Authors: R.D. Power
“I’m Ashley.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off hers. She, too, seemed entranced. Ashley asked a passing waitress to bring a pitcher of beer. Their conversation warmed as the beer quickly disappeared. She eagerly played the seductress, beginning the role subtly by crossing and uncrossing her long legs, slowly running her hands over them as he watched, leaning toward him to show off her cleavage, smiling at him and giggling demurely at his witticisms. By the end of the pitcher, depravity had supplanted subtlety. She was sitting next to him, almost on top of him, running her hands over his legs, smiling invitingly at him and guffawing at everything he said, whether or not it was funny.
He kept looking at the door worried Kristen would enter and see what was going on, but he was so conquered by lust, he couldn’t defend himself from Ashley. As time passed, he thought maybe she stood him up, which furnished a handy excuse for his conduct with another woman.
“Do you live near here?” she asked, breathing hard in his ear.
“Just around the block,” he answered in kind.
“Let’s go,” she commanded, as if ready to burst with desire. They drove to his house, and within minutes had begun to fulfill their mutual desires.
Meanwhile, Dominic at last dropped Kristen off at the restaurant, just before one o’clock. He declaimed, “I love you, Kristen. I’ll take you back the minute you realize what a nothing he is. My offer of marriage stands.”
She said goodbye. Not finding Robert there, she jogged over to his house. The drizzle intensified into a steady rain; the wind picked up. There being no answer at the door, she went to his window. Suspicious over heavy breathing, she anxiously went to the front door, opened it, and went to his room.
Words are powerless to convey the full depth of emotions that inundated the scene in his bedroom. Kristen was beside herself with rage, jealousy, and anguish. “You bastard!” she bellowed to her betrayer. She cried so hard she shook all over. The glare she gave to Ashley would have petrified Medusa. “How could you?” she screamed to Robert. “I hate you! I never want to see you again!”
Robert hadn’t felt this awful since he was eight years old. He had broken his oath and her heart, and wanted to cry for what he’d done. “Krissy, please!” he implored as she fled. He couldn’t follow her in his unadorned state. What could he say to her anyway? He couldn’t see her ever forgiving him this sin and felt sick for what would be the end of their relationship.
This heartrending scene brought to you by man’s unquenchable libido and his continuing struggle to satisfy it, and by woman’s unending quest to domesticate it, to placate it, and ultimately to subjugate it.
•
Ashley, feeling awkward, got dressed and left. She drove down the road a few miles to meet Dominic. “Mission accomplished,” she trumpeted, smiling at him.
“She caught the two of you in the act?” he said.
“Yes, just after one o’clock as we arranged. She ran out screaming she never wanted to see him again.” He returned the smile and gave Toronto’s most gorgeous call girl the second installment of five thousand dollars he’d promised if she succeeded. She went back to the city after a brief stop at a hotel to earn a diamond-encrusted brooch from Dominic. “See you next week at the usual time,” he said.
•
Vengeance. Even the word is ugly. Kristen had to make Robert pay for his treachery. But how? Merely leaving him wasn’t enough. He hadn’t even phoned to try to beg her forgiveness: he had determined that a cooling-off period was the best tactic, especially since he was too scared to face her. She began by erasing his rendition of “Night and Day” from her computer, proceeded to rip up all the pictures she had of him, and disposed of keepsakes she had of him—including his drawing of the island she’d found so comical yet sad. She secretly hoped he would try to win her back with the magnificent gesture of a marriage proposal on his knees, but only so she could demolish him with a decisive rebuff. She’d come full circle; she considered him unworthy of her.
But how to make him pay, really pay?
Why not?
she thought.
Accepting Dominic’s marriage proposal would make me a millionaire instead of a pauper
. This was never of any moment to her—and, besides, the sky was the limit for Robert as far as she had been concerned—but in her grief and fury, she wasn’t thinking straight, for whenever reason and passion collide, reason gets carried away insensible on a stretcher while passion points and laughs.
He’s probably going to end up in jail
, she convinced herself.
And Dominic is so much better looking
. What a triumph it would be to announce to her erstwhile love her engagement to Dominic.
She accepted Dominic’s proposal.
