by Maria Milot
Winston let himself into the mudroom of Maddie’s home, slipped off his Topsiders, and called out for her.
She walked around the corner to find Winston sitting cross-legged on a bench next to the door. “Hi.” She looked at his bare feet. “I see you remembered the rules.”
“You realize I don’t usually follow rules, Madison, but you seem so serious. So, I will try for you.”
Maddie stuffed a sweatshirt into a canvas bag. “That’s good. My ex-fiancé didn’t seem to care about rules either at least not when it came to our relationship.”
“Madison, is something bothering you?”
“No. Well, yes.” Maddie paused she could feel all the words, bolstered by emotion, rising up fast and hard in her throat. She couldn’t hold back and allowed them to tumble out. “It’s just that I really like spending time with you. I want to keep things moving along but I know I shouldn’t be in one serious relationship. So, I’m also seeing Jared. You met him at the New York Yacht Club.” She watched Winston’s eyes grow wide but she couldn’t stop now. Before he could speak, she continued her effusive confessional. “And there’s another guy. Bob. I think I might want to date him too but I feel guilty when I’m with you. I feel like I’m cheating somehow and after my ex-fiancé cheated on me, it was devastating! I would never want you, or anyone, to feel the way I did. And I’m worried that you might want to start seeing other women too. I know it’s hypocritical but I don’t think I would like that very much.” She took in a much-needed breath. Her left thumb was steadily grinding under the fingernails of her right hand as she anxiously awaited Winston’s response.
“Okay. I guess a lot is bothering you.” Winston guided her to sit down next to him on the bench. “First, we have talked about this and I assure you there is no other woman I want to date or be with. Next, I get that you are not me and you need some time to figure things out. When you get this dating thing out of your system I will be right here, where I have always been, ready for the next level of our relationship.”
Maddie shifted herself onto Winston’s lap and sank into a deep kiss.
◆◆◆
The southwest breeze was coming up. Maddie raked her fingers through her hair and drew it back into a ponytail. She tottered down the New York Yacht Club’s floating dock behind Winston until they reached the end. Winston motioned his hand like Vanna White revealing a puzzle letter.
“Now this is what I imagined a classic sailboat to look like. It’s so pretty.” Maddie gushed.
“She is so pretty,” Winston corrected. “All boats are female. And of course, she is. She’s a Morris.” Winston confidently grinned as if Maddie understood this premier yacht was at the high-end of cruising boats.
“I don’t know what that means. I’ve actually never been on a sailboat,” she confessed.
“Have you ever been on any boat before?” Winston asked.
“Once. It was really loud.”
“Powerboat, yes?”
Maddie nodded an affirmative.
“Then I have a lot to teach you. Let’s start with these lines.” Winston handed her a coil of red and white striped rope.
As Winston hauled up the boat’s sails he gave Maddie a running commentary of what he was doing and why. “So the line in this jam cleat loosens the vang.”
She did not understand a word of the seemingly foreign language he was speaking.
◆◆◆
Their boat nosed away from the dock and headed out of the harbor toward Castle Hill. Winston was at the helm explaining how sailing the boat directly into the wind would essentially stop the boat and they would be ‘in irons’.
“We’re getting awfully close to those rocks,” Maddie nervously called out.
“Correct. Because we are about to tack around. You see we are zigzagging across the wind.” Winston directed her to a winch with a rope spiraled around it. “When I tell you, you are going to release that line the way I showed you back at the dock. Understand?”
Maddie nodded her head. Her heart pounded with anticipation.
Winston called out, “Ready about.” He turned the boat’s massive wheel. Then commanded, “Hard alee. Now, Madison. Let the line completely off the winch.”
She did as she was instructed.
“Good. Now hurry, move to the other side of the cockpit.”
At the same instant, Winston pitched to the opposite side of the boat, yanked another red and white line, quickly coiled it around the opposing winch, and pulled the slack tight. The forward sail had swung around to the other side of the boat. Suddenly the yacht heaved. The length of its hull upended from the water.
Maddie frantically screamed, “Help! We’re going over!” She desperately clung to the cockpit’s cushions, trying not to slide overboard as the boat continued to tilt. Panic consumed her as she watched Winston double over. When he raised his head, he was still laughing. “What is going on?” she yelled. She crawled against gravity to get over to him and smacked him squarely on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry Madison. I’ve never seen someone react so passionately when we heel over.” He continued to chuckle. “Don’t worry we are not going to capsize. We’ll only have to tack like that again a few more times. Once we round the point we will be on a broad reach and we can relax for a while.”
She nodded her head. The only words she understood from his explanation were ‘relax a while.’
By the time they had completed their last tack past Castle Hill Maddie’s confidence to predict the action required to sail upwind had grown.
“Okay, smooth sailing now,” Winston announced as they rounded out of the bay and cruised past Brenton State Park. “Here, come take the wheel.”
