Wendy laughed and nodded."Thank you, Elena. So, what do I tell mark? He's up there right now wondering if we are killing each other.""I have an idea. Why not let me go up there and finish reading the story to the girls? While I'm doing that, you can talk to mark. Trust me, Wendy, he'll understand.""Okay. Aunt Elena, huh?" Wendy smiled."Yeah, uh, it was the only thing I could think of when I walked in.""Well, Aunt Elena, go upstairs and read to my girls while I talk to my husband.""Yeah, why don't I do just that? What a great idea! Too bad I didn't think of it first."Elena gave Wendy a grin and walked up the stairs. She heard mark's voice and followed it to the bedroom door. She looked around the doorframe and watched for a minute.The girls were in their beds and mark was sitting in between them on a chair with a book on his lap. He was looking from one daughter to the other as he read the story. It was obvious from watching him that this was the same story he told them every
"Oh, okay. So, what are you going to do now?"Elena could sense the relief in Mark's voice at the news of Damien and that he wouldn't be coming back, but she also read between the lines with his question. Damn it boy, don't you ever give up?"Well, I thought I'd just go back to work this week and then either go see Marie or have her come up here. Actually, I know she's coming up here. We're going to have dinner together."Elena didn't add, with mark and his family. Anyway, Mark didn't need to know every last detail."Oh, so you and her are really going out, then?"Mark sounded disappointed. Good."Yeah, we are, Mark. Exclusively."Give up you bastard. She didn't want to think of him like this, but he wasn't giving her much choice."Oh. Okay. Well, I'll talk to you later then. Bye."Elena was relieved and annoyed. Glad that he didn't push the ranger issue, but pissed that after all they had discussed last week, he still had the balls to think he could have a shot at dating her. What wa
"Good morning, Elena. How are you feeling? Ready to get back to the grind?""Yeah, and thanks for being there for me, mark. You don't know how much all of this means to me. Thank you.""You're welcome. I'm glad I could be there for you. I've always liked you, and, well, I've thought of you as my long lost cousin, sort of. Anyway, I'm glad I could help out.""Cousin, huh? Well, it looks like I'm going to be your sister-in-law, even if it isn't legal yet. Speaking of sisters, Marie is coming up to dinner tomorrow night and I would greatly appreciate it if you and your family would join us. I want to surprise Marie and I can't think of a better way to do it other than dinner with everybody.""Wow! Yeah, I would love to have dinner with you and Lena. I think the girls would enjoy it as well. Yes, I'll tell Wendy. What time?""I think six o'clock would be fine. Any requests? I'm cooking.""No broccoli, other than that, whatever you want to fix would be fine.""No broccoli? Allergies?""Yea
Charlenne stopped and looked at elena to see if there was going to be a bad reaction. Elena snickered and nodded, well, at least she did as I asked."Yeah, something like that. So, what's the problem, Charlenne? If Rhoda told you it was a bad joke, why are you staring holes into my back?"Elena was still grinning to let Charlenne know that she wasn't upset about the revelation. Charlenne blushed again and couldn't quite meet Elena's gaze. Then Elena smelled it, very faint, but a distinctly recognizable scent. An aroused female. Elena eyes suddenly widened and she looked at Charlenne closely. Charlenne saw her look and turned pale."Oh! Charlenne, its okay. I think I get it now. You didn't want it to be a bad joke did you?"Charlenne was shaking and tears started to fall down her cheeks."Come with me, Charlenne; let's go into the lunchroom so we have some privacy."Elena grabbed her hand and Charlenne, although still looking like a scared lamb being led to the slaughter; let elena pul
Elena hadn't planned on revealing this much about her private life to anyone, but when she thought about it, she was telling the absolute truth and she was glad she could share it with Charlenne.Charlenne smiled and looked at elena in awe. There was a dreamy wistful look in her eyes as she listened to Elena tell her about her girlfriend."Wow! You really are in love with her. I hope one day I will find someone like that for myself. You look so happy when you talk about her. I'm jealous of her. Yeah, I know. We can't be like that, but I'm not upset about it anymore. Not now. We can be friends, Elena. I'd like that a lot.""I would too, Charlenne. Really. One of these days soon, you will have to come over to my house and meet her. I think you'll like her too. I know she'll like you. Oh, and one piece of advice, Charlenne; don't ever let Rhoda catch you looking at my ass like that, she won't have an ounce of mercy, she'll go for the jugular."Charlenne blushed furiously and snickered."
She skipped getting a beer tonight. She figured that since she had drunk two last night, she'd skip a day to make up for it. Besides, her stocks were getting low and she'd need to order another three cases soon. She liked to order that much at a time to save on the shipping costs and that way she only had to order once every three months. Oh, yeah, Marie wanted some too. I guess I'll order her a case with mine.She changed out of her work clothes and put on a pair of workout shorts and a tank top. She went into the living room and turned on the stereo, putting on Beethoven's 9th to relax to. She went into the kitchen and tried to think of what to cook for dinner. She found a package of steaks and went to put them into the microwave to defrost like she usually did but then stopped.Crap! I'm going to have to get rid of that infernal machine. I'm going to have to start a new habit and get out my dinner in the morning before I leave for work. She got out a large bowl and filled it with w
She pulled the easy chair over to the sweet spot in the middle of the room, curled up, and closed her eyes. Floating away with Iommi's guitar licks and Serj Tankian's vocals, she smiled and moved with the music. Yes, this was good. She was feeling better already. When Godsmack started playing she really got into it. She faded off for a little while and woke up in silence. She stretched and got out the chair with a groan. She looked at the clock and groaned again. Damn it! Well, I'll sleep for another three hours in my bed and get up again. She made her way to her bed before slipping under the covers and went back to sleep.When the alarm clock went off with its incessant chirping, her hand shot out and grabbed it, frantically stabbing for the snooze button. She found it, but not before giving herself a headache. I'll have to get a different alarm; with my new hearing that thing is demonically evil. She got up and went into the kitchen and started to make the coffee.She repeated the p
"What did you do?"Elenarepeated the scenario and her conversation with Rhoda. Then she told him what Rhoda had said."Look, mark, I know I've forgiven Wendy for what she did because we came to an understanding and I now know why she did what she did, but I just don't have it inside of me to feel sorry for Rhoda. I hope you can understand that."Elena sat down in the chair opposite mark and looked at him hopefully. Mark had a dark look on his face and she knew he wasn't happy about what had all transpired."I know that I'm to blame for part of this, so I can't really be all that pissed at you for things that were basically out of your control to start with. I never thought that things would get so far out of control. I know you did what you thought you needed to do to protect yourself. When it comes to Faith's behavior, again, I can't really blame you.""Damn it! So, you have been outed and by default, so has Faith, even when it's not true about her. If I weren't so worried about the