The Worst Year

In the morning I rang work to tell them that I was coming in, and asking for an appointment with Spencer first thing.

"Well, tell all, how was your time away?" Spencer was seated behind his desk with the usual pile of paperwork waiting for his undivided attention.

"It was great. Would you believe that someone went to a great deal of trouble to replicate my honeymoon, from the hotel suite, to the meals, the trips, it was as if I was being reminded of happier times. The only down-side was that I came to realize what a stupid mistake I had made in leaving Bevan. I feel the need to find him and beg his forgiveness, but I know that he has moved on with his life and that, even if I find him, it will be too little, too late." Was it me, or did he give me a strange look? "But that is not why I wanted to see you this morning. When I got home last night I found the bastard waiting for me, cap in hand, wanting me to take him back."

"No, I hope that you're not going to tell me that you took him back." He saw the look that I gave him. "You didn't, did you?"

"No, once bitten twice shy and all of that. But it was really strange. He had been dumped by the new love of his life, left in England with no money, no passport or visa and no way of getting home."

"Couldn't have happened to a more deserving person."

"Don't expect me to disagree with you on that. But then he tells me that the bank has foreclosed on the apartment that he had 'given' me, and that I'd have to move out. I need to go to the bank to try and negotiate a stay of execution."

"What are you waiting for? Go, get it sorted before you come back. I want you operating on all cylinders."

"Yes, that is the case." The bank manager looked up from the file in front of him. "Mr Freeman is in default of mortgage payments to the tune of, let me see, eight thousand dollars. This bank is not prepared to carry that sort of debt."

"So, I am going to have to find a new place to live then?"

"No."

"No?"

"That is correct. It would appear that someone, and I can't divulge who that is because I don't know, has seen fit to not only make up the arrears, but pay out the mortgage. The apartment will be transferred into your name as soon as the financial transactions are completed. In about a week you will be the sole owner of the apartment. I feel that congratulations are in order." He reached over the desk and shook my hand.

Confused, bewildered, dumbfounded, these were all words that sprung to mind when I was attempting to describe my feelings as I walked back to what was now my very own apartment. Who was this mysterious benefactor? Did he have anything to do with my recent trip? In the back of my mind I had begun to think that, somehow Bevan just might have something to do with this, but why? He had his own new and improved life now, and I didn't feature in it.

"Mum, I don't know what's happening to me." Mum had agreed to see me. She sat in silence as I explained my situation to her. "Philip has left me. . ."

"Thank heavens for small mercies." I knew that I wouldn't get any sympathy from her.

". . . . For someone else."

"I told you so. If you can remember our conversation when you announced that you were leaving a perfectly good marriage and a better than good man to take up with that, that sleaze bag, I told you that you were making a huge mistake."

"But then he came back." I didn't want to admit it to her, but she had been right.

"No, please don't tell me that you're getting back with him." She was getting ready to order me from the house for being stupid all over again.

"No, nothing like that. In fact I used some pretty disgusting language when I told him to depart and not come back, something along the lines of 'go forth and multiply'."

"So what's bothering you?"

"When the bastard came back, and after I'd told him to piss off, he told me that the bank had foreclosed on the apartment and that I'd have to move out."

"That figures. Was that true, or was he just trying to get you out of the apartment?"

"It was true. But it isn't true."

"Now you've got me confused."

"The bank had foreclosed, but I don't have to move out. It would appear as if someone has not only made up the arrears, but has paid out the mortgage. You wouldn't know anything about this, would you?"

"What makes you think that your father and I have that sort of money?"

"I didn't think that you would have done this, even if you had the money. But I did think that you may know who it was."

"Again, what makes you think that we'd know anything about it?"

"I don't know. I don't know what is happening to me, or why."

"I would have thought that the why was obvious."

"Don't you start. I've had those thoughts myself."

Over the next couple of months my thoughts wandered back to my problems, with a solution no closer.

There was an improvement in my relationship with my parents. They had stopped reminding me what a fool I had been, and replaced this with suggestions that I should try to locate Bevan and try to patch up my relationship with him.

