“I agree,” said Miles, kissing me before starting the vehicle and putting on his seatbelt. I fastened mine also, and Miles pulled out of the parking space and began the drive home.
“So what happened?” I asked.
“It wasn’t good. I’ve been suspicious ever since I learned the accountant didn’t inform Grandma Polly that Mr. Henderson died, and Mrs. Henderson moved away. On the books he appears to have continued paying their salary and the upkeep of the estate, but he was pocketing that instead. Several other things occurred after ownership of the estate was transferred to me, that made me sure an audit needed to be done. He assumed I wouldn’t know enough to realize his investment suggestions and answers to my questions, made no sense.”
“He probably thought you were twenty, you’d just come out of a year-long coma, and would have lingering mental deficits due to a brain injury,” I said.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re right.”
“Instead, ‘surprise!’ You’re much, much older in the experience department, and incredibly smart.”
“He was surprised, alright. His evasive answers didn’t satisfy or confuse me as he thought they would. So, I had the audit done. I wanted proof of my suspicions. The audit proved that he’s been embezzling funds in one way or another, since he was first employed.”
“That’s so sad,” I said.
“It is,” agreed Miles.
“Did you meet with him today?”
“I did,” said Miles.
“Did he have any excuse at all?”
“No,” Miles shook his head. “I could understand if he was in a situation like your parents were, a sick child, no job, down to the last dime. Or even just a sick wife or child with medical expenses he couldn’t manage. He did have a job, after all. But it was greed, plain and simple.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I hate that he was taking advantage like that.”
“Me too. The money isn’t important, but the attitude and lack of trustworthiness is.”
“This is exactly why you’re majoring in business and accounting, isn’t it.”
“That’s right. It can be very hard to know who to trust, and since I doubted him anyway, I thought that would be wise.”
We were silent for several minutes, thinking about it.
“Second-Miles’ father was a good businessman,” said Miles. “He had all sorts of safeguards in place. It’s a good thing he did. I’m not as concerned about our own finances, but I can’t even tell you how upset I’d be if he managed to endanger the Bannerman Foundation. So much good is accomplished through that.”
I knew all about it. Through the Bannerman Foundation, Miles and Polly took on the burden of medical expenses for an illness my sister had, and lifted it from my parents’ shoulders. It made all the difference for my family. My sister received the very expensive treatment she needed, not all of which the insurance at Dad’s new job would cover, and financially my parents were put back on their feet again.
“I know,” I said, reaching for his hand and rubbing his arm. “The safeguards you put in place by setting up the Foundation as a trust, with terms that protect it from being used for personal gain and from being shut down, won’t ever allow that to happen.”
“You’re right. I’m so glad it was unharmed when the estate was turned over to me, so that there was still a Foundation to protect. There was though, and it’s okay,” he said, giving me a brief glance and a smile, before he focused his attention back on the road.
“Are you able to take over the accounting?” I asked, pretty sure I knew the answer already.
“No, it’s too much for me. On top of everything else I have to manage, even once I complete that degree, I don’t see how it would be possible. But, I’ll know enough to be able to keep better track of things. The team that investigated may have accounting firms and accountants they can recommend. We’ll get it figured out.”
“I know, we will,” I said, rubbing his arm again.
“Hey, you better call and order the food,” said Miles.
“Oh! Right! I did say I’d do that.” I rummaged for my phone and placed our usual order, as we arrived at our apartment building.
We’d only been married for three months, and we’d never been apart this long, so we went to our apartment first. We had catching up to do. Miles had more to tell me about his day, and I… had very little to tell him about mine! I spent the time he was gone missing him, wondering how his meetings were going, wondering when he’d be through, and wishing I’d gone with him. When we were finished catching up, we went down the hall to join our friends.
“Hey, guys!” said Jenny, opening the door to her and Annette’s apartment when we knocked. “We were beginning to think you weren’t coming. The food’s already here. We went ahead and got started, we knew you wouldn’t want us to wait for you.”
“Of course,” I said, picking up a plate and handing it to Miles, then getting one for myself. “I’m glad you didn’t wait.”
“If it’s cold, you can heat it up in the microwave,” Xander suggested helpfully.
“Thanks,” said Miles, with a smile. “We may do that.”
I rolled my eyes, and filled my plate with fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, and egg rolls.
Miles filled his plate and grabbed us a couple of water bottles, then we joined the others in the living room.
“Well! You’re here,” said Annette, with an exaggerated look at her watch. “I’m afraid it may be too late to start a movie now.”
“Uh-oh, John,” said Xander, as he and Jenny passed by John and Annette on the way to the couch. “I hate to say it, but you’ve been waiting here so long, your hair’s starting to turn gray.”
Miles and I both started to laugh.
“This is total payback, for paying you back, for last year, isn’t it!” I said.
“Of course!” said Xander, smiling as he gathered fried rice on his fork. “It’s easy, really. You guys are giving us lots of material to work with. You’re the last to show up to everything, and always the first to leave. We hardly ever see you anymore.”
