A Beautiful New Life (4 page)

“You’re going to be the hottest chick at dinner tonight.” He was definitely appreciating the view.

“Stop that.” She said again and laughed. “You look very nice as well.” He was wearing a pair of black slacks with a white buttoned down dress shirt. The shirt
was opened
at the chest giving anyone
,
who would take it
,
peek at his rock hard chest. “So I guess we’ll be the hottest couple at dinner then.”

“Shall we?”
He asked and s
he smiled and grabbed his hand and they headed down the hallway to the dining room.

Louise was surprised to see so many people. The whole day she had only seen a few staff members.
H
ere at dinner
, though,
there were five other tables with three or four couples at each. They were greeted and shown to their table where they
were seated
with three other couples. After some quick introductions
,
they all turned their attention to the menu.

“May I make a suggestion,” Scott was sitting
un
comfortably close to her
.
S
he shook off the feeling and enjoyed the closeness of his body to hers and the scent of his cologne. His breath, soft on her bare arm, gave her goose bumps.

“Yes, please what do you recommend?”
She perused
the menu
as he leaned in closer to point out his recommendation
.

“I’d recommend the lemon herb crusted halibut with steamed broccoli and carrots. I caught the fish myself.” He laughed his full throat hearty laugh.

“Well then I’m sure it’ll be good.” She was enjoying the good mood that was quickly making its way around the table
as t
he server came over and took their orders. While waiting for their meals they all took the opportunity to talk with the other guest. Mr. and Mrs. Brans were celebrating their first wedding anniversary. Miss
Tyche
won a trip on a radio show and brought her boyfriend, Fred. Louise now turned her attention to the last couple.

“Hi, my name’s Louise,” she extended her hand to the young girl.

“Hi
I’m
Abby.” She shook Louise’s hand and smiled.

“This is Scott.” He was deep in conversation with Fred and did not acknowledge her. “Who’s your
date
?” Louise inquired of the very handsome young man beside Abby.

“Oh,”
she said and the embarrassment showed in her reddening cheeks.
“
T
his is Pete
,
he works here.
I’m
here by myself and he was kind enough to escort me to dinner.

Seeing her
embarrassment,
Louise spoke up quickly. “Scott works here too. My husband, Arlin, bought this trip for me for my birthday. I thought he was going to come with me but that didn’t work out.”

“Why didn’t you chan
ge your reservation?” She asked. She raised her glass and took a
sip on her wine
while
waiting for Louise’s response.

“They said they’re always full and couldn’t accommodate any changes. They even made Arlin sign a form acknowledging no refunds if we
couldn’t
make the scheduled date
nor,
under no circumstances
,
will a change be allowed. Arlin doesn’t like money wasted so I had to come alone.”

Abby fiddled with her glass of wine, “My husband, Bill, and I had plans to come for Christmas and were told the same thing when Bill had some work come up that he had to
do
.” She continued to sip on her wine. Louise leaned in to listen to what she was saying. From the slurring of her
words,
Louise suspected they had been feeding her wine all day as well. “He tried to change the reservations
,
and believe me when Bill wants something he usually gets it. I was so disappointed that I was going to have to come by myself
but a
t the last minute Bill’s boss told him to take the time off and go with me.”

“So why are you here by yourself now?” Louise now intrigued by Abby’s story.

“The night before we were to leave Bill received a call saying they were able to accommodate our request after all.” She finished her wine and now looked for the server for a refill. Not finding one she continued with her story. “You see what I mean, what Bill wants, Bill gets. Of
course,
now Bill is out of town for two weeks on a big project that is already behind schedule. So here I am
,
b
y myself.” The server now came and filled Abby’s glass.

“Well I’m having a wonderful time and don’t regret being here by myself.” Louise held her glass up to toast.

Dinner was served so the chatter
came to an end
. The halibut melted in her mouth and was as flavorful as Scott had promised. It
was followed
by their choice of dessert and more wine. Louise tried the banana rum cake and after the last bite
was
devoured
,
she wished she could have asked for seconds. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day. They got up to leave, wishing
the
other
guests
farewell
.
As
Scott escorted her back to her
room,
Louise was
thinking how
glad she
was that she
came by herself. She was sure Arlin would have found something to complain about and ruin the whole trip but Scott had been so kind and attentive.

“Well I have to say that was a very lovely evening and thank you so much for escorting me to dinner tonight.” She was tipsy from all the wine at dinner and throughout the day and was glad Scott was with her now, arm in arm as they walked down the hall to
her room. They reached her room and s
he thanked him again for a wonderful evening, extending her hand for him to shake but instead he leaned in to kiss her. She felt the urge to respond
,
to allow him to, but in the back of her
mind
she could hear her kids calling for her. She pulled
her head back
too fast
and hit it hard against
the door.

Chapter Two

“Daddy, when is Mommy coming home?” Kenny curled up with Arlin on the couch.
It was late Sunday evening and Louise should have been home hours earlier.

