Here we go again.
..................................................
"Kathryn?"
I heard her sigh.
"Yes Mike, it's me. Kevin is fading, he may not last the day. Will you come?"
"I'll call back just as soon as I can confirm my flight. Hold on."
Kathryn was his old personal assistant, but was more than that. She was more like the mother he never got to have. While most walked around him fearfully, she chided him for scaring the employees.
When he was having a bad day, she shored him up, maintaining his balance. He loved her probably more than anyone in the world next to Martin Coombs, his oldest friend.
Though he never asked for guidance or an opinion, she provided both when she felt it was needed. Most times she was right, although he almost never admitted it to her.
Shrewd, intelligent, she was much more than a personal assistant. Many times a deal was turned on a suggestion by her, with an insight many underestimated.
Childless, he became more of a son than either would admit. He was devastated when she had to quit and move to the arid Southwest due to the failing health of her husband.
She was in a quandary, hers was the income they depended on, and their health insurance was through her company. Mike, a multimillionaire, stepped in, paying her full salary out of pocket, and keeping her insurance premiums paid. She tried to thank him once by he silenced her.
"I owe you more than I could ever repay with money. Please, let me do this and never speak of it."
Kathryn was a lean, striking woman in her middle fifties, wearing her gray hair proudly. It framed her face, giving her an air of wisdom and timeless beauty. Despite her age, men, many younger, sought her attention.
Mike was huge, six and a half feet tall, platinum blond hair and piercing grey eyes. He looked like the tv actor he used to be. He was the only man besides her husband she ever had a lustful thought about.
They teased each other sometimes with innuendos, and he sometimes joked she was his fantasy Mrs. Robinson. She called him her blond boy toy in the privacy of their office.
He made a point of calling her once a week. Sometimes the talks would last for hours. He had his heart broken by his fiancee, after almost eighteen months of living together she had gotten cold feet over making the final commitment, and they had parted.
It hurt her, the thought that he had someone after spending his life alone gave her comfort when she moved away. Though you couldn't tell it by looking at her, she was a transsexual. Still, she had great physical beauty, a petite person, half Indian by way of London. She had an exotic beauty, and up until they broke up seemed to love him madly.
Kathryn found it amusing that she landed what amounted to the Great White of San Francisco bachelors after so many regular women had failed.
He went through several temps before he settled on his new assistant, a tall striking blond in her mid forties. Kathryn met her once, and they lunched together. Edie Montrose had been with him six months by then.
"You're sleeping with him. Don't try to deny it, I've known him too long, and it's written all over your face. Please don't fall in love with him. He seems fond of you, but there is no future there."
She told her a little about his background. Left on a church landing when he was less than a year old, growing up in orphanages and foster homes, he even spent months in juvenile hall.
"He doesn't really have a moral conscience because of his upbringing. Some of the things you consider unspeakably cruel he would do without hesitation or remorse. If you're loyal to him you have nothing to fear. Hurt him or someone he holds close and it would be very unpleasant for you. I don't think forgiveness is in his dictionary."
Mike arrived just in time. He held her as her husband passed. While not close to her husband, he had liked him. They had been married for thirty one years.
She was shattered but stoic. A two pack a day smoker since he was fourteen, he had never been able to kick the habit. He ended up with lung cancer, and the damp sea air of San Francisco aggravated his condition. They had lived there all their lives, and the decision to leave was hard.
The arrangements for his funeral had been made well in advance. There was a memorial in Tuscon for the circle of friends they had developed over the year they had been there. Per instructions, he was cremated.
An avid deep sea fisherman and sailor, his last wish was to have his ashes scattered over the ocean where so many of their fond memories were made.
They made the journey back, and Mike rented a helicopter. They hovered over the water, and Mike watched as she bowed her head in a silent prayer. Her eyes shone with unshed tears as she opened the urn and shook out the ashes, the helicopter rotors scattering them across the ocean.
She put the lid back on the urn, saving a bit of the ashes, wanting to keep some small vestige with her, and then collapsed into his arms, finally allowing the grief to come out. He held tightly, stroking her hair. She cried until the copter landed. Then she pushed him away and made an attempt to fix her face.
She stayed with him a week in his luxury apartment, visiting old friends and places that had been dear to her.
At the end of the week, she walked into the living room and sat beside him on the sofa, taking his hand.
"I can't thank you enough for standing by me. I had no one."
He held her hand and made her look into his eyes.
"You'll always have me. I still intend to have our weekly chats. I really wish you would reconsider and come back to work for me. Mrs. Montrose is very capable. I've been thinking about promoting her, and having her run our office on the east coast."
"No, I won't change my mind. There's just too much here to remind me of him. We really loved Tuscon and made some good friends. My life is there now. I've got a flight at noon to catch tomorrow. Time to move on."
She was holding both his hands now, looking intently into his eyes.
They had been drinking wine. She had already had three glasses.
"If you want to do something for me, I have a request. Hear me out before you say yes or no. This is something I don't think you'd expect."
He lifted an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"I remember all the times we flirted. You always said I was the hottest MILF you ever saw. It's more like GILF now, but I've tried to maintain my shape. I even saw you naked twice, when I came into your suite without thinking. I have to tell you, it doesn't look real."
He was leaning forward, looking hard into her eyes, wondering where she was going.
"I'm just going to come right out and say it. I've always fantasized about you, wondering what it would be like. I'm unattached now, like you, so there's no one to cheat on, I would never even be talking about it if Kevin was still with me."
"I haven't been with a man sexually in four years. I want to spend the night in your bed, and do everything we can think of. I want you to show me your legendary skills I've heard so much about."
