63: An Afternoon to Remember
64: It's An Offer I Can't Refuse
65: A Divorced Asian Submits Her List
66: A Divorced Asian Earns Her Spanking
67: A Divorced Asian Closes The Deal
68: About That Offer I Couldn't Refuse
69: A Courtesan Becomes My Confidant
70. A New Life and a Hot New Wife
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Let me begin this final story by sharing what happened the rest of the time in Sedona with Marie.
First, as you read, she helped me uncover and understand myself and the relationships I had in my life.
Second, she shared with me that she had no heirs and wanted to pass along to me her estate when she passed in exchange for the opportunity to be a grandmother to all of my kids. Whoever the mother was!
Third, she wanted me to meet her older brother, in Japan, because he had no one in his family to take over his business and he was interested in talking to me to see if I would consider taking over his share of the corporation. It would require me going to Japan, spending time there, getting to know the culture and the strategic plans.
Marie hinted that her brother had been thinking about moving his corporation to the US because he was nervous with the Chinese getting active and that crazy kid running North Korea with missiles and nukes.
If this deal worked out I would end up a billionaire by the time I was 40. 45 tops!
Fourth, Marie advised me that if I wanted to do this, I would need to eliminate all the distractions from my life. No more bed hopping, no more sport fucking.
"You need someone stable, smart and not out for your money. She needs to be beautiful, articulate, without an agenda. Not a closet lesbian and not someone who wants to you to be her sugar daddy. She has to be educated, refined, polished and available to travel and share your bed every night. And I know just the lady for you."
Instinctively I asked "Who is she?" and Marie just smiled and replied "You know her already. She's perfect in every way."
When I pushed Marie laughed and said "I'm looking out for you and you just need to trust me and be patient."
With Marie's help I crafted a plan to take care of the personal and business operations sides of my life.
It was going to take about two years for it to come together, maybe a bit longer, but the hard work would be worth it.
###
I hadn't heard from Catherine the entire three weeks I was in Sedona.
I knew something was up when my phone calls, text messages and emails were not replied to.
When I arrived home, the place looked the same but the envelope addressed to me lying on the kitchen counter had a note from Catherine to me telling me she wanted a divorce.
I had already anticipated this move so confronting Catherine wasn't easy, but I did it.
I told her we were not married, and that there was no evidence of our marriage being recorded at the courthouse.
She blew up at that and then I countered with "If we were married and you had a copy of the license, then how do you explain this?" and then I handed her the copy of the marriage license showing that she and her friend Kim had been married in Las Vegas before we connected.
Catherine was furious and ripped up the copy and I said to her in a calm voice: "If we were married in California, and you were already married in Las Vegas, that would make you a bigamist. Which is illegal; a felony I believe. So you can make a decision what you are going to do knowing that if you try to fuck me over, you'll be sitting in a prison cell for a good ten years. Maybe more when the Feds come after you for stealing the money out of my company's checking account without my permission. $24 million is a major crime and if you moved it overseas from the US, that's tax evasion, wire fraud and money laundering which are pretty serious crimes. All four criminal acts, not civil. So, Catherine, choose your next statement very carefully."
I was solid in my stand and we agreed to physically separate and I agreed to continue to support her and her daughters and our son financially.
I did tell her that I wanted a full accounting of the money she spent on all the things she did when I was in Mexico and elsewhere.
I also met with Kim and Catherine, just the three of us, and got the truth out of them about being married, Kim getting pregnant and having a baby boy and not telling me I was the father; Catherine pushing me to get married, get her pregnant and having a baby just like Kim.
So, Los Angeles has long been known to be the land of nuts (crazy ass people) but I had ignored the weirdoes and tried to live a decent life.
Who knew that the women I was involved with were nut jobs? The sex was great but they were still fucking loony.
And, gold diggers of the highest degree.
As I suspected, the two of them were into me for my money and since all they wanted was the money, we were able to address those issues quickly and as for child support and custody, we were also able to work those things out too.
