Chapter 4

I walked out with Debra and asked as we exited. "How did you get them out of school?"

Debra smiled and whispered. "A little magic from the little witch."

I had to laugh at that, but the specter of Jenny and her lawyer storming past caused me to pause and think. "It could have gone against me."

"Not likely," Debra said. "Kate did her usual sloppy job of interviewing your children. She looked for the simple explanation and tried to twist words to put you in a bad light. I knew that your daughter could explode that idea in moments if she was here today."

I had to laugh. 'So Kate really doesn't know the stories of King Arthur? But how did you know? I never talked about them to you."

Debra laughed. "Kids named Morgana and Lance? I guessed right away, and you and your daughter are so comfortable with the enchantress jokes that it's pretty obvious where the name came from. At least to me, but I love literature." She looked down at my copy of the Arabian Nights that I had carried out of the courtroom. "I bet that the sex talk your wife mentioned was just you reading those stories. They do get a bit graphic."

I laughed as I blushed. "They do, but my storytelling doesn't. I know that someday Morgana will find the right person for her, but I want her to stay innocent for a couple more years."

Debra seemed to find that comment very funny, and we headed out to the parking lot. She told me not to worry too much about the trial, but that I could expect a request for marital counseling and I would be wise to accept at least three sessions.

I went home in a good mood and the mood carried over into my work on the rooms. I soon had both of the downstairs bedrooms patched and prepared for painting. I had been trying to hurry this because I wanted to bring a desk in soon. At the rate I was getting the work done, I figured a day to paint, and I would be ready to bring furniture in. However, it was time to go visit the children.

Morgana and Lance were thrilled to see me. They did insist that I make up for missing the previous day, so I ended up reading two days of tales, but their joy was so infectious that I did not mind spending time with them. The surprise was the change in Jenny.

The first couple of days after Jenny's return she was almost belligerent in her attitude. It was clear that in her mind she honestly believed that I would not obtain a divorce and the fact that I was attempting to get one made her near blind with fury. My only thought was that the words of the judge might have finally opened her eyes to the situation, because she sat quietly in one of the other chairs as I told the stories and merely watched. It was after they jumped up to run off that she finally whispered.

"Roger, we need to talk."

I looked at Jenny and sighed. "Not here and not now. You have no idea how much I hate you at the moment and we don't need another shouting match. I'm going to find a marriage counselor and you can talk in front of him if you want."

"But honey," Jenny whimpered. 'It was only sex, not love. And you weren't supposed to react like this. It was just a fling because you had some. You know I was a virgin when we married."

I groaned. 'Jenny, I said at the counselor's. Right now my emotions are too raw. Just let it be for now."

Jenny did back off and returned to silence, but I could see tears in her eyes. She seemed about to say more, but looked down and nodded. "You win. I'll wait for the counselor, but you aren't going to get a divorce. Somehow, I'll stop it."

I shook my head and went back to say goodnight to the kids before returning to my house. On the drive I considered the new and much more contrite Jenny, but the hostile one of the previous week would haunt my dreams that night.

The following week had me going to several small businesses to present my sales pitch, while continuing to put time into patching up the house. My office was now functional, and with the arrival of a new dresser I was able to stop living out of my suitcases. I was using my nightly visits back to my house to pick up one or two items each night after spending time with the children. Lance was not adjusting all that well to the situation, but Morgana seemed to understand the situation and was a font of support for both her brother and myself. Jenny obviously was still very upset, but she stayed away during our visits other than confirming that we had a joint visit to Nathan Reynolds, a marriage counselor who Debra had recommended to me, on Wednesday of the next week. I was quite surprised by how well Jenny was taking it until Friday when Morgana stayed behind after I finished my storytelling and Lance had run off to play.

"Mom is going to try some more dirty tricks," Morgana whispered.

I found myself totally unsurprised by this. "Oh? What is her plan now, little witch and how do you know?"

Morgana smiled sadly. "She's still talking to that evil lady every day. The evil lady suggested that mom invite you to a bar after the counseling and they'd drug you and put you in a hotel room with a whore."

I groaned. "Morgana, don't worry, I'll be careful. It wouldn't have worked, because right now I have no plans to see mommy more than I have to, but somehow it doesn't surprise me."

"The evil lady is really upset. Before she leaves she often calls someone on her cell phone and keeps telling them that they will have their money soon," Morgana finished, and then dashed off.

