Amethyst Purple Pt. 03

"We said goodbye last night." She answered.

"Will you at least give me your phone number or address so I can say 'hi' sometime?"

"No, I don't think so. What happened here the other night can never happen again."

"How about at least a goodbye kiss?" Lucas asked, reaching for her.

Marti took a step away from him and answered. "No, not even that. I hope you have a safe journey. I did enjoy our night and morning, I don't regret it but it will never happen again."

She then turned, picked up her luggage and stepped through the door.

Every few miles, Marti picked up her cellular phone and checked for a signal until she was just a few miles outside Charlottesville when she finally saw a single bar in the signal indicator. She immediately called home and Ted answered on the second ring.

"Thank God, are you OK?"

Marti couldn't suppress the smile in her voice "Yes, I am now."

"Where are you?"

"I think I'm about eight or nine miles from Charlottesville, with the rate I've been going I should be at the airport in about thirty or forty-five minutes. The drive that took me an hour and a half last Tuesday has taken me nearly seven hours today. Twice I had to sit still for more than an hour while workers cut trees off the roadway. I just hope there's an available flight out of here today, I'm ready to be home again."

"I'm ready for you to be here again, too. Now, pay attention to the road and call me back when you get to the airport and let me know what's going on. I'll be waiting for you when you land in Knoxville."

"OK, I love you and I've missed you terribly." Marti responded sincerely.

Charlottesville Albemarle Airport

Charlottesville, VA

"Are you certain there aren't any earlier flights? Even a connecting flight that'll get me to Knoxville sooner?" Marti pleaded.

"I'm sorry ma'am, the storm has caused so much chaos along the entire East Coast that only about a third of the regular flights are even possible still. Tomorrow afternoon departure is the absolute soonest I can get you in the air." The ticket counter attendant empathized.

"Damn! I guess there's nothing else to do then. Where's the closest hotel?"

"Staybridge Suites is about a mile away and they have a shuttle to the airport." The clerk added.

"Thank you, do you mind calling to see if they have a room for me, please?"

"Certainly, ma'am."

After Marti checked in she immediately took the hottest shower she could bear and stayed under the water until her fingers resembled prunes then dressed and rode the elevator down to the hotel restaurant. While waiting for her meal she called Ted again and told him she'd be landing in Knoxville at around seven thirty the following evening and let him know her room number, promising to call him back when she returned to her room after eating.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like a glass of iced tea, ma'am ours is the best in the state." The waitress asked with a smile as she refilled Marti's coffee mug.

"Absolutely not, I don't want to see an ice cube for the next six months." Marti responded with only a hint of humor.

The waitress chuckled and said "You know, I don't think I can blame you." then turned toward the kitchen.

Thursday, January 11, 1996

Knoxville, TN

Marti saw Ted before he noticed her and ran to close the gap between them. Hearing the rapid footfalls, Ted turned just in time to brace himself before Marti launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his warm chest. Ted held her for a moment before lowering her feet to the floor. Marti gazed up into his face then leaned up to kiss him strongly on the lips.

When, after several seconds, she pulled away, smiling up at him Ted asserted "I've missed you, too, Doll. Lets get your bags and get out of here."

"God, I love that plan." Marti responded.

Back home, Marti didn't even take time to unpack, she just dragged her husband by the hand into their bedroom, dropping items of clothing along the way.

Their coupling was intense and bestial, pure passion and aggression, seasoned with their combined sweat and no silly pretense of tenderness. It was two long-time lovers fulfilling their base needs after more than a week separated by hundreds of miles and an impassable blizzard.

The next several weeks passed and Ted was pleasantly amazed at the sudden resurgence of their once waning sex life.

After one of their more passionate couplings, Ted rolled onto his side facing Marti and joked "Wow, if you going on a trip winds you up like this, maybe you should take one more often."

Marti sat up in the bed. "Don't say that! Don't even joke about it."

Ted wasn't sure if the glint he saw in Marti's eyes was anger or fear. Or maybe a combination of the two but he made not that this wasn't a subject to be joked about and apologized.