So, back from Sedona I was a new man on a new mission.
I consolidated company ownership; kicked Catherine's ass off of any Boards she had a seat on, fired people who had been in on Catherine's charades.
I started legal proceedings against all the people who had been working against me.
But in addition to getting Catherine and Kim behind me, as much as I could, I also had unfinished business elsewhere.
###
My life had been a mess, but it wasn't going to stay that way.
The biggest asset I had was Marie, who had put me on a path of getting my shit together.
While I was sorting things out in my head in Sedona, I remembered back to something that took place about two weeks after my first wife was kissed in the automobile accident.
If you read my very first story "I Hire Monica the Maid" you will recall was in a fog for many weeks following my wife's death.
This was when I was not in a good mental place; in fact I was barely functioning.
It was all I could do to get out of bed in the morning after not getting any sleep the night before. Expensive bottles of Cabernet and sleeping pills got me to bed but they seldom worked, in combination or alone, to put me and keep me sleeping.
I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping but I was drinking a lot. Not a good place to be. Not a good place to stay in. But I didn't know any other way to deal with the pain except for time to pass.
I remember thinking, if enough time passed, I'd feel better.
I did pray a lot and I know that God had His reasons for taking my wife away in her prime. He just wasn't sharing them with me. So, the word and question "why?" was in my head a lot those days.
It got so bad I checked into a local hotel, thinking a change of scenery would help.
So that I wouldn't go stir crazy looking at four walls I got a two-bedroom suite. Maybe having a few more walls to stare at would help me to sleep better.
Thursday night was a bit of an improvement, maybe because it had started raining.
I slept a bit longer before waking up, but life still sucked on Friday morning.
On Friday I worked my business, on the phone, email and text. My heart wasn't really in it.
When it came time to eat dinner that Friday night, I had a glass of wine in the hotel bar and then went to our usual place. I needed to be around people. It was still raining, and showers were expected the entire weekend, so I drove carefully.
For years each Friday night I would head over to a local restaurant and pick up dinner for my wife and me.
My wife was somewhat a creature of habit and always had me get a piece of fish and a salad for her dinner.
I'd switch back and forth between chicken and beef, depending on what I was looking to drink. If it was beer, I'd choose the 'cheaper chicken' (a line out of the Steve Martin movie "Father of the Bride") and if it was red wine, the beef. Usually, it was a steak but sometimes I took home a burger.
I'd place my order when I walked in around 7pm and depart around 7:30. To kill time I'd go into the bar and have a libation.
This was a chain, regional and family owned. They did an amazing amount of business. The food was of high quality and priced just a bit higher than the competition but not so much so that you would complain about it.
It was a nice place, modern and clean. In Los Angeles County the health department grades eating establishments by a letter grade and this unit always earned an A.
But what set the place apart was the service. Whoever did the hiring at this place should have gone into business teaching other businesses how to hire.
It was the single most important reason why they were so successful.
Women consisted of ninety percent of the front of the house wait staff. While they weren't all Kate Upton or Olivia Grupo, all of the women were attractive.
Guys think about every woman in a very basic way: would I have sex with her or not?
All of the women in this place were on my list of "Yes I would."
Listen, I like eye candy like every other guy but in all the years I was married I never cheated on my wife. Never. Not that I would ever admit it if I did.
But this place was a great venue to watch women.
The female staff ranged in age from 21 to 50 or so. They were all attractive; many were very pretty, even the older servers. And they were nice and competent. They took care of their figures and their customers and were tipped well for it. There was a lot of repeat business.
Not to digress, but in addition to getting takeout on Friday nights I would eat lunch at this place about once a week with a client. I was always generous with my tips.
It got to the point that many of the wait staff called me by my first name. I wasn't exactly Norm from Cheers (look up this TV series on IMDB.com) but it was nice to be recognized and acknowledged by a friendly face.
The bar area was large with about 20 seats around a long peninsula shaped counter.
