Rummates

*Author's Note:

**Disclaimers:

**..**

"Daddy?" Walden Donaldson heard just as he dried the last pot.

"Yes?" he called out.

"Daddy, Momma and Mr. Gary going ballooning tomorrow and they said we can go if you let us," Ellie whined.

"Yeah Daddy," Lizzie chimed in.

"What time?" Walden sighed, trying and failing from keeping his annoyance from showing.

"She said 'bout ten," Ellie said.

"Yeah, 'bout ten," Lizzie agreed.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I thought we were going to roast some hot dogs and marshmallows for lunch, but..." Walden sighed.

"Yay!" both Ellie and Lizzy squealed, running to their room.

This wasn't the first time Bianca Donaldson and her boyfriend, Gary Pasteli had disrupted his weekend with six year old Eleanor and four year old Elizabeth Donaldson. Walden had asked them, time and again, please schedule these little outings on those weekends that were not his weekends to see the girls. Bianca offered an insincere apology and Gary had stood, smirking at Walden.

Two weeks ago, it had been a skating party. Four weeks earlier, it had been a 'Hunt' on an alligator farm. Six weeks prior, a swimming party at Gary Pasteli's father's mansion.

"Should have known," Walden snarled under his breath.

Bianca had called, wanting to wish the girls a good night. Ellie and Lizzy both had IPads; Bianca and he both kept in touch with them, kept tabs on what they were doing. Both IPads could receive text messages. But, Bianca was too smart to leave any evidence of her manipulations on either girls' IPads.

Instead, she called Walden's cell phone. Handing his cell phone to Ellie, Walden had taken the time to wash up their pots from supper. He knew he would need the pot he'd used to make the box macaroni & cheese in the morning. He planned to make cheesy grits, one of their favorite breakfast dishes.

It had been an innocent declaration that had clued Walden in. Returning, bone tired from a hard day at King Sanitation, Walden had poured himself an Iron Barrel Whiskey over ice when he'd noticed a bottle of St. Elizabeth Premium Rum in the cabinet. He knew he'd not bought the rum; the Premium sold for fifty nine ninety nine a fifth.

"What the...where did this rum come from?" Walden had asked out loud, not really expecting an answer.

"Mither Gawy. He makes him and Mommy some wum swizzles," Lizzy had lisped.

"Yeah, he let me taste his? YUCK!" Ellie had chimed in, making an adorable face.

When Walden asked Bianca who Mr. Gary was, she'd paled slightly. Then, with a sigh, she told him they'd talk about it after the girls went to bed.

After the girls went to bed, Bianca tried to spin the whole thing. She tried to tell Walden it didn't affect him; it took nothing from him. She was still his wife, she was still the mother of his two very beautiful daughters.

"It affects everything, Bianca," Walden had sputtered. "Jesus, it says I can't even trust you ever again."

Bianca then tried to seduce Walden. Walden looked at her 34DD breasts with large brown areolae, nipped in waist and plump pubic mound with her small patch of brown curls. Her nipples weren't even hard, her inner lips dangled down, thin and dry. Bianca may have been attempting seduction but she was not in a seductive mood.

"Bianca, really?" he scoffed. "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. In fact, I'm going make an appointment with Dr. Roberts; God knows what you and your boy toy might have given me."

Bianca's brown eyes then got very hard as she told Walden what his new reality would be. He would pay for her and her 'boy toy' to live in the house, would pay her alimony and child support. As for Ellie and Lizzy, good luck seeing them. Sure, the court would set aside every other weekend and every Wednesday, but she would make sure he would rarely get to see them.

"That's fine. At least I'll be able to look at my own reflection when I shave my face," Walden had said.

Gordon King, Walden's supervisor at King Sanitation & Disposal recommended Richards, Pellichet & Jones to represent Walden in the divorce. Penny Jones did her very best but many of the laws in Louisiana did hamstring her efforts.

"The cause of the breakdown of the marriage was your adulterous actions, Mrs. Donaldson," Judge Sarah Guillory said to Bianca and Bianca's attorney, Polly Chastaine. "There will be no spousal support awarded."

There was no spousal support and Walden would pay half of the household bills, within reason. When Elizabeth reached eighteen years of age, or should Mrs. Donaldson vacate the premises, the home would be sold and the profit would be divided sixty/forty, in Mr. Donaldson's favor.

"They may seem like trivial victories, Mr. Donaldson, but they are victories nonetheless," Penny said stoically.

