Streak - 41. Chapter 41

December 4, 2002

Goodwell, VA

Wade

“I hope this trip goes better than the last one,” Matt said, as the big Suburban limo pulled up to the front of the house.

“We can hope,” I said, smiling at Alex. “When does your grandfather arrive?”

“Your grandmother was somewhat vague, but I was led to believe he would get here within the next few hours,” Alex said.

“Nana likes surprises,” I said. “And she likes to make a grand entrance.”

“I am unclear as to how that will manifest itself, but we will hope she doesn’t annoy my grandfather. He is not so spontaneous and outgoing.”

“I’m sure she’ll do just fine with him,” I said soothingly, even as I wondered how everyone would get along. After Thanksgiving, I was a little gun shy.

We got out of the Suburban and strolled directly into the house, even as we tried not to cringe at the cold weather. The weather forecasters had predicted clear skies, but with temperatures ranging from 15-40 degrees. It would not be the best weather for riding.

“Well hello there,” Nana said, as soon as we walked into the door. We all greeted each other.

“Your grandfather should be here within the next ten minutes,” Nana said to Alex after he had hugged Mary Ellen.

“You’re not sending the limo for him?” I asked. It had just dropped us off. There was no way it could even get to the airport in ten minutes, much less there and back.

“I am not,” she said mysteriously. Neither Alex nor I were going to actually ask her for details, while Matt and JJ followed our lead. Just as I was about to head to my room and put my bags away, we heard the distinctive sound of helicopter blades. “I think he is arriving.”

I looked at Alex and we smiled softly at each other, and then looked out the front windows. Goodwell was the quintessential southern mansion, with big white pillars lining the façade of the main building. Some homes had fountains or the like decorating the front, but here, there was merely a curving circular drive that separated the house and an expansive front lawn. The landscaping was minimalized so as not to detract from the house itself. We watched as a very sleek jet copter banked gently then landed on the front lawn. A crewman got out and opened the door, then helped the Duke of Suffolk out. “I must go greet him,” Alex said, and strode quickly through the front doors to meet his grandfather. They exchanged a perfunctory embrace, and then Alex escorted him inside.

We abandoned the front windows and gathered in the foyer. I stood with Nana, as the hosts, ready to greet him as he came through the doors. He walked in, saw Nana, and smiled. “I would recognize you anywhere! What a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is assuredly mine,” she said, and curtsied for him, even as he kissed her hand.

“Thank you for taking such good care of me. I have not had an easier trip across the Pond.”

“I’m glad it was a good trip. Unfortunately, I can’t control the weather, so it will be a bit cold this weekend.”

“I was going to impose upon you to go riding and show me the grounds of this magnificent estate, but I shan’t inconvenience you if it is too frigid.”

“It would have to be much colder than this to keep me off a horse,” Nana said coquettishly.

The Duke moved on to address the rest of us. “Wade, how wonderful to see you again. I cannot thank you enough for the way you’ve taken Alex in and made him feel at home in Boston.”

“It is good to see you again,” I said, remembering to not use his title. He’d cured me of that formality in Britain this summer. “Alex’s friendship has been reward enough.”

He turned next to Matt. “I have just recently learned of your spectacular performance in Sydney. Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” Matt said.

“Allow me to introduce you,” Alex said, intervening, and presented Mary Ellen to the Duke.

“It is a pleasure to meet Your Grace,” Mary Ellen said, and curtsied smoothly. We usually only saw the bitchy, slutty, or playful side of Mary Ellen, so it was easy to forget that she was quite capable of conducting herself well in more formal circumstances. She was dressed in a conservative manner, and her movements were flawless.

“The pleasure is mine,” he said. “You are a very lucky young lady.”

“Your Grace?” Mary Ellen asked, with just the slightest hint of coquettishness.

“You have inherited your grandmother’s good looks,” he said. Alex introduced him to JJ, who was equally polite. All in all, I’d give us an A+ for how well we’d handled this so far.

“We clean up well,” Matt whispered in my ear, coming to the same conclusion I had.

