Part 5 R
Zander checked the poolside before he went up to his room. There she was again. She had a bright red one piece suit on, her sunglasses were on the top of her head, pushing her hair back; she was reading a magazine, leaning back on the lounge chair, looking as relaxed and on top of the world as she could possibly look. Her legs, stretched out over the lounge chair, were slightly bent at the knee. She had great legs, he thought. She was short, but her legs were really knock-outs. The rest of her could knock any guy out too, of course.
He went up to his room to change into swimming gear.
He was quick enough; she was still there when he got back down to the pool.
"Hey, handsome," she looked up with a mischievous smile. "Couldn't stay away from me, could you?"
"It's your incredible mind."
"I asked for my transcripts today," she said. "I'll soon have proof."
"Proof that you were incredibly lax in prep school."
She laughed. He dived into the pool.
She watched him swimming back and forth for awhile. He was slender, muscular, but not too much. She admired it.
"Nice bod," she said, when he got out, dripping wet. "I sure do like them young."
"Oh, come on. How old are you? Seventy-two?"
"Close. Thirty-one."
"Grandma."
She smiled. "How old is Mrs. Core-in-thos?" She pronounced the name mockingly, in syllabic pieces.
"The same."
"Well, she appreciated your good points. And she's no grandma. More of a Ma, yeah, and a ma-to-be."
"She's not as sharp as you. And we don't need her transcripts to prove it."
He sat down. "So now I have a job."
"What is it?"
"Tennis pro, at the country club. I can give lessons. I convinced them I was the tennis champ in prep school."
"So you are taking my advice."
"Which?"
"To be a gigolo. That's the perfect job for it. Rich, bored housewives, like Mrs. Core-in-thos, who just have to take tennis lessons."
"They're mostly kids, Brenda."
"Humph. A likely story. I suppose I'll have to take up tennis, now. What the heck."
He smiled, and reached over and fingered her upper arm. "I think you'll do pretty well," he said. "I'm sure you need many lessons, though."
"I guess it'll be that instead of repairing my car."
"Yeah. And my hands are to be well preserved for you."
"Hmmm," she murmured, shuddering a little as he traced his finger down her arm in the lightest way, clearly calculated to produce a reaction.
"I'll have to figure out where to live now, after I go from these temporary digs."
"What's wrong with Jake's?"
"Jason Morgan got his room across the hall again, when he recently came back into town. I'm not too interested in having him in my face."
"I can imagine. I wouldn't want that either. Where else is there?"
"Well, I wonder if Emily's old room over Kelly's is still empty."
"Over Kelly's. I've seen those rooms. Not a great place for wild sex."
"The wild sex will be over here, in your room," he said, as she lifted her eyebrows. "Kelly's is just a place for me to stay in. Keep the account books for my gigolo business."
"I'm relieved to hear it," she said. "Though a room across from Jason Morgan might be fun. He might hear something."
"He wouldn't know what he was hearing."
She laughed, her head thrown back, giving herself up to it. He liked the way she was always thrown right into the moment. She was fearless, he thought.
"Let me take you out for dinner," he said. "I have a job now. It's on me."
"Don't be absurd," she said. "I'm the keeper; you're the kept."
"We can argue about the check at the end. What do you say we go?"
She swung her legs over the side of the chair to get up. "I'm game," she said, with a wicked grin.
"This is a great bottle of wine," she said, taking a sip. They had found an upscale Italian place. "Just like on the Riviera."
"After all that jet-setting, how do you manage not to be bored over here?" Zander asked.
"What's the use of jet-setting if there is no one to brag about it to?" she asked.
"Good point."
"Have you ever been to Italy?"
"When I was a kid. I don't think I appreciated it much, though. Maybe you'll take me when I get the gigolo job."
"I like your confidence in yourself."
"I can land that job."
"Shall I speak to your prior employer? Do you give her as a reference?"
"She won't tell you the truth. Don't listen to her. She was perfectly satisfied at the time."
"I spent the whole summer in Florence, once," she said, as they walked along the docks, later. She had let him pay the check. "My father sent me on an art program there. I had to take classes."
"So you had to study art in between driving Italian guys crazy. Poor thing."
They leaned over a balcony and looked at the water.
He looked down at her amused smile, which played over her face as the light played over the water. Suddenly inspired, he ran this thumb up her spine, very slowly, starting at her lower back and going up. She turned to him and looked at him. The smile went away and her look was stunning. When his hand got to her neck, he pulled her head towards him and kissed her.
His hand ran back down her back as he pulled her whole body in. He felt her hands on his back. They kissed hungrily, and very quickly both had their mouths open. Then he kissed her neck, and her head went back. "Ahhh," she breathed, "you really are amazing." He went back to kissing her and she responded with equal fire, her hands going to his face and then around his neck, while his were everywhere.
