Chapter 20: Get Thee to a Nunnery

September 4, 1992, Chicago, Illinois

“These are really interesting pieces,” I said to Siobhán.

Kimmy, Elyse, and I were reviewing the two completed pieces that she’d done as examples of what the series would look like.

“You don’t like them?” Siobhán asked pensively.

“No, I do! Why would you think I didn’t?”

“Usually when someone says ‘interesting’ about abstract art it means they don’t like it.”

“Sorry, in this case I meant it. Maybe ‘intriguing’ would have been a better word.”

She nodded, “I think so. Saying ‘interesting’ about art is like saying ‘nice’ about sex! It’s a way to politely say it wasn’t great.”

“Are you trying to tell me something?” I chuckled.

Siobhán laughed, and looked at Kimmy and Elyse. I nodded my OK.

“Oh no! ‘Nice’ is NOT the word I would use.”

“Me either,” Elyse smirked.

Kimmy looked at me and I shrugged slightly.

“Or me!” she giggled.

“And this is where, in your basic male fantasy, I invite you three upstairs and we give Steve the fucking of his life!”

We all laughed.

“Kimmy is married,” I said. “So that’s out right there.”

“I thought you...”

“And my rule doesn’t let me even consider that. Not to mention she’s an employee!”

“Getting back to the matter at hand...” Elyse smirked.

“I’m good with you continuing along these same lines,” I said. “I like what you’ve done.”

“Siobhán, did you do that sketch I asked for?” Kimmy asked.

She nodded and went over to her work area and came back with a large sketch pad.

“This is the plan for the logo on the wall behind the reception desk,” Siobhán said. “Slightly stylized. I hope that’s OK. I can perfectly match your business cards and stationery if you want.”

“I like that. I actually like it better than the current logo. The little flourishes and the slight change to the onion dome are an improvement. What do you think, Elyse?”

“Has Jeremiah seen it?” Elyse asked. “He did the original.”

I shook my head, “I don’t think he’s going to get bent out of shape by some minor changes from a design he did seven years ago!”

“I varied the color slightly, too. It has a bit of blue mixed in so that it’s not quite so starkly black.”

“I approve,” I said. “As Julia always liked to say when she was in charge, ‘Make it so!’.”

We shook hands and started on our way back to the office.

“I came up with the naming scheme for the conference rooms,” I said.

“Should I be afraid?” Elyse smirked.

“No! But I need you and Kimmy to find me six posters. Some will be easy. At least one will probably require you talking with Tanya or Vanya Voronin.”

“What?”

“The main conference room will be ‘Lemieux’ and we’ll need a poster of Mario skating the Cup. Same with the ‘Gretzky’ room, which is the next smaller one.”

“Biased much?” Elyse giggled.

“Hey, it’s my building, so I get to decide who the greatest player of all time is! The three smaller ones will be ‘Orr’, ‘Hull’, and ‘Howe’. The small one off the reception area will be ‘Tretiak’. That’s the one you’ll need to call Russia for.”

“So you want a hockey poster next to the actual art that Siobhán is doing?”

“Not next to. Her works go on the long wall of each room. The hockey poster, in a very nice frame, can go on another wall. We could even get some memorabilia from the Penguins for the larger room, because there will be more walls. Maybe a signed Lemieux jersey, or that kind of thing.”

“And when the next great player comes along?”

“I’ll worry about that when they’re at least as good as Bobby Orr, Bobby Hull, or Gordie Howe!”

“What if I can’t find a Tretiak poster?” she asked.

“Try for the 1980 Russian Olympic team. If we have to do that, though, then get a matching one for the US and we’ll hang both and it can be the 1980 room!”

“Should I get a picture of your host sister for the room, then?” Elyse teased.

“There’s obviously a story there that I’m missing,” Kimmy giggled.

Elyse laughed, “With Steve, there’s always a story! You should know that!”

We stopped for lunch, where, at Elyse’s insistence, I told the story of the ‘bet’, much to Kimmy’s amusement. When we finished eating, we headed back to the office. My dad walked in just as we were checking with Lucas for any messages.

“Hi, Son!”

“Hi, Dad! How was the drive?”

“Not as bad with the new hips, that’s for sure. Your mother took the apartment key and is taking our things there and then she’ll head to the house.”

“Kimmy arranged for you to see the new building. It’s obviously a work in progress, but she’ll get you there this afternoon. Do you want me to come along?”

“Not unless you need to. I’ll just take a quick look around.”

We walked into the main offices and to my office where we sat on the couch.

“No, I don’t need to, and I have some work to do. Cindi and I need to call Ben Jackson to finalize the plans for the User Group meeting on October 2nd.”

