"I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth."
― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

I had fallen in love with him. Everything about him, his mannerism, his kindness, his self-assuredness, including his possessiveness. We had a jam-packed three and a half hours the day we were married outside of the movie theatre. We were officially husband and wife, and we were so I thought, completely broke.

After he had purchased our two gold bands and we had said our 'I do's', we eventually walked over to the nearest restaurant. We were in a nicely lit booth in the corner where we kissed and fed each other at every mouth swallowing interval. Once we had finished our dinner, Rick's credit card came back declined. Not once did he look over at me to assist with our dilemma. He had claimed to have no other option when he opted for his never used before American Express Black card that he carried in his wallet. One swipe and our lavish meal became more digestible.

Married. We were awestruck and heart eyes for each other as we began our walk back to where we came but not before pausing in front of a jewelry store window where I gawked at one of the most beautiful diamond bridal ring settings.

"You see something better than what we have?" He had asked jokingly.

I did, but while looking into his eyes, there wasn't anything better than our plain bands. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other. Lori had not once crossed my mind while we were in bed, making love like we hadn't just had sex the day before our date.

I was resting my head on Rick's chest while he spoke to his father. Rick had his father on speakerphone.

"Yes, son?"

"Dad, I'm in a situation."

"Consisting of what?"

"Another woman."

"I'm your wife," I tried to whisper. He gave me a look to caution me.

"Ah! and you call your Dear old Dad because?"

"I can't afford her."

"Is she worth it?"

"Every damn penny. The reason for my call is that, well, Dad, Lori cleaned the accounts, and I can't make enough money as a Deputy to keep the other woman."

"I'm your wife," I spoke slightly above a whisper. He'd again gave me another look.

"Ah! You are among the rest of the barely scraping by to make ends meet. Living beyond one's means is no way to live. Either way, how do you know the other woman won't adjust or accept the circumstances of your piss poor choices?"

"Because she said so. I had to use the American Express. I know what comes with using it, Dad. I'm calling because I am ready to go to work for you."

I was fired up. I was still reduced to the other woman, she and her. HER has a damn name damn it! Michonne Suzanne Grimes, who was going to divorce this secretive asshole by morning. I shoved him and got out of my own bed to grab all of his clothes to toss at him.

"What is your problem now?" He had the phone covered not to be overheard.

I was too pissed to speak.

"I am glad to know your rebellion has ended. You found someone who seems mature compared to Lori, which caused you, in turn, to wisen up because you are not a teenager anymore, sticking it to your old man. I am pleased with the fact that you playing cops and robbers will come to an end."

"I just have to turn in my badge by morning."

"Very well, son. I will notify the board of directors. I will have two attorneys sitting in for the voting and whatnot. All I ask is make me proud to have you in my seat. When should I expect you to report to Go Stop?"

"After my honeymoon. I married her. Michonne Suzanne Benton is now a Grimes. We got married five hours ago."

I went from a ready roaring lion to a purring kitten within seconds.

"Married? Did your mother survive this?"

"You are the first to know. It will be televised in two days."

"You finally did something that could test whether it would kill your mother. All the wedding talk I'm surprised I didn't hear anything about it being canceled. Either way, when do I get the chance to meet my new daughter in law?"

"Hi, Dad!" I exclaimed. I had so much to be happy about, and one of them I hadn't considered was a honeymoon. I didn't care that my eyes were like saucers and remained that way when his Dad responded. This was the most naked I had ever seen my husband, quickly veiled by modesty since we were both completely naked and covered in each other's dried sex juices.

"Everyone calls me, Senior! Nice to meet you! Son, put us on facetime so I can see who you've made into a Grimes."

She invited, Lori?" My husband, Rick, asked.

I could tell from his facial expression this was a surprise, and for the life of me, I couldn't understand how? Regardless, his eyes were the size of saucers upon seeing, what I was watching walk into his mother Ella's home a few minutes ahead of us. We were in the Hamptons.

"You know damn well who invited Lori to Thanksgiving." I snapped. I watched him swallow. "I was there when you inserted foot in mouth." I reminded.

"Are you mad at Daddy, Mommy?" Carlton asked from directly behind the driver seat.

