Long Road to Find a Heart

"Eager to get in and at it; that's what I like to see," smiled the president.

"Yes Jerry," she said struggling to speak in a Scottish accent. "To the ramparts."

He laughed eyeing her and she thought he might be thinking executive material but then she amended that, he being male, could be thinking something much more basic.

A week later, after a three-hour cut-and-thrust session, her legal team called for a brief adjournment while Mac contacted Michael who'd not bothered to show up for this session. He returned smiling.

"Go off and have lunch Greer. My client has accepted your latest list of amendments. The papers will be ready for signing at 2.30 unless you have further matters to resolve."

"No, wheel Michael in at 2:30 for the signing."

During lunch Greer called Thomas and left a message for him to call her. He called back ten minutes later.

"We are signing final agreement of settlement at 2.30. Are you available for dinner at my home that is to be sold as part of settlement?"

"Yes. I'd love that. Does that include an invitation to stay the night?"

Greer almost choked. God he was rushing it, wasn't he. But she had thought having a hot affair with him. Well why stall?"

"Um we could think about that. I guess you are free to do that?"

"Yes there was woman on tap for dining out with. I finished with her, letting her down gently, the evening of that day when you and I had our little chat. I wanted to be free for when you were ready."

"Ready for what?"

"Who knows? My thinking is not to rush beyond sex and see how we go. We'll do more than having sex and in time will become aware of our depth of compatibility."

"You mean something long term."

"That's been my thinking. A day doesn't go by without you being in my mind."

"Oh Thomas."

"Oh Greer."

"Seven will be fine. You know the address."

CHAPTER 3

At 3:30 Thomas was called to the boardroom to find the three partners sipping champagne.

"Sit Thomas while I pour you some bubbles. My marriage annulment settlement with my wife has been signed, hence this celebration. Mac has just told us he called you in to try to knock some sense into Greer."

"I wouldn't call it sense Michael, more like appealing to her to get her emotions in check and to think of the settlement as solely a business deal."

"Well it worked and thank you."

"I find Greer attractive Michael."

Michael slopped champagne out of his half-filled glass.

Mac and Tony were now looking at Thomas intently.

"Have you been fucking my wife?"

Thomas said easily, "Would you care to rephrase that question Michael? Ask reasonable questions and I'll answer them."

"What have you been doing to me wife behind my back?"

"Until this moment nothing, but that is likely to change. I was asked to consult with her without any discussion of fee and I thought it was in the interests of this firm not to have one of its partners engaged in a protracted settlement wrangle that could possibly end up in court and in the Sunday newspapers. So I agreed to Mac's proposal that I have a quiet word with Greer."

Michael continued to eye Matt malevolently but Matt continued unfazed.

"Mac set that up and I had the meeting and have had no other contact with Greer until she called me this afternoon to thank me for my involvement."

Michael looked furious and said, "Are you prepared to swear that's the truth?"

"What is this Michael, and interrogation? As I stated before I will answer reasonable questions."

Mac said, "Steady Michael. Thomas you must realize this relationship between you and Greer, however slender it is at present, could prove embarrassing for Michael."

"I do but my logic tells me the potentially embarrassing situation was set up purely by Michael seeking the annulment of his marriage and not by his wife's marital fidelity that apparently is beyond reproach. I have to assume in her mind Geer's belief she was married to Michael ended at the time of the final showdown, or whatever it was, when Michael confessed his adultery. Any residue of belief in her marriage, if any did exist, would have ended today when Greer was advised Michael had fully accepted the terms of settlement and would be ready to sign the agreement this afternoon. We all know that annulment will now proceed automatically unless unexpected hindrances arise."

Michael choked, "And you believe in that cold-ass bitch..."

"Retract that slur immediately Michael."

"Or what, you'll hit me Thomas?"

Mac said "Michael" and Tony said, "That was a reasonable request for retraction."

"All right, are you expecting me to believe that cold-ass woman did not outline the events leading up to my declaration I would be taking steps to end our marriage."

