A Life Less Ordinary

by Bernadine, Victoria

  “Oh, so who were you expecting?” Zeke snapped, trying to banish that brief glimpse of her body from his memory.

  “I wasn’t expecting anybody! Ted said this was a private beach, and I could sunbathe nude if I wanted!”

  “Why would you want to?” Zeke demanded.

  Manny sighed. “What do you want?”

  “Are you decent?” Zeke asked.

  “A little too late for that now.”

  Both Zeke and Manny spun around to gape at the police officer who had approached from Manny’s other side. Manny stared, her eyes huge, then she groaned and hung her head.

  ~~~~~

  Daisy took a deep breath and opened the door. She smiled tightly as Hub stepped over the threshold. He smiled just as tightly in response and held up the manila envelope in his hand.

  “I’m glad you agreed to meet without the lawyers to go over the draft settlement,” he said.

  Daisy shrugged. “As angry as I am with you, Hub, you do still love your kids, even if you don’t show it all that often.” She raised a placating hand. “I’m stating my opinion, not a proven fact or even a judgement. Okay?”

  Hub gave her a sullen nod as he settled on the couch.

  “Besides, the settlement isn’t complicated. I’m not asking for alimony,” Daisy continued, sitting down beside him, “only child support – and you can pay that directly to the kids. Whatever cash or investments we have can be split down the middle, and then I’ll pay you half whatever the house is worth out of that. It’s pretty simple.”

  Hub nodded. “Surprisingly simple, considering we were together for twenty-four years.”

  Daisy smiled briefly. “It’s not like we lived an extravagant lifestyle,” she said drily. “Let’s face it, we were pretty conservative...once we started living together.”

  Hub paused frowning, then he grinned, and the years dropped from his face. Daisy blinked as, for a moment, the man she’d fallen in love with looked back at her.

  “We had some good times though, didn’t we?” Hub said almost wistfully, his grin dimming.

  Daisy nodded. “We had a lot of good times.” She looked at the small bar nestled in the corner of the living room. She laughed. “Remember the time we crashed that wine and cheese party at the university art gallery?”

  Hub frowned before remembrance dawned. “And we each stuck two bottles of wine under our coats to smuggle them back home?”

  “And one of yours fell out? Right in front of the security guard!”

  Daisy laughed as Hub chuckled and shook his head.

  “Good thing you and Manny knew him.”

  “Although I would have enjoyed watching the strip search he threatened to do to you.”

  Hub groaned. “He laughed at me every time he saw me after that.”

  “Hey, at least he didn’t catch us in the storage room that time.”

  “No, that was a different security guard – which, of course, made it all better!” Hub said drily, rolling his eyes. His expression softened. “It was a good time,” he agreed.

  Daisy shifted uncomfortably, dropping her eyes to the manila envelope in her hand. “Well, that’s all in the past now,” she sighed.

  “When did it start to go wrong?” Hub asked sadly.

  Daisy shot him a suddenly annoyed look. “I don’t know – you tell me. I’m not the one who had an affair! Why did you do that?”

  Hub shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I guess I was feeling...old. And she was young and pretty and interested – in me and everything I did.” He sighed and looked at his hands. “You haven’t been interested in me or anything about me for...” he shrugged again, “ever, it seems.”

  Daisy reared back. “That’s not true!”

  Hub raised his hands. “I’m not accusing you – I’m trying to tell you what I felt. And I felt like you didn’t care anymore, and she was...” he shrugged helplessly.

  “There?” Daisy asked drily.

  “Yes – in a way.”

  Daisy sat in thoughtful silence then said, “I almost feel sorry for her.”

