by Alice Ward
“Of course. Why else would she send me?”
“She sent you.” It was a statement of disbelief.
“What’s wrong with you? Of course she sent me. Why else would I be here? Look, Worth, I’m a busy woman and the weather hasn’t turned into a friend. Do you want me to build that house or not?” She was driving a hard line and knew she had me over a barrel.
“I need to look these over and talk to Auggie first,” I began.
“Why? You know what you want, I know what you want, now let’s get it done. Those are standard contracts, but I have other offers waiting. If you don’t want to sign, then give me a hug and I’m out of here. Auggie begged me to come back and give you another chance — and I really don’t understand why you’re so concerned with what she thinks. After all, she doesn’t appear to be the least concerned with what you think…”
“What makes you think that?” I asked her, feeling a rock in the pit of my angry stomach at what she was about to say.
“Well… only that I went by Brandon’s office this morning to drop off some papers for the Sunset development and Auggie’s car was in his parking lot. There wasn’t another set of tire tracks anywhere and nearly six inches of snow covered her car. It had clearly been there all night. So, I can only draw the conclusion that she was with Brandon. Look, it’s none of my business what’s going on here. Do you want to do business, or not?” Her look was daring me and I never backed down from a challenge.
I picked up a pen on my desk and signed every document without even reading them. I handed them to her. “Please ask my secretary to make copies on your way out,” I told her, my mind elsewhere. “Break ground and get started. We’ve got valuable time to make up,” I ordered and twirled in my chair so she could not see the expression on my face. I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut.
I heard her leave and watched out the window until her car cleared my parking lot. “Just lock up when you leave,” I told Patsy as I strode by.
I drove to Brandon’s building and there, alone in the corner of the lot was, indeed, Auggie’s car. It clearly had not been driven overnight. It confirmed what the Dexter woman had told me. Auggie had spent the night with Brandon.
I gave her one more chance. I dialed Auggie’s phone and it went immediately to voice mail. She wasn’t accepting calls. Then I dialed the house number and her dad answered. “No, Auggie isn’t here. She was out overnight and hasn’t returned yet.”
There was no way to describe the blackness that set into my soul. The woman I loved, the woman who was to be my wife, the only person on the planet I was supposed to completely trust had betrayed me. I tried to blank out the image of Brandon, naked and thrusting into her beautiful body and I thought I would pass out. Enraged, I knew I was out of control and so I went to the only place that had ever offered me solace… Joe’s.
I started drinking even though there were interviews set up for later that day. At that point, I didn’t care. Not about anything. Not about the business and although I tried hard to convince myself I didn’t care about Auggie, either, the truth kept rising. I pushed away my drink and drove, somewhat shakily, back to the clinic to wait.
Auggie
Brandon picked me up for breakfast and we began the slow drive back to his office. When we arrived, my car looked like an iceberg in the middle of what was an otherwise empty, but plowed parking lot. Brandon took my keys, cleaned off the car and held my arm while I got into it. It was icy beneath the snow.
“Brandon, what can I say?”
“Say nothing, it’s what I’m here for,” he answered and bent to kiss me on the cheek. “Sure you can handle the roads?”
“Yes, I’ll drive slowly,” I said and he nodded and firmly shut the door, tapping the hood as he walked toward his door. He turned once and waved and I responded likewise.
I hadn’t showered and was still wearing the tear-stained clothes from the day before. I decided to go home and get cleaned up first, but dreaded it because I knew it meant seeing my mother. Resolved, I knew I had to do it eventually and steeled myself for it as I pulled into the driveway.
Luckily for me, she was napping. I met Dad in the living room. “Worth called here looking for you this morning.”
“I’m getting cleaned up and I’ll go talk to him,” I told Dad and he nodded.
“Probably a good idea,” was his only comment.
I dressed carefully, choosing colors that suited me particularly. I suspected I was in for an emotional afternoon and while I wanted to look my best, I didn’t want to make Worth desire me. I wasn’t ready to go there yet, not until I knew whether it was possible we were blood-related. In my purse was a release for Worth to sign. I had no idea how to get him to do it, but I was always up for a challenge. This challenge had a great deal at stake.
I pulled into his building parking lot and noticed the new sign. I knew he had a great deal on his hands and wondered if Beverly Dexter had gotten in touch with him yet. There were construction vehicles parked everywhere and a variety of tarps and plastic sheets blocked off his office from the rest of the building. The doors were blocked open and it was chilly inside. It felt foreign, compared to the usual neatness of his domain. I saw Jervis’ door had been removed and it looked like there was a hot tub being installed in that space. I smiled to myself and was proud of the businessman I was going to be marrying… hopefully.
I walked into Worth’s office and found it empty. He was evidently off somewhere in the complex and I took advantage of his absence to use his bathroom. In there, I opened the medicine chest over the sink and saw the toothbrush he kept there. I slipped it into my bag, flushed the toilet and emerged. Worth was standing there facing me, his feet planted wide apart, a black look of rage upon his face.
