My deepest thanks go to NinaWild for taking on this marathon project. This story does go between past and present, but I do try to make it as easy as possible to understand as it does.
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The Present...
"Mrs. Baxter has asked that you meet at her apartment at six o'clock and requested that you're not late. Dinner is at six thirty and the social function attended by the other senior partners will be at eight."
Ruth had picked the wrong day to patronize me. Her distain for me was real, it was time to reciprocate those very feelings.
"Ruth. Please give Mrs. Baxter my regards and tell her I am no longer available. I hope you have a nice dress Ruth. Have a great evening, both of you."
I let the answering machine take the various calls after that but when the background noise became too much of a distraction for me, the plug was removed from the phone socket and I sat down to read the letter once again. Looking for details that where not there. Seeking answers that no one seemed to have and yet left me now without my son.
My son was involved in a car accident. The Californian Highway Patrol had done a very thorough job and deemed it an accident. The buzzer let me know that my taxi had arrived, the report went into my case and I was on my way to the airport soon after that. I wasn't looking forward to the wait when I got there; it meant I had time to think.
The Past...
All Ginny and I ever wanted to be were the traditional family, we had no real ambition other than to be happy, financially secure and a family. Ginny got a job as a receptionist while I got into computers, loved them so much that I finished second out of college. For Ginny her job was to keep her mind active. Mind you, her money helped and two years with my folks got us enough to buy our own place.
The first thing Ginny insisted on was a white picket fence. My job picked up and promotions soon followed. The increased hours meant that Ginny sat me down and pointed out that the company would not come to a halt over the weekend whether I was there or not. She would put up with the long hours over the week but the weekends were hers.
It was a valid point and for the next year things went along great. The white plastic stick on the kitchen table when I got home one Friday was enough for me. We never left the bedroom for anything other than food and the bathroom and we didn't even dress to do that much. Steven was born healthy and screaming eight and a half months later.
Ginny wanted to be a stay at home mom and we were financially secure enough for us to agree. The rules never changed, other than the weekends were for both my family now. When Steven entered school Ginny wanted to go back to work, she had to have an active mind and since Steven was going to be our only child I agreed with her thoughts.
She lucked into her next job. She got a job as a secretary for a married couple who had started a fashion design business. As there business grew they quickly realized the importance of Ginny and kept her close, her wages alone paid for Steven's college fees before he had even entered senior school. Ginny asked me once if we were now deemed middle class.
When I looked around and noticed that almost half the people we called neighbors were now divorced I said I prefer to call ourselves lucky. We were lucky in many respects, Steven never touched drugs, he had a good sense of the people he wished to call friends and they all looked out for each other. Ginny insisted on her routine never changing, she picked Steven up from school and her mind was totally focused on our family from the time she walked away from work. Like my company, the design house never came to a halt over the weekend, any fire was always put out by Ginny on Monday morning.
The design house did decide that it was now bigger than our little part of the world and wanted Ginny to come with them when they moved. She did thank them for their consideration but declined their offer. The references she received quickly got her a job with the Widow Morgan who wanted a PA as she dealt with the death of her husband and taking over the reins of her husbands company.
For a while Ginny brought files home with her, I wasn't happy but it was only for a month while she got a handle on everyone of the board members. The Widow Morgan walked into the board room four months later and culled almost half the board. Their replacements were waiting outside as the old ones left. The new board and the atmosphere on the factory floor changed almost overnight.
The Widow Morgan wasn't a woman to be taken lightly and her company cancelled all the proposed layoffs by cutting the boards wages by ten percent. Those that still wished to leave could, none did she even started a jobs drive. Production went up ten percent that year and a steady five percent for the next three.
The Present...
"The plane now boarding at gate seventeen..."
A hand clasped mine and when I looked into her eyes I tried to smile. Amy Baxter leant between us and kissed my cheek.
"You're going to miss the party."
"I got Ruth to send my apologies, the partners know something important has come up and will cover for me while I'm gone. Come on, we have a plane to catch."
"How did you find me?"
Amy gave my hand a gentle squeeze. It was a stupid question, she knew everything, and I had no secrets from any of them. As she stood ready to join the queue for boarding she held out her hand to me, her words shouldn't have caught me by surprise really.
"I called Mandy when you refused to pick up, she tracked you down. I missed you at the house by minutes. Come on, lets not be late."
Once boarded and sat down, Amy received one last text before she shut her cell down and placed it in her bag before it went under her seat. Other than hold my hand she said nothing about who she was texting. She basically took over my life on that plane; she told the stewardess what we were having for our meal and when the drinks came a soft drink was handed to me.
Amy only gave me my hand back when it was time to eat. As soon as we had finished she kicked off her shoes, tucked her feet under herself and raised the armrest between us and held my hand once again. Her body was always warm, she slept naked and with very little on the bed. The few occasions she hasn't kept to this rule she would overheat as she slept and the migraine that followed the next day reminded her what a naughty girl she was.
The Past...
The change in my life came as I walked in the door one Thursday evening. Steven would be at football practice for another hour. Ginny was sat by the kitchen table, a file and paperwork covered a good third of the space.