by Adams,Claire
I was ecstatic to hear it. We made plans to meet in Adam’s office later since we both still had piles of work to do. I called Nico and a paralegal named Sarah into my office and we spent the rest of the day working on Nelson’s case. Kyla came in later after I finished prepping for a real estate case I was working on. The message from Jack was put on the back burner of my things to do list as I shuffled through motions and briefs and looked forward to my first public dinner with Adam that was not work related.
CHAPTER FOUR
ADAM
The rest of my day after I finally manned up and told Alicia I wanted to take her out to dinner flew by. It dawned on me all at once that I was sick to death of sneaking around like I was cheating on someone. My marriage with Marjorie had been over for years before we finally separated. We had been separated for six months before Alicia and I ever started seeing each other. We weren’t doing anything wrong, and I was tired of feeling like we were. Besides, the thoughts I’d had this morning about Alicia getting tired of it all and leaving me had haunted me all day. It would crush me to lose her.
I was buried in paperwork when I finally pushed it back across the antique oak desk and decided to call it a night. So far, there were thirteen plaintiffs in the case against Brigham Oil, and the numbers grew daily. They were being sued by the EPA for unsafe practices, by several local fishermen that were claiming lost revenue over not being able to fish in the waters after the spill, by a representative of people from a village in the area that were not able to drink the water, and the list went on. I had actually begun to worry that it may have been a mistake to take it on. But, tonight was about me and Alicia. I wasn’t going to allow Marjorie or Brigham to ruin it for me.
My penthouse is on Fifth Avenue, quite a ways from the office. I keep suits at the office, though, so I grabbed one out of the closet and used the executive lounge to get ready for my night out with Alicia. She’d left me a message that she was leaving about an hour before. I felt a little silly at my age, but I was really excited about taking her out. It felt like a first date. At forty years old, I was damned lucky a young, beautiful woman like Alicia wanted me. I knew that I had to do this more often, she deserved it and if I didn’t start, she’d find someone that would. I wanted her to finally be able to stop feeling like the “other” woman, although that was never really what she was.
When she opened the door to her apartment, my mouth went dry. I almost forgot how much I wanted to take her out and took her to bed instead. She had her auburn hair down and curled around her face. It brushed against her soft bare shoulders and the thin straps of the dark burgundy dress she was wearing. It was cut conservatively, but it accentuated every one of her hot curves. It stopped just above her knee and also showcased her long, shapely legs that ended in a pair of matching stilettos on her small, sexy feet. I pictured them up on my shoulders in those shoes while I fucked her and my cock did a dance in my pants.
“Wow, you look amazing.”
She actually blushed. “Thank you, so do you.” When she turned to get her bag, I saw the back of the dress was wide open to her waist. I had no idea how I was going to keep my hands off of her in public half the night. We’d have to eat fast. She grabbed her bag and coat, and I put my hand against her bare back and led her into the elevator. It took every ounce of impulse control I could muster not to take her down and fuck her right there and again in the Lincoln Town car. I was actually almost relieved to see how busy Romaletti’s was. It would make me behave, at least.
Marco, the grandson of the original owner, came out to greet us. He was a client of our firm and ever since I had saved the restaurant from a bogus lawsuit a few years earlier that could have put them out of business, Marco treated me like a visiting dignitary when I came in. “Mr. Hanson, so very nice to see you,” he said in a thick Italian accent, “and who is this ravishing young lady?”
“Marco, this is my girlfriend, Ms. Alicia Winston,”
Marco took Alicia’s small hand in his large arthritic one and brought it up to his lips, kissing the back of it gently. With a bow, he said, “Welcome to my restaurant, Bella. Please, choose anything you would like from the menu and I will make sure it is cooked to absolute perfection for you and Mr. Hanson, and tonight is my treat. Come,”
We followed him to a table across the room. In the center was a “Reserved” tag. It sat next to a large, picture window that looked out onto a small man made pond. Marco kept the pond stocked with gloriously-colored Koi fish and ducks and a gaggle of swan glided across its mirrored surface.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” Alicia said as Marco held out her chair for her to be seated. She looked out on the pond and watched in fascination as the moonbeams danced off the surface and the colors of the Koi underneath glimmered like a rainbow.
