Doctored

by K'Anne Meinel

  Deanna laughed exuberantly, turning around and around with Madison in her arms. “Oh, God, I love you! You’re here! You’re here!” she said excitedly, almost like the three little kids who had just gone inside.

  “I couldn’t wait any longer…not one more night,” she confessed as Deanna lowered her back to the ground to kiss her soundly.

  “Come on. Let’s get the groceries and go into the house.”

  Together, they took the few bags of groceries—the last of the things from the kitchen in the house in L.A.—and put them away in their new kitchen. Madison couldn’t stop smiling as she bumped into Deanna time and time again in the kitchen, learning where things went. “I hope your housekeeper won’t mind me cooking now and then.”

  Deanna came up behind her, put her arms around her from behind, and nuzzled her ear. “Our housekeeper won’t mind,” she assured her.

  “Mmm,” the redhead leaned back in her lover’s arms. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “I’m looking forward to other things,” Deanna whispered in her ear. “I found an interesting box,” she confessed.

  Madison turned around in Deanna’s arms. “Did you go through my things?”

  “I started to put away your clothes for you, but I stopped after I found that one box. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…,”

  The redhead was embarrassed and the red of her skin clashed horribly with the red of her hair. She looked down, but then was brave enough to look up again. “What did you think of them?” she asked in reference to the adult toys. She looked down again immediately.

  “I’m looking forward to experimenting with them,” Deanna told her honestly, putting her fingers under Madison’s stubborn little chin and raising it for a kiss. They continued until a noise in one of the bedrooms had them pulling apart, panting slightly. “I suppose we should see what they are up to,” Deanna said regretfully, wishing at the moment that neither of them had children.

  Deanna took Madison’s hand and led her to the two bedrooms they had chosen for Chloe and Conor’s bedrooms. The rooms looked amazing…perfect pictures of a child’s room. This was exactly what Madison had always wanted for them and had never been able to provide. “Oh, the painting looks wonderful,” she exclaimed. The furniture was perfect too and the kids were bouncing all over it in Conor’s room. “Stop that,” she ordered, seeing Conor trying to launch himself off the bunk and Chloe climbing up after him.

  “Hey, you heard your mother,” Deanna told him, a little more sternly. “We had an agreement if we bought you a bunk bed, remember?” she reminded him.

  He had forgotten and nodded. He sat down on the mattress and Chloe returned to the floor.

  “I love my bedroom too,” she told Deanna. “Mommy, did you see it?”

  “Yes, I did and it’s lovely. You are going to have to place those stickers carefully,” she told her with a smile.

  “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to ruin the white,” the little girl told her now that she had seen her very own bed in her very own bedroom.

  Madison was thrilled with that announcement. “What are you going to do with all those stickers?”

  “Maybe I’ll get a sticker album. I could ask Santa for one for Christmas.” They both knew she didn’t believe in Santa, but played along anyway.

  “That’s a good idea, and who knows, your new friends might have ideas about them too,” Deanna put in.

  “What new friends?” she asked, surprised.

  “Aren’t you going to make new friends at school?”

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot.”

  Deanna laughed as she put her hand on the young girl’s head and pulled her in for a one-handed hug.

  “Well, it’s late and we had a very long day. Wash up and let’s get ready for bed,” Madison announced.

  “Awww, Mom,” Conor complained.

  “And you, make that bed. I had the sheets on there and not pulled off the edges,” Deanna added.

  “That’s no fair,” Conor complained again.

  “What’s not fair?”

  “You two, ganging up on us!”

  Deanna and Madison exchanged a look and started to laugh as they nodded. “Yep, that sounds about right,” Madison said as she pointed at the bathroom. “March!” she ordered.

  * * * * *

  Once the children were tucked into their new beds and Roman was in his ‘old’ room, the two women snuggled in their own bed. Madison was telling Deanna about her day: from the cake, to signing the papers on the house, to the van showing up and packing up one final time, and finally to her mother’s call.

  She started crying as she remembered the horrible things her mother had said to her and her own anger over it.

  Deanna was thrilled that she had stood up for herself. “Shhh, baby, shhh. It’s all right. She’ll come around. She won’t be able to help herself. She’s just surprised and thought she could bully you again. She knows better now. Shhh,” she comforted her. She tried to kiss her, but sensed that making love wasn’t what Madison was in the mood for. She wanted her so bad, but she was willing to wait. They had the rest of their lives together for that.

  Slowly, Madison stopped crying and was able to snuggle into Deanna’s arms…because she wanted to…and because she could. “Thank you,” she said sleepily, exhausted from the very full day of work and the long drive.

  “For what?” Deanna pulled back to ask.

  “For everything. For loving me enough to wait for me. For teaching me that I always had this strength in me. For taking care of me,” she said gratefully.

  “I love you. No thanks are necessary. Always be honest with me, love me, and that is all I will ever need.”

  Slowly, talking things over and relaxing, they both fell asleep as the cat figured out how to open the latch handle on the door and snuck into the bedroom to join them. The dog soon followed. They woke up, unable to move, with the two animals trying to take over the bed.

