Chapter 58: Big Changes

April 26, 1993, Chicago, Illinois

On Monday morning, after making slow, passionate love to Bethany, I went home to change into my running gear and met Gina in the park. After the run, I headed back home for a shower, breakfast, and a call to Doctor Mercer. I got a bit of grief from Birgit about not being there when she woke up, but when I told her I had been with Bethany she just smiled and said she was glad I loved Aunt Bethany.

My talk with Doctor Mercer focused on the problems with Jessica. I described what I’d said to Bethany the night before, and, unsurprisingly, Doctor Mercer agreed with Bethany. I’d correctly diagnosed the problem, and now I had to come up with a proper course of treatment. She wasn’t any more help on that topic than Bethany had been, so I was, in effect, on my own.

Elyse and I headed to work and I took the opportunity to pick her brain as well. It was only about a twenty-minute drive, so the conversation continued in her office. She gave me more or less the same advice that Bethany had, though she did ask one important question about something that had completely slipped my mind.

“What are you doing for Jessica’s birthday?”

“Hell if I know,” I said. “I hadn’t even thought about it. But I’m not sure what I can do. She works that day, which means she won’t be off shift until 10:00pm.”

“Have you talked to Doctor Barton about this?”

“I have and he basically agrees with the Triumvirate.”

Elyse laughed, “Me, Kara, and Samantha? Or is Bethany in there somehow?”

“The ‘Tetrarchy’, perhaps?” I chuckled.

“It does take quite a few people to keep you under control, Mr. Adams!”

“Maybe in the past, Belgium, but I’m a LOT better. You didn’t see me freak out or go on a rampage of defloration!”

Elyse laughed, “True. You personally have been quite drama-free for several years. And even the stuff swirling around you hasn’t sucked you in and dragged you down.”

“You’ve been very patient with me for going on fifteen years,” I said. “I really do appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I never did get the thing I originally wanted, but that’s not a complaint, simply an observation. What I wanted in High School and what I wanted later on are two very different things.”

“That’s true for all of us,” I said. “Bethany and I basically rehashed four years of High School last night.”

“You spent her last night with you talking? Shame on you!”

I chuckled, “When do I talk best?”

Elyse laughed hard, “Never mind. I should have known. Did it help?”

“As I said in the car on the way here, it did. I don’t have solutions, but I do know the problems I’m trying to solve.”

“That’s good. You know I’ll help in any way I can.”

“I know, and I appreciate it.”

I gave her a kiss and went to prepare for the staff meeting.

April 29, 1993, Chicago, Illinois

“I have a plan,” I said to Kara as we snuggled in bed on Thursday night.

“Jessica? You know my feelings there, Snuggle Bear.”

“I know. But will you at least try? Please? Or have you decided you don’t want her under any circumstances? That we should divorce her?”

“I don’t know,” Kara sighed. “I’ll try, Steve. I will. I promise. What’s your plan?”

I explained what I had in mind for Monday night, and answered Kara’s objections.

“You’re really going to tell her she can dish it out but not take it?”

“You recall the conversation with Samantha about getting her way and not understanding what she’d gotten into? It was right on target. Well, I can turn that right back on Jess.”

“I suppose being harsh is necessary, but not on the sidewalk!”

“No, the goal is to get her to invite us to the apartment or come back here. We have the carrot, then I apply the stick. I know you’re at your wits’ end. This is the last-ditch attempt. If it doesn’t work, we’ll figure out how to move forward.”

“OK,” Kara said softly. “I do miss her.”

“I know. I do, too. Samantha actually called me on that this morning, believe it or not. She said I was being too coldly analytical.”

“That’s because she missed fifteen years of drama!” Kara giggled. “She’s lucky!”

“Thirteen for you,” I chuckled. “Jennifer and Bethany got the full brunt, as did my sister. And that’s the next thing. I’m going to take some baby steps towards developing a proper relationship with her. I invited Ed and Stephanie to spend the afternoon with us on Sunday.”

“But what about Jess?”

“What about her? If she can’t deal with THAT, then it really is over. I am NOT the ‘dumb boy’ who made a terrible mistake twelve years ago. But the man I am has to be responsible for what that ‘dumb boy’ did. Do you agree?”

“Bethany and I should have put a stop to it,” Kara sighed.

“You actually tried, both before and after the fact. Do you remember that day at the Cincinnati Nature Center the summer after I graduated from Milford?”

