While You Sleep

"I didn't want you to be distracted by my bra," she said. "So I didn't wear one," she laughed. It looked like if she breathed very hard, everyone in the bar would see nipples. Luckily for us, the two men she had from the palace guard had their backs towards us. She quickly buttoned up her long coat once she was sure that I'd seen what she wanted me to see.

"So, did you see anything you liked?" she asked.

"So, what was your question again?" I asked. She laughed and I have to admit I liked the sound of her laughter. It was throaty and full with just a touch of evil in it. She seemed like the kind of woman who went after whatever she wanted with both feet.

"Let's make it an easy one," she said. "If I was your woman, would you let me go to a party dresses like this?"

"If you were someone else's woman, I'd love the view," I said. "If you were mine, I'd let you dress like that all the time when we were at home, but in public, I don't think so."

"Have you ever heard the expression, "If you've got it flaunt it?" she asked.

"Have you ever heard the expression, "One with a gun will get you two?" I asked.

She nodded and smiled. "Isn't that one of your American laws? If you're caught in the commission of a crime and you have a firearm on your person, the minimum mandatory sentence is two years, correct?" she asked.

"Very good," I said. "But in your case it's more like, "One with two guns will get done."

"What does that mean?" she smiled.

"It means that in New York you'd better be very careful at your party. Because a lot of guys seeing you like that would expect for you to do more than stand there and look sexy; whether you were willing or not."

"Oh, I'm always willing," she smiled. "Like now; your place or mine?"

"Both," I said.

"Ooh I love a man with STAMINA," she squealed. "Shall we?"

"I meant you in your place... and me in mine," I said. "The opening ceremonies of the festival are about to begin in an hour or so and I'm probably going to be there whether I'm working or not. So I need to shower and get presentable. So, can we say some other time, perhaps?"

I'd said some other time as a way of letting her save face. She took it literally. There was no way of squashing the spirit of this Valkyrie.

"Ooh, you can count on it," she said. She pulled her coat tightly around her and left the bar. I looked at the poem I'd written a couple of stanzas for and tore the sheet from my notebook. I left the crumpled ball of paper on the table. I wrote down my impressions of what had just happened. I left a ten on the table to cover the two cokes I'd just drank and headed outside to get a ride back to the palace.

* * * * * *

Danielle

"Mommy is that man, your friend, going to stay in our house?" asked Katrina.

"Yes Honey, but only for a little while," I said.

"I don't like him, Mommy. He's not a nice man. If we have to have a man in our house why can't it be Daddy?"

"Katrina, your daddy travels a lot for his job. And sometimes mommies and daddies don't live together because they don't get along," I said.

"Why don't you get along with Daddy," she asked.

"Because Daddy has his head stuck up his ass..." I began. I thought about it and decided that telling her that would be a mistake.

"Daddy left you and Mommy alone while he went to work sometimes," I said. "And Mommy just...Well Mommy got bored and did a really bad thing. It hurt Daddy a lot so he doesn't want to be with Mommy any more. And that makes Mommy really angry so she does even more stupid things and Daddy gets even angrier at her."

"Why can't you just say "Sorry," and not do the bad things anymore?" she asked.

"Sometimes I wish I could, Honey," I said. "But in the grown up world, it's really not that simple."

"Danielle," screamed Donnie from the next room.

"Rina go on up to your room and play," I told her as I headed into the living room.

"My junk hurts and this couch is lumpy and it smells like...it stinks," he bellowed. "I need another pain pill. This isn't worth it. When my foot heals, I don't care what you said he is. I'm going to take some of the boys and kick his ass. This pain I'm feeling in my nuts will be like nothing compared to what I'm going to do to him."

"Donnie, did you see the way your big time gangster friend put his gun down and left the house along with his hired muscle when they found out who Rick was?" I asked.

"Yeah, but he didn't get his foot broken and his balls stomped on," hissed Donnie. "And that's another thing I have to pay that mother fucker back for. Maranelli is rethinking his decision to work with me because of that. Do you know how much money I stand to lose?"

"The chances of me getting you out of this rat trap are significantly lower now because of your husband too," he said.

