BMB: Version 3-2

"I'm telling you, Trin. You don't know a party until you've attended a Parker family Christmas party."

"OK, but the bar is set pretty high, Tom," I responded as I opened the trunk for him to take out our luggage. That we had one bag for the two of us spoke volumes about who we were as a couple already. "Christmas is my favorite."

"Favorite what?"

"Favorite everything!" I proclaimed. "Favorite holiday, favorite season, favorite decorations and colors and festivities and movies and theme and, well, just all of it!"

"Alright," Tom answered and took my hand as we walked into the hotel. "Challenge accepted."

"Powers, two guests, one night," I told the attendant when we walked up to the desk. I took out my rewards card with my credit card and handed them to him once he located my name in the system.

"OK, yes, here you are," The attendant told me as he typed in the rewards number. "Oh, um, there seems to be a mix-up with the rewards number."

"If you look under the special notes, you'll see why there is a different name," I informed him. I watched him click on a button and then his eyes went wide.

"Oh, Ms. Powers, I do apologize," the attendant said quickly. "Our computers tend to run slow sometimes. Let me just check on something." He typed in a few things and then smiled. "Well, good news, Ms. Powers. The whirlpool suite is free tonight. We'd love to upgrade you at no charge, of course. Let me get your key cards."

"Thank you," I relayed and smiled up at Tom.

"Well, here we are," the attendant told me as he handed me back the two room cards along with my rewards and credit cards. "The elevator is around the corner here, and I will have some amenities sent up shortly. Is there anything else we can do for you?"

"No, thank you," I told him and took Tom's hand after I'd finished putting away my cards. "We just want to get up to the room to relax. Have a pleasant night," I shared and began walking toward the elevator.

Once the doors closed, Tom looked over and shook his head. "Do I want to know?"

I sighed. "Mark travelled for work, a lot. He only stayed at these hotels. We got to keep all the points." I hesitated. "Oh, and he worked for their main provider. He was known at many of the locations throughout the U.S. When I changed my last name back to my maiden name, I had the company put a special note in the system because they wouldn't replace my rewards card with my new... I mean, well, technically old name."

"So, why did you change your name back?" Tom asked as the doors opened. "I mean, what was your main reason?"

"The news was huge around town, not to mention anywhere within a 60-mile radius of where the accident had happened. The constant sad and knowing looks I got in the first two months put me through the event all over again. I finally spent a solid week working to change everything I owned or any accounts on which my name was affiliated over to my maiden name so that I could move forward.

"The reaction downstairs was what I faced 5-10 times a day. The grocery store, the bank, church, work, and any customer service representatives who were calling to sell me something or offer me something because I was now a new member of the club. The Widow Club. The Parent of a Child (or Children) Who Have Died Club. The clubs no one wants to be in but gets put in whether they want to or not."

We used the key to enter the room, and I laughed when I saw Tom's reaction to the size of the room. I set the key cards on the counter and walked over to the bed to relax. Tom walked up to every part of the room to explore it thoroughly. I laid back and placed my folded hands on my stomach. When Tom was done, he came and laid down next to me on the bed.

"This room is fantastic," Tom announced and reached over to take my hand to hold in his. "Too bad we didn't bring swimsuits to use the hot tub." I looked over at him to see if he was serious. He was smiling ear to ear, so he was very much not serious. Alright, I'd decided in my mind. I guessed I was going to find out soon what hot tub sex was like with Tom. I couldn't wait.

The next few weeks went by in a blur. Tom and I made it to New York and got my possessions settled in storage. I was set up at Gram's place where I lived for just over two weeks. On my first day looking at houses, I fell in love with one, and when it checked off every item on my list including price, I placed a bid on the house and found out the next day that I had not only won it but could move in by the end of the week.

Tom and I spent the first whole week christening every part of the house imaginable. I spent the days making my new house a home while Tom worked at the shop. Each night I had dinner waiting for him, and then we'd move onto our other activities taking us far into the night, each night. Before long, I was working at the shop and getting settled, and Tom went back to staying at his place more regularly so that our nightly visits were rarer but more special. And it helped us to keep our lives separate while at work so that no one got the impression that I was expecting special treatment because I was sleeping with the boss's son.

