Twelve Nights

by Remy, Carole

  “Hi Jimmy,” his brother greeted him.

  “Danny.” Jimmy’s eyes were riveted to his brother’s companion. Monica?

  “We got married,” Danny explained in his simple style.

  “Married?” Jimmy echoed. To Monica?

  “He’s my jazz musician,” Monica added.

  Jimmy sat in the nearest chair.

  “I like to play the trumpet.”

  Jimmy remember the lessons his parents had mentioned in letters. Ten years older, he hadn’t been around much during his brother’s teen years. Jimmy wondered how long Danny had been playing professionally, how long he had been living a life totally outside Jimmy’s knowledge.

  “I love Monica and Jen,” Danny interrupted Jimmy’s thoughts.

  That was enough explanation for Danny, Jimmy knew. For himself, he wanted a little more detail. Aggie wandered out of the library and joined them.

  “Hi Danny,” she greeted his brother.

  Jimmy’s usually aloof sibling put his arms around Aggie and squeezed.

  “I knew you were the one.”

  “About your marriage,” Jimmy interrupted.

  “Danny didn’t tell me his last name. I wouldn’t have…,” Monica paused awkwardly. Jimmy waved away the words and she continued. “He asked me to marry him yesterday.”

  “I love Monica and Jen,” Danny repeated. “I’m adopting Jen.”

  Monica knelt beside Jimmy’s chair and took his hand in both hers.

  “I love Danny,” she said earnestly. “I’ll take good care of him. We’ll take care of each other.”

  “I believe you will,” Jimmy agreed. He kissed her on the forehead. “Let’s go into the library.”

  Danny surprised Jimmy yet again when he walked up to Aggie’s twin.

  “You are Angela,” he stated as he shook hands. How did he know her name?

  He walked up to the twins’ father.

  “You are Gordon Trout.” He again shook hands.

  “This is my brother Danny,” Jimmy interjected.

  “And Mary Trout,” Danny continued.

  Jimmy hoped his mouth wasn’t gaping and his eyes bugging. The things Danny knew never ceased to amaze him.

  “And you are Aggie’s rejected boyfriend.” Danny walked over to Andrew. How could he possibly…? “This is my wife, Monica.”

  The introductions complete, Danny sat in a chair beside his wife and took her hand in his. Jimmy hoped there was at least one thing Danny didn’t know, that his brother was one of his wife’s former clients. More likely Danny knew and acknowledged the fact with his usual calm acceptance.

  Only one person remained to complete the evening. Richard. Jimmy knew his employee was in a turmoil over Angela. Richard was a lawyer. Angela was a former hooker. Jimmy hoped Richard would have resolved his feelings one way or the other and confronted Aggie’s sister tonight, but he feared his friend wasn’t coming.

  All that remained was coffee and desultory conversation. Slowly the evening ran down. Danny and Monica left first, eager to get home to their daughter Jen and to each other. Gordon and Mary left next, dragging a reluctant Andrew with them. Now Jimmy needed a few minutes with Angela but he wasn’t sure how to separate the twins. Angela solved the problem for him.

  “Aggie,” she explained. “I want to talk to Jimmy privately. Can you go into the living room for a few minutes?”

  Aggie lifted her eyebrows and looked at first her sister and then Jimmy. When he nodded, she shrugged and left the room, closing the door behind her.

  “Thanks,” Jimmy offered. “I wasn’t sure how to handle her.”

  “Straight up is usually best with Aggie,” Angela explained. “She’s not devious like me.”

  “I don’t think…” Jimmy began.

  “I am devious,” Angela interrupted him. “Most of the time I can be sneaky in helpful ways, but tonight was wrong, bad, criminal, use whatever words you want.”

  “Tell me what you need.”

  “You know that I’m a prostitute in New York,” Angela challenged him. He nodded and she added, “a former prostitute. I need enough money to get out of the life.”

  “You haven’t saved up any money?”

  “I’m not a saver,” she admitted. “Look, I have lots of bad qualities. I also like to spend money.”

  “Are you involved with drugs?”

