"Well, with this information we can proceed a bit more strategically, let me make a few calls and set up some appointments for showings" she said professionally.
"You will let us know?" Alice asked sweetly, the saccharine in her voice would have scared some people but instead it just warned the realtor that she would no longer take just any property. She had very specific needs, wants, and desires, and she expected to buy them.
"Certainly" Charlotte replied knowing she would have to work harder for this commission but it would be worth it and she hoped to get a double commission from selling Alice's condominium in Marina Del Ray but had not as yet mentioned it, but then neither had Alice or Kathy.
"We will look forward to your call" Kathy said brightly enjoying the listings she had been reading.
On their way home in the car Kathy asked "you don't really want all this space do you?" she indicated the listings with 4 or more bedrooms, huge lawns, and views.
Alice glanced over, she had told Kathy to find a house for them but having failed that thus far she was going to have to take an avid interest in the process herself. It was annoying but then perhaps she should help decide where they lived, there were certain considerations that must be met, something's she couldn't explain to Kathy and would never. She could only imagine the horror on Kathy's face if she realized who and what Alice really was. "It isn't a matter of just wanting it," she glanced in the back seat at Kit who was looking out the window at the passing city "it's a matter of needing it. Safety is important and I don't want to worry about it." There was more to it than Kathy realized, Alice relished her privacy but she also wanted her comfort. Living in the condo had been fine when she lived alone but with the added responsibility of Kathy and Kit in her life she wanted a home for them and for herself.
Kathy smiled; Alice took care of them very well. In the months they had lived together in the condo she had never felt so safe. She was relieved to have heard about a certain someone ending up in jail on various charges on the state and federal level. She didn't know how it had come about but by hiding out at Alice's condo they had managed to elude him and time had taken a terrible toll on him.
Kathy had no idea the charges on Eli Watson had been carefully engineered and manipulated by Alice. Police and federal agents who had interviewed the four women from the cellar had been unable to identify the petite woman who had rescued them, they had nothing to go on other than a vague description and a brand new Nissan Pathfinder, other than that it was a dead end. Eli's computers had been whiped, his bank accounts missing, all his tangible assets seized. No information could lead anyone to Alice Weaver or her girlfriend Kathy Jenson. For all intents or purposes Kathy Jenson had moved away from Portland and not been seen again but they had no reason to suspect her connection to Eli since all trace of his interest in her and her daughter had disappeared. Eli was up on kidnapping, rape, sodomy, and dozens of other charges as well as tax evasion and other federal charges. He would be going away for a long time and he hadn't known what hit him. All his minions had disappeared, distancing themselves from him and his legal troubles and no one had come to his defense. People were shocked of course, his carefully constructed public persona of being a successful business person and a pillar of the community was shot to hell and even he didn't know who had done it to him. He had lines of creditors looking to collect from him including those he had hired to watch Kathy, investigate Alice, and with the seizure of his assets he had nothing to pay anyone with. Already he was under careful protection from those who used more unscrupulous collection activities when he had been found nearly beaten to death in a supposedly locked and guarded cell.
Kathy was oblivious to anything in the haze of love she was in for this pretty petite blonde who she felt had driven in on her SUV and saved her and her daughter from a fate worse than death. Alice had not only been good to them, taken them in, but she had fallen in love with her and her daughter. She had provided a home for them, she wanted a future with them, she wanted forever with Kathy. Kathy was in awe of the power of this love that had taken them both, it was beautiful, it was incredible, and she wanted it to never end. Alice gave her so much, anything really that she wanted, the trips to all the Southern California attractions including Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and the Animal Park to name a few were just some of the fun ways she kept Kit distracted as she integrated them into her life. Kathy knew how generous her girlfriend was and with this buying them a house knew it was more than mere indulgence, it was a future for them. She was amazed at the enormity of the purchase though. She would have been content with a little bungalow, she still liked the condo, but Alice said a kid needed a place to play, a yard, perhaps a puppy, a kitten and Kathy loved her for it. Nothing was too good for this family they were creating.
Alice had never felt like this before in her eventful life. This was love? She had analyzed it many times over the past few months, amazed how complete Kathy and Kit made her life. How easy it really was to make them happy. For the first time in her life she had someone else to think of. Sure when her sister Connie had been alive she thought about her occasionally but this was so very different from any feeling or emotions she had ever experienced or thought to. It calmed her, it gave her life a meaning she hadn't known was missing, she wanted more of it and she wasn't going to stop until she got everything she wanted from it. Kathy pleased her on so many levels.
