Eighty-Five

Allegra followed her nose toward the heavenly smell of coffee in the kitchen the next morning.  Carmen was perched atop the same bar stool she’d occupied yesterday, but this time instead of a list, she had a laptop in front of her.

“Good morning, Carmen.”

The tiny woman spared her only the briefest of glances.  “Morning.  There’s coffee if you’re interested.”

“It smells incredible.  Could you point me to the cups?”  She followed the direction of Carmen’s finger and grabbed an earthenware mug from the cabinet beside the sink.  After adding liberal amounts of milk and sugar, she sipped it with an appreciative sigh.  “And it tastes just as incredible.”

“Thanks.”

Allegra propped herself against the kitchen sink, silently contemplating an apology for her behavior at their introduction yesterday.  Spending time in Richie’s life was going to necessitate a relationship of sorts with his housekeeper, and it would be in her best interest to make it a positive one. 

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t more sociable yesterday.  It had already been a long day by the time we met.  Please don’t think that I’m always that ... well, hateful.”

“Run in with Heather, huh?” Carmen didn’t even raise her head from the keyboard in front of her as she voiced the bland inquiry, still periodically clicking the mouse button.

“If you recognize the signs, I must not be the only one she has that effect on,” Allegra observed with a grim laugh. 

“Richie’s the same way sometimes after he’s been to her house, and you know how laid back he is.  Bitch could make a nun swear.”

The laughter that escaped Allegra was the real thing this time.  If Carmen’s bluntness wasn’t enough to strike her sense of humor, her choice of analogies certainly was.  If she’d had any reservations about Richie’s housekeeper, they vanished in that instant.

“Amen to that,” she attested, placing her coffee on the bar as she climbed onto a stool facing the little Latino woman.  “So how long have you worked for him?”

“Since he bought this house.  This is April, so I guess that makes it four years now.”

“And how do you like it?”

Whether it was the tone of her voice, or the question itself, Carmen finally drew herself out of the electronic world before her.  Black eyes met blue over the lid of the laptop.  “I like it just fine.  He’s a good man.”

“He is, isn’t he?” Allegra’s features softened, reflecting upon the evening she’d shared with he and Ava.   Almost absently she asked,  “I guess you’ve seen a lot of women come through here, then?”

“I don’t talk out of school.  His business is just that – HIS business.”

“That’s good to know, but I wasn’t asking you to, just making a comment.”

Carmen mused over Allegra’s smiling face, clearly trying to get a handle on the other woman’s motives.  That achieved, she snapped down the lid of the laptop and abruptly offered, “If you’ve got something to ask me then ask.  I’m sure you’ve noticed that subtlety isn’t one of my finer qualities.”

“You mean about the other women?” 

A curt nod affirmed that Allegra hadn’t misunderstood.

“Oh, I want to ask so bad I can’t stand it,” she confessed with a sheepish grin.  “But I won’t.  The ‘ghosts of girlfriends past’, as Richie calls them, are in my head – not this house.  I’ll have to be the one to exorcise them.”

She received a soft grunt of approval from across the counter. 

“For having enough sense to realize that, I WILL tell you this.  There haven’t been as many as you’d think, and he’s never introduced one as the love of his life.”  Slithering down from the stool, Carmen scooped up the computer, tucking it under her arm.  “I forgot to stop at the bakery on my way to work, so I’m gonna run back out.  Richie likes glazed doughnuts with his coffee,” she revealed with an indulgent chuckle. 

“Before you go, could remind me which direction his office is in?  I have a call to make and he said I could use it this morning.”

“Through that doorway on the other side of the family room.  If you hit the studio, you’ve gone too far.”

Allegra donned an appreciate smile and moved in that direction.  “Thanks Carmen.  Drive safely.”