  Hub glanced at her. “It’s over, you know. Me and her.”

  “No, I didn’t know,” Daisy replied quietly.

  “Daisy -”

  The shrill ring of Daisy’s phone interrupted him. Daisy glanced at it, then frowned as she answered it.

  “Hello? Manny? You’re where?”

  * * * * *

  Day 120

  Manny heard Daisy and Rebecca long before they rushed into the holding cells area. They hurried to the bars of Manny’s cell with a hasty glance at Zeke in the adjoining one. Zeke and Manny rose to their feet and moved to the bars.

  “Hey, guys,” Manny said.

  Daisy grabbed the bars with a death grip. “Don’t ‘hey guys’ me! I can not believe you ended up in jail!”

  Rebecca leaned in. “What’s the story? The cop at the front desk was pretty pissed.”

  Manny rolled her eyes and glanced at Zeke. “That was Zeke. We didn’t do anything really bad, and if Zeke hadn’t pissed him off I’m almost positive he would have let us off with a warning.”

  Zeke said, “I would like to say – for the record – that this is all her fault.”

  Manny rolled her eyes again and shook her head at him. “Thanks,” she said drily.

  Daisy levelled a death glare in Zeke’s direction. “I don’t care what you say – I’m blaming you anyway!”

  “Hey!” Zeke protested.

  Rebecca lowered her voice with a grin, “Come on, Manny – spill!”

  Manny ignored her. “Are you gonna be able to get us out of here?” she asked Daisy.

  “That depends on what you’ve done!” Daisy snapped.

  “Well, we didn’t kill anybody!”

  “What’s this ‘we’ business?” Zeke protested. “I’m an innocent bystander!”

  “Oh, please!” Manny said. “You drove the getaway car!”

  “We didn’t get away, remember?” Zeke snapped. “We didn’t even get to the car!”

  Rebecca gasped, her eyes wide. “Oh, my God – you robbed a bank?”

  Daisy’s eyes widened, too. “That – that – that’s a lot of time...”

  “Oh, for – we didn’t rob a bank!” Manny sighed.

  “I didn’t do anything!” Zeke said loudly. “I wasn’t there!”

  All three women yelled, “Shut up!”

  “Well, I wasn’t...,” Zeke pouted.

  “It was indecent exposure!” Manny said loudly, “and Zeke wouldn’t have been arrested at all if he hadn’t mouthed off to the cop.”

  “I think it was my question about what I had to do to get him to let us off with a warning,” Zeke muttered.

  “Yeah,” Manny said drily, “he apparently took it the wrong way – as in, an offer of a bribe. Of...one kind or another.”

  Rebecca and Daisy ooh’d, then Rebecca said, “Indecent exposure? Manny...” she sniffed, feigning tears, “I’m so proud!

  “Stop encouraging her!” Zeke snapped. “Honestly!”

  Daisy shook her head. “On the one hand, I’m with Rebecca. On the other hand, I agree with Zeke – and that can never be good.”

  “Hey!”

  “I heard about your reaction to Brett,” Daisy said, her index finger raised in warning.

  Rebecca laughed and winked at him. “You should see us when we don’t like you. Which brings us to this...Ted...he deliberately set you up?”

  “It appears that way,” Manny sighed. “But he’s only sixteen. I think it was just a prank that got out of hand.”

  “Yeah,” Daisy said grimly, “a prank that put you in jail and separated you from your belongings for a least forty-eight hours.”

  “This seems pretty elaborate just to steal some petty cash,” Zeke said skeptically.

  “Or maybe he’s running another type of scam,” Rebecca said. “Now. Where do we pay the bail money?”

  “Probably the cop at the front desk,” Manny sighed. “I’ll never g
et a job again,” she groaned, leaning her forehead against the bars, “especially with a conviction for indecent exposure!”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Rebecca assured her, “you can always sell real estate.”

  Daisy waved away their comments. “We’ll worry about all that later. First we have to get you out of jail. Then we find out what the scam is – and then we show Zeke how we treat the people we don’t like.”

