by Jesse Jordan
“Who’s first?”
Julian wipes his face with his towel as the class wraps up, looking at me with a touch of amazement in his eyes. “I really can’t believe you got through it all. And to catch me with a damn elbow cutter of all things!”
I shrug, so exhausted I’m barely able to lift my head from the mat to sip at the sports drink one of the guys brought me. “I can’t believe you took it that easy on me. You should have rag dolled me all over the mat.”
“Not my style, you know that,” Julian says, sitting down next to me. “I’m here to push you, and yeah I wanted to win, but there’s winning, and there’s tournament winning. Know what I mean?”
I nod, using my arms to push me to a sitting position. “I know what you mean. Still, next time you get a chance to rag doll my exhausted ass, do it. Okay?”
Julian chuckles, nodding. “Sure man, anything. So, know what your wish is gonna be?”
I nod, sipping from the bottle this time. “Like to have a next generation to the Kelley name.”
Julian, who only knows the public part of my social life, looks unconcerned. “Man, knowing you, you’d end up with four little rugrats running around and in twenty years I’d be watching the Kelleys versus the Gracies for control of jiu-jitsu. Full on mat wars.”
I smile, looking down between my knees. “Yeah… yeah, I’d like to see that too.”
Julian senses something’s off, and looks over. “You okay, Rick? I mean, I’m surprised you’re even here, you just got married, and you don’t look like the happiest guy on the planet. What, is she a bitch or something?”
I turn my head and glare at Julian, who holds up his hands placatingly. “No, she’s a sweet girl,” I inform him as I let his comment slide. “Listen, I’m sure some of the people here might ask questions. Yes, I met her overseas. But my marriage is my business.”
“All your business is your business,” Julian counters. “No offense Rick, but you keep shit so close to the chest that nobody here really knows you. Hell, I don’t even know you, and I’ve only been teaching you for four years. I know more about you from the newspaper than from your own lips.”
I nod, heaving myself up to my feet. “Sorry Julian. Just the way I have to live my life. Listen, I’m going to be around more for a little while, some corporate stuff that really picked the worst damn time, honeymoon wise. So I’ll see you Thursday.”
Julian gives me a little wave as I shoulder my bag and head out the door. I stop outside my car and change out of my rashguard before setting the bag in the passenger seat, and lean against the door frame for a moment to try and still my exhausted nerves before going around to the driver’s side. Sitting down, I’m still unable to deal with the buzz going on in my head, and I know I need to feel the rush of adrenaline one more time before I can even start to calm down enough to sleep.
I get on the Interstate, heading north on 35 to Elko Speedway. Mid-week isn’t a busy time for the track, and all it takes is me showing my car and the track manager clears me for running laps. It’s not often that many people get a chance to see a car like mine in action, there’s only twenty five Koenigsegg Agera RS’s in the world after all. Mine’s as high performance as it can get too, so that as I run laps on the half mile high banked oval, I repeatedly reach speeds that even NASCAR cars can’t do. The car’s smooth as silk, and in a lot of ways handles as easily as Su Lin did in the bedroom.
Thinking of Su Lin, I lose my line and have to take my foot off the accelerator before I put my car into the wall. Cursing, I run another ten laps before giving up the ghost. Pulling off the track and into the garage area, I turn it over to the mechanic on duty. “Four fresh tires, you’ll find the specs in the car,” I tell him. “Street legal, check the fluids. Then fill it up with hundred octane.”
The mechanic whistles, looking over my car, a mixture of matte black, textured carbon fiber panels, and shiny black accents. “You ever see how fast this baby could go? Figure you’d have to get it on one of the big tracks to really tell unless you wanted to Cannonball Run this baby from California to New York.”
I nod my head, undoing the neck brace that the track insists I wear along with a helmet for driving out here. “Took it down to Daytona last spring, when some of the NASCAR boys were running tests. Couldn’t run head to head against them, but we compared clock times. I beat their times, but it wasn’t fair.”
