The Halloween Party

Picking up on that there was something about Abigail's past that bothered her mother, Hank tried to keep things on the present. "Mrs. Velazquez, Did Abbey tell you that we are taking dance lessons together?"

Not wanting to reveal that she and her daughter don't actually speak very often, she replied, "No. I didn't know that. Ballroom?"

"Latin."

"Ooooh. I'm jealous. That sounds like fun."

"You should come with us sometime."

She surprised Abigail when she said, "I just may do that."

After having been at the table a while, and having three glasses of Sangria, Abbey needed to go to the restroom. She hated leaving Hank with her mom for fear of what she might say, but sometimes nature's call cannot be denied.

After she excused herself and disappeared to the back of the restaurant, Marelys asked, "So, I hear that you love my daughter. Is this true?"

"Very much so. I started getting to know her over a year ago, but when I needed someone in my life, recently, she was there for me. She is a special lady."

She wondered if he would still feel that way after Abigail told him the truth; if she told him the truth.

"I'm glad you feel that way. You seem nice. I'm glad she has someone like you in her life."

"Ma'am, I don't know what has separated the two of you, but I know that she would like the two of you to be closer. I would like to encourage and help that if I can. I know my mother loves her, but she would like for her mother to love her, also."

She was surprised he was so forward in that statement. She thought, "How dare he suggest I don't love my daughter." She was about to give him some history that she was certain he didn't know, but she saw Abigail returning to the table with that nervous look on her face that Marelys had seen so many times over the last decade. She could tell that her daughter loved this man, and that he loved her. Abigail only had that look when she was scared, and Marely had seen that look too often during her most recent visits. Marelys realized, rather than comforting and guiding her only child, she had been scolding her and pushing her away.

How vindictive would she have been had she allowed her anger to reveal all Abigail's secrets to Hank? She wouldn't do that to her daughter, to them. Actually, she wanted them to be happy. Maybe things really were different now. Marelys didn't reply to that, but when her daughter sat, she took her hand and squeezed it. The first genuine affection between the two of them in years. Even this small show of love surprised Abigail, and she struggled to keep the tears in check. She didn't let go of her mother's hand, though.

Hank pulled out his phone and proceeded to show Marelys a picture. "This is the two of us from her company's Halloween party; our first night to dance together, and a night I really needed a good friend. She's very special to me, and not only because she's beautiful on the outside. She's beautiful on the inside, too."

Marelys studied the picture for a moment. She loved how her daughter had dressed for the party, and thought she looked beautiful. She appreciated that the costume pulled from her past heritage. Seeing them together in that picture, and this evening, she hoped that things would work out well for them.

When they returned her mother to her home, the mood was quite different from earlier. They escorted her to just inside her door, and Marelys hugged her daughter and kissed her on her cheek. "Call me, my sweet." It was the first time Abigail had heard that term of endearment since her father died.

"I will."

She kissed Hank on his cheek and whispered, "please be there for her like she was for you. She's going to need you."

Hank understood. He didn't know all the details yet, but he would.

On the drive back they were both lost in their own thoughts. Hank for what was to come, and Abigail for what had just transpired. Before pulling into their home, Abigail could see the worry on Hank's face. Not sure exactly why he seemed stressed she asked, "Are you okay, baby?"

"Hmmm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I've been thinking about you and your mom. That's all."

Abigail was fairly certain that was the first time that Hank hadn't told her the whole truth. Now she WAS concerned. When they entered the house, they set their things on the bar in the kitchen, and as she had done the other evening, Abigail dropped her dress and walked up the stairs. She needed Hank to make her feel like they were still a couple.

This time, Hank didn't go bounding up the stairs. He trudged up them fearing what he was about to learn. He was determined, though, to take Marelys' words to heart. Abigail needed him to be there for her; he would do that no matter what.

When Abigail saw him walk in the room with that look on his face, she was terribly afraid. Still in her underwear, she had pulled down the covers, hoping he would join her in removing them. When he sat on the side of the bed and began slowly removing his clothes, she got under the covers and pulled them to her neck.

