Chapter 22

Shauna and I stayed in the hotel suite for the weekend. In fact, we hardly left it. We were too busy getting to know each other again. The two days passed in a haze of lovemaking. When we weren't actually engaged in sex, we were usually cuddling or holding hands. I couldn't get enough of my wonderful girl, and she seemed to feel the same way about me.

We were tempted to prolong our stay in Toronto but felt that we should get home. We both needed our home. So we decided to fly to Ottawa on Monday morning. I'd pre-ordered our breakfast the night before. Promptly at 7:00, as per order, the doorbell rang. I pulled on my pants and groggily answered the door. The waiter wheeled his cart into the dining room and began to set the table. I reached for my wallet to get his tip. There was nothing in my pocket. Of course, the wallet was on my night stand. I'd have to go back and get it. When I passed the waiter, I saw that he was looking in the direction of the bedroom. Staring, actually. I wondered what was so interesting. I followed his gaze and looked through the bedroom door.

When I'd left her, Shauna was been sleeping on her left side. In the meantime, she'd turned over. Her left arm had taken the covers with it when she'd turned. We'd been sleeping nude, and her back was completely exposed. She lay on her right side, her right leg straight beneath her and her left leg bent. Even the red curls between her legs were clearly visible. The waiter cleverly worked his way around the table toward the bedroom door. He wanted to get closer and perhaps see a bit more of my lady.

I continued into the bedroom. I bent over the bed and covered Shauna with the blanket. She turned her head and smiled at me. "Good morning, darling," she said sleepily. Then she saw the waiter. Instantly she was awake. Shauna looked down at herself and pulled the blanket closely around her. She asked, "Did he..." I nodded.

I picked up my wallet and returned to the dining room. I gave the red-faced waiter a very good tip. He thanked me profusely and left the suite.

When I returned to the bedroom, Shauna was sitting up. "Oh my God," she said, "how much did he see?"

"Enough," I said. "Let me put it this way: your gender was in no doubt."

Shauna blushed beet red. I sat beside her, put my arms around her and gave her a kiss. My hands wandered over her naked body. When I reached her sex, I was pleasantly surprised to find her extremely wet. I couldn't help thinking that she'd been turned on by her unintentional exhibitionism. She grinned at me. "I think that breakfast can wait a few minutes," she said.

"Why Ms. Cake, whatever do you mean?"

"If you'll replace that hand between my legs with a more useful part of your anatomy, I think that I can make my meaning very clear," she said.

I dropped my pants and joined her on the bed. Shauna rolled me onto my back and straddled me. She guided my erection into her moist tunnel. She looked up at the ceiling and moaned. I very nearly came right at that moment, but I desperately wanted to postpone my orgasm to coincide with Shauna's. Fortunately, I didn't have long to wait. She was very aroused. She came with a moaning sigh just as I exploded into her. My darling collapsed on my chest. I lovingly stroked her hair while she got her breath.

"Now I believe someone said something about breakfast," she said.

After breakfast, we showered, got dressed and packed our stuff. Shauna went over to her old apartment. Robin helped her pack up more of her clothes. After this trip, Shauna would be pretty well moved in to the Ottawa house. There was the matter of her car, but we'd take care of that in the future. Robin had even volunteered to drive the Honda to Ottawa. Of course, she'd be more than welcome to stay at our house. So we tentatively agreed with that plan.

We flew to Ottawa later Monday morning. My usual cabby drove us home and helped carry Shauna's bags upstairs. I left her to unpack while I went to check my phone and email messages. Most of the messages could easily wait, but there were three messages from a lawyer in Toronto. He wanted to meet with me ASAP to discuss Moe's will. I called him right away. A cheerful female voice answered the phone. "Goldfarb and associates," she said.

"This is Pat Connolly. I'm returning Mr. Goldfarb's calls. Could I speak to him?"

"Yes, Mr. Connolly. Mr. Goldfarb asked me to put you through immediately if you called. Please hold while I transfer your call."

After only a few moments, a man's voice said, "Jerome Goldfarb here. Thanks for calling me, Mr. Connolly."

"I'm sorry that it took so long. I was actually in Toronto for a few days."

