Athena swallowed a lump in her throat. “I’m just glad I was able to be here so you could be with her.”
“I appreciate it more than you know,” Rondall murmured. “And so did Eileen.” He took a deep breath and straightened. “And you deserve something good for all the hard work you’ve put in. There’s no way I can afford to give you what you’ll make with that band, so you should take them up on their offer. Do that, and you can afford to get that house you’ve been saving for.”
And there was the rub; a house. Though her salary rose throughout the years, she’d stayed in that run-down, crappy apartment because it was cheap, allowing her to put a portion of her money into savings with the goal of putting a down payment on a house. She’d managed to squirrel away almost nine thousand dollars, but she needed more than that to pay down to where a mortgage payment would be affordable. To be able to bring home six thousand dollars in just four weeks would make the dream a reality before Elizabeth began school again in the fall. And to know that she’d still have her job…
Athena slammed on her brakes as a shiny green Buick swerved into her lane with no warning. The horn of a VW Beetle was never going to win any awards for frightening wayward drivers, but the strangled goose sound that was emitted when Athena slammed her hand on the steering wheel was even more laughable. Like everything else on the car, it suffered from a lack of maintenance since Athena didn’t want to cut into her savings on it. She kept the oil changed and good tires on it, but the rest of the car was barely hanging on by a hope and a prayer. If she took Simon’s offer, she might even be able to afford something a little nicer to drive, more dependable.
Damn Simon, that wiry little Mephistopheles and his unholy offer! Athena pressed her lips together in irritation. It wasn’t the money, or even the time away that was the problem. Those things she could handle. Derek, however, was another matter.
If she could just get to Andi’s, her sister could knock some sense into her head and she could put this entire mess behind her.
*****
“Do it.”
Athena whirled to face her sister, a Tupperware container of mac ‘n cheese forgotten in her hand. “What did you say?” she gasped.
“Do it,” Andi repeated. She closed the dishwasher and put her hands on her hips, fixing her sister with a censorious frown that would have done their mother proud. “You said it yourself; the money’s incredible, and you’d be able to buy a house now instead of years down the road. Besides, you know Walt and I will take care of Elizabeth while you’re gone. Take the offer.”
“It’s not the money, and you know it,” Athena retorted. Unable to meet Andi’s eyes, she turned and placed the leftovers in the refrigerator. “It’s not even leaving Elizabeth for that long.”
Behind her, Andi sighed. “I know. Grab a couple of beers while you’re in there, and we’ll go talk in the den. I’m about to start the dishwasher and it’s too loud to talk over.”
As Athena bent to snag two cans of beer, she heard the roar of the dishwasher fire up as Andi turned it on. She needed the beer, but didn’t know if she wanted to talk any more. After counting on Andi to back her up, it was disconcerting to hear her urging Athena to go on the road with Wolf. With dragging feet she followed her sister out of the kitchen and into the wood-paneled den.
“I’ll go look in on the kids,” Andi told her as she headed for the hall. “Be back in a sec.”
Athena put the second beer on a coaster next to Andi’s favorite chair before dropping into her brother-in-law’s recliner. When she’d arrived to find out Walt was away at an insurance conference in Cincinnati, she’d been relieved to know she could talk to Andi without having to worry about Walt’s reaction. She loved him, but he was so strait laced and rigid that she wouldn’t have been able to open up to Andi the way she needed if he was present. Then when she saw how much fun Elizabeth was having with Andi’s five-year-old twins, she’d agreed to her sister’s suggestion of a sleepover. But now she regretted it, and wished she’d taken Elizabeth home. She looked up when Andi came back into the den giggling.
“Did you know Carrie and Elizabeth sleep in exactly the same position?” Andi sat down and cracked open her beer. “Both of them flat on their backs with their arms over their heads. And Calvin sleeps curled up in a ball just like Walt.” She picked up the remote and aimed it at the television next to the fireplace, cutting off Dave Brown forecasting a thirty percent chance of rain the next three days with the click of a button.
Athena took a swallow from her can. “Yeah, I don’t know how Elizabeth’s arms don’t go numb from sleeping like that.”
“You need to go, Athena,” Andi said gently. “For Elizabeth’s sake more than anyone else’s.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Andi looked nonplussed. “Well, you are going to tell Derek, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know,” Athena hedged. “It’s been so long, and…”
“That has nothing to do with it. She’ll be seven the end of May, and it’s only right he knows. You have to tell him.”
Athena’s brows drew together in a frown. “If I remember correctly, you’re the one who told me not to tell him.”
“That was seven years ago,” Andi countered. “Like you, I believed that horrible girl who said she was going to marry Derek, and I thought he was just some nineteen-year-old Casanova who was using you.” She bit her bottom lip, and pushed back a sandy curl that escaped her ponytail. “And even if that was true, I was wrong to tell you to keep it from him. You know that, right?”
“Yes,” Athena groaned. She put down her beer and covered her face with her hands. “It was wrong, and I was wrong. But I don’t know how in the world I’m going to break it to him, Andi.”