As he continued to disrobe, he spoke, "Did I ever tell you about my trip to Barcelona a couple of years ago."

She didn't speak and simply shook her head left to right. "Our company partners with several other companies to exchange new employees after their first year. It's only for a couple of months where we work on projects from overseas. It allows us, once we have a little experience, to see how others in our business operate; how they think.

"I could have been assigned to projects in Tokyo, Sydney or Shanghai, but I was lucky and was sent to Barcelona."

She said, "I remember your going. Jennifer wasn't very happy about your being gone for two weeks."

"That's right. I wasn't either, but it was very good professionally for me. Anyway, I was with another junior engineer from our Houston office. We had been there a few days and our hosts were very gracious. There was a senior manager, from Barcelona, very fluent in English, Spanish and Catlan, who translated everything for everyone. The first several days there, we hadn't heard anyone but him speak in English. For a few minutes everyone had left the conference room, including the senior manager, except for the Houston engineer, another of the Barcelona managers, and me.

"The junior engineer from Houston, started to be very critical of their process for developing the exterior attachments for granite and glass onto their new buildings. I thought that was the whole point of our being there, which was to see how other companies do it. So I told him so. Then I left the room, not wanting to have that conversation in front of one of our hosts.

"The host company took us to several buildings for which they were managing the design in Barcelona, and they also let us meet the lead architect for that huge cathedral they are still building there, the Sagrada Familia. It was a very good trip. The night before we were preparing to leave, the manager that was in the conference room with us sat across from us at dinner, and in perfect English, began asking me what I thought about the week. He completely ignored the engineer from Houston.

"When we returned, the engineer from Houston was reprimanded and now several years later is no longer with our company. When in Spain, I could understand a little Spanish, but was never very good at speaking it. So that first weekend at my parents, when my dad said we didn't speak Spanish, he was only partly correct. I don't speak it very well, but I can understand bits and pieces; especially if I have some idea about what is being discussed -- like me. I suspect my dad picks up almost as much as me, but like me, he struggles to find the words and verb tenses when speaking.

The whole time Hank was talking, Abigail was becoming more and more pale.

He continued, "Have you ever heard the expression, 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing?"

Abigail nodded her head.

"So after Thursday, with my mom and tonight with yours, I know there is something from your past that you are supposed to tell me. I know it impacted your relationship with your mother. I know you are worried about it. I'll tell you up front; I really don't care about your past. No. I take that back. What I meant to say is that, we all make mistakes. I'm sure that as our relationship continues to grow and we spend more and more time together, I will make many mistakes. Jennifer highlighted many of those for me, so I know there were quite a few; mostly trivial but some not.

"What I try to do, especially for the important things, is not to repeat them and not to betray that trust that is built over time. To my knowledge, you've never given me any reason not to trust you. So I'm not worried about your past mistakes, but I hope that you will trust me enough to share whatever is so important and know that I do want a future with you."

By now Hank was in only his boxer briefs and had crawled into bed. When he reached for his lover, she clung to him, "Please don't leave me Hank. For just a few minutes tonight, I felt like I had everything. I had you, your family and my mother. Please don't leave me. I don't want to be lonely again."

"You were there for me when I needed you. I'll be here, right beside you tonight."

"I hope you will, too, but you may not want to after you hear my story."

"This sounds like quite the story. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"It started when my father died. I didn't tell you the whole truth about what happened afterwards. I knew this conversation was coming, so I only told you a half-truth to delay until now. I really did need a good paying job to stay in college. I was so upset about my father passing and my impending financial situation that from time to time I looked distraught, or so my friends told me.

"One night, I had to attend a college function for rising junior business finance majors. We were taking a course from a guest lecturer that semester, and we were to interact with him at the afternoon function. It was supposed to help us gain confidence for talking with others in the industry in a non-threatening environment. Ha. If they only knew.

