Met His Old Lover

...laughed...cried...

"Mommy's got a new beau." His, old-for-her-eleven-years daughter Bethany intoned.

"Uh, huh."

"Don't you want to hear about him, daddy?"

"It's not really my business sweetheart"

"We really don't like him and he's not really into kids."

"I see."

"We have a baby sitter almost every night...they went away together last weekend." His son, Ben chimed in.

It was at that point that the old rage almost overtook him but he held it back. Damn that woman! They're little more than a meal ticket for that self absorbed bitch! He thought to himself as he carefully nudged his daughter on to other topics.

...in those eyes I wasn't sure...

He always cried as he made the lonely 45 minute drive home Sunday evening after leaving the kids at the airline gate. He called his attorney and friend early the next morning and read him in on the current situation regarding his ex-wife.

"What do you want to do Jeff? I'm not going to make the decision for you. You have one shortcoming in this whole issue---you don't have a wife and surrogate mother for your kids. That's not a deal breaker if we can show that her behavior and actions are clearly not in the children's interests and the judge in the case is decidedly on your side."

"I want my kids back, Lee, I want my kids back. I'm not concerned about the money...I am very concerned about..."

"Tearing them up again? I hear you. Look, we can start kicking this can down the street and if you change your mind down the road---before it gets really nasty---you can stop it and all you will have lost is money. Here's what we need to do. I've already got a deposition in the file from the shrink. He has testified in this court system numerous times and is highly regarded. Your judge reveres him. We need to get similar stuff from the school counselor, teachers, neighbors, babysitters and we need to do it very discretely. I need to hire a PI and that's never cheap. Let me give you two scenarios."

"One, the worst one, we gather all the evidence and she fights it tooth and nail, totally poisons your two kids, causes them unmitigated psychological harm and win or lose...everyone loses."

"Scenario two is the better option. We gather all the evidence, enough such that any attorney worth his salt is going to tell her---she will lose this case. And then you step in and buy your children back."

"What?"

"You buy her off, old friend! If the latest love interest truly is not interested in the kids she might very well let them go for a fairly reasonable check---particularly if this new guy has money and is really interested in a long term relationship."

"How long is it going to take?"

"Fortunately you have documented everything as I asked you to. I'll have a better idea by the end of the week."

When Jeff got home that Monday evening from work, he thought of calling Beth...telling her what he was doing. What would he tell her? I want my cake and I want to eat it too? I want you, I love you...but I don't want to lose them...can't lose them...He would wait. Lee called him late on Friday.

"Jeff, I've always tried to spare you the sordid stuff but it's worse than you thought and in a sick way, it's better. Sit down, pour yourself not more than two stiff drinks and listen up."

His ex-wife was hardly ever home with the kids, except when she was fucking her new lover under her own roof---who on at least one occasion had been seen naked by both of the children. On her weekends, she and the boy friend left the children with a sitter. The new beau had money but was a slime ball; he did seem to be interested in something long term. The romance seemed pretty serious. They had been observed shopping for rings. She was again not being truthful about her finances. She had been observed slapping her children on more than one occasion. The sworn statement from the school counselor was devastating; he was willing to testify that in his opinion, and he had a PhD and clinical credentials, the environment was potentially irreparably destructive---to both children. His analysis was the same as the one the three hundred dollar an hour shrink had provided.

"Jeff, probably the most damaging stuff comes from the baby sitter."

"Shit, Lee, how credible is some sixteen year old teeny bopper?"

"She is sixty three, a retired school teacher and a registered guardian ad litem with the domestic court down there. Her only comment when we interviewed her was, 'What took you so long?' She was within days of filing a complaint with child services."

"What happens now?"

"We put the entire package together and file a request with the judge for an emergency hearing. She gets served with it, or her attorney if she still has him under retainer, and she goes ballistic. They file for a delay. We convince the judge that a delay will cause irreparable harm to the children and if he peruses the brief he'll see it in black and white. The judge doesn't allow the delay and set's a short hearing date. We, let me correct that, I begin to negotiate. You give me the top dollar amount your willing to pay and if her lawyer is worth a shit he'll know damn well that the case is a loser. I convince him you want to spare the children the trauma---which you do---and she accepts the inevitable along with your generous check."

