It's a Place of Beauty - Theresa

I'll close with this. You have a wonderful daughter and granddaughter and I know they love my Samantha. I love Darrell with every ounce of my being, never wavering in my love for him and I know they all love him dearly and he loves every one of us. I also know you love him too so don't be a foolish old spinster and let things slip through your fingers again.

Love and Peace,

Sally Carson

I cried for several minutes after reading this and read it through again. After pulling myself together I carefully folded it and placed it inside a keepsake jewelry box I have in a dresser drawer.

Life returned to as much a state of normal as could be expected while digesting such a volume of bad news. Kelsey and I talked a long time the other night over the phone about her Dad and her loss of Sally as well. The two of them had become very close over the years and I know Kelsey loved her just like a mom.

I kept Sally's advice close to the vest and didn't share it with anybody. Hell, I didn't even know how to share such a thing. It was too painfully personal and she was right about Darrell. He needed a good healthy long time to heal and get to the point where the remembrance of Sally would always bring a smile instead of a pang of grief and morose melancholy.

I did start calling Darrell on a regular basis though. I tried to touch base with him at least once a month just to see how he was doing; how Samantha was holding up. I didn't really know Samantha and nobody expected I would even though she had visited with Kelsey and her family during the summers when they vacationed here. She was a sweet little girl, almost the identical twin of her mom.

On the work front the market was building steam and life started getting busy. There were four of us ladies working out of my office now. I had hired another sales person a few months earlier and she was tearing things up. Allyson was in her late thirties, dark hair, blue eyes; very attractive kind of woman.

Allyson was a killer sales person in the condo markets. I let her run with that segment and while I liked the volume numbers, her average prices were not nearly as good as I thought they should be. In the end it meant the client was not getting the dollar per square foot they could have in this demand market.

An area of business we had moved into with Allyson's suggestion and help were corporate rentals. We started with two complexes under contract and added three more rather quickly under Allyson's management. It's not a market I understand well but she seemed to know it and after a while it started taking up a lot of her time, mostly afternoons and evenings.

One afternoon while she was out of the office her desk phone rang while I was walking by it. Since there was nobody else to grab it, I picked it up.

"Hello, this is Allyson Donovan's desk with Carson Realty, Theresa speaking. How may I help you this afternoon?"

The gentleman on the other end inquired after Allyson suggesting she had a firm appointment with him in an hour and he was going to be late but couldn't get hold of her on her cell. I took his number and told him I'd cover for her if needed and that I would try to locate Allyson.

After the call I headed for the property that Allyson was showing that afternoon. It was a condo complex just up the street off the Isle of Palms connector that was mostly corporate rentals. When I pulled up in front of the units she was showing, I parked and entered the end unit and found nobody there. I then went to the vacant unit next door, entered the front door and walked into the living room.

It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Clothes for one woman and at least two men were on the living room floor with a trail leading back to the master bedroom. I set my phone on no-flash mode, walked down the hallway and stood in the doorway. Before one of the men could react, I snapped a couple pictures and cleared my throat. Allyson was giving both men an airtight workout from the front and rear and neither one was her husband.

All three of them were startled and tried to cover up but there was nothing to work with.

"Allyson, when you are finished, please return to the office. We clearly need to have a conversation."

I walked out at that point and returned to my car. I was leaving the parking lot when one of the men came running out yelling at me. It's difficult to run on hot pavement here in the low country when you don't have shoes and socks on. I just waved and smiled at him.

I called one of the other girls and asked her to cover for Allyson's appointment that I had arranged earlier and returned to the office. The little fucking whore walked into the office about 30 minutes later.

"Allyson, sit down and don't say another fucking word. You understand?" I told her.

She nodded and did what I said.

"Listen, I'm going to give this to you straight and you'll have a couple of choices. First, don't bullshit me. I want to know how long you have been fucking customers to close sales. I don't want you to feed me some line about how that was just a personal thing between you and a couple guys you know. One of their cars had their company logo on the fucking side of it.