"Of course, not," I reassured.

"Of course, she is."

"I am not. See, I am getting out of the car. If I were mad, I would not get out of the car. I would instead demand you take us all back home. I'm not doing that because-I'm. Not. Mad. Grab the diaper bag, Rick!"

"My mother said she invited Lori. I said, okay. Like not okay. It was in my voice. How is it only you can hear the difference is beyond me. Besides, how was I to know Lori would show up?"

"Your response should have been, see you next Thanksgiving Mom or Have a nice Thanksgiving Mom or here's one-"

Rick interrupted my rant. "I've got RJ and the diaper bag. I've got the twins unbuckled. You can go on ahead of me with Carlton since you are not-mad. Now, if you admit you are, I am more than willing to drive all twenty damn hours back to where we came from."

"Really?" I challenged.

My husband was going to overcompensate, overextend, and overexert himself. We just had to get through Thanksgiving. Chances were good that we would leave and get back on the road going towards home. I was seven months pregnant and nine steps ahead of him. I had already made up my mind; it was going to be our last holiday spent outside of our home unless it was his mother's funeral. Thanksgiving will be spent in our home in Georgia, but instead, here I was sitting across from Lori, who kept her eyes on my husband while he kept his eyes focused on our children or his very own plate. Eight years of marriage, this would be our Thanksgiving to remember.

I quietly contemplated a headache or a pregnancy issue which would have Rick pack up the kids, and we would head to the car. I did neither of those things. I was prepared to grin and bear it since we were staying through Christmas, and Lori would be leaving soon enough that evening. What could a few hours of Lori matter to eight years? Well, a lot. Not to Rick or me necessarily but to the orchestrator.

Only Senior cut to the chase while the majority of Rick's extended family were in the other room conversing after dinner was served. He was holding RJ.

"Why is Lori here, Ella?"

"Same reason you are here, Senior. A simple invitation. Thanksgiving. Time to share and give thanks. You are always welcome, but not any of your female companions."

"I am here because of our Grandchildren. Lori is here because?"

"I invited her, and your son Rick said it was okay."

"What?" Senior looked towards me for an answer to such an absurdity that I was privy with first-hand knowledge. "You were okay with this, Michonne?"

"I am very familiar with, and when my dear husband says okay. His okay wasn't the okay that he was okay, but the okay that he wasn't sure why she would think he would be okay. It was that type of okay, okay, OkAY?" I sought approval from Rick that I had it right.

"That type of okay doesn't exist, and if anyone knows, that is Ella!"

Senior and I agreed. It felt great.

"Well, my dear husband didn't believe Lori would show up. Her continued absence meant all would be well." I sighed.

I didn't allow the man I married to read more than what was there when I gave him the two-way baby monitor, and he was straining to determine my level of annoyance. I took the extra monitor with me upstairs to where we planned to have our children sleep later that evening. I kept giving Rick faces that he wasn't necessarily reacting to, but he was watching me watch him. It was while in the spare room did I hear everything. The conversation continued without my presence.

"When will you accept the fact our son has a wife and his own family, and it does not or ever will include Lori?"

"She needs closure."

"If you keep it up, Ella, it won't include you. Do you understand?"

"There are two people who need closure." Ella's voice was insistent and conspiratorial.

"She or you, Mom?"

"Not your job to facilitate it!" Senior snapped.

"I didn't go seeking Lori out! I ran into her at the airport. I asked how she was spending her Thanksgiving. I invited—no harm in that. Plus, with the way things happened with their wedding. Lori was like a daughter to me. She waited nine years and for our son to have thrown it all away for someone else in a short period. Never too late for an apology."

"They have been married eight years now! Ella! My God, the older you get, the more insufferable you've become, do you know that? Do you care? Four kids later, you would think your mother would let it go and move on. I applaud Michonne for not telling our son to take her and our grandkids back home the very moment she saw Lori."

"I've apologized. Mom, if I knew for one moment you were going to keep harping on this, I would not have come and subjected my wife to feel a certain way. Lori and I are over. A closed chapter. And it is with great restraint that I don't pack my family up and leave in the morning. The drive here was long, but I don't necessarily need Michonne to tell me when she has had enough. What I will say, don't count on us for next Thanksgiving, nor Christmas."

