The long-awaited day had come. The beach volleyball tournament was due to start in a few hours' time. Both Olivia and Gregory were tremendously thrilled at the idea of exerting themselves through sports and not through arguments of all kinds as they used to. Their enthusiasm was also due to the fact that all their training sessions and team work had allowed them to become increasingly closer to their children, especially Gregory and Sean. Never had Olivia seen her son and ex-husband cooperate in such an extensive and non-spitting way. They had met up at various hours of the day, in-between appointments, case studies and course revisions, without making any fuss, eager as they were to share some time together. No matter what the outcome of the tournament would turn out to be, Gregory and Sean had at last found their Paradise Lost.
As far as mother and daughter were concerned, they had equally made their relationship move some steps forward, Caitlin having become Olivia's female confidant. The daughter knew that her mother and father had agreed to some treaty of alliance, some verbal pact which implied that they were now friends, for better and for worse. Caitlin also knew that Bette and Olivia were not as closed as they used to because her own father-in-law had stabbed her own mother in the back. Mum and daughter had thus found their Paradise Regained and everything seemed to be just as it should have always been.
The tournament posters stuck up all over town looked as follows:
Contestants:
1. We Are Family…
Meg and Joan Cummings
Emily Davis and Bette Katzenkazrahi
Caitlin and Olivia Richards
Maria and Carmen Torres
Ben Evans and Hank Cummings
Cole and AJ Deschanel
Sean and Gregory Richards
Antonio and Ricardo Torres
2. Friends Are Forever…
Vanessa Hart and Gabi Martinez
Amy Nielsen and Annie Douglas-Richards
Brad Niklaus and Tim Truman
Referees:
Michael Bourne
Sarah Cummings
Leo Deschanel
Casey Mitchum
Olivia and Caitlin were now playing against Carmen and Maria. As the sun was becoming hotter and hotter, pairs of shorts and t-shirts were turned into unwanted gifts. Swimsuits were now the norm. Many spectators, male and female alike, were gathered all around the place, watching, drinking, fantasizing about all those bodies in motion, which were so brave, so commendable because they were defying the sun for no less than an aid agency for children.
Gregory was intently scrutinizing the match in hand. He had always admired Caitlin's techniques but his eyes were presently fixed upon his ex-wife, his best friend. He could not figure out how, but she had managed to retain the body of her early twenties, with faultless muscles, legs, breast… He had never seen a middle-aged woman so perfectly at ease in a bikini. The drops of perspiration reminded him of their sweet love-making moments during their honeymoon and the very first years of their marriage, before their lives were shattered to pieces. As the years went by and their bedroom remained the same, sex had prevailed over love; intense, passionate moments, as though they were not husband and wife but lovers who wanted to prove to the other how far they could go, how bestial and brutal they could be.
Today he saw her move and more importantly perhaps, he saw other men - all those charity spectators - saw her move too, lust in their eyes, desiring her for the wrong reasons, out of selfishness, out of egotism. "Her affairs," he reflected, "must have been just like that. Men using her for their own pleasure, ready to share her because pleasure reigned supreme over commitment. AJ has been such a bastard. I have been such a bastard myself."
—-
Annie, too, watched Olivia's body move and play. Her eyes went from her all-time curse to her far too self-absorbed husband. She perceived something in his look that she had never noticed before; it was neither love nor distate. As he was perusing the other men's preying over Olivia, Annie reckoned it was compassion towards his ex-spouse that was overwhelming him. She did not know how or why the 'exes' had suddenly become so-called 'best friends'. Although she had feared this new relationship at first, she presently realised she had nothing to fret about. "It's hard to admit," she told herself, " but no-one can deny Olivia is a very beautiful woman. I begin to understand why daddy fell for her. But her natural charm is of no more use to her whatsoever. She is the one who sleeps alone at night and I am the woman who shares the master bed in the master bedroom in the master house, and I'm not willing to share the master himself. I'm done with this empty feeling of emptiness. When I married Gregory, I handed the solitude over to lady Olivia. And I'm rather proud of it."
—-
It is often strange and never easy to explain how identical thoughts can cross a brother's and a sister's minds at exactly the same time. On that day on the beach, watching their mum display her talent not only for beach volleyball but also for body language, Sean and Caitlin were both thinking the following:
"Mum is so gorgeous. I can perfectly understand why Dad and AJ once fell for her. She has always had this natural ability for grace that even the ugliest moments in her life did not manage to erase. But I can also understand why AJ finally relinquished her to Bette. Mum was too much for him, too inacessible and distant in her closeness, like a sublime painting you can't sell because it's too expensive. Some will prefer to confine it to a dusty room and keep it to themselves, while others will just give it away, because it seems to be price-less in both senses of the term: so precious that it becomes unworthy. Contrary to what we all thought at first, AJ belongs to the second category; although he has been anything but gallant those last few weeks, he might have freed her from her frame after all.
Dad is another matter though. What I can't figure out is why he switched from love to hate and then to friendship. Maybe hate and friendship are for him merely the other side of the golden coin of love. Dunno. Only time will tell I guess. But considering how he's staring at her right now, I believe he doesn't know the answer himself, and probably never will."
