Bold and Simful

Shelly Placer was disappointed, ok she was downright pissed, that Francis’ divorce had never materialized.  She had imagined herself as the Lady of Mendenhall Place as soon as Catherine was out of the way but it was becoming obvious that wasn’t going to happen.  Catherine was back home and running the roast and Daddy’s little girl was set to inherit everything now that her brother had been disinherited.

Francis stood over his sulking mistress wondering why he bothered to continue the affair.  It had been fun and with his birthday just days away, she had kept him feeling young but she was becoming a bore.  Spending time at her house was no longer a relief from his oppressive home life.  Without actually breaking off the affair, he began to stay away.

Home wasn’t much better.  Catherine and Elizabeth were barely speaking since Catherine discovered the plan to bribe Kitty not to marry his son Xavier and had refused to understand his perspective on the matter. To make matters truly frustrating, the plan and had failed and the couple had actually gotten married and were now expected a child, or so he had read in the paper.

Then there was his wife’s new venture.  She had made a success of her little flower shop, much more than he had expected, but people (and not the right kind of people) were coming and going at all hours.

His single light was Elizabeth, she was working as his second in command at Mendenhall Enterprises and doing well at her position but she was still too emotional about certain matters; a weakness from which the fairer sex always suffered.

Thankfully the silent supper ended.  Francis retired to bed, he was so tired lately, and Elizabeth went off to the study.

Leaving Catherine to answer the door to her husband’s mistress.

“I don’t care what you have to tell him,” Catherine intercepted, “You are not welcome here, as if you thought you would be? Please! Let me tell you something…my goal in life is to reach my golden anniversary, happily or not. After that, he’s all yours…If you can convince him to move to your place that is, which I highly doubt.”

“By then he’ll be a crusty old fart!”  Shelly clenched her fists in frustration, nothing was going according to plan.

“But he’ll be your crusty old fart!” Catherine replied coolly, “Now, get out.”

Xavier arrived for work the next morning, his mother had requested his help in her flower shop and since he couldn’t find employment elsewhere, he had accepted.

“Congratulations, Xavier!” Catherine embraced her son, “How is Kitty? Is she eating enough? Are you making sure she stays off her feet? She’s not still working is she?” she asked, still clinging to the only family member who still had a heart.

Xavier laughed and tried to break free, “She’s doing fine, Mom.  Talia is making sure she eats and the office gave her three days off. Umm…Mom, you have to let go, it’s going to be a busy day around here.”

Xavier was right, with the Winter Fete this weekend and four elder birthdays on the way, the flower shop was hopping.  The review in the Current Dispatch had drawn in folks from as far away as Nephila, which would explain how Felicity Drysdale, mother of Monica Drysdale-Winfield, appeared in the shop.

“Maxine? Maxine, is that you?” Felicity asked.  She hadn’t seen her old best friend from high school since the Winfield’s wedding and that had been the first time in years.

Maxine closed her eyes and wished for her old friend to disappear like she had right after graduation.  Felicity’s return complicated things for Maxine.  She had spent the first few years of her marriage to Robert scared that he would leave if Felicity returned with the child, but she never had and Robert seemed completely unaware that his old girlfriend had even been pregnant, then Veronica and Maleena had been born and the family had moved to Orion Bay.

Maxine had been able to handle Monica, Robert’s long lost child, turning up just as her own daughters were graduating from college.  The kid was cute and doing extremely well for herself and didn’t seem to want anything except a tentative relationship with her father.  Felicity, Maxine feared, would be a different story.

“Maxine, that has to be you. It’s me, Felicity,” she tapped her old friend on the shoulder forcing her to turn around.

‘That didn’t go as well as I had hoped,’  Felicity thought as she walked away, feeling Maxine’s eyes searing right through her heavy coat. ‘You would think that I was the one in the wrong here.‘

Felicity didn’t have any designs on Robert or on returning to the area.  She only wanted to remain close to her daughter, especially now that the twins had been born and if that meant making nice with her daughter’s step-mother, she would have to hold her tongue.

Felicity and Maxine weren’t the only ones not getting along, with so many people in the shop at one time, there were bound to be a few disagreements.

“Whatever, Lizzie…” Xavier waved his sister’s finger out of his face.

“Don’t call me that!” Elizabeth hated that nickname, “I don’t know why you’re acting like this, we were trying to help you. You can’t see it but everyone else can, why do you think no one showed up for your wedding? And this pregnancy, don’t you think…”

“Elizabeth,” Xavier’s voice held a warning, “back off!”

“Fine,” Elizabeth retreated.  People in love were always blind and it was up to those around them to see for them but she realized that at this moment she had gone too far.

“…can get Lydia into Hunter!” Jay clapped his hands with delight at the thought of a Gibson finally going to college, even if they weren’t exactly a Gibson and even if a few strings had to be pulled to make it happen.

“What’s this?” Elizabeth asked,stopping short upon hearing the name of her daughter’s come out her mother’s mouth.

Catherine stood frozen for a moment,  not sure how to respond.  When she had discovered that the Gibson’s had adopted her granddaughter she had intended to tell her daughter as soon as Elizabeth had graduated from college, but her sweet little girl had changed and Lydia was doing just fine in the Heights.  She decided to withhold some of the truth, “I’m going to help Jay get his daughter into Hunter.”

“Oh,” Elizabeth walked away.  She didn’t have any interest in their former maid’s child.

Catherine was exhausted by the end of the day, Xavier was still going strong ringing up the last of the customers.

His mother was paying him well, actually she was overpaying him, but that wasn’t why Xavier was working so hard.  He had found that he liked the service industry, waiting on clients, convincing them to buy when they really didn’t want to spend any money.  He was good at it and had earned Catherine’s Creations two of its four stars with his courteous service.  He hoped that, if he showed initiative and enthusiasm, his mother would leave him the business.

“No, no, no.  That’s impossible,” Francis protested upon receiving a late night phone call, “Not at this stage of my life.”

“Catherine? Do you have a minute?” Francis entered his wife’s suite and stood awkwardly next to her bed.

“Mmm hmmm…” Catherine didn’t glance up from her book.

“I think I made a mistake,” Francis offered tentatively.

“And what was that?” Catherine closed her book and tucked it under her pillow, Francis admitting to a mistake deserved attention.

As the story poured out, across the bay over in Rigel Heights Shelly was putting what Francis had referred to as a mistake and who she referred to as Delilah to sleep in her crib.

—–

Notes: Francis aged after his talk with Catherine but it didn’t fit with the story.  Catherine still has two days to go until her birthday but since time marches on simultaneously among the houses in Orion Bay, an update about the Bettencourts is coming tomorrow so I can explain why there are a bunch of old farts at this weekend’s Winter Fete.

 

Posted on August 19th, 2008 under Mendenhall, Orion Bay. Tags: catherine, felicity, francis, maxine, Mendenhall, shelly, xavier. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.