Lies Truths or Perception Pt. 02

I opened the garage door and fired up the car drove next door and backed it into hers. I then closed the bay doors. We had to move a few things around in the Master bedroom closet to fit my stuff in. The master bathroom had two sinks I took the side that was available.

Some of the things I owned had to go especially after Bridget saw them on me. If it didn't compliment me, it wasn't good enough. That showed me a lot about our lives going forward. Bridget was the type who would always take pride in how her family looked.

Her parents called Bridget at six and suggested we meet for dinner. We agreed. When we met them, it was apparent that they had had a day like no other. The first thing Clarence did was hand me back my cell phone. Bridget and I could tell they were in a really good mood.

"It was fun watching them walk into a place where we were," Heide said, "Spreading themselves throughout the location looking for Trey. They must have wasted an hour at Macy's. Dinah was so well known publicly there were people taking pictures of her everywhere. People were shocked that a lady of her status would be caught in a place like that. They had all sorts of questions which only slowed down their progress. You could tell she was frustrated. Each stop they went to it got worse for them."

"Once they showed up, we turned the GPS off," Clarence said with a laugh. "After the fourth time, we heard one of her entourage say, "He's not as dumb as she has convinced herself to believe he's having us chase a ghost for some reason."

That comment made both Bridget and I smile. Bridget's parents had been followed around all day. Each stop was further down the social ladder for Dinah and her entourage. It made me wonder if Dinah would clue into what was really happening. If she ever got to talk to me again, I knew that one of the excuses she would use was 'I did it all for you.'

As we ate our dinner, we explained what had happened since Dinah got served.

Bridget said to her parents, "We were talking last night about our relationship going forward. Trey said; 'Do you think we can put the needs of the other first like they did?' I said that they had been working at it for years. What you don't know mom and dad, is that we were both talking about you."

Clarence got a big smile on his face, his wife got teary-eyed.

"I got my clothing and personal items out and back to Bridget's house thanks to your help. Bridget said I had to try every piece on." I said. "What your daughter thought didn't compliment me got put in a pile for goodwill. We dropped them off on the way here."

"Get used to it Trey," Clarence said. "I've been married to her mother for thirty-five years and my wife still does it."

"DAD," Bridget said.

He responded, "What we all know it's the truth."

Both her father and I started to laugh. I went to pay for the meal and her father went to stop me. It ended up with both of us holding the ticket, so I said, "Let us, you have already done so much for us today, so give us a chance to show you our appreciation."

"Clarence, just listen to him," Heidi said, "He wants to be your equal. You wanted to be treated the same way by my dad. Do you want to play the game of one-up Manship with him? Remember it took years for my dad and you to come to an understanding."

Clarence smiled and so did I we both had to admit she was right. He said "That wisdom over the years has talked me through a lot of things. Each time she does it, it's done out of love and with a knowledge that sees things from both sides. Some of my greatest accomplishments have come because I listened to her."

With that said he took his hand off the ticket. Bridget whispered, 'thanks, dad.'

Bridget's mother's face glowed in a visible blush before she said, "Don't worry about these two they're going to make it. After all, he is like us made from the Missouri red clay. He will listen to reason like you always have and won't be corrupted into believing perception."

----------

Dinah Richards was exhausted. It had been a day of chasing a ghost around the city. Every time they located him; he was gone. She felt that after a few hours they would be able to sit down and talk about why he had got it all wrong. Perhaps there was a chance that she could have the operation reversed since it appeared to be the problem that had started all of this. Now all she wanted to do was go home and soak in the tub.

Thankfully the event she had to attend she could sit and allow others to come to her otherwise she would not have made it through the early part of the evening. The twitters of the event and what she had found interesting had been received well. Because of the long day she had come home early It was when her entourage dropped her off that she realized they all had been played. The bay doors of the garage were open. Trey's pride and joy was gone. He had outmaneuvered them all. It was he that had them all looking like fools.

Entering the house, she found the garage door opener and the house keys when she set down her purse. Walking into the spare bedroom she saw that most of his clothing was gone. To Dinah that was the moment she realized there was no hope. Trey had found a way to move on with his life. It was then that she realized that in the pursuit of her dream she had slowly driven him out of her life.

Dinah was sitting in the dark crying because in her own way she truly still loved Trey. In a big way, she began to realize it was who and what she associated that had pushed her directions, activities, and thoughts as she built her new persona. Dinah had never seen that in doing so she had lost sight of who and what she was.

---------

Bridget clicked the door garage door opener as I backed my car in. We had been so busy talking about the dinner we had shared with her parents that we forgot to check to see if anyone was home at my former residence.