  ~~~~~

  The four them walked into the hotel room, and Rebecca tossed her purse and overnight bag heavily on one of the beds.

  “All right,” she said, planting her hands firmly on her hips, “now that we have some privacy, let’s talk about how we’re going to make this Ted pay.”

  “And how we can find out what the little worm was up to while you were in jail,” Daisy added, dropping her own purse and overnight bag on the second bed.

  “Did you bring your laptop?” Manny asked Daisy. Daisy gestured at her overnight bag and Manny dug it out as the others settled on the beds and continued talking.

  “I’ll call Jackson in about an hour,” Rebecca said. “He’ll be finished with his meetings by then. He can tell us how to tell if your laptops have been tampered with.”

  Daisy nodded. “I’ll call Max; he can find out if your credit cards have been used at all.”

  “I can check online -” Zeke protested.

  “Yeah, but charges don’t always show up right away,” Daisy said.

  “True.”

  Rebecca said, “And then there’s whether your ID has been used online for other purposes. Jackson can help us there, too. Like if something malicious was done to somebody else, using your ID.”

  “Well, I think that’s definitely part of it,” Manny said in a high, strained voice.

  The others looked over at her. She was pale, with bright spots of red on her cheeks, her eyes wide as she stared at the computer screen.

  Zeke frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Ted sent a link to all my friends on Facebook, telling them to check out a certain website,” Manny said slowly, her voice brittle with rage, “but I’m not sure Ted is the one being vindictive.”

  Manny turned the laptop around to show everyone the screen. Zeke’s jaw dropped as he recognized the What Women Want website – and his blog.

  ~~~~~

  Ted glanced up from his comic book and flushed a dark red as Manny walked into the dining room of the bed and breakfast and headed in his direction. She paused on the opposite side of the table and considered him expressionlessly.

  Ted brushed his long hair back and nervously met her eyes.

  She considered him silently, then nodded at the table.

  “May I sit?” she asked gently.

  Ted hesitated, then jerked a nod. Manny sat down, then leaned forward, her hands clasped loosely on the table in front of her.

  “You...uh...you set me up,” she said.

  Ted did a combination of a shrug and a nod. “Yeah. I arranged for you to be arrested.”

  “How?”

  “Ira’s been wanting me to do a favour for him for the last few months. So, I sent you to that beach, and then Zeke, and asked Ira to ‘arrest’ the two of you – trespassing, if nothing else – and to keep you in prison for a couple of days.”

  Manny frowned. “Why?”

  “Because I needed some time to figure out if you two were who I thought you were.”

  Manny nodded without surprise. “The people in the In Praise of Older Women blog.”

  “Yeah. I mean, I was pretty sure, but...I wanted to be sure before telling you. Zeep – the screen name for the author of the blogs - was pretty clear his travelling companion had no idea he was writing about her. If it was you...I just thought you should know.”

  “Why?” Manny asked again.

  “Because...because Zeep’s sometimes not very nice – and now that I’ve met you, I know you are, and you’re just trying to have fun. Zeke’s nice too, but...well, if Zeke and Zeep are one and the same, then you should know. You should know what’s really in it for him.”

  Manny swallowed with difficulty, her eyes on her hands. “I’d...wondered. I read a couple of the early blogs – he was...pretty brutal.”

  “Yeah,” Ted said, “his ‘thing’ is snarky coolness, but he’s been, well...mellowing isn’t the right word, exactly, but giving you some grudging respect. And genuine liking. He defends you a lot in the comments, but he also needs to keep his readership, and most people are reading to find out how he’s going to react to whatever you do next. His latest blog was posted yesterday morning – and it just confirmed that Zeep and Zeke are one and the same.”

  Manny shook her head. “The blog’s pretty popular, huh?”

  “It went viral a few weeks ago, yeah.”

  “You sound...mixed. Like you dislike him and admire him at the same time.”

  Ted shrugged again. “Hey – he’s making money on the Internet – that’s impressive. And I enjoy – enjoyed – his blogs. At least until I actually met you. He’s a good writer, and funny. But – you – you’re not clueless, or an object of fun, or pity. And you deserve to know who you’re travelling with.”

  Manny sighed. “I could have done without the couple days in jail. Or having my sister and friend cough up bail money! You could have just told me.”

  “I had no proof. I had to get my hands on Zeke’s laptop – uninterrupted – to find evidence.”

  “Instead of – I don’t know – just sending me a link?”

  “Would you have clicked it?”

  “If I’d known it was from you, yeah. Probably.”

  “When?”

  Manny opened her mouth, then slowly closed it. “Well, what’s done is done. Although the bail money thing is still an issue.”

  Ted shrugged. “Ira’ll return the money as soon as I call him.”

  Manny huffed. “So...we weren’t really under arrest, were we?”

  Ted chuckled. “No. Like I said, Ira wanted me to do a favour for him.”

  Manny frowned. “But he -?”

  “Well, I asked for something first; now I’ll have to come through for him.”

  “What could he possibly want that would be worth risking his job?”

  “He likes my mom.”

  Manny gaped at him. “You pimped out your mother?”

  Ted grinned. “It’s okay; she likes Ira, too, but she’s too scared to do anything about it. This just gives me a reason to force the issue. And if I help her make progress with Ira, maybe she won’t be quite so pissed with me.”

  “Well – you have cost her two paying customers,” Manny reminded him.

  “Oh, not just that! She reads Zeep’s blog, too. She wanted his autograph.”

