My Dream Man (20 page)

When Greg received the signed divorce papers in the mail, we went out to dinner and celebrated. We could officially move forward together. We discussed where we’d live, and decided to buy a townhome not far from his house. After all, his dad wanted to be near any future grandchildren, though we told him he might want to practice a little patience on that particular issue.

Time moved swiftly as the wedding approached. Tabby had done the impossible and picked out bridesmaids dresses everyone loved and Mom had found the best caterer in town. Everything was finally coming together.

Mom joined me for my final dress fitting. “You look beautiful honey. Absolutely breathtaking.”

I smiled. “Thanks Mom.”

The look on her face said it all. She was proud. Happy one of her daughters had found a great guy and was settling down. I knew she still worried about Tabby and Jack. She didn’t like that he was still in the picture and was troubled by the vagueness of their relationship, but I told her not to stress over it, that Tabby would figure things out since she was a smart girl. And who knows, maybe Jack would turn out to be the right guy for her. Eventually, I mean. One never knew what the future held.

The day of the wedding I felt rested and happy. I’d gone to bed early the night before, thinking about the good times Greg and I had shared, and yes, the not-so-good times, too. But those thoughts passed quickly. I knew Greg was the right man for me. I had no doubts whatsoever.

When I arrived at the church my stomach flipped. I didn’t have cold feet; I just wasn’t good in front of crowds. I would never be able to give a presentation in front of a group the way Greg did. After a last minute check of my hair and makeup, I took some deep breaths and stood where I’d been directed at rehearsal. Tabby, Mom, Valerie and Genevieve surrounded me, giving me confidence.

“I can’t believe I have to walk out first,” I said, feeling nervous. I’d agreed to go against tradition because Greg requested it. He said he had something special planned.

The music began, and as I moved into the aisle and began taking small steps like I’d been taught, I saw the faces of everyone I knew and loved smiling brightly at me.

And then I saw Greg.

I’d never seen him dressed up. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo it took my breath away. I couldn’t believe he was mine. He seemed to be having the same reaction upon seeing me, because as I stood opposite him, his face lit up like his soul was on fire.

Greg and I turned toward the guests and watched as the bridesmaids and groomsmen came down the aisle. Then Mrs. Myszkowski entered, dressed to the nines and throwing petals from a basket on her lap.

Anna finished her job and went to Tabby’s side, then we all gasped as a four foot tall white robot came walking down the aisle carrying our rings on a pillow.

“Is that who I think it is?” I asked Greg in a low voice.

“Yep.”

“How’d you?”

“My boss is best friends with the top guy at Honda. It’s a wedding present.”

Greg grinned from ear to ear, and seeing him so happy made me smile too.

We exchanged vows and then the pastor said “you may kiss the bride.” When our lips touched it was almost impossible to remain poised in front of our guests. I wanted to rip off his formalwear and head straight to our room, skipping the reception. He knew it too. “Later Mrs. Varo,” he whispered, studying me in that way that made me crazy. Then he brushed the side of my waist with his hand.

 As we turned to face our guests as husband and wife, I saw Greg’s dad sitting with my parents in the front row. They all looked so happy, as happy as I felt inside. I smiled at them, then Greg and I stepped off the platform, arm in arm, and slowly walked out of the church together.

The photographer had us pose for pictures, and then sadly ASIMO the robot had to go.

“It was a really special favor,” Greg whispered as ASIMO walked away with his handlers. “But he’s kind of a rock star. He only makes brief appearances.”

Before he’d gone too far, I called out to have him wait just one more minute. I rolled Mrs. Myszkowski up next to ASIMO and asked the photographer to take a photo. I wanted a picture of the two guests that made our wedding day…unique.

After a delicious meal and cake, the music started. Jack followed our suggestions to the letter, and even did a great job introducing the special dances. Greg and I finished dancing to our song, and afterward the music got decidedly upbeat and old school. The Gap Band’s “Burn Rubber” pulsed through the speakers, and my parents got up and showed everyone how it was done. They had moves, something they’d learned from watching
Soul Train
when they were kids they said.

Their energetic gyrations combined with freely flowing liquor drew almost everyone to the dance floor, and as our friends and family jammed out, Greg surveyed the room and smiled. “This is how I hoped it would be,” he said. “Man. Jack is really doing a great job.”

I made eye contact with Jack and he nodded. He was good. Really good.

Greg turned to me. “Your parents are amazing dancers. I can see where you got it.”

“You haven’t fast danced with me yet,” I pouted.

“And there’s a very good reason for that, I assure you.”

Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” started playing. I grabbed Greg’s hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. “Just watch me and try to mirror what I do. It’s easy.”

 I began swiveling my hips in a manner that made his eyes grow wide. He tried his best to dance opposite me, but found it difficult.

“I suck at this,” he declared.