“Let me show you to your room,” Nana said. “If you aren’t too tired from your trip, perhaps you’d like to relax on horseback?”

“I cannot imagine anything better,” he said. That served to break up our group, as Nana and the Duke went to his room, and then to go riding.

“That went better than I thought it would,” Alex said to us, sotto voce.

“We got lucky,” I joked.

“She flew him over on the Concorde, and then had him brought here on that helicopter,” Mary Ellen said.

“Nana knows how to roll out the red carpet,” I said, smiling.

“Indeed,” Alex agreed.

“Where is Mother?” I asked Mary Ellen.

“She is in Washington, pouting.” That made all of us laugh. “Nana has all but frozen her out of things.” More laughter.

Everyone began to disperse to our rooms, to get settled in, but I pulled Mary Ellen into the library. “I really do think that Nana will do a better job of working things out than Mother would have.”

Mary Ellen smiled. “I think you’re right, Wade. I knew you weren’t trying to cause me problems, I figured you were just trying to frost Mother.”

“I was just trying to do what was best for everyone,” I said. “But annoying Mother was a nice reward for doing the right thing.” She laughed, and I used that as an excuse to escape to my room.

“So far, so good,” Matt said.

“So far,” I observed cautiously.

JJ

We’d met the Duke of Suffolk, who seemed nice enough for an old guy, then everyone had pretty much headed to their own corner. Everyone except me. I saw Mary Ellen go into the library, and lurked around, waiting until she came out. She’d been cheerful enough when I’d first gotten here, but I didn’t know how she’d treat me now that the formalities were out of the way.

She saw me and smiled. “JJ, were you waiting around for me?” she flirted.

“I was,” I said, even as I blushed.

“Maybe you can be a polite gentleman and walk me to my room?”

“It would be an honor,” I said, hoping that she’d invite me in when we got there.

We got to her room and she stopped. “You can come in if you want to.”

“I want to,” I said. This was beyond strange, but I didn’t care.

“You were a lot of fun last weekend,” she said, as she put her hands on my shoulders.

“I think about you all the time,” I blurted out, like an idiot.

“That is so flattering,” she said, and then she kissed me. In no time at all we had our clothes off, and I was in her, and it was heaven. I had to regulate myself to try to make it last, but it was too intense.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I came too soon.”

“I think the only person who’s allowed to complain about that is me, and I’m not complaining.” She lay there with me, stroking my chest with her fingernails in an incredibly sensuous way. In less than ten minutes, we were at it again, only this time I lasted a lot longer, and we both had a blast.

“That was incredible,” I told her.

“I liked it too,” she said. “You’re a lot of fun. When Alex was talking about this deal, I had no idea that I’d end up with the better end of the bargain.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll have you around to keep me happy,” she said, and gave me a sweet kiss. “You have learned how to satisfy a woman.”

“Thanks,” I said, then got nervous. “I should probably go track down Alex.”

“I don’t plan to tell him about this. Maybe we’ll be together, all three of us, later on.”

“I’d like that,” I told her. I got dressed and all but snuck out of her room and headed down to the room Alex and I were sharing. It was on the same floor, but in a different wing. I expected him to be waiting around for me, but he wasn’t there, so I unpacked and took a quick shower. If he blew me, it would be pretty obvious what I’d been doing.

I finished up, and he still wasn’t back, but I didn’t let that bother me. I was starting to see what Matt was talking about. Just because I liked being with Mary Ellen better, that didn’t mean Alex wasn’t fun. And at the core level, as a person, I liked him much better. The more I thought about this situation, the more I liked it. Alex and I could enjoy each other, but I had Mary Ellen around to really light my fuse.

December 6, 2002

Goodwell, VA

Wade

“What’s going on?” Matt asked as he came walking into our room.

“What are you talking about?”

“I saw Nana in the hall, and she said they worked things out, and that she’d explain it at dinner.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” I told him honestly. “I’ve pretty much left her alone, and she hasn’t asked me for help.”

“Does that make you nervous?”

“Not at all,” I said honestly. “Nana and the Duke seem to get along really well. Shit, they’ve spent hours riding around, even though it’s freezing outside.”

