Naughty and Nice

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Can you just tell me?” He was growing frustrated.

  “Daphne asked me to let you know that your brother is having an affair.” There. I’d blurted it out. I steeled myself for the response. What did I want to see? Outrage or acknowledgement?

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “It’s not me that is interpreting events, it’s her. She said they’ve had it out about it and he promised to stop seeing the other woman, but he didn’t come home last night and she’s thinking he didn’t keep his promise.”

  Chris launched into a dark scowl and I could see he was thinking. “Damn him!” he cursed finally. “I just knew he wasn’t on the level. He kept repeating the complaints about Daphne, over and over and now I see he was trying to justify his behavior by making her look bad. God damn him! He should have told me. I hate it when people aren’t up front and keep secrets – absolutely hate it!”

  I released a quiet sigh of relief. It appeared that I was off the hook. But no, I had to put in two more cents’ worth. “I think you should know that Marga knows things are bad. While I was sitting with her while she had her bath, she told me her daddy didn’t love her mommy anymore. I have to admit, Chris, she’s a sensitive little girl and I can see this is going to scar her.”

  “Damn him!” he repeated again, rising to his feet and pacing the room. I watched him, his hands flailing in the air as he mentally went through the scenarios of realization that had to be going on in his head. Finally, he threw up his arms and began dressing. Snapping up his phone from the nightstand, he said, “Do me a favor and don’t talk to Daphne for the time being. I’m going out. Don’t wait up for me. I’ve got to talk to Corey.”

  I flinched as he closed our bedroom door, hard, and when I heard him leave the apartment, I sneaked into the living room and cracked open Marga’s door. She was sound asleep, thank God. I left her on her own and went to bed, snapping out the light, but it was a long time before I fell asleep. My last thought was, I shouldn’t have wasted this beautiful nightie on tonight. I could have slept in a t-shirt. Geez, what’s the matter with me? How selfish is that?

  Chapter 14

  Christopher

  I calculated the time difference and knew that Corey would be at the end of his workday. He was an architect by profession, but owned his own company and supervised a dozen or more architects who worked for him. His hours were his own and he been quite successful. In fact, I’d hired him to design several of my stores and had always been pleased with the final outcome. It had brought us closer together; perhaps closer than anything since our childhood.

  I tapped his name in my contact list and settled back on the bench I found just outside the hotel. It was snowing in earnest by then but the fire from my anger kept me warm.

  “Hello?” Corey answered on the third ring.

  “It’s me.”

  “I know, I saw. Is everything okay? How’s Marga?”

  “She’s fine, but that’s not why I’m calling.” I shifted my weight on the bench, recognizing that I was subconsciously putting myself in a fighting stance. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  There was silence at the other end. Finally, “How did you hear about it?”

  “You asshole, do you think that sort of thing never gets out? It always gets out and at the worst time. In this case, your wife made it her business to tell Lillie. And Lillie is here with me and we just happen to be taking care of your daughter, who is currently extremely upset because as she told Lillie, ‘my daddy doesn’t love my mommy anymore.’ What have you got to say for yourself?”

  “Damn! I didn’t think they would say anything.”

  “And that’s your biggest complaint? Isn’t it time you told someone the truth? You’ve been running my ears off telling me what a bitch Daphne is, and here you’ve been fucking another woman the entire time. Where do you get off blaiming that on Daphne?”

  “Whose brother are you, anyway? You’re supposed to have my back.”

  “Not when you’re stabbing it. Not when you’re stabbing your own daughter. Not when you’re breaking your vows to your wife. There’s no reason for this, Corey. This is all about your fucking ego.” I could see the steam in the air from my breath.

  “Okay, okay, so I screwed up.”

  “From the way I hear it, you screwed up, said you’d never do it again but turned right around and did it. Is that true?”

  “Yeah, so what if it is? I deserve to have a life, too, you know? I work my ass off and for what?”