  “No way,” Angela shook her head. Then she smiled. “I said I was devious, not stupid.”

  “No drugs?” Jimmy probed.

  “I’ve never even lit up a joint,” Angela asserted. “Can you say the same?”

  Jimmy laughed and admitted that he couldn’t.

  “What would you like to see happen now?” he asked.

  “In my wildest dreams?”

  Jimmy wondered if she would admit her attraction to Richard.

  “Enough money to start over.” She must think the lawyer was beyond reach, either that or she wasn’t as smitten as his friend.

  “I think I might go back to school,” she continued. “Become a lawyer. Put my devious streak to good use.”

  Jimmy laughed.

  “I can see you as a lawyer,” he admitted. “Let’s get Aggie in here.”

  “You’re not going to tell her about the Gioacometti?”

  “Temporary insanity. I plead you not guilty and the charges are dropped.”

  “Thank you,” Angela smiled. Her body sagged back into the chair.

  “Aggie,” Jimmy went to the door and called. She looked up from the living room sofa but didn’t move. “Will you come join us?”

  She turned her back and sat still. Jimmy walked into the living room.

  “My relationship with your sister is separate from my relationship with you,” he explained from the seat beside her. “Just like my relationship with your father.”

  “Do we have a relationship?” she asked.

  Jimmy smiled and kissed her forehead.

  “Come into the library.”

  She stood and walked back through the lobby ahead of him.

  “Here’s my offer.” Jimmy stood before the two seated twins. “Aggie will finished out the last three nights of the contract with me. I will give you the hundred-twenty thousand dollars to split however you want between you.”

  “It’s that simple?” Angela asked.

  “That’s it?” Aggie added.

  Jimmy nodded to them both.

  “Three more nights.”

  “Tomorrow is Christmas,” Aggie reminded him.

  “We’ll celebrate.”

  “Excuse me,” Angela interrupted. She looked down at the floor, then she lifted her chin and continued. “Was that one hundred-twenty thousand in American or Canadian money?”

  Jimmy chuckled.

  “The ad was in a U.S. newspaper,” she reminded him.

  “You’ll make a good attorney,” he complimented her. “The money will be in U.S. currency.”

  “Well, I’m leaving,” she smiled and stood.

  “I’m coming too,” Aggie announced.

  “What about…” Angela began.

  “It’s okay,” Jimmy interrupted. “I understand. It’s been a long evening.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow night,” Aggie promised.

  Jimmy led the twins back to the lobby and helped them into their coats, pulling his on as well.

  “No need to pretend with a cab anymore,” he commented.

  He escorted them down to the lobby and out the door. The three walked the short blocks along the waterfront back to the Sylvia, where Angela said goodnight and slipped inside. Ignoring the passersby, Jimmy pulled Aggie into his arms and squeezed.

  “It’s midnight,” he told her with a hard kiss onto closed lips.

  “Merry Christmas.”

  “Be ready to celebrate,” he whispered in her ear. Then he tipped up her chin and gave her a preview. It would be a merry Christmas indeed.

  Chapter 24

  Aggie spent Christmas morning with her family and Andrew
. She and Angela had bought each other identical presents, a red silk nightgown and robe. They laughed when they opened them, and explained to Andrew and Mary that it had happened before. That evening the older Trouts took Andrew and Angela out for Christmas dinner while Aggie went to Jimmy’s. Her father and Mary obviously thought the personal ad romance was sailing smoothly. But they didn’t know about the money.

  Aggie thought about little else. One hundred-twenty thousand dollars. Jimmy was paying her ten thousand dollars a night to have sex with him. He knew, he must know, that she would be happier if the money hadn’t been offered, hadn’t been taken. But it had. And Angela needed the money. Aggie thrust aside the ugly image that arose in her mind. Her alternatives seemed to be Jimmy and money, or no Jimmy and no money. She wanted Jimmy.

  She had gone out the day before looking for a Christmas gift for him. What could she get a man who could blow off, literally, a hundred thousand dollars? The search was hopeless. Finally she made a phone call to a friend in Cincinnati. With luck, the gift would arrive at Jimmy’s by special messenger tonight.

