On the weekend before the Fourth of July holiday in 2009, the wives had an idea. They had been talking about making it a special "get together" this time, in honor of the holiday. This particular year would be an extended holiday weekend due to the fact the 3rd of the month fell on a Friday and the 4th fell on a Saturday.
Most businesses would be closed on either the Friday before or the Monday after. The different companies that all of us worked for were no exception. This made it a perfect time to take a full four day weekend, and all 13 of us white husbands agreed.
Karen, who was one of the wives, even posted a "flyer" on the glass entry door leading from the parking lot to remind us all that breakfast would start at 10 o'clock.
Our beautiful younger white wives seemed so excited to do something different. Basically, we just went along with their idea because it meant so much to them. They had planned to cater in or prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for all four of these days, Friday through Monday.
The wives were following through with their plans to set up catering tables alongside the pool with extra coolers and decorations to promote the holiday. They purchased most of the food from the catering company, like Brazilian steaks, shark steaks and elaborate kabobs. They added tiki styled torch lights for the evenings, and surrounded the entire pool area with them. Wine, wine coolers and dozens of bottles of champagne would add to the somewhat "snobby" and moderately expensive event.
In addition to this all of our wives went out and purchased new bikinis. I think they all bought at least 3 new ones each. All of their bikinis were various styles and patterns of the red, white and blue, or the stars and stripes. The wives added sparklers and other mild forms of fireworks. They even purchased new pairs of swim trucks for the husbands in the same american color patterns.
This weekend was designed to be a nice, friendly and relaxing four day event for all thirteen white couples.
This was only the beginning.
On Friday the 3rd at 10 o'clock in the morning I stepped into my new red, white and blue swim trucks and headed out for the pool. As always, I passed through the rarely used workout center and gym. It was a bright and sunny day as I stepped out onto the marble stoned deck that surrounded the entire private pool area.
My wife, Julie, had gone down to the pool a half hour earlier. She had been helping Megan, Tammy and Stacey get things ready for breakfast and setting up the tables and chairs. A few of the other white husbands had already arrived and were drinking a "mimosa," which is simply champagne and orange juice.
When I stepped out I could see the pretty wives in their new little bikinis and heeled sandals from afar. They all looked amazingly beautiful.
As I drew nearer, I heard most of them talking in heavier whispers as the women "busied" themselves to get things ready. The few husbands were just standing around and listening in to what seemed like an innocent form of women's gossip. There seemed to be a slight tension in the air for some unknown reason.
"What's going on?" I said, in my normal voice, which was louder than their whispers.
My wife turned to me and continued speaking in a whisper, almost as if she didn't want to be overheard by anyone outside the present group.
"Shush. Richard, did you hear?" she asked.
"Hear what?" I questioned, a slight smile on my lips.
"Well, we think that woman's boyfriend is back." she said.
"What woman? What are you talking about?" I asked, dumbfoundedly.
The other 3 white wives and husbands that were there at the time leaned in a little closer to us to listen to what they had already been talking about.
"That woman from unit one. You know, the one that Margaret said left when she got pregnant." Julie whispered.
"Oh, her." I returned, finally understanding.
"You mean she's back too?" I asked.
Tammy, one of the other white wives, broke into Julie's explanation.
"No, No. She's not here." Tammy whispered in frustration.
I was just not "getting it" so to speak.
"Just the boyfriend is, I think, and another woman." she continued, suspiciously.
I looked at Tammy confused, yet unconcerned. To me, this sounded like a bunch of gossip and nothing more. I didn't realize the seriousness of the situation.
"Well, how do you know that?" I asked.
One of the other wives, Stacey, then cut in.
"I was talking to Karen this morning. She called me and said heard something in the parking lot around 2:30 in the morning." Stacey tried explaining.
"Like what?" one of the other white husbands asked casually.
Three of the other white couples had just arrived as Stacey looked over to them. One of them was Karen and her husband, Ed.
"Karen, what did you see again?" Stacey asked.
Karen picked up the conversation from there.
"I guess I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure who they were. It was really dark and all, but I could see that it was a man and a woman getting out of a BMW and walking towards the building." Karen described.
Jennifer, the 41 year old wife of David, suddenly interupted.
"No, there were two cars." she corrected.
"One was a black Bentley and the other was red Mazda or something." she described.
"I saw the cars there this morning when I ran out for the ice." Jennifer finished.
"A Bentley? damn!" Ed stammered.
"Oh, okay. Well, whatever it was there are two people in unit one now." Julie said.
"Maybe it's just that same woman that left a couple months ago." I added.
Tammy then broke in, again.
"No, I don't think so. I think she's long gone. That's what Margaret, the building manager, told me." Tammy added.