Keli's legs were still shaky and her thighs burned like they did after a good workout. She was idly nibbling on a hastily prepared salad as her mind tried to organize the barrage of thoughts assaulting it. She was disgusted by her husband's recent behavior. By recent she meant roughly the last twelve months. While she was disgusted by his behavior, she still loved the man and he clearly loved her. She took a severe and abrupt position of dominance over him, and their marriage, and he swallowed his pride and accepted it. He accepted her as head of the family, as he should, considering that under his management their small household was spiraling into the abyss. If anything, she should have done this months ago, but it never would have occurred to her. She needed to be cautious though, she dominated him for one morning and real change couldn't happen that fast.
Going to that conference was a smart move. It opened her eyes to what was possible and motivated her to make the necessary changes in her own life. Leaving the conference was a huge mistake, as Elaine informed her through Leonard. Not just leaving, but the way she left, were both large errors.
She wasn't sure that not fucking Zeus was a huge mistake, but it felt like one. She wanted that man badly but not bad enough to betray her husband. If she was going to do this, if doing it was still even possible, it being the joining of Sisters of Harmonia, she wanted to do it clean. That had to be possible, commendable even, right?
She wasn't sure how to go about reversing that mistake. She didn't have Elaine's number. She could get it. Would Elaine even take her call? She still had eighty-something dollars of her money in her purse. Maybe she should make an effort to pay her back and in the process broach the subject of a return to the fold. Keli did not think she would enjoy any conversation with Elaine at the moment. She was clearly pissed and thought less of Keli than she did before. Maybe that was cowardice speaking. Maybe the right move was to immediately go back to the convention center and throw herself at Elaine's expensively sandaled feet and beg for forgiveness. That's what she needed to do.
Holy shit, she still had the earrings. Keli's hands shot up to her ears and felt the big rocks at her lobes. Assuming they were real, and she did dig them out of the center console of a Bugatti, so yeah, probably real, they were worth somewhere around ten grand. That had to be returned. She had to go back, immediately. Elaine may have already reported them stolen.
Keli ignored Jake again as she passed their bed. She could feel his eyes on her. She went into the bathroom and stepped into the shower and turned it one. The cold blast shocked her into what was hopefully a heightened level of alertness. She would need it if she was going to try and sell Elaine on the idea of forgiveness. She shivered under the cold water until it warmed then quickly shampooed and conditioned her hair, and loofahed her body clean of all sweat and sexual residue. She styled her hair quickly and applied make-up, then sprayed herself with the most expensive scent she owned. She slid into the sundress and stepped into the shoes. She did not put on any underwear or bra.
On her way out she stopped and looked down at her husband, still securely fastened to their bed, naked and sticky with her juices. He was such a disappointment and she let her expression convey this to him. She looked at his pale skin covering his soft body and shook her head. He was such a magnificent specimen of male physical perfection at one time. Yeah, Zeus was bigger, but Jake's proportions, in his day, were nothing to sneeze at.
"I'm going out and I am leaving you tied to that bed until I get back. Maybe it will be later tonight, maybe tomorrow. I am telling you in advance that, given the opportunity, I am going to bed another man. It is not being unfaithful if I tell you I am going to do it. If you have a problem with any of this then just say the word and I will untie you before I leave and expect you to be gone by the time I get back." She waited a few seconds for him to say it, but he didn't. "You may need to pee, or shit, or scratch your nose, you will probably get hungry, and I do not care. If the house catches fire I expect you to burn to death in it. Nod if you understand." He nodded slowly and she watched a tear escape his left eye and roll down his face. "Good," she said with a nod and left the bedroom. He loved her.
She drove back to the convention center feeling much better about herself. In addition to having the beautiful dress and shoes, now she had her hair did, some smell-good on, and she was clean from head to toes. This gave her a bit of a confidence boost as did more of an idea of what she was walking into. Maybe this would not be so bad.
"I am sorry, this is a private conference," the slave with the thin collar, the white tee, and the black pants said at the entrance to the convention center.
"I know, I was here earlier remember? I came in with Elaine Oppleheimer? You handed me a hundred dollars when I left?"
Nothing. The slave maintained a blank stare at the ground. He stood right in front of the door so she could not get to it.
"Dude, Sister Mistress Elaine? I came in with her this morning. You held the door for us."
He did not respond again. Keli went and tried the other doors, there were about eight on either side of the one the slave was guarding. They were all locked.
"Get the fuck out of my way or I will move you out of my way. Do you understand?"
He did not respond to her but he did reach into his pants pocket. She wasn't sure what his hand did in there but at least it was something. He withdrew his hand from his pocket a second later then went back to his hands at his sides stare at the ground routine.
"I am going to kick you in the nuts," Keli said and realized that announcing her planned attack ahead of time was maybe not a good combat tactic.
"That won't be necessary," a female voice said as the door opened behind the slave. "Are you Keli?" The voice belonged to a very pretty black woman who dressed a lot like Jackie Brown. She was slim but bulbous in all the right areas. Her curve hugging, light blue, polyester pants suit, looked dated but good on her. She stood in the door with a hip cocked out.
"I am."
"Okay, good, listen to me Keli. I am going to tell you some things I was told to tell you, and then some other things that I am not supposed to tell you but I will anyway. Okay?"
"Okay."
"First the things I am supposed to tell you. You fucked up, there is no coming back, and you should fuck yourself all the way back to your broke-ass home and shitty marriage, or something to that effect. I didn't write it down." She rolled her eyes and shifted her weight from one foot to the other and cocked out the opposite hip as she spoke. Her words were angry but her tone was pleasant. "What I am not supposed to tell you is that yeah, you did fuck up, but there is coming back. Here," she handed Keli a folded Post-it note and Keli opened it to see a phone number written on it, "that's Sister Elaine's number. You call her, relentlessly, and beg her to accept you as an initiate and she will sponsor you. She may punish you first, she may make you do some shit you don't want to do, but she will eventually forgive you and let you pledge. Okay?"
"What if she doesn't?"
"She will, if she don't you can call me and I'll sponsor you. Oh shit," she said and her eyes got wide. "Now I definitely wasn't supposed to say that, but it's true. We'd have to wait a year but you exhaust your opportunity with Sister Elaine, and I got you. Okay?"
"How do I get in touch with you?"
"Here you go," she said and she pulled a card out of her back pocket and handed it to Keli. Her name was Dominique, no last name, and her number was a two-one-two number which Keli knew was New York City.
"Thank you, I have her diamonds and her change."
"What?" She looked confused.
"She gave me these earrings to wear and loaned me a hundred dollars for cab fare." Keli pointed at her ears.
"I really doubt she gives a shit about any of that but if you want to give them to me I will see she gets them."
"Is there any way I can just slip in and see Elaine right now and give them to her myself."
"No, there really isn't, and I wouldn't advise it anyway. Sister Elaine is my girl, I love her, and I know how she gets. When she gets like she is right now, there is no swaying her. Accept you fucked up, the penalty is banishment, now adapt and overcome."
Keli nodded as she plucked the earrings from her ears and handed them to the girl. She then took the cash from her purse and handed that over too. The girl took them and nodded, wished Keli luck, then closed the door. Keli took her phone out of her purse as she walked away from the convention center and dialed the number on the Post-it.
"Elaine speaking," she said cheerfully when she answered.
"It's Keli."