She realized when she checked the clock, that with the time difference, she only had a few minutes before her eleven o’clock appointment with Rachel.  Entering what she believed to be the right room, she paid no attention to the décor or furnishings, other than to locate the phone parked on Richie’s desk.  A land line still had a clearer and more reliable connection than a cell phone as far as Allegra was concerned.  She didn’t want to have to deal with a dropped call during her session.

While the line rang on the other end, Allegra took the opportunity to steal a look at her surroundings.  The rich, vibrant patterns on the draperies and area rugs had a distinct middle-eastern feel to them.  The burnished gold lamps that stood on the end tables reminded her of Aladdin’s lamp with their pot-bellied shape, as did the huge ornamental rug hanging on the end wall.  Smiling, she wondered if he’d ever sat in this room and told that story to a little Ava.  She could almost envision the wide-eyed fascination of a child absorbing the magnificent tale as he told it, and believing in the magic that could make a rug fly.  With a start, she realized that the little girl in her imagination was dark-headed instead of blonde. 

“Allegra!  You’re right on time.”  Rachel’s voice was a peculiar mix of exuberant and soothing. 

“I didn’t want to keep you waiting.  Thanks for agreeing to do a phone session for me.”

“It was a huge feat for you to make your first step last week.  I couldn’t stand the thought of losing that momentum already,” she brushed it off, ready to settle down to business.  “So tell me about your week.  Did you talk to Felix like I asked you to?”

The question startled Allegra.  Her first thought was that Rachel had somehow found out about Felix’s call a few days ago.   Then comprehension dawned.   Rachel was referring to the homework she’d assigned at the end of their last session.  Allegra was supposed to verbalize her emotions about the attack, and imagine that Felix was her audience.  She had tried to do it, and was marginally successful in the day or two after the appointment.  Then the phone call came, and she shoved him far to the back of her mind again.

She filled Rachel in on the latest Felix encounter, and quickly followed up with the self-defense lessons that Dot had been giving her.  That, at least, seemed to earn her some points.

“That’s great Allegra.  Taking that kind of responsibility for your personal safety goes a long way toward emotional healing.  You’re fortunate to have family to help you do that.”

Somehow sensing a ‘but’ in the works, Allegra waited to see what the other woman would follow up with.

“However – it’s still in your best interest to work through the attack one step at a time.  What I want you to do…”

Rachel went on to give instructions on how to go through the attack, one scene at a time, as though watching a movie in slow-motion.   

“A movie’s intention is to invoke an emotional reaction.  That emotional reaction lessens each time you watch it, because – after that first time – you know what’s going to happen.  It gives you the opportunity to concentrate on details that escaped your notice the first time around.  You can focus on Felix without fearing him.  You can look into his eyes and read his motivation.  And with understanding comes control.  No more uncontrolled emotions – only conscious, informed thoughts.”

Their first meeting had left Allegra impressed with the counselor’s style and technique.  Now, it turned out that her shrewdness was another redeeming characteristic.

They went through the lobby scene together, with Allegra identifying things she hadn’t noticed the first time.  As their time drew to a close, Rachel challenged her to work through at least another part of the scenario for the next session.

“Next session?”  Disappointment flooded Allegra.  “I thought you would send your report to Sister Mary and I could go back to work on Monday.”

“Well…”  Papers rustled and the counselor offered a soft ‘hmm’ of indecision.  “Okay, Allegra, with everything on the line here, you have to be totally honest with me.  If I let you go back to work, will you continue with our sessions?  There’s no reason you can’t go back to work, but I won’t make the recommendation unless you commit to at least four more appointments.” 

Allegra was mildly surprised to find that her temper wasn’t boiling over at the decree.  She had really hoped to be finished, but the truth was that it hadn’t been horrible, and she’d even had a couple of ‘aha’ moments in the process.  If this is what it would take to get back to her job, then she would do it.  After all, she had a restaurant to get off the ground.

It was with only the slightest sigh that she consented to Rachel’s demands. “Okay, schedule the appointments.”

Scheduling complete, Allegra disconnected the call and willed herself no to feel dejected.  On Monday she would be back in the office, and THAT was the battle she’d been trying to win.  It was a victory in her mental record book. 