"I must have had that distraught look on my face, because as the lecturer worked the room, he found me and asked me a little about myself. I told him just basic stuff, and he said he would like to hear more about my career interests after school before he left. So, naively, I hung around. Later when there were only a few of us left he talked me into telling him more about my troubled situation. He said he would like to help me and asked if I could meet him at a restaurant later. The lecturer was Jace Roberts.

Hank started, "Isn't that..."

"Yes. He was Richard's mentor and mine for several years prior to that. I never met Richard until he joined Wilcox.

"Anyway, that night in college, I was desperate about my situation, so I thought meeting him couldn't hurt. At the restaurant I told him everything, hoping he would help me somehow. At the time, he was already a VP for Wilcox and was a real rainmaker. Even though he was only in town one or two nights per week, as part of his deal as a guest lecturer at SMU, he had a two-bedroom corporate apartment. He offered to let me stay in the extra bedroom to help me through the end of the year; no strings attached.

"I was skeptical but couldn't really turn him down. I must not have been thinking clearly, because I could have and should have walked away. He was a complete gentleman the rest of that semester and into the next year. He asked if I could attend a few business meetings with him in the evenings, for which he would provide me a stipend for food and monthly expenses. He made it clear that sex was not expected. It was purely business.

"I was thrilled, but my mother was not. I begged her to believe me that there wasn't any sex involved, and she tried, but struggled. She did not like that I spent several nights a month, when he was in town, in an apartment with Jace.

"The business meetings were legitimate, and I learned a great deal. Basically, I was just eye-candy for the night, and nothing inappropriate ever happened. I listened and learned a lot. Perfect situation, right? He was guest lecturer again the following year, but since I didn't have a class with him, he began to pursue me, gently.

"Slowly the non-business outings started. He would buy me pretty things and complement me on my hard work in school. He told me I was beautiful, but did it in such a sweet way, that I never questioned his motives. In hindsight, I believe it was a deliberate seduction, but it was a slow one.

"My senior year, after a night at the ballet, with me in a beautiful gown that I know cost several thousand dollars, he flattered me and stroked me and when he tried to kiss me, I swooned at this handsome, older man and fell for him completely. We had sex often after that, and I was rewarded lavishly. I didn't really think about it at the time, but I had become a sugar baby and he was my sugar daddy. However, I thought we had a real relationship.

"When I introduced him to my mother, she hated him immediately. She was right to hate him."

"One night he let me down gently, regarding the lack of exclusivity or true relationship, but he worked even harder to let me know how much he enjoyed my company and appreciated me both socially and professionally. I did very well at SMU, and he encouraged me to apply to the MBA school at UT in Austin. He even offered to give me a part time job with Wilcox while I was in school. It was an incredible offer.

"I excelled at school and work. Wilcox paid for my school, and Jace made sure my part-time salary was high enough to cover my living expenses. My relationship with him morphed into a friends-with-benefits relationship. I would attend business meetings with him in Austin, like I did in Dallas; and like in Dallas, I learned a lot. When I graduated with my MBA, Jace made me a generous offer to join him at Wilcox.

Hank asked, "Why do I get the feeling the other shoe is about to drop."

"You're right, because it did. I was regularly sitting in on client meetings in the evenings. He was trying to convince the owners of a new company that their IPO should be placed with our firm versus one of our rivals. The CEO of the new company had started flirting with me. He was confident and cute and seemed like a nice guy. He asked me to stay behind for drinks after dinner. I looked at Jace, and he just winked at me and excused himself for the night. So I stayed, because I wanted to stay.

"One thing led to another, and we wound up in bed. I wasn't complaining. It was seduction, not coercion, and I enjoyed it. I probably sound like a slut, but we were young, attractive and single, and I have a healthy sex drive. I'm choosey, and he seemed nice.

"A couple of days later Jace said he wanted to help me open a consulting company. He said that way I could have a side gig to bring in extra income in addition to my salary. This is the famous side gig I was telling you about when you asked about my affording this house. It's probably hard for you to imagine, but I was enthralled with Jace professionally and partially personally. He brought in so much money to Wilcox that he wasn't just getting salary and bonus. He was getting a cut of each deal. He was huge, in my young eyes, and he wanted to help me professionally.