  “Psst,” Deanna woke first and tried to wake Madison. She poked her with her finger. She would have tried with a toe, but there was a cat in the way. “Psst,” she called and was rewarded with a sleepy, green eye opening to the bright sunlight.

  “Mmmm?” she asked inquiringly.

  “We seem to have company,” she rasped in a sleepy morning voice.

  Madison leaned up and looked down at the animals sprawled on their bed. She looked at Deanna and knew she couldn’t be happier. She was home, this was part of her family, and she was happy. This was her happily ever after. It wasn’t an ending…it was a beginning. She couldn’t wait for it to begin. She leaned over. The dog squeaked as her body leaned on him and she kissed her partner good morning. “I love you.”

  THE END BEGINNING

  If you enjoyed DOCTORED, you may enjoy a sample of K’Anne Meinel’s other unforgettable novel:

  ~ CHAPTER ONE ~

  The view from her window wasn’t that impressive as she looked at the dismal aged and gray buildings outside on an equally dismal and gray day in New York, but at least she had a window and a view. Not all associates had a window, most were in inner offices but she was a senior associate, a lawyer of counsel if you will, and it was part of her perks. She looked out her window a long time, lost in thought even though she knew she should be getting to the pile of briefs on her desk. Instead she daydreamed about the incredible offer she had just received. She had known it was coming, she knew she deserved it, but at the moment wasn’t sure if she should be insulted.

  Nia Toyomoto worked for one of the most prestigious law firms in Manhattan. It wasn’t a small thing to be an associate at Chase-Dunham. It wasn’t a small thing to be a lawyer of counsel either. To be offered a partnership though was something that Nia had worked towards for years. Everyone knew she was on the fast track, everyone knew that she deserved it, but at this moment, she wasn’t sure. When Stewart Dunham had scheduled this morning’s meeting she had assumed it was for a personal update on certain cases that she was handling for him, for other
s, and with others. Although she had eventually expected the offer, the stipulations had surprised her. She didn’t realize her personal life would be part of the offer. Not that she had anything to hide but being a partner at Chase-Dunham required a certain panache that Nia simply didn’t have at this time. Stewart had kindly pointed out that they needed her to ‘spruce’ herself up, to become a bit more social. It was not a matter of her talents as a world class attorney, no, that was why they wanted her to be a partner. It was a matter of smoozing with the right people, having parties, attending the elite of the elite. Her reputation was such that she fit in but her appearance left a little to be desired. She was all business. They wanted her as a partner but they also wanted her to use every means at her disposal to get them new clients. Not that she hadn’t drawn them in the past with her incredible expertise but being a partner meant that she would represent the firm on levels that she hadn’t thus far. Her talents alone wouldn’t sell the firm.

  Nia sighed. She wasn’t one to get ahead on her looks. She was overly tall for the average woman at 5’10” and this for someone of Asian descent was almost unheard of. Not that you could tell she was Asian except for the certain narrowing of her eyes that gave her a feline like appearance. Her father was pure Asian, a former executive from Japan, he had fallen in love with a German-American woman who Nia had inherited most of her looks from. The clunky black glasses she wore hid the slightly exotic Asian tilt of her eyes. Her smooth round face v’d becomingly, but with her straight dark brown nearly black hair with occasional reddish tints that she held severely back in a bun, she gave herself a no nonsense appearance. She had never cared for her looks. She wasn’t like other women. Her nails were cut short, purely functional; no polish had ever graced them. Her long legs were encased in nylons and this only because she was fairly pale in appearance and the style was to have a semblance of tan. She had business suits but these too were merely functional. She owned six or seven that she interchanged to provide variety but these were of lessor quality and again, she just hadn’t cared. Now they were making her care, in fact making it a condition of her partnership.

  The suggestion and not too subtly that her partnership hinged on her doing a makeover, buying better clothes, and a better place to live was ludicrous. But Nia knew that the good ole boy network could find other reasons to deny her this plum chance. She also knew at thirty that she would be one of the youngest partners in Manhattan. She also knew she deserved it. She had worked hard all her life for this very thing.

  She had graduated high school in three and a half years and would have graduated in three but for the moron that was the principal at the time thought her too young at sixteen to graduate her junior year. She had to wait until she was seventeen and graduated halfway through her senior year. It wasn’t that her grades hadn’t warranted an early graduation, no, she had always been effortlessly at the top of her class but this was an age where he felt her social abilities would be hindered by not graduating with her peers. Nia didn’t have a lot of friends and those who really knew her knew she was destined for great things. Graduating early would only expedite those goals she had set for herself. Once she graduated from high school she had gone straight to college. Attending Wellesley College, she had sailed through in three years before enrolling in Harvard Law School for her graduate work. If she could have done it in one year she would have but had done it in the normal three years before graduating at the top of her class. An offer from Wall Street and Chase-Dunham had been the culmination of her dream. She’d had other offers of course, many from those she had worked for in summer internships, but Wall Street and Chase-Dunham’s reputation was such she knew that was where she wanted to be. For her to be an associate there had guaranteed her future, something she didn’t really think about in the broad spectrum of life, instead she wanted very specific things in life and now this partnership was part of that dream.