"That is going to be impossible. I don't know where he is living, I don't know where he is working, the last I heard was that he had sold the company he ran when we were married, and taken a long holiday, a sort of getting to know his new partner holiday."

"We would love to help you there, but we know no more than you. There must be some way of finding out."

"I could hire an investigator, that's if I could afford one, but I'm not desperate enough to want to waste that sort of money on the off chance of success."

"So, you're giving up then?"

"Did I say that? No, I'll keep my ears open in the hope that someone has heard something, although I won't be holding my breath."

Every time I spoke to them, or visited them, the conversation began with the same question, "Well, have you heard anything?"

To which I inevitably answered 'No'. I don't know whether it was just my imagination, or wishful thinking on my part, but I began to get the impression that the two of them knew a lot more than they were letting on. But every time I questioned them they vehemently denied any knowledge. If my imagination was correct, why were they prolonging my agony? Hadn't I been punished enough?

Just when my life was returning to some semblance of normalcy, Spencer called me into his office. "Take a seat." I sat. "I'm speaking to all of the staff individually, it's not the sort of news that I feel should be announced at some sort of crisis meeting."

"Is it a crisis?"

"Let's put it this way, I have some good news and some bad news. Our parent company has sold out."

"That, I hope is the bad news."

"Yes and no. I have spoken with head office, and they have assured me that there will be no major changes, at least not in the short-term. As for the longer term prospects, who knows."

"This is leading to where?"

"I have decided that the time is right for me to pull up stumps (a cricketing term signifying the end of the game) and spend some time with the wife."

"Do you have any idea who will replace you?" I knew that it wasn't going to be me.

"While I don't know his name, I have been reliably informed that he will be a good fit for the job."

"That remains to be seen. When do you finish up?"

"Friday week. That will give me enough time to tidy up a few loose ends in preparation for the hand over. You will all get to meet the new boss then."

"I guess that we can only hope that your information is true."

Over the next week and a bit, an air of sadness descended on the company. We were all sad to see Spencer go, and unsure of what the future held for us. In the business world assurances of maintaining the status quo often proved to be untrustworthy.

A celebration of sorts was planned for Friday lunch-time, and the office was decorated as festively as we could manage, given that the initial theme was all doom and gloom.

Spencer's wife Melinda came in for the occasion, and smiled as going away presents were presented, some thoughtful in reflection of the mood, while others were frivolous, bordering on X rated, suggesting that there was a certain amount of catch-up loving ahead of them.

Mid-afternoon Spencer took me aside. "I think that you are going to be the one to benefit most from this transition."

"Why would you think that?"

"You are going to be in for the biggest surprise."

"Okay, give. What have you and whoever been plotting behind my back?"

"All is about to be revealed. Stay here." He went out to the front office. Minutes later he returned, and with him was. . . I couldn't believe it, Bevan.

"Guys!" Silence descended on the room, and I had time to drag my chin up off the floor. "I have to admit that you are here under false pretences. I am not really retiring, just going on leave for a month. Don't worry, you can take the presents back. Melinda and I are going on a cruise for the next three weeks, and then we will spend some time with the kids before I have to come back. Bevan here will be running the show while I am gone, when I say running the show, what I mean is that you'll all be running the show, as usual, and he will be doing as little as possible, just as I have done over the years. I'll hand over to him and he can explain what is happening."

"Spencer has told me a lot about you guys, all of it positive. This is good. Why I am here is . . ." He looked straight at me. I now own this company, and I need to be with you all for some time so that I can decide the best strategy to keep this company heading in the direction that I want it to. There is another reason, and it is a very private reason that I am not prepared to divulge until I have a long discussion with the other person involved." He looked at me again, and the look didn't go un-noticed by the others. Spencer smiled at me and winked. "We have a celebration of sorts happening, let's continue. I don't believe that I'll get any work out of you for the rest of the day."

"What's going on between you and the new boss? Jill asked.

"At the moment nothing, but, if you must know, he is my ex-husband, the one that I tossed away to take up with the recently departed bastard. As for him being here, I am none the wiser. I wasn't aware that he was going to buy us out, I mean how would I?"

