Lindsay looked across her desk at her daughter and frowned.
"Mary, this is silly, no one is going to buy it. I know its Rick's idea and you love him but there's no way I'm investing in it."
"I'm not asking you to invest in it Mom, just approve the expense from my trust fund!"
Lindsay brushed the dark brown strand of hair from her face and back over her ear, "Same thing. I'm the executor of the trust fund and I'm not going to waste money on this. Period."
"But Mom..."
"No buts about it. I know you have fallen for him hard and there's nothing I can do about that but I will protect you as long as I can from his money grubbing ways. I promised Tom I'd always take care of you, no matter what. Now I have another meeting, if you want to talk more about it we can do so over the weekend."
Mary stomped her foot and spun around, her long blonde hair swayed only a moment behind her head as she stormed out of the office and in to the hallway of the house.
Lindsay sighed, she'd been much like Mary at her age. Impulsive and head strong. She'd married Tom when she was 20 and had Mary less than a year later. Her mother had tried to stop her too, Tom had been so much older at 52 but she was sure she was in love and the years didn't matter.
At least Tom was successful and rich, not that those were the things that attracted her to him. He was funny and warm and caring. He made her happy for the 15 years that they had together before cancer toke him from them.
Tom had known it was coming for a while and had setup the trust fund for Mary, but left Lindsay in charge of it until she turned 24, just a few more years. Mary wasn't happy with that anymore and it had started to drive a wedge between them over the last few months since she'd started dating Rick.
She looked down at her schedule and dialed in to the next meeting. Since Tom had passed she'd taken over running the businesses he left behind. Not in a hands on kind of way, but she made sure all the big decisions came through her first. She'd moved in to the office Tom had setup in their home and kept up to date on everything that was going on their financial manager, John.
Today's call was with John and the manager of IT, he had a proposal for some changes and was looking for approval to spend quite a bit of money.
* * *
Mary stormed out of the house and slammed her car door before she hit the gas and squealed the tires as she left.
How could her own mother be such a bitch?
It was just $250,000. It wasn't a big deal and she really believed in Rick's idea!
She drove straight to her apartment where Rick was waiting for her.
"I'm sorry honey, she won't sign off on it."
"That's ok, I knew she wouldn't, she doesn't like me very much." He replied, not sounding nearly as passive as his words lead her to believe.
Mary hugged Rick and gave him a deep, passionate kiss.
"We'll get the money somehow, don't worry." Mary reassured him.
Rick's hands slide down her back and squeezed her firm ass through her slacks. She pulled back and smiled, "Let me get this awful pants suit off and we can have some fun."
She grabbed his hand and led him in to the bedroom.
* * *
Lindsay closed her work laptop and shut off the monitor, she grabbed her phone as yet another Monday came to an end. She noticed an e-mail waiting on her personal phone and few people had the address so she immediately unlocked it and saw the message from Mary.
She hadn't heard anything from Mary since the meeting several weeks ago and figured it was best to give her some space. She'd eventually tire of Rick even if it didn't look like that wasn't going to be any time soon.
She opened the e-mail and read it quickly, Mary was sorry about storming out and wanted to make it up to her. Mary had planned a spa day for them next weekend and had included the directions, Lindsay opened the attachment and her phone froze for a few seconds before the details came up.
She recognized the spa, it was well known and very high end. She had been awfully hard on Mary during the meeting, a spa day might do them both some good.
Lindsay stood up and stretched out. At 42 she wasn't in the same shape as she was at 20, but she still cut a pretty good silhouette all things considered. Creases and sags had started to creep in here and there and there were a few streaks of silver in her hair, but they didn't detract that much from her natural beauty.
She knew it was what had drawn Tom to her to begin with, her petite frame with, not large but none the less prominent breasts had caught the eye of many men over the years. Even so, Tom stayed because she was smart and they shared many of the same interests.
Mary had inherited many of her traits, but still had her youth on her side. And while Mary played dumb most of the time, Lindsay knew she'd inherited the brains from both her and Tom.
* * *
Mary heard her phone alert and she quickly checked her mail, the reply from her mother confirming she would go to the spa was at the top of her inbox.