“My, how you exaggerate,” said Miles, as he led the way to the empty loveseat. “I distinctly recall talking to you for two whole minutes just a couple of days ago, Xander. You probably remember, dear, you wondered what took me so long to pick up the mail.”
I laughed, as did our friends.
“Well just you wait,” I said, as I sat next to Miles. “There’ll be more payback of some kind in your future! I won’t say what, but there will be!”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll think of something,” said Miles. “If I haven’t mentioned it today, I’m very thankful you’re on my side.”
I laughed and picked up an eggroll and took a bite. It was sooo good! The chef at our Chinese restaurant deserved a raise.
“Well, the truth is, we’re all jealous,” said Jenny. “I completely get it, now that Xander and I are engaged. You don’t want to be apart, and now you don’t have to be.”
“Being married is awesome,” I said. “Last year, I would have absolutely hated me for already having what I do.”
Miles laughed.
“You have such a way with words,” he said. “You must have been a delight to your English teachers.”
I laughed at that.
“Yes. Yes, I was,” I said. “I’ll have you know I was considered very creative.”
Miles laughed more at that, as did our friends.
“That doesn’t surprise me a bit,” said Miles.
“So… as a couple who’s already married, do you have any advice for the rest of us?” asked Annette, as she set her plate aside.
“Big weddings are nice. I like the pictures, and the memories. But being married is better. If I could go back, I’d try and convince Miles to elope,” I said.
“You did try to convince me to elope, and I would have done that, if it wasn’t for your family. I didn’t want to worry them, and it would have, if this guy they just met stole off
with their daughter, and married her. Knowing your Dad and Uncle Mark, I’m not sure that would’ve even been safe.”
That made everyone laugh. Dad and Uncle Mark were rather famous for their reputation of being experienced at disposing of bodies, and cleaning crime scenes.
“Well they certainly all love you now,” I said. “But back to the question. I let Mom and Grandma Polly pretty much plan and run the wedding. And in a lot of ways, it was more for them and the rest of our family, than it was for us. I wasn’t looking forward to getting married nearly as much as I was looking forward to being married to Miles.”
“I remember, you weren’t stressed or biting people’s heads off. You weren’t Bridezilla,” said Jenny.
“I wondered if you were having wedding jitters that day, though,” said Annette. “You both got so quiet, the closer it came to the wedding ceremony.”
“It wasn’t wedding jitters,” I said, and Miles shook his head in agreement. “I was willing the ceremony to hurry up and get there. The closer it got, the harder it was to stand the wait. I wanted it over so we could really and truly start our life together.”
“That’s how I felt also,” said Miles. “That was a very long day.”
“It was. The wedding was beautiful, and I am glad to have the pictures. The reception was nice too. But I wouldn’t go back. I’d rather be right here. The whole time, this is where I was wanting to be.”
“To clarify, not right here on this couch in this apartment, right dear?” said Miles, with a teasing look in his eyes. The others laughed, and the best I could do was shoulder bump him, since we were both holding plates of food, and I had a water bottle in my hand, too.
Miles smiled, then continued.
“Anika’s parents suggested we talk about a number of topics and come to an agreement on them before our wedding.”
“The lengthy list, I remember,” said Jenny, and Annette nodded.
“It was very good advice,” said Miles. “There are points of view and opinions and possible choices in life that radically differ. Finding out you and your significant other are at odds over something you both feel strongly about, would be better discovered before getting married, than after.”
“I could see an engaged couple being more willing to compromise and come to an agreement on a hot topic, than a married couple,” I said.
“Why is that?” asked John.
“Because once you’re married, there’s a sense of security in the relationship that you don’t have when you’re engaged,” said Miles. “People tend to be on their best behavior when they’re engaged, and then become more—well—human and flawed, afterward.”
Jenny and Annette both turned to their fiancés and gave them narrow-eyed looks, which made the rest of us laugh.
“But that’s the good thing about being friends first,” I said. “That’s something we all have in common. Miles and I were such good friends, and we did go over that list, and honestly—being married to him is what I thought it would be.”
“It isn’t to me,” said Miles, which got a surprised look from everyone. “It is so much better. And my expectations were extremely high.”
He can melt with words, too! That earned Miles a kiss on the cheek, which was the best I could do at the moment, considering we still had plates of food in our hands. We were doing more talking than eating.
Xander groaned.
“You two are so sweet, you’re making me sick! John, we are in so much trouble. Jenny and Annette are going to have impossibly high expectations of us, watching the way these two carry on. Thanks a lot, Miles! And here I thought we were friends.”
Miles laughed.
“You’ll do fine. You both will. If you were alone as long as I was though, you’d understand.”
Several eyebrows raised at that, as four people tried to fit that sentence into what they thought was true. Miles bit into an eggroll.
“What—do you mean?” asked Jenny, a crease appearing between her eyes as she considered this. “I mean, your relationship—you were only twenty when you met, and—really—it moved incredibly fast.”