"I don't ever want to be in a situation where I'm trapped somewhere and I can't even talk to you on the telephone again. I felt lost and more lonely than you can imagine, I just wanted to hear your voice and feel you lying beside me and I couldn't make that happen. So, please, don't joke about that anymore. I've actually even talked to the Director since I got back about maybe transferring to a department where I don't have to make anymore trips without you but there's nothing available right now and he doesn't have anyone to replace me either."

"I'm sorry, I should've realized how hard that was on you, I'll never joke about it again." Ted promised as he wrapped Marti in his arms.

Marti hated the guilt she felt after being unfaithful to Ted, he didn't deserve to be cheated on but in her gut she knew the excitement of a new and unfamiliar sexual partner would be irresistible unless she was able to avoid ever being away from home alone for any extended period of time. Despite numerous requests for transfer to a department that would allow her to stay home Marti found herself being assigned to two to six day trips almost like clockwork averaging every six to eight months. And true to her internal fears, Marti found a lover on six of the next eight trips between 1996 and a week-long trip to Savannah, GA in August of 2000. The two trips that she remained faithful were both two-day trips that kept her busy enough to avoid the opportunity to stray. She and Ted were also tip-toeing around the stressful subject of her not becoming pregnant again. She mentioned seeing a specialist but Ted wanted to wait just a while longer first, confident that since they had one successful pregnancy already that everything was fine with them physically and he didn't want to spend the exorbitant amount of money the specialists would charge.

Marti tried to justify her unfaithfulness to herself by limiting her liaisons with each new man to one night or one night and one morning only and she made sure that no future contact would ever be possible. This way she could ensure that no emotional bond could possibly develop and each time felt more like a tryst than an affair. She did quietly admit to herself that this line of reasoning was ridiculous but by pretending to believe it she kept her guilt at least dulled if not quenched. Eventually, Marti found that her trying to suppress the need for random sexual partners only made her need them more intensely. She loved her husband more than she thought possible but the need for sexual variety was such a burning hunger she felt torn. As a result of this inner turmoil their relationship began to suffer. Their patience and tolerance with one another began to erode and they found themselves arguing over things that never before would have been important enough to either of them to even disagree. Both she and Ted began to drink more and in greater frequency. The tension between them caused them to spend less time together which fed more tension. Marti was crying herself to sleep more often and was sure that Ted noticed on a couple occasions but now he never attempted to comfort her which also fed the cycle even more.

Sunday, August 13, 2000

Atlanta Hartsfield Intl. Airport

Atlanta, GA

"I'm glad you were able to come this far with me, this is a first for us." Marti said while they walked hand in hand down the concourse from their arrival gate to Marti's departure gate for the rest of her trip to Savannah.

Marti had a week-long evaluation with another import/export company on the Savannah River and Ted was being actively recruited to anchor a new associate law firm. A somewhat middleweight legal firm in Athens, GA that had made a name for themselves in the '80s and '90s defending DUI and personal injury cases had been purchased by a larger partnership and the new partners wanted to improve its image. Their goal was to attempt to shed the label of 'Ambulance Chasers' and build a more legitimate business, with the strength of the merger they wanted to expand to new areas. One prospective town was Rome, in the northwest corner of the state. Ted had begun establishing a reputation since the 'Knoxville Girl' murder case of being able to see new and unique defense strategies and seemed to have a knack for sussing out which clients were truly guilty or if they simply caught in a bad situation. He built as strong a defense as was possible for all his clients but if he believed a defendant was guilty of severe offenses or was dangerous enough he encouraged them to accept whatever plea the prosecution offered. On the other hand, if he felt his client was being manipulated or wrongly accused, he pulled out all stops and had one of the highest acquittal rates in the Eastern United States.

That Ted's and Marti's trips coincided on the same week was unusual and the fact that they were able to share the same connecting flight from Knoxville to Atlanta was a pleasant 'cherry on the top'. But now they'd be separating for the rest of the week. Ted would be flying back to Tennessee on Thursday evening but Marti wouldn't be flying back until Saturday.

"Well, I guess this is as far as I go." Ted said as they reached the gate Marti's flight to Savannah would be leaving from. "Someone from the firm is supposed to be waiting on me at Luggage Return. I'll be waiting to pick you up in Knoxville Saturday afternoon. I hope you have a very pleasant trip, I love you."