He truly did, but I didn’t care. “Maybe, but I think it’s adorable to watch you try.”

I came closer. “How about I give you dance lessons later? Maybe if the teacher has lingerie and high heels on it will help you learn quicker.”

Greg checked his watch. “Is this party over yet?” A slow song started playing and he wrapped his arms around me.

At the end of the night we said goodbye to everyone. Mr. Varo pulled Greg aside and told him something before we left, then he came over and hugged me. “Welcome to the family Sam.”

I smiled and said, “I’m happy to be a part of it.”

The next day we were lying on the beach in the Dominican Republic, side by side in matching chaises, with tropical drinks in our hands. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sun beating down on my skin while listening to the relaxing rhythm of the surf. Greg had been explaining the mathematical properties of ocean waves, and I had been listening, but the rum had kicked in, and it was nap time.

We had dinner delivered to our room that night, and after watching the sun set, Greg said, “Don’t you owe me dance lessons?”

I grinned at him. “I’ve had a lot to drink. I’m not sure I could walk in heels.”

“So don’t wear shoes,” he suggested. “Go barefoot.”

He seemed eager to see me dance, so I got up, and when I did, the room wobbled. “See what happens when they offer unlimited free drinks?” I joked.

Greg laughed, then leaned back in his chair, ready to be entertained.

I returned a few minutes later wearing a sheer black nighty and thong. I struck a seductive pose and waited while he cued the music. Jack had made us a CD of the wedding songs, and Greg chose Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” in honor of our first fast dance.

I started dancing, and as I got closer I rocked my hips, making sure my bouncing breasts were at his eye level. The look on Greg’s face promised the night of my life was coming soon, so I really gave it my all toward the end.

When the music stopped he scooped me in his arms and took me to the bedroom. I woke up early in the morning and found him on the patio, looking pensive.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He turned to me and smiled. “Everything’s perfect. I was just wishing my mom was still alive. She would’ve loved you.”

“I’m sure I would have loved her too,” I said, snuggling next to him.

We got up and walked to the beach. The sun was rising, so we stood there, hand in hand, watching as the orange light expanded upward, claiming the night. I felt the love in my heart expand too. I was in a state of wonder, thrilled beyond belief to begin another day with the most amazing man in the world.

My best friend. My husband. My dream man.

The End

Marie Solka is the pen name of women’s fiction author Kim Cano. While Kim writes emotionally-charged book club reads that often bring readers to tears, Marie pens steamy romance.

Marie lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and cat.

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An excerpt of
On The Inside

by Kim Cano

Chapter 1

Reaching for a stack of incoming mail, Lakeisha spotted a greeting card, obvious because of its telltale shape and colorful envelope. She opened it and the song “Happy Birthday” began playing. A brief smile formed on her face, and then she let out a sigh. She picked up her letter opener, then, with the skill of an artisan, pried the musical device out of the back of the card without ruining its cheerful appearance. After a quick scan of the card’s seams for drugs, Lakeisha put it back in its envelope and sealed it with a single piece of tape.

She felt awful defacing the gift, but it was procedure. Inmates with nothing but time on their hands were notorious for taking little things like batteries and wiring and turning them into something dangerous. Musical cards simply weren’t allowed.

Lakeisha had been in a hurry to make it to work, so she skipped breakfast. Luckily, Megan, the new prison psychologist, was just passing by with a box of donuts.

“Girl, how’d you know I’d be hungry?” Lakeisha asked.

“Because we’re on the same page. Pretty much need to be jacked up on sugar to make it through a day here, right?”

Lakeisha smiled in agreement at the tall brunette. “Ain’t that the truth.”

Megan popped the lid open so Lakeisha could make a selection. After pulling out a chocolate glazed, Lakeisha thanked her, then took an ample-sized bite of her donut. As she savored her meal she watched Megan walk away. She was a sweet kid and she kind of felt bad for her. Gossip was this was the only mental health position she was offered after her recent graduation.

“Guess we all gotta start somewhere,” she said out loud. Then she stared at her desk and had a sobering thought: the problem was sometimes you never left.

Before moving onto the next piece of mail Lakeisha removed a napkin from her top drawer and carefully wiped her hands. As she pulled the letter out a photograph spilled onto her desk, a glossy shot of an out of shape, heavily tattooed naked white man.

Lakeisha shook her head in disgust, then mumbled, “I didn’t need to see that while I was eating.”

Not only was it gross, X-rated photos weren’t allowed. Now she had to set it aside and fill out an “unauthorized” form. “Always something,” she muttered. After completing the form, Lakeisha proceeded to scan every fold and seam for drugs. Seeing none she put the letter back in its envelope and set it aside.