“Why’s that?” the mechanic asks, then nods in understanding. “They were running restrictor plates.”
“Yep. I had twice the horsepower of those boys when they have those things on. Take the plates off… well, I’d like to see myself sometime.”
While the mechanic gets to work I pull out my phone and dial Freida. She picks up after two rings, just like she always does. “Yes, Rick?”
“I’m at the Elko track. Can you send the limo?”
There’s an amused note in Freida’s voice as she replies. “You don’t want me to come pick you up myself? Is that because you’re in four different pieces spread out on that death circle?”
“Very funny,” I growl. Freida’s the only person I let in enough to tease me like that, mainly because I know she’s worried about my health. “Actually, it’s because I was hoping you were helping my bride get settled in.”
“She’s doing just fine, taking a bath right now,” Freida says. “Jet lag’s tough, but she’s a trooper, only took a half hour nap to try and adjust. I’ve already shown her her bedroom, things are coming along fine. I do have to ask though… separate bedrooms?”
“Su Lin may be my wife, but I don’t think she knows me well enough to feel comfortable sharing a bedroom with me,” I reply. “Just send the limo, and arrange for my car to be picked up from the track.”
“I’ll take care of that myself tomorrow.”
“No, I’ll need you to be working with Su Lin most of the day. With Harvey’s pressure, I’ll need to get involved with the Washington game some.”
“Understood. Are you sure she’s ready for it?”
I sigh, rubbing at my forehead. “She’ll have to learn on the fly, if she’s to safeguard my child after I’m gone. Also, make sure there’s some food in the back of the limo? I really should have eaten more after grappling practice.”
“Of course. We’ll see you when you get home.”
Freida hangs up, and I look up at the sky, where a three quarters full orange moon shines in between the scattered clouds that mar its surface. As I wait, I think about how much I’m going to be putting Su Lin through over the next few months. She’ll have to learn if she’s not only going to protect my child, but also to protect herself from being eaten up by the jackals that call themselves the leaders of America.
I just hope she’s strong enough.
Su Lin
I emerge from my room, immediately feeling lost as my stomach rumbles. I slept alone last night, something I wasn’t expecting when I agreed to get married. With the way Rick bedded me on the plane, and the way he talked about it, I figured he’d be pressed against my body as much as he could. Instead, I went to bed alone, and woke up alone.
Now, it’s early morning and my stomach is rumbling, but I don’t know anything about this house. Turning left, I head back towards the main area of the house that Freida showed me last night. I figure the kitchen has to be around here somewhere.
“What are you wearing?”
I turn, halfway down the long, sweeping stairway to the ground floor, and see Freida just coming out of a doorway below me. She’s dressed in a stunning skirt and blouse combination that hugs her trim hips and legs, sexy but not looking slutty at all. I look down at the loose silk pajama pants and top that I’m wearing, which kind of remind me of what I’d wear in China. “It’s the housewear that I found in my room last night.”
“I can see that,” Freida says, coming up the stairs towards me, “but you’re wrong in thinking that’s housewear.”
“I don’t understand,” I reply as Freida reaches me. “Is this not
my house?”
“Yes and no. Of course as Mrs. Kelley, you have plenty of say in the house. But, Rick has expectations of you that surpass the… physical requirements of your prenup. Like I told you last night, I’ll be your mentor and teacher in those regards. And the first lesson today is, any time you leave the bedroom suites of the house, you need to be looking stunning. So, up the stairs you go, I’ll help you go through your wardrobe to find your first outfit of the day.”
“First outfit?” I ask, following Freida. She takes me to another room of the mansion, one I hadn’t seen last night. Opening the door, I’m stunned as I’m led into a walk-in closet that’s bigger than the living room of the apartment I shared with my mother and stepfather in Beijing. “This is….”
“More than sufficient for your daily needs,” Freida finishes for me. “Now, after breakfast, you’ll have your exercise time, so a sportswear outfit would be best for now. After that you’ll return up here to shower and prepare for the rest of the day, we’ll discuss the details of that over breakfast.”
