Love, Trust and Communication Ch. 06

We were sitting in the living room sipping wine after finishing diner at Gene and Curt's. Curt was looking outside through a small window then back to us. "So Emma, you and Scott put together a house and garden rehab design for Harry. That design sounds interesting, very interesting. We've got the same mobility issues here, but our land is much flatter. The deck, in sun, in shade and a windowed family room sounds wonderful."

I answered back to Curt and Gene too, "Scott here has a great knack for the garden. Did I tell you about his knack for languages too? I heard him converse in Spanish, Italian and a little bit of Polish with Mary's Aunt."

Scott butted right back in, "And more than a little bit of the Arabic wherever we were assigned to. Different dialects in different places. Somehow, I've got this knack for languages if I'm around them enough. I'm not literate outside of commercial signs and churches."

Gene spoke up looking straight at me. "And why don't you want to buy Max Contracting? I know you've been back a week and he sprung it on you on Wednesday, but why?"

Scott and I've had this conversation daily since Max told us about it. Owning a company? Employees? Taxes? Working capital? Legal issues? "Gene, we've been exploring it but there's too many unknowns. I don't know."

"Emma, let's all look at this together."

Oh no. When Scott came back into town a month ago with Mary, they ganged up on him and they got their way. We've been side-by-side ever since.

"You know the business. It's been you running it for the past three years while Max has been spending more and more time with his grandchildren since his wife passed, right?" I nodded yes. "You have great working relationships with the 4 fulltime workers that have been there for the past 15 years? Several of them even called you asking that you buy it from Max. Right?" I nodded yes again. "And you've told me over the years that with the service contracts alone are more than enough to more than break even? To handle all the overhead? You're profitable when it comes to additional jobs, and those require you to hire subs?" I nodded again. Now she looked at Scott, "You just need a good foreman and a project manager for that?"

Curt chimed in now, "You're concerned about the valuation, aren't you?"

You know that they're winning when all you are doing is listening and nodding yes.

"Two things. One. You have at work the replacement value on the capital items? I know it's required annually for insurance purposes."

Nodding, I'm getting tired of nodding yes.

"That will give you a bottom figure on the negotiations. The other part is Goodwill. For us that'll be an Accounting term for all the other stuff not in the books. When our family was thinking of selling the grain elevator, we worked with a firm that had lots of small business valuation experience. It'll be worth your while to pay for an impartial evaluation. Face it, you've been doing the books all these years. Anything hidden you'd have to know about it?"

Nodding again. "Take a step back Emma, what else is outstanding for you?"

I cleared my throat. "No business degree, no working capital, no money to buy it. Who is going to loan money to a solvent but not much more that that woman?" That's when Gene looked a more than a bit riled and started to speak, but Scott put his hand up to her to stop. He reached into his pocket and dropped on his knee. He handed me a ring, an antique ring, a plain band, but a white metal that couldn't have been silver from the weight.

"Ms. Emma Riley, would you marry me? Would you wear my grandmother's ring as an engagement ring? Will you spend the rest of our lives together? May we marry our fortunes together?"

He never did things half way. "Mr. Scott Jones I would love to marry you and ..." he reached over and pulled my face to his. This was right, there are no misgivings, there are no questions.

Curt went into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of real champagne. "We've been saving this for an occasion. And this is an occasion worthy of it."

Our lives, so much was said, so much was shared. Was it a surprise? No, but it was. We celebrated for over an hour, talking about everything and what it meant to us. At a point in time, Scott and I both profusely thanked them both for all their help to Scott and me, to bring us back together. They were gracious and said you're welcome, but moved the conversation to other things.

The conversation returned to buying Max's business. "Emma, we have capital. My mortgage on the farmland will be paid off next month. Ever since I thought you were in a three way.." At that Curt coughed and sputtered. He looked at Gene in a most solemn way, "Tell them why you helped them both. It's been 53 years. They've been great friends of ours, tell them. We haven't told a soul outside of my family. This will help them to understand us, as well as themselves."

