by Alexie Aaron
“When did you become a knight of caliber?” Mia asked, her eyes opening so wide that Mike thought he was going to fall in.
“I’ve always been one, but I denied myself,” he said, coming to the realization as he spoke those words to Mia.
“Some of us are late bloomers,” she said, fighting her feelings for the man in front of her. “I’m not a good person, Mikey. I have too much demon inside of me to ever be put on a pedestal.”
“I won’t. But I will be here for you when you need me. Just do me the favor of arriving sober.”
“If I had come sober and asked you to make love to me, what would have happened?”
Mike smiled slyly. “Brian would have a beautiful sister on the way. I told you that we would make beautiful children, Cooper.”
Mia saw the teasing as a way of distancing themselves from the physical ache both of them were feeling. “Mike, I’m really messed up right now,” she admitted. “I have been played with, tortured, adored, bound, attacked, and I’m ashamed to say that I’m not as loyal as I thought I’d be.”
“You’re loyal, Cooper. It’s just that the Dupree charm is a strong force. It will melt the panties off of…”
Mia got up. “You’ve said enough. May I use your shower?” she asked and added, “Solo?”
“Go ahead, your clothes will be dry soon. Then I think you and I should go and enjoy this wonderful summer afternoon. Ralph and Bernard are expecting us at seven. I’m thinking, the beach?”
“I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Oh, I expect some former visitor has left something you would fit into. Let’s go out and play in public. Let the city see what two beautiful people look like.”
Mia agreed and headed to the shower. While she washed her hair, she thought of the near disaster that Mike prevented. The two of them would never ever be able to speak of what had almost happened. She would have to find a place in her mind to store it from invaders like Angelo, but at the same time, she needed Mike’s words of counsel. She would have to practice keeping her mind locked.
Chapter Seventeen
Cid and Ted went to the trade show initially to check out the latest gizmos the tech colleges had out there. But the more they got into talking with the other inventors and engineers, the more they learned that there was some valuable new tech coming out of the smaller universities, some that rivaled Ted’s. They ran into Dave Hult and Richie Delgado. Richie was going to present a major improvement to facial recognition software late that afternoon. Ted and Cid decided to take the boys out for a real meal after the exposition to celebrate Richie’s achievement.
They were standing with a bunch of engineers and computer science majors waiting for Richie to present his software program when the large screen across the back of the main stage lit up. There was a crush of students heading for the stage. Curious, Ted and Cid let themselves be taken along for the ride. Ted stopped to read a text and almost was trampled.
“What’s going on?” Cid asked one of the people pushing to get to the edge of the stage.
“It’s the Bodacious Beach Bod awards. It’s a nerd thing,” the student said.
“I’m a nerd, how come I never heard of this?” Ted asked.
“The Illinois Institute of Technology flies a drone along the Chicago beaches and captures what they feel are three great candidates for BBB. They send a live feed for us to vote on. The lucky girl or guy - it was a guy last year - receives a trophy and the admiration of all us nerds.”
“Is this kind of voyeurism legal?” Cid asked.
“Signs are posted on the entrance to the beaches where the IIT guys are flying the drones equipped with the latest in high definition cameras. It’s been the highlight of the trade show for the last four years. It was almost cancelled this year, but the Dean of school has friends in Homeland, and they manage to work something out.”
Ted looked at his watch, and they still had an hour before Richie demonstrated his software program. “I say we stay and see how well the drone performs. We may want to use something similar for the mall investigation.”
“Really?” Cid questioned his friend. “I thought you wanted to ogle the contestants.”
“That too. This is just the cover story if Mia gets wind of how I spent my afternoon instead of hanging out at Ralph’s.”
The screen went live, and a geeky looking duo of bespectacled emcees started talking.
“The wind has died down, and so far we’ve seen ten possible BBBs. Let’s see if we can whittle that number down.”
They went on to give the categories the ten were to judge by. Healthy body, great hair, and swimsuit. Having a great tan wasn’t either a positive or a negative.
“We were set on our ten when this happened. Out of the waters of Lake Michigan rose this ice goddess.”
The drone picked up the swirling white hair of a swimmer just under the surface of the water heading for the shallows and the beach. As the woman stood up, she flipped her hair back. The water arced overhead. The tech team slowed down the motion until you could see individual water droplets. The drone had moved behind her and followed her out of the water. The blonde hair fell down her pale but firm back. As she moved out of the water, her bathing suit bottoms fell seductively off one hip. The crowd inside the Rosemont went wild.
Ted was feeling a bit odd, but he was mesmerized by the woman’s ass.
“Dude, that’s…” Cid started.
The woman turned and stared at the drone, and as she raised a hand to block the sun, the tiny bikini top that barely contained her ample breasts was exposed.
It didn’t matter that the bottom of the swimsuit didn’t match the top or that the woman had no tan. What mattered was that she was beautiful and healthy.
“Mia, that’s Mia!” Cid said.
“It sure looks like Mia, but…” Ted said.
The duo moved on to describe the elimination process. Soon there were only three BBBs in the running. “After narrowing down the field, it’s time to approach our contestants.”