"Why can't I just move in with you?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," he smirked. "Like my wife is going to let me just move some whore into the house and..."

"You're married?" I asked.

"Of course I'm married," he spat. "What, you thought that because I'm fat I couldn't get a woman?"

"No but..." I began. "I thought that we..." I realized then that I'd made yet another mistake in the series of humungous fuck ups that I'd turned my life into.

"You called me a whore, Donnie," I spat. "I'm not a whore."

He just laughed. "Okay, what would you call yourself? What's the PC label to put on a woman who has sex with men for just the promise of personal gain? Okay, you're right a whore would need more than promises. Those bitches want to get paid and you..."

"Donnie, call one of your friends," I said. "Have one of them come and pick you up. I want you out of here."

"Why are you getting upset?" he asked. I just turned and walked up the stairs to my daughter's room.

Katrina was sitting on her bed watching her television. Katrina's room was the only nice place left in the house. Her room had murals on all four walls. The ceiling had been painted a deep dark blue with glow in the dark stars on it in the form of constellations. She had a 46" Plasma screen TV with cable and all of the channels. She had a computer in one corner of the room and her huge toy box in the other.

Rick had done all of that for her. Rick paid me far more than the state's going rate for child support. He never said no to a single thing that Rina wanted. The sad part of the whole thing was that he'd once loved both of us that way, but I'd been too jealous and too stupid to see it.

For most of my life, I'd lived in fear of becoming what my mother had been and somehow I was walking in her shoes anyway. The only thing missing was five more kids. The reason for that not happening could be explained in one word; Rick. If Rick hadn't been as smart as he was, I'd probably have continued to cheat on him. If I had gotten pregnant again, we'd never know if it was his child or not.

Rick was just different. For one thing, unlike my father, Rick cared about his daughter. And for another thing, even though Rick loved me and I'd really hurt him badly, he hadn't been willing to give up his pride and his self-respect for me the way my dad had for my mother.

I guess I'd thought that even if Rick did catch me, he'd give me another chance. I was also sure that once we'd had Katrina, that he loved his daughter enough to forgive me. What I'd really hoped was that he'd decide that he needed to watch me more closely so that it didn't happen again. I thought that he'd take a desk job and that we could all be happy together. But I could see now that Rick would never play my game. And I saw that no matter what I did to him, he would just keep plugging away at the divorce until he got it.

The most logical thing for me to do was to try to negotiate a settlement that would give me some kind of financial support. My insistence on trying to rub Rick's nose in what I was doing had made things far worse for me. Of course, for the last year, I'd always thought that I'd be marrying Donnie when all of this was over so I really didn't think I'd need alimony or any form of support.

There was also the fact of the video and pictures that Rick had just taken to consider. If he did get them to someone in CPS and they sided with him and gave him custody of Katrina, I could find myself homeless and in trouble. Part of the reason that the rest of the house looked like hell was that Rick only maintained Katrina's room. He didn't do any form of repair on anything else in the rest of the house. He'd told me enough times that I'd destroyed our marriage and the only thing he gave a damn about is his daughter. Once he got her, where the hell would that leave me?

* * * * * *

Millie

Liz, Gail and I were watching as several attendants and hairdressers prepared Polly's hair and makeup for the festival's opening ceremonies. Beth was in the shower and Patty was off doing something for me that I really appreciated. It was outside of her job description as a secret service agent but well within the guidelines of something a friend would do.

The door to the main large room opened and Carmella came into the room smiling like a shark. She wore a trench coat and if I didn't know any better I'd have sworn that she was naked under it. The things that woman did no longer surprised me.

She seemed to have turned this into some kind of game between the two of us. Perhaps it was because, as Gail had suggested, the press around the world seemed to consider and often called her, "The English version of me." It was almost as if she needed to live up to it and prove that she was the far wilder, sluttier version. If she wanted the title, it was hers as far as I was considered.

She sat down on the sofa near me. The smell of sex was coming off of her in waves. I almost gagged. I wondered why she hadn't taken a shower. "You'll probably have him in a couple of nights," she smirked. "I think he'll end up all yours."