"Once all the paperwork was completed, he deposited a large five-figure check into my account. When I asked what it was for, he said it was for helping him land the new client. He and Wilcox would each personally make over a million from the deal, and the large check was my consulting fee. I was stunned. Sex was never mentioned, nor even implied. He simply stated that my contribution to the evening meetings was a key part of landing the new business.

"At first, I was so full of myself that I thought it was my keen mind that had helped during the evening business meetings. Several months later something similar happened. New client. Cute CEO. Seduction. Bed. Sex. Five-figure payoff. I was crushed. I realized at that moment that I had become a whore and had been one since college.

"I called my mother, and instead of offering support and encouragement to leave, she mostly agreed with my assessment and told me that she had warned me about Jace. Without my mom, the person I was closest to was Jace, so I talked to him.

"Sweet, mostly-innocent me ate up his explanations. He made it all sound so logical. He made our friends-with-benefits relationship sound like a partnership and what I was doing with the clients was no different. If I could do it to support myself in college, I could do it to augment my salary as a professional. He highlighted the reason I was paid so well was because I wasn't just beautiful, his words, but that I was smarter than many of our clients and could talk like a finance veteran. He told me that I routinely had them eating out of my hand, and that made me different from anyone else he could bring to the evening meetings. He told me he wasn't inviting me for sex, but for my mind and experience. However, at that moment in time, the reality seemed very different.

"After a year or so, I was no longer in only evening meetings. I was becoming his junior partner throughout the workday, too. Now I was seeing more of a deal's finances and was more involved in their preparation. If I helped close a deal, I was beginning to see six-figure checks flow into my consulting company. I was only doing it about three or four times per year, but that was enough. Jace was happy. Mr. Wilcox, who I still think didn't know anything about it, was happy. My legitimate work bonuses were equal to my salary. I should have been thrilled, but I wasn't.

"Then the dominoes that led to me and you fell into place. Jace wanted to take over Mr. Wilcox's office in San Jose where the real money was located. Mr. Wilcox refused, because Spencer, Jr. was running that office, and Mr. Wilcox wasn't ready to bring him back to Austin yet. So Jace left to go work for a competitor out in San Jose. He invited me to go with him. He promised me I would be a VP in a few years, and I would make a fortune.

"I decided not to go. As long as I was tied to him, he would expect to be able to whore me out when he needed me. If he left, then everything after that would be on my terms. I was ready to make a break from him and make it easier for myself to stop the deal-related escorting. He was a little irritated, but we made an amicable break. Mr. Wilcox hired Gail, and I was her right-hand.

"She was a staunch feminist, though not any longer, and wanted to hire the best female talent she could find. She and I interviewed all the best schools and Jennifer was one of the girls she really liked. The difference was she didn't know about Jace's methods, and I wasn't going to work on the side anymore. I wanted to be known as only a talented professional investment banker, not as an escort that helped close deals.

"A month after Jace left, a lady approached me after work. She said she knew Jace, and he thought she and I could work together. Basically, she was a very high-end madam. She only dealt with the most exclusive of clients and thought that because of my education and experience, that I would be valuable as purely an escort, no sex involved. Of course, it started but didn't end that way. I met several gentlemen, and even one lady who only wanted me regularly on their arm for an event, dinner or dancing for the evening.

"Soon after Jennifer was hired, I met you and was immediately jealous of what Jennifer had. The more she described you to us, and Olive described Bud, the more envious I became. I wanted someone like you in my life, and then someone came along to change everything.

"I started 'dating', or escorting, an older married man. He told me how miserable he was, and how his wife didn't understand him. She talked down to him and hated him, which made me very sympathetic. He seemed like a good guy, and I enjoyed our 'dates'. After a while, I thought we were developing a relationship, and I allowed the dates we shared to become sexual in nature.