Saturday morning, Walden rose and peeked into the second bedroom. The girls each had their own beds, but were huddled together on Ellie's bed. He smiled at the innocent faces of his two angels. After eggs and bacon and cheesy grits, Walden put his two girls into the car and drove them to his former residence.

Gary opened the door and stood, smirking at Walden as Walden kissed each girl in parting. Walden then got into his car and drove away.

"He, he didn't ask when he could pick them up again?" Bianca asked, starting on her first rum swizzle of the day.

"nope. Just kissed them and drove off," Gary smirked. "Fucking pussy."

"Oh," Bianca said, feeling oddly deflated.

The next time it was Walden's weekend, Gary and Bianca planned a camping trip. It was a three day weekend and Gary and Bianca planned to have three wonderful days of camping and fishing and hiking and cooking over a campfire and making s'mores and...

The morning of the first day, Gary had a belly full of Ellie and Lizzy whining that they were bored. They'd been promised hiking and fishing and cooking over a campfire, but all they'd done so far is watch Mr. Gary and Mommy drinking rum swizzles. Although, watching Mr. Gary attempting to put up the tent had been pretty entertaining.

"She asks me when we going fishing one more fucking time..." Gary warned Bianca.

Nursing a monumental hangover, Bianca tried to teach Ellie and Lizzy how to bait a fishing hook. All three females screeched in absolute disgust as Bianca tried to dig an earthworm out of the bait container. Bianca almost threw up as she jammed the hook through the slimy worm and into the meat of her thumb.

Casting was also disastrous. Ellie managed to snag Lizzy's hair in her hook. Bianca managed to catch an overhanging branch. Lizzy decided to just drop her naked hook into the water. No fish ventured near the hooks.

"So, how was the fishing?" Gary asked, sipping his rum swizzle.

"Fuck. You," Bianca snarled bitterly. "Where are the showers?"

"The what? Showers? Uh Honey? This is roughing it. There's no showers," Gary smirked.

Trying to start a fire without matches or a lighter was also beyond the abilities of Gary or Bianca. Again, Gary threatened to slap Ellie for that smart mouth of hers as she made observations on his efforts.

A week at Cyclone Park in Dan's Hollow, Texas interfered with Walden's next weekend. Bianca did not like the way Walden said this was fine; could he tell the girls he loved them?

The girls weren't tall enough to ride the majority of the rides in Cyclone Park. By the second day, they were bored with Cyclone Park. Griping about the cost, Gary peeled his already quite abused credit card out of his wallet and charged the Dan's Hollow Water Park to his credit card.

To Gary, the highlight of the water park was that it shut Ellie and Lizzy up. The second highlight was seeing Bianca in a one-piece swimsuit. It may have been a one-piece swimsuit but it was not a modest swimsuit. She even showed him that she needed to trim down there and did trim down there, with Gary watching every movement as she dragged a razor through the tuft of brown curls.

Gary threw a major fit when he found out that the adult movies he and Bianca watched when Ellie and Lizzy went to sleep were free, but the nine Disney movies Lizzy and Ellie watched were six dollars and ninety nine cents apiece. His well-used credit card almost snapped under the strain of paying for the movies and the mini-bar and the extra pillows.

"God damn, know how many fucking cars I got to sell?" Gary muttered bitterly as they drove home from Fordham County. "Eight dollars? Who the fuck charges eight dollars for one God damned candy bar? Was it gold plated or something? And who the fuck told them they could eat them candy bars anyway?"

When Bianca tried to contact Walden about the Haunted House at the Flowers Country Club, where Gary and Gary's father were members, she got the recording that let her know the number had been changed or was no longer in service. As it was late on Friday evening, King Sanitation's telephones had been routed to the answering service. The young lady that answered the phone could not, or would not give Bianca any information regarding Walden Donaldson.

On Monday, during her lunch break, Bianca called King Sanitation & Disposal. Sheila Jakes forwarded Bianca's call to the Human Resources office and Bianca spoke with Joi Marchon. Joi took down Bianca's information and promised to forward the information to Walden Donaldson. Joi steadfastly refused to give Bianca Walden's contact information.

"I am his wife," Bianca hissed into the telephone.

"Oh? And don't know where your husband is?" Joi asked, unflappable. "Like I said, I will forward your contact information on to Mr. Donaldson. If there's nothing else? Well, thank you for calling King Sanitation and disposal."

An hour later, Walden called. The display on Bianca's screen showed that the number was blocked and Bianca almost did not answer it.

