Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Chapter One

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

I have written three novellas. They are too long to be a short story, but they aren't really long enough to be a full story. They are ideas that my muse has been stuck on. Ideas that he just won't shut up about. The first one is seven chapters long, the second one four chapters long, and the third one at least twelve chapters long. I will publish them one right after the other then take a break, maybe. There may be a fourth story published. We will see. It depends on what my muse dictates.

Derek Butler was on his honeymoon. It was almost two weeks since they had said 'I do.' He had been making love to his wife, Alice, in the afternoon. He enjoyed doing it in the afternoon because he got to see her body and her expressions then. She had been having a very good time. Despite the fact she had been a virgin when they had said I do, he had been able to ring her bell many times. While they were being intimate, she had been an eager partner. He had been thrilled. He wanted a playmate for his wife. At least he had been until she had uttered the name Hunter in her passion. That was when Derek knew she had been imagining she was with her friend, Hunter.

Derek had lost all passion and had jumped out of the bed. He had said, "What the hell? You God damn lying bitch. May you and your cheating heart go straight to hell."

"I love Hunter Payne, so if anything, I am cheating on him with you."

"If you love Hunter, why did you marry me and not him?"

"You are rich, and he is poor."

"You are soon going to be poor also. I will file for divorce as soon as I get back to New Orleans."

"Go ahead. I will then be a rich divorcee."

"Are you on the pill?"

"Of course, I don't want your child."

"Alice, until this moment I never realized how truly stupid you are."

"What!?"

"Do you remember that document you signed before we got married?"

"Yes. It was a pre-nup."

"Do you know what a pre-nup is?

Belligerently Alice said, "Yes. It is an agreement that states what I get if we divorce."

"Did you read it?"

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"I read the last page to see what I was going to get when I divorced you."

"You should have read the entire document. There are a bunch of paragraphs before that would have been of interest to you. I will share with you. If we don't stay married for more than a month, you get nothing. To get that big payoff you would have had to be married to me for twenty years and given me at least one child. If we had a child, you would get child support, of course, but alas you didn't want to have my child. Rest assured if you come up pregnant, I will have that baby DNA tested."

Derek got dressed. He walked over to his suitcase and took out a couple of airline tickets. He laid one on the bed. He said, "That is yours." He picked up his wallet and took a couple of twenty-dollar bills out of it. He laid the money on the bed next to the ticket. He said, "That is for your food. The room is paid for tonight but tomorrow you will be out on your ass. You will have to find a way to the airport. I'm taking the rental car. How long did you plan to stay married to me before you filed for divorce."

"At least six months. By then Hunter will have graduated from Tulane and we would be able to marry."

"Has Hunter asked you to marry him or are you assuming he will ask you to marry him?"

"Of course, Hunter will ask me to marry him. I know he loves me. We have been working together for the last two years. We are both Wait Staff for his uncle's catering business. He is always taking me out to eat after we get finished with a gig. We have a special bond."

Derek smiled and said, "I don't think Hunter is going to ask you to marry him, he is…"

"I know he will ask me to marry him. He respects me. He is a gentleman. Unlike every other man I have known he has never tried anything. He hasn't even tried to kiss me. Much less the rest of it."

"You sure did enjoy the rest of it."

"Don't be crude."

"I wasn't being crude. I was stating a fact."

"Men adore me. They always have. I haven't lost a man yet to another woman."

"I doubt if you are going to lose Hunter to another woman either."

"Of course not."

Derek smiled and said, "Luckily for me you hadn't moved into my condo yet. That way I don't have to kick you out. See you in court."

Derek walked to the bathroom and got his toiletries. He put them in his suitcase and fastened the suitcase. He picked up the suitcase and said, "I am going to cancel our reservations for this room and everything else I had planned. The process server will be in touch. Goodbye."

As Derek walked down the hall to the elevator he thought, 'She can delay it, but she can't stop it.'

For the next fifteen minutes, Derek made phone calls cancelling all his plans for his honeymoon. He then drove around Atlanta. He saw a sign for The Butler House. Derek wondered what it was. He plugged the address into Google maps. After arriving at the location, he sat in the rental car and he examined the building. He could tell it was a hotel of some kind. He decided it was as good a place to spend the night as any other.

As Derek walked into the lobby there was an impressive staircase that led to the second floor. After Derek spoke to the desk clerk, he found out the hotel was quite a fancy bed and breakfast.

Derek was told the hotel was completely booked up except for one room, but it was smaller than a normal hotel room. He accepted it. After entering the room, Derek looked around at it. It indeed was small, but it was alright. Although he wasn't sure he would fit in the shower. No problem. He was just going to be here for one night. Tomorrow morning, he would be on his way back to New Orleans.

Derek was upset that he had been so taken in by Alice. He had her investigated, of course, but there were no red flags to alert him to the possibility that Alice was a gold digger. He knew she had grown up poor and that she was a little avarice. Although he knew she was marrying him for his money, he had thought she was fond of him. He guessed all he had been, was a means to an end.

