A Dish Best Served Cold Ch. 07

Ashley dumped the clothes in a pile on the daybed, before she realized Marco’s mess hadn’t been cleaned up. She shrugged and went to the mantle to grab the key to the cuffs holding Don down on the hassock.

As she was unlocking the cuffs, Marco grabbed Don by the hair. “Well, nephew, it looks like you have a new job,” he paused, “or two.”

“Two?”

“You’re my new chauffeur and my official cocksucker. Brock was right, it feels different, and I prefer it, especially right after I fuck your ass; make that job number three.” He walked over to the daybed to dress, and cursed Ashley for dropping his dark silk suit in his cum.

He dressed in a hurry, pushing Don to do the same. “You need to get me home in a hurry, to change those accounts. What time is it?”

“Quarter to four. We’ve got lots of time. We can go to my place to access the accounts,” Don pointed out.

“Hmmh. No, get me to my office in Northport. We should have plenty of time. Just don’t dawdle.”

“Uh, Uncle Marco, can’t we go to my place. I really need to take a dump...

“So do I! Just hold it. I don’t have time for you to take a half million dollar shit. Now, get he fuck movin!”

Lee quickly apprised Max and the other two women of what he had learned. The quartet quickly dressed and took off for the hospital as soon as Marco and Don were out of the house. They arrived in the waiting room a few minutes after the doctor informed Pete of the medical team’s success. Pete relayed the information the doctor had given him, holding back any mention of the baby.

The small group stood in the center of the reception room, silent, as is common in this situation, no one really knowing what to say. Finally Pete broke the silence, “I, uh, I gotta get outta here, get some air. Rosa should be upstairs in a little bit. Tell her I’ll see her later, okay?”

“Sure, Pete. Are you okay?” asked Lee. “Want someone to drive you home to crash for a bit?”

“No, no. I’m fine; I’ll grab a cab and go back and get the car. Thanks, anyway.”

He gave each of the women a hug, and walked out of the hospital.

Marco had insisted Don take the two-lane from Riverview to Northport, claiming, with less traffic, it would be faster. As soon as they were clear of the town, Don goosed it up to 65 and held it there, the Caddy taking the curves like a race car.

They were about halfway to Northport when the cramps started in Don’s abdomen. He could feel the gas moving in his bowel. It was nearly as painful as when Lee had raped his ass. Sometimes, it was almost enough to make him pull his knees up, pulling his feet off the gas and brake pedals.

If Marco noticed, he didn’t say anything. He was sitting in the back, trying to clean the white cumtraks off his black silk suit. It wasn’t until he felt the vehicle veer suddenly, that he paid any attention.

Don was white knuckling the steering wheel, his face seemingly buried in its center. His knees pulled up and pushing on the back of the steering wheel, forcing it off to the right of the road.

“Goddam it, Don! What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Straighten the fuck up before you hit the fucking bridge! Don! Don! Dooooon!” The left wheel of the Caddy left the road and started up the bridge’s superstructure.

Just before the rear wheel followed it, the weight of the Caddy overcame the forward inertia and began to fall sideways into the inlet. It wasn’t very deep. In fact, the Caddy’s wheels stuck up out of the water. If either man had been wearing his seat belt, one or both of them might have survived, but broken necks and water are a lethal combination, especially on seldom traveled roads. It was two days before the car was seen.

Back at St John’s, Lee, and his party were gathered about Rosa’s bed. She was too groggy from the surgery to be aware of very much, but she did realize Pete wasn’t there. She heard Lee telling her that he had needed to go home and get some rest. It just barely registered that the nurse told her that her baby was fine.

Lee heard that information, too, and felt his stomach sink. During the days their friendship was forming, Pete had lamented that he’d never father a child. Being sterile was great fun when you were out sport fucking, but he knew he’d rue the day he had lost his balance on the pommel horse and come crashing down on his testes. He wondered if that was what had been bothering Pete when they arrived.

Lee drove past Pete and Rosa’s apartment on his way home, after dropping Ashley and Thelma at their places. He explained his concerns to Max. “Do you think he’d really hold it against her, even when you had essentially traded partners?”

“I don’t know. Some times Pete can be pretty old school about things. I know he was upset because he couldn’t have his own, but he never talked about adoption.

“I remember one time when we were on the road together, we were watching some cop show about something happening at a sperm bank. He said you’d have to be crazy to go to one of them. Said you could never be sure what you were getting.”

“But, if she was telling the truth, he knows who...”

“And maybe that is part of the problem. He’d always be wondering about me and Rosa, and if I wanted to be more than just a seed donor.”

“Would you?”

He looked at his twin. “Only with you, love. Only with you.”

Rosa was released from the hospital the next day. When she arrived home there was a note from Pete saying he had to go away, to think about the baby; that he’d be in touch with her soon.

By the first Friday in April, she still hadn’t heard from him.

Max and Lee had decided to stay in New York and take over the management of Carruthers Machine Tool. Since they were regarded as distant cousins by most of the community, there had been no problem in getting a license and a minister to marry them a few weeks after Don’s death. Now the baby was due in a couple of weeks.

Max had come into the office for a shower being thrown for her and the twins by the women there. Edie had been invited, but, unusually, was running late. As she hurried into the office from the parking lot, she saw an out of state rental car. Looking closely at the driver, she thought she recognized him, and approached him from the rear.

“Peter Adams! What are you doing out here? Why aren’t you inside?”

Pete nearly jumped out of his skivvies. “Wha...oh, Edie. Christ, you scared me.”

“So, what are you doing here?”

“I, uh, wanted to talk to Lee.”

She pulled the car door open. “Fine, come with me and you can talk to him inside. There’s a baby shower for the twins today, so if you wait out here, you might be waiting until dark.” She reached in and pulled him from the car by his ear.

