Turning Point

by Flavio Olcese

Chapter 16

  I woke up at nine, still exhausted from the previous nights activities. I went into the bathroom, grabbed four headache pills, two bottles of water from the mini fridge and went to see the girls. I woke up Christine first and had her take the pills and drink half the bottle of water before letting her go back to sleep. I gave Emily the same treatment.

  I was in the living room, showered and dressed, when Karen finally came out in her robe.

  “Good morning,” she said as she sat next to me and gave me a big kiss.

  “Morning.”

  “I’m going to go wake up the girls.”

  Apparently my wife was upset with the girls because I clearly heard her from the living room.

  “Good morning, ladies. Wake up. You have one hour to get showered and dressed. Wake up, now. I don’t care that you want to sleep more. Wake up. If you’re not ready in one hour, I’ll ground you and you’ll spend the rest of this vacation in the hotel room.”

  “Harsh, don’t you think?” I asked as Karen strolled across the living room back to our bedroom.

  “Not at all.”

  At breakfast Karen ordered for the girls who didn’t look good. After the waiter left I caught up with him and reordered for the girls. I didn’t think that eggs benedict was a good choice for them now. I ordered them some cold cereal with milk, dry toast with butter on the side, tea with honey instead of coffee and water instead of orange juice.

  “So girls tell us about your night last night?” asked Karen sarcastically. “Oh wait, there are the Johnsons with their boys. I’ll go ask them.”

  I gently but firmly grabbed my wife’s wrist. She didn’t even try to get up but instead just looked at me, not angrily but more willing to relent to me.

  “Enough, you’ve made your point. Stay here and look after your daughters. I’ll go talk to the Johnsons. You’re too angry right now.”

  I was very cordial with our new friends as I spoke to their two boys. From what they told me they had been gentlemen the whole evening. I apologized profusely to the four of them for the girls’ behavior. I got their hotel information in St. Thomas before returning to our table. Karen just looked at me waiting for me to update her. The girls nibbled on their toast and cereal.

  “The boys told me they brought you home last night. So I need you girls to return to me the emergency money, now.”

  Emily and Christine both went onto their purses and pulled out the money. It certainly wasn’t the crisp fifty dollar bills I had given them last night. I took it and counted fifty seven dollars between the two of them.

  “I asked you not to punish the boys but you two ignored me. I asked for some consideration so that I could spend some time alone with your mother and instead we end up staying up late taking care of the both of you. This money was for emergencies only and yet the both of you saw it fit to spend forty three dollars worth of it on alcoholic drinks. Karen, the Johnson boys didn’t know that the girls were doing shots every time they went to the bar. They didn’t know the girls had money of their own. The boys spent almost seventy five dollars on a nice dinner with the girls and about thirty on drinks for the four of them. I know this because they tried to give me back my change. Christine, Emily, I really don’t know what to say. I am truly disappointed.”

  I just wasn’t hungry anymore. I was disgusted and really didn’t want to see any food in front of me. I put my napkin on top of my plate and got up to leave. Karen reached for my hand, gave me one of her trademark soft smiles and stood up to leave with me. We left the girls to eat by themselves.

  We left a note in the suite simply saying that we were going out. We had planned a couple of days ago to go out with the girls but Karen though it would be better if we spent time together without them. We got a taxi at the front of the resort and headed into town to go shopping.

  We arrived back at our suite at nine in the evening with bags of goodies we had bought for ourselves. The girls were watching TV but we went directly into our room. Within the hour my wife and I were packed for our move tomorrow to St. Thomas. We went to bed shortly after that.

  The boat ride the next day from St. Croix to St Thomas was quiet. I sat down on a bench watching my wife’s hair blow in the wind as she stood by the railing. I could watch her forever and never love her any less than I did then. The girls finally approached me and sat at each side of me.

  “We feel really bad about what happened,” said Emily.

  “Good.”

  “She won’t even look at us. Is she ever going to forgive us?” asked Christine.

  “Not as long as you come to her with that attitude.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Emily.

  “It’s not about you. This is about her. The whole trip is about her. Her wedding, her honeymoon, her happiness, her future. You girls want her to forgive you. What you should be looking for it is how you can make it right with her.”

  “And how do we do that?” asked Christine.

  “I would never tell you this in front of her so listen carefully because I’ll never say it again. You know how you become a playboy? You have to be in control all the time. You can drink but you can never get drunk. You never get mad, no matter what. You protect and care for what’s yours. You have to be the problem solver and you have to think on your feet. I never sought out all those girls I dated. They heard I was a really nice guy and they found me. My ex girlfriends even spoke well about me. The only bad thing they ever said was that I was committed to my career, and even that wasn’t that bad because I was making a lot of money. Your mom was the first woman that I ever met that had me fumbling for my words. She might give you the impression that she is tough as nails but she is very sensitive. You hurt her on her wedding night. And then you disappointed me which hurt her even more. You want whatever it is I have? Then the both of you have to figure out how to clean up your own mess and the faster you do it the better. Make sure your mom has a fantastic and lasting memory of her honeymoon.”

  I got up and walked over to Karen. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and kissed her neck softly.

  “You are my goddess. I love you.”

  At the front desk to our new hotel Karen made sure she told the person checking us in that we were traveling with two teenage girls and they were to get no alcoholic drinks. The person helping us made a note of it. The girls were silent and didn’t protest at all.

  Karen and I went our room and started unpacking but the girls knocked on our door a few minutes after entering theirs.