Only Jake's was close enough, and they ran up the stairs. He laughed struggling to open the door. He shut it again the instant they were inside, then they could hardly get each other's clothes off fast enough. They laughed at uncooperative buttons.
His skin felt warm and wonderful, as she put her hand to his lower back and pulled him in, gasping in the initial relief of it and then the greater stimulation afterwards. She realized the value of the strength and power that came with a youth with a lot of hormones, and in combination with her own experience of herself, it lifted her into ecstasies that were new to her. They both breathed harder and faster, and she shouted louder and louder, laughing if he did something that tickled her. She wrapped her legs around him and went with abandon towards wherever he was taking her.
Jason Morgan reached the top of the stairs, and unlocked his room; his ears were assaulted by some woman in the throes of passion in the room across the hall. He knew it was Zander's, but hadn't seen him there and wondered if someone else had taken it. Annoyed with the noise, he went in and shut the door.
Exhausted and gasping, Brenda lay on her side facing Zander, who lay on his facing her.
"That job is all yours," she said.
"Mmmmm, the best job there is." He drew her into his arms and they kissed. Soon his right hand was checking out her left leg, which she lifted over his hip.
"Youth is wonderful," she said, as she realized he was going to be able to do it again.
"Old age isn't bad eith . ." he was stopped by a loud knocking.
"Zander, are you here?" It was Carly's voice.
Carly opened the door.
They both jumped. They had thrown everything off the bed in their heated, wild passion, and had to lean over to grab at something. Carly stared.
She recovered in a moment, staring contemptuously at Brenda. "I have something to say that can't wait," she said. She looked serious. "I'll wait in the hall," she said. She went out and shut the door.
Brenda started picking up her clothes. "Ah, well. I'll go on over to the PC hotel and order up a bottle of wine, shall I? Don't let the harpy take up too much of your time. Do you hear?"
"I hear." He was half dressed now. He grabbed her and kissed her again.
Brenda went out, straightening her dress a bit as a flourish for Carly's benefit, smirking at her before going down the stairs.
"I can see you've descended into idiocy," Carly said, testily, as she went back into the room.
"Say your piece and be done with it."
"I'm pregnant."
"I know."
"What do you mean, you know?"
"The other night, you had all the symptoms. At least, according to Brenda, anyway."
"Don't discuss your slut with me."
"Why have you come to regale me with this news?" he said, starting to work on finishing with getting dressed. "I'm happy for you. Sonny's baby, blah, blah, blah. Could pregnancy be more nauseating than you were on that subject? Congratulations."
"Not so fast. It's not Sonny's baby."
He stopped, turned pale, then went back to getting dressed. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, Carly, you don't get to play games with me any more. I don't know why you want to play me as part of this happy and blessed event, but . ."
"Why would I do that, you half-wit? I could lose Sonny over this."
"You're not drawing me into the middle of your games with him!" he yelled. "What is it you want now? You want him to prove his devotion to you by killing me? No way! Life is too much fun just now."
"I can see your maturity is right up there, just ready for fatherhood," she said, sarcastically.
"I'm not being played again!" he yelled.
"I'm not playing you," she said, with deadly calm, "that slut is."
He went and opened the door, gesturing that she was to leave. "You're afraid she's going to get Sonny back," he said. "Totally afraid, as you should be, as she is a hundred times the woman you will ever . ." Suddenly he felt himself grabbed from behind, his hands no longer at his disposal, thrown onto the bed with tremendous force.
Zander curled his lip in contempt. "You brought your thug, I see," he said to Carly. "Can't get anything you want except by force, or manipulation, can you? Maybe you should consider-"
"Shut up, Zander!" Jason Morgan cuffed him again and then threw him down again.
"What are you doing, Jason?" Carly asked. "I don't need you in here."
"You're sure?"
"Yes."
Jason walked out, but said, "I'm across the hall."
"Look," she said. "I don't like this any more than you do. You have a right to know. When you're more rational, we can talk about it. I have an idea you might be willing to sign over all your rights. Lets you out of the responsibilities. Call me."
"I don't know," Brenda said, considering. "I don't see her motive to lie about it."
"Isn't there some kind of test they can do?"
"Sure, after the baby is born."
"Well, she can wait 'til then. She wants it to be Sonny's. It might be."
"But how did she word it? It sounded like she was sure. Because you assume she was sleeping with both of you doesn't mean she doesn't know that she wasn't."
