Chapter 132

Nell turned to me and asked, “Do you mind if I talk about you and Kristen?”

“No, I’m interested in what you’re going to say.”

She nodded then turned back to Cindy and asked, “Do you like Pete?”

“Of course I do.”

“Do you love him?”

Her eyes darted at me, then she looked down and said, “Maybe a little.”

“Well, I love him a lot, and so does Kristen. So let’s start with her. What do you know about her?”

“I know that she’s going to be famous and that she and Pete had a thing for a while.”

“It was longer than a while and it was a lot more than a ‘thing’. I don’t know what broke them up, but I do know that she really cares for him and I know that he has a special place for her in his heart.”

She looked at me, “Am I right?”

She turned back to Cindy when I said “Yes,” and asked, “Have you ever met her?”

“I’ve seen her at school. She was a grade ahead of me, so I guess that she graduated this year. She’s really beautiful, but she’s kind of mysterious. She was absent a lot but she always got ‘As’ when grades were posted. Everyone thought that she was going with some rich guy or something because we never saw her hang out with any of the kids at school. It surprised everyone when she and Pete were seen together, and it blew everyone away when they heard that she had even changed her last name from Albertini to Baker.”

I interrupted and asked Cindy, “How come you never asked me about it?”

“I asked Amy about it, and she said that Kristen’s family is in politics and she didn’t want anyone to know that she was part of it, so she began using Baker as her professional name when she started performing. Is that what happened?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

Nell broke in with, “C’mon, Pete, you know that there’s more to it than that.” She turned to Cindy, “She changed her name because she loves Pete and has plans for him that includes marriage and a family.”

Cindy blinked, “I didn’t know that she was that serious.”

“Yes she is, but she’s half a world away and has a promising career that could keep her away for long periods of time, so she’s prepared to make sacrifices.

“So she knows about you and that Pete is living here?”

“She knows everything. She also knows that she can’t leave Pete alone for too long or he might find someone else. We had a long talk when she heard that I wanted him to move in with me. Can you guess what she decided?”

She stopped and just looked at Cindy, waiting.

Cindy frowned at first, then said, “She decided that you were ideal because of who you are and that you’re married. You would keep him occupied both physically and sexually, but you’re not going to ride off into the sunset with him. Is that what’s going on?”

“Yes, that’s pretty much it.”

“What about me? Will she be okay with us travelling together?”

“She knows that I can’t be around all the time, and I’ll explain to her that you won’t be a threat to her either no matter what happens between you two.”

“Why won’t I be?”

“Because you’re smart enough to know that Pete’s career will take him places where you can’t go, and beside that, you’re going back to school in the fall. She’ll understand.”

“And that will satisfy her?”

“It has to, she has no choice.”

“And he and I having sex wouldn’t bother you?”

“No. You have amazed me since you came to work for us. You’ve become one of my favorite people, and the thought of you and Pete being together sexually actually pleases me.”

“But you said that you love him?”

“I do love him, so much so that the ‘into the sunset’ thing actually occurred to me, but we both know that it can’t happen. Pete has a lot of living to do and I have a business to run.”

Cindy shook her head, “I still don’t get it. How can you not be jealous of him having sex with other people?”

“Jealousy is a new concept to me. I never cared enough about anybody to get jealous until I met Pete. I have tremendous responsibilities at work, and all I thought about was work until Pete came into my life. Even my marriage was about work, but I have needs too, and I would occasionally find someone and have sex when I had an urge. It was mostly one night stands, and I wasn’t particular about who the person was. You’ll hear stories about me if you’re around long enough, and most of them will be true, but it was only about sex and I never really cared for them.”

“You’ve never had anyone you love?”

“Not love exactly, but I have two close friends. Sarah at work is one. She and I have been friends since she was sixteen. She and the other one were as close as I got to love until I met Megan. I know that she’s only nine or ten years younger than I am, but I love her like a daughter.”

“But you don’t have sex with her do you?”

“Of course not, I have Pete and the other friend for that.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t have sex with other guys now that you and Pete are together.”

Nell studied her for a minute, then she said, “I’m going to tell you about something because along with Pete and Megan, I think that you and I will become close. I like you and I see things in you that remind me of myself when I was your age. You have the ability to focus on things like I did, but you do it without the hang-ups that I had and I’m going to see to it that you realize your potential if you’ll let me.”