“I don’t know kiddo. Soon, I hope.” He got up from the couch and paced. “Hey let’s get your baths and get you guys to bed.” He shepherd the boys toward the bathroom and ran their baths. The quietness of their bath time confirmed for Arlin that they sensed something was wrong. He got them all dried off and tucked into bed.

“Hey Charlie I think you’re just about old enough now to have your own room.” He tucked the blankets around him. “What do you think about that?”
Charlie’s hair was slowly starting to turn a dirty
blond
from the golden blond that he had had for years and with each day he started looking more and more like his mother.

“Sure but after mom gets home.” He put his arms around Arlin’s neck as he leaned in to kiss him goodnight.

“Of course.
Night buddy.”
He tucked the other two boys in
,
turned off the light and closed the door. The weekend had gone by too fast. Arlin went to the bathroom and pulled out his bottle of valium from the medicine cabinet. He would never sleep was the reason as he popped the pill in his mouth and swallowed.

He woke to the soun
d of his alarm
and h
is head pounding
. The valium had done nothing for him so he had followed it by a bottle of
cheap
whiskey
he found in the pantry
. He now wished he had skipped that step.
He rolled over and found Louise’s side of the bed empty.
His first thought was she possibly could have been
up already
,
but it was apparent that her side of the bed
had not been slept in
.
He crawled out of bed and went to the kitchen to brew some
much-needed
coffee. While it brewed, he showered and dressed. He heard the kids and went to them as they rushed out of their room.

“Mommy!”
They yelled in unison. They ran from the bedroom to the kitchen.
“Mommy!”
They yelled again.

“Hey kiddo’s, mommy isn’t home yet.” The boys stood
looking not sure how to react. Despite their age difference
,
most would have thought they were triplets. Three blonde headed little boys all with bright blue eyes like their dad stood side by side wanting to understand what their father just said to them. Kenny, the youngest,
started to cry.

“Hey now
,
no crying.
I think I must have got the day wrong. Maybe she wasn’t coming home until today.”

“No Dad. Mom definitely said Sunday.” Charlie
said.
Not only did he look like her, h
e
was too much li
ke his mother, always remembering
everything.
Charlie was ten and t
he oldest of the three
;
Arlin needed him to be a little more understanding and
help
instead of stirring up trouble.

“Charlie, you’re not helping any. Take your brothers in and get them dressed while I make breakfast.”

“Mom always makes breakfast first, than we get dressed.” Drake
said.

“Well Mom isn’t here.” Arlin slammed the box of cereal on the counter. He did not need defiance this morning. He took a deep breath. “Just go do what I said please.”

Charlie pulled the boys down the hallway and helped them get dressed. They returned to the kitchen where bowls of cold cereal were waiting on the counter for them. Kenny started to say something but Charlie hushed him before he could.

“Hurry up now, we have to get going.” Arlin was tapping his fingers on the counter.

“Dad you can’t drop us off at school this early. It’s not open yet.” Charlie hesitantly told him.

“What? I thought you all went to daycare.” He slammed his fist on the counter. “Damn it!”

He grabbed the phone and dialed.
”Penny, this is Arlin Gilab, Kenny’s dad. Louise
isn’t
home yet from her weekend trip and I have to get to work. Can I drop all three boys off to you this morning?” He paused. “Yes, of course. I understand
I’ll
have to pay extra. Thank you. Everything should be back to normal tomorrow.” He hung up the phone and turned to the boys.

“There problem solved. Sorry I got angry.” He hurried the boys out to the truck.

The day felt like it crawled by and Arlin had to constrain himself from dipping into his valium stash. He sat at his desk when Shelley popped her head in
the room
.

“Mr. Gilab, it’s your daycare on line 1. They want to know when they can expect you to pick up the
boys
.”

“What?”

“The boys, sir.
They need picked up
from daycare
. Louise usually got them by five.”

“What time is it?” He looked at the clock and saw the answer to his question. “Is it really six o’clock?”

“Do you want me to pick them up f
or you?”

“No, no. I’ll go.”
Louise would never have allowed someone she did not know or trust to pick up her kids
,
e
specially Shelley, with her long
wavy
blonde hair
and beach ready body. Louise was jealous from the moment he had hired her, as she should have been. Arlin was not proud but he had a sexual attraction to her and on more than one occasion, working late at night, took advantage of her naivety.
Besides, he did not need anyone asking questions as to why he could not pick
them
up.
He turned off his computer, grabbed his keys, wished Shelley a goodnight and left. He made it to the daycare in record time and rushed in to collect the kids.

“Penny, I’m so sorry. The day got away from me and, well quite frankly, I expected Louise to be home by now.”

“I understand Arlin, but I need the kids picked up on time tomorrow. “Have you heard from Louise?”

“No, there’s been nothing. You know I thought that I had mistaken when she was supposed to be home but
I’m
really worried now. I’m calling the police if she isn’t at the house when I get home with the kids tonight.”