Anna Karenina

"I'm just saying that 'comfortable' is overrated. I wouldn't trade my girls for anything, but I would give anything—but them—for the kind of real passion I always dreamed of. Instead, I settled and now I have football, and beer drinking, and twice a month sex...if I'm lucky." She smiled then said, "Who am I kidding? Both times pretty much suck." She laughed then said, "And sucking is something I stopped doing ten years ago."

Karen laughed even as a tear formed in her eye again. "I had no idea," she told her sister.

"How could you not when your own marriage was just as bad? Karen, we both settled. We played it safe. We went for 'comfortable' and we reaped what we sewed. I'm not miserable, but I've given up on ever being really happy. And when the girls are gone, who knows?"

Karen wanted to chide her big sister and tell her things would get better, but she knew that wasn't true. The old adage about leopards not changing their spots was true. Her husband's personality was fixed. It wasn't going to suddenly change because his wife was feeling neglected or lonely. Her own husband had even sought out another woman who had things in common with him. Things she didn't share and had no interest in sharing. And that's when it hit her.

"Having things in common matters, doesn't it?" Karen said more as a statement than as a question.

"You better believe it," her sister replied. "I hate football," she said causing them both to laugh. "And beer!" She sighed then said, "What I wouldn't give to have my husband be thoughtful, romantic, and charming. I don't care that he's going bald. I don't care about his expanding waist. I just want someone to love me...like that." She blinked away several tears then said, "Sorry! No Debbie Downer today! Come on, let's go get something to eat!"

Karen stayed until a little after 1pm and spent most of that time playing with her nieces. They were 'her' girls; the children she'd never had because her husband was too selfish to share his time with anyone else. Of all the things that had hurt her over the years, his unwillingness to even consider having a child hurt more than even the affair she was sure he'd been having.

She'd played by the rules. She'd married a man her own age. She'd tried to be the best wife possible. And in return, she'd gotten loneliness, heartache, and almost certainly, betrayal. And now, there was someone in her life who shared all of her deepest values and dreams; someone who was kind, caring, thoughtful, romantic, and unbelievably gorgeous. Would she really let age and money stand in the way of being happy? Would fate ever open another opportunity like this were she to let it pass her by?

She hugged her nieces and wished them a Merry Christmas then did the same to her brother-in-law who back up and who already had the smell of beer on his breath before saying goodbye to her sister.

"Your advice did something invaluable for me," Karen told her.

"Oh, really?" she said hoping for more.

"Uh-huh. You helped me to...see clearly."

Understanding no more than she had, her sister accepted the answer she was given at face value. "Well, then I'm glad. I think," she said before hugging her very hard. "I love you, K-K."

"I love you, too. And I'm pretty sure I love someone else, too."

"Will you let me know when you're sure?" she asked.

"You'll be the second to know," she promised before hugging her sister one more time.

"I uh...I gotta run before this window of opportunity closes," Karen said as their embrace ended. "Thank you. Thank you for making things so clear."

"You're...welcome?" her sister said smiling just because Karen finally looked happy.

A feeling of euphoria washed over on the drive home; a feeling that lasted until she realized she didn't even have his phone number or his address. Her brain was foggy from lack of sleep, but at some point she finally remembered this thing called a phone book. It was kept on the internet these days, but there couldn't be that many Vosses, could there?

She was sitting alone and scrolling through the Vs in the digital White Pages when her phone rang and startled so badly she nearly dropped it. Without looking, she swiped it and said excitedly, "Alex? Alex...I can see clearly now and..."

"Mrs. Van Gelder?" she heard.

"Oh, sorry. Yes. This is she," she said.

"Ma'am, this is Chief Inspector Cruz."

He was the lead on her arson investigation case.

"What now?" she thought. Were they going to arrest or her?

"I am so, so sorry to be calling you on Christmas Day, but we have new information."

"What kind of new information?" she asked tentatively.

"We brought someone new in on the investigation and he found something just yesterday the rest of us missed."

Karen held her breath waiting for him to speak.

"There was a cigarette butt with lipstick on it buried in the rubble. Rubble we sifted through literally using strainers. I have no idea how we missed it, but we did. And we've been able to match the lip print to a Mrs. Shelly..."

The moment she heard the name, she knew. She'd been right all along. He had been having an affair.