"That's a pity. We could have met while you were here. As it is, I'm afraid that I have to ask you to come back to Toronto as soon as possible. It concerns the estate of the late Maurice Casselman. I was Mr. Casselman's lawyer. And his friend, I might add. I need to explain to you the terms of the will. Then we need to discuss the disposition of the estate."

"I believe that I understand most of the terms of the will, Mr. Goldfarb. I have the original. I'll be happy to meet with you on Wednesday. Would that be possible."

"Yes, certainly. How's one o'clock Wednesday afternoon?"

"That should be fine. I'll confirm that when I've had a chance to talk to my fiancée. Mr. Goldfarb, Moe Casselman spoke of you often. I almost feel that I already know you. Would you consider continuing to act for the estate?"

"I'd be honoured. By the way, Moe also talked to me about you often. As you said, it's almost as if we know each other. I saw you at the funeral, of course, when you said Kaddish. You said it most eloquently, I must say. Your love for Moe was obvious in every line. At that point, I didn't feel comfortable in talking to you. Now is our opportunity. So please call me 'Jerry.'"

"Thanks, Jerry. And I'm Pat. Unless you hear otherwise I'll see you Wednesday."

"See you then, Pat. My office is in the Toronto Dominion Centre. The security desk will tell you how to get here. And please bring the original will. We'll need it."

I hung up and heaved a sigh. Jerry Goldfarb seemed a decent sort of chap, but I wasn't looking forward to our meeting. Since I was Moe's executor, I'd known that I'd have to confront the reality of looking after his estate sooner or later. I'd just hoped that it would be later.

I heard something in the hall. It sounded like crying. There was Shauna, standing in front of Carole's self portrait. Tears were streaming down her face. "Little love, please don't cry. What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. Nothing at all. It's just that I thought I'd never see this beautiful picture again. I thought I'd never even see this house again. I'm just so happy to be home. I've told you before, sometimes girls cry when they're happy."

I took her in my arms. "In that case, I hope you have a lot to cry about from now on. Welcome home, little love."

We went into the library and sat on the chesterfield. I held Shauna and kissed her. She said, "Do you remember my first night here? We had our first kiss in this exact same place."

"Yes, darling, I remember. Do you remember the snowy evening when we made love in front of the fire?"

She looked at me with a little grin. "Could we have a fire tonight?"

"Of course, my love. By all means. Now, I have to tell you about my phone call."

I explained the need to return to Toronto. Shauna thought it would be a great idea to come with me. She could pick up some more of her stuff while I met with the lawyer. I got on the Air Canada website and booked our tickets. We'd fly to Toronto Wednesday morning and be home in time for supper.

It was getting to be lunch time. Shauna asked to go to the Green Valley, since she had such pleasant memories of it. I called and made the reservation. Then I called the Lexus dealer. After lunch, we'd go there to pick out a new car. With any luck, the orange monster's days would be numbered.

At the Green Valley, we were shown to my usual table by the window. Since it was a Monday, the lunch crowd was a bit small. But as luck would have it, the first person I saw was Jean-François Ménard, the possessor of both the worst comb-over and the most lascivious leer on earth. He smiled and nodded. I nodded back in recognition. He leered at Shauna, and she blushed.

"There's that awful guy again," she said. "Oh no, here he comes."

Jean-François came over to our table. I stood and shook his hand. "Jean-François, I'd like you to meet my fiancée, Shauna Cake."

"Enchanté, mademoiselle," he said. "Pat, you surprise me. How long have you been engaged?"

"This is the third day, and it feels better all the time."

"Félicitations," he said, "Pat, I have a need to see you soon. You know that I am no whistle-blower, but there are things happening that you should know about. Could we meet at your office tomorrow sometime?"

"Well, I wasn't planning to go to the office, but sure, we could get together. How about lunch?"

"No. In view of what I must tell you, it would not be good for us to be seen socializing."

"OK, we'll meet at my office. What time?"

Jean-François took his Palm Pilot from his pocket. He consulted it and said, "I have a meeting with the minister in the morning. However, the afternoon is free."

"All right. Let's meet after lunch. How's two o'clock?"

"Parfait. À demain!"

Jean-François returned to his table and his floozy du jour. I sat down and took a drink of water. Shauna looked at me with a very serious expression. "What was that about," she said.

