The Trust

Day 2 of 9 days

A sound night's sleep and the exciting prospect of an infusion into a waning bank account, brought me awake with a smile on my face. The sun was shining brightly, there was no wind and the livin' was easy. Nora snored softly into her pillow and I watched her for a few minutes with private pleasure over the fact that she was mine, then crept out of the room with care not to waken her.

There was no start and stop time for Nora at the law firm, she conducted meetings and made appointments according to her own extremely busy schedule. My schedule was similar except that my hours weren't all that busy, nor automatically paid for... a mere inconvenient difference.

We hooked up at odd times; it was certainly a different kind of marriage. Three and one half years into our bliss, little had been done to advance its standing. The apartment was slightly larger, there were no kids with none in the offing, and holidays if any came and went around Nora's schedule.

In spite of it all we have a solid relationship. It was an anchor we could both rely on when things dipped for any reason, and a shared past that bound us inextricably. I skimmed over past events and managed to shave around the grin without incident, shine my teeth and arrange my usually insubordinate hair into a semblance of order.

After selecting an ensemble from the remainder of my cleanest clothes, it was toast, juice, a note describing my intentions for the day, and a reaffirming of my devotion, before heading out the door.

I snapped the brim of my hat. Look out world, Christopher Wallace, private eye walks among you; my car was still in the garage because of the weird noise, and also needed gas.

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Lawrence Bravo got up from his chair and crossed to the ringing phone on his desk. Out of the beaded glass windows, he watched as the sun filtered through the trees surrounding his backyard; a pheasant crossed the leaf-strewn lawn with quick, jerky steps, disappearing into the darkening shadows.

He was going to enjoy a long weekend, and on the first day the last thing he wanted was an early morning phone call.

"Lawrence Bravo here."

"Lawrence, it's Karen."

His jaw tightened at the first name usage, replying his hello rather snappishly.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, I called the office first. They said you weren't coming in today. I thought you should know what's been happening."

"Regarding?" He read the snarkiness in her statement, and his voice remained taut, answering in kind.

Regarding? What an asshole! "Reg Devers called me. He wanted to make me a proposal regarding my relationship with Jarmon."

Lawrence breathed noisily through his nose. "Go on."

The pheasant bobbed out of the trees and began a puzzled circuit of the yard.

"He suggested that, since I was already seeing Jarmon, I should put the squeeze on him to take our relationship public before the end of the month, and earn myself a tidy sum of money."

Lawrence shuffled some papers on his desk, his mind racing to calculate the ramifications of the information. Finally, he set the papers aside. "Karen, you and I have a deal. Your part is to assure that my daughter's marriage will default the terms of the trust."

"I know that, Lawr—"

"Time is getting short, Karen. I think that what I am offering in this circumstance far outweighs anything Mr. Devers might bring to the table."