“Owww, alright, alright, I’m coming; you can let go.”

“I will, as soon as we’re inside. Now, come along.” Inside, she released his ear, only to take hold of his arm, and dragged him to the office suite. She pushed him through the swinging glass door, where he stopped to take in the scene.

To the left, in front of Lee ‘s office, he, Ian, and a police patrolman were laughing, and chatting, half standing, half sitting on the hip-high dividing wall which separated the offices from the open lobby.

Across the floor, in the center, grouped around Max, were Thelma and a younger black woman he assumed was her daughter. They were together on Max’s left. On the other side were Ashley, who, he would eventually learn, was engaged to Tommy Davis, who was being hired to replace Don as manager of the sales department, and Rosa, who had recently come to work as Lee’s secretary.

What was remarkable about the woman’s group was their pose. Max was standing with her right hand lightly resting on her baby bulge. Each of the other four women were standing exactly the same way, all of them at least six months pregnant, all with the same Madonna-like smile.

Edie pushed him toward the three men while she made her way to the women’s group. Before he was half way across the floor, he felt their eyes on him. He looked at the women, and found all of them following his progress.

He stopped, and turned to walk to the female gathering. Five of the women withdrew to a nearby office, leaving Rosa in place. When he got to her, he said nothing, but simply fell to his knees.

“I’ve been an ass, Rosa, and I don’t deserve it, but can you forgive me?”

“You’re right, and I don’t know. Why are you here?”

“I needed to talk to Lee, to find out what his intentions were about your child.”

“Why not ask me? What has he got to do with anything?”

“He’s the father...”

“The father is who I say it is,” she said firmly. “All he did was deposit a seed. That doesn’t make him the father, any more than a bird shitting out a cherry pit makes it the father of a cherry tree.

“The father is going to be the man who helps me nurture and care for my son; who shows him how to be a man and take care of the people he loves; who stays and deals with his problems together with me.” She sniffed. “I thought I found him once, but I was wrong.”

“Rosa...”

“He was a good man, right up until he found out I was carrying a baby. Not his baby, not from his seed, and apparently that was all that mattered to him, because without talking to me, or to anyone else about it, he ran away, leaving me alone at a time I really needed him. At a time, I came to realize, when he probably needed me, too, but he was gone and out of reach.”

She looked down at the slight blond man. His hair was too long, ragged, and he looked like he hadn’t seen a razor in at least a week. He was wearing the same suit he had been wearing when she was attacked right after New Years Day. It badly needed cleaning. “You look like hell. Where have you been?”

“Here, there; I went out to Walla Walla to see my sister and her husband, then down to Arizona to see my folks. I went back to Cedar for a few weeks, but didn’t talk to anyone important.

“I know what I did was...cowardly, wrong, weak. I was scared, and in shock. I had almost lost you, and I had just killed a man because he had hurt you, tried to kill you. I felt no remorse, haven’t felt any, not a drop, and it scared me, that I could do something like that, and not feel anything.

“On top of that, I realized my best friend had got the woman I love pregnant. I know it must have happened the day he and I both made love to you, but I still resented him for it. Resented the idea of anyone but me doing that to you.

“It doesn’t make any sense because I know I can’t, but it should have been ‘me’ who did that to you. And it hurts, hurts so fucking bad.” Rosa could hear he sob just under his voice.

“I had to come back to see what he was going to do; what you were going to do.” He looked up at her.

“‘He’ isn’t going to do anything, because I don’t want him to do anything. If the man I loved doesn’t show up, then I’ll raise my baby by myself. Lots of women do it. It won’t be easy, but I’m smart, and I’m strong. And I’ll have some help. The five of us have promised that we’ll all support each other.”

“The man you loved? Who...”

“He was kind and generous, sensitive, funny, and he promised to love me, no matter what happened...”

“Rosa, I can be all that again, if you’ll...”

“You’ll have to prove it, Pete. And it will take some time. Are you willing to try, knowing everything?”

Before he could answer, Max screamed and crumpled to the floor. “Oh, my god!” she cried, “my water just broke.”

[Author's note: it had been my intention to stop here, but the first question my test readers asked was "were the babies ok?", so:]

Christmas, eight months later:

Lee and Max have taken over managing the plant, and have moved into Ian’s house. Ian and Edie are visiting them for the holiday, but spend most of the year living on one of the Carribean Islands, financed by the money in Don’s special accounts. Patsy Caruso was convinced to disclose the presence of three more accounts which brought the total up to just under 1.1 million.

Lee and Max invited Pete and Rosa for Christmas, but they felt their ‘son,’ little Rosa, was too young to travel from Cedar, and promised to get back for a visit next year, barring any problems with Pete’s recovery. He was scheduled for a new type of micros-surgery, to correct some problems with his epididymis.

Tom and Ashley Davis were at dinner, as were Thelma, who had left the plant to become Max and Lee’s live-in nanny, and their babies, both little girls. Teesha was in Florida. Right after her son was born, she convinced Thelma to let her go down to live with her aunt and go to school to be a nurse. So far she was doing well.

Ron and Virginia were also invited. They had stayed on at Carruthers, overseeing the second shift. In a private conversation with Lee, Ron had learned about penile implants, and was waiting to see a urologist in Rochester.

The twins, Charlie and Judy, had weighed nine pounds, give or take an ounce, at birth. Bright and energetic, at eight months they were beginning to try to walk. They would babble back and forth, then take off crawling as fast as possible toward who knew what.

Sue had advised Max to shut down her baby factory. Looking at his harem’s output, Lee had agreed, and volunteered to have the surgery, since it would take him less time to recover. OUCH!

----FIN