I met two incredibly special people in that first month that I was in New York. Gram turned out to be one of my favorite people in the universe within the first two hours of meeting her. Once I had my suitcase unpacked in the room in which I'd be living while there, he was picked up by Dougie and taken back to his place. It didn't take Gram but two minutes to see how Tom and I behaved together to not only know we belonged together, but that we'd been having wild and crazy hot sex. She waited until Tom left to disclose that last part to me.

We sat and got acquainted, and I was soon hearing about her first marriage, something Tom had informed me that she rarely shared. But it turned out that she had a first love and marriage that ended in a tragic accident which left her heartbroken and devastated. It was only after meeting Tom's sweet grandfather that she began to believe in being able to move on with her life. He was a sweet man who loved her dearly and together, they'd made a lovely match.

But when she spoke of Bob, her first husband, her eyes lit up with the memories of which she spoke. "Trinity? I have a feeling we are very similar souls. The match I had first was exciting and full of passion and desire much in the way I perceive you and Tommy with each other. I have a feeling you and your Mark were like my sweet Tom and me."

"That's what I'm hearing," I shared with her. "I love Tom with a passion I never knew I could have. It was almost instantaneous, Gram. I was ready to commit my life to him with no limits the first night we met."

"Oh, I remember that feeling well," she confessed and winked at me. "I bet the sex is off the charts."

"Do you think it's bad that we've already done that?"

"Goodness, no!" she declared and smiled before turning it into a laugh. "When I met Bob, it didn't take but just over a day for me to give him my virginity, and I never once in my whole life regretted that choice. We were married quickly and made love nearly every day throughout our entire time together, so very short that it was.

"I will always look back fondly on our time together because I truly believe he was my match. But when something like that ends, you have two choices. Die along with him, even existing among the living in doing so, or move on. It was Tom, well, my Tom," she corrected and laughed, "who met me and fell in love with me and showed me a life that we could have which brought me out of the deep despair in which I'd once been. Tom and I had many lovely experiences together, and I miss him dearly. We had a beautiful 45 years together.

"When my grandson asks for your hand in marriage, I'd be honored if he would use this ring," she said and pulled out a special box from within the drawer of the side table sitting next to her chair. "I never intended to give this away because it was just so special to me. You see, Bob gave me this ring. But as soon as I heard your story and saw the two of you together, I knew you were the one who would get this ring, if you'd like it, of course."

I opened the box and found the loveliest ring. It was beautiful and would have stopped me in my tracks walking through a jewelry store. "No, Gram," I said slowly. "I don't like it," I told her and looked up at her for a second before changing my straight face into a joy-filled one. "I love it! It's so breathtaking! I'm honored! Really!"

"Oh, thank goodness!" Gram exclaimed and clapped her hands. "I love your sense of humor! It's so like mine! I think we are going to become the best of friends."

"Gram, we are well on our way," I told her confidently and leaned forward to touch her knee.

"Now, tell me all about how you two met and how everything else has been going," she requested and raised her eyebrows several times to hint at her desire to hear the good stuff. I just laughed and proceeded to give her quiet a tale.

Dougie's best friend, Jeremy, was the other amazing person I met while I was making my new life in New York. Jeremy had been diagnosed with cancer a few years back and then it went into remission. His family and friends were shocked when it came back the month before I had moved to New York.

Dougie and I share an office at work. As he was talking to me about his best friend and sharing his concerns about Jeremy not receiving many visitors, I realized that this would be another way to meet more people. I offered to meet him and to visit now and again, assuming we got on well.

"Knock, knock!" Dougie said as he stood at the door waiting to be called into Jeremy's hospital room.

"If you're the strippers I ordered, I hope you're just the driver!" Jeremy called out as Dougie walked in the room and laughed. He stopped laughing when he saw me. "Oh, um, hi," Jeremy said and shook his head. "That was probably not the best first impression to give," he said and covered his face. "I'm so sorry. I hope I didn't offend you. I'm Jeremy. Doug and I have been friends since we were in kindergarten."