Apprehensively, Maddie slid in front of Winston at the helm. He pressed from behind her, guiding her hands to take positions at ten o’clock and two o’clock on the wheel. She felt the wind slap her face as the waves rushed along the length of the boat. Winston bent his head to speak in her ear.
“There,” he pointed toward the bow, “see those little ripples, where the water is darker?”
She scanned ahead then exclaimed, “Yes, up there!”
“That’s a puff of wind. Let’s turn the wheel toward it.”
As Maddie made the steering adjustment, she said, “This is hard!”
Winston laughed. “This is sailing. It requires skill. If it was easy, you would be on a power boat!”
Maddie was exhilarated. She worked to control the boat as the sails harnessed the wind propelling the yacht through the waves.
Winston gestured to the port side. “See that house over there?”
Maddie looked over to the stony shoreline carved with rocky coves. An imposing stone mansion dominated a jagged peninsula.
“How could I not see that house? It’s enormous!”
“It is a lot of house. Thank goodness we have a staff to take care of it. Although they’ll be departing soon to accompany my parents to our house in France. Leaving me to rattle around by myself.”
Maddie craned her head over her shoulder to face Winston. “That’s your home? It seems daunting.”
“Well, it’s my family home. Has been for generations. It’s called Seafair. I live there with my parents.”
“What about that little house, tucked inside the cove?”
“That point of land and all the buildings are ours. The house inside the cove with the dock is our boathouse. Now, trying to navigate in there without experience is daunting!”
◆◆◆
More was expressed in the comfort of quiet than could have been said in words on the downwind leg back to the New York Yacht Club. The shared experience combined with the strikingly beautiful surroundings cemented the easiness between Winston and Maddie. But deep in the recess of her mind, she wondered how she could continue to date more than one man.
THIRTY-TWO
“Thank goodness, I thought you forgot!” Kelly exclaimed.
Maddie gave Kelly a hug. “I’m your maid of hono
r you can always count on me.” She looked around the small floral shop. Every space, high and low, was packed with greenery, flowers, vases, and ribbon.
A slightly plump lady with wavy, white hair directed Maddie and Kelly up an iron spiral staircase in the back corner of the shop. In the center of the floral loft was a round table with four basket weave backed chairs. The table displayed photo albums and a stack of sticky-note pads and a few pens.
“I pulled out some albums featuring the colors we discussed Miss Hurley. I’ll let you ladies look through to get some ideas. I’ll come back up in a few minutes and we can make some decisions,” said the friendly shop owner.
Maddie and Kelly watched her waddle back down the curved stairs before they started chatting.
“Jack got the promotion! Which means I can get bigger arrangements,” Kelly shared in a hushed voice with a big smile.
Maddie returned the smile and offered, “Kelly let me pay for the wedding flowers. You can get whatever you want.”
Kelly suddenly looked solemn. “Maddie I really need you to listen to me on this. Having money has not changed you and that’s a good thing. But if you start paying for me then things will change between us. Eventually, you will become resentful and I will become expectant.”
“So, you want me to pretend I don’t have an inheritance?”
“Not at all. Let’s just keep things the way they have always been. We each pay our own way. We can do nice things for each other, take each other out for drinks, but stay true to ourselves. Nothing too ostentatious.”
“I can do that. I don’t want to be someone who’s out of touch with reality. I had a great meeting with my lawyer, Mr. Shorey last week. We did some estate planning and more importantly set up some charitable plans. Which makes me feel better about the few nice treats I’ve purchased for myself.” Maddie clenched her teeth and shrugged sheepishly at Kelly.
Kelly gave her the affirmation she needed to hear. “But nothing over the top. You bought a small house on a beautiful piece of real estate, a nice car but not something totally impractical, some clothing and…” Kelly’s eyes trailed down to Maddie’s purse.
Maddie filled in Kelly’s sentence, “And a handbag that’s over the top. Unless you think of it as an investment bag!”
“Yeah, the bag is a bit much. You might want to keep that ‘investment bag’ habit in check.”
They both laughed at the absurdity of a handbag being an investment piece.
“So, I should cancel my order for the pet white tiger?” Maddie snickered.
Kelly smiled. “Just pass me that photo book.”
A round face popped up over the top stair at the landing. “Sounds like you ladies are having a good time. Have you made any decisions yet?”
Maddie looked from the shop owner to Kelly. “About life, yes. About flowers, no.”
THIRTY-THREE
Bob was settled in his usual corner booth at the back of Gordon’s Greasy Spoon on lower Thames Street in Newport. Brenda didn’t need to take his order; his eggs had been cracked on the griddle about five seconds after he walked in. She automatically filled the coffee cup in front of the black and white paper tower rising in front of Bob’s face. A top corner of the tower collapsed and Bob peered out. “Good Morning, Brenda. Gonna be a hot one today.”