“It’s my pride and joy,” Marco said before leaving us to get our waiter. He bowed at the waist once more before going and said, “If not for Mr. Hanson, it would have been lost to me. Please, enjoy yourselves tonight.” We thanked him again as he left and our waiter approached with a wine list right away.
I looked at it and then told Alicia, “I don’t know about you, but I’m in the mood for a real celebration tonight.”
She readily agreed, and I ordered a bottle of the restaurant’s best champagne. The waiter returned promptly with a bottle and two flutes. He filled Alicia’s and then mine and then handed us both a menu before setting the bottle back in the brass ice bucket and leaving us to make our choices. I picked up my champagne glass, and holding it up in Alicia’s direction, I said, “To us.” She picked hers up and clinked it to mine and said,
“To us.”
We sipped our champagne and after ordering our meals, we talked about Alicia’s parents’ upcoming visit to the States. It was so nice to be out in public with her and talking about things that had nothing to do with work at all. When our food came, we indulged in rich, homemade bread and the fabulous pasta and steaks that Marco had made just for us. Afterwards, even though we were both so bloated we could hardly move, we shared a piece of cheesecake.
Once we were both uncomfortably stuffed, we decided we needed to walk some of it off. Marco let us out the side door and we took a stroll around the pond in the moonlight. Alicia was as excited as a child as she pointed out the multi-colored Koi and the beautiful white swans. I smiled as I watched her pretty hazel eyes dance. I wanted to make her happy like that forever. She made me feel young again, and she was everything that I had always wanted in a woman.
I knew now that Marjorie had been a terrible mistake, and often wondered what had taken me so long to realize it. Marjorie is, was, and always will be a social climber whose name and position on the social registry was more important to her than anything else. Standing here next to Alicia, watching her revel in the beauty and wonder of something as simple as a bunch of fish and some ducks, made me love her more than I had ever thought possible. Surprising even myself, I asked her,
“How do you feel about ice skating?”
“Really?” Alicia almost squealed. “I love to ice skate. I haven’t been for years!”
“Let’s go then,” I told her with a smile.
We went back inside to get our coats and thank Marco. I tried to pay our bill, but Marco said he would be insulted at the very thought of accepting my money. After helping Alicia on with her coat, I dropped a hundred-dollar bill on the table for the waiter and we stepped outside into the frigid cold November night. The driver had the seats of the car warmed and the heater on before we got in, so the ride to Rockefeller Center was warm and cozy. Alicia rode snuggled in the crook of my arm until the huge lighted tree came into view. She sat up and like a child at Christmastime, pressed her face to the window to look at it.
“I love the tree!” she exclaimed with pure delight. “When I was a girl, I used to watch the lighting of the tree on television with my mother. I just knew I’d live here someday when I grew up. Mother cringed every time I would mention it.”
“
I’ll bet they miss you.”
Alicia turned to look at me. “They do, and I miss them so badly sometimes. But this place, New York, it’s in my blood now. I don’t think I could ever live anywhere else. I can’t wait to see my parents when they come to visit, though, and introduce them to you!”
“I hope they’re more pleased with your choice in men than they were with your choice of cities to live in.”
Alicia laughed and said playfully, “Me, too.”
The driver stopped near the ropes that framed the entrance to the frozen pond sitting in the shadow of the gigantic Christmas tree. Alicia and I made our way to the kiosk where we could rent our skates. On the way, I bought us a cup of hot chocolate from a vendor. “Are you warm enough?” I asked her.
“I’m freezing,” she said with a smile, “but I don’t care.”
