Chapter 5

The movie was Overboard, an 80s rom com starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, a movie they both enjoyed and ignored at the same time as they spent most of the movie talking. Josh wondered if she chose the movie as a hint, an upper crust woman falls in love with an average Joe kind of guy, he couldn’t help but seeing a parallel in their social positions, if you ignore the fact that he doesn’t have any children.

Eventually, they left Goldie and Kurt in the background to sort out their own relationship. Josh listened with pleasure as Veronica spoke of her childhood in Erie, Pennsylvania, not far from where they were right now. “I had dinner with Bob Costas once,” she said.

“How did that go?”

“I don’t really know. At first, I thought he was searching for a chief of staff to run a little sports empire he was planning, then I though he was digging up material for an expose on beauty pageants, but when he found out that I’m the daughter of a man who built railroad locomotives for a living, that’s all he wanted to talk about. I guess he’s a train nut.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” said Josh. “I love to travel on the train. After my bounce I quit flying, if a train don’t get me there, I don’t go.”

“Bounce?”

He dug his Specter coin out of his pocket and handed it to her. “My plane was hit, we made it back to base, but we landed hard. I wasn’t strapped in, and I got bounced around the cabin pretty good; my guys said it was real entertaining to watch. That’s the call sign they gave me, Bounce Two Seven because it happened on my twenty seventh birthday.”

“Wow, what did Yolinda say?”

“Yesenia” he corrected, “she had other issues on her mind, like how do you tell your husband who has been deployed for a year that you’re six months pregnant?”

“I’m so sorry,” Veronica gasped.

“I came home and she’s living with the guy, in our home in base housing.” Josh stared at the coin she handed back. It was an ugly scene when he got home, best left forgotten, but the scars have lasted years. “I’m over all that ... I mean I’m over most of it ... ok, I’m still fucking pissed at her for selling my truck.” He put the coin back in his pocket and hugged Veronica tighter. “I hope you didn’t have to go through something like that,” then he thought ... that Rock that she moved to her right finger... “You have, haven’t you.”

She nodded; her face buried in his shoulder. She looked at the ring and said softly, “While you were in Chicago my sister Magda announced she couldn’t be my maid of honor because she’s moving to Hawaii with her new husband...” and she went silent.

“Tell me it wasn’t your fiancé.” But she didn’t look up. “It was Jameson, wasn’t it?” She nodded sadly. Josh could barely imagine the emotional wreckage that would cause a woman. How do you tell everyone that your husband-to-be run off with your kid sister? He held her right hand and considered the Rock. “Why do you still wear this?”

“Lots of reasons,” she said. “It’s worth almost as much as my Navigator so it’s nice to have an emergency stash.”

“That’s a good reason not to wear it, y’ know lock it up somewhere. Tell me why you wear it.”

“For one thing, it’s my stone, I saw it and fell in love with it and bought it hoping to be able to wear it on my left hand someday ... I owned that stone for about five years before I met Jameson, my fiancé ... brother-in-law now.” Her voice trailed off into silence.

“But why wear it?”

“It’s pretty ... I love this stone ... I’m probably going to have it set in a necklace but until then, it’s a reminder,” and she went silent for a while.

“Is it reminding you to run away right now?” he asked quietly.

“No, it’s not, I think it’s leaving that decision up to me right now.”

“The one ring of power,” Josh chuckled.

“And it’s a good shield,” she continued. “Really dumb people see it and think I’m engaged, and they leave my boobs alone.”

“It’s hard to believe some people will fall for that old trick,” sighed Josh, causing Veronica to break out in laughter. “What else?”

“That is really it, but ... I have a silly romantic notion that someday some man will take it and put it on my left hand ... for real and it will never come off.”

“Could I do it?”

She held out her hand, admiring the ring. “You can try.”

“Maybe I could do this in stages, I could move it here,” he nibbled on her earlobe, and she gasped at the sudden sensation. “It would make a cool earring, you just wear one like a pirate ... yar! Then as things got better, I could find other, more creative places to adorn your body with that ring,” and as he said that, he placed her diamond adorned hand against her breast. He expected a shocked expression and maybe a slapped hand or face, but instead he received the same sweet smile he gets whenever in the past he would pop his head into her office to say hi.

“That’s one way of doing it,” she said, then laughed at the thought of a nipple ring worth more than her car.