  “You selfish, son of the bitch. Grow up. You made a commitment to Daphne when you married her. You made a commitment when you had a child. Those are your priorities, not whether you’re having a good time or enjoying the spoils of your riches. I’m willing to bet you didn’t even give Daphne a chance.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You’ve got the guts to say that to me? After you’ve spent the last couple of months whining at me? The way I see it, Daphne should’ve thrown your ass out long ago, the first time you did this. You should be sitting in the defendant’s chair in court right now, trying to convince the judge that you deserve to see your daughter on the weekends. That’s where this is going to end up, you know.”

  “No, it won’t. I’ve seen to it.”

  “Oh? And how did you manage to do that?”

  “The judge is a friend of mine. You might say, he’s related to someone I know intimately.”

  I wanted to puke. I couldn’t believe this was the same person that I’d grown up with. He had not only blatantly abandon his wife and child, but had covered his trail in such a way that they couldn’t recover. He had condemned them and they’d not done nothing wrong. “You know what? You remind me of someone…hmmm… maybe our father?” You disgust me, Corey. You give all men a bad name. I don’t want to hear from you. I’m bringing your daughter home, but believe me, if witnesses are possible, I’ll be in the front row. I’ll give Daphne every bit of my support.”

  “You won’t do that. You won’t lift a finger to interfere.”

  “Oh? And how are you going to stop me?”

  “Well, as it turns out, you’ve been a bad boy, too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I had an interesting phone call. Since we’re on the subject, the phone does work both ways, you know. Anyway, this call was from a gentleman who you’ve introduced to me as your business partner. That means that he’s responsible for you, and you are in turn responsible for him. He tells me that you been trying to buy a certain building, a former bakery. He also tells me that you told him to do whatever it took to get the building. I also noticed that the building burned down not long ago. You wanted the real estate bad enough to destroy a family-owned business.”

  I didn’t know what to say. He took me off guard. If I admitted I knew it, my goose was cooked. If I swore I didn’t know, I’d be as big a liar as he was. I did the only thing I could think of. Like a coward, I disconnected the phone.

  I paced the streets of Paris for two hours as a bitter cold wind rose and blew down the narrow cobblestone streets. I was currently standing in the middle of the biggest fucking mess I’d been in, in my life, and my brother was holding me hostage. Could it get any better than that?

  I thought about my situation. Corey knew a couple of things, but he was guessing on the rest. I hadn’t burned the building, so there was no evidence to say I had. My ass was clear. On the other hand, I had become aware of it and it was a felony from which I profited. I wasn’t going to find any judge who was going to look on me favorably about that. Worse yet, there was Lillie. If she knew, I’d never see her again. If I didn’t tell her and somehow managed to bribe the parties involved to silence, I would know and there would go my integrity. I’d have to let her go. Either way, she was gone.

  Then there was the matter of my partner, Steve. He had, inasmuch confessed to my brother, that the building had been torched per my orders. That son of a bitch surprised me with his de
vious forethought. My guess was that his spies had uncovered Corey’s out of wedlock alliance and were blackmailing him to keep me quiet. It all made sense. The only person who stood to gain in all this, was Steve, and that’s how he always came out ahead. Corey and I were nothing more than chess pieces on Steve’s board. It pissed me to no end that I had let this man close to me. Now he was threatening my family.

  Even if I wanted to have him eradicated, which I would never do, I couldn’t. It would open a can of worms that would leave me indicted. Steve knew that. He knew he had an insurance policy that was foolproof. I was the fool and he had the proof. He had ratcheted up the game higher than I could momentarily reach. And at the bottom of all this, lay an innocent woman, Lillie, and a tiny child who wanted nothing more from life than for her mommy and daddy to be happy and to get a doll for Christmas. How has life gotten so fucked up?

  Exhausted and cold, I finally went back into the hotel, pausing at the elevator for the car to lower. The desk clerk called to me. “I have a package for you, sir.” I took the FedEx envelope from him and signed as received. My attorney’s name was in the return corner, so I knew what it was. Now all I had to decide was what my next step was going to be.