"I love you, too, Babe. I'll see you Saturday."

After they shared a parting embrace, Ted left Marti at her departure gate and proceeded to Luggage Claim.

"Ted Kilgore! My man! I see you made it, how was your trip?" Ted recognized the tall brown haired man dressed as a stereotypical lawyer as one of the two attorneys proposed as sharing partner status with him in the new firm if he accepted their offer.

"Noah, how are you? I expected the office to send an intern or a paralegal, not you. Thanks for meeting me."

"I understand you were able to share the flight with your wife, I'm looking forward to meeting her."

"I'm afraid you get the chance on this trip, she's flying on to Savannah on an assignment for her job. You'll get the opportunity when we move down to Georgia, though.

"So, you think you're going to sign on, then?"

"Well, our decision isn't final yet, I'd still like to see the town and watch a case or two to get a taste of how the courts are set up but the proposal they gave us seems pretty attractive."

"Yeah, I thought so, too. It's pretty unusual for a couple of Good 'ol Boy lawyers to be able to start a partnership without having to front the startup costs out of their own pockets and, according to the way I read the contract, still retain complete freedom to choose clientele and defense strategies ourselves without the investors' oversight."

"My contract said we have the option of buying out the investment after ten years if we choose to do so." Ted asserted.

"That was Layton's insistence. He doesn't like the prospect of working for someone else the rest of his career. He said that if we didn't own a hundred percent of the interest we'd be a partnership in name only."

"I like the way he thinks." Ted commiserated

"Yeah, I think he'll be a good match for both of us." Noah agreed.

"So, we have, what, about an hour drive to Rome?" Ted asked as he loaded his luggage in the trunk of the silver BMW740iL parked in the short-term parking lot.

"Yep, Rome is in the center of a triangle with its corners at Chattanooga, Atlanta and Birmingham, about sixty miles northwest of Atlanta." Noah answered, tossing a key ring to Ted and moving to the passenger's door of the car.

"You want me to drive?" Ted asked, reaching up and catching the key fob without looking away from Noah.

"Why not? It's your car. It is if you accept the offer, anyway." The Georgia attorney grinned.

"Well, where do I need to go from here? I guess I need to find I-75 north, right?"

"Actually, If you turn right up here onto Camp Creek Parkway it'll take us to within twenty five miles of Rome before we have to turn off and we'll miss downtown Atlanta and I-285 completely. Believe me, you won't regret it."

Wednesday, August 16, 2000

Rome, GA

"Hey Doll, how're things looking in Savannah?"

"Hey Babe, things are going well here, I shouldn't have any problem finishing things up here tomorrow and I'll be ready to fly back Saturday."

Ted heard what sounded like someone knocking on a door in the background over the phone line.

"Just a second!" Marti shouted away from the phone. "Hold on a sec, I'll be right back."

Ted could barely make out a short, muffled conversation over the line then he heard the sound of a door closing then Marti was back on the phone.

"Sorry, that was Cheryl dropping off some figures I asked her for today, I wanted to be fully familiar with them when I got back in the morning and she didn't have them finished before I left this afternoon." Marti explained.

"Cheryl must be a brute." Ted joked.

"What do you mean?" Marti queried, a bit tersely.

"She just sounded like she had a deeper voice so I don't envision her as some 105 pound blonde, on her first 'real' job a year out of college." he chuckled.

Recovering, Marti giggled and replied. "Yeah, she has a five o'clock shadow and everything. I think she's a retired Russian Olympian."

Both Marti and Ted laughed deeply at the image of a six foot tall 285 pound masculine woman with a ponytail and a power lifter's physique.

"Well, you might want to see if the bank is still willing to approve your moving your office to Northwest Georgia. I don't see how I can turn this offer down unless you have an Issue with transferring." Ted ventured.

"OK, I'll call the Director tomorrow if I get a chance but I'd really prefer to have that conversation with him in person."

"That's fine, it'll hold 'til next week, I'm not on that short a time limit." Ted assured her.