She smiled as the second notification popped up confirming the software had been installed.
* * *
Lindsay spent the next week working on a large investment she was looking to make in an up and coming company that one day could be competition. If everything went to her plan, that day would never come and the company would just become another subsidiary.
She took her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose, for some reason over the last few days she'd found it hard to concentrate. After working for a while she'd get a headache and have to take a break. Today's was the worst one yet and she stood up and walked out of her office and around the house to try and calm the pounding in her head.
She ended up in the basement for some reason, in the home gym she hadn't used in years. She walked over to the stationary bike and placed her hand on the seat, a slight smile crossed her lips.
Perhaps a bit of exercise would clear her mind. She through a leg over the seat and placed her feet in the pedals. Pushing down she heard the electronic display bleep and come to life as she started to speed up.
After only a few minutes she was out of breath and panting hard, she had known she was out of shape, but she didn't think she was THIS out of shape.
She stopped pedaling and let the bike spin down before getting off of it. As she walked back out of the gym she made a commitment to herself to spend some more time down here and get back in shape.
She returned to her desk and continued to work for a while until the text message came in from Mary.
"Looking 4ward 2 spa 2morow"
She texted back, "Me too."
* * *
Mary felt the strong hands of the masseuse press in to her back as she lay face down on the table, her mother beside her.
"I'm just saying Mom, it isn't a crime to let loose once in a while and have some fun."
"Oh Mary, I'm too old for that kind of nonsense." She replied half-heartedly.
"I'm not talking about anything drastic, just a little dye to cover up the grey! We're here anyway and the salon is the next stop."
"Well, maybe, we'll see."
Mary smiled to herself as the masseuse finished up and left the room. Mary turned over and sat upright to face her mother.
"Mom, have you lost some weight?"
"Well... I've been working out a bit. I just thought it was time to get in shape again, I used to do it all the time you know."
This time Mary smiled at her mother, "That's great, good for you. That's what I'm talking about, doing little things for yourself, nothing drastic."
Lindsay half smiled back, she had to admit Mary made a lot of sense but she still wasn't sure about dying her hair just because of a little bit of grey.
* * *
"Well, what do you think?"
Mary looked at her mother as she walked out of the salon, her dark brown hair now streak free.
"It looks great Mom!"
Lindsay smiled widely, the approval of her daughter seemed somehow more important today than it had before.
They chatted for a while at the juice bar before leaving, their conversation seemed to meander all over the place but never really settle on anything important. By the time they left, Lindsay felt better than she had in a long time and as soon as she arrived home went straight to the gym before going to bed.
* * *
The next week was a disaster, Lindsay hardly achieved any work as her concentration had kept drifting. Each time she found an excuse to go down and lift some weights or get on the stair machine or spin on the cycle for a while.
While her work might have been lacking, her body was improving in leaps and bounds. She stood in front of the full length mirror after her shower, she'd lost most of the fat that had accumulated over the years of her marriage and work, now everything looked tighter, better.
She leaned in and inspected her face, framed by her now perfectly coloured hair, she could see the small wrinkles and crow's feet. Her lips had never been full but time had thinned them even farther.
She looked down and saw her brown and grey bush and frowned, it looked wrong somehow. She brushed it with her hand and was still unhappy. Looking over at the counter she saw her razor she'd used for her legs and grabbed it, stepping back in to the shower and starting the water again.
When she emerged all of her grey hair was gone, along with the brown.
* * *
Lindsay read the text from Mary, "going 2 beach! come with pick u up in 30"
She read it again and started to type out a response, "Have fun but n", she tried to type the 'o' but something stopped her. They'd had such a good time at the spa and she really wanted to make her relationship with her daughter work, she just didn't want to disappoint her.
She back spaced over the message and sent, "Sounds like fun, see you soon."
Lindsay walked up stairs to her bedroom to find her bathing suit and sundries she'd need for the day. The dark brown one piece suit covered quite a bit of her skin but she applied a layer of SPF 50 to the rest as her pale complexion would burn easily.
She was just walking down the front stairs as Mary entered the house.