“Dude, it is too fucking cold to be riding a horse,” he grumbled. I didn’t say anything about that, since Alex and I had gone riding yesterday.

“Well if she said she worked things out, than that means this will probably be a nice dinner,” I said. “And that means we should dress for the occasion.”

“You’re telling me I have to wear a tie again,” he grumbled. We’d ramped up our dress code while the Duke was here. The only person that bothered was Matt, because he was a much more casual dresser.

“That’s what I’m telling you,” I said. When we were ready, I paused in front of the mirror to admire our reflections.

“You do suits better than I do,” he said. He was trying to be nice, but he was actually right. I think part of it was that I was more relaxed in that garb, but my features and body seemed to work better with more formal wear.

“You look better with nothing on,” I said.

“Should I wear nothing to dinner?”

I chuckled. “No, but you can show me how good you look with nothing on later.”

We went out to the dining room in good spirits, to find that everyone else was already there. The Duke was sitting at one end of the table, with Alex to his right. Mary Ellen was next to him, followed by JJ. Nana sat on the Duke’s left, with Matt next to her. The staff brought out a bunch of food and left us. We began to eat, making polite dinner conversation, talking of nothing important.

It wasn’t until we were close to finishing that Nana brought up the topic we’d been waiting to hear about. “I hope you don’t mind talking about our discussions at dinner,” she said.

“Not at all,” I said, as the nominal host.

“As it is a combination of personal and business arrangements, I thought this venue may work,” she added, as if to further excuse discussing this at the dinner table.

“I think that’s just fine,” I told her, to move her on to the topic at hand.

“We’ve worked out an arrangement, and now all that has to happen is for the lawyers to figure out how to structure things,” she said. She glanced at the Duke, who picked up the conversation.

“Mrs. Garrett has agreed to settle a dowry of $150 million on Mary Ellen,” the Duke said to Alex. “That should help ensure that you can maintain your place in society, and ultimately survive the toll taxes will take when I am gone.”

“I’m not sure you’re really worth that much,” I said to Mary Ellen, teasing her to keep the mood light.

“You obviously need to spend more time with me,” she said.

“Is that arrangement acceptable to you?” the Duke asked Alex.

“It is,” he said.

“And you’re alright with that?” Nana asked Mary Ellen. I knew that she thought it was way too much money, but there wasn’t much she could really do about it. Besides, I’d learned that, in Mary Ellen’s mind, since she didn’t control her money, it was like she didn’t have it. It was analogous to someone spending Monopoly money.

“I am,” she said.

“Then it seems as if we will need to plan a wedding,” the Duke said. That was followed by toasts for the newly engaged couple.

“When do you anticipate having the wedding?” I asked the table in general.

“I would think sometime in January would be appropriate,” the Duke said, and everyone agreed. “That will necessitate a considerable amount of planning.”

“We talked about this, and we think it’s important for you to go back to England with His Grace,” Nana said to Mary Ellen.

“Tomorrow?” she asked, shocked. Alex didn’t seem overly concerned about her leaving; in fact, the only one who seemed a bit put out by it was JJ, but no one was paying attention to him.

“I think it would be best,” the Duke said. “That will give us ample time to help prepare you for your entrée into society, and then you can be involved in planning the wedding.” I thought it was interesting that he said she’d be ‘involved’ in planning the wedding, but not ‘in charge’ of it.

Mary Ellen looked pretty thunderstruck by that plan, but she gamely smiled. “I would be delighted to go back to England with you, but I have final exams next week.”

“When are you finished?” Nana asked.

“My last final is Wednesday morning.”

“Then you can travel to England on Wednesday afternoon,” Nana decreed.

“I can make that work,” Mary Ellen agreed.

“There is one problem,” the Duke said. “It would be inappropriate for you to travel to London and to stay there without an escort.”

It was funny, because all of us except the Duke and Nana thought that was ridiculous. I could certainly understand the need to keep up appearances, but this seemed to be an invented issue. I kept my mouth shut, seeing how this would play out. “I have the perfect solution to that dilemma,” Nana announced. “I will go with Mary Ellen, assuming that is alright with you?” That last question was directed at the Duke.

