Chapter 7

Alicia jumped into my arms and gave me a huge hug, followed by a very tongue-filled kiss!

"Oh, Sweetheart, thank you! This trip means so much to me! And I just know that Daddy will listen and agree if you support me when I ask him; and if you speak to him on my behalf!" my true love said to me as I held her. "Are you okay, Honey? Your eyes look like they are dilating or something."

I looked back at Alicia and slowly she came into clear view. I took a few seconds to get my head around where I was simply by leaning down and kissing her again. As I looked around, I could see that she and I were in my office at her father's company. She had rarely come there, not wanting to flaunt her relationship with me in front of her father early on in our relationship.

It now clicked as to 'when' this was. This was only just over a month-and-a-half after the Spring Dance her senior year in high school, at which we had finally clicked. The following week, her father had warned me not to get any ideas about starting any kind of serious relationship with his younger daughter--after all, he had plans for her. As I have already related, Alicia and I had continued seeing each other, despite her father's admonitions; deepening our relationship into one that showed signs of true love.

The 'last' time through, I had had no balls whatsoever when in the presence of J. Carter Thompson, and I had succumbed to that awesome personal presence of his in the conversation to come in just a few minutes' time. This was the event involving the final request by Alicia to be allowed to work with her friend in Africa for the month of June and part of July between high school graduation and the start of college in the fall.

Although I had promised Alicia that I would support her request, in that 'other' existence, I had caved and agreed with her father before the meeting was over that maybe it was not in her best interest. It had taken me almost four weeks of apologizing and begging afterward before she would even go out with me simply for a lunch meeting; much less a date.

Thankfully, that lunch date had caused the healing process in our relationship to begin. And, before the summer had been halfway over, we had truly become an 'item.' And we had become fully engaged in all manner of sexual activities as well; all leading up to that awful night at her house...

Enough! Let's take one event at a time here!

As we entered her father's office together this time, J. Carter Thompson looked up and smiled at Alicia like a loving father. Then he scowled at me, like a loving father trying to protect this daughter from some lower life form.

"Well, Sweetheart," Thompson said as he turned back to Alicia and began smiling again. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit by my darling daughter?"

"Oh, Daddy," Alicia said sweetly. "I know that you said before that you did not want me traipsing all over 'Hell and half of Africa, ' as you put it. But this is such a worthwhile trip; they really need volunteer help over there. And the deadline for my telling Marsha whether I can go with her is coming up and I really need to know whether or not I can go. Pleeeeeeeasse, Daddy?" She said this with all the sweetness of a manipulative daughter to her loving father--of course, aren't they all?

"Sugar," began J. Carter Thompson, "I just don't know about that. I mean; what if something were to happen to you over there? You know that Africa can be a dangerous place."

"Daddy," Alicia replied, "I know that you don't want me to be harmed, any more than I want for you to have to worry about that. I have gone online and checked out both the fact sheets about Kenya posted there by the CIA and State Department--Kenya is where we will be working with the Doctors Without Borders. And where we will be is actually safer than shopping in downtown Atlanta in the evening."

Thompson was well known to be a hard case negotiator--except with his daughters. In the cases of both of his daughters, Francine and Alicia, he was simply a pushover if they pressed him. This time, he did the same thing that he had done in that previous time line. He turned his fearful countenance on me and tried to get me to be the bad guy.

"What do you think about all this Africa nonsense, Chandler?" he asked me with a growl and a frown--daring me to come down on Alicia's side and cause him to have to yield to his daughter's influence.

Was he surprised this time!

"I think that a trip such as this can only be viewed as educational, eye-opening, informative, and helpful in the larger sense of aiding the relief organization with which she will be serving, and for her own personal development. How could Alicia NOT get a better outlook on life by taking this outstanding once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?" Thompson looked at me in shock and anger. Alicia looked at me with nothing short of adoration.

"I say that she should go for it with all the gusto she can!" I finished, looking as relaxed as possible.

And that was pretty possible indeed; now that it had finally appeared that I was capable of growing a set of balls.

Regardless of the outcome of this meeting for my career, I had no reservations about what I had just said. I had meant it, and I cared too much for Alicia to see her denied this opportunity, even though I would miss her terribly and worry about her while she was gone.

Alicia squealed in delight and hugged me as she jumped up and down next to me, causing me to rise and fall a bit with her movements.

J. Carter Thompson did NOT squeal with delight. He fixed me with a death stare--until Alicia let me go and then turned to give him a hug as well. That was when he smiled at her and nodded to her; and, with those indicators, she knew that her upcoming trip to Kenya was now a done deal.

