Chapter 9

Adrienne

We had finished with Darius in the back of Walmart and were walking to the front when we were stopped by an AT&T salesperson trying to pitch DirectTV to us. I looked at Meredith and smiled. She returned my smile knowing what I was thinking.

“Sure, we would love to hear about your offer,” I told him. The salesperson started on his sales pitch, and I spoke to Meredith through our link. “This is an easy thing to master. Simply bring your magic forward, look them in the eye and ask them whatever you want to know.”

Meredith raised my eyebrow at me. “That’s it?” I asked. “Magic and look him in the eye?”

“Yes, that is all there is to it,” I replied. “Go ahead, try it.”

She brought her magic forward and looked him in the eye. “How much better is Direct TV than Dish?” She asked. I felt his mind want to mislead us. But at the last second, he didn’t and told us the truth.

“It’s not. Truthfully, Dish offers more channels and better service than Direct TV.” The salesperson replied. “In truth, Dish has more satellites that they can lock on to. With Direct TV, you have a single satellite that the dish has to lock on to and it’s only in the Eastern sky. Dish has five different ones in both the East AND West.”

“Is that all?” Adrienne asked him.

“No, their customer service is 10 times better than Direct TV. They’ll get a technician out to you faster than we will and won’t charge you unless you’re responsible for the damage to the equipment. We also have a service fee that we hide in the bill after we come out.” He told her. He leaned in close to Adrienne. “I have Dish at my house, does that tell you anything?”

“Thank you for your honesty,” I told him as we walked off and out to my car. When we got to the car, Meredith took my hand and kissed it.

“Hannah was right when she said that hiding in plain sight would be the hardest thing that I’ll have to learn about using her magic,” Meredith told me. “Thank you for being a great teacher.” She said quietly starting up her car and starting back to her house.

We had gotten back to Meredith’s home about an hour after our fun with The TV guy at Walmart. Meredith had received a call from what would become her lawyer Denise. She had her phone on speaker so she could take notes.

“I called a friend of mine that works for the state. Your mom and dad had no outstanding debt to the IRS or the state of Georgia. Your father’s lawyer...” She paused to look for the name. “Daniel Woodrow was who did both their individual and joint wills. I’ve already contacted him and let him know I was going to represent you.”

“Individual wills?” Meredith asked.

“It’s a normal thing when two people have individual property that they want to leave to family. This was probably a CYA thing in case there was a dispute.” Denise told her. “Daniel also told me that there were ‘substantial other things’ that he couldn’t be specific about until he had the proper power of attorney.”

“Substantial other things?” Meredith asked.

“Probably mutual funds, investments, trusts, and the like.” Denise told her.

“When you say substantial, how substantial are we talking?” Meredith asked.

“What did your father do for work?” Denise asked.

“He was an operations manager for a private security company,” Meredith told her.

“Knowing what I do about private security and what they’re paid, I would say that substantial would mean multiple investments or cash totaling more than one million dollars.” She replied.

My eyes opened in surprise at hearing that. I looked at her, smiled, and said, “First class seating on the plane for our vacation is on you,” through our link.

Meredith smiled having heard me, but closed his eyes and thought for a moment. I heard her thoughts about how they had that much money and where it came from. “Have you talked to your investment person yet?”

“I did actually. I’ve got his number for you. His name is Ronald Jeremy...” She started to say before Meredith laughed and I snorted.

“He doesn’t have an assistant by the name of Ginger Lynn or Christy Canyon, does he?” Meredith asked.

“He gets that a lot actually,” Denise said laughing along. “He told me to tell you that he’ll be waiting for your call and will be more than happy to look over your assets as soon as they’re transferred into your name.”

“You know him better than I do Denise, what kind of man is he?” Meredith asked.

“I eat dinner with him and his family at least twice a month if that tells you anything,” Denise told her.

“It does, thank you,” Meredith replied. She thought for a moment and then spoke. “Denise, why don’t you email me those forms to sign and I’ll fax them back to you tonight. I really want to get this settled so I can put this whole thing behind me.”

“I’ll have them and Ron’s phone number and email address to you inside of the hour. Would you like me to call Daniel back and set up and appointment to hear the wills?” Denise asked.

“Please,” Meredith told her.

“What time works best for you to meet with him?” She asked Meredith.

“Except for your appointment on Thursday, I’m busy up the rest of this week and the weekend, so Monday if possible. If not, then Tuesday.” Meredith replied.

“I’ll get it taken care of,” Denise told her. “Was there anything else I can get accomplished for you?”

“Not at the moment no. But if something comes up, I trust you to let me know about it.” Meredith told her.

“Trusting a lawyer that you just met, you are brave,” Denise told her with a chuckle.

“Not at all. I trust in the fact that you do your job to the best of your abilities and that your reputation means more to you than money ever will.” She told her with a smile. Denise was silent for a moment. “Denise, are you still there?”

