Just Once - Once Is All You Get

Cici spoke to that question.

"Everything you and our attorney suggested has been done. As of Monday morning, he won't have much to fall back on. The judge was reluctant to issue a restraining order since Trey hasn't been here and there have been no overt threats made. However, Dad has arranged for a private security guard to be here starting Monday morning and staying until I feel it is safe. The money transfers are all done."

Daniel spoke with a smirk on his face.

"Trey will be served at the airport. I think probably about the time your wife is served. I'm sure it is going to be an interesting morning for him."

"More so than you might think."

I told them about the FBI. I expected Cici to react differently.

"Is he going to be arrested?"

"I wouldn't be surprised. The FBI doesn't let me in on much but my attorney told me that the FBI was going to wait until all of our civil service was performed. They didn't want the process servers in the middle of dealing with Trey."

Daniel chuckled.

"Serves the shithead right. What are you going to do while this is all going down."

"Hell. I wouldn't miss this show for the world. I'm going to be at the airport."

Daniel laughed heartily.

"I can understand that."

"Yeah. I want to see this in person. I am heading out immediately after the show at the airport. I have given up the lease on my condo and packed everything I want to take with me."

I saw shock on their faces. Cici's eyes were tearing up and she was shaking her slowly from side to side. I knew it was time to leave.

"I still have a lot to do tonight. I am moving out of the condo in the morning and I will spend the last two nights in a hotel. My phone will be hot until Monday afternoon if something unexpected happens. I will cherish you both. Daniel, you are almost like a brother to me. Cici, you are gorgeous and loving. You are the mother I wished my wife could have been. You will do well."

I turned and left them sitting in stunned silence as I closed the front door softly and headed to my old truck.

D-Day - 2.

I spent the day going through my things one more time. There wasn't a lot. Most of the clothes I dropped into a Goodwill box. I had no furniture. The kitchen things I had accumulated I left for the new renters. They could use them or toss them as they saw fit. Everything that I wanted or needed fit nicely into the back seat of the 3-year-old Chevy Silverado sitting in the driveway. I had purchased it a few days ago and the dealership had delivered it first thing this morning.

I didn't even look back at the condo. I had a duffle bag filled with what I would need for the next two days. I checked into the Airport Ambassador. I thought it only just. I tossed my laptop case and my duffle bag on the bed and immediately headed for the bar. I intended to do what I had fought against through this entire ordeal. I was going to get mightily drunk.

D-Day - 1

I woke up the next morning with a raging hangover. I took a long hot shower, drank several large glasses of water from the minifridge, and headed down to the restaurant. I checked my old phone. There were still no calls or texts. I shrugged and pulled the SIM card from the phone and broke it in half. Each half went into a different waste bin in the lobby. I tossed the phone into another trash container near the restaurant. I ordered a big carb heavy meal and sat down to enjoy it leisurely. I had the rest of the day to kill. I resolved not to go to the bar tonight since I intended to be on the road by lunch and I wanted to be clear headed.

That afternoon, I was watching a John Wayne movie on the TV in my room. My burner cell phone rang. I answered immediately, fearful that something had gone wrong to throw my timetable off. It was Daniel.

"Rick. Can we meet and talk?"

"Sure. Is there a problem?"

I told him where I was and in an hour he arrived. I went down to meet him and we ended up in the bar sipping cold beer. I had no idea what was on his mind. When I heard his first few sentences, I nearly fell off the bar stool.

"Cici is mourning. I guess the pending end of her marriage finally caught up with her. I never did see her cry or suffer the times we were working on this. Jesus, you are a dumb grunt."

I was shocked.

"Why do you say that?"

He shook his head.

"She is in love with you."

I managed to stay on the barstool but was dumbfounded. When I didn't speak, Daniel continued.

"She is in love with you and I think she assumed you had feelings for her. She is feeling betrayed and lost. She cried all evening after your little speech before you left."

I suddenly realized that this was not a good situation and I had to do something to defuse it.

"Daniel, I am sorry. I never meant to lead her on or give her false impressions about how I felt. Christ. She is young enough to be my daughter. I am almost the same age as you are. She needs to find a good man who can be a father to those kids and grow old with her. She sure as hell doesn't deserve someone like me as a husband. I don't think I am ready to take up a new relationship, especially one with kids. Cici is a beautiful young woman, a great mother, and so much like her dad it is scary."

Daniel downed half his beer and looked at me across the table. I wasn't sure if he was going to drag me across the table or just stare holes in me with those laser-like eyes. Finally, he spoke in a very controlled and gentle manner.

"I sort of figured that was the situation. I knew, coming off this whole situation, that you were likely to be gun shy of any kind of relationship. I also know you to be an honorable and moral man. I just wanted you to know how she felt. I also wanted to hear your feelings. I still consider you a friend and comrade. I don't worry about Cici. As soon as this is over, she is going to sell that monstrosity of a house and come to live with me. It will be good to have the grandkids around. Consuela is coming with her so things will be as normal as we can make them. Rick, when you deal with your own demons, please come see us or let us know you are ok and still alive. You are a good man. I am proud to know you and I cannot thank you enough for your help."