  She dressed in festive red and green, red pants and a green and red striped tunic blouse. She felt foolish but hoped the clothes would brighten her mood. Jimmy had promised they would celebrate and she didn’t intend to disappoint him. She twirled in front of the mirror and smiled. She looked like an elf, a very tall elf.

  Aggie decided to walk the short blocks to Jimmy’s apartment. Her cheeks and nose were freezing by the time she entered the lobby of the building and Jimmy’s arms. He hugged her tight and then hurried her upstairs to the warmth of the apartment. When she took off her coat, he laughed and hugged her again, calling her his little elf. Aggie’s spirits rose as the minutes passed in Jimmy’s presence. By the time they finished a sumptuous turkey dinner complete with flaming Christmas pudding, Aggie had forgotten about the money. She was with the man she loved and that was all that mattered.

  The buzzer rang while Jimmy was in the kitchen getting them coffee, so Aggie pushed the release button for the elevator. She hoped her package for Jimmy had arrived. It had. She thanked and tipped the messenger and carried the parcel into the living room. Jimmy met her with their coffees.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Merry Christmas,” she smiled as she handed him the package.

  “What’s this?’

  “Open it,” she prodded, then added, “I couldn’t think what to get you.”

  Aggie watched as Jimmy carefully peeled off the tape and folded back the cardboard. The item inside was wrapped in tissue.

  “I made it when I was in grade ten,” she explained. “I hope you like it.”

  “I love it,” Jimmy answered as he held up an elongated clay figure.

  “I thought it looked a little like that statue you have in the library.”

  “The Giacometti?”

  “I guess. Is that really a Giacometti?”

  Jimmy nodded. “And now I have a Trout.”

  Aggie laughed. “It’s kind of a cross between Gumby and a self-portrait.”

  “I recognized you instantly,” Jimmy said with a straight face. “I love it.”

  “Merry Christmas,” Aggie smiled.

  Jimmy kissed first the statue and then her. Then he set the figure carefully on the coffee table and left the room.

  “I got you something too,” he explained as he returned holding a large box.

  Aggie grinned and took the box onto her lap.

  “I love presents,” she told him. “This is heavy.”

  “Open it.”

  Aggie untie the bows and slid her finger under the tape, carefully preserving each piece. Jimmy waited patiently through the several minute procedure.

  “I like the anticipation,” Aggie explained. “Once the present is open, it’s done. Oh!”

  She lifted the lid off the inner box.

  “It’s a Samuel Johnson!” She recognized the ornate lettering on the cover of the book immediately. She wrapped her arms around Jimmy’s throat. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  “I guess you like it.” He cleared his throat as she lifted the top volume out of the box.

  “There’s another one,” she commented.

  “It’s a three volume set. The closest I could get to the original print date.”

  “It’s wonderful!” Aggie exclaimed again. She had never gotten such a valuable gift or such a carefully appropriate one. “You’re wonderful!”

  Jimmy lifted the box off her lap and put it beside the statue on the table. Then he stood and picked Aggie up in his arms. Aggie snuggled in without comment as they made their way to the bedroom. In mutual though unexpressed deference to the religious holiday, Aggie and Jimmy made love in the missionary position. Vigorously, with gusto, but still missionary. They both eventually fell into an exhauseted slumber for several hours. The sun was just coming up when Aggie awoke. She kissed Jimmy on the lips.

  “It’s not Christmas any more,” she whispered and tickled his ear with her tongue.

  He roused and aroused quickly. Jimmy told her that December 26 was called Boxing Day in Canada and suited his actions to the words. After a hearty pillow fight, they tangled in less orthodox positions for the next hour or two. Finally Aggie left to go back to her family at the Sylvia.

  By the time she arrived, Andrew had blessedly, finally gone. He left a note explaining that he had to get back to Cincinnati to pack up his things and resign from the university. He was eager to take up his new job working on the x99B nanochip. He thanked Aggie for their months together and hoped she wasn’t too upset that he had left. Angela couldn’t stop laughing as she read the note to her twin. While Aggie was glad he had gone and was out of her life, she felt a little residual sadness. Andrew had been a nice boy.