Cindy just looked at her and nodded.

Nell then looked at me and asked, “Do you mind if I tell her about our friend?”

I knew she meant Brandy, so I said “No, go ahead.

So Nell said to Cindy, “It isn’t a guy, it’s a girl. Pete and I have both had sex with her. We sometimes do it together.”

Wide-eyed, Cindy croaked, “Y-You are into girls?”

“Sometimes, does that bother you?”

“I don’t know. Are you guys like, uhh, swingers?”

“No, she’s a special friend and the only one who we’ve been with together. You’ll meet her. She’s a free spirit, but she’s fun and I think that you’ll like her.”

“But I, uhh, won’t be expected to, umm...”

Nell and I both laughed at the look on Cindy’s face.

Nell said, “No, Dear, you won’t ever have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Oh, uhh, okay.”

Still grinning, Nell added, “But if you wanted to...”

Causing Cindy to cry out, “NO, I would never do anything like that!”

That made Nell laugh again, then still smiling, she said, “Be careful about saying never.”

Cindy began shaking her head, then to change the subject, she asked, “How did you and Pete get together?”

“I met him in Vegas. He looked like he was in his twenties and he was my size at over six feet tall with lots of muscles. He was so handsome that I got wet just looking at him, and I knew right away that I had to get him into bed, so I took him to my hotel room. But do you know what he did? He fell asleep before I had a chance to jump his bones.”

I interrupted, “That’s because you fed me all that beer!”

She chuckled, then continued, “He woke up at four in the morning, said ‘I gotta go’ and left. That was the last I saw of him until he and his sister came into a store where I was working. I found out then how old he was, but I was intrigued and gave him my phone number.”

Cindy asked, “You gave him your number even though you knew that he was only seventeen?”

“I was a different person then. I wanted him in my bed, and I didn’t care how old he was. I actually didn’t care about a lot of things in those days, but I’ve changed since then.”

“What changed you?”

She glanced at me, then turned back to Cindy and said, “I want to say that he did, and it mostly was him, but Megan was the start of it and now, so are you. The three of you blow me away with what good people you are. I’m sure that you’ll hear stories of how I used to be a bitch and that I did a lot of self-destructive things. Well, I did. I was raised a rich kid and went to the best schools, but the crowd I hung around with were self-centered snobs. I thought that everyone was that way, and that’s how I grew up. Some bad things then happened to me, and I got even worse. I turned into the woman who you’ll hear stories about, but Megan recently came into my life. She’s an amazing girl. She’s kind and thoughtful, and the sort of young person who I really didn’t know existed. I thought that she was an anomaly until I met Pete and found that he has many of the same traits. That and one other thing caused me to re-think who I am, and I decided that I would change, so I did and people have told me that I’m a better person than I used to be.”

Cindy asked, “What was the one other thing?”

She glanced at me, smiled, and said, “It was something that I hadn’t experienced before. Someone made love to me.”

Cindy saw the look and said, “It was him, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you said that you’d been with a lot of men?”

“I have, but it was just sex. Pete actually made love to me. Call it the mood I was in, pheromones, or God knows what, but he pushed buttons that I never knew I had the first time we were together, and it blew me away.”

“And that caused you to change?”

“That was a big part of it.”

“Why?”

“I-I guess that I don’t want to disappoint him.”

“Does he still blow you away?”

“He does it every time. He’s a wonderful lover; doesn’t he affect you that way?”

Cindy glanced at me, then she looked down and said, “I, uhh, I guess so.”

“What does that mean?”

“I love having sex with him and it’s been wonderful, but it hasn’t been that often and I usually have to twist his arm to do it.”

“No kidding? I’d like to hear about that.”

Cindy looked at me for a few seconds, then she turned to Nell and said, “I was a wallflower before I met Pete. I was skinny and shy, I didn’t know how to dress and I didn’t have many friends. I was in the lunch room at school one day, and some girls came by and started giving me trouble. I was in an area they considered theirs and they were yelling at me about sitting there. I was about to leave when the handsomest boy in school came over, sat next to me, and started complaining to the girls about how I wouldn’t go out with him because I was dating an actor or some college boys. The girls were stunned, and so was I.”