“Sure is, Bob. Maybe I’ll head to the beach when I get outta here at noon.”
Bob gave Brenda a frisky grin. “Or maybe you’ll come out on my boat, Brenda?”
Brenda playfully laughed and tagged Bob on the arm. “Every day you put a smile on my face. Yell if you need anything else.”
Bob watched her give him a little back-side wiggle as she walked away then re-constructed the newspaper tower. Hello, hello what do we have here? Bob carefully read the announcement under the Hip Happenings section of the paper:
Newport Historic Society will hold its Annual
Flowers in the Moonlight Ball
Friday, July 16th
At Marble House
Attire is black tie. Invitation RSVP must be received by July 5th. All proceeds will benefit the Historic Society.
Following the announcement was a journalist’s commentary about the gala. He scanned over the highlights, if lucky enough to attend…height of the Newport summer social events…peppered with debutants and grande dames…a most elegant setting for Newport’s movers and shakers and the just plain wealthy… Bob wondered, why put an announcement out if you need to be invited to get in? Rich people are weird. They want everyone to know what they’re doing but they don’t want everyone to be a part of it. I bet Maddie Marcelle will be a part.
Bob picked up his cell phone to finagle an invite. He clicked off the call and set his phone back down next to his breakfast plate. He almost felt bad it was so easy, even pleasurable, to get what he wanted from Maddie. Upside, I will crack Maddie’s shell, probably bang her and meet some new cougars. Downside, I gotta rent a tux.
THIRTY-FOUR
A polished black Range Rover rumbled to a stop along Broadway, careful not to park under a street lamp. The only dirt on the SUV was the mud that had been intentionally smeared on the license plate.
Back in the 1970s, Newport was a rough Navy town. Home to dozens of tattoo parlors and bars where bands played in cages for their own protection. Since then Newport had seen a renaissance. Not quite the Gilded Age, but the waterfront revitalization had turned the city into a summer tourist mecca. This stretch of Newport, on the outskirts of the city, was what remained of Newport’s seedy past; still dotted with gay clubs, dive bars, and smoke shops.
Even with his hat pulled down, hands in his pockets and head ducked, James Cooper was a striking figure. He quickly walked around a corner toward the back entrance of a massage parlor, unaware of the blonde man watching him from a car that had just rolled up across the street.
As soon as James Cooper had rounded the corner the blonde man hopped from his car and scuttled along the building like a gutter rat. He twitched with anticipation as he watched James Cooper move toward the club he too used to frequent. He wasn’t sure if James had seen him. He wasn’t quite ready for James to know he had been following and documenting him. He just needed a little more information. Still, he could deliver a powerful blow to James’ world, although it wouldn’t be as catastrophic as he hoped.
James pulled the bill of his baseball cap lower, he thought he had seen a familiar figure but he needed to keep moving. Time was short. He had a big event to attend with his wife tonight, making it all the more pressing to get his particular needs out of his system. James Cooper hated this side of himself but he also couldn’t deny it.
THIRTY-FIVE
Lolly lifted her hair. James allowed the tips of his fingers to graze her shoulders as he pulled the chain up her neck and affixed the clasp. Lolly turned to show off her diamond necklace.
“How do I look?”
“Radiant.” James adored his wife. He could never love another woman as much as he loved Lolly. Fortunately, Paris offered more than just women. They were leaving next week for their house in Fontainebleau, close to France’s capital city. He would spend his days with his beloved Lolly and some nights… his thoughts turned dark, at least the dollar is coming back against the euro. There would be a premium for the behaviors James favored.
THIRTY-SIX
Bob swung his Mustang in to the parade of Bentleys, Porches, and limousines turning off Bellevue Avenue and passing through imposing, gilded and black iron gates. He tossed his keys to one of the valets and said, “Watch da paint, ‘dose flames are custom.”
The valet grinned and nodded, not sure if Bob was kidding or not.
A man with a clipboard was standing, dwarfed by sequoia sized, white marble Corinthian columns, at the entrance to Marble House checking names on a list. Bob chuckled to himself as he approached the man with the clipboard thinking, at least I don’t risk this one sending me to the hospital.
Bob entered a ballroom and looked around trying to pick Madd
ie out from a sea full of men dressed like orca whales and women gleaming and turning like colorful fish.
This was a who’s who celebration. But even within this niche of wealth there was a pecking order; comprised of grande dames on top all the way down to the want-to-be people looking around for photo opportunities to make it into the social section of the media outlets covering the event.
Definitely worth the cost of a tux, Bob thought.
◆◆◆
“Champagne?” A young woman with her hair pulled tight into a bun offered up a silver tray. Kelly, Maddie and Jack retired their empty glasses and replaced them with effervescent new flutes.