"Yeah. But then she's never honest. Why suddenly, is she honest? She could have gotten away with passing it off as Sonny's. She already has experience in that kind of obfuscation! She tried to pass AJ's kid off as Jason's!"
"Wow, Zander, your vocabulary! I'm getting nervous about my transcript. Well, could she have learned a lesson from that experience? It doesn't work, it all comes out in the end, I may as well face the music now?"
"Maybe. Learning a lesson doesn't come naturally to her either, though."
"Sit down. Have a glass of wine," she sat next to him as he drank it and rubbed his back.
"It will all work out fine," she said.
"He is so immature," Carly complained to Jason, sitting on his bed in his room over Jake's. "What the hell am I going to do?"
"Why does it matter to you, Carly?"
"I'm pregnant."
Jason figured out who the father was silently.
"You won't tell, Jason, will you?"
"We're not little kids, Carly."
They were silent.
"Why did you tell Zander, Carly?"
"My mother convinced me it was the right thing to do."
"You know he's not going to have the self-control to keep his mouth shut."
"He's not a blabbermouth."
"I'm not saying he will blab it all over. But he'll have to tell someone, to relieve his feelings. He won't keep it to himself."
Carly sighed. "That's so true. And I know who it will be. The worst possible person!"
"Who is that, Carly?"
"Would you tell Sonny for me, Jason?" Carly went on, not hearing his question. "At least that bitch won't be any better than me when he realizes she slept with Zander, too."
"Who?"
"Brenda Barrett."
"Sonny and I don't generally discuss things like that."
"Of course not, but you could find a way to work it in."
"Are you sure it was she?"
"I saw them. They were going at it like animals when I opened the door."
He sighed, maintaining his usual composure.
"If I tell Sonny," Carly said, "he'll just think I'm lying to get her into the doghouse with him."
"Do you really need to worry about Brenda? Sonny loves you."
"Do you really think so, Jason?"
"Carly, you should know it!"
"I can hardly believe it would be enough for this."
Brenda insisted Zander not be alone that night. He gave in, and slept in her bed with her. She got in the shower in the morning, relaxing in the hot steam.
He was up, and looked in on her. "Hey," he said.
"Come on in," she said.
Later, Brenda leaned back against the pillows and sipped coffee. "Let me get you some coffee," she said to him, and poured him a cup.
"Thanks," he smiled, and reached over to run his finger over the edge of her hot pink-colored bra. It matched her underwear. This was as far as she had got in dressing.
"You know," she said, "I had so much fun at Jake's last night."
"Me too," he put the cup of coffee down, and leaned over and kissed her. He let his hand drop down to her breast. "You are so incredibly beautiful," he said, his lips still just touching hers. "All over."
"And this morning in the shower," she giggled. "The way you kind of pinned me against the wall – turns me on all over again just thinking about it."
He kissed her again. "I have to go to work," he said.
"Of course you do. Well, you know where I am, tennis pro. When you get off."
Bobbie went with Carly to see a lawyer across town.
Lynn Harmon looked at the two of them from across her desk.
"The old law had the presumption of legitimacy," she told them. "Basically, it means any child born during a marriage is conclusively presumed to be the husband's. But when DNA tests came along, the law got into a bind. Didn't know what to do. A father is also presumed by DNA. So you have two equal presumptions, and two presumed fathers. Now you have to get a court to declare which presumption is in the best interests of the child."
"We'd have to go to court?" Carly looked distressed.
"Not if you can settle the issue. You say you want the biological father to waive his rights. If he does, you can file a proceeding, but rather than letting it go to trial, file the settlement agreement, which he signs, waiving his rights. That leaves your husband as the father."
"Can we do this without telling my husband?"
"Carly," Bobbie said, sternly.
"No," the lawyer said. "You'd have to file the proceeding and name both fathers."
"Is there an informal agreement where the biological father waives his rights, but you don't have to file in court?" Bobbie asked, curious in spite of herself.
"You can make any agreement you want," the lawyer said. "It is an open question though, if say, your husband one day did not want to be recognized as the father. Strikes me that someone in his position could make out a good case for his having a say. He's become the father of a child, the responsibility for whom could have been assigned to someone else. Usually these cases involve both of them trying to assert their rights to the extent they can to claim the child. It looks pretty bad to try to avoid that and say, look, the other guy is the father. But it's not impossible."
"Well, Carly, it looks to me, then, that you could do that," Bobbie said. "I disagree, but it is your decision. But it would be always hanging over you that Sonny could bring up this issue, as Ms. Harmon says."
"The longer he thinks the child is his and loves that child," Carly said, "the less likely that is."
"And the longer you have to live with that lie."
"Think about it," Lynn Harmon suggested. "Then let me know, and we can draw up papers."