Happenstance Ch. 03

Although she had been covering the rodeo since 2012, it wasn't until after the 2015 event that I noticed one person who popped up regularly in her reports. He was a tall, well-built, good-looking cowboy who appeared to be not much younger than Shelley. It also appeared he was a champion in so many events that he was repeatedly receiving the All-Round Cowboy awards, which was probably why he was the subject of her interviews.

'If she was ever going to cheat on me,' I said to myself after seeing him being interviewed by Shelley for the third year in a row. 'He'd be the one she'd do it with.' That made me think of Clarence, the rodeo clown she'd jokingly mentioned she was planning on running away with on the night she told me of her mother's return to the east coast.

'Thank God she's not the cheating kind.' I told myself, gaining comfort from my trust in her fidelity.

But that brought to mind someone who was a cheating slut and was another regular attendee at the rodeo: Shelley's mother. From what Shelley had told me - and, yes, after our discussion following her network's 2015 Christmas function, she'd stopped keeping secrets from me - Charlie and Dan had developed a non-exclusive relationship, which included her accompanying him to Mount Isa each year. Or it did until Dan received a promotion and was transferred to Sydney.

Following Dan's relocation, however, Charlie had apparently hitched her wagon to his replacement producer, Geoff Lyons. Whether that transfer of... affection?... had been arranged between the two men or had been achieved with Charlie's blessing remains unclear - although I suspected the latter to be the case - but it happened. However it came about, though, Charlie became Geoff's companion whenever the crew travelled to Mount Isa. Despite their arrangement, however, she never partnered with him at any of the network's functions.

---oooBJSooo---

It wasn't only Shelley's career that received a boost during that period. Mine also took a turn for the better.

While I'd been making a decent living as a freelance journalist after having left The Courier Mail in 2012, and with my daily routine of writing and fulfilling my Mr Mum jobs - which were mainly focussed on seeing to the twins before and after school needs and preparing the evening meals - I found I often had a bit of spare time up my sleeve; time which increased when Shelley was away on assignment.

Having used that time to write a few well-received short stories in the past, I began toying with the idea of writing something with a bit more meat on its bones. I finally bit the bullet and started working on it while Shelley was attending the 2015 rodeo. Published under a pseudonym, my first novel, The Cold Dish, hit the bookstore shelves in May of 2017.

Even though it didn't manage to make it to the best-seller list, it received good reviews, and sales were better than expected. My second book, Best Laid Plans, was released eighteen months later. It, too, received excellent reviews and even better sales.

Work on my third novel was well advanced when the second one hit the shelves. It Never Rains saw the light of day in November of the following year. By then, I had limited my freelance writing activities to a regular newspaper column, submitting an occasional Op-Ed piece on various subjects and maintaining my subscription Internet blog. Most of my time was dedicated to my novel writing.

All three novels received an increase in sales when, after Covid hit in early 2020, the whole country went into lockdown. It seems that everyone was looking for something to read.

Work on my fourth book was put on hold while, at my publisher's request, I translated my first three novels into American English. He believed they were just the type of stories that would appeal to the US market. As it turned out, he was correct.

Interestingly, I learned that Shelley had read my first novel when she left a soft-covered copy of A Cold Dish sitting on the kitchen bench after returning from one of her trips in 2018. When I asked her what she had thought of it and whether it was something I would enjoy reading, she said it was okay for someone looking for a distraction while travelling.

"I don't think you'd like it, though," she said. "It's not your normal fare. It's not even something I would add to my personal library. I only bought it for something to read on the plane. It's escapist tripe, really. You could do better if you turned your hand to novel writing."

"So, what's it about?" I asked.

"It's a highly fictionalised story of a journalist who uses his connections in law enforcement and the underworld to solve a string of murders that had taken place in a small country town about twenty years earlier. Basically, it's a combination of Cold Case, Midsomer Murders and Columbo, with a Jack Reacher-type character thrown in for good measure."

'That's not a bad review,' I thought as I poured her a glass of Sav Blanc.

"And the author?" I asked.

"L. Rey Matteo," she answered after taking a sip from her glass. "He hasn't got a bad grasp of English for someone who, going by his name, uses it as a second language. Spanish would be my guess.

"I'll give him one thing, though. He appears to have a good understanding of the female psyche. He knows what turns a woman on, and he certainly knows how to write a sex scene. He had me looking forward to getting home. There was one position in there I'd like to try."

And that's exactly what we did after putting the twins to bed that night. That was also the first night she introduced a dildo into our lovemaking. I didn't even know she owned one, but its use made for an interesting night. The new position only added to our pleasure; although Shelley mentioned something about reenrolling in yoga classes before doing it again when she staggered into the kitchen the following morning.

---oooBJSooo---

As I'd done when deciding to go freelance, I spoke to my accountant as soon as I received word that a publisher had accepted my first novel.

While mired in the minutiae of the accounting profession, Garry Taylor is a positive thinker with a global viewpoint. As soon as I told him I had received an offer from a major publishing house, he saw beyond my immediate needs and looked to the future. The first thing he did was to refer me to a literary agent who, he said, knew the business inside out and would handle any negotiations with my publisher.

His next step was to address my business needs by setting up a new company - L. Rey Mateo Publishing Pty Ltd - to handle the revenue stream and any tax liabilities that might result from my book sales.

It was only when, later, the matter of US sales of my novels needed to be addressed that I realised the true value of having a man like Garry on my side. He then explained that since we were now starting to talk about some real money being introduced into the equation, we should look at shifting up a gear.

The plan he laid out for me was that he would first set up a company and a corresponding bank account in the Cayman Islands. That would be followed by establishing a Limited Liability Company - L. Rey Mateo Publishing LLC - in the US through which revenue from book sales originating in that country would be funnelled. Almost all after-tax funds would then be transferred to the Cayman Islands once they'd been cleared by the country's Internal Revenue Service.

The previously established Australian company, L. Rey Mateo Publishing PL, would be sold to the Cayman-registered company, leaving my personal operating company in my ownership.

"Nothing we're doing is illegal," he explained. "You will meet your domestic tax liabilities in both countries before transferring anything to your offshore holding company. But, if your profits reach the level I think they will, I don't want you to have to be paying additional tax to those governments - apart from what is legally due to them - on any income those profits might generate when you invest them."

I okayed the plan and instructed him to get started on setting everything in place. The only problem I had with any of it was how I was going to explain this convoluted process to Shelley.

'But do I need to tell her anything?' I asked myself. 'She's already in the dark about my novel writing. And it's not as if what I'm doing will harm her. Just the opposite, in fact. The money I'm generating from book sales will keep us in a comfortable lifestyle when it comes time for us to retire.

'The twins will be finishing school soon. And if they head off to Townsville to undertake their university studies, as they're talking about doing, we'll soon be empty nesters. Maybe that will be the time to tell her. We can then start planning for those times we've so often spoken about; travelling and growing old together... well, me growing older and she, catching up.'

---oooBJSooo---

Continues: Chapter Four.