"What do I need to do?"

"Don't engage in any conversations with her other than minimal conversations involving visitation or child welfare issues. As a matter of fact, if she calls, don't answer, call her back with a witness present---even better, come over here and make the call, our caller ID system sends out, 'Private Caller'. You're not five minutes away from the office. Other than that, don't talk about any of this with the kids---or anyone else and don't do anything, other than pay the bill I just sent you."

"Lee, if it happens and all works out...can I move? Move out of state?"

"Which state were you thinking of?"

Jeff told him.

"We'll stipulate it. We have full reciprocation on domestic issues with that state, it would help if you were moving there either for a promotion critical to your career---particularly if it would involve less overnight travel---or to provide a more stable home environment, which is a subtle way of saying...a new mommy."

"Stipulate it. I'll work on the details and get back to you."

Jeff wanted to call Beth; again he knew it was better that he didn't. What he did do Monday morning was schedule some time with his boss. They were good friends and had virtually started together in the company; Mike had elected to move inside early on for the stability. Jeff had stayed outside for the money and freedom. It was time to make a change.

'Met my old lover...

"Mike, this has to stay between the two of us. My ex-wife is doing some really damaging things as far as the kids are concerned. There is a possibility that they may be coming to live with me...for the long haul. If that happens, it will happen pretty quickly and I need to..."

"Get a normal life? I wondered what took you so long. I guess after the divorce...only seeing the kids on alternate weekends, it probably wasn't an issue...maybe it even made it easier."

"I guess."

"Jeff, the bad news is that there's nothing here in Florida unless I get promoted and that's at least two years away. The good news is they love you upstairs and wouldn't have a second thought about promoting you. Any place in particular?"

Jeff told him where.

"Are you serious? You'd leave sunny Florida to go to that frozen city? I understand the sun doesn't shine there from October to April. The SVP slot there has been open since old Ben Phelps retired six months ago. Let me get on the phone. Do we have a time frame?"

"I'll know more by the end of the week."

"Well, same here; let's chat on Friday. Listen buddy, you're going to lose the straight commission piece, but the SVP comp has been substantially improved over the last few years and I'd think the stability of a guaranteed pay check would mean something to a judge. Plus, the bonus potential will bring you close to what you're making---and you don't have to pay any of your own expenses...hell you even get a car and since that's a higher real estate market with a higher cost of living---a cost of living bump. If it will help and assuming it goes well, I can gin up a letter that the old man will sign indicating that the move is not purely 'voluntary'. In a sense it isn't. If you ask, and they offer and you turn it down you won't get a second chance."

By Wednesday, her attorney had accepted service; she went ballistic. She called him. He didn't take the call but did call her back with his attorney's steno sitting across from him listening on the speaker phone. She said many stupid and foolish things, virtually admitting that it was about money.

...we laughed... we cried...

Friday he again met with his boss, Mike.

"Jeff, the general office---HR included---has no reservations at all but they do want you to come up for the obligatory interviews. Is there anything you can't rearrange...say Tuesday? In and out same day, I would think."

...lost...embarrassment...

When the kid's flight arrived on Friday, they weren't on it. She had failed to get them to the airport on time. He called Lee, suppressing his urge to call her.

"Let me call you right back." Lee did so thirty minutes later.

"She never even tried to get them to the airport---she's not even there! Evidently she and lover boy are gone for the night. They're alone! The sitter has been alerted and arrived a few minutes ago. A neighbor called child welfare. A formal complaint has been filed but thanks to the fact the child services people know the sitter they left the kids home under her care. I've got a call in to the judge...you're on your cell. Are you still at the airport?"

"In my car on the top parking deck so I could get decent reception."

"Stay there until I call you."

"What's going to happen?"

"I don't know yet...patience!"

