The rest of the day was pretty normal, not many people around and no incidences. The day was primarily moving stuff from the house to the lodge... thank goodness for antigrav sleds!
When they came in for lunch, Kat informed Mark that his phone had been going off all morning, since he never carried it with him anymore and left it in the office. When he looked at his phone, he saw that almost all of the calls were from an unrecognized number and although his call history showed they had called 6 times, there was only 1 voicemail.
He checked his voicemail and found that the one voicemail was from Alice, his ex, and the message was to call her.
Not really wanting to call her, even though Kat said he should, he did instead did decide to make one call. He called his phone provider and closed his account. He had an old phone with no contract and a pretty basic plan, but he decided that he didn't really need to waste the money paying for a service he no longer used.
After lunch, he and Joe went out to do some landscaping and mowing. The grass wasn't growing anymore so this would be the last cut of the year, but it was a decent enough day to get it done, and the snow could come at any time. There wasn't any in the forecast, but since when does Mother Nature follow what the weather forecast says she's going to do?
So Mark walked down both sides of the lane using the trimmer to get the areas under the fence line and Joe used the tractor to mow the ditches along the highway and then along the lane. Just as they had put away the trimmer and mower, the kids returned home and everyone came in for some hot chocolate.
As they entered the lodge, Kat was just in the process of hanging up the phone, so she informed Mark that since he cancelled his phone, Alice had just called the ranch.
"So what did you say to her?" Mark asked, almost scared to hear what the answer was.
Kat summarized, "I told her that you weren't interested in talking to her and, thanks to your new job, she no longer fit into your life."
Mark laughed, "So how did she take that?"
Kat faked a smile, "She didn't! She's on her way out here."
Mark groaned, "For fuck sakes!"
Solara and the girls came up from the basement, having just finished moving the last of the sex machines over.
After she got her cup of hot chocolate, she informed everyone that she could deconstruct the house anytime and asked if anyone wanted to come and watch?
So everyone topped up their hot chocolate mugs and walked over to the house, where Solara told everyone to say their goodbyes before she pushed the button. Since the house hadn't even existed for one month yet, no one really had any memories or anything to say.
Watching the house go was a weird experience, the house started turning black, like it was rapidly rotting, and it soon collapsed into black piles that continued disintegrating until there was no trace that anything had ever been there. It even restored the grass and land to the exact way it was before the house was built.
As they were just getting back to the lodge, they saw an SUV driving down the lane with realtor graphics on it.
Even though they saw the vehicle coming, they all went into the lodge anyway. So Alice did not have a welcoming party waiting for her. She opened the lodge door and stood there like she was expecting some greeting or acknowledgement that she was there.
Since it had been a bit cool outside, everyone had settled on loungers around the fire pit to drink their hot chocolate.
When Alice looked like she was going to blow a gasket, from being ignored, Kat finally acknowledged her and said, "Hello Alice."
Alice returned the greeting and then walked into the courtyard. Seeing the new Mark she asked, "Mark, can we go somewhere to talk in private?"
"I can't honestly think of anything we could possibly have to talk about! Besides I'm not about to start keeping secrets from my royal advisors or my fiancé!" Mark answered, as he really stressed the fiancé part.
"Fiancé? We've just gotten divorced and you're already engaged? So you were cheating on me before!"
Mark looked at her sternly, "No! You were the one doing the cheating! I waited until after I moved out to the ranch, before I had sex with anyone else. So get off your high horse! There is nothing we have to discuss."
Alice looked like someone had slapped her, after being publicly admonished for her infidelity in front of everybody, "Who is your fiancé? Do I know her?"
"Yes, you do!" Annabelle said as she returned from her visit to the washroom, grabbed her hot chocolate and sat down in the lounger beside Mark.
"Annabelle? You're fucking a teenager? Are you two OK with this?" Alice almost shouted as she looked at Joe and Kat.
"He's got my blessing!" Joe said as Kat added, "Mine too!"
"He's old enough to be her father!"
Annabelle straddled Mark on the lounger and kissed him, "I've been a bad girl daddy, you may need to spank me later!"
Mark raised his eyebrows at her, "I think you may need more than just a spanking!"
Alice's face was multiple shades of red. You could almost see the steam coming out of her ears, "Well, I hope you're happy when you reach my age and he's going to be a decrepit old man."
"I promise to love and cherish you for the next couple of centuries and give you many heirs to the throne."
"Thank you, my future Queen!"
Alice turned and stormed out of the lodge and you could hear the tires squeal as she left down the lane.
"Do you think she got the hint that she doesn't fit into my life anymore?" Mark asked.