“I cannot think of a nicer gift: the company of both you charming ladies,” he said gallantly. “You will be most welcome to join your granddaughter.”

“Thank you,” Nana said, smiling. And then I looked at her a little more closely, and could see that she was glowing. I glanced at Matt, who raised his eyebrows, since he’d picked up on it too. Mary Ellen was barely managing to hide her smirk.

“Perhaps you can take Mrs. Garrett up to Bridgemont,” Alex suggested.

“Weather permitting, that is definitely on my agenda,” he said.

We finished dinner, and were about to leave, when the Duke beat us to it. “As I must depart tomorrow, I should go up and pack. Alex, why don’t you keep me company?”

“Of course,” he said. We were watching them leave when JJ spoke up.

“I’m going to go upstairs,” he announced, and followed them out of the room.

“You certainly seem to be getting along well with the Duke,” I said to Nana. Matt and Mary Ellen zeroed in on her too.

“He is charming, and quite the gentleman,” she said, as if that was all there was to it.

“I think maybe Mary Ellen is going along to chaperone the two of you,” Matt said, winking at her. She gave him a frightful look, which she expanded to Mary Ellen and me when we started giggling.

“I’ll have to read up on protocol from the 1920’s so you two don’t do anything inappropriate,” Mary Ellen said.

“Very funny,” Nana snapped, which took us all from giggling to full laughter.

“You’re allowed some happiness in your life, Nana,” I said supportively.

“Thank you, Wade,” she said insincerely, then changed the subject and spoke to Mary Ellen. “I think we worked out a good deal for you. You’ll still have plenty of money in your trusts.”

“I think you did a wonderful job, Nana,” Mary Ellen said. “But I need to go pack as well.” She gave Nana a kiss on the cheek, and headed upstairs to get ready to go back to the University of Virginia.

“Wade, if you wouldn’t have gotten me involved in this thing, Elizabeth would have completely botched it up,” Nana said. “She would have antagonized the Duke so badly we’d have never been able to work out a deal.”

“I’m glad,” I told her. “I knew you’d do just great.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“And you picked up a boyfriend in the process,” Matt said.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Nana said, trying to pretend like she was seriously annoyed when she wasn’t.

“Yet,” Matt said. With that, Nana got up and went to her room to presumably to begin planning for her trip with Mary Ellen to England.

December 6, 2002

San Francisco, CA

Brad

“This is such a great city,” Marc said, as we strolled around Union Square. I loved this time of year in San Francisco. The weather was brisk, and the fog that was so typical of this city had rolled in, giving it an almost mystic feeling. Then, with all the Christmas lights and decorations, it began to look more magical than mystical.

“So do I,” I told him.

“I pretty much consider Boston to be my hometown, and I’ve lived in New York for a while, but I feel more comfortable here. Like I belong here,” he said, almost wistfully.

“You do belong here,” I said, and squeezed his hand as I held it. “Paris and San Francisco have always been tied as my two favorite cities.”

“I’ve only been to Paris once, and then for only a few days,” he said.

“Well, when we get a chance, I’ll take you there,” I said. “We have an amazing condo on the Ile de la Cite, right by Notre Dame.”

“That sounds spectacular,” he said. “Sydney was beautiful too.”

“Yes it was,” I agreed. It actually reminded me a lot of San Francisco. “The other place where I spend a reasonable amount of time is Hawaii.”

“I have never been there,” he said.

“I can’t wait to show it to you,” I said. “It is really a blast to experience these places with you. It makes it seem like I’m going there for my first time.”

“I bring out the virgin in you,” he joked, making me laugh. “Where do you go in Hawaii?”

“Maui,” I said. “I have a villa in Kapalua, but Will has a house near Ho’okipa beach. His place is nicer.”

“Nicer?”

“Yeah,” I said. “When we go there, surfing is usually a big part of why we’re there, and his house is on a cliff by one of the best surfing locations. There’s a path that goes right down to the beach.”