Freida helps me pick out an outfit, shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt along with brand new sneakers that feel large and clunky on my feet as I tie the long laces. I tuck the bows inside my shoes like I’ve always done before standing up, letting Freida look me over. “Good,” she says, biting her lip contemplatively while I pull my hair back into a ponytail with one of the hair bands that I saw on the hangar with the outfit, “now breakfast, along with your vitamins and pills.”
“Pills?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow. “What for, I’m not sick.”
“No, but Rick wants to make sure you’re in perfect health for when you get pregnant,” Freida explains. “So you’ll be taking a daily series of vitamins to make sure your hormone levels are perfect and your body is ready to nurture a baby. Speaking of which, I guess we should have asked this the other day, but where are you in your monthly cycle?”
I think before answering. Until now, my monthly cycles were pretty much a matter of inconvenience, not a matter of vital information. “I’m about a week after my last flow.”
Freida hums. “Okay, I’ll inform Rick. He’ll want as much… bedroom time as possible for the next week. We’ll discuss it as the day goes on.”
The phrase ‘we’ll discuss it’ becomes a mantra of the day as Freida seems to have a never ending list of corrections to my behavior and actions. Table manners are an incomprehensible mess of spoons, forks, knives, enough plates to stagger the mind… and not a single pair of chopsticks in sight. I can’t pick up my bowl like a civilized person would, I have to switch hands after using my knife, and I apparently can’t even use a spoon properly. I’m not even sure I taste the food, I’m so nervous.
Exercise is fine, Freida shows me the mansion’s gym which, while again filled with enough strange equipment and devices to make me wonder just what the hell Rick gets up to when he uses this space, at least has a few things I understand, and best of all a large area where I can do the movements of wushu.
Freida, who watches from the side of the room while using a tablet computer, speaks up when I’m done with one of my forms. “Do you need any specialized equipment for your practice? I can have a mook yang jong delivered within two days and installed in the corner.”
“No thank you,” I reply as I wipe my face, touched and a little amused that Freida would go to the effort of learning about Chinese martial arts enough to pick up that word while still making a mistake that anyone in China would catch. “My style is wushu, not wing chun.”
“Weapons?” she asks, not put off at all.
I think, then nod. “I used to practice with the double edged sword, the spear, and the chain whip. It has been years though.”
“I’ll place the orders,” Freida says simply. I go back to my practice until I’m covered in sweat and ready to head upstairs. Freida stands up, handing me a towel. “If there are guests in the house, it is best to look like you’ve exercised, but aren’t exhausted. The staff is not as important. By the way, Rick would like you to take up swimming too, if you are able.”
“I can swim,” I confirm. “Why, though?”
“Because swimming is exercise that you can do all the way through pregnancy,” Freida explains simply. “Let’s get you freshened up for the rest of the day.”
It’s nearly eight in the evening before I see Rick, and I feel like the whole day’s been a training camp. Freida’s constant stream of suggestions, corrections and more hasn’t ceased all day until I finally lost it. It was as I sat down for dinner, and yet another spread that pushed me to the limit. “No.”
“What’s wrong?” Freida asked, looking it all over. “Do you not like seafood?”
“I love seafood,” I countered. “But I’m not going through this again, Freida. Not today. You want me to eat with ten forks and three knives with a silk handkerchief folded perfectly in my lap while my legs are crossed at the ankles? Fine. But not every meal. I’ve spent all day trying to absorb your lessons, and I think I’ve done a good job!”
“You’ve done… adequately,” Freida admitted. “But you need-”
“No, what I need is to remember that I will become the lady of this household. And when I have a baby, that child will be a quarter Chinese, and will have a mother who is not ashamed of who she is. So I will teach them to be proud of who they are. And that includes how to eat. So go into the kitchen, tell them to put some rice in a bowl, cut the fish up properly along with the vegetables, and get me some damn chopsticks!”