"Hey! You guys are congregating in the kitchen?"

"Lori?"

"Everyone is waiting for dessert. Your son, Carl, is very front and center. Cake, Cake, Cake! He is a definite cutie! RJ is handsome, and your twin girls are absolutely adorable!"

"Carlton?" Rick corrected. "Jasmine and Judith."

"Oh, dear! Help me, Senior! Put RJ down and grab those two pies. I've got the cake."

"Anything I can help with?" Lori offered.

"No, Dear. No worries, Michonne is upstairs."

Michonne? How about saying, HIS Wife!? I thought, and Rick read them when he spoke.

"My wife is upstairs."

"Very good son." Senior spoke.

"Let's hurry along, Senior."

The silence was brief. My heart raced; I had to sit down on one of the full-size bed that was designated for our son Carlton. I had the volume up. I wasn't going to miss a word spoken.

"Hi, Rick."

"Hi, Lori."

"How are you?"

"Good! You?"

"I'm great! I'm still in New York working. When I'm not there I'm between Tennessee and Texas."

"Racehorses?"

"Still one of my many passions. How about you?"

"Not much time for passions. I'm still juggling Go Stop or home with Michonne and the kids."

I shrugged. It was the truth.

"Did I count four?"

"And counting. I wanted a football team, but I think I've changed my mind just very recently. I want a basketball plus a football team."

Rick glanced at me looking at him as if he had lost his damn mind. He wore a smirk. I wore a frown.

"Really?"

"I'm aiming for two football teams. I love pregnant Michonne."

My husband was horny, the last part was true. The first part was on ignore.

"Wow! You both will need the help of several nannies!"

"There is no way I can convince my wife of hiring a nanny. We will both be hands-on."

"Sounds very exhausting."

"What I have planned for Michonne isn't for the faint of heart. The reason we are so good together."

What are you smoking, honey?

"You."

"Was that a question?" Lori's voice seemed caught off guard as was I.

Rick cleared his throat. "You?"

"I don't have any children. Recently divorced after four years of marriage. He wanted children. I didn't.

"He?"

"Spencer."

"Do I know him?"

Should you care?

"Curious if I know him."

I repeated, enunciating the words I silently mouthed. Should. You. Care? My husband was an expert in reading my lips and mind at this point in our marriage. He had plenty of practice and he was almost at an expert level.

"He was two years behind us in Highschool. He had the biggest crush on me back then."

"Highschool?"

"He had messaged me on Facebook. It was after I had spent the first three years after our break up in therapy. It was in the fourth year I was open to finding love and moving forward with my life. I have no regrets."

"I have no regrets, Lori. I'm sorry how things worked out for you. Sincerely I do. Even with having to juggle work and being home to help with our kids, I can't help feeling very lucky to have found someone who wants and expects the same thing."

"I never expected to be cheated on, Rick."

"I never wanted to marry someone who didn't want children, Lori."

"Is this how you justify?"

"No. My point is and I am not trying to open up a wound, it just wouldn't have worked between us either. Did I go about it the wrong way, yes? I've already apologized for all that I have put you through."

"We had a history. To end us over having a house full of kids seem ludicrous. I mean after you have worked all day and then to expect you to come home and take care of kids that-."

"That I asked for. That I wanted. We wanted. Michonne is an attorney at Go Stop. She is far from a stay at home mother. Well, up until now. Close to the due date and any and everything she does is within reason. Like two football teams would be out of the question right about now."

Damn right, baby. We are not two mice that don't know when to say when.

"Still a weasel." He confirmed aloud.

He was unabashedly horny. Trying to weasel his way back into my granny panties.

"What?" Lori was questioning his remark.

"Nothing."

"You've changed. I would have never imagined this life for you. I remember you wanted to be anything but the CEO of Go Stop or have any children for that matter."

"That's because the job was dangled in front of me like a carrot. To take the opportunity, I had to stop seeing you, and at the time, I wanted whatever you wanted, Lori. You didn't want kids. You made sure of that. Twice. We were both so stupidly rebellious. Immature. I grew up."