After Alicia had left--but not before she had given me a toe-curling kiss when no one could see us--I got called back into Thompson's office to get the obligatory ass-reaming for my daring to give him the wrong answer in response to his 'obviously rhetorical' question in front of his daughter. It lasted about five minutes before he shooed me out of there with a warning not to cross him again.

"Isn't it gorgeous?" Alicia asked me, when she got back from her trip to Kenya.

I met Alicia as she emerged from the escalator leading up from the airport rail tram tunnel that had brought her from the E Concourse, which was all the way out at the far side of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. That was where all the international flights arrived so that everyone arriving directly into Atlanta from overseas could go through customs. In the case of Alicia's flight, though, the passengers had already cleared customs at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC.

For having been traveling for over twenty-seven hours, Alicia still looked wonderful. Mrs. Thompson, Alicia's mother, had gotten the first hug from Alicia when she came up the escalator, naturally. Then Mrs. Thompson had looked on with mild dismay at her daughter's public display of affection for me--a lowly employee of her husband's business, no less--in the form of Alicia's giving me a soul-searing, toe-curling, nuclear-powered kiss, complete with tongue!

Alicia's journey back to 'the world' had taken her from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya to Hartsfield-Jackson here in Atlanta by way of Zurich and then Dulles. She had left Kenya at 11:25 PM yesterday evening and had arrived in Atlanta the next evening--today--at 6:43 PM, after a trip that included a 3-1/2 hour layover in Zurich and just over an hour layover in DC. Her total travel time, not including the initial ride to Kenyatta Airport on a very rickety diesel-smelling bus, had been of just over twenty-six-and-a-half hours.

Despite her obvious fatigue, she looked and felt wonderful in my arms. Now she backed off and was showing me her pendant. It was a single stone in a beautiful setting on a silver chain around her neck.

"I got this from a Kenyan lady who had sought refuge with the MSF to keep from being mutilated." Alicia shuddered when she thought about what she had experienced over there. She went on to tell me briefly that MSF, or Médecins Sans Frontières, the French term that was used as the official name for the organization we in the U.S. called Doctors Without Borders, had offered shelter to many Kenyan women threatened by genital mutilation, a horrible practice that was--and still is, unfortunately--very common among some tribes in Kenya.

Alicia had befriended one of those ladies sheltering with MSF, and the Kenyan woman had gifted Alicia with a chain that contained what the woman had called a Bahati stone. I shivered at how similar that sounded to my own situation with the Nasiib stone, which I still wore in the bracelet on my left hand--the hand that had been tempted to drift toward Alicia's deliciously rounded ass before I realized that Mrs. Thompson was still watching me closely with at least a tiny bit of disapproval.

"Well," I said to Alicia with a final quick kiss to her lips, "you need to get home with your momma and get settled. After you have caught up with your family a bit..." I glanced at Mrs. Thompson and smiled, hoping to have won a couple of points with that comment--no such luck, "we can see about maybe getting together soon for lunch or something." With the eye that Mrs. Thompson could not see, I winked slowly at Alicia.

Alicia grinned at me and said, "We'll just have to see about having you come on out to the house to stay for a weekend, Sugah! Lunch is just so ... so ... I don't know; tacky, I guess, since we mean so much more to each other now. I just think that you need to come on out and let me show you off to my family a bit more officially ... as my boyfriend. What do you think?"

I was floored! This was turning out to be version one-point-five of the scenario that had led to my emotional and relational demise in my 'other' time line. Could I make the necessary corrections this time to keep disaster from happening?

This time, I felt courageous enough to face it head on, though. Hell, yeah, I would go! And I would fight for Alicia and for my relationship with her this time with all I had in my power. And, if I were strong enough emotionally, and careful enough, I could pull it off.

We would just have to see!

Yeah--sigh--Francine had been playing up the friendly role all week long in the days leading up to my visit to the Thompson household for Alicia's big announcement that I was officially her boyfriend. That part was no different from before--indicating that Francine was working herself up for her big play.

What WAS different this time was the fact that I was a bit forewarned of what Francine had in mind; along with my own newly well-developed attitude about how to face things with a firm approach to self-preservation and self-interest. This time, I was not going to be saddled with the wrong sister, just as Jacob had been strapped with Leah in that Old Testament Bible story. Alicia was the sister that I intended to end up spending the rest of my life with; NOT Francine.

