by BWWM Club
It had seemed so easy to turn to him. He had been there, so steady, so willing to help.
But he’d agreed that she would owe him, and she knew that he would ask for his favor.
Fair enough. Whatever it was, she would do it.
“George, you can’t possibly think this is a good idea.”
Two weeks later, Rebecca stared at the man she owed, more than a little uncertain.
“Now, don’t make me use my trump card. Rebecca. I’d like to keep it for later, if you don’t mind.”
“But George, this is a… It’s not even a small friends and family kind of thing, from what you just told me! It’s going to be a big party, a formal party. Being there with you as your… your companion. It’s as good as an announcement!”
“It could be. There will be no press there, much to the disappointment of some of my guests. I might be retired, but my sixty-fifth birthday is as much a networking event as anything else, I’m afraid. But I do want to feel as if the day is about me, too, so I would love it if you were there with me. As, of course, my date.”
“But… But George!” wailed Rebecca, her salad forgotten.
“But George what?”
“We’ve only been… talking for a few weeks.”
“Let’s call it what it is, shall we? We’ve been seeing each other for a few weeks. You have put a certain distance between us since that evening in the garden, and I assume it’s because you feel beholden to me. This will wipe the slate clean. I did something for you, and it worked out well – your daughter called me and thanked me, and said that her ex has miraculously started making his child support payments, as well. I don’t think I had much to do with it. I think Rick used his own connections for that. He does love Annabelle. Anyway, do this for me, and we can go back to neither of us owing the other any favors.”
Rebecca sighed.
“Your family, and your friends, and your business partners, and everybody else – do you really want them all to meet me? Do you really think it’s a good idea? I’m just a retired schoolteacher, George. I’m not going to be an asset to you.”
George leaned forward, temper sparking in his blue eyes.
“I am not looking for an asset. I have acquired enough assets to last me several lifetimes. I am looking at you, because I want you in my life, Rebecca. How much clearer can I make this to you? I want you in my life. I want you to be a part of my life, and this is a part of my life. I want you there, by my side. If you don’t want this, then that’s all you have to say. If you have reservations because of… Oh, I don’t know, ridiculous notions like whether you’d be an asset to me, then I’m afraid I’m calling in that favor you owe me.”
Rebecca sighed.
“This is moving fast,” she protested.
“Not fast enough, Rebecca. Trust me, this is not fast enough. If you wouldn’t spook, I would… Well, let’s not go there. This is what I’m asking you to do. Will you do this for me?”
She could say no. She could say no and walk away, and he might still even give her another chance. But she had walked away once, and now…
“All right. All right, I’ll be your… your date, for your birthday. Goodness knows how it’s going to go. Meeting your family, and your friends, and…”
“Rebecca, they will love you because they will see that you mean a lot to me. It’s not going to be an ordeal. You might even enjoy meeting them. Give this a chance. Give them a chance. Give me a chance.”
He took her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed it,. It was a gesture she had begun to expect, but it still made butterflies flutter in her stomach. She sighed.
“Yes. Yes, I will,” she promised, and she hoped that she was making the right decision.
George smiled at his son and his daughter-in-law. Bethany looked as lovely as she always did, and as sad as she usually did. He wondered if his son could see it. She was a lovely girl, but there was no intellectual spark there, and why should there be? Everybody didn’t have to be intellectual. Everybody had something special.
Bethany’s great skill was reading people, organizing events, and making sure that all awkward social occasions were smoothed over neatly. She had used that skill as an event organizer for a while, before deciding that being Gerald’s wife was a full time job. Knowing how demanding Gerald could be, George agreed.
He loved his son, but a woman needed the patience of a saint to live with him. Bethany had it.
“You’ve done an amazing job, Beth. This is excellent. Oh, by the way, you are, of course, the hostess, but I will have a companion for the party.”
“A companion? A date?”
Bethany glanced at Gerald. George noticed.
“A date, I suppose, yes. That will need the seating arrangement to be reworked a little, I expect, but I’m sure it’s nothing your formidable skills cannot handle.”
“Of course. I’ll handle it. Is there anything I need to know about her? Anything specific?”
George shrugged.
“She’s a retired schoolteacher I’ve recently been spending some time with. We share a few hobbies, and an interest in each other. But nothing specific that I can think of. She has no allergies or restrictions that I know of. If there is something, I will let you know.”
“Of course. I’ll have to make a few changes, but it’s not much.”
George smiled and nodded at his daughter-in-law,. He wondered about the sadness in his eyes once more.
His son and his son’s wife didn’t have what he and Marsha had. Not everybody did, of course. George was very aware of how lucky he was.
“Dad, could I talk to you for a few minutes? In private?”
George nodded, and Bethany, ever tactful, slipped away, murmuring something about checking on dinner. Bethany kept a lovely home, of course, and dinner would be impeccable, but George sometimes felt as if he didn’t know what his daughter-in-law was really like. The home looked like any interior décor magazine could do a shoot without warning, but where were the touches that let you know what kind of a person Bethany was?