The two tanned beauties took one look at the geeks with the microphones and cameras and started posing. The ice queen did not. She lowered her sunglasses and asked who they were and what was going on.
“Miss, we are geeks from IIT, and right now you are on live at the Rosemont Convention Center.”
The woman’s lips twitched into an embarrassed smile. The contest was explained, and she lifted an eyebrow while the other girls continued to pose.
“Would you give your permission to be voted on by nerds and geeks?”
“Oh, I love nerds. I find smart men so handsome,” she said, lowering her voice, looking into the camera.
“Dude, that’s definitely, Mia, and she’s talking to you,” Cid said above the roar of the crowd going nuts.
“Miss, can I asked your name?”
“It’s Ms. Ms. Mia Martin.”
“So you’re an MMM,” the geek said. “But to us you’re a BBB.”
“What’s a BBB?” she asked.
“Bodacious Beach Bod.”
Mia laughed. “Me?”
The emcees turned, and one of them looked into the drone camera and said, “And this ends our interview process. As soon as we get the go ahead from the Rosemont, we will ask you to vote by cheering and clapping for the BBB of your dreams.”
“We need to call her,” Cid said.
“Her cell phone is in the diaper bag,” Ted reminded him.
“Who is she with?”
“I don’t think it’s Father Alessandro, do you?” Ted flipped through his phone looking for a cell number for the priest. “She could be alone.”
“Come on, Mia alone at the beach with all the ghosts of drowning victims?”
“You’re right. She went there with someone.”
“But who?” Cid asked.
Dave worked his way through the crowd. “Ted, Mia’s on the big screen.”
“It appears so,” he said distracted.
“Richie is going ba
nanas. It’s just his luck that he has to follow the BBB. No one will be there to hear his presentation. He’s going to bomb.”
“Not necessarily,” Ted said, spying someone very familiar in the crowd at the beach.
~
“Mia, where did you say Ted was?” Mike asked when his phone played the Ghostbusters theme as he was brushing the sand off her ass.
“The Rosemont Convention Center trade show,” she said, putting her hand out for his ringing phone. “Hello, Ted.”
“I didn’t know you were going to spend the day at the beach,” Ted said evenly.
“Neither did I. Ralph hijacked our son and left me at loose ends.”
“So you’re tying them with Mike.”
“You know how I love to play cat’s cradle with Mike Dupree,” Mia said. “Did Richie go on yet?”
“He’s right after this contest, poor kid. How do you follow something like this?”
“Hmmm, that changes my perspective on this contest thingy. Talk to you later,” Mia said and tossed the phone to Mike. She looked around her. “Can I borrow some lip gloss anyone?”
“She hung up on me. I didn’t even get to yell at her,” Ted said pouting.
“Dude, you can’t yell at the ice queen,” Cid said. “The crowd will crucify us.”
“Attention, nerds! It’s time to vote, but first, let’s run the footage again.”
Ted watched, biting his lip. He tried to ignore the comments of the nerds around him when Mia rose out of the water.
“It’s time for the talent contest,” one of the emcees announced.
Ted watched as the first two young ladies chose to sing. He squirmed knowing that Mia couldn’t sing.
The emcee walked up to Mia and asked, “Are you going to sing for us today.”
“No, I’d like to perform a magic trick with the aid of my assistant.”
The camera zoomed out, and Mike appeared with a bucket. The crowd chanted for him to toss what they thought was water. Instead, Mia arched her back as Mike poured sand on her chest. She wiggled a bit before facing the camera. Written on her chest was TEAM DELGADO.
“Wow, that’s some trick. Who is this Delgado?” the emcee asked.
“He’s the nerd who is showing his facial recognition software after this contest at the Rosemont,” Mia said. She blew a kiss at the camera after saying, “Richie, this is for you.”
The crowd went wild. Ted looked at Cid, proud of his wife, but unsure how he should be feeling about this.
Cid patted him on the back.
Dave was impressed but hid it from Ted. “I gotta go and check on Richie,” he said.
Ted received a text and turned his back to Cid while he responded. Cid was irritated. Ted had been receiving quite a few texts that afternoon. He knew Mia’s phone was out of play. This combined with a half-shredded email he found before they left that morning worried Cid.
“Nerds! This just in. We have more info on our BBBs,” the local announcer said. He read off the data collected on each of the three contestants while they showed an edited tighter film of each woman. Mia’s turn came up. “Mia Martin is one of the lead investigators for the Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners. That’s right, nerds, she’s one of us. How would you like having this nerd investigate your home?”
“Notice, no one pointed out that she was married,” Ted said irritated.
“You don’t get it, dude. That’s your wife. You have the hottest wife on the beach. Look at her,” Cid said.
The wind had picked up, and Mia instinctively turned and faced it. Her now dry blonde hair blowing in the wind. She had rubbed off the message on her chest and stood there a pale white rose amongst the two tanned beauties, and she was holding her own.
“I’m going to have to kill Mike. I’m sure he put her up to this,” Ted said.
“Dude, she’s your wife. Nerds everywhere are going to be taking that image and… Oh, sorry,” Cid said and started to slink away.