“In San Francisco, right?”

Kimmy brought us drinks, we thanked her, and she shut the door on her way out.

“Yes. Ben is still User Group President, so he’s the one who decides. Next year, he’s probably going to hold it someplace in the east. I’m pushing for Pittsburgh, but that’s not exactly a ‘destination’, if you know what I mean.”

“True! Are all the kids around this weekend?”

“Yes; except for Jesse’s hockey practice tomorrow morning, the kids’ swim lessons tomorrow afternoon, and Jesse and Nicholas going to church on Sunday morning, they’ll be there. And speaking of Nicholas, I don’t think I told you that Bethany is moving into her own place on November 1st.”

“That’s probably a good thing, Son, though I suspect Jesse had one or two things to say about it.”

“He was more than a bit upset when Jennifer and Bethany told him. I’m letting them deal with it. He complained to me, but I told him that Bethany and Nicholas were a family, and that at some point, Bethany might decide to get married again.”

“Do you think she will?”

“I simply can’t see her being single for another fifty years,” I said. “It doesn’t fit her personality. It’s not even three years since Nick died, so I’d give it a bit more time, but yes, I think she’ll find someone.”

“How is your sister?” my dad asked.

“Better,” I said. “Work is going well, she and Ed are doing fine, and she’s getting her counseling. I talked to Melanie earlier this week, and on the 21st, she’ll take Stephanie before a judge and file to have both the arrest and the misdemeanor conviction expunged. Technically, the supervision ends on the 20th, but the courts aren’t open that day.”

“That’s good. She doesn’t talk to us very much.”

“She doesn’t talk to me very much right now, either. I only see her for dinner on Sundays. I get most of my information from Ed, though he’s a bit circumspect about some things, with good reason.”

“Have they set a wedding date?”

“No. Ed won’t set a date until Stephanie’s counselor agrees she’s ready. Personally, I’d say another year or two, but again, that’s up to Ed, not me.”

“Your mom isn’t thrilled with her living with him for that long.”

“Tell me something I didn’t know!” I sighed. “Mom will probably make an issue about Michelle and Samantha, our summer guests. But she’ll be in for quite a surprise if she says anything about Michelle.”

“Why is that?”

“She’ll be leaving in a few weeks to become a novice at an Orthodox monastery. Basically a convent.”

“A nun? You should have let me know so I could say something to your mother. Hopefully she’ll hold her tongue.”

“The girls have her pretty much under control. It’s me she’ll say something to.”

“Just ignore her, please. She has her mind made up about you and there isn’t anything you or I can do to change it. I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s OK. I’ve worked through the issues with my counselor, and with the marriage counselor that Jess, Kara, and I saw for several years. We’re not seeing him right now, but given the complexities of my life, we’ll probably end up seeing him again.”

“Things do seem to have calmed down a bit.”

I smiled, “That’s usually when everything goes straight to hell!”

“Anything else going on?”

“Elyse’s old boyfriend, Eduardo is moving from Spain to Chicago. I think you met him once years ago.”

“I think so, but it’s been what, nine or ten years?”

“Since you met him? Yes. My prediction is that at some point, they’ll get together, probably permanently, though without getting married. You’ve known for years that she plans to move to the suburbs before the boys start High School.”

“You have to make sure you stay involved in their lives.”

“I will. Elyse and I have talked about it. I’d prefer she stayed, but if she does get together with Eduardo, they’ll need their own place, and she’s not going to settle for something in the city. But I don’t expect her to move for five or six years. We’ll just have to see what happens.”

“Matthew starts kindergarten and Jesse will be in first grade on Tuesday, right?”

“Yes. Matthew is psyched to go. And Jesse has loved school from the beginning. That makes things a bit easier on Abbie during the day, though she usually has at least one other mom around. Penny is there quite often right now because she had her second baby a month ago. She’ll be back to work on October 5th.”

“The women who work for you all seem to be taking full advantage of the maternity leave benefits!”

“It gives them the freedom to be moms and to have their careers. In fact, a few of the moms are organizing daycare at the new office. It won’t be paid for by NIKA; they’ll form a co-op to pay for a full-time and a part-time person. We’ve set aside some space for them. There’s plenty of room, given that that building will hold three times the staff we have now!”

“And the young man at reception?”

“Lucas North? That was Elyse’s decision. And I have no problem with it at all. I have had one or two of our more conservative clients raise an eyebrow, but given that women basically run this place, it shouldn’t really surprise anyone!”

“How are you holding up as CEO?”

I chuckled, “I hate it. And I love it. And the fact that I love it scares me.”