Daniel stood, drank the last of his beer and held out his hand. We grasped hands and stood that way for a few seconds. I think I got the best of it but wasn't sure. He grinned and left without another word. I finished my beer, grabbed a sandwich from the deli and headed back to my room.

D-Day

I got up early, showered, and packed the few things I had in the hotel room. I headed down to the lobby, cleared up any charges I had from the minifridge, and headed to my truck. I could leave it in the hotel parking lot for free. The duffle bag went into the back seat, and I locked the doors.

The airport shuttle delivered me right to the baggage claim area. It was still several hours until the plane was due to land. I found a small table in the food court area not far from the baggage claim and camped out.

I heard the paging system announce that the flight from Colombia was at the gate. Show time! I moved down toward the baggage claim area and found a spot where I could watch the arriving passengers come in the door from the secure part of the terminal. I was sitting in a row of those damnable airport chairs but behind a plastic plant.

Twenty minutes later, I saw the first of the entourage from the Colombia Doctors Without Borders come through the door. Almost all of them were coupled up. I recognized a few and realized that none of them were snuggled up with their own spouses. This whole trip must have been nothing but a huge adultery party. Finally, I saw Marcy and Cardoza come through the door. He was tanned and smiling. Marcy was hanging on him like a leach. He turned one time to hug her. What I saw was his eyes looking at a tall blonde woman in her late 20s walking by... he was back on the prowl.

As they broke their hug, I watched a young man in a nice business suit walk up to them. A young woman stood a few feet behind. I was close enough to hear the conversation.

"Dr. Trey Cardoza and Mrs. Marcy Weston?"

Both of them answered in the affirmative. The young man smiled, reached into his jacket pocket and produced two envelopes. He handed one to each of them.

"You have been served."

A flash of light from the young woman's camera was proof of the service.

I nearly laughed out loud at their reactions. They both immediately did the fish out of water routine. Trey was the first to recover and open the envelope. His eyes went from glazed to fixed and then to rage.

"Son of a fucking bitch. Your goddamned husband is suing me for alienation of affection. I thought you had that all taken care of before you left?"

Marcy wasn't listening. She was simply staring at the divorce filings. It was clear that the divorce papers didn't come as a surprise to her. She sighed deeply and looked around as she surreptitiously stuffed the papers into her handbag. Her furtive glances at the others in the group told me that she didn't want any of them to realize what was happening.

Neither one of them had a chance to recover when another woman approached. She looked at Trey.

"Dr. Trey Cardoza?"

'"Yeah. What the fuck do you want."

The woman handed him another envelope and answered with the same phrase.

"You have been served."

She backed away quickly and was gone in the crowd. Trey tore open the envelope and looked at his own divorce filing. He seemed to deflate. There wasn't much of the tan left on his face, having been replaced with a sickly green pallor. He groaned and started to walk off. Marcy hurried after him.

"Trey. Wait. Where are you going?"

"Home. I have to deal with this and straighten out my wife."

"But what about me?"

"What about you? You have your own problems. I suggest you deal with them yourself. We're done! Don't call me or text me."

He then smiled a thin derisive smile, almost a sneer.

"It was fun and you're a great piece of ass but it's done."

He turned, completely forgetting about his luggage and headed out to the taxi waiting area. Marcy looked at his back with her mouth hanging open and the papers hanging limp in her hand. It was almost painful to watch if I didn't despise her so much. I heard a noise outside and made my way to an outside door some distance down the concourse. When I finally worked my way back to viewing range, I saw FBI agents stooping down over a figure on the ground.

I saw Marcy come out the door with her bags. She saw her former lover lying face down on the ground in handcuffs. She screamed and started toward him but one of the FBI agents intercepted her. She tried to push him away and as he held her, she swung a fist at him. It never connected but she found herself face down on the concrete as well. The handcuffs closed around her wrists with that distinctive ratcheting click. I stayed to watch as they were both manhandled into an FBI van and whisked away. I noticed that the rest of the Doctors Without Borders group were not to be found. I took a deep breath, turned and looked for the shuttle back to the hotel.

D-Day +3

I was 800 miles from what had once been my home. I was not headed anywhere in particular, just away. Since my old phone was somewhere in pieces and no one but my attorney and Daniel had my new number, my phone was quiet. I had ditched the laptop, in several pieces, into various trash bins, lakes, and rivers as I had made my journey in the first few days. Everything that was on it was carefully backed up onto a secure cloud server owned by my former partner. It was in good hands and where no one could get to it.

I was avoiding the interstate and most of the major highways. I wasn't particularly worried about law enforcement finding me. I didn't think Trey or Marcy would have the wherewithal to find me, either. I looked down the highway into the distance, smiling to myself.

Texas. I had never done any duty time in Texas, but I had always wanted to visit. One of my historical heroes once said, "You may all go to hell, I'll go to Texas."