With a bit of sorrow in her eyes, she looked at Curt, but he nodded to go ahead. Then she started talking in a reserved and sorrowful voice. This was not the Gene or the Curt we were familiar with.

"Emma, you may remember that once I told you I wasn't always an upstanding country lawyer. When I was a newly minted lawyer, I got a position at the largest law firm in the tri-county area. I was pretty proud of myself. Actually, I was pretty full of myself. We were married while I was going to Drake law school in Des Moines. Graduated, passed the bar and Curt and I bought this house. As you know, Curt's family owns the grain elevator and he was the son that got the job of running it. It didn't make us wealthy, but we were comfortable.

To fit in at the law firm, I'd socialize after work. At first I was getting home by 6, then 7 then it was 8 or 9. Kept telling Curt it was to be part of the team. Remember, this was the early 60's, 1961 to be exact. A woman lawyer? You've both seen Mad Men on cable?" I nodded yes. That show doesn't portray a great working arrangement for young women. "I thought that I needed to do everything possible to make it in the lawyer business, to get ahead. This was a decade before woman's lib, a woman's place was still in the home and I was trying to make it as a lawyer. Women had to be better in order to even be considered for anything. I was flying high.

"I had won a couple of cases that brought me some fame and some good money to the firm. We went out to celebrate. It was work so Curt wasn't invited. I got home that night at about 2:30 and had to be at the courthouse in the next county at 8, so woke up and left before 7 that next morning.

"I came back home at about 7 that evening and saw that Curt's car wasn't there. On the kitchen table, there was a white bra and panty set with a note." That's when she looked at Curt.

"With the hours she was working, I was taking care of the house. I collected the clothes to be washed that morning and saw them. They weren't hers. Right color and size, wrong brand and worn. I remember waking up that morning and thinking something was not right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. That's when it struck me. She smelled different. I got her nightgown and smelled it. There were other people's smells on that fresh nightgown, smells that weren't hers. I knew what happened, she'd been unfaithful. Our years together at college, her years at law school, our marriage. All up in smoke in one instant.

"I called my brothers that morning and went over the details. Small town, phone calls and the picture came together. After the bar, Gene went back to the house with the law firm's owner and his wife. I heard her come in at 2:30. The bra and panties were the other wife's. They did look like Genes, the same size, but they weren't hers.

"There was an open position as an elevator manager in southern Minnesota. We knew the owner. He had recently taken ill and needed a replacement immediately. I took the job, took my clothes, took my car, left the note and didn't look back. Didn't look back for months. Told my brothers that it was over with my wife and not let her know where I was at. If I ever decided to talk with her, I'd know where to find her. They'd be keeping tabs on her. "

Gene spoke next. "I saw that note and the underwear and cried. He knew. He didn't know the details, but he knew that I stepped out of the marriage. My flying high world collapsed in an instant. He was right to leave, to leave me without a word. I was the one that fucked up, the one that disgraced him, that destroyed the marriage. I was the one full of myself. Pride goeth before the fall.

"I tried to talk with his brothers, but they gave me the cold shoulder and said that they didn't know where he was at. And don't bother coming back to ask again. I was at wits end and went into a pretty deep depression. Pain, anger at myself, recrimination. I was at the point of wanting to hurt myself.

"In two weeks, Curt's disappearance was well known the community and the owner of the law firm and his wife and I were the talk of the town. His business suffered and I was let go. I made sure that I received a severance package to keep me going for a while. It was all in our best interests for me to be quiet and paid.

"That's when I called Debora, our sister-in-law and pleaded to speak with her privately. I said that I wouldn't ask her any questions about Curt, but I needed to speak with her. We had had a good relationship before. She agreed to meet me before church one Sunday.

"I started out telling her what a self-centered full of myself idiot I've been to waste a marriage on trying to fit in, to get ahead and a little bit of alcohol fueled pleasure. That I didn't deserve her wonderful brother-in-law that I had thrown to the side. That there was no way for me to make amends. I was pretty honest, brutally honest with her. I didn't pull any punches. We, well, it was mostly me that talked about an hour. She began to understand that my sorrow was for having destroyed a good man and having fallen so low. It was not to whine about where I was at in life now. She heard that it was not a pity party for me, it was repentance for having done bad to Curt.