Ted caught him and shook his head. “You’re right. I should be proud of her. But, dude, she’s the mother of my child and shouldn’t be behaving this way.”
Cid stared a moment at Ted. This wasn’t normal Ted behavior. Ted loved that Mia was special.
Mia’s patience was running out. Mike couldn’t apologize enough for choosing that beach. “Think of it as good advertising for PEEPs.”
“Can Ted use this in a child custody case?” Mia asked Mike.
“Don’t worry, he’s probably proud as a peacock. Remember when he told all the firemen that you were his girlfriend? And look what you just did for Richie.”
“Ted’s going to kill us,” Mia said. “We die together, Dupree.”
“There are worse ways to go,” Mike reasoned. He walked off the stage and was surrounded by young women wanting his autograph. He knew that he was probably in trouble with Meg too, so he might as well enjoy this. Maybe all concerned would see it as a publicity stunt.
He looked up at the screen the IIT people had quickly erected behind the three women. The crowd at the Rosemont could be seen by the crowd at the beach. A local news team was covering the final votes for BBB.
Mia was embarrassed to the gills. The last thing she needed right now with her hangover was to be thrust into a beauty pageant. She was wearing parts of two forgotten bathing suits from Mike’s previous paramours. The sunblock she was wearing emphasized how pale her skin was. The only thing Mia felt she had going for her was that she was brave enough to pull off the stunt for Richie. She didn’t think she was beautiful. The two women on either side of her were younger and firmer. Mia would follow this through, then slink back to Mike’s and drown herself in his bathtub.
Mike tossed her a flower he had liberated from one of the arrangements on the stage. Mia held the flower in front of her. She heard a furious beating of wings and turned to see a humming bird next to her. She offered the nectar filled hyacinth to the bird. He just beat his wings watching Mia. “Orion?” she asked amazed. “Oh my god, it’s good to see you,” she said.
A professional photographer snapped the picture. It would win awards. It was the picture of the summer. Here was the ice queen holding out a red flower to the blue humming bird. Mia would have mixed feelings about the picture when she saw it in the morning’s paper and be mortified every time she passed the magazine rack where it was displayed on several covers of the glossies.
Orion left, and Mia noticed a larger bird circling the beach for a moment. Mia turned her back to the bird.
~
“Here she comes!” Ralph said, holding Brian up on his lap.
“Ah am ah am,” Brian called out.
Mia ran over and picked up Brian, pulling her child gently into her arms. “What a day you must have had with Ralph and Bernard.”
Brian babbled on for quite a while. Mia just listened and smiled.
Mike shook hands with Bernard, handing him the bottle of wine he and Mia picked up on their way over to the condo. He walked over and offered to help Ralph set the table.
“I’d already have had this done, but news of Bernard’s lasagna has two more people dining with us. They will be replacing Ted and Cid.”
Mia turned, disappointed. She was hoping to hear her husband and Cid had changed their plans and were coming downtown. “Who’s coming?”
“Now, Mia, I don’t want you to get mad. But there’s some hurt feelings, and I can’t have anything coming between Bernard’s and my perfect wedding.”
The doorbell rang, and Bernard walked quickly to the door. He opened it, and there stood Orion and Angelo.
Mike put his hand on Mia’s waist protectively. “Do you want me to ask them to leave?”
“No, I’ll behave myself. Thank you, Mike, I do appreciate it.”
Angelo handed Bernard another bottle of red wine before walking over and lifting Mia’s hand to his lips. “Forgive me, Mia.”
Mia was aware that all eyes were upon her, including her son’s. “There’s nothing to forgive,” she said gr
aciously.
Orion walked over and looked up at Mia. “Last time I saw you, you were covered in sand.”
“That I was,” Mia said. “It’s so good to see you again. Orion, this is my son, Brian.”
Brian babbled something.
“No, son, she said Orion not Ironman, although I can see how you would be confused,” he teased the baby.
Mia felt Mike’s hand leave her. She would have to be strong on her own. She felt Angelo looking down at her, pushing into her mind. She put her barriers up. Orion drew her towards the sofa.
“Let’s sit. I’m going to get a crook in my neck, Mia.”
“Now you know how I feel all the time,” Mia said, sitting down. Brian yawned.
Ralph walked over and took the tired child from her. “He’s been fed, and it’s way past his bedtime. I’ll put him down. You enjoy our guests.”
“How was your flight?” Mia said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Uneventful. With the exception of the goings on at the beach.”
“What beach?” Ralph asked, walking back into the room.
“Apparently there was some sort of beauty pageant,” Orion said. “I’m not sure of the name of the beach, but the contest was to name the most bodacious beach body. I googled it on the internet, and it’s run by your local technical college.” Orion went on to describe the drones and the interaction with the trade show west of the city.
Mia starred at Orion, trying to get him to shut up.
“Sadly, we left before we found out who won.”
“That’s a shame really,” Mia said and changed the subject, “Now our football team…”
“That’s not going to work, dear,” Bernard said. “This arrived before you did,” he said, carrying a ridiculous trophy into the living room and setting it in front of Mia.