Chapter 67

The line was silent except for Stephanie’s breathing on the other end. I was content to let her filter my statement in her own way.

“And what exactly are you talking about?” she asked in a brittle voice.

“A couple things off the top of my head,” I replied. “You didn’t attend the University of Alabama and you don’t have a college degree.”

More silence greeted me but I heard a door open and close.

“You went to college in Pennsylvania for a year and a half before dropping out and going to work at a strip club,” I continued.

“I did not strip!” Stephanie hissed. Her voice was low because I was positive her husband was at the house on a Saturday afternoon.

“I didn’t say you did,” I said. “I said you worked there. Your maiden name is Grossman. You went to Slippery Rock University for a year and a half. You were studying public administration. I’ll give you that one. You had a good GPA, far better than mine. Then you left. Your name changed from Grossman to Whitmer but there is no marriage certificate or legal name change. It wasn’t identity theft because you kept the same Social Security number. You worked at a place called ‘Ricky’s Cabaret’ near Pittsburgh for a couple of years and came to Nashville when you were 23. After that, your story is pretty much like you’ve told it.”

“I was a waitress,” Stephanie protested in a whisper.

“I have no idea what you did and it doesn’t matter to me,” I said. “I decided that you were unlikely to be the source of leaked information so I kept it to myself. But this time, I’m not going to let you lie.”

“I’m not lying about anything,” Stephanie said angrily.

“You’ve made up your mind,” I said. “You’ve decided to wait and see which way the wind is blowing before you commit. Well, that ain’t happening. If we get out of this relatively unscathed, you’ll show up next week like nothing ever happened. If it all goes bad you’ll tell all and sundry that you left as soon as you found out. You’re playing both sides of the street and I’m not going to put up with it.

“The rest of us ... every last one of us ... have put our chips on the table. We’re in. I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you straddle the fence. So, here’s the deal. Choose! You’re with us or you’re against us.”

I heard Stephanie’s ragged breathing on the other line.

“How did you find out about me?” Stephanie asked. She was stalling for time and I knew it. I decided to fill her in on my activities of the past month.

“Come on,” I said. “Do you honestly think I would let something happen to Liz without finding every last morsel of information I could about those that have the ability to harm her? You said it yourself: A lot of information is out there if you know where to look. I have access to some people that can get under every rock and into every dark corner that something might be hidden. I spread a little cash around – my own money, not Liz’s – and compiled the information on everybody. I know how much money you have in the bank. I know where that money came from and where it goes. Neither you nor Scott is a risk to Liz so I kept your embellished resume to myself.

“Nobody is absolutely truthful, Stephanie; not me, not you, not Liz. We all have little lies that have somehow engrained themselves into our brains as truths. I’m not going to use the information no matter which way you go. But Liz has dealt with a manager that put his interests ahead of hers for far too long. If she had any sort of management when this went down, we wouldn’t be where we are right now. I’m not going to sit back and let her walk into the same situation with you. So ... if you haven’t contacted her by seven o’clock to tell her yes or no, I’m going to urge her to replace you.”

“Maybe I’ll urge her to replace you,” Stephanie said. “Your spot is just as tenuous as mine.”

“If you want to give that a shot, I’ll not stop you,” I answered. “I’m secure in the knowledge that Liz and I are going to be OK – professionally and personally. I think if you were to make that attempt it would go badly for you. We both know who’s going to wind up on the floor looking for work when push comes to shove. I don’t care if you like me. Honestly, I don’t care if you like Liz. But if you’re going to take a paycheck from her, you’re going to give it your all. I will not permit it to be any other way.”

“Don’t forget that you’re going to be working for me in a few weeks,” Stephanie declared.

I chuckled.

“No,” I said. “I’m not. You obviously haven’t seen Liz’s organization chart in a couple of weeks. Her manager is not going to oversee much of anything. You, her business adviser, her property head, Ryan, Jill, Susan and I are all going to be on the same level. We will answer directly to Liz. I will work with you. I will never work for you. So, our role at the beginning won’t be determined by a job title.”

“You’ve certainly found a way to push yourself into a prominent role,” Stephanie noted acidly.

“I have done nothing to pursue this at all,” I said. “I’ve done whatever I could to help Liz and to look out for her. I suggested that I be included as part of Susan’s domain. They decided, given that I am going to be her publicist and spokesman, I should answer directly to Liz. If you have a problem with the setup, take it up with her. I was not consulted any more than you were. I’m not sure I like it any better than you do. But it is what it is and I’ll learn to live with it.”

“Fine,” Stephanie said.

“So what if you won’t get to oversee every facet of her fiefdom from the outset?” I asked. “In the future, that might change. Right now, Liz is doing this to protect your feelings. She didn’t want to overload you with too much crap until you could get your feet under you. That’s the kind of friend she is. You might want to take notes.”

“I’m her friend,” Stephanie said loudly. I wondered how soon her husband would poke his head into wherever she’d hidden to see if she was OK.