That put behind her, she stood to circle the desk.  Part way through her session, a grouping of photographs had caught her eye on the far wall.  Allegra was curious.

They were all displayed in the same size gold gilded frame, but the pictures themselves were in a variety of sizes.   Some were snapshots matted to fit the frame, and others were obviously professional photographs. The content of the photos was very similar, yet different.  Richie was depicted in each of them, obviously in his younger years, as his silky, sable hair hung halfway down his back.  His face was lit up with delight and split with a wide grin, but a different beauty hung from his arm in each shot.  Mostly blonde, she noted with a wry grin. 

There was one that stood out from the rest, unique both in content and presentation.  In the center of the collage was a frame containing two photos instead of one, both clearly having been taken at the same time. 

One of his famed black hats was perched atop his head, and he was sporting a barely-there black tank topped by a fringed leather jacket and jeans.  But not just your average pair of jeans.  Made of blue denim, they had a black leather lace-up fly, and the denim was stamped with a variety of peace signs in all sizes.

Richie wasn’t posing for the camera this time, and the beauty with him was far from blonde.  Long, black ringlets cascaded down Cher’s back and she looked up from under her eyelashes at him with a smug, sexy smile.  He was smiling too, but his gaze was intent upon her hand curled into his palm. 

Allegra’s stomach clenched at the look on his face.  There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he wanted her.  And if he wanted her in that one, he was half a step away from taking her right there in front of the camera in the second shot.

Cher’s head was tipped to the right, and her eyes were focused on his full, slightly-parted lips.  She was in silhouette, but the message on her face plainly read ‘shut up and kiss me’.  Richie’s head was also tipped, the brim of the hat obscuring all but the lower portion of his face.  With his parted lips and the look on her face, she’d bet anything that the photographer had caught him murmuring something dirty to Cher.

It was one of the sexiest pictures she’d ever seen. 

The only downside was that it made her painfully aware of how long it had been since they’d shared one of those looks.  She was devising a plan to eliminate that problem when the Ava’s voice came filtering through from another room. 

“Dad!  I have to be at Kendall’s in twenty minutes!  Where are my skiis?”

“They aren’t at your mom’s house?”

“Nooo!  The last time I went skiing was with you!”

Richie’s voice drew nearer, as he instructed his daughter, “Then look in the garage.  I’ll be out to load them in the Hummer in a minute.”  He poked his head through the office door with a smile of pleasure.  “There you are.  How was your phone call?” 

“It was fine,” she assured him vaguely.  “I was just looking at your pictures.”

He grimaced as joined her in front of the menagerie of photos.  “I put those up during the divorce.  Can you tell my ego was feeling a little bruised?” 

Her attention was still riveted to the spot in the middle.  “I can’t stop staring at the pictures of you and Cher.  My panties would catch fire if you looked at me that way.”

“Then you obviously haven’t been paying attention,” he scolded, pulling her up against him.  “You get me so hot that I can’t believe I don’t have third degree zipper burns on my dick.”  Richie’s lips brushed hers lightly, igniting an instant spark of desire inside of her. 

A soft purr escaped from the back of her throat, and she breathed, “How long will it take you to drop Ava off?  I can be waiting in your bed.”

His soft chuckle was so dark and sexy that it curled her toes.  “Is my baby feeling frisky?”

Closing what little distance remained between their bodies, she subtly ground her pelvis against his thigh.  “I’d say I’m closing in on animalistic yearning.”

“Animalistic yearning, huh?  That sounds serious.”

“It is.  And if you don’t take care of it, I’ll be forced to take matters into my own hands.”

“Damn.  Both options are so very tempting.  I’d love to see you taking matters into your own hands, but I think I might have to lend my own hand.”

She swallowed a gulp of air and pushed him away with a groan.  “Let me say goodbye to Ava so you can get gone and get your ass back here.”