"If he has spent all that money to get back with you, then I say go for it girl."

"How do you know that's his reason?"

"Get real woman. You don't get stinking rich without thoroughly researching any company before you buy them out. He knew exactly what he was doing."

The party kicked on. Bevan did a circuit of the room, being introduced to the staff. Eventually he arrived at me. "How are you Francie?"

"Confused."

"That's understandable."

"But why, why have you done this, and what will your wife say about this?"

"Wife, what wife?"

"I was told that you were married and living in London."

"All lies. I have a lot to discuss with you. . ."

"Do you really think so?" I said sarcastically.

"I can understand that this is a little hard for you to understand right now. . ."

"Hard? Try impossible."

"There is a very good explanation, but I think that we should leave that for this evening, at home."

"I presume that you mean your home, I'm not yet ready to inflict the bad memories of mine on anyone."

"I think that we can overcome this quite easily. I fully intend to, starting this evening, work towards removing all of your bad memories."

So, at my place it was that all was revealed, and yes, it was at my, soon to become our, place that we set about wiping the bad memories. We sat on the sofa, at a respectable distance. "I was devastated when you left me. What hurt most was when you told me that you still loved me, but were no longer in love with me. . . "

"I know exactly how you feel."

"But I accepted that, because I was still very much in love with you, and I wanted to give you every opportunity for happiness, which is why I told your mother to tell you that I had a new partner, not wife I might add, she added that touch to the story. I figured that knowing that I had moved on, you would not feel guilty about what you had done."

"There were times when I thought that you mustn't have truly loved me, why else would you have found a new partner, a new life?

"If Philip had continued to make you happy I would have accepted that and probably moved on, but it wasn't long before I found that he was behaving true to form, and cheating on you. He has a short attention span when it comes to women." He reached over and took my hand in his. "I did not want to see you hurt, but that was going to happen sooner or later, so I decided to play him at his own game, and teach him a lesson."

"You had something to do with his current situation then?"

"I had everything to do with that. I did it because I was still very much in love with you and wanted you back. I wanted him very much out of your life before I revealed myself to you. I hired an actress to make his acquaintance and lead him on. Oh, believe me she was good, and worth every cent of what I paid her. We had pictures of a stately home, which was supposed to be where she lived, complete with respectable looking 'parents'. If he'd looked closely he would have noticed that the house had appeared in several period English dramas on TV, but his ambitions blinded him, and his mind was on other things, like how he had the opportunity to marry into the English upper class. He thought his dreams were about to be realised. I would have loved to have been there when his world came crashing down. Do you know that the easiest people to con are the con-men? They're so full of their own invincibility that they can't contemplate ever falling for their own game."

"So it was you that sent me on a duplication of our honeymoon?"

"Yes. I had two reasons for that. The first was I wanted you out of the way while I completed his humiliation, I couldn't be sure of his reaction, and I wasn't going to risk him harming you in any way, and secondly, I wanted to remind you of a better time in your life and judge your reactions to that."

"Do you mean that you were watching my reactions to things like the rose on the bed and the nighty that I wore on our honeymoon?"

"No, there wasn't anything creepy about that, I didn't have CCTV cameras recording your every moment."

"I'm glad, I did, no, I'm not saying any more."

"Your drivers, especially Simon, were asked to judge your reactions. I realised that I was in there with a chance after your day at Goolwa. You had begun to relax and enjoy yourself, you were getting back to being the wonderful 'you' that I remember, and for the first time in I don't know how long."

His hand released mine and reached for my cheek. He softly guided my face to his, my lips to his. I eventually broke the contact, my head drooped onto his shoulder and a flood of tears of relief poured from my eyes and soaked into his shirt.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, "I have no right to be this happy."

"You have every right to happiness, and I will do whatever is in my power to see that you are happy forever."

He stood and held his hand out to me. I rose and took it. I was led to the bedroom to find the bed covers turned down and a single, long-stemmed red rose on the sheet, and the honeymoon nighty draped over the foot of the bed.

"You can forget about that for starters." I picked up the nighty and tossed it into the corner. "That's only going to get in the way."