“That’s why you need to take their offer and go with them. I know you said he was mad today, but if you’re with him that long it’ll give you both a chance to get past all that and be friends again.”
“Oh, yeah, he’s going to want to be bosom buddies when I tell him he has an almost seven-year-old daughter.”
“Well, no matter how he reacts, he deserves to know, Theenie. So does Elizabeth.”
“Don’t call me Theenie,” Athena muttered. With a sigh, she lowered her hands and sat back in the chair, using her toes to create a gentle rocking motion. “You’re right. I have to tell him, and this would be the best way to go about it. I’m just a little freaked out.” She shook her head. “She looks so much like him. I mean, I always knew she did, but being face to face with him today, and then seeing her right after just threw me. It’s like looking at you and Donnie, or Carrie and Calvin. They’re almost mirror images.” She snatched up her beer and drank, seeking the mellowing effects of alcohol on her frayed nerves.
“So you’ll go?”
Athena looked around the room with its comfortable furnishings and feeling of cozy security. Though she could never afford a place in Germantown, if she took Simon’s offer she could at least get a nice house that she and Elizabeth could call home. And more important, depending on how Derek took the news, she might even be able to give Elizabeth what she wanted most – a father.
“Yeah,” she capitulated. “I’ll go.”
CHAPTER NINE
England, Summer of 1967
Tagging along with a fledgling rock band as they played any place that had at least two people in the audience had not been on Athena’s agenda, but she wouldn’t trade it for all the tourist traps in the UK.
It was uncomfortable, exhausting, and often filthy, but she didn’t care. She was with Derek, and that was all that mattered. She was crazy in love with him and would do anything to be with him, especially after he told her he loved her, too.
She existed in a state of perpetual bliss that rendered the hardships of the road negligible, and also served to deflect some of the disapproval she sensed from Simon, the band’s almost too intense manager, and to a lesser extent, from the band’s bass player, Robin.
It seemed R
obin was a little afraid of Derek, for reasons Athena couldn’t fathom, and that kept him from saying anything about her presence on the road. Instead, he treated her like she was a gum wrapper stuck to the bottom of his shoe, irritated but unable to shake her loose. Simon, however, was more vocal.
When Derek informed his manager that Athena would be accompanying them, Simon flatly refused to allow it.
“The last thing we need is our guitar player distracted at every turn,” he declared. “She can stay here in London, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Fine,” Derek responded with an indulgent smile. “You do understand, of course, that I’ll also be staying in London. Enjoy your shows.”
After a period of railing and cursing, Simon gave in, stating that it was too late to attempt to replace Derek in the band. Athena thought the truth was that Derek was just too damn good to let go, and if it took bringing her along to keep him in Wolf, then Simon would put up with it.
As it turned out, Athena was more a help than a hindrance. Simon discovered that they had more luck scoring accommodations if Athena was sent in to secure the rooms than if a group of weary, long-haired musicians and their hyperactive manager descended en masse. His admiration and approval of her was cemented the night she not only discovered the band was being cheated out of their part of the take at the door, but called out the perpetrator and berated him in front of everyone in attendance until he turned over the money. After that, Simon accepted her fully.
She might have been adept at tricking people into letting a rock band stay in their accommodations, but she didn’t get a lot of opportunities to use those talents. Most of the time everyone slept in the van among the guitar and drum cases and amps, bedding down wherever they could find space. For one thing, they didn’t have the money to spend on rooms with beds. Another problem was the lack of rooms with beds in the majority of places they played.
The resultant lack of privacy turned Athena and Derek into masters of the art of the quickie. Both of them were constantly on the lookout for any nook or cranny that might afford a few minutes of privacy, whether it was a bathroom, a secluded doorway in an alley, or, on one memorable occasion, behind a flimsy partition at an outdoor music festival.
Not that they were all quickies. Athena lived for the times they had to sleep in the van on the outskirts of some town, because that’s when she and Derek would grab their blankets and sneak away to whatever field or pasture that was near. Away from the others, they would spend the whole night making love, slow and long and beautiful, and then watch the sun come up cradled in each others’ arms. Of course, sometimes they ended up making love in the rain and trudging back to the van soaked to the skin, but neither of them minded.
Such a nomadic, hectic life wasn’t easy, and sometimes they snapped under the pressure with quick, hot arguments that ended with Derek stomping off in one direction and Athena in the other. These fights never lasted long, though, and they always found their way back to each other.
As summer drew to a close, they headed back to London, the band still looking for its big break. Athena was just looking for a soft bed, clean clothes, and regular meals in addition to spending some quiet time with Derek.
But first she had to break the news to her parents that she wouldn’t be returning home.
*****
Lungs burning for air, Athena forced her legs to run up the stairs and down the hall to Derek’s flat. She burst through the door and ran straight to the bedroom, ignoring the startled look Derek gave her as she dashed by. Ordinarily she would have stopped to admire her shirtless boyfriend as he sat playing his guitar, especially since he was playing “God Only Knows,” the tune they considered their song; but since she’d just received the worst news of her life, she didn’t have time to admire the view or the sentiments in the song.