“Personally, I’d find a new setting for that pretty stone before putting it on your left hand for real,” he said, gazing into those warm hazel eyes. Then, before either of them realized what was happening, their lips met again. This kiss was so beyond their previous pecks, those were little exploratory smooches. This was a kiss that left no doubt in either mind that they had found someone. Someone to lean on, someone to hold each other up, to confide in and to care for.

While he basked in the touch and smell of a woman whose heart was there for him to take, her head swam with the utter ‘maleness’ of him, so confident in who he is, strong and real. His arms circled her, and he pulled her in close, holding her tight, both claiming and protecting her at the same time. Their tongues caressed each other, exploring, seeking more, and suddenly her clothes were too tight.

She worked her way on to his lap facing him, their lips still together, her hands now fumbling with the buttons on her blazer, ripping it off, now at the buttons of her blouse and now ... now he was stopping her? He had her hands in his, keeping her from continuing. “Nica, wait,” he said softly.

Now she felt mortified, “Oh God! I’m sorry, I thought...”

“Shhh,” he placed a finger on her lips, “and you thought right. Nica darling, I want you more than I’ve ever wanted a woman, but we can’t, not now...” She looked at him hurt and confused, but he continued “It’s after eleven, I have to go clear the exits of snow before I start a maintenance at midnight.”

“That’s the only reason why you stopped?” she asked suspiciously.

“The one and only reason. I want to do this right,” he said softly and earnestly, “I don’t want our first time to be a quicky, I want to take my time and make it a treat for us, something really special.”

She looked at the wall clock with disbelieving eyes, it seemed like it was only an hour ago he was banging on her car window to get her in from the cold, yet at the same time it felt like they were here for days talking and learning about each other. She let herself sag against him. “I’m sorry, I made a fool of myself.”

“No, you didn’t Nica, I should have been more vigilant about the time. At least I know you like me now,” he grinned.

She saw the taunting behind those little boy eyes and she nodded, then said, “Sixteen,” and they were kissing again. Why couldn’t they have met years ago before they both learned what heart ache was all about? She put her hand on his cheek, her thumb tracing his lip and asked, “How did you know about calling me Nica?”

“From the same conversation we had when you learned about calling me Effy.”

It happened a year ago at the company Year End Party. He was new to the company, and he didn’t know a lot of people, but there was one bright shining moment he would replay in his mind over and over...

It was a splendid party, and it was held at the Fox Brook Country Club and Josh, the newest employee of Andalon Data Systems, could not believe what he saw. Having come from a tight ass multinational juggernaut whose only concern for employees was for those whose names ended with the letters VP, this party was the height of holiday decadence to Josh. It looked to him like a New Year’s Eve/Christmas/Hanukkah mashup. The enormous ballroom was decorated in white and gold and silver. Flocked Christmas trees were covered with silver garland and ornaments, live music along with streamers, confetti, and laughter filled the air. Couples danced, people sang, food was eaten, gifts were exchanged, and toasts were raised. The room was a swirling mass of smiling people that were happy to be with each other, the exact opposite of life at XCom.

Ephraim J. Gravely stood on the sidelines watching and wondering when the axe was going to drop. That’s how it works at XCom, one week after any employee party came a round of layoffs. He was actually feeling nervous about the whole thing, but then she took to the dance floor. It seemed to be something that the long-term employees were waiting for, and many clapped when Veronica van Köster was led onto the dance floor by a man in a uniform. To this day, Josh has no recollection of the uniform or the man in the uniform. He was later informed that the man was a major in the NY National Guard, but Josh’s eyes were only on Veronica when they started dancing. When she danced, he was transported to days gone by when ballroom dancing was popular, and people lined up to watch it in flickering black and white images on the big screen. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Cid Charisse and a thousand others...

It was magic; every step, every swirl, every flicker of light reflecting off the sequins on her dress. Her moves were silky smooth as she danced, and the twelve-piece band played “Fly me to the Moon.” She and her partner danced a foxtrot to the timeless tune that Sinatra made a million dollars with. They had the floor to themselves, and Josh found himself jealous of that man who stepped and swirled with the tall athletic blond. When the music stopped and her coworkers applauded, Josh realized he had been holding his breath the whole time. With her dance over, she came off the dance floor and began going from table to table, greeting all the employees just as Anthony was doing on the other side of the room. She looked up and saw Josh standing on the sidelines and she made a beeline for him. To Josh the room suddenly became empty, and he could only see Veronica as she approached him, her smile leading the way, lighting him up like a deer on a dark country road. He fumbled through his mind for an appropriate greeting, but she opened with, “Ephraim! How are you enjoying the party?”