The Blonde Ch. 03

"No! Jack, no, wait!" I heard her voice behind me as I hurried down the path to my car, but I didn't stop. I heard her running footsteps and her voice again: "please! Jack!"

As I opened the car door she grabbed me from behind, tightly, pressing her whole body up against me. "No honey, please don't go! I'm sorry, you're right, I'm sorry!"

She was crying too. I turned around and she clung to me, sobbing, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

I let her pull me back towards the house, holding my arm tightly in her two hands, still apologizing tearfully.

"It's just all been ... so awful, I've been so ashamed, and angry--and afraid of what you'd say to me, whether you'd even speak to me--"

I interrupted her with a kiss, saying, "shh, I'm not angry."

"You're ... you mean you're not going to throw me out?"

I stared at her, shocked. "No, of course not! I love you, Tommie. This wasn't your fault!"

She stared into my eyes, as if she didn't believe what I was saying. Then she said quietly, "You don't know what I did, Jack. I let him fuck me. That bastard--Damon. He fed me lies and got me drunk, and I let him fuck me."

"I already know, honey," I said. "It's not your fault. I saw the DVD too." Her eyes grew wide, and then she started crying again.

"I'm so sorry, Jack..."

I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom, lying down next to her on the bed, rolling her into my arms, holding her, soothing her... I hoped she'd sleep, and we'd both be calmer in a few hours.

But Tommie just cried and cried, inconsolable; and then suddenly she opened her eyes and kissed me, hard. "Make love to me, Jack--please!"

She started tearing off my clothes, and within a minute or two we were both naked and she was pulling me on top of her and inside her, groaning, and humping up at me frantically, kissing me, pulling me to her as hard as she could, all the while saying, "please love me, baby, please," over and over.

It was more desperate and intense than it was pleasurable--but it was what she needed. When I felt myself begin to get close I tried to slow down but she said, "no! come in me! I need you to come in me!" thrusting at me harder, and moments later I ejaculated hard into her, shuddering, while she clutched me tight, saying, "yes, baby, yes Jack, thank God!"

After that we lay quietly together, relaxing, kissing each other on the lips and cheeks and eyes, gently; and fell asleep in each other's arms. "Thank God, thank God" is what I was thinking as I drifted off.

****************

When my eyes fluttered open, I reached for Tommie but she was no longer in bed. I listened hard, preparing to get up and find her, and heard her footsteps coming back down the hall. She came into the room and smiled at me, holding a tray. She'd put on my boxer shorts and a tee shirt.

"A little something to keep your strength up." She put it down on the bed between us and sat across from me. She'd made grilled-cheese sandwiches and a couple of bowls of tomato soup.

" 'Comfort food,' my mom used to call it. This is what she gave me and Alice when we were sick, or were having a bad day. I think that the last week qualifies, don't you?"

I leaned over and gave her a kiss. "Yeah, but it's over now. You're back, I'm here with you--it's just over."

After we'd eaten we moved the tray and lay down together, Tommie nestled in my arm, and we talked. Very carefully at first, just in bits and pieces about what had happened.

I didn't learn much that I didn't already know, but Tommie described how Damon gradually and systematically undermined her trust in me.

"He was such an actor, Jack. He'd listen to me tell him what was going on, or what you said, and then he'd nod and say, 'that sounds reasonable ... I guess.' And then he get this doubtful look on his face, and I'd say 'what?' and he'd look reluctant, and say 'no, it's nothing, I don't want to worry you.'

"And of course that only made me push him harder, and he'd tell me that Daniel Hattman at Minestra was a friend of his, and had mentioned that you seemed to be quite the ladies' man. Or that your explanation of that woman kissing you in the bar was, 'I don't know, Tommie, maybe a bit TOO convenient?'

"Crap like that--he never failed to get me worried, and to undo all the reasonable explanations you'd given me the night before. Once I learned he'd been reading my emails, it made a lot more sense--he always had time to prepare."

I told Tommie about everything I'd done since she disappeared: my calls to Katie and Eric, contacting David and all the help he'd been, spotting Don Harrington and getting the real story out of him.

"After that I finally realized who'd been doing all this to us. I called David and he did the rest. It was some 'colleague' of his who kidnapped Damon and made that recording."