"We questioned her again this morning and she admitted being there...I'm sorry to tell you this...with your husband. We found the cigarette butt in the ashes of the master bedroom so I'm sure you understand the implications. At any rate, she admitted there'd been an on-going affair and that your husband was indeed very drunk by the time she left. She played no role in his death, but this is information I thought you'd like to hear even on Christmas Day."

She sat there in stunned silence for several seconds as the validation hit her fully.

"Um, yes. Thank you, Inspector. I'm just glad you were able to work through this."

"I'm closing the case tomorrow and recommending you be paid in full per your insurance policy and my sincere apologizing for the long delay and for possibly ruining your Christmas."

"No. You didn't ruin it, Inspector Cruz. In fact, in some odd way, you just made it. Thank you for calling and letting me know."

Karen fought off the urge to cry brought on by the relief of knowing the truth as well as her sheer level of exhaustion. But there was still no way she could sleep.

She returned to her search and somehow ended up in the Yellow Pages rather than the white kind. She scrolled down when she found Voss. She saw Voss carpet cleaning, interior design by Voss, Voss Brothers roofing, and then she saw an entry that captured her full attention. It said Voss Tools by Alex Voss, Sr., and Son. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that was almost certainly him.

Her heart was pounding as she went back to the White Pages and quickly found the name of Alex Voss, Sr. Her heart was in her throat as she dialed the number.

She heard it ring a third time and just as she was about to mentally crash and burn, someone picked up. "Hello?" a deep male voice said.

"Mr. Voss?" she assumed.

"Yes? May I ask who's calling?" he said pleasantly.

"Sir, my name is Karen. Karen Van...Karen Finney. I...I was calling for Alex. Um...junior. Is he home by any chance?" Her hand was trembling and her voice was shaky as she sat there waiting for his reply.

"He's in his room reading a book. I'll go get him. You said this is Karen, right?" His voice sounded different, but Karen didn't know just how or why.

"Yes. That's right," she said before exhaling a long, slow breath.

After what seemed like an eternity, she heard the sweetest sound of her life.

"Karen?"

"Alex? Alex, is that really you?" she said trying so hard not to cry.

"Are you okay?" he asked with deep concern.

"Yes," she said as the tears came. "I'm fine. Alex? I can see clearly now. I...I see everything so clearly."

"I'm so glad. In that case, I need to tell you something but it has to be in person," he told her.

"Dear God. Please don't tell me the window has closed. Please!"

"No. The window is very much still open. Wide open, in fact. Are you at home?"

"Yes. I'm at home and please come and see me."

Twenty minutes later, he was at her door which flew open before he could knock.

"Alex! Alex I..."

"I love you, Karen," he told her taking her into his arms. "I love you so much."

"I love you, too! God, how I love you!"

Minutes later they were together in bed, without a stitch of clothes between them.

"Am I still beautiful to you?" you asked with so much hopefulness Alex could feel it.

"More than ever," he told her. "And you always will be, honey."

She blinked back more tears then said, "Please make love to me. Please?"

"Yes, but not before I tell you how much I love you." He stroked her pretty face then brushed back her hair and smiled. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach..."

Without pause, Karen picked up where he left off. "When feeling out of sight for the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely..."

"As men strive for right," he said.

Karen couldn't stop crying and said, "Could you please just hold me first? Just for a little while? Would that be okay?"

"Anything you want will always be okay with me. And I will always be here for you, my love. Always."

Alex didn't mind in the least that after maybe ten minutes, Karen's body finally relaxed and she fell asleep in his arms. It was after 8 o'clock when she finally awoke. The room was dark but not cold and she felt his warmth as he cradled her in his arms.

"I...fell asleep. And...and you're still here," she said.

"You were exhausted. You needed to sleep. And I told you I will always, always be here for you."

"I feel terrible for making you wait and yet what you just said made me happier than I've ever been. Alex? I love you so much and I am so thankful for you. I really am sorry I fell asleep. I wanted to make love with you so badly."

"Hey, none of that. After all, love means never having to say you're sorry, right?"

Karen laughed then rolled over on top of him. "I have to pee like crazy, but when I get back I am going to rock your world."

Her smile was genuine and pure he pulled her close and kissed her long and hard.

"Then go pee. And hurry!"

For the next hour or so, Karen was treated the way she'd dreamed of being treated for as long as she could remember. Alex was gentle, tender, loving, and oh-so attentive. She'd rarely had an orgasm that wasn't self-induced, and she'd had three with her handsome young lover. The first was thanks to his very talented middle finger or more correctly—fingertip—as they kissed deeply and passionately. The second was the result of his equally talented tongue while the third came as his very nicely-thick cock slowly fucked her as she pushed hard against it, moaning and sighing with pleasure.

