Ardmore Pt. 03

I would always be grateful for the experience, but I knew I could not continue there and have any future with Adrienne. I could never allow this life to directly intersect hers. It was time to think first of my family.

Later that night, in the solitude of my room, I opened the envelope. Inside there was fifteen thousand dollars in new hundred dollar bills! I counted them again and again, shocked to see so much money in one place. I decided not to tell anyone until I had a chance to speak with Cassie.

A week later, she quit too. That was only the first of her moves; she also made plans to change homes as well. She had invested her earnings wisely and could have lived almost anywhere. Of all places, she chose to move to Narberth. She assumed a mortgage on an apartment house near the center of town, a place with four rentable units, one of which she and Sydney would occupy.

I recruited Gary to help me with her move. He had never forgotten Cassie's picture and like so many other men he was eager to be in her company. Forget that he had a girlfriend; this fantasy was worth a day of exercise away from her. It struck me that we males would always be this easy to manipulate by a pretty woman. It was in our genes.

Adrienne came along as well to help pack. That was a concession to me; I wanted both ladies near me if I were going to participate in the move. Fortunately, Adrienne acquiesced to my apparent paranoia.

It took the better part of the day to get them situated. When we finished Cassie ordered pizza and we sat around talking well into the early morning. For the entire time I'd known her this was the first instance where Cassie seemed totally relaxed. Gary of course was doing his damnest to flirt and that helped. It was humorous seeing Cassie gently thwarting his every attempt.

Gary can be charming when he sets out to be. However, that night his charm had actually been working on the other female in attendance. What he didn't see was the way Sydney was watching him. The young girl clearly was showing signs of a developing crush and Adrienne picked up on it too.

When the three of them were engaged in conversation I took the opportunity to go to the kitchen for some more sodas. Cassie was alone there, restocking the pantry when I entered.

"You'll never guess how generous Rui was in my 'severance'", I opened up in a whisper.

"I'd say about fifteen thousand dollars worth," she countered, a small smile barely escaping her lips.

"You spoke with Rui. What did he give you? On second thought..."

"Ten."

"He paid us twenty-five thousand dollars!"

"Ssshhh, keep it down. What makes you think HE paid us? Rui wouldn't part with that kind of money for his own mother's ransom. You can bet it came from Wes, probably all of them. And if I know Rui, his cut was probably another twenty-five. "

Fifty thousand dollars! The sum astounded me. I leaned on the counter, more for support than comfort. My head was spinning. She couldn't be correct.

"Cassie we have to give this back. This is blood money. They'll be after us for sure. Geez, fifty thousand dollars!"

"We can't give it back. Who would we give it to, certainly not to Wes? If we could, we could only give half. What about the rest? Do you think Rui would give back his take? No. I've thought about this long and hard. We can do anything we want with this money, except one; we can't give it back."

"Do you honestly believe our fight was really worth that much to Wes? This isn't about us David, we just happened to get in the middle, or I did anyway. Rui took us out of it. With this money he put the attention on him. He is the one they will remember, the one who took them for fifty large."

"Trust me. I wouldn't jeopardize our lives and Sydney's for this money. We're safer now that Rui made them pay this, this compensation. As far as I'm concerned it's owed to us. They WERE going to kill us. If you hadn't been there Sydney would now be burying her aunt. We deserve every penny." Cassie straightened up as the resolve returned to her carriage and her eyes flared.

She had made her point. There was no going back. There was no way to return the money. Unless we raised the issue, Wes and company would not know what Rui had given us, if anything. Rui had purposely put himself in our place, letting those men choose him as their future target. Forgetting the money, there was only one reason a man would do that.

As I looked at Cassie's face I realized she was probably the reason he had given me anything. But to give me more than her, that 'felt' like it was probably her idea. This meant there was obviously much more to their relationship then she was prepared to tell, or I to ask for that matter.

When we reentered the living room I took my seat next to Adrienne. She blinked reflexively and smiled briefly as our bodies came in contact. There was that face again, that wonderful, sincere, honest face. At that point I made a decision; Cassie would get my share of the money. I wasn't comfortable keeping it, and there was no way I could ever explain having it to Adrienne.

The next day I called Cassie and asked to see her, no reason was mentioned, but we both knew the probable topic. It took only a few minutes past our greeting before I produced the envelope.

"This is rightfully yours. I'd like you to have it", I said without emotion.

Cassie took the package but her eyes never left my own. If I thought she would not need the last word I was mistaken.

"You saved my life. Don't you think you and Adrienne could use this? Think about it; you can treat it as a wedding present."

"I have thought about it, a lot. I could never explain to her why I'm keeping it, and I'd...I'd like to start our life together without any suspect things hanging over us. Does that make sense?"

"Honestly? No, it doesn't, but I won't argue with you if this is what you want. As of this moment you're my partner; this money buys you a 30% interest in the Melber Development Corporation." She stated calmly. "It will be here when you want it back."

I sighed before responding. "The money is yours. If you want to put it into your new business that's fine with me; it's yours to do with any way you want."

That was the last conversation we had about the money. Cassie and I were at very different places in our lives, so it came as no shocker that while we remained friends, the frequent contact that had defined our employment at the club became markedly less so afterwards. We were never going to become the type of friends who socialized in each others homes and we accepted that.