I laughed and said, “Come on, let’s go stand by the bonfire while we drink this, maybe you’ll defrost a bit.” We stood near the roaring outdoor fire, sipping our chocolate and listening to the sounds of the live band that played near the Christmas tree and the people having fun all around us. I pulled Alicia up on her tip-toes and kissed her softly on the lips. “You ready?” I asked her.
“In a minute,” she said. She went back up on her toes and kissed me again. This one was longer, and deeper. “Okay,” she said, pulling back and leaving me breathless after a minute, “I’m warm now.”
I was just plain hot. She made my blood boil with desire every time she touched me. I tried to will my rising erection down as I took her by the hand and led her to a bench where we sat so we could put on our skates. There was a little stand nearby and I ran over to it quickly and bought her a pair of furry gloves and a scarf.
“Thank you,” she told me. “But what about you? You don’t have any gloves.”
“You’ll just have to keep me warm,” I told her. We finished putting on our skates, and I led her out on the ice. I hadn’t been skating in a long while, but it came back quickly. Alicia was doing well, too. We held hands and skated around the oval rink, watching the young children all bundled in their colorful parkas, falling down and getting right back up with a smile on their faces.
“This reminds me of a pond near the royal property back home. My father had permission from the crown to fish there. He took me skating there a few times when I was little.”
“Did you ever meet any of the royal family?”
“No. My mother is distant cousins with the queen, but too far removed for us to be considered ‘royals.’ Mum and Daddy still cling to the titles, though. It’s kind of embarrassing for me.”
“I wouldn’t be embarrassed by it. We have a right to be proud of our heritage, don’t you think?”
“I do, I just don’t like all the snobbery that comes along with it.”
It was amazing to me. A woman like Marjorie who came from practically nothing with an entitled and superior attitude and a woman like Alicia who had every reason to be a snob and wasn’t in the least.
We skated until we both had to finally admit our legs had probably had enough for one day. It was getting late, and we had both worked a long day. It was the best time I’d had in a long time, though, and as much as I wanted to get her home and make love to her, I was still reluctant to see it end.
When we were back in the cozy warmth of the car, she said, “I can’t even begin to thank you for tonight. I had such a good time.”
“I should be thanking you,” I told her.
“For what?”
“For being so patient with me this long and sticking around, and for giving the things I grew up looking at every day a fresh new look for me through your pretty eyes. Thank you, Alicia, I mean it. Tonight was great and we are going to have a lot more great times to come. I want to experience everything I’ve never done and even things I have with you. You see the wonder in everything like a child, but yet here you are, a sexy, beautiful, intelligent woman. You’re an enigma.”
She laughed and said, “I’ve been called a few things in my time…” and then added, more seriously, “I want to see everything with you; I want us to see everything together.”
I pulled her to me and we kissed passionately, finally coming up for air as the car pulled up in front of my building. The doorman opened the car door and helped Alicia out and held the door open for me as he greeted us both. He called the elevator down for us and said goodnight as he pushed the button for the top floor. Alicia and I kissed again in the elevator, and we were still kissing when the doors slid open. I walked us out backwards to the penthouse door and held her against it while I slid the key into the lock. I tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t turn. What the hell? I tried it again, it was like I had the wrong key, but I knew this was the right one.
“Is something wrong?” Alicia asked.
“I’m not sure. My key isn’t…” The door flew open, and Marjorie stood there in a silk robe and a diamond necklace that I’d bought her for our fifth anniversary.
“Can I help you?” she asked, smugly.
“Marjorie, what the hell is going on?” I felt the anger surging through my veins. I hated this woman with a passion. I despised myself for marrying her in the first place. The tight-faced bitch looked at Alicia, running her eyes down her disdainfully…how dare she? Marjorie looked back at me and in a nasty tone she said,
“I’m sorry, sweetie, but you’ll have to take your call girl to a hotel until you find a permanent place to live.”
“Damn it, Marjorie, get the hell out of my house, now.”