Tommie nodded. "When I thought about it I realized it had to have something to do with David. He doesn't work for IBM, does he?"

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't, but he's never told me anything about who he really does work for, and I've never asked. We really owe him a lot."

We were silent for a while.

Then I said, "can I ask? About coming back to Indianapolis, and how ... how it was, to see the DVD?"

Tommie sat up and propped herself up with a pillow against the headboard. She looked away from me, out the window.

"I got to the Conrad and went straight to sleep. I was exhausted from the flight and just emotionally torn-up. Your betrayal, 4-5 days alone with Damon, having slept with him ... I just felt empty. I had no idea what I was going to do next.

"And then in the morning there was a knock on the door, and when I looked through the peephole there was no one. I opened it carefully, with the chain on, and saw an envelope marked 'Tommie.' Inside was the DVD, with a note that said 'WATCH THIS IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH.'

"It almost killed me, Jack. I had to stop it and cry about five times before I could even get through all of it."

Her tone hardened. "That BASTARD! That absolute shit!"

She turned to me. "He's dead now, isn't he?"

I shook my head. "David says No--the guy just dripped water on him, to give him a few miserable minutes of terror.

"We're going to have to figure out what to do about him."

"I've got a few ideas," she says. She was looking away from me again. "Most of them painful."

"When I realized what he'd done to me, to us--when I realized that he'd done all of that just to, to fuck me--and that I'd let him--

"I wanted to jump out the window. I actually sat and thought about it. I couldn't imagine that you'd ever take me back, after ... and I didn't see any reason why I should keep living."

She swung around to face me, giving me a wry smile. "I might have done it, you know? I sat there for a long time and thought, 'well, there's no hurry, I can spend the day here, get some food from room service, maybe I'll do it tonight. Jumping in the dark would be easier, not so scary...' "

She shuddered. "Thank God you and Katie came over. And thank God you sent her up first, Jack--I couldn't have faced you. I mean it. It took everything she had to convince me to let you come up."

"I was never mad at you, Tommie." I hugged her gently, kissing her forehead and her cheek.

"I was terrified, frantic, worried--and then when I saw the DVD I was furious at that asshole, of course, but mainly I was just sad. Sad at what he'd put you through--both of us, but especially you. And afraid of all the pain you'd be in."

She turned to look directly into my face. "I don't get it. How can you not be angry at me? Why don't you want to call me a cheating cunt--why don't you yell at me for not trusting you, for believing a scumbag like Damon instead of you?"

"Because you were tricked," I said. "And I was too. We both bought his 'good friend' act, that's all. We were wary, but not wary enough.

"Listen, Tommie, there's nothing I blame you for." My voice was firm. "And nothing you should blame yourself for." I stood up and reached for her hand. "Come with me, okay?"

I led her into the bathroom and she followed me, looking curious. I got the water running in our big stall shower, then gently took her tee shirt and shorts off and guided us both underneath the warm spray.

I held her there, holding her gently as the water warmed and soothed us, and then I got the soap and began to wash her. Gently and slowly I did every inch of her: her fingers and hands, then her arms and shoulders, her back and her breasts; then I got on my knees and did each of her feet and legs in turn, Tommie resting her hands on my back for balance. Then I carefully but thoroughly washed her mound of golden pubic hair, her pussy and her ass, holding one of her legs up and to the side so I could reach every spot.

All this time Tommie was passive and quiet, her eyes closed, letting me move her as I needed to. When I was done with her body I got the shampoo and washed her hair, giving her a loving scalp massage before I was done. Last thing of all I got a little more soap and washed her face gently with my fingers, tracing across her lips, her nose, even her eyelids.

Finally I was done. I took her in my arms again, her head resting on my shoulder.

"He's gone now," I said, "completely gone. It's like he never touched you--every trace of him is gone forever. You're clean again."

She looked up at me and kissed me, and then she started to cry; and I held her under the water as she sobbed and trembled, and I soothed her with my hands for a long time until she was calm again.

She stepped back and smiled at me and said, "and now I'm going to wash you too--but faster, before all the hot water is gone! And then I want you to take me back to bed and let me sleep in your arms for about 14 hours. And when we wake up, all this--this SHIT will be in the past."

So she washed me, and we dried off, and I turned the ringer off the phone. And we slept.