Sunday, we got up early and went out for the day, again it was a day of discovery that drew us closer. It was almost ten at night by the time we got back.

As soon as we were in the house Bridget took the roast beef out and started making the sandwiches for me to take to work.

"What do you want on them," Bridget asked.

"Butter and a little bit of salt and pepper," I said. "Anything else makes the bread soggy by lunchtime."

I watched her make three sandwiches for me and place them in separate zip lock bags. Then taking a brown sandwich bag out she wrote my name on it. Bridget saw me tear up.

"What's wrong," She asked.

"Nothing, I just see you packing my lunch for what it is," I replied. "That's all."

"What's that my mom still does it for my dad all the time," Bridget replied.

"A simple act that is done out of love," I replied.

"Mom, after she caught me with my head on your shoulder sound asleep warned me that you had a gentle soul. I asked her why it was a warning. She replied my grandfather was like that and he and grandmother had ten children."

I couldn't help it, I started laughing and said, "Those were the days before birth control, and it was the twinkle in his wife's eyes that caused it all to start."

She had just finished cleaning up when her phone rang. Her dad worried about the neighbor had arranged for a limo to pick us up and drop us off at work for the next month.

Talking her into my arms I leaned down and kissed her passionately. She responded in kind. Slowly things progressed as we began moving slowly to the bedroom. It was time and we were ready. It was a night when we both put the needs of the other first. By the time we were done discovering all we could about each other it was almost time to get up.

While showering together for the first time as we got ready for the day the first time as a couple, I washed her body down. She went to work glowing in frustration because by the time I was done she was just as ready as I was to hop back into bed.

___________________

The limo dropped me off at my firm first. I was wearing a black pin-striped suit for the first time. With my briefcase I was carrying the bagged lunch Bridget had made for me. On the way to my office, I stopped at our luncheon room to put my bag in the fridge. The receptionist who was making the first pot of coffee for the day looked at me add whistled.

"A new suit, a new image, and a huge smile so early in the morning," She said. "Who is she and how long has it been going on?"

I just laughed and responded, "What makes you think it's that? Maybe it's just being free from the past."

"No Trey, you have the look of a man who is discovering real love for the first time," She said. "I'm happy for you and her. I hope she feels the same way."

I was in the luncheon room eating the first of my three sandwiches at the mid-morning point when the receptionist came in saying, "Are you expecting a client this morning."

I said, "No Mondays are usually set aside for reviewing my clients' accounts to make sure they're still heading in the right direction."

"Emerson Stevens here wanting to talk to you," She said. "What should I tell him?"

"Tell him where I am," I said. "And find me a cup he can use."

When Emerson came in. I stood up to greet him.

"Well Trey you're finally dressing for success, I like the new look," he laughed. "Roast beef sandwiches that are homemade, I'm impressed."

"I guess you're here to talk about Dinah," I said. "How are you and the better half handling it."

"I broke the news to her Friday afternoon right after getting a copy of your divorce papers. Did you know that my wife has a sister just as dirty and conniving as Dinah?" He explained. "I told her that you had warned me about what she had done to prepare me."

"She wants you to know that we will always consider you part of the family," Emerson explained, "The New York Times has an interesting story about Dinah and her entourage running all over the city Saturday looking for something that they couldn't find. They were wondering why she was out of her normal high society spots and slumming down."

"Guilty as charged I needed to get my clothing out of the house," I said." By the time I got home Friday night, she and her entourage were already there. So, I had someone holding my cellphone with the GPS on figuring she knew someone who could track it."

"Just so you know, Dinah believes you have found someone new," Dad explained, "because you had to have help to pull off what you did. All of your contacts that she knew said they hadn't heard from you all weekend. She blames the person who helped you for making her look like a fool. She is bound and determined that when she finds the bitch, her words not mine she's going to put her in the hospital."

"Thanks for the warning Dad, she's right because she pushed the two of us together. They were best friends for years," I said. "Both Mom and you have met her a few times. It started after I had moved to the spare bedroom because Dinah felt I needed to be watched so whatever I did or said, did not interfere with her agenda. So, Dinah asked Bridget to monitor my movements and thinking while she came up with a scheme to defuse the situation, she had pushed us into."

He sat there looking at me for a few minutes and said with seriousness. "Dora and I think the world of Bridget. Do Clarence and Grace know?"

"They were the ones moving around the city with my cellphone," I said, "Over dinner, they said it was the best fun they had in years. To be honest, neither Bridget nor I were looking for a relationship but with the situation, we were both put in by Dinah caused us to be together a lot and it happened."