After telling Kathy that she wanted more sexually, Kathy had talked about it with Portia, confiding in her college friend. Portia had been surprised that they had fallen into a lesbian relationship but at the same time she was open minded enough to realize that Alice and Kathy had fallen in love. She offered her own love and support. She and Kathy had spoken like good friends are wont to do and stayed up late after Kit was in bed while Alice was away on business. They had researched Kathy's 'problem' on the internet and Alice had been pleasantly surprised at the results, questioning a blushing Kathy afterwards she had been amused and yet touched that Kathy was learning how to please her sexually. She didn't mind that Kathy had talked about their sex life, in fact she was grateful for the results, and their sex life had turned into a most satisfactory part of their life. So much of their life though was compatible, both marveled at how much they really had in common and how well-matched they really were. Both were very happy with the results as they experimented and learned each other's bodies, sexual desires, and tried new things. Alice had never shared this much with another woman in her life and was finding a side of her that hadn't existed before; she found herself opening up in several ways that no one had ever seen. With Kathy it was easy. The things she found on the internet had surprised and delighted Alice and if she hadn't known better would have sworn she was cheating on her. With whom she wouldn't have known, they went everywhere together and usually with Kit so there really was no opportunity. Alice didn't know anyone that could babysit so they spent a lot of together time the three of them.
"Can you meet us in Palos Verdes baby?" Kathy was calling as Alice had stayed home to do some work on her investments, it was important to stay on top of the various things she had her fingers in, although if she were honest with herself she was sick of looking at properties and she had enough wealth that she would never be able to spend it all in her lifetime. In fact it was this wealth that she had been thinking about, she had no one to leave it to, no heirs, it was part of the reason she was willing to move out of her comfortable condo and make a home with Kathy, somewhere it was absolutely safe for Kit to play on the lawn, somewhere private and protected. Having the marina at their back door was a danger she didn't like contemplating for Kit and after their watchers had finally moved on she didn't like knowing how close they had actually come to her and her 'family.' She didn't know what she would do if something happened to either of them but she had feelings for them both she neither knew or understood, she accepted it but didn't understand it. It was a first for her in her lifetime and she was enjoying the unfamiliar feelings.
Alice sighed wearily but knew she would go, she began to shut down her computers as she said into her phone "yes, give me the address." She wrote it down as she finished turning everything off. She glanced around the condo one more time and straightened up a few things, with an eight year old in the house there was always something being moved, or touched, or broken. Alice didn't mind, Kathy had been horrified, but with a child in the house it was to be expected. They needed more space, or at least Alice felt they did. A place that Kit could run off the exuberance she couldn't in the condo.
Alice plugged in the address into her GPS before she drove south towards Palos Verdes Estates from Marina Del Rey. She got on the Harbor Freeway and rapidly sped down it in her powerful pearl colored Porsche. She smiled to herself enjoying the RPM's of the horsepower beneath her fingertips and thinking how Charlotte would have treated them a little differently sooner had she shown up in this car instead of the Pathfinder that Kathy was driving today.
Palos Verdes or rather Rancho Palos Verdes and its estates was originally a 16,000 acre cattle ranch on a peninsula southwest of Los Angles. It had tried to incorporate in the 1960's but was unsuccessful until the early 1970's. In the early 1900's some 2000 cattle roamed the area but the southern tip was farmed by Japanese farmers who raised tomatoes, peas, and beans. The manager of the cattle ranch raised barley for hay and grain for his cattle feed. It's high mesa's and windy slopes was not ideal for anything to live on for a lot of years but developers recognized its strategic value in the expansion of Southern California and one land developer was determined to make it an exclusive and expensive community. There are essentially several communities on this large peninsula; you have Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, and Rolling Hills Estates, although part of Los Angeles County the population remained relatively small and the estates comparatively large. Its exclusivity attracted buyers that could afford this type of privacy. It is a beautiful part of Southern California and part of why Alice had been attracted to it. As she drove down towards it she hoped they had a house she would want to see, she was tired of the endless tours of houses that she had no real interest in.