****************

We were sitting on the back deck with Katie and Eric. They'd brought over some deli sandwiches and I'd gotten us all some beers.

"I'm so glad you called!" Katie said. "When you didn't answer the phone last night, I thought ... well, I figured probably you just wanted some privacy." She grinned.

"But I'm happy you're ... shit, Tommie, I'm just happy you're back."

Eric said pretty much the same thing, and we thanked them. Tommie said, "listen, we really wanted to see you, just hang out and, I don't know, have a normal day, okay? I mean, you must have a million questions but Jack and I just want to put all that stuff aside for a little while."

Eric and Katie said of course, we understand. And then there was an odd little silence, and Tommie smiled and said, "sooo ... what've you guys been up to lately?"

And we all cracked up. We laughed for a while, and then we brought our beer bottles together in a silent toast, and smiled. And somehow found our way into a nice conversation about other things.

****************

On Monday I went back in to work. Tommie was never going back to Grand Valley, of course; we'd decided to take a little time before making up our minds what we were going to do about Damon. Tommie sent him an email that said:

"Have all my things carefully packed up and sent to me--don't contact me in any way--I'll be in touch. Darth Vader says hello."

With a grim smile she said to me, "that'll keep him worried!"

And then in a completely different voice, she said, "I'm so sorry Jack. I'm so sorry I didn't trust you."

I gathered her up in my arms and we sat together, quietly. Nothing else to say.

She spent that first couple of weeks at home, enjoying the quiet and the feeling of getting all the way back into our domestic life. She made a beautiful dinner for us every night, and we sat and talked in the evenings or just watched TV--happy to be together.

Both of us felt that we ought to see a counselor, to work through everything and completely put it behind us.

Tommie said, "but I think it ought to be a woman," at the exact moment I said, "it has to be a woman." We looked at each other in surprise and broke into laughter.

"You first," I said, still chuckling. "Why do you think so?"

"Because I guess I feel like I'd trust a woman to understand better what it's like to be me--being hit on all the time, and finding it so hard to trust men. Why did you say it should be a woman?"

"Almost the same reason, I guess," I said. "Any male counselor is going to find you very attractive, and it will be distracting. I want whoever we work with to be thinking about helping you--and me--and not thinking about how he can understand how that bastard Damon could have desired you so much."

I talked to Irene in Human Resources at Minestra and got a couple of names, and on Thursday Tommie and I met with Dr. Diane McInerny. She was a tall middle-aged woman with a smile and a nice manner that put us both at ease, and we agreed on the way home from our appointment that we should keep seeing her.

After about three weeks Tommie started to feel antsy and decided to start looking for a new job. She emailed Damon again:

"I'm job-hunting. If anyone contacts Grand Valley for a reference, make sure it's a very positive one. Nothing over-the-top, just solid and favorable. Don't reply to this message."

That weekend David flew in for a visit. It was low-key but wonderful; we both had a lot to thank him for, and he was happy to see how well Tommie was doing--how well both of us were doing.

Every time either one of us tried to thank him he just waved it off, ducking his head a little and mumbling that he was "just glad he could help." We talked with him about the plans we were working on for dealing with Damon, and he smiled at some of them! And he also had a few of his own suggestions to make, all of which were good ones.

After another few weeks, Tommie said to me, "I think I'm ready--let's do it this weekend." By then she'd taken another job, as an Executive Secretary to a female Vice President of a small software company, and it seemed to be working out well. And we'd talked extensively about what would be our final meeting with Damon, and what we wanted out of it.

Tommie emailed him on Tuesday:

"Come to our house on Saturday night at 8 pm and bring Elena. Both of you be here on time without fail. Darth Vader doesn't want you to be late. Don't reply to this message."

****************

When they rang the bell, precisely at 8 pm on Saturday, I ushered Damon and his beautiful wife into the living room, greeting them politely. Damon looked pale and nervous, Elena a little annoyed.

I guided them to a sofa where they sat, as Tommie came into the room. No one offered to shake hands.

"What is this about?" Elena asked, a little brusquely. "Damon and I were supposed to go to Atlanta this weekend for our niece's First Communion. Then at the last minute he insisted we absolutely HAD to be here."

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Elena. Did Damon tell you what to expect tonight?"