"Trey do you think it's going to get serious between the two of you," my father in law asked?

"I was on my way home on Friday to have the locks changed when Bridget informed me Dinah and her entourage were already there waiting to confront me when I got home. I ended up staying the weekend at Bridget's. Both of us can see us achieving the kind of life we want but neither has had."

My father in law picked up his cellphone and called Clarence Smith setting up a lunch meeting and then said, "I want to see if Clarence and I can get you both out of where your living. Dinah is on the warpath. She believes its outside interference that has caused all these problems, not her own conduct. Her Aunt caused a lot of problems when her marriage broke up and ended up doing time because of her extreme actions. She like Dinah could not accept responsibility for her own conduct. I think some separation of space might be the best prescription for now."

"Dad I read the New York Times gossip ladies articles on Dinah to her before I moved to the spare bedroom and said who am I to argue with the truth of the most respected liberal paper in the United States." I said, "Then I asked her to prove to me that she wasn't having an affair knowing dam well that she couldn't."

It hit him for the first time that she by her own conduct had built a case against herself, so he said, "She marketed herself into millions and out of a marriage at the same time. It's sad that she will never understand that."

I was sitting in the little luncheon eating my last two roast beef sandwiches at lunchtime when the President walked in. "I hear you had Emerson Stevens sitting in here with you this morning, anything I should be concerned about?"

"No, not really, he was just touching base, catching up on a few things before his luncheon meeting with Clarence Smith," I said as I stood up and closed the door to the room. "Off the record, they have been casual acquaintances for years. Their daughters used to be best friends."

"And you have a personal relationship with both if my understanding is right." The President said. "That explains a lot of things. Some in the business think their organizations would make a good merger."

"Sir I don't get involved with their actual business operations. If they want business advice, I tell them that its best that I stay out of it because it could cause a conflict of interest and affect my career." I said in a serious tone. "But I have offered to put a few experts together if they needed it because I have a few that are good clients."

"Trey I think from now on you should just call me by my first name. A man who walks in the shadows of those two men is very trusted by them." He said. "It also shows what they think of your character."

"Ok Gordon I can do that," I said.

As soon as he left the luncheon room I knew and understood fully this game we called life. My boss based on what his perception saw, had made a decision about me based more on what he assumed than what he knew. It showed to me just how important truth and honestly were because his perception had nothing do to with what I knew to be the truth.

Bridget called me around one o'clock. Emerson and her father were gone for lunch together and she wanted to know what was going on. The first thing I told her was how much I had enjoyed my three sandwiches then I explained what Emerson had told me.

"To Dinah, I've become the reason for the end to her marriage," Bridget said. "Her perception has distorted the reality of it all."

"It's sad when one's view won't allow one to see their own part in a situation. Dinah is trying to manipulate, and control other's view of things has caused herself to lose the ability to see the truth." I said. "It's sad because she has proven that we as humans will only see what we want to see. The lies, truth, or facts mean nothing. It's our perception of things the guide our thinking."

"It's been crazy here," Bridget said. "I guess we were seen when we went to Coney Island. So, everyone knew thanks to the gossip that I was dating. Then my assistant saw my face today and asked who he was, and when did you realize that you were in love?"

"I got it too, the receptionist was making coffee when I put my lunch in the fridge. She said I looked like a man who had discovered real love for the first time. I told Dinah's father about us this morning and how we got together. He's meeting with your dad to figure out a way to get us out of being right next door to Dinah."

"Emerson is worried about us, wow there must be something else going on in his wife and his mind," Bridget said. "For him to take extreme steps like this. Does he believe she's that dangerous?"

"Not to herself, but to us maybe," I replied. "Because like so many in our society truth, honesty, and the facts don't mean a thing. It's their own perception that matters. I think Emerson sees that that's what's leading his fear for our wellbeing."

"But we haven't done anything but fall in love, thanks to her own interference with our lives," Bridget stated. "Can't she see that?"

"Not in her perception," I replied. "Because she has already erased it from her mind."

The silence after my last remark was deafening. Bridget was realizing just how twisted Dinah was making this. I knew that Dinah believed in her own eyes that she walked on water and could do no wrong. She had no checks and balances in her life. As a result, she had lost her judgment between what was right or wrong,

Finally, after a few Bridget said, "Our mistake is that as a result of her conduct we fell in love. If what we see is right? What price is she going to force us to pay?"

I really didn't have an answer to her question, and I told Bridget so. Our conversation brought out an understanding of our current situation and how serious it was.

"Emerson, I believe, has a right to be worried," I said. "Neither one of us has a clue to what Dinah will do."

End of part 2 part three coming soon.