Jeff waited an hour. His car phone rang. It was Lee, his lawyer.

"Go get 'em."

"What?"

"Go down and buy yourself a round trip ticket and two one way tickets back and get your ass down there and pick up your kids. You will be met at the airport by a representative from child services and a police officer who will escort you to her place and then take you and your babies back to the airport. The judge revoked her custody pending a hearing and issued a bench warrant for her arrest for child abandonment. Probably a little over the top but he is a judge. She fucked up big time on this one. Get going!"

...her eyes...so blue...

"Are we going to live with you now daddy?" His six year old little boy whispered as the three of them rode back to the airport in the back of the police cruiser.

"Honey, things are a little confusing right now. We'll get it all sorted out; mommy and daddy love you."

Lee called Jeff's house later that Friday night.

"Jeff, it's legal advice time. Take 'em down and enroll them in school first thing Monday morning. I'm going to give you the name of a private school; the principal there has extensive experience in these kinds of cases."

"When's the hearing going to be? Do the kids have to be there?"

"No sooner then Wednesday and at this stage I'm not sure you're even going to be there. The child welfare people down there---you made a very positive impression on the one who was at the airport---are preparing a pretty blistering report. Let's see where it goes."

Jeff enrolled the kids in their temporary new school first thing Monday morning. He panicked when he realized he had to be gone all day and in to the evening on Tuesday. Monday a little after noon, undecided as to what he should do, he made a call.

"Beth?"

"Jeff? Oh, God...I told you..."

"I need help and you are the only one I can turn to." And then he told her what had transpired since they had last been together.

"What can I do?"

"I know I'm asking a lot but I need you to throw some stuff in a suitcase and get on the first flight you can make and come down here tonight so that you can be here with my children...my babies...tomorrow...I'll pay for the ticket..."

"What's tomorrow?" She asked.

"I have to go ...to my headquarters...it's about my job...I can't miss it...it means everything...to all of us..."

"I'll call you back from the airport with my flight information. I've got to go."

So it was at just a little after 8:00 PM that Jeff and his son and daughter anxiously awaited Bethany's arrival.

"Who is the woman, daddy?"

"She's a very dear, very old friend. We were...friends back when I was in college."

"What kind of friend?" His son asked.

"The kind that drops what she is doing and gets on an airplane to fly to a strange city over a thousand miles away to help out a good friend and his children and that's a pretty neat and special friend, don't you think?"

"Cool." His son replied with a grin.

"Does she have children?" His daughter asked.

"She did, two little girls and a husband...they...she lost them...a terrible auto accident...two years ago."

"How long is she going to stay?" His son asked.

"I don't know, sweetheart, I really don't know."

Beth came down the jet way and recognized them immediately. Being the good mommy she had once been to her own little ones, she ignored Jeff initially and paid special attention only to his two children. She and Jeff exchanged a quick hug and a perfunctory kiss on the cheek and headed back to the parking garage. She had brought them small gifts; she elected to sit in the back with them rather than up front with Jeff. Forty-five minutes later they arrived home and all had gone well.

"Are you going to be our new mommy?" His son asked out of the blue.

"You have a mommy, sweetheart, but I want to be a very special friend...is that okay?"

"You're prettier than my mommy...nicer..." And the poor little tyke began to sob and before Jeff could pick him up to comfort him he was in Beth's arms.

Where's Beth going to sleep?" His daughter asked. Before he could answer she did so.

"I'd like to sleep in the guest room right between your two bedrooms...would that be okay?" The children were exhausted and quickly fell asleep.

"Thank you." Jeff said softly as the two adults returned to the family room.

"I don't want to leave them alone for long just in case one of them wakes up...I think it just makes sense for me to be there with them."

"I agree."

"Where is this going Jeff?"

"I don't have all the answers, Beth. I am a man, a father, trying to have his cake and eat it to...trying to hold on to his precious babies and the woman he should have spent the last fifteen years with...the woman he is hopelessly in love with. I wasn't going to call you until there was some sort of resolution but I got desperate. I..."