Miles took a longer than usual amount of time to finish chewing that mouthful of food before he answered. I was sitting there praying, wondering if prayers get answered when they’re kind of about not wanting to be found out in a very big falsehood. But seriously, we’d be locked up if we told them the truth! Hey, guys, Miles is really a hundred sixty-five years old, his brother was once engaged to my great-great-great grandmother, and we were friends for months, before a miracle brought him back… they’d think we were mentally insane, and being the good friends they are they’d seek help for us, and hello men with white coats, padded rooms, and Haldol.
“Well you see,” said Miles, “it’s a little known fact that being in a coma can be a very lonely experience.”
Good save, dear!
The room gave a collective “oh,” of sympathy, although the looks on their faces showed they were trying to process that.
“I know that was horrible for you… hearing everything that was going on around you, but unable to interact,” I said, rubbing his shoulder. “Hearing people talk as if… as if they believed you were dead.” That was all very true.
“Yes… I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy,” Miles said, which was saying a lot, considering the kind of enemies he’d had. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
In sympathy, I put my plate down and his too, and pulled him into a hug. See, friends? This subject is very hard on us, we should move on without further questions.
Miles pulled me onto his lap and said softly enough for only me to hear, “You are such a good actress, you scare me sometimes.”
I said just as softly, “Do not make me laugh.”
Miles made sort of a choking sound, then I did too, which actually worked in our favor. This whole subject of the coma and what that was like for him, it’s just not something we should be talking about or elaborating on unless our friends want to see us cry. We hugged for a long time, until I was fairly sure he wouldn’t make me laugh if I looked him in the eyes, then I kissed him and moved back to my spot beside him, and handed him his plate again.
Everyone was discreetly looking away, and talking quietly amongst themselves.
I cleared my throat, obviously trying to move past the extreme emotion all of that had evoked.
“Jenny, do I recall you mentioning that you baked pastries today?”
“Oh, yes, I did! Would anyone like to try them?” she looked around, and everyone enthusiastically approved of that idea.
“You guys have hardly eaten,” said Annette, looking extremely sympathetic. “Let me heat that up for you.”
“Thank you,” I said, “but I can do that.”
“No, no. You just—stay there with Miles.” She whisked our plates away.
The look on Xander’s face made me feel guilty. He looked as serious and mournful as he did when we were almost murdered three months ago.
Annette was back in a few short minutes with our plates, the food hot once more. Miles and I said thank you, and we finished dinner while the others tried Jenny’s pastries. Of course once we were done, we tried them too.
“You’ve outdone yourself, Jenny,” said Miles. “This is amazing.”
“Thank you,” she said, in a somber voice. “I’m glad you like it.”
This was killing me, lying to our friends the way we had to. Ug. Although, if they knew what really happened to Miles, they’d feel even worse, and be even more sympathetic. That made me feel a tiny bit better. We were actually sparing them a great deal of pain by letting them believe that someone tried to murder him, instead of knowing the horrible truth.
When we were finished eating, we didn’t even get teased when we said goodnight, and left before anyone else.
As Xander and Jenny walked us to the door, Xander said, “You’re—really tough, man. I had no idea… you’re always so cheerful, no one would know any of the things you guy
s’ve been through.”
Miles nodded and smiled slightly.
“Drama from the past, you know… I’d rather focus on where I am now.”
Xander nodded and gave Miles a one-armed hug. Then he stood back and rubbed his hand across his eyes, and managed a smile. Jenny hugged me and then Miles.
“It’s okay,” said Miles. “It really is.”
“Yeah, we just… don’t like to talk about it,” I said. “It’s easier that way.”
They nodded, and we said goodnight again.
We walked silently to our apartment, and let ourselves in. Miles locked the door behind us.
“I feel like a terrible person,” I said, turning to look up at him.
“I have got to stop being careless,” said Miles. “The more comfortable I get, it’s so hard to remember to guard my words. I can just imagine if I ever forget and mention my brothers or sister.”
“Well… we can always blame it on that brain injury.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
I dreaded what was coming, and tried to think of a distraction, a redirection, something—I hadn’t lived with him for a hundred forty years yet, but looking into his eyes I knew exactly what he was thinking. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him. That distracted him, but only for a minute.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” he said.
“And I know what you want to do,” I said. “And that scares me to death.”
Miles and I looked at each other for a long time.
“Anika, letting our friends believe a lie makes me uncomfortable. But then there are so many times that we lie directly to them, and—I just hate it.”
I dropped my forehead against his very solid chest with a thud, and groaned for more than one reason.
“What’s the worst that could happen?” asked Miles.
“Oh, well, let’s just make a list!” I said. “One, they think we’re lying by telling the truth, and we lose our friends. Two, they call my parents and tell them! Three, our friends and my parents think we’re crazy, and we’re put in separate padded rooms! Four, haven’t you heard the term loose lips sink ships? You were around during that point in history, for pity’s sake! You’re the one who told me about it! Five, the wrong people find out and they try and do tests on you or something! Miles, I can’t even imagine how telling anyone could result in anything other than an absolutely unbearable result!”
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