"Well, it's really nice to meet you, Jeremy," I told him and extended my hand to shake his outstretched one. "I'm Trinity Powers, but everyone calls me Trin," I clarified and let go of his hand. "I'm sorry. Had I known strippers were requested, I would definitely have worn a different outfit. This just doesn't have the appeal that a good bustier and fishnet stockings would have had. Dang it, Dougie! Why didn't you tell me? Talking about bad first impressions!"

Jeremy burst out laughing and even Dougie shared in a few laughs. "You're alright, Trin," Jeremy told me and suggested that I take a seat on the chair next to his bed. "Dougie, why don't you go on ahead? We can catch up later."

"You got it, boss," Dougie told him and waved at the two of us as he left the room.

"So, this is probably not a usual situation a pretty girl like you gets mixed up in," Jeremy began. "What brings you here?"

"Dougie told me he wanted me to meet you and said he thought we'd get along. Seeing as I'm new to New York and don't know many people outside of the Parker family and the work crew, I figured this would be considered venturing out one more circle."

"Well, I'm honored to be the first outside circle man in your life," Jeremy told me and bowed. I just laughed.

"The honor is all mine," I told him and bowed back at him.

"So, tell me about yourself, Trinity who is called Trin," Jeremy requested and sat back to listen.

"Well, I was born in a suburb of Chicago and lived there until I moved here just last month. I'm 26, and I'm actually a widow."

"A widow?" Jeremy questioned.

"Yes, I don't talk about it much, but since I have to mark it on certain forms, I've learned to share it with people who I know will take the news respectfully," I admitted and nodded. "I was married at 21 and had two beautiful daughters. On Mother's Day over a year ago, Mark took them to spend the weekend with his mom so that I could have a weekend off from mothering and cleaning and doing all the stressful stuff. On his way home from there, a drunk driver ran a stop sign, the truck was hit, and all died on impact."

"Oh, Trin," Jeremy said aloud and put his hand to his heart. "I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thanks," I told him and nodded again. "It was really hard, but my family and friends were always there for me. I went through several stages of grief, taking two steps forward and one or fifteen steps back, but eventually, I just kept moving in the right direction. Once I realized that I needed to do something with my life, I thought why not try to get a job out of state?

"I applied at BMB even though I wasn't sure if they were hiring. I sent in my resume along with a letter addressed to Tom directly and told him I was not only interested but had a few ideas to help boost his business in the right direction. I told him my motto. 'Work smarter, not harder.' He seemed to like that.

"Wow, that was persistent," Jeremy told me and held out his hand. "Please allow me to shake the hand of a woman who managed to cut through all that BS and stood up for herself. And with Tom Parker at that." I smiled and shook his hand. "I'm really impressed."

"Me too," I confessed with a laugh. I looked around and then back at Jeremy. You know, I just feel like I can tell you anything, Jeremy."

"You can," Jeremy told me seriously. "Let's make a pact, even if you never come back to visit me," he suggested.

"Oh, I'm coming back," I promised and sat back. "All I've done is shared a few things, and I feel so much better than I had a half hour ago."

"Well, thank you very much," Jeremy told me and smiled. "Anyway, here's the pact. What is said here stays here. Just between us. I won't tell Doug or anyone else. If you want me to keep things quiet or as if I never heard them, you've got my word. I can literally take things to the grave."

"OK, amendment to the pact," I said thoughtfully. "Whatever is shared has to be the complete truth. Even if it's harsh or awful tasting coming out of our mouths. If it is how we feel or see things, we have a right to disclose how we're feeling at that moment in the rawest of forms."

"Oh, and we can't be judged for those things," Jeremy added. "So, if you're having a particularly bad day and want to blame it all on Doug because his art sucks, you can do that. And not only will I be bound to keep that a secret because of our pact, but I won't judge you for being really mean and critical and harsh because it's just your need to vent."

"Oh, my gosh! Exactly!" I told him and laughed. "Thank you. Oh, gosh. Is there a sign-up sheet where I can lock in some times to come spend time with you? Will there be a waiting list?"

"Hardly," Jeremy told me and laughed. "But if you want to plan to start coming to see me once a week or so, I'd be game for that. Mondays?"