The last part made little sense, as I could not understand how Shirley was going to get any money out of Jenny. I did not want to stay though, and other than asking Jenny if I could pick up the children and keep them for the weekend, I left quickly.

The weekend proved to be very exhausting for me. Morgana and Lance were thrilled that a pool specialist had visited and cleaned up the pool, getting it ready for use. Morgana was tall enough to stand in the shallow end, but I ended up spending a couple hours reviewing the children's swim lessons before engaging in a wet game of Marco Polo. Both children had brought sleeping bags and insisted on using the rooms that would be theirs in the future, despite the fact that I had not gotten to that floor to fix up anything, something they both insisted on helping with. When I returned the two to Jenny on Sunday afternoon, they were smiling but exhausted. They tried to tell their mother about all the fun they had, but she waved them inside and looked at me.

"Do I get a weekend with them? Or are you going to take that away from me?" she hissed.

"I live too far away from their school to have them during the week, but if you want them every other weekend for now, I'll accept that," I said with a shrug.

Jenny looked daggers at me. 'I want them and you every weekend. Not this fake half family I have now. And I'm going to get you back. You won't divorce me. I've made sure of that."

I found myself shaking my head as Jenny continued to rant at me. "Jenny, if you want to save this marriage you'd do better to find a reason for me to forgive you, rather than work to frighten me out of the divorce.

Jenny gave a near hysterical laugh. "You'll never get another date once you leave me. You'll be all alone, and the kids won't be enough. You'll crawl on your knees begging met to take you back, and you know what. I'll be having fun, just like I did last night."

I think Jenny realized she had said too much because her face turned white and she rushed back into the house. I again shook my head and returned to my car, thinking of the busy week ahead.

Monday, I had several sales calls, but the last one proved to be rather enlightening. I was paying a call to Justin, and he had insisted that the meeting be at his home so his wife and daughters could be there. There was considerable reluctance on my part to deal with his family, but he had been very adamant, and in the end I agreed to attend.

When I arrived Justin's two daughters, Cathy and Patricia, warmly greeted me. "Call us Cat and Pat," had been their original greeting to me the previous year, and they continued to flirt and tease me every time I visited. They now both attended high school, and usually quite open in practicing their flirting on me, but tonight they were almost formal in their greetings and surprisingly mature. I followed them into the dining room to find Justin's wife, Ginger putting the finishing touches on a fine dinner of beef and potatoes.

"It's the least we can do for the man who finally brought Bill the Bull down," Ginger said when I expressed a bit of surprise. She always seemed to be intimately connected to any rumor of sex or scandal in town. Justin once told me she gossiped better than any postman.

"More like Bill the Bullshitter," Justin said, earning a dirty look from his wife, and giggles from his two daughters. "That man would say anything if he thought it brought him what he wanted, and usually that was a wet pussy."

I sighed. "I know. I should never have stayed with him, but I never thought he'd turn into the complete ass he became."

"I know you remember him from high school. I heard he was a bit of an outcast in the social circles back then. The problem was that the money he was earning definitely went to his head. He started to believe that he could get any girl into bed," Justin replied. "That's part of why I insisted that you represent his stores. You are safe for Cat and Pat to flirt with, while Bill might have taken their flirting a bit too seriously."

I looked at his two daughters, who were smiling cheerfully at the conversation. "I can't argue with most of that. I always told the accounts I called on to avoid letting Bill meet wives and girlfriends because of his habits."

"I know," Justin replied. "Most of the smaller distributors in the area talked about how you did things like that. Most of the deals Bill received were thanks to your reputation, because he didn't have a very good one."

"Every deal but the last one," I muttered.

Ginger sighed. "Roger, Bill had been planning that for ages. And everyone knew that Victor wanted to have a go at Jenny. Most of us were surprised he waited as long as he did."

"What?" I snapped in surprise, seeing Justin nod.

"Victor wasn't the only one who was on the list," Justin said sadly. "Bill had told most of the accounts he regularly called on that someday he would be bringing Jenny around to service them. They ate it up, but it did mean he actually paid more for his goods than Seb does."

I groaned. "It just keeps getting better and better. But it now sounds like Bill and Shirley were working together."

Ginger sighed. "They weren't. Bill just saw Jenny out with Shirley that night and took advantage of the opportunity. I'm not quite sure why Shirley is trying to slut out Jenny, but I do know that Shirley made money during that weekend in San Diego."