Dropping to her knees beside the bed, she reached under and dragged out the small leather bag in which she kept her important papers. She hadn’t looked in it all summer, even though she’d been careful to keep it with her on the road. No one knew when or if she might be asked to present her visa or birth certificate, and she’d wanted to be prepared.
She clawed the bag open and dumped its contents on the bed.
“Athena, is something wrong?” Derek knelt beside her with a concerned frown.
“My visa,” she muttered as she shuffled through the papers that seemed determined to stick together. “Where the hell is it?” She pounced on one document, and pulled it from where it was folded between the pages of her passport. When she tried to read it, her hands shook so much that the printed words were indecipherable.
Derek plucked the visa from her and spread it on the bed. “Okay, angel. What’s wrong with your visa?”
Her eyes scanned the paper, her heart pounding from the combination of her panicked rush from the phone box and the desperate hope that her mother was wrong. But no, there it was in stark black and white. She pressed her hands to the sides of the visa and looked again.
“It’s going to expire,” she whispered with disbelief. “Son of a bitch, it’s going to expire.”
“What?” Derek leaned close to see. “When?”
“Day after tomorrow.” Tears of anger filled her eyes when she realized how stupid she’d been. She knew the visa was set to expire in September, but she’d lost track of the days while on the road with the band. To her, it seemed like yesterday when they’d set out on what they jokingly referred to as The Hole in the Wall Tour. But now it was September, and in two days she’d be in the country illegally and it was all her fault for not remembering.
Derek snatched the paper from under her hands and held it in front of his face, as though seeing it closer would change the outcome. “What does it mean, then?”
Athena heard the note of suppressed panic in his voice; he knew exactly what it meant. “It means I have to go home.”
“No.” He shook his head, his hair brushing against his neck with each negative shake. “You can’t.”
“I have to.” With a quick, angry swipe, she brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I knew this thing was going to expire, but I didn’t remember to go file an extension.”
“Fuck it,” Derek declared. “Stay anyway.”
Athena gulped down a sob. “I told my mom I was going to do that. But she said they’d find out eventually, and when they did they’d deport me and ban me from entering the country again. Derek, they’re going to make me leave one way or another.”
His gaze flew wildly around the room as though searching for an answer. When he looked at the fraying end of the purple and blue plaid bedspread he froze, eyes wide. “Oh, no, they’re not.” Before Athena could respond, he bent and pulled a long purple thread from the fabric. Under Athena’s confused gaze, he wound the string around his little finger several times, and tied the ends in a double knot. Finished, he looked up at her with eyes shining.
“They can’t make you leave if you’re my wife.”
Athena sat back on her heels with a thump. “What?”
His warm hands slid over hers, and held them in a firm grasp. “I’ve wanted to marry you since the first morning I woke up next to you. Look, angel, I’m going to marry you some day, and this seems like the perfect time to do it. Sit on the bed.”
“What?” God, she sounded like a parrot repeating the same word over and over again, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. It was like time simultaneously speeded up and slowed down, leaving her disoriented.
“Sit on the bed. Please,” he added in a voice strained with urgency.
Like a puppet, she pulled herself onto the bed and watched in wonder as he rose up on one knee before her. He rolled the little circlet of purple string up the ring finger of her left hand, and then looked up at her with that one-sided smile.
“Athena, will you marry me?”
This was real. This was happening! Her disorientation and despair fled, replaced by a blazing happiness. “Yes.” She flung herself off the bed int
o his arms, knocking him onto his back. “Yes, I’ll marry you.” Propping herself up on his chest, she spread swift kisses over his face. “Yes!”
*****
“I’m afraid it’s not that easy.” A gloating little smirk accompanied the functionary’s smug statement. “The young lady will have to apply for a fiancée visa, and that will take some time, and that’s if she has all the correct documentation. And since her visitor’s visa is set to expire tomorrow, it means she’ll be in the country illegally.” He transferred his attention to Athena. “I’m afraid you’ll have to return to the United States and apply for the fiancée visa there.”
“Can’t you just switch it?” Derek’s disbelieving glare was fast turning into one of anger. “Her current visa’s still good until tomorrow. Just change it to a fiancée visa and extend it.”
“One does not simply switch from one type of visa to another,” the man sniffed. “It can’t be done.”
“Then issue her a work visa,” Simon interjected. He and Paul were recruited as witnesses to the marriage, and were standing back as Derek and Athena had their hopes crushed by the rude little man in the Register Office. “She works for me as a member of my road crew.”
“Do you mean to say she’s already working for you without having a proper work visa?”
Realizing his mistake, Simon backtracked. “No, I’ve just hired her since she’s going to marry Derek here. So she needs a work visa.”
The man hefted a sigh that indicated how much he disliked dealing with idiots. “Again, that will take some time, and the young lady will still be in the country illegally.”
“Damn it!” Simon tried to lunge across the desk, and was held back by Paul who made a lucky grab. “You’re not doing much to foster good relations between countries, you know!”
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