"I'm going to tell you right off the bat I going to let you go. This is entirely inappropriate and bad for the business. However, there are a couple ways this can go hence your choices.

"One, you can just be shit canned and run away and try to keep this sordid mess from your husband and if you do that, I'll make sure he knows every detail. The reason I'm willing to do that is because that dumb ass plowing your cute little middle aged ass from behind sure wasn't wearing a condom from where I stood and if this is a regular thing with you, who in hell knows what you are carrying home to him.

"Second, you can clean out your desk, pull yourself together and figure out how you are going to tell your husband and if there's any chance at all of saving your pitiful marriage.

"Now, my first question; how long you have been fucking customers to close sales?"

She looked at me with her lip quivering. I thought she was going to burst into tears but she didn't. She had been doing it since she started after the first couple of sales closes went poorly.

"Theresa, I'm going to have to tell my husband, aren't I?"

I nodded at her.

"Allyson, I'm going to help you out here and tell you a story. There is a reason why I'm not married and why I choose not to date. I went down a similar path thinking my damn pussy was a ticket to success. I fucked my marriage away and trashed a great man, the best man I've ever known or loved and I'm paying a dear price for it today."

I told her the story. I even told her about fucking clients for the benefit of my VP and what it felt like in the end to throw away the most precious thing I had, my own integrity. Allyson and I carried her things out to her car and I wished her the best. If she could figure out how to turn her life around, I'd give her a reference but not until then. She had a sit down with her husband and he made her move out but the last I heard they were going to counselling sessions and trying to get past her great sin. He actually called me a while ago to thank me for having Allyson make the choice. I think when it is all over, the two of them will find a way to go forward together. I just wish I could have found a similar path after I burned Darrell so badly.

Kelsey called me toward late July to let me know that she, Miriam and Samantha were going to fly down to Charleston for a week. Dan had to go on a trip to the west coast for that same week so they thought they would take the opportunity to visit 'old grandma'.

The three of them pulled into the drive the following Sunday and Kitty stretched all 12 lbs. of her big fluffy body all across the walkway in anticipation of them. Kelsey looked like the mom I was when I was her age. She was 34 now and Miriam was a great big 6 years old. Samantha had shot up to the sky since I saw her last and she would be 14 in a few weeks.

I got them all settled in and we ordered out at China East and I picked it up. Later that evening after Miriam had gone to bed, Kelsey and Samantha and I were sitting at the kitchen table.

"How is your Dad doing, girls?" I asked the both of them.

They glanced at each other and Kelsey spoke first.

"Dad is pretty withdrawn most of the time. He buries himself in his work and keeps busy. I think he spends more time with Early and Sue than anybody else and that's probably a good thing. He probably smokes more pot than he used to but he doesn't drink at all. He says he's afraid of the liquor."

"Yeah, he asked me to help him get rid of it." Samantha chimed in.

If Darrell could stay away from the booze, that was a great thing. I've known a few people that drank themselves into alcoholism following their own personal tragedies. Now, as for smoking pot, Darrell was never into that when we were married. His job wouldn't allow it but he used to smoke it when he was in college and he told me one day during a call that he found it nice to have now.

"Mom, the truth of the matter is he's lonely. He's got Sam and I and Miriam and I know you two talk on the phone but he's been buried over at the cottage since Sam got out of school and came to stay with me for the summer." Kelsey added.

"Kelsey, I've invited him down here to stay for a while, to use my house here as a base for whatever he wants to do if he just wants to get away but he hasn't indicated one way or the other. I understand though. I might not be the place he wants to hang out at." I actually allowed myself to laugh at that.

The next day all the girls went to the beach and I headed into the office for the day. I had three showings scheduled and after that I was free for the afternoon. Around noon I headed to a nearby lunch spot within walking distance and before I could get halfway there, I was joined by my favorite panty adjustment expert, Charlie.

"So where is Mt Pleasant's most beautiful real estate lady heading for lunch. Could it be where her most ardent admirer is also heading? Imagine the coincidence!"