"I was given the barest of details, I guess simply to put the action into perspective for me. There was mention of another woman but I was given no name and absolutely no further detail and no cutting accusations were made against you. And why not? Because it was none of my business and because I'd simply asked Greer to outline the events to that point and what were the areas in dispute."

There was silence until Mac said, "Michael that is exactly the line of questioning I would have expected Thomas to follow. If there has been any suggestion he's not acted professionally ever since he's been with us then I'd like to hear about it."

Matt looked at Michael. "I believe Greer has taken a shine to me Michael and am aware this could be in panic knowing she is now within an ace of being left on her own. What happens between Greer and me outside of this firm is our business and you must surely be aware of that."

"Yeah, right. I was seeing red. These are emotional times for me and costly ones. I accept I owe you because you got negotiations ready to proceed again. I have never been able to fault your professionalism and you and I have good personal relations and at times have been buddies socially. Please accept my apologies for being so bullish Thomas."

"Thanks Michael. Now let me say never have Greer and I had sex to this point or even touched in a sexy manner. I swear to that."

Michael wiped a hand across his eyes. "Open another bottle Mac. Thomas I would like you to have another drink with us, not as a means of my celebrating to move on with my life but because you are our rising star Thomas and the four of us should act like buddies socially."

"Agreed," Mac said, popping the cork.

Tony said, "Aye and well said Michael."

Thomas grinned and lifted his glass in salute but when back in his office thought he should look for a senior position elsewhere. Being expected to be Michael's buddy had no appeal.

* * *

Thomas arrived with orchids and a bottle of red wine and was handed a glass of champagne at the front door.

"Hi."

"Oh hi," Greer said holding up her lips and was kissed softly and she thought with feeling.

"That was very lovely," she said, eyes shining and taking the gifts she said thank you, that he was so kind.

"This is a night for celebration?"

"Is it? It's the death knell of my marriage."

"Okay then I'll leave and you call Michael and invite him back here to live with you again."

"Oh god no."

Thomas, relieved of his gifts, put down his champagne flute and placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed the end of her nose. "That sounds like absolute marital termination to me with you waiting for some bits of paper. You can't have it both ways Greer."

She looked at him deeply. "Oh you are so welcome. I am in desperate need of talking to someone I can trust, so thank you for coming. My best two girlfriends are not answering their phones and mom was severe, still thinking I did not make a big enough effort to save my marriage and cut the call when I said what did she mean I should jump into bed between them."

"Your mother and father have probably been thinking of the possibility of grandchildren."

Greer sighed and said he was so right. "I still would have thought my mother ought to have been sympathetic to me rather than thinking about herself and the tut-tuts of her friends."

They talked for the next half hour, Thomas being patient to allow Greer to unburden and then he told her about having three glasses of champagne mid afternoon for Mac, Michael and Tony."

"Michael was celebrating and especially invited me because I had assisted getting the wheels turning."

Greer burst into tears and said she'd know there had been a conspiracy.

They were sitting opposite on lounge chairs, a coffee table between them. Thomas made no effort to rush to comfort her as if knowing they would give her even greater opportunity of rejecting him.

Crying, Greer looked and him and thought the pig, the fucking pig.

Then Thomas floored her. He pushed across his phone and said, "Speed dial Mac on 211. Then ask Mac to tell you exactly what transpired from the time he sought my involvement."

Greer sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. "No you tell me. I still regard you as an honorable man although my belief in that is presently rather strained."

"Well Mac approached me to have a quiet word with you. Just a quiet word aimed at getting things moving again. He gave me no instructions and there was no mention of any fee. I asked Mac how could I get to you without asking for a meeting and that's where the only connection to conspiracy arose. Mac mentioned his wife met you for coffee every ten days or so and he briefed Elaine. Mac gave her the impression I wanted to meet you to ask you for a date and that excited Elaine and she agreed to say she'd left her car unlock, which she did, believing she couldn't lie to you. You know the rest."

Greer nodded and said that all sounded very plausible and tactically it made sense.

"So you were on Michael's side."

Thomas frowned. "I would like you to think back about my conversation with you to see if you can recall anything I said that would be in Michael's favor without your knowledge. I had said in truth the only way to break the deadlock was for you to modify your demands to a more reasonable level."