“How did you figure that out?” She asked Meredith.

“The conversation we had at the mall gave it away,” Meredith replied.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how so?” Denise asked surprised by her answer.

“Body language, your syntax, and vocal inflections, and the mannerisms you used when you talk, they speak volumes about a person.” She told Denise.

“If I could ask, what’s your degree in?” Denise asked.

“You may, I have an associate in physical education and a master’s in behavioral psych,” Meredith told her.

“You’ll have to explain that to me sometime,” Denise told her. “I’ll have everything filed with the court first thing in the morning and I’ll text you and let you know about the appointment with Daniel.”

“Thanks, Denise, I’ll see you Thursday.” She said disconnecting the call. Now looking over at me, she said, “Now, on to me getting beaten up.”

I grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge on the way out into the backyard. I was planning to teach her how to fight with a knife and unarmed. Hannah had already told me that Meredith had some fight training from her father. I hadn’t had the chance to talk to her about what her father taught her, so I had decided that I’d just go like she was a novice and didn’t know how to fight.

“Are you sure that you want to do this Adrienne, I really can handle myself,” Meredith said to me.

“Ma fille, you might think you’re good enough to beat me, but until I’m on the ground and you’re standing over me, we’re going to do this?” I told her.

Meredith told me she was ready to have me beat her down. I heard laughing in the back of my mind. Apparently, she knew something I didn’t.

We started off circling each other and watching each other’s movements. Meredith was right-handed, so I was watching her shoulders as she moved; she looked like she was watching my chest. I was waiting for the exact moment to catch her off guard. I heard a snapping in the trees behind me and Meredith looked in that direction. Seeing my window, I shot in to grab her around the waist. I got my arms around her waist but couldn’t lift her up since she had already wrapped her right arm around my throat and was using her left for leverage into a guillotine choke. It took all of 3 seconds for her to get me to tap out from it.

She let go and asked, “Are you ok sweetie? I wasn’t trying to hurt you too badly.”

“I told you to fight like you’d be fighting for your life. Our bodies can take it.” I said to Meredith.

“Ok, honey.” She replied with some reluctance.

I switched up to Tae Kwan Do and took a front ready stance. Meredith switched to boxing and was bouncing on her feet. I led off with a left jab and was planning to follow it up with a spinning back kick, but once again, Meredith was ready.

She let the jab through, and it connected with her chin. However, when I went for the kick, she ducked under it and came up fast. She snapped off a 1-2 combo followed up with a spinning hook kick that put me on the ground. While I was falling, she jumped forward on to me and started to rain punches down on to me. After the first two punches, I held my hand up in surrender. Instead of stopping, she grabbed it and put it into a Kimura lock and started to crank down on it. As the pain increased, I tapped her on the hip, and she let go.

“Where did you learn all of this ma fille?” I asked Meredith.

“Daddy spent twenty-two years in the Army and taught me everything I know about this sort of thing. I also had lessons from a family friend. To be honest, I’m actually offended that you’re trying such amateur stuff with me.” She said as she smiled at me.

“Ok then, let us fight!” I said more than a little annoyed to her. I got up off the ground and went back on the attack. I switched to Sambo thinking that she wouldn’t be able to defend against it.

I heard Hannah’s voice in the back of my mind chuckling. “I told you not to underestimate her, but you continue to do it.”

Starting off I faked going left but then came around with a right hook that connected to Meredith’s jaw. Meredith stumbled a bit, dropped to a knee, and shook her head to clear out the cobwebs. She stood up, smiled, and moved to my right. I watched as she changed her stance to a southpaw. Being right-handed, her jabs had some power behind them. She snapped my head back with a pair of them and followed them up with a spinning back fist. Luckily, I moved back far and fast enough to avoid it. That would have put me back on the ground again.

Meredith went on the attack from there. She reached out with a jump front turning kick. That one connected to the side of my head and I dropped like a rock. She landed on me and was again trying to get me into a chokehold. I had a grip on her left shoulder that kept her from locking in her chokehold completely. But I felt her right arm slip away from my neck and then felt her punch me in the side of the head.

I won’t lie; I was seeing stars for a minute. When I came back to the land of the living, Meredith was kneeling over me with concern on her face. I looked up at her and smiled.

“This time, if you can beat me with no effort, we’ll stop and do something else. But you have to decisively defeat me.” I said to Meredith.

She smiled and said, “To quote the great philosopher, ‘I’m gonna stomp a mudhole in you and walk it dry.’”

I smiled back at her and got ready. She nodded at me and I returned it. I’d like to say that I held my own, but I didn’t. In fact, I never even saw it coming. Meredith used her magic and moved so fast that I didn’t see it till it was too late. She hit me once in the jaw and I was in the dirt again.