When Robert at length mustered the courage to come and ask for Kristen’s mercy, she delighted in destroying him. She saw him coming and went to the window overlooking the front door. She opened it and snarled, “Don’t bother ringing the bell, you can’t come in,” in a tone so cold it froze his blood and stopped his heart. He looked up at her. Like a new moon, her shine was gone, something gargantuan between them shadowing her countenance.
“Please, Krissy, forgive me,” he supplicated.
Out of the blue, her tone turned torrid; she thrust her fist with the huge diamond engagement ring out the window and exclaimed, “Do you see this?” Though it stopped a dozen feet from his face, it tore right through him.
He staggered back a step, his feverish blood burning his neck and face. He eventually choked out, “Dominic?”
“Yes,” she declared.
“You can’t do this! You don’t love him. You’re too young to get married. You’re just doing this to get back at me!” he said, eyes beginning to water.
“How dare you presume to tell me that I would take the most significant step of my life just to get back at you! You arrogant jerk. We’re getting married on October second,” she announced to make it all the more concrete.
“I made a mistake. I’m human,” he tried.
“Your final mistake. You will never again break my heart. On October second, I’ll be Mrs. Solano.”
“Don’t do this, Krissy,” he beseeched, nose beginning to run. “It’s the biggest mistake of your life!” Then he paused, swallowed and blurted out, “I’ll marry you if you want!” words she’d have given anything to hear just last week.
“No! You’ve proved beyond all doubt that you don’t love me, and that you can never be trusted. I can never love you again. Leave!” As he left, she detected his chin quivering and saw him wipe his eyes after his back was turned. She knew she had devastated him and savored it. Oh, delectable vengeance, thou art ugly, but most satisfying nonetheless.
But not for long. Had she really accepted the hand of a man she didn’t love just for revenge? Had she really rejected the hand of the man she did love just for revenge? But how could she let Robert get away with what he did? How could she accept an offer of marriage from a man who wouldn’t profess his love for her? And how could she ever trust him? Marrying him would surely end up in heartbreak as far as she was concerned.
Nevertheless, she would long rue the day she rejected his offer.
Robert left Kristen’s house in shock. After he turned the corner and was sure she couldn’t see him, he ran home in the driving rain. He had to get there before the coming wave of emotion could pour out of him. He held back until he reached his room, when his profound sadness incited weeping unlike he’d experienced since age eight.
Having had to deal with calamity at such a young age, and being of penetrating mind, Robert had faced the timeless questions about the meaning of life much earlier than most. For him, God died in the plane crash with his family, and in a godless universe the futility of existence seemed manifest.
Why is everyone so worried about all their petty little problems?
he asked himself every time something went wrong and he strained to cope with adversity.
Most of them don’t even know what a real problem is. And even real problems amount to nothing in the end, so why worry? Of what significance is losing a girlfriend when we all just die anyway? So what if she’s chosen him over me? What could it possibly matter? Nothing matters. I couldn’t care less about her
, he concluded, with tears pouring out of his eyes.
•
Kristen’s father was outraged at the news of the betrothal and informed his daughter he would not permit the union. “This is beyond the pale! You’re far too young,” Bill roared. “Even if you were of age, I don’t like Dominic, and I don’t trust him. You’re a brilliant girl. So what could possibly possess you to do this idiotic thing? You will not marry him!”
Her mother was in shock. “You can’t do this, Krissy. You’re not thinking clearly. I know Bobby hurt you, but this isn’t the way to handle the situation. You don’t even love Dominic, do you?” Kristen looked at the floor. “I know how deep your love for Bobby was. In time you may forgive him. What then?” She ran to her room crying.
The Solano family had an excellent reputation. Dominic’s father wanted him to marry a fine young woman—and there was none finer in the land—to uphold that reputation and provide him with some grandsons. His reward would be a mansion in London and all the money he wanted to satisfy his every caprice, and he gets a showpiece wife to raise his kids, keep his house, and cheat on.
Dominic perceived in his betrothed a cool aspect after she’d had her denouement with Robert. He believed that she continued to harbor strong feelings for this Owens fellow. He discovered her crying twice during the week after she’d accepted his proposal; he didn’t know about all the other times. Dominic prepared a contingency plan.