"What?" was Walden's greeting.

"What? WHAT? What do you mean, what?" Bianca shrilled.

"You really need to cut back on that rum, okay?" Walden said. "Obviously, it is interfering with your ability to process information. Yes, Bianca. What. What do you want? Want to tell me you've got some more fun activities planned for the weekend that's supposed to be mine? Good. You want to keep me from seeing the girls, being with the girls? Fine. You now have them. You have them full time. Scheduling them for soccer camp on Wednesdays so that I can't be with them on Wednesdays, my scheduled day to see them after school wasn't good enough. You and that cock sucker started doing little things on my weekends and if I say 'no' them I'm the bad guy. Well, now you got them. You got them all the time. All. The. Time. Not just my weekends. All the time."

Bianca started to protest, tried to deny his accusations but the 'beep-beep-beep' alerted her that he had terminated the call. She tried to call him back but could not.

The Tuesday after the camping weekend, Walden had walked into Gordon King's office. Walden quietly told Gordon about the games his ex-wife was playing. He was unashamed to cry in front of Gordon King; Walden's heart was breaking.

"Walden, I need a man to go up to the branch in Commonstead, New Jersey; Bryce has that place upside down. If you're interested let Joi's secretary...damn it, I can never remember her name, Tori! Tori Eastman. Let Tori know and she'll make the arrangements."

"How long will I be up there?" Walden thought to ask before accepting the promotion.

"Until you get them up and running, back on track. Bryce looked so good on paper; checked all the right boxes, but... Who knows? You might like it up there and decide to stick around," Gordon shrugged. "But if your ex-wife is going to play these kind of games? Well, it's pretty hard to play games with someone who's not playing the game with you."

"And, letting her have the girls non-stop, full-time, around the clock might teach her...I'll go see Tori right now," Walden agreed, shaking Gordon King's hand.

Tori Eastman was a short, chubby Asian-American woman with a perpetual smile on her round face. Her desk had pictures of her husband and their three daughters.

With a confident ease, Tori made the arrangements regarding Walden's apartment and furniture. After another phone call, Tori directed Walden to the St. Ann Municipal Airport where the King Private jet waited.

The jet landed in William Livingston Airport and a smiling woman greeted Walden just inside of the small terminal. She introduced herself as Ann Proust; she'd been the Executive Assistant to Bryce Adams, the previous manager of the King Sanitation & Disposal North Atlantic office. They chatted pleasantly as Ann drove them to the stainless steel and black glass office building that housed the offices of King Sanitation & Disposal.

So, when Ellie called with the exciting news that they were going to Cyclone Park, Walden was already elbows deep in the pile of work Bryce Adams had left behind. Putting his cell phone into his jacket pocket, Walden allowed the tears to fall. When he was in better control of himself, Walden saw why Ann Proust was an Executive Assistant. There was a cup of coffee, a bottle of water and a box of tissues on his desk, all within easy reach.

After blowing his nose, he took a gulp of the coffee and bent to the task of shoveling through the morass Bryce had left behind. Bryce might have checked all the boxes on paper, but the man had been incompetent in dealing with real-world issues.

"Mm hmm; he was an overeducated idiot," Ann agreed.

"Thank you," Walden said quietly.

"You're welcome," Ann quietly replied.

On Halloween, October thirty first, Walden made Ann laugh, a tittering musical laugh when he asked if it was always so damned cold in Commonstead, New Jersey. She pointed to her own short sleeved blouse and skirt ensemble.

"Mr. Donaldson, if you think, mm, thirty eight degrees is cold? winter here is just going to kill you," Ann laughed.

And on November 2cd, Walden's thirty second birthday, Ann had the Wallchester University cheerleaders greet Walden when he pulled into the rear parking lot of the office building. The eight attractive young women and two young men did a very energetic routine then ended by yelling 'Happy Birthday Mister Donaldson!' Before Walden could react, the ten cheerleaders were in the Wallchester University bus and rumbling away.

"What the hell just happened?" Walden asked Timothy Higginbotham, the head of scheduling as the young executive stood just outside of the building.

"I'm not sure, Mr. Donaldson," the young man laughed. "But when you find out who arranged that? Tell them my birthday's March nineteenth."

"You know, King has a program; a thousand dollars if you quit smoking and stay quit for a whole year," Walden suggested, finding the odor of cigarettes clinging to Timothy's clothing to be a bit offensive.

"Yes sir, but God! It is just so damned hard to quit," Timothy agreed, getting off of the elevator onto the fifth floor.