"I'll stay as long as you and the children need me to, baby." They held each other for several minutes and kissed softly.

"I'm going to go to bed, dear heart...your arms are entirely too inviting and I have an obligation...no, a need to be there for them. They're the most important thing in the world right now...for both of us."

Both adults retired to their respective sleeping quarters. In the middle of the night, Jeff arose to check on them...all three. He panicked when he found his son's bed empty and then his daughter's. Both children had crawled into bed with the woman he loved...a good start he thought to himself.

Jeff left early the following morning for the airport after filling Beth in on where everything was including directions to their school. She kissed him goodbye at the door as a wife kisses her husband as he leaves for work...so very beautiful in her sleep- tousled hair, bare feet and long night gown. He called Lee to fill him in when he arrived in another Northern city, his company's home office city.

"And where exactly did your old friend sleep?"

"In the guest room on the opposite end of the house from my room...the kids ended up sleeping with her."

"That's good. Just in case someone asks."

Jeff focused on the next task at hand, pushing the travails of the past few days to the back of his mind so that he would be on his game for the crucial promotion interviews. He was. Before he departed later in the afternoon, the company President made the offer he so desperately had been seeking. He told him that he simply wanted to discuss it with his family but that for all practical purposes, he was ready to take the position. He called Lee from the airport just before boarding.

"Jeff, it's going to be a little tricky tomorrow. We're on a 9:00 AM but the judge wants the children standing by in case---and I'm betting he will want to chat with them alone in chambers. So here's the way it's going to work; we all need to be there, by 8:30. The first part of the hearing will be the lawyers, the judge, the shrink, the report from child welfare, the school counselor and so on---and testimony from the baby sitter who is flying up to testify on your dime. Then I would expect his honor will want to talk to the kids for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then he will probably have you and your ex in the court room and possibly the whole family at the very end. I feel good about where we are but it is very unusual for a mother to lose residential custody of her own children so don't count your chickens yet."

When Jeff got home the kids were working on their homework as Beth busied herself in the kitchen. All were glad to see him.

"You didn't have to cook dinner, we could have gone out..."

"A family is supposed to eat dinner together at home...your family..." She said wistfully. "Go spend time with your precious ones...they are amazing...very special."

Jeff did so. The kids told him about their new school and asked about his trip. He told them he had been offered a promotion.

"Are we going to have to move again?" His daughter asked with concern.

"Well, honey, probably so but I won't have to travel as much...I'll be there to see you off in the morning and be there for dinner."

"What about mommy...is she moving too?" His son asked.

"I don't know about that sweetheart."

"What about Beth? We really like her... will she come to see us?" His son implored.

"I imagine she will...she's pretty fond of you guys too."

"Who are we going to live with?" They both asked in unison and Jeff tried to explain to them what would occur at the court house the following morning. Neither of them was satisfied with the lack of clear resolution but both, while confused, understood that uncertainty still cast a shadow over their young lives.

... she loved the man...

Bethany did love this man and his special children had quickly snuck into her heart. She had feared this kind of meeting...knew that once she got here...met his children...it would be terribly painful to leave...she wasn't sure she wanted to leave...knew she wanted...knew she belonged...they belonged...together. And he had put it all on the line...changed his life in a few short weeks...risked everything...for her...to have her...to be with her...and now it was her turn to do whatever...sacrifice whatever for this man and his family...her family? She glanced at each of her three dinner companions and for the first time in over two years...she just grinned...maybe...just maybe...as they cleared the dishes together she had made her decision. She would do whatever it took; she wanted to be part of this family more than anything in the world...whatever it took...

The kids were exhausted and went to bed on time with few complaints. Jeff and Beth sat down together in the family room. "What's going to happen tomorrow?" She asked.

"The lawyers will meet with the judge. Then I would think she and I will go in front of him. Lee says he will probably want to speak to the children privately in his chambers. Then I would hope he will make a decision but there is the chance he may want to take it under advisement."