Chapter 32

William Carton hadn’t always been a player or user. But, that said, he had put the arm on Marian for ten-grand; and, as she soon learned the man had developed a greedy streak that her ex-fiancée could’ve and would’ve predicted had he known about it.

She was sitting on the patio of her fancy condo waiting for her ex-husband to show up and explain why he wasn’t going to be able to pay her back as he had vociferously guaranteed that he would. She just could not believe that she’d been so gullible; she knew the man. There was no way he was going to pay her back. Hell, she figured to have a heart attack if he showed up and did in fact pay back the money he’d conned her out of.

She heard a car, a car with a hole in the muffler she was sure, pull up outside. She rose and went to the window to check. Yep, it was him. This was going to be a meeting that she wanted and didn’t want. Talk about catch-22’s. The initial ten-grand the man had gotten out of her had just been the beginning. Shit!

It was three minutes per the clock on the mantle before he pushed the buzzer. She buzzed him in. He took a seat on the smallish gray sofa across from where Marian Carton stood.

“Yes, do have a seat, Mister Carton. And what’s the excuse this time/” she said.

“Honey, you helped me out of a jam. I tried to make it up to you. I failed, but I tried,” said William.

“You are a loser aren’t you, Mister,” she said. “Well, we have something in common in that respect. I’m every bit as big a loser as you are, different, but a loser nevertheless!”

“I’ll get it back. I promise,” he said. “Look, got any coffee?” It was 11:00 a.m. everybody needs coffee at 11:00 a.m. she thought.

“Five bucks,” she said.

“Huh?” he said.

“Five dollars for my coffee, Mister Carton, but that does include the tip,” she said.

“Five dollars for a cup of coffee and that from my wife!” he said.

“That’s what it would run you at a coffee shop these days, and it’s ex-wife,” she reminded him. He produced a five-dollar bill and she took it and headed into the kitchen.

She returned in a minute and half with a cup of the black elixir. She set it on the coffee table in front of him.

She recrossed the floor of the room and resumed her standing position facing him. So, your excuse?” she said. The man looked worried. The meeting was not going as the man had hoped, not as the last three such meetings had gone.

“I invested it and the investment failed,” he said. “It was a sure thing, but, then, in the end it wasn’t.”

“I’d ask what the name of the horse was, but knowing you, you probably wouldn’t tell me the truth anyway.”

“Marian...” he started.

“You’ve cost me a hundred and ten thousand dollars over these last months, Mister. There will be no more,” she said. She was just happy that she hadn’t let him have her sexually, had he paid her back she would have let him. She snickered, there’s an upside to everything, at least she wouldn’t have to live down that particular humiliation, puppy dog eyes notwithstanding.

“Look Marian, I have a proposition for you,” he said. She gave him a look. The man had steel balls, she thought. No conscience, but balls of hard metal for damn sure.

“Okay?” she said. She figured it, the proposition, was one of two things. Either he was going to let her in on another of his sure things, or he was going to propose marriage so he could get his hands on the rest of her money.

“I want to marry you. I love you. You love me. It’s nature,” he said. She started to laugh. He looked taken aback. “Marian...” She got control of herself.

“I’m not sure which I can say in fewer words: no marriage or no money. I guess it’s a tie if it comes to that. But anyway, it’s no to both things,” she said. “Get out!”

“Marian, I’m being sincere,” he said.

“Get the fuck out, and I mean now. I’ve learned my lesson,” she said. “Oh, and thanks for the tip.” She shooed his protesting ass out.

She got herself a cup of coffee and sat not quite ready to cry at the dinette table of her mini-condo. She’d gotten a major good deal when purchasing it, $110,000 in total. That and the one-ten her ex had ripped her off for, left her with a bit over a quarter-mil to make her way in the world. She’d be needing to get a job, somewhere. Jesus, she should have given the money back and kept her good man: water under the bridge now. She had to think.

She had heard that Julian had moved back to Bullhead. He had to quit changing addresses; it was making her dizzy. But it was his business, not hers—yet.

Bea was sitting with the kids: Jules and Juliana, seven years old and a handful. But she was also preoccupied; she had information that she wanted to share with the elder Willis’. But with Julian first? Or at all?” she had to make a decision.

She heard the front door of the mansion open, loudly. “We’re back,” announced Blake. Bea rose to intercept them. The kids were still occupied with the TV show they’d been watching.

“How were they?” said Ava, entering.

“Fine, they’re watching their favorite show,” she said. “Ava, Blake, I have some information. I want to share it and I don’t want to,” said Bea.

“Okay...” said Blake. Bea hesitated. She’d sort of made up her mind to tell Blake and Ava and not Julian unless Blake or Ava thought it would be a good idea, or at least an acceptable idea to do so.

“I have a few friends and date a few guys here in Laughlin, as you know,” she said. “One of them, a friend over in Bullhead, told me that Marian and her ex-husband might be back together. Seen ‘em at the Blue Boar.