"She what?!" I shouted.

"Those men were paying Shirley for the weekend, and they paid for the ticket your wife used to fly out there with her. I've also heard that Shirley had other men meet them out there, but the number of men involved isn't clear," Ginger continued. "One of the men involved was bragging about it at a show we went to this weekend. He didn't name who he was with, but the description fits the rumors that were flying about Shirley and your wife."

This latest revelation shocked me into silence, and dinner after that was a quiet affair. Afterwards I spent more than an hour going over some of the marketing ideas I had for the products Justin distributed. He had taken some fruit and nut bars his wife loved to cook and developed them into a small line of healthy snack and energy bars. Bill had carried them because he was too small to interest any of the larger distributors and the bars had become a very popular option. Justin wanted to get out of the small convenience stores, but needed ideas and marketing help. I had developed a program that would put his bars in front of people at exercise clubs and certain events. The idea was to build up a customer base in the community and use that to draw interest from some of the larger stores. Justin loved the idea. Cat and Pat joined in the meeting and suggested several high school events, which might serve the purpose going forward.

I left with a signed contract to provide the marketing help for Justin's expansion, and another worry about Jenny.

My hard work at developing marketing plans was bearing fruit and I was now finding that some companies were calling me, having heard of my skills through other business owners. I was fielding so many calls on Tuesday that I barely found time for lunch and soon realized that I was going to be busy for the next three weeks developing initial presentations and meeting with clients. It was a welcome change as I had little time to worry about Jenny or her actions. In fact other than a short conversation with Debra on Tuesday morning, when she reported that Jenny was challenging my proposed settlement, and had offered a clearly unacceptable one, I had not worried about her at all until it was time to attend the marriage counselor Wednesday night.

I was over at what I now considered Jenny's house after my afternoon of storytelling and play with Morgana and Lance. Jenny had politicked me for a moment in an attempt to get me to agree to drive to the counselor with her, but eventually agreed that we should take separate cars. I worried a bit about the kids until about ten minutes before we were to leave when someone knocked at the door. I allowed Jenny to answer, and was shocked a moment later when Maria walked in.

"I couldn't find anyone, and then Morgana suggested her," my wife said as I sat there in shock. Jenny returned to preparing to leave as Maria quickly organized the evening for the kids.

"You?" I asked as Jenny returned to the bedroom. "I can't imagine Jenny inviting you, she had to have seen you at the courthouse."

Maria laughed. "Jenny only saw you that day. I don't think she noticed much of anything."

"But how did you get invited to babysit? I'd have expected Jenny to ask one of her regulars," I asked.

Morgana who was standing there listening laughed. "I bribed them not to come. You owe me for this one dad."

"The little witch," I muttered. I decided that I wanted to arrive early to complete any paperwork and left, giving Morgana and Lance hugs.

The office for Nathan Reynolds was a bit bare of adornment, but had a professional atmosphere. His secretary was extremely efficient and with her help I soon had all the admittance paperwork completed just as Jenny arrived.

We entered his private chambers and found him sitting in a comfortable chair. There were two chairs just in front of his and positioned so that the occupants would be able to see both Nathan and the other party. He quickly waved us to the chairs, waiting while we took our seats.

"Welcome," Nathan began once we took our seats. "I understand that this counseling has begun only after divorce has been filed for. Now I need you both to understand that while my job is to put the marriage back together where possible, it won't be possible if you engage in pointless anger."

Jenny all but snarled. "This marriage should never been broken. It's all Roger's fault."

Nathan removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That is exactly the kind of anger that will make this much more difficult."

Jenny subsided, but her glances towards me were full of fury. I was trying to remain quiet and pay attention to Mr. Reynolds. He waited a few moments to make sure that Jenny had calmed down before continuing.

Nathan looked back and forth between both of us. "I don't know the complete story. But let me explain how this is supposed to work. I'm here to act as a facilitator so that you two can hopefully resolve whatever differences brought you to divorce court. The success or failure of this process is in your hands. Now Mrs. Vinson, I'm can hear that you do not want the marriage to fail, but anger about it will not repair it."

"It's not broken," Jenny hissed. "Roger just decided that it wasn't convenient anymore."

Nathan looked at me and I shrugged. "My reasons for wanting out were rather basic. Jenny appears to have decided that she can have affairs and I have to accept them and stay married to her."