—
"Oh lively Livvy, I'm so happy to see you like that. I'm jealous of your body of course but leaving this aside, you really look peaceful now. I know we haven't been real friends those last couples of months, but I can't blame you for not coming to me when AJ gave his heart another ride on the grand roue of life... I think we both knew, you and me, I mean, that he was not for you; you've never been of the adventurous carefree kind as I have always been. I was already in love with him when our own Generation Young did the boogie-woogie all night long. But it was to no avail; it was you then Elaine he put on a pedestal. Oh oh Betty Boop, why don't you just shut up this mind's mouth of yours! You are with him now, why keep talking to your mind's Olivia about that?
Yes Olivia Honey, you look fine. I haven't seen much of you since I moved out with AJ but Sean told me you and Greggie have become friends. I like the idea. I just hope he's not gonna break your heart a Xst time...
Oh goshy, I'm sooo jealous of your body. Look at your moves Livvy, Go Go, you're gonna win them all over! Oh poor me, I wish I had those legs!
All those chunks looking at you... Even though you're distracted by the game, I know it hurts you to see them eat you like that. I think you're afraid, beauty, you're afraid, not of them, but of how they picture you in their minds, the things they would want you to do... I'm glad Gregory is there today; he seems to be your tacit bodyguard, ready to jump on any of them, as soon as the next drop of perspiration from your body turns them lion-like crazy. Please Livvy, don't let them be the predator but make them fall prey to you once and for all. They used to prey on you, now they will want to pray for mercy... But of course, that's the Queen of the Night speaking."
—-
The game was reaching its end, quickly but surely. Caitlin and Olivia were going to win with flying colours. Quietly, AJ was intermittently looking at both his daughter-in-law and his ex-what? Let's simply say 'girlfriend' because it was obvious AJ was not looking for a serious relationship when he asked Olivia out for the first time after their reunion. He had merely been on a quest for the ideal teenage girl every immature boy pretends to put on a pedestal, just to have it his own way, the hard one by all accounts. The girl may have wanted real commitment from the boy's part, but ultimately she only gets disappointment running down her spine. Clearly, AJ had mistaken treason for treasure. When all had been said and all had been done, he switched Olivia for Bette, the more 'experienced' woman in the renowned love triangle. Right in the middle of his heart, however, he knew he had ditched Olivia because she had become too experienced herself. All those years spent trying to get Gregory's attention had made her less spontaneous and more prudish. Bette was the opposite. After seven wedding ceremonies with seven most dissimilar men, she had managed to retain her legendary enthusiasm and sweet sense of humour.
But everybody knows AJ was a weirdo. How could a man watching Olivia play the game so smoothly but also so 'innocently provocatively', tag her a "(f)rigid spinster"? Well really! Something was definitely wrong with Armando Deschanel Junior. Maybe he pulled out because he could not bear the thought of seeing Olivia seen through other men's eyes. Maybe he was looking for such a justification right now; after all, he, too, noticed the kind of show the men attending the volleyball event were seeking: girls in bikini on a real beach are better than the fictional Baywatch. Since Caitlin, Emily, Meg, Maria, Vanessa and Gabi looked too innocent, Annie and Amy too naughty, Carmen too grandmother-like and Bette too funny, they were left with the only one woman who made the difference: Olivia.
And if truth be told, the first but best Mrs Richards knew exactly what she was doing…
—-
For sure, the first but best Mrs Richards knew exactly what she was doing. Not only had she applied herself to playing beach volleyball and not making a fool of her team, but she had also been very much aware of the spectators. They may have watched her, but she did the same. They may have thought she was merely a game herself; but she was playing with them too. When the final whistle had been blown, and both her and Caitlin had mounted the podium, it was the watchers who were being watched. She could almost read all their thoughts, because they were so obviously printed on their faces, in their looks, on their bodies. Olivia was most grateful to the weather; it had been so hot she had been able to display the black bikini she had bought more than 15 years ago. It still fitted her perfectly and now, finally alone in her cream living room, she was relishing the thought that all the sad years she had gone through had not yet encircled her in some I-Old-They-Young vicious spiral...
She could not help thinking and thinking again about that volleyball day and how much she had enjoyed the whole thing. When all was said and done, everything had been very satisfying. She had realised there was no point in contemplating the past and trying to figure out when and how things went wrong in her life. She may have been donned the "most awful mother and most hateful wife ever" banner by Annie and the "most changed woman in 25 years" one by AJ, she had her children, her ex-husband and Bette to give her all the respect she needed.
"If they all only knew," she reflected. Yes, Olivia had a new secret, a secret which was due to come out very soon and which no one but Alex Mitchum and herself were presently sharing. Alex had called Olivia less than an hour ago, to talk shop, that is, to talk about Alex's stocks in the Liberty Corporation. "In due time, dear Annie and dear AJ," Olivia said aloud," both of you are going to grovel to me. Oh yes, you are, I'll make sure of it. But you won't be the only ones."