My outburst held up dinner for a half hour, and when it came out the preparation wasn’t quite up to the level that I’d experienced at breakfast and lunch, but at least the chopsticks were good. I’m just finishing up my food when Rick comes in, looking handsome as ever in a dress shirt and jeans. “Hello.”
“Hello,” I reply, trying to stay angry. It’s hard, he’s so handsome and the amusement in his eyes makes me feel as if my glowering consumption of the food the staff brought me is more than a little silly. Still… dammit, it’s late and I shouldn’t be ignored like this! “Where have you been?”
“I had an idea on a project I’ve been working on,” Rick says, sitting down next to me at the dining room table.
“Oh? What about?” I ask.
“You sure you want to know?” Rick asks. “You’re not an engineer.”
“No, but I’m not an idiot either. I studied economics, but I took some science classes,” I reply, scooping the last bit of rice out of my bowl and setting my dinner down. “Please pass my apologies along to Freida, I may have been a little strict with her about dinner.”
“I heard,” Rick says with a cocky smirk. “Not too many people have backtalked Freida since she started working for me. You two can work that out on your own over the next few days. As for my project, I’ve had an idea that could shift the energy market remarkably.”
“How so?”
Rick gives me an evaluating look, then nods in appreciation. “Okay then. Right now, most solar energy is produced through various kinds of panels. There’s an Aussie university that went around it slightly with a sort of paint that creates hydrogen from moisture in the air and solar energy, but it’s not very efficient. I’ve been pushing hard on skipping that, creating an efficient, economical solar energy system. I’ve had some advancements, incorporating a lot of those into some of my other projects and inventions, but I’ve been stymied in one area.”
“What?” I ask, intrigued.
“How to create a customizeable system that’ll link and not lose a ton of efficiency in cross-linking,” Rick says. “I had an idea on the flight back from Beijing of making something that’s a lot like a roll of paper. Thicker of course, but by using a two layered system… well, that’s getting into the engineering side. But you understand the potential.”
“Of course I do. If you can make it efficient, you can revolutionize the entire energy market,” I tell him. “The money involved… you’d take down companies that have lasted a hundr
ed years. You could potentially topple countries even.”
“Perhaps, but I’d also be able to provide clean air, cheap electricity, clean water to billions for less than they’re paying now,” Rick says. “Yeah, I’d make money too, but that’s not what’s important. I’ve got enough money to last the rest of my life.”
“Then why push yourself so hard, when I’m here going through these insufferable lessons?” I ask. “Rick, you’re my husband, and yet I haven’t seen you at all today.”
Rick shrugs, like it doesn’t really matter. “Did you want to see me today?”
“It would have made the lessons more… tolerable,” I admit reluctantly. If he doesn’t care about me, why should it matter to me if he’s here or not. But it somehow still does. “Why put me through this?”
“Because you need to know these things,” Rick replies with a matter of fact tone that brooks no argument. “Freida briefed me on everything you guys did today, and you didn’t accomplish as much as I thought you would.”
“Excuse me?” I reply, getting upset again. Ignore me for ten hours today… fine. But to the criticize me? No, I didn’t leave Beijing and being trapped in that life just put up with more of it here in America. “If you think you can do better, why not be around more?”
“Because I don’t have the time to waste dealing with someone who wants to resist the reality of her new situation,” Rick replies, again not harshly but in a tone that says he doesn’t care if I like what he’s saying or not. “Today, I can think of a dozen different things you were shown or corrected by Freida that will apply in the next few months.”
“How?” I explode, losing my temper. “How is learning how to walk like an American woman in high heels important?”
“Because unless you plan on sitting on your ass or on your back for the next twelve months, I need you to adapt,” Rick growls back, losing his temper a little as well. He’s not a man who is told no often, that’s for damn sure, and I don’t even know why I’m standing up to him now, except that he’s pissed me off. “While I live in semi-retirement, I do plan on taking time with you to give you life experiences.”