Prisoners knew she had the right to read everything they wrote. Sometimes folks on the outside were aware of this too, but Lakeisha didn’t have time to read all the mail. Her job was to process it and make sure it was free of contraband. With five hundred pieces going through her hands each day, and a thousand during the holidays, she didn’t have time to read every word.

But there was some correspondence Lakeisha never missed, a few prisoners whose stories she followed closely. As she learned the details of their lives, through the incoming and outgoing mail, it was like a soap opera. With each letter, she was always left wondering what would happen next.

Long ago Lakeisha had learned not to get close to any of the inmates, to keep her distance. She wasn’t allowed to show any form of favoritism. That was against the rules, so she kept her little mail soap operas a secret. The inmates’ stories were just a little indulgence to make her job more bearable. Plus, even though she knew they were criminals, some having committed truly despicable acts, they were still people. They had dreams once. And as she delivered the mail to them each day, she often wondered what those dreams looked like. How different were those dreams today?

After a short bathroom break Lakeisha moved onto the second pile of incoming mail. The return address on one envelope in particular caught her attention.

It was from Kristen’s husband Jeremy, the one who hadn’t written or visited in three long years, even though she wrote him every week without fail. Lakeisha always read Kristen’s correspondence. Anxious to see what he had to say, she ripped open the envelope.

Kristen,

I’ve been getting your letters. I haven’t written back because every time I try it always comes out the same way, with me cursing at you, so I give up and toss the pen and paper aside.

My sister suggested I just write what I feel, no matter what it is. That some communication is better than nothing. So, based on her advice, I’m going to say what I’ve been dying to say for a long time.

You’ve ruined my life Kristen, in every way a life can be ruined. And worse, you’ve hurt the kids. They’re suffering without their mother. All because for you it was never enough. You always had to have more. Even if it meant stealing to get it.

I’ve lost a lot of friends because of what happened, and some good clients will no longer work with me. Because of that and a bad economy and trying to survive on a single income, now the house is gone. I had to rent a small, two bedroom apartment, and am sleeping on an airbed in the family room that I blow up each night and deflate each morning. I do that so the kids can each have their own bedroom, so they won’t feel like anything in their lives changed.

But who am I kidding. Your goddamn mugshot was in the newspaper. People contacted me and asked, “Is that your wife?”

Ryan and Toby were bullied at school once the story spread too. They still struggle to sleep at night and their grades have suffered.

As if that weren’t enough, finding that shit on the computer after you were arrested, when I stood by your side after you got fired. That hurt the most. I hung in there through the drinking, then came to grips that you committed white collar crime. But I drew the line when I discovered you cheating behind my back.

Seriously, why the fuck do you continue to write me?

Jeremy

Lakeisha slowly refolded the letter and put it back in its envelope. She felt bad for Jeremy and the kids. Their side of the story was heartbreaking. But she also had a soft spot for Kristen, a model prisoner who seemed to be a genuinely nice human being.

Delivering the mail was usually something that made Lakeisha happy, as she knew it often was the only bright spot in a prisoner’s day. She dreaded today’s trip.

When quitting time came and Megan stopped by to say goodnight, Lakeisha was relieved. Maybe Kristen had taken the news better than expected. She assumed Megan would’ve had to make room in her schedule to handle an inmate’s nervous breakdown.

*****

Kristen was thrilled to receive a letter from Jeremy. Once she tore it open and read it though, her spirit deflated.

She had put him through a lot. He had stayed by her side, dealing with her constant drama. Like the night Toby and Ryan had noticed her stumbling out the front door holding car keys in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Fearful she might drive off and kill someone or hurt herself, Ryan ran out and tried to take the keys from her but she pushed him to the ground. When he landed he’d smacked his hand hard on a stone garden gnome and cried out in pain.

Toby saw blood on his older brother’s hand and grabbed the phone to call 911. He’d tried his best to speak to the operator but his mom was making such a ruckus in the background he could barely hear. Instead of helping her son up she was screaming expletives at the top of her lungs. Then she whipped the bottle of wine at the side of the house, staining the white stucco red and sending glass shards flying everywhere. The grand finale was when the cops showed up and she began mouthing off to them just as Jeremy pulled in from a long day at work.

Of course, she didn’t remember any of this at all. But her family sure did. And they never let her forget it.

They’d been keen to bring up the pasta incident too. Jeremy kept texting her asking where she was, saying that the kids were hungry and wanted to eat. He’d worked all day and made dinner but everyone was waiting for her to return before eating. When Kristen eventually showed up she was wasted. She stumbled into the house and to the kitchen table. After she sat down her face fell into her dinner plate.

With unusual calm Ryan rose and wiped spaghetti noodles and sauce off his mom’s cheeks as Jeremy held her limp body. Then they carried her off to bed and made sure to position her on her side in case she vomited in her sleep.