“Dad, what is this?” asked Gerald abruptly.
“What is what?”
“What is this about a date? Who is this schoolteacher you’ve been spending time with? Is this about that silly dating service thing? I told you that it was a mistake! Now you see what’s happened!”
“I beg your pardon, Gerald. I don’t see what’s happened, and I definitely do not see what mistake has been made.”
“Who is this woman? You even put a photo of yourself up on that site, didn’t you? It’s a bit like taking out a full page ad in a daily, dad – ‘Naïve billionaire widower seeks fortune-hunting opportunists.’”
“I suggest that you stop taking that tone with me, Gerald,” said George, as mildly as he could manage.
“I wouldn’t take any tone with you if I could avoid it. Dad, you are bored after retiring. I get it. I told you that it was too early. We still have plenty of things at the company that you could do. But this is ridiculous! Have you done a background check on this woman?”
“I don’t need to do a background check.”
“See? This is absolutely insane. You are worth several billion dollars. Anybody who gets close to you, especially romantically, has to be checked out thoroughly. It could become a liability to the company.”
“That’s quite enough, Gerald.”
“It would be enough if you could tell me that you’d done due diligence. You haven’t even done a background check! It’s not too late to sort that out. Give me her details, and I will do it immediately. We will talk about inviting her to your party after we go through that. Really, dad! What are you thinking? This is not sensible.”
“I’m sorry, Gerald. But you seem to have gotten the impression that when I retired from the company, I also retired from being the CEO of my life. Did you believe that you assumed that position as well?”
George knew that he shouldn’t lose his temper, of course he did. But there were times when his son needed to mind
his manners and check himself.
“It appears that you need to reconsider many things in your life. If you act irresponsibly, it’s left to me to be responsible. Have you lost your mind, dad?”
“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to, Gerald? I’m your father, not your wife or your child. I make my decisions about my life. I will not have you interfering in my life, and I will definitely not have you running background checks on the woman I’m involved with. She will be invited to my party, because it is my party.”
“Really? Remember how you told me that nothing I do will be just about me, because I represent the Walters name, and everything that has been achieved under that name?”
“Yes, and I do not remember forbidding you from marrying Bethany, or vetting any of your girlfriends – and some of them were unfortunate choices, to say the least – for the sake of the family name. You overstep yourself dangerously, son. I suggest that you stop it.”
Gerald went red, a rather splotchy red.
“This is a mistake. We have an image to keep up. We have responsibilities. Retired or not, you have a responsibility to the company and to your legacy.”
“I am well aware of my responsibilities. I suggest that you see to yours,” said George, then he got up, signaling that the conversation was over.
But it was obvious that to Gerald, it was not.
George had to acknowledge the unease he felt. This was not going to end well. Rebecca was not going to handle this well. He would have to find a way.
He would.
“I don’t know how to handle any of this! Can you imagine?”
Grace, Lillian and Phyllis had almost identical grins on their faces.
“Don’t give me those smug looks!”
“We’re just here to get you the right outfit. Now, how about this?” asked Grace, taking a green number with a plunging neckline and putting it up against Rebecca, who winced.
“I don’t think so. I definitely don’t think so. Don’t you think this is too soon? And too big? I mean… This is too big!”
Phyllis shrugged.
“Hey, he’s proved himself to be perfectly reliable, as far as I’m concerned. If he wants to make a big deal out of this, let him. Anyway, it’s sweet that he wants to do this. It’s a bit like presenting his consort to his court.”
Rebecca nearly choked.
“That’s exactly what it’s like! Oh, it’s so romantic, wait until I tell Tianna about it! She wanted to come, Becca, but she’s got something. One of her groups or meetings or something.”
“That’s fine,” said Rebecca, frankly glad that she didn’t have to deal with Tianna on top of everything else.
“I’m not his consort,” insisted Rebecca.
“Fine, but if you were, that green dress would be perfect for you. How about this red number? Red is a good color on you, Beck. You never wear it, but it looks excellent on you.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t think I want to stand out like that. I want something like… this!”
She grabbed a rather drab pattern in beige.
“You might not want to stand out too much but in that, you will blend into the drapes. Come on, let’s see if we can find a compromise…”
Rebecca gave up and sat down, gratefully accepting a glass of cool water from the owner of the boutique, one of Grace’s clients, and letting the three most important women in her life decide what she was going to wear.
She vetoed a couple more choices – Grace was really stuck on red, and Lillian had taken over the cleavage point of view – before Phyllis pulled something out.
“Oh,” said Rebecca, and she nodded.
It was a deep purple, the neckline was reasonable, and the length was right. It was the color that made it.
“Regal enough for a consort being presented to the king’s court,” teased Phyllis.
Rebecca let it slide, because she could see herself in it, and she could see herself beside George, wearing it. That was the first moment she felt as if she could see the two of them together, and the picture didn’t look entirely wrong. She could see herself belonging, at least a bit.
That was the moment she began to accept that she was a part of George’s life, and he was a part of hers.
Chapter 8
Rebecca smiled, and nodded, and said the right things.
