by Holly Rayner
Vicki. You take my breath away.”
I reached up to him and he lay down next to me. “I feel the same way. I can hardly breathe when you’re in the same room.”
Alex made love to me. It was sweet and passionate and everything I’d been imagining since that one and only time we were together when we conceived Michael. When he left, I wanted to cry and smile at the same time. I would miss him, but I would also look forward to him returning. I love this man with every fiber in my body and I knew at that moment that I was going to fight tooth and nail to keep him forever.
CHAPTER FIVE
VICTORIA
Later that afternoon when Alex had gone and Michael was sleeping I found myself feeling lonely so I called Liz.
“Hi lady! How are you?”
“I’m good. I was just thinking about you.”
“Did you see the article?”
“Yeah… I’m sorry honey. Are you okay?”
“I’m doing alright. Alex has been wonderful.”
“That’s good. I was afraid I’d have to kick his butt otherwise.”
I laughed. “He’s really been amazing. But there was an accident at one of his plants in Kentucky and he had to fly out this afternoon, so I’m lonely. I was wondering if you’d like to come out and have dinner with me?”
“Will Michael be there?” she asked with a giggle.
“I guess I’ll never be the main attraction again, will I?” I asked with a laugh.
“Afraid not. I’d love to have dinner. I’m still a little bit leery of the mansion. It kind of makes me a nervous wreck.”
“It’ll just be you and me and Michael. The staff leaves at seven. We’ll wait until then.”
“Okay, that sounds good then,” she said.
“I can’t wait. Thank you, Liz.” After I hung up I went in to talk to Cook and ask him to add one for dinner. He was making Tilapia and he was already preparing it at four in the afternoon.
“Would you mind if I asked you to add one for dinner? My friend Liz will be stopping by.”
He waved his palm at me. “Of course I won’t mind. Can I give you a tip Miss Victoria?”
“Tip away.”
“You’re the woman of the house. It’s okay to be polite to the staff but you’re going to have to learn to separate yourself from us.”
“How do you mean?”
“You don’t ask me if it’s okay to have company for one thing, you tell me you’re having company.”
“I don’t think I can do that, Cook. It’s changing my whole personality in a way. I’m not sure that living here and being with Alex calls for that. He’s not rude to the staff.”
“Oh no, he’s never rude. But, he is most definitely the boss. There’s no guesswork there at all and no room for a staff member to take advantage of him. As nice as you are Miss Victoria, that’s what I worry about. I’d hate to think anyone would take advantage of your kindness.”
I was touched by his concern, but this was one of those things I’d been worried about myself. I can’t ever imagine acting like I was “above” anyone. I came from the same place they did and my current position was pure luck and at this point I felt tenuous at best. “Thank you for your concern. I know that I need to be more aware of people who might want to take advantage. But I’d like to believe I can do that without losing touch with who I really am. Besides, I happen to know that on a class to class basis, you way outdo me anyways.”
He laughed. “A lot has been said about me over the years. The word “Class” was never entered into any of it.”
“Well then, they didn’t know you,” I told him with a smile.
He was about to say something else when the doorbell rang.
“Excuse me.”
“Of course.”
I went to answer the door. I knew Karen would get it if I didn’t, but I was right here… I turned the corner and heard Karen’s voice saying, “I will see if she’s here.”
Then my heart dropped down into my stomach when I heard the person she was talking to say, “Thank you.” Speaking of being taken advantage of… it was my mother. Damn her! I took a deep breath and stepped into the foyer.
“Oh there you are, Vicki.” I smiled at Karen.
“Thank you, Karen. I’ll take it from here.”
“Of course.” She stepped out and I waited until I heard her heels disappear down the hall.
“Mother, what are you doing here?”
She looked me up and down and then she said, “Maybe if you worried about your appearance, your staff wouldn’t call you “Vicki.” That’s very disrespectful.”
I almost laughed. “And who are you, the Queen of England?”
“Don’t talk to your mother that way,” she said.
“You keep saying that, yet I hear you speak rudely to everyone you encounter. What is it that makes you different to everyone else?”
“What’s wrong with you? Are you still having post-partum depression?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Mother, what is it that you want?”
“I told you, I want to meet my grandson.”
“I thought I was going to call you when it was a good time.”
“I doubted that you would do that. What’s wrong with now, anyways?”
She’d worn me down. Cook was right; I was easy to take advantage of. “Okay Mom. He’s sleeping right now. Would you like some tea while we wait?”
“What about a tour?”
So that she can do a mental inventory of how much everything is worth. With a sigh I said, “Okay, I can do that.”
I took her into the living room first. She stopped to peruse the artwork on the walls, checking for signatures and dates on the paintings no doubt to assess their originality. From there, we went out onto the sunporch. She wasn’t much interested in plants and flowers but she did comment on how much the skylight must have cost. I tried to point out the gardens to her outside the glass but she was disinterested in that as well. I showed her the formal dining room and tried to skip the kitchen, but she headed in there on her own. I reluctantly followed her.
“Well hello there, big guy!” Oh Jesus, she’s so embarrassing.
Cook looked at her warily and then at me and said, “Hello. You are?”
“Whoever you want…”
“Mother!” She was really too much. “This is our cook, Gregory Black. Gregory this is my mother, Rita.”
Gregory smiled at her and I saw my mother’s posture straighten as she pushed out her fake boobs. God help me. “It’s so nice to meet you,” she said.
“And you as well, ma’am,” he said.
“Oh please, I’m way too young to be a ma’am… call me Rita.”
He only smiled again. I took my mother by the arm and said, “Gregory is busy. Let’s get back to the tour.”
She resisted saying, “I can’t imagine that any room could be more interesting than this one.”
“Mother,” I said through gritted teeth. I could tell Gregory was trying not to laugh.
“Maybe your mother would like to have a look at the basement.”
“Yes, come on Mom… you’ll love it down there.”
She finally moved but as we were leaving the room she said, “I’ll be seeing more of you now that my daughter is lady of the manor, I’m sure.”
Gregory did chuckle then as he said, “I’ll look forward to it ma’am.”
CHAPTER SIX
VICTORIA
Mom and I were upstairs in the master suite when the baby monitor in my pocket signaled that my handsome little man was awake. She was going on about the gold fixtures and the sound of her grandson didn’t even faze her.
“The baby’s awake,” I told her.
“Oh… yay!” She was so transparent. I headed to the nursery and was mildly surprised when she followed me. When we got to the nursery, before she even looked at her grandson she said, “My goodness look at this, it’s like he’s royalty.”
My head was beginning to pound.
The cure for it however was quickly in my arms. I kissed my sweet boy on his fat little cheek and said, “Hello there handsome. You have a visitor.” I tried to hand him to my mother and she actually took a step back. “You don’t want to hold him?”
“Oh, I’d love to… but this is a new blouse, I’d hate to get spit-up on it, you know?”
I rolled my eyes. She leaned in and looked at him and said, “He doesn’t look like you, but he is handsome. I’ve seen publicity photos of his father, he has good genes.”
“Yes he does. He looks a lot like Alex.”
The baby forgotten that quickly, she looked at me and said, “So, what about Alex? Has he proposed?”
“He’s not legally divorced yet, mother.”
“But you are sleeping in that big room with him, right?”
“Mom, I need to feed my son. If you’re truly only here because you think that me being with Alex will benefit you financially I’ll solve that mystery for you right now. What is Alex’s is Alex’s. I’m not with him in any way shape or form to benefit financially or otherwise in any materialistic way. I care very much for Alex and being with him is all about that and Michael.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and said, “I really don’t know what has gotten into you. Becoming a mother has made you hateful and spiteful.”