Alice had refused to sleep with him until they were married. She had been a virgin. How strange in this day and age, but he had the blood stains on the sheets to prove it. As fast as she had taken to receiving and giving pleasure in the bed, he would not have believed it except for the stains.

Derek did not love Alice. He had married her because it was time he got married. He would have much rather just kept her as his live-in girlfriend. She was pretty and had a good figure. Also, there was something about Alice that was unforgettable. She was the most sexually exciting woman he had met in a long time. He had tried to forget her because at the time he had not wanted to deal with a virgin, but he couldn't forget her. He had to know her carnally. Therefore, he broke down and married her. After she signed the pre-nup that was. He had also thought she would make him a good hostess and mother to his children. He had known she wasn't the brightest woman in the world, but it hadn't bothered him. It bothered him now. It didn't matter. Only a fool stays married to a woman when she was in love with another man. He knew this for sure, one cannot make someone else love them.

Derek was twenty-eight and poised to take over the management of the family fortune. He had a MBA in business. He had gotten that degree because he had always known he would become the CEO of Butler Inc. He was an only child therefore destined to become the CEO. He would have rather become a psychologist. He liked helping people solve their problems. Despite his degree being in business, he had taken a lot of psychology classes. All his friends were always coming to him for advice. He gave it to them, but he never sugar coated it. When his friends followed his advice, it usually worked out well for them.

The Butlers were not as rich as the Rockefellers, or the Carnegies, or the Vanderbilts but their fortune wasn't chump change either. Part of the reason the fortune was so large was because of the family curse. Only one child ever grew to adulthood. Starting with his great, great grandfather, Alex Butler. Alex had a sister, but she had died. Strange in that day and age for a couple to only have two children. What Derek knew about the family history he had learned from his nana. She had gotten into genealogy and was always sharing information about the family tree. Derek hadn't listened too closely when she was talking.

Derek smiled when he thought of his feisty grandmother. She had made her husband change his name to Butler instead of her taking his name. His last name had been Gordon. They had named their first son Gordon Butler. He had not survived. Derek's father Nicholas Butler was the family patriarch. Sort of, Derek knew his nana was very much involved in the management of their fortune.

Derek laughed when he remembered his father's words at his wedding reception. Nick had said, "When you get back from your honeymoon, you will become the CEO of our holding company. I will not interfere. The same cannot be said about your Nana."

Derek had replied, "You should have told her leave you alone and let you manage the family fortune by yourself."

His dad had laughed and said, "Good luck with that."

Derek groaned. He knew his nana would use this debacle with Alice to prove he was a poor judge of character. Nothing he could do about it now.

Derek had dinner in the hotel restaurant. He was the only person there alone. There were no children in the room either. Derek thought, 'This must be a hotel for adults only. Couples on a romantic weekend.'

After Derek finished his meal, he went to the bar in the hotel and had a couple of drinks. Just enough to get a buzz on. He tipped the bartender. Although he didn't know why. She had poured a shot of rum over some ice in a glass. She had then added some coke. Not very labor intensive.

The bartender said, "Are you alone?"

"Yes."

"Are you staying at the hotel?"

"Yes."

"Our guests are usually couples on a romantic weekend."

Derek looked at the woman's name tag and called her by name. He knew people always like to be identified. He said, "Not me, Penny."

"What's your name?"

"Derek. Derek Butler."

"Like the ghost."

"Huh?"

"The hotel used to be a mansion. It was built in the nineteenth century by a man whose last name was Butler. That is why it is called Butler House. Anyway, back to the ghost, the first owner's little girl died here. Her name was Bonnie Butler. It is said that she haunts the hotel."

"Why do people say that?"

"Several people have seen a little girl who is obviously a ghost. She has a bow in her hair and her dress is always blue. Occasionally they will see her with a little boy who is smaller than she is. No one knows who the little boy is. The Butlers only had two children. The other one was a boy but he lived to adulthood."

Derek smiled and said, "Some people will believe anything."

"Yeah."

Penny left Derek to wait on another customer. He finished his drink. As he left the bar, he smiled when he thought about people really believing in ghosts.

While walking up the grand staircase, Derek burst out laughing. Alice was in for another rude awakening when she got back to New Orleans. The investigator had informed Derek of Alice's relationship with Hunter, but he had also found out Hunter was gay. The young man was openly gay, he had marched in several Pride parades. He also often frequented The Blue Oyster, a known gay bar.

Derek had dismissed Alice's relationship with the man as nothing more than coworkers and friends. He laughed. That was truly all they would be. Only Alice didn't know it. His assessment of her intelligence went down a couple of more notches. Maybe obtuse was a better description. Although Derek did not know Hunter personally, he was sure all the clues were there that the man was gay. Not the least being that the man had never tried anything with Alice. He would have to be more careful next time. He didn't want an obtuse wife.

Derek didn't care that Hunter was gay, yet he was sure it would be devastating news to Alice. If she ever figured it out.

While Derek still had a buzz, he took off his clothes except for his underwear. He got into the bed and went to sleep. He could solve his problems tomorrow.