With her late husband, the lights were always off and her eyes were always closed. This time, Karen was afraid to close her eyes for fear this might be a dream she was only imagining and were she to do so, it would all disappear.

As she lay snuggled up in his arms she said, "Tell me about Voss tools."

"What makes you ask that?" he said surprised she even knew. She explained searching for him in the phone book and how she'd come across it.

"I would have told you...eventually," he assured her. "I just needed to know you loved me for me."

She looked up and said, "What does that mean? Is your family rich or something?"

"Kind of," he told her with a smile. "Voss is the fourth largest tool manufacturer in the US. We're behind Stanley, Craftsman, and DeWalt."

"So...a job really isn't a concern, is it?"

"Not so much," he told her trying not to smile. "That's why I can afford—no pun intended—to spend my time reading. That doesn't mean I'm lazy, though. While I read—a lot—my dad's been grooming me to take over for a couple of years now. This just provides me with the incentive I've needed to dive in head first."

"He sounded nice," she said.

"He is. He's pretty great, in fact. I told him about you today, by the way."

Karen sat up quickly and said, "You told him? About me? The horrible older woman who's..."

"It's okay. My mom was ten years older than my dad. Like me, he doesn't care about your age. All he cares about is who you are and once I told him, he said he was very happy for me and that I should do something before you got away."

She laid back down and rested her head on his chest again. "And yet I was the one scared to death you might run away from me."

"Uh-uh. Never gonna happen, beautiful," he told her. "Have I told you how beautiful you are lately?"

"Yes, but I could stand to hear it again a time or two before it gets um...old."

Alex laughed along with Karen then told her again how much he loved her. She sat up then said, "Oh, yeah? Then prove it."

He flipped her over on her back causing her to playfully scream.

She reached for him and purred when she realized he was once again growing hard.

"Gorgeous and a big dick. Talk about winning the lottery!" she teased.

"All the better to fuck you with, my dear," he teased back.

"Save the improv and give me that monster cock of yours again...please!"

Later that evening Karen shared her good news on the house and the investigation.

"Well, at least now you know," he told her. "It must be bittersweet to find out you were right."

"It is, but nothing can take away the joy I've felt since I met you, Alex," she told him with complete sincerity. "I've dreamed of being this happy before, but it was...just a dream."

"Well, this is real, sweetheart, and I'll be here as long as you'll have me."

"Hmmm. Then I guess you'll be sticking around for the rest of your life?"

"You can count on it," he told her before making love to her again.

Alex proposed to her on Valentine's Day, just one week after construction began on her...now—their—new home. Karen refused any money from her then-boyfriend to help out with the cost of rebuilding, but after proposing she told him she'd be willing to let him pay for some upgrades.

"Maybe we could have crown molding and hardwood floors instead of carpeting?"

"Uh-huh. And granite instead of laminate?"

"And...stainless steel instead of black or white?"

"Don't push it," he said trying to sound serious having already agreed to do just that.

Most importantly, Alex helped with finding and buying as many of the books Karen had lost in the fire as they could find. When it was all said and done, they'd restored her library to something closely resembling what it had once been.

Alex turned 19 in March and they were married on June 14th which was flag day. They had a very romantic and patriotic wedding paid for by Alex Voss, Senior, who gave his new daughter-in-law the kind of wedding she'd always wanted but had never had. She didn't ask for it, but he'd insisted.

After a wonderful reception with everyone they knew in attendance, the happy couple flew off to Europe for a two-week vacation that included London, Paris, and Rome and a whole lot of lovemaking.

Neither of them knew for sure when it happened, but one of those sessions resulted in Karen becoming pregnant and nine months later, the birth of their son, Alexei David Voss who would be affectionately called 'Alex cubed' even though no multiplication was involved. Just addition; an addition to the loving family this unlikely pair had created.

Five years later, Alex, Junior, took over Voss Tools, two years after the birth of their second child, a baby girl they named Anna Karenina Voss. Yes, they knew it would require their daughter to explain her name a thousand times, but it only seemed fitting that they name her after the character that had brought her mother and father together.

Had Alex not been reading that very book on that cold December day, there would be no little girl to name, let alone to name after the woman who loved so deeply and so passionately, just as Karen Voss loved her very own dashing husband named Alex.