"Yes that is my recollection. I'm sorry for suggesting otherwise. Actually what you had said when counseling me was absolutely outstanding in making me see how I was allowing vindictive emotion to over-rule my judgment."

"I appreciate you saying that," Thomas said. "Well when I arrived in the boardroom this afternoon Michael said to me he'd invited me to join them because only minutes earlier Mac had revealed he'd sought my influence to persuade you to become a little more moderate. He said he'd not known of such an arrangement before that. Michael thanked me and that's when I admitted having become attracted to you."

"Ohmigod," Greer said, stuffing her handkerchief she was holding against her mouth.

Thomas sighed. "I feel it necessary to tell you this. Michael accused me of having sex with you and I said not at all, that the only time I'd met you alone was in the coffee house and I had had no contact with you since. He became a little out of control but I parried and Mac and Tony urged him to calm down and eventually he did and said he accepted my word. I then gave him an absolute assurance I had not touched you up to this point."

Greer's eyes widened. "Up to this point?"

"I had in mind we could be having sex tonight so I had no intention of lying to Michael and had two sound witnesses that I did say up to this point."

"Oh Thomas," Greer said, running around the coffee table to sit on his knee and to draw him into a long kiss.

But the problem was she was emotional, overly emotional and she had something to tell Thomas. After a few kisses she confessed.

"T-Thomas. I have to tell you two things."

Thomas's gut muscles tightened in expectation the slight stutter meant he faced bad news.

Heavy-eyed from weeping the previous night after feeding Thomas and knowing she'd wounded him by not rolling over for him, saying she couldn't, not while she was still married, Greer slid her phone shut.

Thomas had called, confirming he'd be at her apartment in half an hour to take her to the airport. Greer had half-thought he wouldn't bother to come and she'd go by cab.

He arrived smiling and her heart welled in sympathy. Ohmigod he was so brave. Last night he'd told her about the other women in his life who'd cut ties with him but he'd said her cut was the deepest of them all. Thank god, she'd thought, he'd not told her he was finished with her and accepted she had to make this temporary break to get her head together over the near finality of the breakup to her marriage. She just didn't want to face Michael ever again... well not until it was all over.

At the airport they kissed goodbye. Greer had taken leave for three months without pay and was going to her parents who currently lived in Montreal. She didn't invite Thomas to visit her and he didn't suggest it. They didn't say after that final kiss 'Until we meet again' or 'I'll call'. In fact it was a sad and almost robotic farewell hugely clouded in, well despair. Yes Greer had thought, turning to wave as she entered Airport Security, the word really was despair.

She looked in vain but there was no one to wave to; Thomas had gone.

Greer sniffed and said aloud, "Well who could blame him. He really has taken this on the chin so heroically."

* * *

Thomas drove from the airport thinking he'd drink and fuck his way into oblivion. There was no way a guy could live with a woman; they were so unstable.

He saw a bar but thought he'd stop at the next one. He then thought about Geer and Michael... it had not been Greer who'd walked away from that relationship. He then thought of his parents: They had maintained their relationship for thirty-six years and Greer had said her parents had been married for thirty-three years. God why was he so unstable when thinking about women?

He changed his mind about drinking himself into oblivion. That was just not him. But he was off women for life. Er was that him?

Later that day he called an executive search agency and spoke Carole who he suspected was an older and happily married woman named. Even her name sounded proper and stable and faithful. He made an appointment and emailed a copy of his CV from his law firm's website to her as requested.

It was time to move on.

Yeah that was one way of instructing one's mind to look forward rather than allowing it to stew on the past.

So Greer belonged to the past? He answered himself a little bitterly: Didn't they all?

He flew home the next weekend to visit his parents. His mom, as expected, said on the way home from the airport, "I'm rather anxious about you being not married yet."

"Is there someone special?" asked his father hurriedly, as if attempting to end that particular topic.

"No."

"We have been having a good spell of weather," smiled his father, looking across at his son who was driving. He couldn't miss the appearance of Thomas's smile.