  “We’re going to go look around. We’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

  I said okay but Karen just kept unpacking. Twenty minutes later I was sitting in a seat with my feet up on the bed and my wife was lying down talking to me. The girls knocked again and came in.

  “Okay, we checked the place out,” said Christine. “They have a good nightclub on the grounds, but don’t worry tonight is teen night so no alcohol. We also found a really romantic restaurant here and they have a show tonight so we made reservations for the two of you.”

  Karen sat up to listen with a lot more interest.

  “You can still cancel the reservations if you want but we figured we owe you a night to yourselves,” continued Emily. “So Christine and I will eat at dinner by the pool tonight and then head over to the nightclub. We’ll try to be back by one in the morning but we will definitely call you from the lobby and let it ring once before we hang up.”

  “Thank you,” said Karen. “That’s very nice of the both of you.”

  “Wait, there’s more,” interrupted Christine. “Tomorrow is cruise ship day. Meaning a lot of the cruise ships come in and the passengers are given a day to look around and shop. The beaches might be crowded and the shops tend to give the best deals on Thursdays so we thought maybe we could all go shopping together. You know, as a family.”

  Emily carried on, without missing a beat. “And in the evening the town takes on a very festive atmosphere to attract all the passengers before
they have to go back to the ship. So here are some brochures for restaurants in town. We figure we’ll get a better choice of where to eat tomorrow night if we make the reservations today before the ships dock tomorrow morning. Okay that’s it. We’ll be out by the pool if you need us.”

  Before we could say anything else the girls were out the door. Karen chuckled as she got up off the bed. She walked over to me and sat on my lap.

  “What did you do to my daughters? And don’t lie to me, mister.”

  I claimed innocence but she didn’t believe me. She thought I had planned it all. She said the girls’ plans had me written all over it. I maintained my innocence.

  Karen and I took the next two hours exploring our new surroundings. This place was more family oriented and was a bit bigger. It also had more activities including a very large, dual tiered pool and several hot tubs.

  That night our dinner was pretty good and we had a comedy show afterwards. Of course the comedian picked on us, the newlyweds. Karen didn’t waste any time when we got back to our room. I didn’t know what had gotten into her but the woman was on fire.

  We didn’t see our daughters again until the next morning when they had another surprise for us. As my wife and I were waking up they came in through the door adjoining both our rooms and rolled in a cart. They served us breakfast in bed and promptly left to go back to their room.

  “Okay, maybe this wasn’t your idea. What’s up with those two?” asked Karen.

  I shrugged. Whatever plans they had far exceeded anything I expected. After we ate we showered and went to see if the girls were dressed yet. Apparently they had eaten, showered and dressed and were waiting patiently on us.

  We took a cab to town and the girls seemed to know exactly where they wanted to go. Karen and I just went along. It was our turn to sit quietly while the girls made plans for us. When we got to the shopping district Emily put her arm in mine and Christine put hers in Karen’s. The girls made recommendations on things we were looking at, pointing out things we might have missed and generally acting like guides.

  At one point Karen stopped at a jewelry store’s window to look at a brooch. I held her from behind to look at what had caught her eye.

  “You want it?” I asked.

  “No, I’m just looking.”

  “I’ll get it for you,” I said moving toward the store’s entrance before Karen pulled me back and wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “I don’t need a trinket to remind me of you. You’re all I think about anyway.” She kissed me lightly before turning her head toward the girls.

  They seemed to be scheming something. We both turned to look at them before Emily finally noticed us and the girls turned to face us.

  “Ah, dad?” said Christine. “Could you meet us here in an hour?”

  “Sure. You girls need any money?”

  “No, thanks.”

  I turned, still holding Karen’s hand.

  “Ah, dad?”

  I turned again to face my daughters.

  “Mom stays. We need her. An hour, okay?”

  Sure,” I said as I let go of my wife’s hand.

  The hour was actually well spent. I took the time to go buy some presents for Marie, Ira and my executive assistant. I couldn’t go back to work empty handed. I spent the last of my time in a watch store. I had been meaning to get a new one.

  As I was modeling one, I looked at the time on it and asked the salesperson if it was the right time. He looked at the watch I had then at his watch and confirmed it was the right time. I almost ran out of the store with it still on my wrist. I took it off quickly and told the guy I’d be back.

  “I’m sorry I’m late. I lost track of time,” I said as I approached my family. “Ah, no watch. I’m not wearing a watch and didn’t know what time it was.”

  “No bid deal, pops,” said Emily.

  “Pops?”

  The three women laughed. I got to carry the majority of the packages except for a couple of curious small ones that Christine held in her hand. The girls led us to a small shop that had nothing but lockers. I put all the bags in and Christine also put in one of hers. The other she took with her.

  The girls had been right in telling us to make reservations because the restaurant we had picked the previous night was packed. Fortunately our reservation meant we only had to wait about ten minutes for a table when everyone else’s wait was half an hour or more.

  Before we ate the girls presented me with a small box. I opened it to find a watch.

  “I was just looking at a watch very similar to this one. How did you girls know? And where did you get the money?” I asked.

  “Mom helped us pick it and she paid for it,” said Emily,

  “But we’ll pay her back with our summer jobs,” added Christine.

  After all the shopping and a fantastic meal with my family I was tired. I lay in bed watching my wife as she put things away.

  “I think I’m going to run out of room in my luggage. Can you take some of my stuff in yours?”

  I nodded my head and she dropped couple bags next to my suitcase. When she was done she threw herself on top of me on the bed.

  ****