She looked even more irritated. "He wouldn't say a word until on the drive over; and then he warned me that you two might try to give me some ridiculous story about him cheating on me, or pursuing Tommie or something."

She glared at both of us. "I certainly hope you're not going to waste my time with any nonsense like that!"

"I'm very sorry, Elena, but I'm afraid it's true. Please come with me into the study," Tommie said. "I have something you need to see."

Damon jumped up in alarm, but I gestured him to sit back down.

As the ladies left the room I said, "it's just a video recording, Damon, nothing you need to see--you're the star of it."

"Goddam it, you can't--"

"Darth Vader told us just how to get in touch with him again if necessary, Damon. Do you really think he wouldn't be able to find you again?" He glared at me, but after a minute turned away in frustration and sat back down on the couch.

Tommie returned. "She's watching it now. I don't have any desire to see it again."

We sat in silence for nearly 30 minutes, a silence broken only by two or three shouts of outrage from Elena in the other room. When she stalked back into the living room she was breathing fire. She went straight over to Damon and began slapping him across the face hard, back and forth, while he cowered away from her.

"You PRICK! You MONSTER! To think that I ever loved you, ever believed in you...!

Still furious, she turned away from her husband to stare at me and Tommie. "I hope you ruin him--I hope you DESTROY him! That ... that lying, deceitful shit ..."

"I'm sorry, Elena," Damon said very quietly. Then he sat silently looking at the floor. She ignored him.

"Elena, I took the liberty of calling a cab to take you home. I figured you wouldn't want to be here any longer, while we work out some, uh, details with your husband."

"My soon-to-be EX-husband, you mean!"

Then she softened. "Tommie, I am so very sorry about this--about what Damon has done. I had no idea ... no idea he was ..." She walked over to Tommie and the two women hugged briefly. Then she turned back to me.

"Jack, my apologies to you as well. And I think I will take you up on that cab, if you don't mind."

"Elena, here's a copy of what you just watched, in case you might find it useful."

I handed her a copy of the DVD, then ushered her outside to the waiting taxi and returned to the silent living room. Damon didn't look up.

"Okay, you scumbag," Tommie hissed quietly. "Time to pay the piper."

Damon raised his eyes to look at us. He looked old, and very tired. "I'm ... sorry," he said. "I know that isn't--"

"Shut up!" Tommie was breathing fire. "Do you think I want to hear a single word out of your lying mouth?"

I went over and stood behind her to rub her shoulders, calm her down a little. She was breathing fast--I really thought she wasn't far from braining him with a lamp or something.

"Damon," I said, "we're going to tell you exactly what you need to do. And you're going to do all of it, precisely as we tell you. And there are two good reasons why--would you like to hear them?

"The first is Darth Vader, of course. And the second is that recording. How do you suppose that would affect your standing in the business world--or at your fancy golf club?"

He looked down again, with nothing to say. Tommie went to the table and picked up a pen and a yellow legal pad.

"First," she said. "You will give me the names of all the Grand Valley employees you've fucked, or tried to fuck." Damon glanced up at her in alarm as she tossed him the pad and a pen.

"But, I ... they--"

"Just do it! And you'd best be sure you don't leave anyone out."

Unwillingly, he wrote out a list of names. There were seven of them.

"I'm going to have a private conversation with each one of these ladies," Tommie said as she took the pad back. "And when that's done, you'll be writing compensation checks to them in whatever amounts I feel are appropriate."

Damon said nothing.

"Next. You'll conduct a national job search for a new Vice President in Grand Valley's Human Resources office, in charge of formulating and enforcing a Sexual Harassment policy throughout the company. That will be done in the next two months."

"Third. You'll send a check for $2 million to Jack and me, from your personal account. By Monday. Actually, it will be more than $2 million, because it will include enough extra to cover the tax we'll have to pay on that 'gift'. Your accountant can figure it out."

"Look at me, Damon. LOOK AT ME!" Tommie shouted; startled, Damon looked up into her face, shrinking back into the couch a little as he did.

"There's just one more item on my list, you lowlife. After that you're going to get up and walk out of here and disappear from our lives. Except for doing what we've told you to do, you're never going to contact us or come anywhere near either of us ever again. Is that perfectly clear?"