"Yeah, I can do that," I told him and shrugged. "I was thinking twice a week, but I can work with one for now."

"Oh, I'd be game for three or four, but I don't want to ask for too much," Jeremy clarified.

"Let's start with Mondays and Wednesdays," I decided. "Those are my free nights." And Tom had other things he did those days, so it was perfect. I sat back and put my feet up on the bed. "Now, Jeremy, your turn. I have a whole lot of story to offer, but I gave you plenty for a first visit. Tell me about you."

"Well, I'm Jeremy, and this isn't exactly my first visit to the hospital," he began. He went into first explaining how he met Dougie and what it was that had kept them friends for so long. Then he went on to share about his parents and sister. Then he shared about the first time he got sick and what he had.

"Jeremy, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," I told him after another hour and stood up. "I'll be back after work on Wednesday. Here's my number," I offered and slid a piece of paper toward him. "If anything changes, just text me. In the meantime, I'll be working on the next installment of my life story. We might need to find something else to talk about after the end of this month," I said teasingly and then made a worried face. "I don't think I have enough life to talk about to get us into November!"

"I think we'll figure it out," Jeremy suggested and nodded. "It was really nice to meet you. Have a great night."

"You two, Jeremy. Good night." I walked through the hospital and smiled as I headed to my car. I texted Dougie and thanked him for introducing me to my newest best friend. He playfully argued that he and I were going to have issues if I kept calling him that. I never went without saying the phrase "best friend" before or after Jeremy's name when I spoke with Dougie. It always made us smile.

Between Gram visits and Jeremy ones, I was often kept busy learning about my boyfriend or laughing at old stories (mine and theirs) or enjoying the friendships I'd made and knew I was blessed to have. This New York thing was turning out alright after all.

Tom and I had a beautiful relationship. We were comfortable with each other while still maintaining our individual lives which made the times we spent together full of laughter, passion, and massive amounts of hot sex. I was worried that the amount of sex we'd had at the beginning of our relationship would soon fizzle out, but that certainly hadn't occurred. And there were nights when we just cuddled up in bed and didn't have sex at all. He often kissed me passionately after those nights and told me how much he'd enjoyed being reminded of how great we have it together.

In late October, Senior hired an assistant. Her name was Brittany. There were many things that Brittany did and said which made my life very difficult. Rather than explain them, I'll just share how things came to a head for me and for other participants of the story.

Let's start with Tuesday, November 19. Tom and his dad and a few of the guys were out of town at a bike show and due to return to work the following morning. As it had been for weeks, I usually came in and opened the shop with my key and code and then closed the shop at night as well. All had been going well in that department.

Early that afternoon, I got a call from my doctor telling me a cancellation had opened an appointment slot, and I could come in at 4PM if I was available. I took it because I really needed to get in to see her. The only people available to close the shop with keys and a code were Dougie or Brittany. Dougie couldn't do it. He was my first choice. I nearly called to cancel my appointment, but then I had decided that I just had to go ahead and ask Brittany.

Brittany not only agreed to do it but was nearly giddy to be able to do it. I explained my situation generically because it was none of her business as to why I needed her to cover for me and thanked her. I went to my desk and typed up an email detailing exactly what needed to be done and gave her my code. Since Senior was coming in the next morning, I knew I could just ask him to reset the alarm with a new code for me and delete the code I'd given Brittany to cover myself should anything happen.

Brittany replied almost immediately and promised to do exactly as I had instructed and assured me that all would be fine. I printed out her reply with the original email I'd sent and filed it in my cabinet as I had begun doing for the last two weeks.

Not surprisingly, on Wednesday, our boss came into work to find both locks unsecured and the alarm had not been set. When I walked into work, honestly having forgotten that I'd had Brittany close for me, I was looking for Tom to reconnect since I hadn't seen him since the Friday before. Before I could find him, Boss Man yelled for me to come to his office. I sighed and walked calmly up to his office to take my punishment. Oh, that's what Jen and I used as his name since he was also Tom (with a different middle name). Everyone else called the younger one "Tommy," but I couldn't do that after months of knowing him simply as "Tom."