“Joyce, Elyse, and Julia have all said you’re doing a good job. Apparently you have a ruthless streak when it comes to business.”

I shook my head, “I should have known you’d be checking up on me.”

“For full disclosure, I talked to Kara as well,” my dad grinned.

“You always had a thing for her,” I chuckled.

“Was it that obvious?”

“From the very beginning. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous!”

“Son, if you don’t appreciate what you have there, you’re a bigger fool than I could ever have imagined!”

“I do, and I always have. You know I almost married her, for real. But she prevented it. I’d have done it and been happy.”

“I don’t claim to even begin to understand the complex set of relationships you’ve set up, or how you set them up, or why. You’ve always marched to the beat of a different drummer in that regard. It started with your close relationship with your sister. Breaking that relationship worried me, and I think I was right to be worried. But as you say, she’s coming around.”

Did he know more than he was letting on? I couldn’t even THINK about probing, because if he DIDN’T know, I couldn’t tell him, or even give him any clues. That said, I needed to say something.

“You know we bonded strongly because of Mom,” I said. “And I think that stunted her development. She compared every guy she was ever with to me, and found them wanting. And that led to her erratic behavior, which was only exacerbated by our shared mild bipolar disorder. Hers was worse, because once I got married, I had to focus on my wives, and then my kids. She felt abandoned. Ed basically came to her rescue. And I believe she’ll marry him and have a couple of kids.”

“Give her a few more years, and she’ll be ready to come work for NIKA,” my dad said. “But I want her to start as your assistant, and you slowly delegate tasks to her. She can’t simply walk in and sit in the big chair.”

I nodded, “I hear you. We can discuss that in three or four years.”

Kimmy knocked on the door, and came in.

“Mr. Adams, I have the car outside. I’ll take you to see the building now.”

Kimmy had gone to the house to get the leased BMW, because she didn’t have a car. Fortunately, she, too, had learned to drive stick. My dad said he’d see me at the house later, they left, and I got back to work.

When I arrived at home, Jessica told me that Michelle wanted to speak to me right away. Before I went to find her, I greeted my mom, Paul, and Nancy. I found Michelle in her usual place when she wasn’t in her room - in my study, reading.

“Jess said you wanted to see me,” I said.

“I talked to my parents. They’ll be here about lunchtime on Monday. Would you come with me to lunch? It would help to have you with me when I talk to them.”

“Whatever you need,” I said. “Let me just confirm with Jessica and Kara, but it should be fine. They’re welcome to join us for dinner. We’re grilling and a few friends will be here.”

She smiled, “I’m not sure they’ll be interested in coming to the ‘den of iniquity’ I live in.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed, “I’ve seen this movie. Did you meet my mom?”

“Yes, and she looked at me as if I were some kind of two-bit floozy!”

“That’s my mom. Ignore her. I’ll point out that you’re on your way to a nunnery and getting out of my ‘den of iniquity’!”

Michelle smiled, blushed, and said the most risqué thing she’d ever uttered.

“But your ‘den of iniquity’ was so much fun! And it’s so tempting! After all, where ELSE could I have gone to get what I wanted?”

I smiled, walked over and took her hand.

“That’s in the past now. It was beautiful and good and right. But now, your mind needs to focus on spiritual matters.”

She stood, and came to stand very close to me.

“I know. Once I tell my parents, I step irrevocably into that new world.”

She put her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I wrapped my arms around her and held her. She put her head on my chest and sighed deeply. We stood that way for a few minutes, until she lifted her head. She looked me intensely in the eyes, conveying a desire that burned deeply, but could no longer be fulfilled. I felt her hand go to the back of my head and she gently pulled me down. She touched her lips to mine, and we kissed. Softly, deeply, and to my surprise, with a feeling of finality.

The kiss lasted at least two minutes before she broke it, dropped her arms, and stepped back. She was flushed and breathing hard, but the look on her face was one of complete serenity. The kiss was the last step on the old path and when by releasing me, instead of continuing, she’d taken the first stop on the new path. I had no doubt in my mind at that point that she’d made the right decision about her future.

“I think you just took that step,” I said softly.

She nodded, “I had to know. I had to know I could stop. I had to know that if I see you in the future, I can see you as a kind, loving man with whom I have a spiritual, emotional, and intellectual connection. And that I will be able to control the desires I have.”

I nodded, “That’s why I didn’t push you away.”

“Would you have... ?”

“That was always up to you. But you had already made your decision. That kiss, as wonderful as it was, had a sense of finality. And it should have. I love you, Michelle, and I always will.”

“I love you too, Steve. And I always will. Thank you.”

“You’re very welcome.”