“Oh no, dear, you’re mistaken. It’s my home. I never actually moved my things out, remember? My lawyer tells me that gives me every right to be here now. So, the way I see it is, you can go to a hotel, stay with your whore, or you can live here with me until this is all decided in a court of law.” With that last insult, she swung the door closed in our faces. Alicia was pale as a ghost, and I was so angry it’s amazing the veins in my temples didn’t pop. Alicia put her hand on my arm and said,
“Come on, baby. We can stay at my place tonight and figure this out in the morning.”
I wasn’t thinking rationally, I was just so pissed off. I jerked my arm out of her grasp and said, “No!” too harshly. She looked shocked, and I instantly felt bad. Marjorie had just called her a whore, and I was the one acting wounded. “I’m sorry, baby. It just makes me crazy. I can’t just walk away and leave her to claim my home.”
Alicia looked even more shocked. “You intend to stay here…with her?”
I took her face in my hands and said, “I need you to trust me, please.” She didn’t answer me and I knew I would play hell getting her to speak to me tomorrow. I couldn’t let Marjorie do this to me, though. I had earned this money. I had worked for it, not her. I took a deep breath and said, “The car will still be outside. Have him take you home. I’ll see you at the office tomorrow.” She turned around slowly like a zombie and headed for the elevator. I reached to push the button for her and she batted my arm away. She wouldn’t look at me and I knew I was probably crying. I felt like shit, but what was I supposed to do?
CHAPTER FIVE
ALICIA
Somehow, I made it upstairs to my apartment in a zombie-like fog after I left Adam. I stripped off my dress, hose, and shoes on the way to my bedroom. I didn’t even wash my face. I just crawled underneath the covers and slipped into a sleep filled with nightmares of attending Adam and Marjorie’s reunion party. I was dressed all in black, with what looked like an old woman’s hand-knit shawl draped carelessly over my shoulders. The Adam in my dream only took his eyes off of his impeccably-dressed wife once. That was to glance in my direction with disdain and something that resembled pity.
I woke to the alarm screaming loudly with the pillow over my face and the dream still playing in my head. I knew it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t help but remind myself the reason I’d dreamt it in the first place was because Adam had spent the night before with Marjorie.
I finally reached over an
d stopped the incessantly screaming alarm and forced my weary limbs out of the bed. I had to be in Judge Nolan’s courtroom promptly at nine a.m., and from the feel of the left-over make-up crusted to my eyelid, it was going to take me a little more time than usual to get ready. I put on my morning coffee to brew and headed for the shower. As I passed my purse in the floor where I left it the night before, I realized it was ringing. I thought about just walking on by when I realized it was Adam’s ringtone. Deciding I may as well get it over with before I saw him at work, I fished it out and answered it with a curt,
“Hello?”
“Good morning, baby,” he said, like nothing had ever happened. When I didn’t say anything back right away, he asked, “How are you?”
I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry as I asked, “How would you imagine I am, Adam?”
I heard him sigh, and knowing him so well, I pictured him rubbing his hand over his face and then dragging his fingers through his hair as he often did when he was anxious or upset.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am that Marjorie ruined our evening. I had a horrendous night, if it makes you feel any better.” He gave a small laugh and then added, much more seriously, “Nothing would have made me happier than to have woke up next to you this morning.” Again, I didn’t say anything. “Baby, we will talk later, I promise. I just need you to keep in mind that she is trying to take everything from me that I have worked for my entire adult life. I cannot…no, I will not just sit back and allow that to happen. I’m sorry you are always caught in the middle of all of this. Truly, I am. I love you.”
“I will try to keep it in mind. Now, however, I have to get dressed. I’m due in court in an hour, and I can’t be late.”
“Okay,” he said. I could tell he was disappointed. He had probably hoped that his words alone would be enough to send my anger running, as usual. He was very good at talking. It was actually what he did best. He earned his living by phrasing things in just the right way. I wasn’t buying it that easily this time.