"Well, you can tell me all about it at home this weekend and we can make whatever arrangements we need to make. I think a change of scenery will be good for us. But I do want to seriously consider our options on getting pregnant before we get much older. I'd love to have two more but I think we need at least one more. Matthew will be six before long, I'd rather there not be too many years between them if we can have another." Marti ventured.

"I'll make you a deal, if we're not pregnant by Matthew's birthday then I'll agree to whatever specialist you want to try. OK?" Ted agreed

"Deal! I love you so much, Babe, I'll see you Saturday." Ted could hear the joy in Marti's voice.

"I love you, too, Doll. Bye."

Savannah, GA

"Damn, girl, you're one hell of an actress." Said the man sitting on the bed in Marti's motel room grinning and shaking his head as he unbuttoned his dress shirt.

"What do you mean?" Marti returned, a confused look on her face.

"Hell, you almost convinced me that you actually love him."

"Get out." Marti commanded, her anger obvious.

"What? You invited me here. Hell I stayed here last night." He responded, incredulous.

"Yes, you did but you won't be staying here tonight. I knew I was making a mistake by breaking my one-night rule."

"Come on, surely you'd like at least one more night of earth-shattering sex before you have to go back to your dull ass husband." The man smirked.

Marti didn't even try to disguise her amusement and burst out laughing. "Dull? Poor Dean Leach, you don't have a clue, do you? My husband is more of a man than you have a hope of ever being. And as a lover you can't hope to even compare, he's a better lover than you when he's half asleep and just laying still."

"Then why are you cheating on him when you're away from home?" Dean posed, his confidence seeming to drain like water in a sink.

"I do this to remind myself of what other women have to settle for because they're not married to my husband. You can say that last night was a favor to you, I certainly didn't gain anything memorable from it! Now leave, and remember this, if even a hint of what happened here last night or tonight ever makes it to anyone other than you and me your wife will get a full report and a witness in your divorce or I'll file sexual harassment charges against you, I'll claim you tried, unsuccessfully, to get me into bed and I'll ruin you in any way I can. In fact It might work better for me to make a scene right now and get that started, my husband is one of the ten top attorneys in the Eastern United States, after all. I'm sure he'll be happy to start filing suit against you and your company." Marti fumed, her anger growing in intensity.

"No, no need to do all that, I'm leaving. I won't ever say a word, I don't need your crazy anyway."

Dean fled the room but as the door closed behind him Marti had no idea that she had gained something memorable from their previous nights' activities after all. Two somethings, actually.

While the water was warming up in Marti's shower she thought over her phone call with Ted and shook her head slowly. She repressed a snicker, Ted's first description of Cheryl had been spot on: 105 pounds soaking wet with long blonde hair she kept in a ponytail, icy blue eyes and an ass that even made Marti moist. And her voice rang like a crystal bell. That was a bit of information Ted didn't ever need to discover. At least he was willing to talk to a specialist about getting pregnant, that was a win that Marti had begun to think she'd never achieve.

Saturday, August 19, 2000

Knoxville, TN

"Really? They've already leased you a car?" Marti asked, astounded.

"Yep, a BMW 740iL." "Not only that but they have a list of apartments for us to look at if we're interested and have offered to pay half the lease wherever we choose as well as the relocation costs."

"You're right, this sounds like a no-brainer. When are we moving?"

"Well, I haven't accepted yet." Ted answered.

"Why not?!" Marti was shocked.

"I'm not going to make a decision that big without fully discussing it with you first." Ted responded.

"Then I think you should accept." Marti asserted.

"What if the bank won't transfer you to Georgia?"

"I'll give them my notice. I'm sure I can find a job at another bank in Georgia, or some other investment firm. I guarantee I'll have options. Probably even better than the position I have now. In fact, they've been dangling a promotion in front of me for long enough, maybe it's time for me to give them an ultimatum."

"We'll have to find someone else to watch Matt when we're both working, we won't have any family in Georgia."

"It'll work out, I'm feeling remarkably confident now for some reason." Marti asserted.

"OK, then I'll write my letter of resignation when we get home and we can start getting our things together to move."

Saturday, September 16, 2000

Knoxville, TN

The scream from their en suite bathroom was so sudden, shrill and shocking that Ted dropped the box of books he was carrying to the garage and ran to Marti's aid.