"So you're bowing out?" I asked.

"Of course not," she smirked. "But I'll be done with him by then. There are too many men in the world to sample for me to allow myself to settle down with any one man. After I've had them a few times I get bored." All I saw was red. The temptation to grab her by the throat and throttle her was very strong.

"Are you sure it's not just that THEY get bored with YOU?" I asked. "Maybe your charm wears off after one or two nights." I'd segued from being polite to being almost catty.

"Well it was on this evening," she said. "And I didn't even need my charm. My CHARMS worked just fine. He couldn't take his eyes off of them."

She let her coat open up and I could see that she had on a T-shirt that was practically pornographic. I could see the entirety of her huge left breast.

"Did he see you like that," I hissed.

"Of course," she smiled. That was the point of doing it."

"So did you do it?" I asked.

"A lady never tells," she smiled at me.

"What the fuck does that have to do with you?" I hissed.

"Are you getting angry?" she smiled. "Or, are you just jealous that someone else played with one of your toys?"

"Neither," I said. "Just bored with you waltzing in here dangling hints of what may or may not have even happened. I have a very short attention span and I get bored really easily. You came in here obviously trying to piss me off but I don't care about what you do or whom with, especially when all you're offering me is hearsay and a bad smell."

As she bent down to retrieve something, I noticed the bites on and between her breasts. The collar of her coat moved and there was bruising on her neck as well. Then she pulled it out and I got even more pissed.

"I got a souvenir," she said. She flashed a badge that I knew could only have come from one place. It was one of the badges that only US secret servicemen were issued.

"So much for hearsay," she smirked. "But look, I don't want any bad feelings between us. We're too much alike. I just wanted to give you the heads up. The one place that you and I are different is in what you call scruples. I don't take anything seriously. If I run into a guy that I like, we fuck and that's it. I don't care who they were with before me or afterwards.

You, on the other hand, get into a lot of long relationships that ultimately go nowhere. I think the big difference between us is that I'm having more fun. So I just wanted to warn you that I've been there, so there are no bad feelings and things between us stay on the up and up. We had a contest, it's over. I'll be done with him in a day or two. And you can go after him or stay away from him. It's your choice. Of course, you could also try to take him away from me. That might be interesting and kind of fun; so few things are these days."

As Carmella flounced away humming some stupid tune, Gail and Liz came over to me. "You know that she's probably lying, right?" asked Gail. "That just doesn't sound like him."

"She had his badge," I said. "She had his fucking badge."

I got up and walked away to find a place where I could be alone to cry.

* * * * * *

Rick

As I watched the women coming out of the bungalow and getting into the limo to go to the festival something struck me as strange. Millicent wasn't with them. I went over to the agent that was assigned to protect her to find out what was going on.

"Man, I'm pissed," he said. "I really wanted a chance to go to the festival and see it. But at the last minute she decides not to go. She sent her assistant and all of the other women went but now I'm stuck here. She's probably planning on sneaking off to go someplace more dangerous. We also had to split up because May decided that Arnie should go to the festival and watch out for her assistant. If she decides to leave the premises, I'm supposed to call for another agent to support me. So I'll probably just be standing out here for another four hours until you take over."

"I'll take over now," I said. "It's not like I'm doing anything. "

"Shit, I'd have thought you'd be in town at the festival with BBBB. Everyone here knows that she's hot for you."

"Who the hell is BBBB?" I asked.

"The Big Boob British Broad," he said smiling and holding his hands out in front of his chest.

"She's not my type," I said, shaking my head. "So you go on and have fun. I've got this." I took over for him and watched the doorway outside of the bungalow. My job would be just the same. I'd watch the entrances and make sure to prevent anyone unexpected from entering the area.

If someone showed up and wanted to see Millicent, I'd walk them back to her and make sure they were expected and not a threat. Gail and Patty would be with her around the clock anyway and in the case of real trouble, they were the last line of defense. I was just the gatekeeper.

As I stood there, my mind wandered and I thought back to the poem I'd written about my job earlier. Shit, I'd thrown it away when the English woman came over to sit down.