"Shauna, I have no idea. I've know Jean-François for years. We've hung out together off and on. He's always been a good source of information, but he's never volunteered to talk before."

"What does he do?"

"He's a high-ranking civil servant -- a deputy minister of Employment and Immigration."

"Jesus. This could be about something big."

"That's what I think. There's something about to happen, and Jean-François is looking to cover his ass when the shit hits the fan."

"Do you think it's something illegal?"

"It could easily be. At the very least, you can bet there's something unethical going on. And if Jean-François is scared enough to talk, it has to be at a very high level. Anyway, it's no good speculating. Tomorrow, all will be known. So let's forget about it and enjoy our afternoon. By the way, have I told you today that I love you?"

Shauna pursed her lips. "Yes," she said, "if I remember correctly you've told me at least a hundred times since we woke up. But I'd like to hear it again."

"I love you," I said. "I love you more than I can ever say."

"And I love you. God Pat, I'm so happy!"

"You're not going to cry, are you?"

She smiled. "No," she said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to embarrass you in public."

"Do you mean like the time in this very restaurant when you grabbed my dick under the table?"

Shauna laughed. "Oh my God! I wish you could have seen yourself. The expression on your face was priceless."

"Let's see. Was it anything like this?" I quickly slid my hand up her skirt. Shauna yelped loudly. Every head in the room turned toward us.

"You bastard," she said.

"Excuse me, are you ready to order?" There was a waiter standing beside me. I wondered if he'd seen the whole thing.

"Give us a few more minutes," I said. The waiter left.

Shauna glared at me. She was doing her best to look angry, but in a few moments she grinned and started snickering. Soon, we were both laughing helplessly. People were staring at us again, but we didn't give a damn.

After lunch, we drove to the Lexus dealer. The receptionist immediately showed us into the sales manager's office. The sales manager shook our hands. "I'm prepared to offer you an exact replacement for your car," he said. "Would you like to see the vehicles we have in stock?" Shauna and I followed him through the showroom. There were three ES300s, blue, silver and black. The black one appealed to me. Shauna agreed that it was very nice, but I could see that she had eyes only for the red SC430 sports car sitting next to it. It was a beautiful thing, but it was also nearly ninety thousand dollars.

I put my arm around her. "I see what you're looking at. It's lovely. It's fast. It's luxurious. It's also ridiculously impractical. And it's fiendishly expensive. I'll tell you what, I'll buy it for you just as soon as I get rich."

Shauna laughed. "You're right," she said. "Let's take the black sedan."

We went back into the sales manager's office. He got out the paper work on the black car. It had many more options than my old car, including a very fancy Mark Levinson stereo, adaptive suspension (what the hell ever that was) and all kinds of other stuff. It was about seven grand more than I'd paid for the original car. I blanched at that, but the sales dude offered to cut the difference by a couple thousand. What the hell? You only live once. I signed the paper work, and we drove home in the orange monster, hopefully for the last time.

Shauna said, "I can't believe this. Last Friday I was miserable. Now, it's Monday and so much has changed. I'm engaged to the man I love. We have our beautiful home, and in a few days we're going to pick up a brand new car. I'm the luckiest girl in the world."

I smiled at that. "Considering the guy you're engaged to, I'd reexamine that statement," I said. "I hear that he's a real bastard."

Shauna put her hand on my thigh. "Yes, he can be," she said, "He's the sort of guy who molests women in restaurants." Her hand moved upward. She found my dick and began stroking it. "But he has his uses."

"Sweetheart, playing with you in a restaurant might be embarrassing, but playing with me while I'm driving could be life-threatening."

"Spoilsport," she said. She let go of my dick but continued to stroke my leg all the way home.

When we arrived, I drove the car into the garage with a sigh of relief. Luckily, no one could observe us from the street as we walked into the house. My erection was tenting my pants noticeably.

As we entered the house, Shauna turned to me and grinned. "I don't think that I can wait for that fire tonight."

"I hope you mean the one in the fireplace."

"Yeah. That will be very nice, but I've got my own fire right now." She stroked my erection. "And it looks like you have one as well." She took my hand and led me into the library. She began loosening my belt. "You sir, if you know what's good for you, are going to fuck me right now."