“We’ll frame the sucker,” he said to his personal thug, Finch. “We’ll plant this, uh, diamond necklace and this cocaine in his pockets. We just need to get him to come over here.”
“How are you going to plant that stuff on him, and get him to come to us?” asked the lackey.
“Leave it to me. I’ll make sure Kristen is here Saturday morning. We’ll get him to come at, uh, ten-thirty. When he arrives, he’ll already have the stuff planted in his pockets. We’ll set some other necklaces on the table in front of that, uh, security camera there and you’ll invite him to admire them while you get Kristen. If he takes one or more, we’ve got him. If not we should be able to get, uh, McGee to do some special effects on his computer to make it look like he stole one. Plus, there’s still the plant.”
Dealing with problems is easy when one is encumbered with money and unencumbered with a conscience.
Robert, though suspicious, took the bait. He couldn’t pass up the opportunity for reconciliation with Kristen. He arrived at ten-thirty the next Saturday. Finch dutifully led Robert over to the necklaces. Robert was tempted, but knew there were security cameras, so he left the necklaces alone. Leaving Robert there, Finch went to inform Kristen that a young gentleman had come calling, then he left to get Dominic.
Now profoundly regretting her impetuous decision to accept Dominic’s proposal, she’d been fretting about how to break off the engagement when a visitor was announced, and was relieved, but curious about whom it might be. She was shocked to see Robert at the home of her fiancé.
“What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” returned our now confused protagonist.
“I told you we’re through.”
“But I thought you wanted me to … Dammit, I shouldn’t have believed … I have a bad feeling about this.” Finch returned with Dominic. Robert put on his jacket—it was a cool, wet, early June morning—and went to leave before something else inexplicable happened, but he was too late.
“What the hell are you doing in my house?” said the master of the house. Just then, a policeman showed up.
“Stop where you are,” ordered the cop. Robert obeyed, protesting he’d done nothing wrong. “Empty your pockets,” continued the officer. He reached into his left jacket pocket and pulled out the necklace and a small packet of cocaine.
“I’ve never seen this stuff before,” he contended. “I have no idea how it got there.” The officer slapped handcuffs on him. Robert insisted that he was framed. Finch, however, invited the officer to the back room with the surveillance tapes, where McGee had just finished doctoring the evidence. Dominic brought Kristen back to the same room, and they played a tape that showed the alleged perpetrator crossing in front of four diamond necklaces. Once he passed, there were three. Kristen and the police officer saw this and could testify so. The tape made it look to the naked eye as if Robert was guilty, though it wouldn’t have fooled any professional. It would have been evident that the fourth necklace was erased electronically.
They gave the video, the wrong video, to the police officer for evidence. The real one, they destroyed. They could say it was an honest mistake. The testimony of those who saw the video along with being caught with the drugs and necklace should be enough.
“The tape’s a fake!” shrieked our chump. “Say something, Krissy. You know I don’t take drugs. Krissy, please!” Kristen was disconsolate and none too disposed to believing her turncoat. She turned to leave, shaking her head. “Think about it: how did there happen to be a cop here?” She looked to Dominic for an explanation.
“We called the police when we found graffiti on the wall surrounding the grounds,” explained Dominic. “Owens probably did that, too.” Kristen walked away, head lowered and weeping.
“Krissy!” Robert yelled, but she was gone. The perp was led to the police car and charged with grand theft and possession of narcotics.
After this incredible new turn of events, Kristen’s angst about her situation grew. Her misgivings about dismissing Robert’s proposal diminished: she could not marry a criminal. Yet seeing Robert led away in handcuffs grieved her so much, she realized what strong feelings she still had for him.
Her misgivings about accepting Dominic’s proposal grew: she couldn’t marry a man she did not love. Yet she didn’t want to break his heart. How to let him down easily? Dominic invited her to his father’s new house on the French Riviera for the summer. She declined, saying she needed to be in London to plan the wedding properly. He went alone, though he seldom spent the night alone that summer. His absence allowed her to put off the uncomfortable issue until his return in early September.