My initial concern about her complete return to civilian life proved to be unnecessary. She went on to become a very successful realtor, then real estate developer in the county. We kept in touch, but over time that meant mainly the exchange of cards at Christmas or on birthdays. I did receive an invitation to her wedding a couple of years later. By then Adrienne and I were newlyweds so we had a special appreciation of the ceremony.

Our lives continued to intersect from time to time: Cassie negotiated the purchase of our first house, I taught her twin sons, and years later I even hired Sydney to replace me in the classroom.

Adrienne and I did get married, and just as Papa intimated, we did so on her schedule. That meant we were married during her sophomore year which didn't exactly endear me to Nick and Marina. Of course, they quickly came to realize that it was their daughter's idea, and she was firmly in charge of the date.

My mother wasn't very pleased either, but for very different reasons. To her, I committed a sin so egregious that she initially refused to attend the wedding. Her attitude caught me totally by surprise since I misjudged how seriously she took my religious conversion.

Adrienne had been raised a Greek Orthodox and I a Roman Catholic. I never thought much about it before. Heck, I'm half Cuban on my father's side and my mother's people descended from the Conquistador's. They bought Christianity to the New World (as my mother was always careful to remind us). I avoided the pride-wars in my house. Furthermore, I had grown accustomed to celebrating Christmas twice and Easter as well. Now with the wedding date set we ended up in pre-marital counseling. It was after that that I decided to convert.

It occurred to me because I couldn't get straight answers either from Father Murphy or Adrienne's priest on how either church would recognize the other spouse in such a marriage. Would the church even recognize our marriage? Could I accept all rites? Then, being of two religions what would we raise our children? The more I researched it the more I came to the conclusion that it was simpler to convert. To my way of thinking I gave up purgatory and kept confession.

It took Father Murphy several 'talks' with my mother to convince her that I was not doomed to oblivion by making such a move. In the end, he won her over, and the wedding went off without a hitch.

One positive outcome from the counseling though was that Adrienne and I had a chance to talk through many issues that many married couples discover later as being quite destructive. We talked about fidelity, sex and what each of us needed from the other, and we talked about that most taboo subject... money.

Growing up in my family, the first thing you did with money was save it. My mother was frugal to a fault and an obsessive coupon clipper. I rebelled against much of that thinking while my future wife leaned more to my mother's approach. With me as teacher and her destined to be a social worker, we were not on track to become wealthy. Therefore, the smart move was to have Adrienne manage our money.

With the monetary gifts we received from the wedding, and some of my savings from working at the Club, we moved into a small apartment in town not too far from our parent's homes.

Once married, we tended to socialize with other newly married couples like ourselves. Gary and Giselle were married some 6-months after we tied the knot, so naturally we spent a lot of time in their company, among others. Of course, if our families expected us to settle down and grow our family in the traditional fashion we shattered that idea after our first year. We emphasized the point when Alexandra was born the summer before Adrienne was to begin her senior year.

When I held Allie in my arms the first time and felt her little hand wrap around my finger, I knew suddenly knew what unconditional love really meant. She was absolutely gorgeous, and the most serene and innocent little soul I had ever seen. That caused me to question whether I would ever be able to love another child as much as her.

Two years later, just as Adrienne was completing her first year on the job, Andrew was born and I had my answer. The love you have for your children is not some fixed commodity consumed by one; it grows to cover them all.

I'd hear some of my friends joke about how they feel about being married and I think how lucky I am. I never had an adjustment period. With most couples you develop an intimacy; with us we skipped the preliminaries. From the moment she called me her boyfriend we assumed the roles of intimate confidants. One day we were a couple and the next we were married with a family.

In the main we do have a traditional family but with a few non-traditional roles. Adrienne has shown a real aptitude for managing our finances. That's good because she's not the best cook, whereas, I'm quite good at it, plus I find cooking relaxing. So I've always done the cooking for the family. We share most of the other household duties.

My father wasn't around much for my early years so I made an effort to always be there for my kids. I've made it to every birthday party, ballet recital, and baseball game. I'm more of a pushover when it comes to them, while Adrienne is the disciplinarian (something that most of my family has difficulty understanding).

This structure works for us. Our daughter Allie is in her second year of college and doing very well as an aspiring engineer. Drew is an athlete/scholar, and even though he's just going into his senior year, he has been actively recruited by George Washington's baseball program. They're also offering scholarship money for the privilege.

We had wanted to have more children but found that we could not. Our doctor was amazed that we had actually had two given the placement of my wife's uterus. In a way my predicament matched Gary's. Except that after Leo was born Giselle had her tubes tied thus eliminating the possibility.

In our case we took that disappointment and refocused out efforts on Allie and Drew. As the kids grew older I also managed to pick up a Masters Degree at night. I was a couple of years into a Ph.D. program when we celebrated out 20th wedding anniversary.

One secret that no one knows is that Adrienne is a lingerie freak. I've thought over the years that this is a direct result of my employment at the club. Somehow she's had it in her head that this is her way of competing with images I acquired of what makes a woman sexy to her man.

She started immediately after we were married and has continued until this day. After her hysterectomy I saw her wardrobe dramatically increase in size. Of course these are all articles she considers too risqué for the kids to see, so she takes great pains to launder and store them away from their eyes.

After twenty years I admit to still lusting after her, much to our mutual delight. Her curves have gotten more rounded and there is a new softness to her body, but I own every curve. To me she's just about perfect. She questions that though, so once a month I'm treated to a private fashion show of Bustiers or Baby Dolls. I don't need these things to increase my desire, but we have are a lot of fun so I'm not making an issue of them.