“That sounds pretty magnificent.”

“It is. Buying it ended up being a really smart move. When we go there, we’ll take Will with us. He told me that’s what he wants for Christmas: for me to go surfing with him.”

“Then we’ll have to do that,” he said. “Why does he have his own house in Maui?”

“It’s a long story,” I said. His look told me he wanted to hear about it, so I told him the whole deal about how Will had gotten banned from the Bastille Day party, and how that had ended up with him in Hawaii buying a house.

“Were you like him when you were young?”

I thought about that. “I think he’s more independent and confident than I was. He’s taken charge of his life, and he tends to take charge of situations too.”

“Do you think that’s a good thing?”

“I do,” I said. “I really worried about him, more than my other sons, because he is so confident in his abilities. He is sure that he can handle things, and I was worried that he was overconfident. My big fear was that he’d bite off more than he could handle, and get himself in trouble.”

“But you don’t think that now?”

I shook my head. “I don’t. We had a lot of battles because he matured so quickly. I wasn’t willing to let him be in charge of his life.”

“I’ll bet those were intense battles,” he said.

I shook my head ruefully. “You have no idea. Will is a lot like me in one way. If you block him, he’ll fight like crazy to get past it. A challenge just makes him more determined.”

“How did he end up getting emancipated?” He saw me frown. “We don’t have to talk about this.”

“No, it’s fine,” I said. “Will and I had a massive power struggle, and it had three main events. The first was when he ran away, the second was when he got emancipated, and the third was around the time he bought the house in Hawaii.” I embarked on a rather lengthy description of those events. He didn’t really say anything, he just listened intently.

“You guys seem good now.”

“We are,” I agreed. “After 9-11, I was really a mess. Will made taking care of me his personal responsibility, even though he was grappling with just as much as I was. I really don’t know if I could have made it through the aftermath without him.”

“That was a tough time,” he said. “I guess that’s what made me lean on David so much.”

“I think my supporter did a better job than yours did,” I joked. It was indicative of how well he’d gotten beyond David that he chuckled at that.

“No shit.”

“Do you think about David much?” I asked, for some stupid reason.

“No, not at all,” he said, and seemed sincere. “Like I told you at dinner, it was like I was living a nightmare, and you woke me up.”

He acted like he wanted to say something, but hesitated. “What?” I prompted.

“I think JP is one of the smartest men I’ve ever met, but he was wrong about me. There’s no way I’d ever go back to David. Even if I was broke, with nowhere to go.”

“You will never have nowhere to go,” I said, getting a warm smile for my words.

“We should probably go get ready,” he said. I looked at my watch, and it was really early, but I smiled.

“If we need to kill some time, I’ve got an idea,” I said with a leer.

“I’ll bet you do,” he said. “Why do you think we’re going back to the hotel so early?” We hurried back to our room, had an incredible sexual interlude, and then got ready for the showing at the gallery.

It was a very tony event, with a bunch of wealthy urbanites dressed in the chicest of fashions. Their overriding attitude was one of arrogance. JJ would like this crowd, I thought with a smile, but Marc fit right in as well, or at least his clothes did. The person underneath his clothes seemed too genuine for this crowd.

The artist on display, Carl Spatz, was an older guy, and an arrogant ass. He was standing in front of a painting of a cube. “I think that the square shapes give it a very crisp look,” he said, lauding his own work. It was a bland cube, with no special shading, or coloring.

“I can see that,” one of the guests said, pretending to be impressed.

“Marc Carmine,” Marc said, introducing himself as we walked up to the artist and his painting of a box.

Spatz almost sneered. He must be straight, or he had a massive ego, or both, if he was going to be that dismissive of a hot guy like Marc. “Ah yes. You’re the one who does metalworking.”

“I do,” Marc said in a pleasant way. “I like to work with different mediums. I think that to use just canvas is much too restrictive.” That was perfectly done, a total slam wrapped in politeness, and so well executed that the guests with us snickered a bit.

“And I don’t think we’ve met,” Spatz said to me.