And I was definitely NOT going to end up raising the bastard children of Steadman Carstairs in this lifetime! I would still love 'my girls, ' but maybe as a loving uncle rather that as 'Daddy.'

I couldn't help it. I would always have a special place in my heart for the dear, sweet memory of my daughters. Chelsea and Gracie were still very special to me, even if they had been sired by someone else in that 'other' existence, and even if they had not yet been born in 'this' existence.

Friday evening, I arrived at the Thompson home with a better plan than I'd had the previous time. In 'that' time, I had let events control me. Not this time!

I had triple-checked that I had packed everything I would need for my weekend stay--including actually feeling the Nasiib stone bracelet on my left wrist multiple times to ensure that I still had it. I did not believe that I would require its services in order to regress to another 'peaceful place' but I wanted to be ready for anything.

Alicia must have been watching for me, since she dashed out of the house to greet me as I was pulling my case for the weekend out of the trunk; jumping into my arms to give me a huge hug and kiss--all very un-lady-like behavior for a debutante among the society elites of Stone Mountain!

Alicia brought me inside and allowed me just enough time to offer greetings to Mrs. Thompson before leading me upstairs. She had me thoroughly ensconced in the guest room and was giving me a very nice kiss within about five minutes of my arrival at her home.

I was a bit earlier in my arrival this time, since Mr. Thompson and Francine did not arrive until later in the afternoon. Alicia's dad simply shook my hand and acknowledged my presence without making any more of it than he had to. Francine started in on the doe-eyed looks, just as she had in that 'other' time line--I simply smiled without offering any sign of encouragement to Francine, but remained alert.

Early evening went as it had before. We had dinner, accompanied by the all-important conversation, whereby a couple of things were emphasized. Alicia was determined that her family be clear in their minds that she was choosing me to be her boyfriend. Mr. Thompson was voicing his pushback at that idea by pointing out the inappropriateness of an employee's being in that role, and Alicia's need to face up to society's expectations of a young lady in her position--THAT got her back up. Mrs. Thompson was only interjecting every now and then, trying to walk the fine line of being supportive of her daughter as an emerging adult, but not disagreeing openly and completely with her husband's wishes. Francine simply gave me the odd smiles and remained silent, except for the occasional, 'Would you please pass... ' request during the meal.

My contribution to the conversation may have surprised Alicia's parents, but they appeared to have no effect on Francine--after all, I knew that she had her own agenda for this evening. After the family members had voiced their opinions, I took advantage of a short lull and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, I need to let all y'all know that I have developed very strong feelings for Alicia." My girl beamed at me and scooted her chair a bit closer to my left side as I continued.

"In fact, I am reasonably sure that I am thoroughly in love with Alicia. While I realize that we cannot make formal commitments to anything more than a relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend until she completes her season of education, I see no reason not to predict that we have a very good likelihood of spending the rest of our lives together." With that pronouncement, I could see the Thompsons widen their eyes in surprise and note that Francine's strange smile began to falter a bit.

Mr. Thompson glanced at Francine and the two of them locked eyes in some sort of silent communication for a few seconds. Mrs. Thompson, while not overjoyed at what I said, broke the stalemate of the moment by suggesting that we retire from the dining area for after-dinner drinks; also, I could tell that she was holding back on some of what she was meaning to say and what she was actually feeling.

I was paying more attention now. I watched as Thompson nodded to Francine once we were all seated in the recreation room of the Thompson's large house, and she nodded back faintly. Francine, as before, then began to give off those 'come on' vibes in my direction as if she were trying to pick me up at a bar.

Mr. Thompson, also as before, said that he needed to get to bed so he could be fresh for golf in the morning. He again appeared to give a deliberate and hard look in Francine's direction as he left the room. Francine went to a side board and poured that damned aperitif for all the rest of us who remained. With her body shielding what she was doing, I could not tell if she added something to my drink; but I was sure that she would--based on what had happened last time this had played out.

Francine smiled strangely again as she handed me my drink. I thanked her with a smile as I placed the glass to my lips and pretended to drink. As she turned to pass the other glasses out to Alicia, sitting next to me, and her mother, sitting opposite me, I silently offered the hope that the drink I had just poured behind and below me so that the chair would shield the spill would not stain the carpet beneath it too badly.

Wrapping my hand around the small glass to disguise the absence of any liquid, I pretended to sip from it for the next few minutes. Remembering that the effects of whatever had been used on me before had taken approximately fifteen minutes, I watched the grandfather clock in the corner of the room carefully before going into my act.