She was standing over me again only looking at me with concern this time. I was still seeing stars as I went to sit up some.

“What did you hit me with? A brick?” I asked her.

“No, it might have felt like a brick, but it was just my fist ... With a little bit of human magic mixed in.” She said to me.

I looked at her with a look of disbelief. “Ok, I believe you when you say that you can defend yourself,” I said to her. “I would love for you to teach me that punch when you start teaching me about human magic.”

“You’ll know everything I do and be able to use it just as well as I can.” She said winking at me. “Do we even need to worry about knife fighting or can I just tell you that I don’t need any training there either?”

We both heard our Mistress in our minds. “That’s enough for today, you’ve earned the break. You may continue tomorrow Adrienne.”

“Yes Mistress.” we both spoke at the same time. I looked at Meredith and smiled.

“Yes, I’m all for sitting by the pool.” She said.

Meredith

We’d gotten a chance to relax before dinner. I was planning on grilling steaks and potatoes tonight to eat. I was standing in the kitchen making a decision on how to marinate the meat when I saw Adi walk downstairs. She was wearing a light wrap and was headed outside to the pool. She looked over and smiled at me as she walked outside.

“Don’t wait too long, I might get lonely out here all by myself,” Adrienne said as she closed the door behind her.

I watched as she walked out to the gate where the pool was. I heard her tell me in my mind that she sees me watching her. I giggled and kept watching. She stood next to a lounge chair and started to take her wrap off. I watched as I saw what her bikini looked like, or should I say LACK of bikini. She was nude.

“I prefer tanning this way, it doesn’t give me tan lines.” I heard her tell me.

I started laughing and told her I’d be right out and that I had to call Melissa quickly.

“Hurry up, I am getting lonely out here,” Adrienne replied.

I grabbed my phone and dialed Melissa’s number. As it rang, I watched out the window as Adrienne dove off the board into the pool.

“Hello?” I heard a female voice say.

“Hello, may I speak with Melissa please?” I asked. “This is Meredith, she had told me not to wait too long to call her.”

“I’m pleased you called me sooner than I expected,” Melissa said to me. “How’s your Tuesday?”

“Mine is excellent thanks, how’s yours?” I replied.

“Before I go any farther, I wanted to thank you for your suggestion about dumping the dead weight man I have. I told my girlfriend about it and we laughed for 10 minutes over it. When I asked her if she’d help, she said that it was an insane idea and that SHE’D be insane not to want to.” I heard her tell me.

“You’re most welcome, I’m not a fan of asshole men. But I am a fan of karma if you know what I mean.” I said giggling to her.

“So, Meredith, to what do I owe the pleasure of talking to you this afternoon?” Melissa asked me.

At that moment, I heard Hannah in my mind tell me to invite her girlfriend over as well and that we’d make an evening of it.

“Well, my Aunt asked me to invite you over to the house in thanks for not getting too angry with us over that incident at the mall,” I explained to her. “I think that her idea was that we do some grilling and sitting out by the pool. You’re more than welcome to bring your significant other as well.”

“Well ... First I’d need to ask you if you have a house or an apartment.” She said to me.

“I can guess what you’re thinking and why. I have my own, very secluded, house. Its North of Gainesville and sits on about 30 acres. My closest neighbor is 2 miles down the road.” I said to Melissa.

“Great minds huh?” Melissa asked me. “I’ll call Georgie tonight and invite her to your soirée.”

“Your girlfriend’s name is Georgie?” I asked her.

“It’s actually Georgina-Allysa, but our friends just call her Georgie,” Melissa told me.

“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” I told Melissa.

We talked for another few minutes about a few things and I gave her directions to get here. We hung up and I walked outside. Adi was lying in the lounge chair with nothing on. I pulled another lounge chair over close to her but faced it opposite of hers so I could look her in the eye when we spoke.

“It is about time you got here; I was getting ready to walk to your neighbor’s house to see if someone wanted to keep me company. You’re not being a very good host ma fille.” She said to me with a huge smile.

“I know, and I apologize, but I had to get my bikini out so you could see me as a beach bunny,” I told her. I willed my hair to turn platinum blonde (Think Kelly Bundy) and then stripped out of my clothing. She was smiling at me as I lay down next to her.

“Ok, I can forgive you this time. But only because you are so hot as a blonde.” She told me. “It also looks like we have the same tastes in swimwear. I wonder what else we have the same tastes in.” She asked me with a grin.

“I’m sure that we have the same tastes in a lot of things, but different tastes in others. Besides, I believe it was someone from your country that said, ‘variety is the spice of life’.” I replied to her.

“Touché’ Meredith, I can see that we do share some of the same ideas also.” I heard her say.

“Can I ask you something, Adi?” I said to Adrienne as I slid my hand over and interlocked my fingers with hers.