"At the end of that hour, she asked what I wanted from her. I said that I needed to start counseling, I was starting to think of hurting myself, permanently. That shocked her because she knew by then that what I said was real. I had picked out 4 different counselors, all 50 to 70 miles away in different directions. That's when I said that I had no hope of ever talking to Curt again, but if it ever could happen, it could be in a therapist's office as a neutral third party. I'd like to pick the one where Curt wouldn't have to drive so far to get to. She pointed out the third one on the list, about 70 miles northwest from here. I started crying and she held me. The first human touch in a month, since that night.

"Started my own law practice that week and therapy at the same time. It was slim for quite a while, but the two cases I won before I was unfaithful helped. In the first couple of months, I got several divorce cases. Then word got out that I was pretty impartial and worked to get the couples back together. I teamed up with some of the local therapists. Sometimes I brought them clients that I'd never see again, sometimes they brought me clients that they'd never see again. I built a reputation, a good reputation this time. All the while I was seeing my therapist attempting to get my life in order.

"Curt humbled me by leaving. By doing that, he changed my life, changed my life for the better. I tried to keep that going with my clients. I'd refused cases where I didn't think that the party was doing anything but be nasty. If they weren't going to work my program, I wouldn't take them on.

"It was about 7 months after I stepped out on Curt and our marriage when Debora showed up at my office waiting room. She asked that we go into my office for privacy. We talked about my life since. Asking questions, she heard from me about what I'd learned in therapy, what I've done with sometime possible divorce cases and the number of marriages and families that I'd saved.

That's when she confronted me in a good way with my recent behavior, where I've been and where I was going. She saw that I was trying to redo my life, to be better, to be a real person, not a soulless slut. She then asked me if I'd like to write Curt a letter. I was floored. I protested that I'd burned him so bad that I wouldn't do any good but open his wounds, but she shut me up right away. She said that I also needed to offer to him the place and times of my counseling sessions now. Then I should wait to see what happens. It took me three weeks to put it all together. The counselor and I worked on many issues for that letter. I was frightened, but I did it." She looked at Curt and nodded.

"By this time, it's been 8 months away from her and I had started a new life. Same kind of job but no one around to support me, or to support. Not much to do in these small towns, and I wasn't going to start a new relationship while I was still legally married. I sent many hours on the road going to St. Paul/Minneapolis for weekends. I wasn't going anywhere near Iowa. I was still grieving the loss of my marriage.

"Then this letter came to me inside a letter from Debora. Deb tells me that it's from Gene, that she asked Gene to write it to me. She said that Gene felt that she had totally destroyed our marriage and didn't deserve anything from me. Debora also wanted a private letter back herself on what I felt.

"It took me two days to open it. It was 3 pages long and evidently tear stained. I still ave it somewhere. Gene owned all that she had done and went beyond all she had done that night. She also told me what she was learning about herself in therapy these couple of months and apologized for much of the way she had been approaching life and me, especially me. She begged my forgiveness and said that she would file for divorce so I could start a life over again, free and clear of her.

"She ended with the name, address and dates of her counseling sessions so we could work out the details of the divorce, so I could have a new life. To say the least, I was floored. I called Deb on the phone. That phone bill ended up being $40. You have no idea of how many tanks of gas it would have been in those days. She convinced me to go to the session."

"When Curt was sitting there when I walked in, I started crying. I knew it was all over for me. I excused myself for a few minutes to get myself back together and face the music I wrote."

"Gene was thinking it was all over, but I wasn't so sure it was over. She owned what she did and changed and tried to go forward in life helping others. We ended up going to these sessions for the next 6 months before I asked her out for coffee afterward. That signaled a change for me."

"When he asked me for coffee, I realized that we really had been making some headway. During those months, I told him exactly what happened. The extended going out after work, the alcohol, the innocent to later not so innocent touching and finally the alcohol fueled three way. I told him about starting over, about trying to make a positive difference in families, of turning my life around. I was no longer chasing fame and riches. I wanted to make amends to the world for the evil I did to him. That's the right word, evil."