  To hold it up because she wasn’t properly garbed or social or looked right for the part angered her but when she thought about it practically she understood. She was perfect for the job and she knew she would eventually capitulate but it didn’t set well with her that it was mandated by the men in this firm. Then she thought of how few partners over the years had been women, especially on Wall Street much less in Manhattan.

  She thought for a long time about what other goals she had set for herself and realized that at thirty she had achieved most of them. She had gotten into Wellesley on a scholarship and paid for extras through the little her mother sent her after Papa’s death. Papa had died after he knew his only child had graduated from high school and his life insurance had paid off their home but left very little for frivolous living, her mother had pinched every penny. Going to an Ivy League School had never been in doubt but paying for it had been. It was expensive to be so highly educated. Nia had taken that seriously. Never had she thought about any other school after Wellesley but Harvard. It had not been a dream but a serious plan that had only been in doubt due to a lack of funds. Nia had graduated in due time with debts so high that they boggled the mind. The job that she had expected from her high grades, internships, and moral standards had come through and she had begun to pay off those debts through her frugalness.

  She lived in a studio apartment that was so small she couldn’t swing a cat for hitting everything. Her mother had passed away and Nia had sold everything of value including the house that they owned except for nine boxes of ‘trinkets,’ paying off her student loans and using the little left to buy stocks to help fund her IRA and for security later in life. Her salary was such that she could move to a larger apartment and in fact she had enough now to buy a very nice place but she had no one she wanted to show her postage stamp apartment to, no one really saw it other than one or two close friends, she didn’t need a larger one, until now. Her frugal living though would pay off now. She had the funds to do what they wanted and with style but her innate sense of fair play almost balked at the idea of changing her lifestyle, her appearance, her everything for a promotion. It was sexist and discriminatory and they would get away with it unless she refused to play, did she want to give up everything she had worked for to stand on the moral high ground? She could sue, theoretically. What they were asking was illegal but did she really want to be known as the lawyer who sued their own firm over her looks? That would certainly create waves in the legal community and also insure that she wouldn’t get another job with any other firm in New York, much less Manhattan, ever.

  A knock on her door had her spinning around in her leather chair and looking up surprised as Stewart Dunham stuck his head in the door. “You busy?” he inquired with a smile. Stewart Dunham was a spare man of fifty five who had inherited the firm of Chase-Dunham through the expedient manner of marrying Elliott Chase’s daughter. They had worked together through some lean years and had expanded it exponentially from their partnership. When Elliott Chase had passed away, Stewart Dunham had been one of the first on Wall Street to hire women and bring in clientele that had appreciated his foresight. The people he hired were excellent; he had an eye for talent and had picked Nia Toyomoto himself. She had worked a summer internship up in Boston for a friends firm and he had raved over her insight, her brilliance, and her enthusiasm. He had watched and learned as she participated in the debate team up at Harvard. An Alumni himself, he had availed himself of her records and been suitably impressed. He had romanced her into coming to work with his firm right out of college and had never regretted it. Her work was consistently superior and she deserved every promotion they had ever given her. His other partners had been worried that they were giving the youngster too much too soon but he knew she could handle it. She had been only twenty three when she graduated Harvard but had within one year won them an impossible case. The lawyer of record had to drop out at the last minute for cause and she had picked up the slack despite her lack of experience and with very little supervision had won and the senior partners had been suitably impressed. Her record sinc
e then had been equally impressive. If she just didn’t look so…frumpy. From her horn rimmed square glasses to her unattractive and severe bun of hair she screamed ‘old maid’ and he knew some of the clients wouldn’t want to work with a partner that made them feel like she was their grandmother. He had often wondered if she were a dyke but she gave no appearance of that either. She didn’t date men, she didn’t date women, she didn’t date that he knew of. She was kind of uni-sex and that didn’t set well with the partners. Many insisted that if she represented the firm she needed to take advantage of her feminity and had complained about her lack thereof for years, now they insisted on this change or no, they didn’t want her as a partner.

  She smiled kindly and this changed her austere appearance, without really answering the CEO of Chase-Dunham she asked instead, “What can I do for you Mr. Dunham?”

  “Would you come with me for a moment?” he gestured outside her office.

  Nia rose up and walked immediately over to her small office door. Stewart held the door for her and she walked out before him. He indicated the elevator and she assumed they were going up to the Senior Partner’s level to the private offices of the CEO which were on a floor above the associates and counselor levels. They stood as equals as they waited for the elevator. Nia’s own height was only an inch or two below Stewarts. He thought she would be even more impressive once she realized her full potential, it had to be her decision though, and she could still turn them down, although they both knew she would be foolish to do so. Stewart was risking, big time, that she wouldn’t take offense to what they had shoved down her throat in their offer. Instead he hoped, and gambled, that she would grasp it with both hands and prove the nay-sayers wrong, very wrong. He had always seen the potential of this woman from her days at Harvard, he still saw potential, if his daughters had shown any inkling of the talent of this young woman he would like to think they would be as good as she. His son had gone in a totally different direction and become an accountant. He had been very disappointed but survived the blow to his ego.