“Hi!” I greeted him, aware that it was not appropriate given the look on his face but not having anything better in mind to say.
He stared at me, waiting for me to continue.
I felt completely ill at ease. “I see they’re getting things done,” I tried, hoping that the reason for his anger had something to do with the workmen, and not with me. I was wrong.
“How dare you!” he said. The look on his face was fury, but his voice was deadly level. I knew this was about as mad as he was capable of getting and although I figured he’d be upset about my not checking in with him the night before, this was well beyond anything I’d imagined.
“Worth, sit down. Let’s talk. You’re mad, I can see it.”
“You think?” he shouted and I reached behind me and shut the door to his inner office. There was no reason to involve others. “You were with him!” The shout roared through the room.
I went blank. “Him? You mean Brandon? Oh, yes, of course I was,” I answered innocently. Then it struck me what he meant. “Oh, wait, Worth… no, it’s not what you think. You think I was with him, as in spending the night with him? Oh, no, no, no. Don’t you know me better than that? What happened to our up front trust we agreed on?”
“How would you explain your car in his parking lot all night?”
I was puzzled. “How would you know that, unless you were spying on me?” So much for trust, I told myself.
“Explain yourself,” he ordered and his voice was strong enough to make me fall backward into the chair opposite his desk. Visions of my mother ordering me in the same tone surfaced in my head.
“How dare you speak to me like that! You know that’s a trigger for me. What the hell is the matter with you, anyway? Don’t you trust me?”
He stared at me and I could see the realization of our situation dawning in his eyes. I said it again, “Do you trust me, Worth?”
He sat down, his fingers tapping the surface of his glass desk. He settled, knowing that this was a make or break answer. “Yes.”
“Yes? You don’t act like you trust me.”
“I do, I do, dammit,” he cursed, looking at the window to try and regain his composure.
“How much?”
“How muc
h what?” he asked.
“How much do you trust me?” I pushed the point home.
“With my life,” he said and he uttered those words with the realization that yes, he probably did trust me with his life. It must have dawned on him at that very moment.
I opened my purse and slapped the permission slip onto his desk. I had tri-folded it so only the third with the signature line was legible. “Do you trust me enough to sign this without reading it?”
He cocked his head and frowned. “What is that?”
“Worth, I asked you a question. If you trust me, you’ll sign it without knowing what it is. This is a test, Worth. Do you trust me?”
He grew dark again, accepting my challenge and overriding whatever common sense would have kept him from signing a blank document. He picked up a pen and with a great flourish, made a show of putting his name on the permission line. Before he changed his mind, I slid the paper quickly back into my bag. “Now, as to what happened last night, if you promise to stay calm, I will explain it.”
He nodded, folding his hands in his lap in his best imitation of a stable psychologist.
“Alright then. I went to visit Mrs. Jessup at Sunset Village yesterday. While I was there, it started to snow. When I left her, I went to Brandon’s office. We talked about Sunset,” I continued, careful to not lie but to not necessarily reveal my entire reason for being there. “He suggested that since the weather was bad, that we have that date you paid for and he would take me to dinner at a local restaurant near his home. I agreed, we had dinner, he dropped me off at a hotel and he went home,” I stressed the last three words. “This morning, he picked me up, we stopped for breakfast to let the rush hour settle down and then took me back to his office so I could get my car. Since I hadn’t planned to be out all night, I went home first to shower and change and then came here to see you. I didn’t have my phone charger with me and it went dead at some point in the night. I knew you had probably been trying to call me, and since I wanted to see the progress on your office, I thought I’d come in and surprise you. This wasn’t exactly the kind of surprise I was expecting, though,” I finished and was proud of myself for not lying or twisting any facts. I just left a couple of internal feelings out, not to mention the giant detail that he and I might share a father, for God’s sake.
Worth studied me and knew I wasn’t lying. I would have been disappointed if he’d thought I was. I wasn’t. I continued. “Now, I thought we agreed that you would not interrogate me again?”
He relaxed. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You have to admit, the evidence seemed pretty damned incriminating.”
“Only if you were looking for it to be,” I pointed out. The look on his face told me he probably agreed with that. “So, how did you know I was with Brandon in the first place?”
“Ms. Dexter came by this morning. She said you’d fessed up and encouraged her to come and work out the details to have her move forward on our house. She questioned whether we were seeing one another and I walked around that, naturally.”
Him saying that encouraged me that what I had just walked around fell securely under the “walk around” rule we had between us.
He continued. “She mentioned that she’d been by Brandon’s office to have something signed and saw your car there, covered with overnight snow. The rest… well, you can imagine where my mind went from there.”
I smiled and stood up, walked around his desk and kissed him on the cheek, hugging him from behind. “Yes, I can imagine where your mind went from there and you can rest assured, Brandon and I did nothing you wouldn’t approve of. Let’s put this behind us, shall we? I can understand why you were angry and now you understand why there was no reason to be, right?”
He nodded.