Kara nodded, “I do! I also remember someone suggesting that we move to Utah and become fundamentalist Mormons!”

I chuckled, “Yes. And you wagged a finger in my face and told me I wasn’t going to live out that fantasy! That I could only have one wife. Period!”

“I may have changed my opinion since then,” Kara said primly. “But back to your sister, I should have been firm about it and put a stop to it with Bethany’s help.”

“And we have no idea what would have happened had you done that. We might have done it anyway, and then I would have lost both you and Bethany. Forget ‘What if?’ and forget beating yourself up. I’m the responsible party here. I caused it, and I have to fix it. If Jessica can’t deal with that, well, then she’s more of a cold, uncaring, unfeeling bitch than she who must not be named ever was!”

Kara giggled, “Cute!”

“I used that with my sister and Bethany back before you and I started dating in a serious way. She was as much persona non grata then as now. But I do mean that. If Jessica can’t see her way clear to let me help my sister live some semblance of a normal life, then she’s not a person I want anything to do with. Period.”

“Now who’s being cold, unfeeling, uncaring jerk?” Kara asked.

“Am I? Because I want to help my own sister?”

“No, I suppose not. I suppose it’s the way you said it.”

I sighed, “I know, but I’m being blunt with you, Honey, because we’re at the point of no return. This is the end of the line. Everyone in the Tetrarchy agrees with me.”

“Tetrarchy?”

“Rule by Four,” I chuckled. “The Triumvirate has a new member!”

Kara giggled, “Samantha! Though I guess Elyse replaced Stephanie.”

“Or Samantha did. Elyse managed to miss the first one. And the second one. It was Sofia the second time. You and Bethany have been there every time, the other members have shifted.”

“Speaking of Bethany...”

“She has to move on. She knows it. I know it. She gave Tom a copy of her book. If he can accept her rape and the abortion, she’ll probably invite him to stay the night. Nicholas likes him, and that’s the main consideration at this point.”

“A male influence in his life?”

“One who can be there and read to him the way I did on Sunday night. That was actually the most intimate thing that happened at Bethany’s.”

Kara laughed, “Only Steve Adams would think reading Go, Dog. Go! to a four-year-old was more intimate that making love to that four-year-old’s mother!”

“Let me ask you this,” I said. “Now that Michelle is at the monastery and I don’t have my chats with her, what’s the most intimate thing that goes on in this house?”

Kara smiled, “The twenty minutes or so you spend with your Pumpkin in the morning when she cuddles with you while you read the newspaper.”

“Yes. And the talking I did with Bethany after each time was the intimacy I needed.”

“That does fit your pattern with Jennifer, Bethany, Elyse, and me. I never saw that with Jessica, though.”

“I know. That’s part of the problem,” I said. “And maybe that’s a solution I hadn’t thought of. Kara, how much do you love me?”

Kara giggled, “Enough to tell you to go to St. Martin with eight eighteen-year-old girls who want you to fuck them silly!”

I laughed, “Fair enough. But I’m serious.”

“What are you asking?”

“I’m going to ask for something that is so out of line that if you say ‘no’ to it, I won’t argue with you, I’ll simply accept your answer.”

“What?” she asked apprehensively.

“What if I move in with Jessica for a couple of weeks? Just Jessica and me.”

Kara stopped, looking at me and took a deep breath.

“I don’t know, Snuggle Bear. It’s one thing for you to be gone because you’re traveling for work, or even to Japan. It’s another thing for you to be gone but still be here.”

“What if that brings her home?”

“And what if you decide you don’t want me?” Kara asked nervously, fighting back tears. “Or she makes you choose?”

I hugged her more tightly to me, and stroked her cheek and hair.

“The first one will never happen,” I said soothingly. “It’s impossible. As for the second one, if she makes a demand like that, I’ll pack my things, say ‘goodbye’, and walk out of her life forever. She can choke on the marriage certificate at that point, for all I care. You and I come as a pair, Kara. Period. Maybe it was a bad suggestion. In fact, forget I said anything.”

“I see your point, but it’s scary for me. And what about the kids?”

“Part of the deal would be coming to the family dinner, and I’d come by the house each day.”

“The kids will be very confused, and very worried. And what will Birgit say?”

“If I tell Birgit I’m trying to get Mommy to come home, she’ll support me.”