"It was another three months until I felt that I was healed enough to come back home, even then I chose to sleep in the den for the next 5 months after that."

"One of the first things that Curt did for me when he came back home was to take me to see his family. I was frightened, but with me present, he told them outright that I was to be brought back into the fold. He would not tolerate me being excluded, talked about behind our backs, snubbed or dismissed in any way. If anything like that happened, he would be giving whoever did it hell. He never had to admonish anyone. With some initial misgivings, I ws back within the family."

"I still was not completely sure of Gene. Unfaithfulness is so damaging. But we continued to see the therapist every two to three weeks. I saw the legal work she was doing and what people were saying about it. It helped that the other couple closed shop in town and moved to the larger county seat a town over. They were also ostracized, more so than Gene.

"Gene rebuilt her business relationships from the couples work and the family work she was picking up. At a certain point, over a year and a half after it happened, I came back to bed unannounced. I haven't left yet." That's when he reached over and held her hand tenderly.

"You couldn't imagine the joy that that gave me. What I did to Curt was never forgotten, never to this day. But for more than 50 years, we've been a team again ever since. I got over ever trying to be the biggest and most respected lawyer in these parts, but instead I became the best wife and the best person that happens to be a lawyer I could be.

"Emma and Scott, when you had your incident that blew away your worlds, I felt for you both. It was Curt here that asked that I get involved, and I gladly did that. So does all this make much sense to you both now?"

Everything is set. I know it, it has to be. We've gone over it several times last night and once more before going to sleep. Scott's been so patient with me. Is it still 4:15 AM? AM? Why am I wide awake at 4:15 on my wedding day? I need some sleep and we have to get out of bed by 7. Stuff to do at the church, the tent and tables are already set up at Gene and Curt's. Letting us have the reception there was so sweet of them. I think that they wanted to show off what we built. We let them invite who they may. It'll be great to see their other friends. Knowing Gene and Curt, they know that this is marketing. A grand opening for Max Construction's new owners.

Why did everything have to come together at the same time? The wedding, buying Max's business, Gene and Curt's deck and backyard work in one month, the exact month before the wedding. Then there was Gina and Mark.

The deck and backyard work, Gene and Curt loved what we did so much. Talking about it to them when we got back from the west coast, they fell in love with the idea.

Then Scott met Mark when Mark delivered supplies to the job site at Gene and Curt's. Could it have happened later, or before? Mark changed. Scott almost didn't recognize him. Lost weight, clean cut, clearness in his eyes, honesty in his voice. Scott said he saw a serenity, and a sorrow. Mark had to apologize to Gina, and needed an in. Scott and I were the in. Where have I heard that one before?

That was three weeks ago. Wrong time for us, the right time for them. After what Gene and Curt did for us, there was no way we wouldn't do it for him, and do it right away. I even used the same lines on Gina as Gene did on me. It was so hard for Gina to talk with Mark again. It may have helped a little bit that he had paid off months ago the entire wedding that didn't happen. And that we were there, both of us. We were with them both. Then Gina heard the real Mark straight from his own mouth. Actually straight from his own soul. Why he was a loser and why he no longer was. Sexually abused by one of his mother's boyfriends at 11. He had no place to go with it, that young, that vulnerable, that so alone. Shame, fear, all the craziness over the years. Self-medicating with whatever he could find, weed, alcohol, PlayStation, sex with women wherever he could find it. Mark hit the wall after the wedding, but only got help after Scott got him into therapy after the bar. That bar was when he hit bottom.

Those two weeks in rehab and then individual sessions and some with his mother. His mother finally heard and then understood the why he was lost, why he was doing drugs all the time. It's been a year since the non-wedding, and 7 months after almost getting arrested. I've never seen Mark so clear, so honest. He attempted to make all the amends he could to Gina, a sincere apology for years of his craziness, years of treating her poorly. An apology with a single' but' in it is not an apology, and there were none in his. He then apologized to me in front of Gina for what he did. I even saw Scott tear up a little bit. Those two planned this together I bet. They are kindred souls in a way.