“Okay, why don’t you show me around the construction before I leave?” I asked and this seemed to lighten his mood considerably.
Worth walked from area to area of the office space and explained where the various therapies would be conducted and how they would work together in an overall healing process. I was proud of his good business sense, and proud of the fact that he would be growing a business that would obviously put him light years ahead of his peers in embracing more than just talk therapy. “It’s beautiful, Worth, and it’s not even done. I can’t wait until it’s all ready. When do you think that will be?”
“A week,” he said and I nodded in approval. One thing about Worth, he did not waste time. He walked me to the door and out to my car. “I want you,” he said simply. “No, I need you,” he emphasized.
My mind went blank. I couldn’t sleep with Worth until all the questions were answered. It would take several days to get the tests back. “I can’t right now, Worth… a woman thing. But I want you to know I want you, too!” I kissed him lovingly and left.
I drove straight to the doctor’s office and went in the back door as instructed. I dropped off the toothbrush and the signed form. The nurse didn’t question anything. She’d already been instructed by Brandon to expedite things.
When I got home, Mother was in the living room. I heard her voice. “Auggie, is that you?”
“Yes,” was all I could manage.
“Come here, please,” she called.
“No, not feeling well. I’ll be down later,” I called and when I went into my room, I locked the door behind me. How was I going to spend the next two weeks of my life avoiding being alone with two major players in my future? I chose the coward’s way out. I took up residence at Sunset Village.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Auggie
Sunset Village had a single room vacancy and as long as I paid the fees out of pocket, I took over the room and set it up as a working/sleeping space. This let me come in constant contact with the very people I needed to further my project and kept me out of contact with those I wished to avoid.
Brandon, upon learning I was there, spent most of his spare time there. It turned out that he was extremely patient with older people and even handled some simple legal matters for them pro bono. There were wills to be written, powers of attorney and simple letters to distant family members letting them know where they were. I cried through many of these. It was like being with a building full of injured troops who would never see their families again.
I spent my days scouring for ideas of what to put in the recreation room, as we had decided to call it. Some of the first things I ordered were sets of state-of-the-art computers equipped with mini cams so residents could visit with their families via Skype. I poured through catalogs of crafts, storage systems and aids designed for those who had lost mobility. I chose a theater system with sound and made sure that every seat would come equipped with a headphone that could be adjusted for individual sound.
Then I turned to the seed catalogs and nursery offerings. Beverly and I drew up plans to show the space and sun exposure we would have to work with. We planned fountains and plenty of comfortable seating next to raised flowerbeds so the residents could garden from their wheelchairs or one of the many benches. This saved them from stooping or reaching. I consulted with experts at retirement homes across the country and decided we were to have the best of everything.
On the days when the workmen were a bit noisy, I hosted movies in the dining room and turned the sound up nice and loud. We had filtered off the annex debris with layers of overlapping heavy tarps and then painted the tarps to show the images of giant presents — giving the residents a child-like anticipation of what lay behind. It also helped to keep down the complaints regarding the inconveniences. The sickest patients were relocated to the opposite end of the building so their privacy and comfort could be respected.
It was, without a doubt, one of the most powerful short periods in my life. It allowed me a perspective that was one-hundred and eight degrees from the privileged, self-absorbed, entitled life I’d led up to that point. It taught me to walk in others’ shoes and how the little things, like using someone’s first name when you spoke with them, or listeni
ng to what they used to do when they were young were so important.
I kept in constant contact with Worth by phone, careful to follow up on his progress with the clinic, all the while sharing what was going on at my end and then together we’d talk about the house. If he realized I was avoiding him, he didn’t say anything. I think in some small sense he knew we had to get through this busy period of involvement before we could completely be together.
Beverly was true to her word. The work at Sunset moved swiftly and the day came when they were installing the wheelchair-friendly seating in the theater. I had ordered hundreds of films on reels, just like the residents had seen in their younger years. They were fans of movies from the thirties through the eighties. They had no need for Star Wars or the Friday the 13th horror films.
I took some time to plan party themes and we ordered costumes. I had a grand piano brought in and was delighted to learn that we had several accomplished pianists in our midst and they were all willing to perform on a rotating basis. Once the weather was warmer, the piano could be wheeled out into the garden and the residents would be able to enjoy Chopin by moonlight. I was having great fun and my imagination was running rampant.
I had approached Mrs. Jessup’s son for a donation and he promptly wrote me a check for three hundred thousand dollars. I was overwhelmed and once again, wondered how Worth had managed to pull it off. We decided, in light of the contribution, to name the new theater the “Alice B. Jessup Theater” and she cried when she learned the news.
Finally came the day when the inside work was complete and there was nothing left but to put away craft supplies and get ready for the grand-opening party. I had become a familiar face and everyone found an opportunity to touch my hand or call me “darlin’” as I passed nearby. I asked Mrs. Jessup if she’d like to help me organize the craft room and she was only too happy to do so.
I had never again referred to our earlier conversation and she seemed a bit nervous when we were alone. I asked if there was something wrong.