"Morning, Boss," Ann cheerfully greeted him. "Your mail is on your desk."

There was a birthday card from Gordon and Kelly King. There was also a card from Ann Proust. And, there was legal correspondence from Souladou County, threatening a suit if King Sanitation & Disposal did not honor their contract with Souladou County in regards to maintaining the Lake Souladou Park and Recreation area. The major problem was, no one could find a copy of the contract.

Nor could anyone find any payments received from the county. It was just another fine mess Bryce had left in his wake. A few phone calls later, Walden had scheduled a meeting with the County board.

"So, wild plans for tonight?" Ann asked when a tired Walden dragged himself from his office that afternoon.

"What do you think?" Walden smiled tiredly.

"I think you're too young to be that old," Ann quipped.

Home in the two bedroom condominium Ann had managed to find and Tori Eastman had managed to secure, Walden let the deep sobs rack his body. He was six feet, two inches in height and weighed a respectable one ninety three, but at that moment, Walden felt like a small child. A check of the condo's mailbox had revealed two sales fliers and the previous tenant's reminder that her cat's annual shots were due. There had been no birthday card from Ellie or Lizzy.

True, neither girl had his new address. But, Bianca certainly knew that any correspondence sent to King Sanitation & Disposal would reach him. She'd sent Ellie's dental bill and receipts for both Ellie's and Lizzy's school uniforms to KS&D. And upon receipt of both, Walden had immediately deposited his half into Bianca Donaldson's account.

"Mr. Donaldson? There's a Penelope, says she's a bear? On line three?" Sydnee, the cute red headed receptionist interrupted Walden's Zoom meeting with the day-shift supervisor of their warehouse/storage facilities.

"Mr. Jensen, I'll look at that new site and get back to you," Walden promised. "Sydnee, did you say she's a bear?"

Penelope Hebert was an associate of Richards, Pellichet & Jones Law Firm. Walden smiled, looking forward to teasing the easily flustered Sydnee Poor with her slight faux pas. The smile was immediately removed from his face when Penelope informed him that Bianca Donaldson had managed to be arrested at two forty nine on Saturday afternoon; driving under the influence.

"Your daughters were in the car at the time, Mr. Donaldson; Children's' Protective Services placed them in the custody of a foster family, mm, Robert and Linda New... The arrest happened in Baylor Lake..." Penelope said. "A Mr. Gary Pasteli is petitioning for temporary custody; Bianca Donaldson checked herself into the DeGarde CDU at her arraignment this morning."

"I'm on my way," Walden said.

"Sir? If you'll give me authorization, I will assume custody; Mr. King has already authorized the use of his jet to bring them to you," Penelope Hebert said.

"You have my authorization; Jesus! Jesus fucking Christ; they, my girls, my girls were in the car? She was drunk and my girls... Jesus, Jesus, oh my God!" Walden exploded.

Penelope Hebert was a slim, elegant looking woman in her early thirties. Her knee length brown hair was done in a large bun when she and two very excited girls stepped off of the plane. Gordon King himself brought up the rear, carrying two large suitcases. After hugging and kissing Ellie and Lizzy for several moments, Walden then hugged Gordon King. He shook Penelope's hand and the five of them crammed into Walden's small car.

"I know I pay you enough to have a bigger car than this," Gordon joked.

"Is that what payroll told you?" Walden retorted and Gordon laughed out loud.

Sydnee again blushed when Walden introduced her to the bear, but smiled and shook Penelope's hand. She then gushed over Ellie and Lizzy. But when she was introduced to the man who signed her paychecks, the cute red head nearly fainted.

Ann had snacks for Ellie and Lizzy in the break room. She too became flustered at meeting Gordon King, the Garbage King.

Gordon King took an unscheduled tour of the building while Walden, Ellie and Lizzy had snacks and juice in the breakroom. While Walden and his daughters sat and talked, Penelope and Ann coordinated transferring the girls into Kindergarten and first grade at Christine Temple Whitman Elementary School. Walden had the foresight to have a full sized bed put into his second bedroom, rather than make it a home office so no new living arrangements needed to be made.

"There needs to be a children's' room," Gordon observed, returning to the breakroom. "You have nineteen employees with school aged children that would benefit from having a place their children could come to after school. This is a fully stocked breakroom; someone could have snacks prepared for them; they could have juice, and there would be someone here to help them with homework, a playroom for them to unwind from school, and your employees wouldn't need to spend a ton of money on after school care."