  The sisters spent the day with their father and Mary, who were leaving early the following morning. Their father informed them over lunch that he had phoned Jimmy and invited him to dine with them that evening. Aggie’s emotions on hearing the news were confused. Being with Jimmy and her family was a mixed blessing. When he vanished from her life in two days, the family togetherness would eventually become a pleasant memory she supposed. Right now it was a painful vision of things that were not to be.

  Dinner passed in animated conversation. Aggie was quieter than usual, but no one commented. As they left the restaurant, she pulled Jimmy back to walk beside her.

  “Do you want me to come back with you to the apartment?” she asked.

  “What do you want?”

  Aggie thought for a moment then answered honestly.

  “I’m feeling emotional tonight. Dad and Mary are leaving tomorrow. I know there’s the contract…”

  “Screw the contract,” Jimmy growled. “What do you want?”

  “I want to go back with them,” Aggie admitted. “We’ll be together tomorrow night.”

  “Our twelfth night,” Jimmy commented.

  “Yes,” Aggie agreed. She knew her eyes were filling with tears, but she couldn’t stop them. Let him see her cry.

  Jimmy kissed each eyelid, leaving the tears to streak down her cheeks.

  “Go with your family,” he said and patted her on the bum. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  Aggie walked numbly after her father and Mary and Angela, leaving Jimmy standing on the sidewalk. About a block away she turned and looked. He was still there, watching. He lifted his hand and waved.

  The family said their goodbyes that night at the hotel. The next morning Aggie and Angela by unspoken twin consent both slept in till noon. They went out for a quiet lunch then wandered back to the hotel. Aggie buried herself in a book while Angela watched mindless television. Aggie knew Angela was depressed by Richard’s non-appearance, but her own coming disappointment overshadowed her thoughts and prevented her from offering comfort to her twin. At 5:30 she dressed haphazardly and left the apartment.

  She had decided to walk to Jimmy’s again and she found her spirits comforted slightly
by the brisk wind and the salty tang in the air. The day had been dreary but the sky lightened as dusk fell. Perhaps it would be a clear night.

  Jimmy wasn’t waiting in the lobby of the apartment. Aggie hesitated then entered and pressed the buzzer for the elevator. As she ascended she wondered what was wrong. The doors opened to reveal an empty and dark lobby.

  “I’m in here,” Jimmy’s voice called out from the living room and stifled the worst of her fears.

  She shrugged out of her coat and walked toward his voice. He sat on the sofa in darkness with a drink in his hand.

  “Are you all right?” she asked as she slipped in at his side, her own worries forgotten in her concern for him. He draped his arm over her shoulder.

  They sat in silence for several minutes. Then Jimmy put his drink down on the coffee table and turned to face her, his hands on her shoulders holding her away from his body.

  “I don’t want to let you go, Aggie,” he said seriously.

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “I know it’s asking a lot,” Jimmy ignored her words. “Your family is in Alabama. This is a foreign country.”

  “I’d have to learn a new national anthem,” Aggie agreed. She leaned forward into his arms. “I was afraid tonight was going to be our last night. I was so unhappy.”

  “You’ll have to marry me,” Jimmy whispered into her hair.

  Marriage?

  “Can’t we just live together?” Aggie asked. Marriage?

  Jimmy tipped up her chin and teased her lips with his tongue.

  “Marry me,” he repeated.

  Aggie swallowed.

  “Do you want children?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Jimmy admitted. “Lots. Is that a problem?”

  Aggie shook her head, relieved.

  “What else do we need to discuss?” Jimmy continued stroking Aggie’s lips with his tongue as he spoke. She pulled back her head.

  “Can I get a job here? Will they let me work?”

  “If you marry me,” Jimmy teased. “You can get dual citizenship. Then you can work in both countries.”

  “Do you mind if I work?”

  “Mind? Hell no. We’ll need your salary to help with expenses.”

  Suddenly Jimmy turned serious. His fingers left Aggie’s cheek and he held both her hands in his.