  ~~~~~

  Cora caught Manny as she left the dining room.

  “I’m sorry you found out this way,” she said, wringing her hands.

  Manny forced a smile. “So am I. It...wasn’t what I was expecting.”

  Cora bit her lip. “Listen – I’ve been reading Zeep’s blog since it started – and I have to tell you, I think you’ve done a number on him.”

  “Not yet,” Manny said drily, “but when I get through with him -”

  Cora chuckled, shaking her head. “No, no – I mean...he sounds...I mean, his writing – it’s like you’ve befuddled him. He can’t seem to figure you out, and he’s - well. You should read it. All of it, I mean, not just the first blog or two.”

  Manny smiled thinly and said, “Maybe someday. But not today.”

  ~~~~~

  Manny, Rebecca and Daisy were flat on their backs on one of the beds, staring silently at the ceiling until Rebecca muttered, “I’m just...heartbroken. I really liked him.”

  “Me, too,” Daisy sighed.

  “But his blog,” Rebecca continued. “He seems to have some pretty harsh opinions of...of...”

  “‘Old’ women,” Daisy bit out. “He needs to be careful. He’s not that far away from forty himself. The s
on-of-a-bitch.”

  “Well,” Rebecca said grimly, “when I get over the shock, I’m going to make him sorry he ever crossed our paths.”

  “And I’ll help you,” Daisy said, equally grim. “With pleasure.”

  Rebecca and Daisy fell silent and they glanced at Manny, lying stiff and silent between them, staring fixedly at the ceiling. They shared a worried look. Daisy opened her mouth just as Manny’s cell phone rang. Rebecca and Daisy jerked in surprise; Manny didn’t react at all.

  They lay in tense silence as the cell phone rang until it went to voice mail. A few moments later, the phone began ringing again. Manny frowned slightly, but otherwise refused to react.

  Daisy sighed, heaved herself out of bed and grabbed the phone.

  “Manny’s phone...This is her sister Daisy...um...she doesn’t want to speak to anyone right now...Who is this again?...Hang on.” Daisy pulled the phone away from her ear and frowned at it. “Is there a speaker on this thing?”

  Manny heaved an irritated sigh as she sat up, pressed a button on the proffered phone, then got off the bed.

  “I’m not in the mood for anybody,” she snapped.

  “Manny?” a feminine voice said through the speaker. “I’m Leah Huxley. Zeke works for me.”

  Manny froze, then said loudly, “I’m really not in the mood for this!”

  Leah said, “Please – I’d like to talk – maybe explain – and ask you to give Zeke a second chance.”

  “Why? So he can keep writing his precious blog at my expense?”

  “Because your friendship has been the best thing to ever happen to him. Well, since he met TJ – my husband – anyway. And, of course, me.”

  “At this moment, I don’t give a damn.” Manny glanced at Daisy. “Shut it off.”

  “Wait -”

  Daisy ended the call and tossed the phone back on the second bed.

  Manny restlessly paced the room, then turned abruptly to face Daisy and Rebecca. “I’d like to be alone for a while,” she said.

  Rebecca stood and hesitantly put a hand on Manny’s shoulder. “Are you sure? I’m not – you don’t have to go through this alone, you know. We’re here for you.”

  Manny forced a smile that was a dim copy of her usual grin. “I know,” she said, “and it’s not forever – just – give me a little time to...process, you know? Just an hour. Okay?”