At least, she hoped she did.
It must have been something to live in a house that had a ballroom and the amenities to handle a formal party with over a hundred guests. At least she had made the right choice with the dress, and she was glad that she’d let Grace and Lillian drag her off to a salon to get styled. Her new haircut was short and well suited for her face. It would take some getting used to, but she would handle that, too. Her life was changing. It was only fair that her look changed with it, she supposed.
The look on George’s face when he’d seen her had made up for some of the nerves. His eyes shined brightly, and he slipped his arm around her possessively enough to make those butterflies flutter again. Those butterflies were never completely still when she was with George. Even the slightest touch could remind her of how those kisses had felt.
“I’m afraid faces are beginning to blend into each other,” confessed Rebecca after about an hour.
George smiled at her fondly, as if he was proud of her.
“You’re handling this remarkably well. I don’t know why you were nervous about this. I… Well, there’s Gerald. He got held up earlier. You met Bethany, of course – she’s the one who greeted you.”
Rebecca had never seen a lovelier woman than Bethany. She didn’t think she had ever seen a sadder woman than Bethany, either.
“Yes, of course.”
“Gerald is the one in charge now. He’ll make his way over here when he’s ready. Bethany insisted on having a cake – apparently, 65 is a special enough number that I have to cut a symbolic cake – after I cut that, I think I can hand over networking duties to my son.”
Rebecca smiled.
“You sound so proud when you say it – your son. It’s nice to hear.”
“You sound just as proud when you say Phyllis, and even prouder when you say Annabelle. They’re doing well, I hope? It’s too bad they couldn’t make it.”
Phyllis had put her foot down and refused, but Rebecca didn’t say that. Betrayed by her own daughter, thought Rebecca.
“Annabelle has a school project of some sort. You know, last time, you didn’t really get the chance to show me your dojo. I’ve become better at it, you know. I could probably take you on now.”
George grinned.
“Would you like to try, after the party? I wouldn’t complain, Rebecca. I’d like to see your... form.’
That slight pause before ‘form’ made the butterflies flutter even harder, faster.
Rebecca recognized the feeling, of course she did. She was not an inexperienced maiden, for god’s sake. She had been married and had a child. She’d been married to a man who had wanted her, whom she had wanted, with all her heart.
“I… Maybe,” she said, finally.
“Maybe? I’ll take that for now. Ah, Gerald. Did you sort everything out?”
“It’s handled. This must be your… companion.”
The pause before ‘companion’ made Rebecca’s smile wobble just a little bit, but she shrugged it off. No, she must have imagined that, of course.
Gerald looked like George, but he somehow looked harder, harsher and sterner than George. He had grey eyes, unlike George’s sparkling blue ones. They made him seem a little colder.
He was not a man with natural warmth like his father was. Rebecca thought she could begin to understand why Bethany looked so unhappy. She would be unhappy living with a man like Gerald, too.
“This is Rebecca Langston. Rebecca, my son, Gerald. I’m honored that Rebecca agreed to be here with me tonight, Gerald. She is as much the guest of honor as I am, as far as I’m concerned.”
“I need to talk to yo
u about a few things.”
George nodded.
“Tomorrow. I’ll be available in the morning. I’m off work tonight, Gerald. What’s the point of retirement if you can’t even enjoy a Saturday evening without work, on your birthday? Now, if you will excuse me, I see somebody I want Rebecca to meet.”
“Gerald seems a little… disapproving.”
“Gerald disapproves of most things in life, as you can see from the pinched look on poor Bethany’s face. Now, come on, I want you to meet Elizabeth, and her new boyfriend. Tony. She likes younger men. You don’t seem to have such preferences.”
Rebecca’s mouth nearly dropped open.
“Tony? Oh no, it is the same Tony! Wow, he has a type, doesn’t he? He was dating my friend Grace a few weeks ago. He tried to get her to invest in a gym or something of the sort and she told him to get lost.”
“Well then, I predict that that beautiful young man is going to be told to get lost twice in the span of a month if he tries that on Elizabeth, and that will be a real learning experience for him.”
Rebecca found herself loosening up a little more, and even enjoyed herself a little. There were a few looks, of course, but she didn’t really mind them. She wasn’t even surprised by them. Of course people were curious about her. She wasn’t one of them, and George was making no secret of the fact that he was…
Well, he seemed smitten. It was… intoxicating, far more intoxicating than the sparkling wine she sipped. The way he looked at her, the way he held her hand, his obvious approval of her as she handled political conversations with ease and elegance, it was all intoxicating.
Rebecca found herself thinking of the evening as a success, especially when he held her hand as he cut the cake, and offered her a bite of it, even if it was supposed to be a symbolic cake.
It was as if the king’s consort had been presented to the court, and there might have been a few questioning looks and snide remarks, but there had been no open mutiny. Rebecca chose to accept George’s word that Gerald’s reaction was just how his son was.
Rebecca even found herself planning to talk to Bethany to see if there was any way she could help the young woman, just in case she needed help.