  Chapter 15

  Lillie

  I had gained enough courage to look out the window. “Those are the Alps,” noted Chris. They are among the highest mountains in the world, outside of the Himalayans. Aren’t they beautiful?”

  I nodded and looked toward Marga who was on her knees, her mouth open. “Is that where Santa Claus lives?”

  “No, darling, Santa lives in the North Pole. That’s very far away from here, at the top of the earth.”

  “Does Santa have his own jet?”

  “No, but why do you ask?”

  “Because Santa has a very long way to go to deliver all the presents around the world. If he doesn’t have a jet, how does he go fast enough?”

  “Because Santa has Rudolph and the rest of his reindeer,” Chris put in. I could see by the twinkle in his eyes that he was enjoying my discomfort. He knew I didn’t want to plant stories in Marga’s head. God knew she had enough lies in her life right now as it was. But, she was an inquisitive child, and very bright and I had come up with something good or she wouldn’t buy it. Wrapped in layers of tissue paper and nested into a sturdy box of gold and foil in the luggage compartment of the jet was the doll Marga had wanted. The limo driver took me by that shop just after Chris announced that we were leaving town. I knew I couldn’t give Marga everything she wanted for Christmas, but at least she would get the doll. It was the least I could do.

  Marga spoke up again. “Uncle Chris, where did you say we are going?”

  “We are going to Bremen,” he told her. It’s a city about the same size as Chicago in the northern part of Germany. It’s right on the North Sea, just as Chicago is on Lake Michigan. Tonight is Christmas Eve and that is when Germany celebrates Christmas. All the families will gather for their dinners tonight and then open up their gifts. There will be lots of good food, plenty of laughter and hugs and the Germans like to sing. They are very well known for their tortes, kuchen, stolen, streusel and almond cookies.

  “Will we get to have some?”

  “Of course, we will. That’s why we’ve come.”

  I looked at Chris, wondering what he meant. He made it sound as though our entire trip was about desserts. “Why do I get the feeling that the theme of this trip is bakeries?”

  I saw his face twitch and he shrugged. “I told you, I took a couple culinary classes and what better idea than to take my two best girls to the old world to experience them?”

  I nodded, accepting his explanation, even though it didn’t completely ring true. Who was I to differ? He had his hands full with Corey and Daphne.

  I knew the night before, when he returned, that he was angry. He had climbed into bed next to me, but kept his back to me and curled into an almost fetal ball. I knew he was hurting and that meant that he hadn’t known about Corey and had probably gone out to call him and have it out. That was worth two points from my point of view. He had believed me, and he had reinforced my belief that his integrity came above everything. I had no idea what going home was going to be like. I hoped very much to be excluded from that homecoming. My heart broke for Marga. I knew Daphne was on the edge of divorce, and rightfully so. If Corey wasn’t going to be a part of the marriage, there was little she could do to change things. That meant there was a battle to be fought and the little ten-year-old girl should not be the trophy.

  We flew a couple more hours before we began our descent into Bremen. From the air I could see the colored lights in the light covering of snow on the grassy areas. It was a busy, bustling city and as I would later see, there were still scars from the war were buildings had been destroyed, but overall, the people were happy, healthy and certainly in a celebratory mood.

  Chris a chosen a Hilton here as well, although the decoration differed greatly from that in Paris. With a landmark building as a façade, the interior featured a massive skylight with rooms that opened onto an indoor courtyard restaurant. Here, the décor reflected a more spartan approach, most likely influenced by its proximity to Scandinavia. While the appointments were extremely spartan, the Germans had an appreciation for color and pattern. Everywhere I looked, there were bright blues, reds, and greens in hand-painted folk art. Their houses were adorned in the older parts of the city like something out of a Grimm’s fairy tale. It was absolutely enchanting and somehow Christmas belonged there.