Charlie was a naturally smooth guy. If Allyson had fallen for his charms, I probably wouldn't have faulted her. One of my girlfriends confided with a small table of us one evening that that Charlie has certain gifts i.e. physical attributes that some women including her find very delightful. In her words Charlie 'has big hands, big feet and something bigger when the package is unwrapped'. I don't doubt her for a minute. It's evident when a woman glances at his trousers, which we all do by the way.

"Charlie, I'm going over to Grimaldi's. Don't tell me! That's where you are going too?" I asked him in jest.

"You know it, Darling. You know they make a great margarita?" He asked.

I know they do but I was going for lunch and not to start drinking with Charlie.

"Would you like me to call the little missus to join us? I could you know." I teased him.

After all this time he knows he's not going to get my pussy. 'Hell, it probably doesn't even work anymore', I thought to myself. It doesn't stop him from trying.

"Oh no, Candice hates margaritas, you know that." He quickly and smoothly replied.

Sometimes I enjoyed the cat and mouse with Charlie but I also knew that if he ever got me out drinking with him, I could get in trouble so I made it a point to never join him for his after work games with his small rat pack. That's how my girlfriend found herself knowledgeable of Charlie's specific anatomy as well as that of a couple other members of the pack. She ended up addicted to him for a while and by several accounts, he and his friends are that good at what they do. I'm just a different kind of little girl than he's used to or at least I keep telling myself that.

When I say that I'm chaste and haven't been with a man in over 14 years now, I'm serious but that doesn't mean that I don't have the urges and desires once in a while. I do. I just don't want to give away what was precious to the only man I ever loved to some other man again. It's my penance to myself even though that true love is long gone from my embrace. Nonetheless, when I'm with Charlie at lunch, he smells good, he's fucking handsome beyond a fault and I know his big damn hands are matched by an equally big prick. He's also married and that usually steels my resolve pretty quickly. Avoiding any hint of alcohol is my safety guard with Charlie.

The alcohol thing has always been my weakness even when I was a young woman before I met Darrell. Some of the cruder boys when I was young had a saying; 'Liquor 'n stick her'. I lived up to those expectations several times when I went away to college and during my early partying phase out of school. I knocked all of that stuff off when I met Darrell and didn't drink much at all, only socially for a long time.

It wasn't until I went to work for O'Malley & Davis in Marketing that I found myself drinking; getting drunk. That VP of Marketing would never have put my panties in his pocket that night in an out of town hotel room if I hadn't been fed several cocktails during the previous couple hours. I don't mean to say I was unwilling; quite to the contrary. The liquor enabled me to fuck him like a whore; which is what I became at that point. I never fucked any of those men without being fortified and having my inhibitions shattered by Ms. Cocktail.

If Darrell had noticed my drinking and confronted me, we might still be together today but that's all water under the bridge. That afternoon with Charlie, I was just trying to relax with a small calzone and a sweet tea. Charlie ordered a bottle of wine and two stems. It was a St Francis Old Vine Sonoma Zin, four year old vintage and I figured one glass wouldn't hurt.

An hour later and I had finished 3 glasses to his one and the bottle was empty. The kitty had woken up and Charlie knew it. Everything he said was charming and funny. He looked fucking fantastic. The strong bulge in his trousers needed my fingers to free it from its confines and my mouth to make him ready for my anxious kitty, who was now back to being a desirous pussy. If there had been just another splash, another couple gulps of the red nectar of those old vines, I might have discovered the pleasures promised me by the god of big dicks.

Instead, my phone rang.

"Hey Mom, just to let you know we're back from the beach and we're going to order pizza for supper tonight so don't worry about cooking anything when you get back home." Kelsey informed me.

Jesus Christ! Charlie had gotten me drunk; not falling down drunk but devilishly drunk. If he had opened a second bottle, he might have fucked me because I didn't have my inhibitions any more but I did have my little girls and they pulled me in on the safety line via the timely call.

"Charlie, take me home." That's all I said to him. I didn't tell him the girls were there. For all he knew he was getting ready to score, to pull those white panties off my ass and sink his fat prick deep inside my wide open conquered pussy. If they weren't there, that's what he might have received but, poor Charlie, they were there.

