her butt off with the whole team to make sure everything would be ready right on time for Christmas.”

Lisa blushed.

Gosh. Maybe she should have told Dana that her ex-husband didn’t really need to know every tiny detail about her recent whereabouts… or activities.

Oh, well. It was too late.

She had been there? In Prague? Just a few months earlier? And nobody had told him anything about it until now. Michael hadn’t asked, but still… He thought he should have been informed.

Why? She isn’t yours anymore.

Maybe so, but he was miffed – and felt a bit put aside. As if the most important things concerning the project were still lost on him. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t have been there anyway, with his packed schedule and all, and that even organizing that little trip to Prague without having anyone know about it had been challenging. He still wished he had been there to follow this whole thing more closely. He envied Lisa’s relative freedom, her ability to move around in the world as if she was just some regular person. It was something that Michael couldn’t remember ever having the chance to do.

When they were married, she had been swept away by the constant intrusion and pressure that being his wife entailed, but she had held her own, being by his side every single time. Even though he knew how scary and uncomfortable it was for her. Her privacy too had been obliterated and had never been the same again since. Now, the press pretty much hated her, just like they hated him.

And so, as he kept listening to Dana talking fondly about Lisa and the active help she had provided until the end of the summer, part of Michael was jealous, while another part of him felt relieved for her. Even though her name was and would always be associated with his, he was glad that she could still enjoy some modicum of freedom. That she could still do whatever she pleased without being scrutinized or photographed, or hunted down every two seconds.

He was already feeling a bit melancholic when Jaroslav, all of a sudden, pulled out a binder full of pictures that he and Dana had shot throughout the previous couple of years. The photographs were neatly organized in chronological order and, at one point, Jaroslav turned a page and Lisa’s beautiful smile appeared. The man pushed the binder in Michael’s direction.

Lisa blushed again.

“Jaroslav!”

He laughed and raised his hands in a pacifying gesture.

“Come on, what bad does he do?” Then he turned to Michael. “Take a look. I took a lot of pictures, even when Lisa Marie was here. Most of the time she was way too busy to realize, and that’s why these photographs are so beautiful and candid. I couldn’t wait for you to see them. I knew you were going to be in Prague at one point or another… After all, you had promised. And I can tell you’re a man of your word. I wanted you to see, Michael.”

And so Michael watched.

Michael was already in the back seats of his SUV when Wayne finally spotted Lisa walking in the snow. She looked uncomfortable, as if she was limping. Was she hurt?

“Boss?”

“Yes.”

“There she is.”

“Oh, cool. Pull over and slow down, Wayne. Please.” He bit on the inside of his cheek. “And get ready for me to get out of the car. I don’t think she’ll agree to jump in right away, so I might have to… ah… convince her.”

“Alright. Want me to come with you, Michael?”

“No, just follow us discretely with the car. I don’t think we’ll need anything else for now.”

“OK.”

The city center was pretty packed, full of tourists busy shopping for Christmas or simply enjoying the beauty of Prague under the snow. It was late in the afternoon and, of course, the sun had already set. Except for the street lamps and the decorations, it was dark outside. Michael wondered why Lisa had insisted that she go back to the hotel all alone, on foot, despite the temperature dropping considerably again.

She had been the first to leave after the end of the meeting. Michael knew that those photographs had made her feel shy and embarrassed, but she had been able to keep her composure. She had wished Jaroslav and Dana good night and then had hugged them both, displaying a level of affection that obviously testified to her major involvement in the project. She had only said goodbye to Michael, barely holding eye contact with him.

He had just kept sitting at the meeting table, watching her leave, not really knowing what to think of her behavior. They had been quite good at communicating during their last phone call, and now all of a sudden Lisa acted as if she hated him with a passion. However, he had caught glimpses of her eyes glancing over at him at times. They had looked pensive, unable to give much away, but certainly devoid of any hatred. So, no, she didn’t hate him at all, but something was going on with her, something that he couldn’t really pinpoint.

When had he lost his ability to read her?

He had spent about fifteen more minutes exchanging pleasantries with the Mazeks, and all the while he had kept looking at those pictures. Many of them portrayed Lisa in the company of other people. Working in the kitchen, sitting on a couch and speaking with families, holding babies. Some other photographs only portrayed her, busy working around the area, and Michael could tell that she hadn’t even noticed that the camera was there. Lisa smiling over at someone he couldn’t see. Wearing crumpled sweater pants and a t-shirt and holding a paintbrush, painting a wall in a bright shade of pink. Chilling with other workers. Laughing with a red-haired guy dressed as a chef.

Michael had swallowed hard. He had been busy, but she had been too. And just like his heart had always found the time and place to long for her, he wondered if she had thought about him at all. If there had been space in her mind for him. For the first time in months, he wondered if Lisa had missed him the very moment he realized that he had. He had missed her more than he would ever be willing to admit.

When finally he had said goodbye to Dana and Jaroslav, Michael’s mind was already set on his goal. Finding Lisa while she walked back to the hotel, possibly convincing her to get in the car with him, and eventually managing to have a decent conversation.

What had happened the previous night simply could not do any longer. The meeting had solidified his belief that The Threshold was nothing but good vibes, and he wanted every day, every hour, every minute that he and Lisa spent working on it to be permeated with the same positive attitude. He also wanted to stop acting immature and leave just because she got a phone call from a man he didn’t even know.

But in order to do so, they first had to clear the air and get rid of some of the emotional baggage they always brought with them. It was the end of the year, but also the beginning of something else. Michael wanted it to be different. It wanted it to be better, at least to some extent.

Wayne finally was able to pull over and Michael pushed the car door open. He stuck his head out and squinted his eyes.

“Lise!”

She was slightly limping in the snow and was obviously being careful not to slip, walking as she stared down at her feet. His voice startled her and she lost her rhythm, almost falling.

“God damn it!”

Michael jumped out of the car after pulling his hood over his head.