Nell started laughing, then she asked, “But Pete hadn’t asked you out and you weren’t dating those people, were you?”

“Heck no, I had never said a word to Pete before that day, and I wasn’t dating anyone, but my life changed after that. Word got around and girls started pestering me about who the actor was, why I didn’t want to date Pete, and if I could introduce them to some of my college friends.”

Still smiling, Nell looked at me and said, “You did a nice thing.”

Cindy continued, “Yes he did, and there’s more. He and his whole family, especially his sisters Erin and Amy, took me under their wing. They showed me how to dress, what to eat, what to wear, and showed me what life could be about. That’s when things really changed, but the biggest change came from Pete. One of the most popular boys in school started paying attention to me. I think that he was forced to by his family, but he took me places, introduced me to people, and treated me like a friend.”

Nell said, “And you fell in love with him.”

Cindy looked at me and sighed, “Of course, I did. I began to see what it was like to be with the ‘in’ crowd because of him and his sisters, and it was wonderful. I knew what he was doing; he was taking pity on me, but I didn’t care.”

I interrupted, “No I didn’t, I had fun when we...”

She held her hand up to stop me and continued, “I knew that I could never compete with the kind of girls he went out with or the future he was bound for, so I made a decision. I was almost eighteen, still a virgin, and I wanted to get as much out of what was happening as I could, so I decided to have sex with him.”

Nell asked, “So what happened?” when Cindy stopped and looked at me.

“Nothing, he wouldn’t do it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I did everything that I could think of. I snuck into bed with him while wearing nothing but panties and a bra, I put my hand in his shorts and held him, I even stripped naked and asked him to look at me, but all he would do was to tell me that I should wait for ‘someone special’ and he ended up fixing me up with a friend of his.”

Nell was grinning and shaking her head. She finally asked, “Well, what happened then, did you get your wish to have sex?”

“NO! The guy turned out to be a religious nut and said that we had to be married first.”

Nell started laughing, and so did I.

Nell finally asked, “So, what happened next?”

“I got Pete to fool around a little, but I had to blackmail him the time that we actually had intercourse.”

Nell’s eyes got wide and she said, “Oh boy, you have to tell me about that.”

Cindy looked at me, and I just shrugged so she continued, “I went to Pete’s house one night and I was determined to get laid. He wasn’t home so I took all my clothes off and waited for him. I told him that I came there to have sex with him when he got home, but the dork still wouldn’t do it and started on that bullshit line about me waiting for someone special. I told him that I was tired of waiting and tonight was the night, but he still wouldn’t do it, so I told him that I was going to walk to the corner by his house, stop the first guy who drove by, and have sex with him.”

“So what happened?”

“I guess he thought that I was bluffing because he just sat there, so I threw my clothes on, went to the corner, and stuck my thumb out. It was late and there isn’t much traffic that time of night. I thought that Pete would change his mind and come after me before anyone came along, but a car stopped in front of me just then. I was scared to death and about to run, but I saw Pete coming toward me, so I started talking to the guy. Pete threatened the guy’s life when he got to us, grabbed me, and took me back to his room.”

“Well, did he finally get the job done?”

Cindy smiled and said, “Yes he did.”

Nell turned to me, “That’s quite a story, why did you wait so long?”

“I didn’t want to disappoint her. I knew that I was going to be gone a lot, and I wanted her first time to be with someone who was going to be there for her. I wanted it to be someone who she could build a relationship with.”

Cindy frowned at me, “What did you think I was; a fragile child? Did it ever occur to you that I just wanted to get laid?”

I carefully thought about what I was going to say. We were going to be spending a lot of time together, and what I said now might be a way to establish a more lasting friendship, so I answered, “No, I never thought of you as a child. The reason I held off so long wasn’t because I wasn’t interested, it was because I liked you. I had from the beginning and that’s why I was trying to be so careful around you. Our lives were going in much different directions, and I didn’t want to mislead you or cause you to be hurt. I’m pretty sure that what happened that night meant more to you than just getting laid, I think that it meant a lot more. I know it did to me and I’m honored that you let me be your first. I don’t regret it, and I’ll never forget it.”