  Most everyone spoke English, so I had no problem communicating with the woman behind the front desk. “I need to buy a Christmas present,” I told her. “I’m looking for a men’s shop, something very nice.” She nodded in understanding and wrote the name and address of an appropriate store on the back of one of their cards.

  “Give this to your driver,” she told me in accented English. I asked her to call me a taxi since I didn’t want to use the limo in case Chris needed it. I’d told him I was going out to look around a little before the shops closed and he never questioned me.

  The shop she sent me to carried a variety of men’s clothing. There were very fine, tailored suits along one wall, and niches of heavy, knitted sweaters, lederhosen and neatly-checked shirts to be worn beneath. I bought Chris a sweater in chocolate brown to match his eyes and then with a giggle, added a pair of the lederhosen and a green felt hat with a feather in it. I knew he’d never find somewhere to wear it, but it would be fun just to see his face. They giftwrapped my purchases for me and I climbed back into my waiting taxi.

  When I returned to the hotel, Chris met me just inside the door, his finger up to his lips. “Marga is sleeping,” he whispered. I nodded and he pulled me by the arm into what was to be our bedroom. He couldn’t help but notice the packages in the bag I carried — there’d been nowhere to hide them. I hoped he thought I was bringing home gifts back to the states, but he was smarter than that.

  “We’re going to have dinner tonight here at the hotel,” he told me. “There are many fine restaurants but since Christmas celebrations are tonight, I wasn’t able to get a reservation early enough. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Mind? Are you kidding? All I want to do was look out the window. Everything is so, so old here. Not in a bad way like the east side of Chicago, mind you. It’s also cleaned and well maintained. Do you know that I even saw a garbage truck go by and the men all wore matching uniforms? Can you imagine?”

  Chris was laughing. “I bring you thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean and the thing that impresses you most is that the garbageman are coordinated in uniform. I just love how you appreciate the simple things, Lillie. Speaking of which, come here and sit down by me,” he patted next to himself on the bed. I kicked off my shoes and climbed up next to him, curling into the space between his arm in his chest.

  He bent and kissed the top of my head. “With all that’s been going on, you and I haven’t had much alone time, have we?�
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  “You worry too much, Chris. I would’ve never seen any of this if it hadn’t been for you. You’re so very good to me and Marga is very lucky to have you as her uncle. I’ll admit, I’m a little worried about what we’ll find when we get back to theSstates.”

  “You’re not to worry about that, you hear? I have everything under control. You know I’ll look after you, no matter what.”

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I decided not to press it. I sighed, and he immediately responded.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong, really. It’s just that I’m a little confused.”

  “About what?”

  “This is all going so fast. Do you realize it’s only been a couple weeks since we’ve met? There I was, sitting on a pile of boxes trying to figure out where my next meal was coming from and now here I am, barely a week later, staying at a Hilton in Germany and eating at the best restaurants. It’s enough to make your head spin.”

  “But what part of that is confusing?” he pressed.

  “I can’t help but wonder where I’ll be a week from now.”

  He pulled me tightly against himself, his finger trailing down the center of my chest and venturing into the valley between my breasts. “Let’s think about that a week from now, shall we?”

  He cut off any response I might give with his lips. I felt his hand beneath me, scooting me downward on the bed until I was lying flat. His toes found my feet, pushing my shoes off and I heard them hit the floor. His hands worked quickly, removing my clothing. His own followed and when we were both naked, he lifted me up and turned down the massive feather bed we’ve been lying on. I slid beneath the mound of warm and cushy feathers, luxuriating in the sensation of my bare skin.

  Chris rose to his knees and began massaging my body, beginning the first with the innocuous parts such as my upper arm and the calves of my legs. I relaxed and close my eyes. His hands continued to travel and now his lips joined them. His tongue drew circles around my nipples and they responded by blossoming into his mouth. He suckled upon me, his hands massaging the small of my back and then pressing my ass against his groin. It was obvious he was ready and waiting for me.