On Monday Thomas registered at the agency and paid the fee. He was taken to Mrs Westcott and smiled.

"Please call me Carol," said the slim, efficient woman of perhaps fifty with a motherly smile.

"Everything about you is so impressive Thomas and now I have sighted you I can say very impressive."

"Thank you ma'am."

"Oh come young man," she chided. "Calling me Carol is fine; I am not your mother or you pastor's wife."

Thomas wondered if Carol had any unmarried daughters.

She produced a list of fifteen prospective opportunities for him and said there were probably 150 listings that could suit him but these were her top picks in the match to his requirements he'd given her by phone.

"Coffee?"

"Yes please Carol," he said and she made the call and carried on with her work while Thomas studied the resume of each vacancy. He short-listed three and then left to await emails from Carol of preliminary appointment times.

One position he really favored was right up his alley... chief negotiator. By remarkable coincidence the employer was Greer's bank. He was tempted to reject that and then thought he should be apprehensive of working in the same building as Greer.

After the three preliminary interviews he received two requests for second interviews and ended up with a very satisfactory deal with the bank with a three-year contract that was renewable on negotiation.

Two months later Thomas began his new job and to await the return of Greer, hopefully a rejuvenated Greer with her confusion, bad memories and regrets cleared from her mind. That first week at the bank he received a postcard from Greer with a picture of Paris: "I am touring France and Italy and am having such a wonderful time. I'm feeling much happier. XXX."

But there was no fucking return address. He felt so frustrated.

Three weeks after Greer left, Thomas took a Friday off and went on a fishing trip with two pals and their wives. One of the wives brought along her married sister whose husband was in Chile. The move had been uninvited but the intention was quite clear because there were only four double staterooms available on the 75ft motor yacht although he could have slept on a sofa in the salon or even up on the fly bridge.

Her name was Elizabeth but everyone called her Honey as she'd been called as a child, being a late arrival in the family. Honey was twenty-four and rather plain looking and appeared overweight that Thomas initially thought was saggy fat. He decided to sleep on the fly bridge sofa but when Honey appeared in a hugging black swimsuit and said she had stowed his two bags in their cabin Thomas reviewed his assessment and decided she was voluptuous rather than fat. That had him half-decided to sleep with her and late on that first night when he and Honey was alone in the Jacuzzi and she whispered she hadn't been fucked for almost a month, Thomas went in for his honey.

Honey lived with Thomas for the next six weeks until the imminent return of her husband.

It was a tragic parting. They both cried as she was leaving although Thomas only had to wipe away two tears. She'd been such a great fuck, a woman who always put 110% into it. Yes it was tragic she liked her husband too much to leave him. The husband had promised he would not take any further assignments overseas unless the company allowed him to be accompanied by his wife.

Four more rather mundane shorter term couplings with unmarried females followed and then reading the banks monthly newsletter, Thomas noted a paragraph stating the head of PR Miss Greer Pullman, as she would now be called following the end of her marriage, would return to her job on the 28th of that month.

He decided to be celibate until at least then. It was only seven days away.

Only?

He sighed.

Thomas's policy had been not to touch, not even to seriously flirt, with any female employee or client associated with the bank in case someone rubbed his nose in it if he reconnected with Greer. He was aware there had been whispers about his masculinity although those stopped when an in-bank gossiper had seen him with the voluptuous Honey. He concluded perhaps gossiping did serve a useful purpose at times.

During those crawling seven days he fretted.

* * *

"Well this is a surprise!"

Thomas shot out of his chair and almost jumped over his desk but instead skirted it and kissed Greer on both cheeks, Continental style.

She laughed.

He felt so happy.

Recklessly he cupped both breasts and waggled them and then ran a hand down her flank and said, honestly, "The bit of weight you've acquired really suits you. You had been in danger of becoming gaunt."

She hadn't pulled away when he'd cupped her; in fact he thought she'd pushed into his hands slightly. Or was that just him being pathetically hopeful?

"My healing is complete and yes I have put on a bit of weight and thank god it didn't end up only around my hips. It's pretty evenly spread."