I didn't know about the two abortions. It made me feel his pain at his admission and Lori's lack of denial.

"We allowed it to carry on for nine years. Nine years, Rick. Only now am I realizing how incompatible we would have been if we had taken the plunge." Lori admitted.

"Honestly, my intentions were never meant to hurt you."

"I could hear you guys having sex. I was devastated. I had the canceled wedding to deal with along with my family, your family, and the humiliation of it all."

"I would hope the money you had taken from me was more than enough to ease the pain I had caused."

"I was angry and hurt Rick and Nothing I did seem to faze you. Not even the money I had taken?"

"I wasn't going to fight you over it, Lori. It was time I grew up. Face the reality that we weren't the same people in high school and in college. At least I wasn't. I wanted kids. You didn't. In my mom's eyes, I am the bad guy. I'm the asshole. I've carried that for you, Lori and I do so because I know the truth and that gives me peace. I fell in love with someone who I'm still crazy about to this day. I can't imagine anything changing that. Rehashing the past won't change that or the way everything played out for you and me."

"I wouldn't necessarily call you a bad guy, but you were certainly an asshole."

"Asshole?"

"You married her before breaking up with me, silly."

I was surprised by the lightness in Lori's tone.

"Timing makes me an asshole or that I married someone else in a short period?"

Why are you seeking clarification?

"Very romantic and traumatizing to see it televised on the local news a few days later. I could hardly believe what I was seeing."

"Yeah. About that..."

Yeah, about that? What about it? Finish that sentence. Don't stop. Don't trail off.

"Lori, my wife is on her way down here. She isn't shy. She likes to confront and I suggest you get a slice of cake."

If he hadn't turned off the baby monitor, I would have allowed him and Lori their time for closure. His actions caused me to show my face in the kitchen. I wanted to know what he was going to say about our impromptu wedding outside of the movie theatre. I wasn't aware he was trying to forewarn Lori without ruining a planned surprise.

"What?" I had asked, surprised to see no Lori insight.

"What?" Rick responded.

"What were you going to say?"

"Weasel has said enough. I realized I don't owe any explanation to someone other than the woman I am trying to keep sexing."

"We are in your mother's home, Richard Sinclaire Grimes!"

"So?"

"Where did I find you?" He was incorrigible.

"At my mother's apartment building. You kept flirting with me. You had me thinking I was one damn sexy weasel after awhile. Convinced me to pay your rent, put a 150.00 ring on it. Eight years, and four kids later with one due in less than two months, I had never forgotten the ring you really wanted when we stood outside that Jewelry store. I wanted to wait until our tenth year anniversary, but..."

I was in shock. Rick revealed a small black velvet box and there my original ring was removed by him and replaced with the new ring. His whole extended family filled the kitchen area, all aware of what my husband had planned. Except for Lori.

"...I love you, Michonne Suzanne Grimes and let this and our children symbolize just how much."

"I love you."

Those three words gave me pause before leaving his office to go down the hall to my own.

"I love you too."

"If it's getting to be too much, Chonne just say the word."

"Which word is that, Rick?"

"The D-word Michonne that you don't like to discuss."

"Downsizing is not the answer to our problems, Rick."

"Then what is?"

"How can I be taken seriously around here if you are always coming to the rescue. Muzzling anyone who goes against me."

"I don't muzzle. I fire them."

"I need you to stop doing that."

"I will fail."

"A man who knows his shortcomings."

"A man who loves the hell out of you." He zipped his pants.

"Sex makes you putty."

"You make me putty."

I had to straighten my black Pencil Skirt before leaving his office. It was the only way to get him to act right and not be so friggin obvious that I belonged to him on or off the clock. He needed to be and remain neutral. When we got home I was going to introduce two N-words for him one to practice being or appearing and the one he would need an appointment. Neutral and Neutered.

I wasn't sure if he was going to notice the pregnancy test I had left on his desk before someone else came in and noticed but we were going to exceed a basketball team and I be damned if we were going any further after our bench warmer was born.

A/N: This has been so difficult to close out believe it or not. I cringe to look at the other stories waiting for completion. LoL. I hope this was a fun read. I will proofread later and make corrections as needed. On to completing the next story.