There had been many nights like that one. Most of which Kristen only learned about in embarrassed retrospect. When she first started stealing, she hadn’t been drinking much, but then the stress of keeping secrets and telling lies led her to drink more and more each day. That’s how she finally got caught. She took it too far, lost focus in her alcoholic haze, and her scheme unraveled.

Even then Jeremy had stayed. He said they’d figure out how to fix things. He thought they could find a way to raise money to pay back what she’d stolen. He’d been under the impression it was eighty thousand dollars, a large sum but not impossible to obtain. Maybe they could sell the house and use the equity. Maybe it didn’t have to go to court.

The truth came out after the arrest. Kristen had stolen almost half a million dollars from her employer, a family-run construction company, over the course of five years. She’d been their controller.

Jeremy and his sons had watched as the police arrested Kristen. The neighbors had seen it too, but turned their eyes away, not wanting to get involved. After Jeremy had come to grips with losing his wife of twenty years, and the betrayal of being lied to about the actual dollar amount taken, he found the emails.

“Where you been baby?” the man had written. “I miss you.”

Kristen responded, “I’m stuck here with you know who. Wish I could be in your arms. I’ll see you soon.”

Tears filled Jeremy’s eyes as he read the emails. It was clear he’d been a greater fool than he first thought.

After taking a long walk around the block, Jeremy decided to contact the police. Maybe this boyfriend knew where the majority of the money was, because he couldn’t figure out where a sum that large could have gone.

And he didn’t want to think about it anymore. All he wanted was for her to be out of his mind and heart forever.

Kristen sat on her bunk, thinking of all she’d done and felt sick.

She was forty-five-years-old and had been sentenced to seventeen years in prison. She’d chosen “no restitution” because there was no money left to pay back. All that remained was a mountain of evidence in the form of a second set of books they’d found hidden in the ceiling tiles, and Italian owners who’d felt angered and betrayed by someone they’d once considered family.

She was lucky they hadn’t killed her.

The more she thought of it the more she wished they had. She’d been in prison for three years already and couldn’t figure out how she’d make it through. She would have been better off as alligator food in the Everglades. What was there left to live for?

After lights out the sound of Kristen’s anguished cries filled the quiet prison, a deep, guttural wail from the depths of her very being.

Chapter 2

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed and became louder as two prison guards approached Kristen’s cell. When the door swung open she cried out, “Nooooo! Leave me alone!”

“We can’t have you screaming at the top of your lungs,” one of the guards said. “You wanna cause a riot?”

“I want to be left alone!” Kristen shouted. “Go away!”

Clearly tired of her antics, the larger of the two corrections officers lurched forward and grabbed hold of her. Kristen thrashed around and wouldn’t cooperate so the second guard wrestled her to the ground and cuffed her.

“Let me go!” Kristen screamed. “I want to go home!”

“That ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. Get up. Let’s go!” the guard said as she yanked her.

Kristen was small but stubborn as a bull when she wanted to be, and she continued fighting them. She had to be dragged against her will.

Once at the infirmary the nurse on duty stuck a needle into Kristen’s arm, and soon her deep sobs and shudders were quieted. After she fell asleep, the guards removed her cuffs and dimmed the lights.

Kristen’s dreams were montage-like that evening, a jumble of childhood memories popping up in no particular order.

One was of the time she was a tree in the school play, doing her part to stand very still as the other cast members danced around her. Holiday music filled the air, and her eyes searched the audience for her parents, but didn’t find them.

Another was of the day she came home from school with an “A” on her book report, anxious to share the news. When she walked in she found her parents fighting; her mom screaming with slurred words and her dad storming off, slamming the bedroom door behind him.

The dreams were a subconscious trip down memory lane, where Kristen was reminded of how she wanted nothing more than to be noticed by her parents—to be loved by them—and having grown up never hearing the words spoken to her.

She woke to the sound of paper shuffling. She rolled onto her side and saw Megan.

Kristen rubbed her eyes. Her head throbbed like a jackhammer was pounding it from the inside. “Hi,” she said in a groggy tone.

“Good morning,” Megan replied. “I took the liberty of bringing breakfast in case you’re hungry.”

Kristen sat up, noticing her body felt sore all over. “Thank you.”

Kristen felt oddly comfortable around Megan. Maybe because she treated her like a human being, or like a patient at a high-priced therapist’s office. In Megan’s care, things seemed civilized, unlike the rest of the place.

“Heard you had a rough night,” Megan said.

Kristen stared at the floor, wanting to do anything but talk about what had happened. She took a bite of food. “You could say that,” she replied, while rubbing her head.

“Do you have a headache right now?”

“Do I ever.”

“Let me get you something to help take care of it.” Megan rose and reached into a nearby cabinet and handed Kristen two aspirin. “Probably best to eat a bit more first. They can be hard on the stomach.”

Kristen made eye contact with Megan. “Thanks.”