"Yes, take me home right now." I said to him again.

I poured myself into the passenger seat of his little black BMW and he drove toward my home with directions or at least the best I could give him in my excitement. He thought the excitement was for him. It was for the girls.

When we pulled into the yard, Kelsey's rental was parked there.

"New car, beautiful?" he said as he started to exit his side.

"Nope, it's my daughter's. She is inside waiting along with my granddaughter and her sister. No need to come in. Charlie, I had a blast. Let's do it again sometime!"

The expression on his face was priceless but I merely waved and danced into the house.

"Grandma ... Grandma, you're home!!!" The little tyke yelled while on the run at breakneck speed through the kitchen.

I scooped her up into my arms, gave her a great big hug and a kiss.

"Grandma, you've been drinking 'adult beverages' haven't you?" She asked in her amusing excitement.

"Of course I have, sweetie, but what I want right now is a glass of lemonade. How's that sound?" I replied.

I lugged her into the living room before setting her down in my easy chair. Samantha was buried on the couch with her Beats on her ears and some kind of music video on the TV screen. I didn't see Kelsey anywhere and I headed for my bedroom.

When I walked through the doorway Kelsey was sitting in my rocker with her knees tucked up under her chin and Sally's letter to me in her hand.

"Kelsey, what are you doing?" I said in surprise. I had not thought about the letter or the possibility of somebody else reading.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I was looking for those old turquoise earrings and necklace you used to keep in your box. Miriam was asking about them and I thought I'd put them on." She said.

I sat on the edge of the bed looking at her. There was a tear in her eye when she glanced up at me.

"I know I should not have read the letter, Mom, but I recognized Sally's handwriting and I poked around where I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."

I wasn't certain what to say. I had read the letter several times since first opening it but had never discussed it with anybody. It was too personal and now my daughter had it in her hands.

"Kelsey, well, I guess I didn't think about anybody else actually reading it. It was so personal and tragic and to tell you the truth, my heart breaks every time I read it." I said to her.

She looked away for a moment and returned with a smile and fresh tears on her face.

"Don't you know what she was telling you, Mom? Don't you? If you do, you need to reach out to Dad and not be, what did she call it, an old spinster, sitting here growing old and alone? Jesus, I loved that woman!"

Kelsey folded the letter and replaced it in the box and turned back to me.

"Mom, it is time for you to go see Dad. He is alone, he is weary. Do want to know what he told me a while back? He said every time he lets himself get idle, he sees Sally walking through the door or paddling her canoe out on the lake. Other times he says he sees you pulling into the drive or whipping up some fantastic culinary creation in the kitchen. He goes back and forth between the two women who constituted his life for so many years. He looks at me and Samantha and sees the two of you every day. Mom, that woman you used to be, you know, the one that broke his heart into a million pieces? You aren't her anymore. I wouldn't be here if you were! Neither is Dad. He is a different man now, different from even when Sally was alive."

Kelsey looked at me for a long time and I couldn't form the words to stem my own tears.

"Mom, plan to take some time and go see him. He needs it and honestly so do you. Please."

I held out my arms and we hugged tightly for a long time before I spoke.

"Now, about that pizza; I recommend Amalfi's. Sound OK?"

She grinned and we headed for the kitchen.

The girls returned to Maine the following weekend and I was left with a personal decision. It wasn't easy to make up my mind but I did even though it was while I was on the phone with him. I called Darrell the Sunday after the girls went back and told him I wanted to come up to the cottage for a while.

"Theresa, that's great. I'll have it all ready for you. I need to spend some time back at the river house anyways -- "

I cut him off.

"No, Darrell, I'd like to you to be there too. I want to see you, see how you are doing and maybe just catch up on everything. The girls just returned from their vacation down here and it was just fantastic to see them again. I'll grab the loft when I'm there."

He hesitated at first but agreed. I would make travel arrangements in a couple weeks and drive over from Bangor. The girls at work agreed to cover for me and I booked travel for two weeks instead of one.