“Brad Schluter,” I said, and shook his hand. While Marc was required to remain relatively polite to this guy, I was under no such obligation. “This looks like a box to me.”

“It is a cube,” Spatz said. I thought of my sons, and how they sometimes took joy in torturing me. As I squared away with Spatz, I could see the attraction.

“What’s so special about it?” I asked, pretending to be interested.

“Can you not see?” he asked, outraged.

“I’m looking at a painting of a box. Excuse me, a cube. There’s no shading, no coloring, nothing to make it any more special than a piece of clip art from Microsoft Word,” I said. He looked flabbergasted, and was obviously insulted. I didn’t care; I didn’t have to. I was much more important to this gallery than he was. If he’d been nice to Marc, I’d have been nicer to him.

“Clearly you know nothing about art,” he spat. “Someday, maybe you’ll have saved enough money to actually buy something like this.”

He evidently didn’t know who I was, but the people around us did. I’d made a name for myself with all of our venture capital funding, so anyone remotely related to the tech industry would recognize my name, not to mention people who worked in the other industries in which we’d invested. It just showed how oblivious this guy was that he had no clue who I was, and even if he didn’t know me, the last name should have meant something. If I was famous, Stef was a celebrity. One guy winked at me, while a cute girl giggled. “I’ll save my money,” I said with a smile, and then led Marc away from him.

“We’re not going to get invited to any more of these,” Marc said, giggling.

“I’ll bet we do,” I said. “Especially when they find out I’ve saved up enough money to buy some art.” We wandered through the gallery, looking at the work by other artists. In the past, when I’d gone to parties with Robbie, we’d split up and had our own individual conversations, but I’d always stayed within about fifteen feet of him. It was like an informal rule, one I’d learned from watching my parents. With Marc, we were together, a couple, and didn’t stray from each other at all. I was guessing this was just some of his residual insecurity from David, or at least I hoped it was, because in a social setting, it was just a little bit smothering. But since this was his event, and his crowd, it didn’t really bother me.

In the end, we had a great day, and a great evening. To make it up to the gallery for me being so obnoxious with Spatz, I spent $150,000 on a couple of paintings for my office. That seemed to make everyone happy.

December 6, 2002

Goodwell, VA

JJ

I was happy for Alex that this whole thing with Mary Ellen had worked out. She’d been with us every night since we’d been here, and it had been a blast. Still, there was something about it that bothered me. Maybe I just wasn’t into threesomes, I thought, then pushed that aside. Being with her and Alex together was a total rush. I got to be with Alex, who I had very strong feelings for, and I got to fuck Mary Ellen, who had an amazing pussy.

I got up and walked into the closet and started planning out my wardrobe for tomorrow. Since it was my birthday, Wade had let me decide where to spend it, and I’d chosen Boston. I was standing there, trying to decide which slacks to wear, when I heard the door open, and I heard Mary Ellen giggling.

“It seems like we’re alone,” Mary Ellen said. “I’m glad.”

“You don’t like being with Jays?” Alex asked her.

“He’s cute, kind of like a puppy, but you’re a man,” she said seductively. “If I had my choice, Alex, you’d be more than enough for me, but if he makes you happy, I’m fine with having him around.”

“I think he enjoys you more than he enjoys me,” Alex said sadly, so sadly it almost caused me physical pain.

“Leave it to you to have a relationship with a dude who’s mostly straight,” Mary Ellen joked.

“You think he’s straight?” Alex asked, and sounded really upset.

“When we’re together, he’s much more into me than you,” she said. “He’s even snuck up to my room a few times when you were busy.”

“I did not know that,” Alex said and sounded pissed off. “I think that we should go to your room. That way, we can make sure we get to spend time alone.”

“I’d like that,” she said, flirting with him.

I heard the door close, and that prompted me to come out of the closet, literally, not metaphorically. That fucking bitch. I got her game now. She was playing me. She was using her cunt to suck me in, and then she was going to drive a wedge between Alex and me. She was going to steal him away from me. Well that may be her plan, but I was on to her now. And suddenly, the thought of being with her wasn’t erotic, it was revolting.