“Friends don’t run, Stephanie,” I countered. “Friends don’t hide when the going gets tough so they can make sure they’re still standing when it’s over. They wade right in and do what they can to turn the tide. You’re standing on the sideline waiting for the contest to end so you can stand beside the winner. That’s not a friend. I’m through with this. You got the same set of facts as everybody else. You know everything anybody else knows. Pick your side or I’ll pick for you.”

I ended the call and angrily pushed the phone into my pocket. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them I saw Liz standing in a short robe on the balcony overlooking the pool area. I smiled and waved to her. She waved back and said something I couldn’t hear. I hoped that boded well for her being unable to have heard my conversation with Stephanie.

I signaled to her that the noise from the waterfall was too loud and made my way closer.

“That looked pretty intense,” she said when I got just below her. She leaned over the railing to look down at me (and, sadly, I had no view up the robe).

“It was OK,” I said.

“What did you learn?” she asked.

“Uh, nothing yet,” I admitted. “I had to make another call first.”

“Who?” Liz asked.

“Personal,” I said. She lifted an eyebrow at me. “I mean, not personal ... personal. But it was a call relating to something I’d rather not talk to you about right now. OK?”

“Does it involve me?” Liz asked.

“Uh, yeah,” I said, unwilling to lie to her. “I’ll explain everything to you sometime later. Can you just trust me?”

Liz smiled and nodded.

“I didn’t mean to ... spy on you,” she said. “I came out to show you my bikini so you wouldn’t try to molest me as soon as you saw me.”

“Do you really think I’m not going to try to molest you anyway?” I asked.

Liz’s smile widened.

“Well ... to be honest ... I always thought that getting felt up under the waterfall might be sort of hot,” she said. “So ... the thought of molestation by your hands did cross my mind. Wanna see?”

“Well, yeah,” I said. “But I can’t from here. Unless you want to climb over the railing and see if I can catch you.”

“Bum shoulder,” Liz said. “Maybe you could take a step backward.”

It took four steps before I could see Liz’s entire body. She waited until I was in place before pushing the robe off one of her shoulders. It was bare and my eyes widened. She did the same with the opposite shoulder and kept the robe clutched to her chest.

She slid her hand downward and let the robe fall farther down her arms. It wasn’t until almost every centimeter of her creamy breast was visible that I saw any material at all. Her top consisted entirely of a three-inch band that covered her nipples (mostly).

“Whoa,” I muttered when the robe was wrapped entirely around her waist.

The bottoms of her breasts were as bare as the tops.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Sexy,” I said.

“You say that about everything I wear,” she said with a mock pout.

“It’s true about everything you wear,” I answered. Liz grinned again and I saw her little pink tongue slip between her teeth. I reached down to adjust something that had become uncomfortable in the past few seconds.

“Oh,” Liz said, “sporting wood and you ain’t even seen the bottom half yet. This definitely has promise.”

She dropped the robe and put her hands atop her head. Both of her nipples popped out of their elastic covering and I sat down hard in a chair. I quickly stood again because my new vantage point caused the railing to obscure the bottom of Liz’s body.

The lower portion of the suit was ... miniscule. It was cut so low in the front that Liz’s pubic hair above her slit had already ended before the bikini started. It had two strings that wrapped low around her hips and covered her lips, the area between her legs and nothing more.

She slowly spun in a circle. The strings came at the top of the swell of her butt then dipped into the crack and disappeared.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“I thought about wearing this on the way back from Cabo until we decided to just go naked,” she told me as she slid bands back over her nipples. “Do you like it?”

I nodded dumbly.

“Good!” Liz said. “Now go change into your suit and don’t beat off until I get down there.”

There was a changing room right next to the pool where Liz and I kept suits. I pulled my shirt over my head and already had my shorts unbuttoned and the zipper down before I even got the door open. It took me a second to get my locker opened and pull the swim trunks out because my hands were shaking. I had just managed to pull them up to my thighs when the door opened.

Liz put an arm on the door jamb, again causing one of her now tanned nipples to free itself.

“Hey, Baby,” she said in a husky voice. “Is that for me?”

“Always,” I stammered. Liz smiled and entered, pulling the door closed behind her and locking it.

She crawled up on the table and pulled her suit to the side.

“Just a quickie before we hit the water,” she said as she ran a finger between her lower lips. My trunks weren’t even up to my waist so I didn’t see any problem with the idea. She grabbed me by the neck and pulled me in for a deep kiss, leaving me to line myself up.

“Umm,” Liz moaned as I ran the head of my erection through her furrow to spread the moisture around.

She put her heels on my butt and pulled me forward until I entered her.

“Yeah, that’s it,” she said, nodding. “Don’t cum in me. It’s hell to get it out of the pool.”

I probably would have agreed to rob a bank for her at that point.

“Hard, Baby,” she groaned. “Give it to me hard. God, I got so hot just watching you staring at my body. When you had to fix your boner I could have cum if I’d had played with myself. But I want to be with you when I cum. I love it when you make me go off.”