I rewrote it as I watched over her through the night. A couple of things happened during the early evening while I watched over her. Gail came out and got her something to eat. Gail looked at me as if I'd done something wrong but we didn't have time to talk.

It was very close to midnight when the women came back from the festival. They were all smiling and talking about what they'd seen and what they'd done. The two British women were drunk and had to be led inside the building. "Hey you, don't forget our rain-check," Carmella slurred at me as she passed. Millicent's assistant glared at me. I just shook my head.

I wished that I could go into the palace and check my E-mail. But I couldn't leave my post. My iPhone didn't work here and I could get E-mail on it but only in a place that had Wi Fi and the network inside the palace didn't have the range to reach the bungalow. I was sure that by now my lawyer had some kind of information about my complaint against Danielle. For the rest of the evening, I just hung out outside of Millicent's quarters.

At eight o clock the next morning, I was replaced by another agent. I went back to my quarters and changed clothes. I wanted to get a run in before I went to sleep. I ran through the streets of the city just outside of the palace compound. The houses were tiny and old fashioned but appeared to be well maintained. Seeing them made me think about the house that my daughter lived in. Was I doing her a disservice by not doing more about the upkeep of the place? It just seemed to me that Danielle or the legion of men she paraded through the place should have been the ones taking care of it.

There was also the fact that I really didn't care one way or another about taking care of Danielle or anything she valued. Rina was the only person who mattered to me. Even as I thought about that, I realized that it wasn't true. Millicent's face flashed in front of my eyes and I laughed. I wondered why I'd even thought about her. It was probably something that if my brain had been considered a computer, would be a software glitch. Sure I cared about Millicent's well-being but only from the standpoint that her health and safety were my job. But was there more to it?

As I ran through the streets, I saw a lot of things. Some of them made me smile. Some of them made me long for home. There were lots of ancient, by our standards, vehicles here that were still apparently functional and on the road. There were also a few newer vehicles, mostly small imports that could easily cover the tiny, narrow roads here.

I did see one thing though on my way back that jarred my senses and made me stop short. There, parked in the driveway less than a half mile from the palace, was a Mustang GT. It was an older model. But only one generation down. They made that body style from 1999 until 2004. The guy who owned it obviously took care of it. As I stopped to look at the car, I noticed that he'd made a lot of modifications to the car including vented brake rotors, bigger rims and an updated exhaust system.

I stood there staring at the car and it made me think of home.

The door to the house opened and a small man with a scraggly beard came out. He too was smiling. He started talking and I didn't understand him. He switched to English.

"You like my car?" he asked.

"Yeah, it makes me think about mine back home," I said. I spent another ten or fifteen minutes there outside of the house talking about Mustangs and life in general with the man. Then I ran the rest of the way back to the bungalow. I grabbed something to eat, showered and went to sleep.

* * * * * *

Millie

As soon as I woke up, Liz came over to me. "Your eyes are all puffy," she said. It sounded more like an accusation than a statement.

"We've known each other for a long time Mill," she said. "I've never seen you get this wound up over a man before. "

"I don't know Liz," I said. "For some reason that I don't understand, this one is special. I don't even know how it started. I think that my mom and dad telling me that if anything happened, to get to Rick started it. It just put the idea that he'd protect me no matter what in my mind. Then when I saw him...He's kind of cute. He seems almost vulnerable. When that idiot Mr. May picked on him, it just seemed natural for me to try to protect him as well. And every time I think about that, it just feels like something I'm supposed to do. It almost feels like he's already mine and we've been together for a very long time. I guess that's why yesterday hurt me so bad. It feels like he cheated on me. The funny thing about it is, that I've never hurt that bad when I guy I was dating, DID cheat on me. But Rick and I have never even had a God damned conversation."

"Exactly," said Liz. "How do you even know that you'll like him if you do? You may have gotten yourself all worked up over nothing. You missed the opening of the festival last night. We had a lot of fun. Carmella sure isn't going through what you are. She looked around for him last night for a while and once she found out that he wasn't there she got drunk and partied with someone else. Prince Gregor seemed to be upset that you weren't there."