“She’d support you no matter what you did!” Kara laughed. “But yes, she’s told me she’s very sad that Mommy isn’t living here.”

“Jesse was pretty blunt that I should simply tell her to come home. He suggested I take away TV for a week as punishment!”

Kara giggled, “She doesn’t have a Game Boy!”

“Exactly.”

“May I think about it?”

“Of course, Honey!”

“Good. Now, would you please make love to me?”

She didn’t have to ask twice. Well, that wasn’t quite true. She asked for a second time after the first.

April 30, 1993, Chicago, Illinois

Samantha and I were cuddling after making love on Friday night.

“I need your help with something,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“I have a plan to bring Jess home. Or at least to try to get her to come home.”

I explained what I’d planned, as well as what I’d suggested to Kara as a possible solution. Samantha listened without asking any questions. When I finished I fell silent and waited for her to respond.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea to do that,” she said.

“Any of it?” I asked.

“Sorry, I meant me be involved.”

“Will you tell me why?”

She was quiet for a bit, then took a couple of deep breaths that told me she had something to tell me.

“I was going to tell you this just before we left for St. Martin, but I think I need to tell you now. I plan to move into the dorms in the fall as you suggested. I think you’re right and that I need to have a normal college experience.”

“I’m really glad to hear that. Remember, I promised that wouldn’t change anything between us.”

She took another deep breath and let it out.

“There’s something else. Once I move into the dorms in August, I want you to be my dad and mentor, not my lover.”

With everything that had happened, that actually didn’t surprise me. It made perfect sense. There was no chance of any kind of relationship with her biological father who was going to jail for at least twenty years, even with a favorable plea bargain. I knew her original decision of ‘lover versus dad’ had been a very close thing, and I wasn’t completely sure what had pushed her one way or the other. But I had my suspicions.

“I promise not to get upset, no matter what your answer is, but did you plan this from the beginning?”

“No. That day in the hayloft, the plan was exactly as I said. I would be your long-term mistress and you would be my mentor. But things changed because of what happened with Lisa and Jeri. When you and I had the negotiation and I had to decide one way or the other, it was really touch-and-go. You are an amazing lover, but I felt a real need for a dad. In the end, my body won that argument with my mind.”

I smiled, “That happens quite often, especially with teenagers!”

“Yeah, well,” she giggled. “I was HORNY! I had NO idea what it was like until we were in the hayloft. After that? All I wanted was the endless string of orgasms you gave me! It kind of clouded my judgment!”

I chuckled, “I know the feeling.”

“Anyway, over the last year I’ve learned a lot from you and I realized that what I need from you is NOT an endless string of orgasms, but lessons on how to live my life. Advice. Guidance. As we discussed in the sauna that day when we agreed to be partners.”

“You’ve become an adult,” I said.

“Not quite. I’m WORKING on becoming an adult. And you’ll help me get there.”

“So August?” I asked.

“Unless...”

“Unless what?”

“You’ll let me live here as your daughter until then. Starting after we come back from St. Martin.”

I laughed, “You don’t want to miss out on joining the Mile-High Club with me?”

Samantha moved on top of me and stretched out. I wrapped my arms tightly around her.

“No, I don’t! I want that to be with you. You’ve had all my other firsts!”

“I’d be honored. And yes, once we come home, we can change our relationship. I always expected it to change at some point. I just wasn’t sure when.”

“Good. You are going to have SO much fun on that trip,” she giggled.

“With you? Yes. I’m not sure about anything else. I hope you didn’t make any promises.”

“I didn’t. Not even to Ellie, and you’ve been with her.”

“Good. I’m going to miss this!”

“Me too, but I think we both agree our lifestyles won’t be compatible long-term. You told me, last April, that my lifestyle would create too many conflicts. As President of Spurgeon Capital, there are things I’ll need to do, people I’ll need to be with, and places I’ll need to go which you simply can’t abide. I’ve seen it in everything that happened with the Foundation. You simply don’t want to be around those situations. And that’s fine, because to pull you into those situations would hurt you, which I would never want to do. But we’re going to be partners in crime, Mr. Adams!”

I chuckled, “As long as you mean legal business deals, you’re on, Ms. Spurgeon!”

“What about having a loving dad and family?”

“I think we can overlook your bad behavior in the business world,” I chuckled. “Just remember how we live and respect that, and we’ll be fine.”