Traci Tyne Hilton - Mitzi Neuhaus 04 - Frozen Assets (13 page)

Mitzy fingered her platinum curls. Other women did seem to hate blondes. Alonzo had been begging her to go natural for most of the last year. She caught a glimpse of her henna covered hand. Natural hair? Henna tattoos? Next thing you know, she’d stop shaving her legs. She didn’t think Alonzo would like that.

Now, she wanted to let Bonnie know that there might be something to her fear about Dirk’s intentions toward Ulrike, but she wanted to do it in a way that didn’t reveal any of her own conversation with the woman. If Bonnie felt like Mitzy was friends with “that blonde,” it would ruin her credibility with the vulnerable young wife.

“When I ran into Dirk at the office, I did wonder if he and Ulrike had met sometime before.”

Bonnie exhaled slowly. “She’s so
old
.”

Mitzy nodded. Karina had said that Ulrike was twenty-five. In other words, ancient. “What are you thinking about now?” She had expressed enough concern about Dirk. Dirk was too young to know Arnold’s kids. Bonnie was already well aware there could be an infidelity issue. It was time to pay attention to Bonnie herself.

“Dirk put a lot of money down—cleared out our checking and our savings. But I’m the one who makes good money.”

Mitzy winced. Good money as an assistant managing a little gym?

“When Daddy opened the gym and offered me part ownership, I was doubtful, but it’s doing really well.”

“Ah, I see.” Relief washed over Mitzy. Bonnie wasn’t delusional after all.

“Dirk still goes to school part-time. He can’t afford an expensive place like that and school. He needs me, whether he wants to admit it or not.”

“What are you going to do about his ultimatum?”

Bonnie shrugged. “He won’t get approved for a mortgage without my help. There’s no way. And Dad set up a profit-sharing savings account in my name to help us save our down payment, but Dirk can’t get at it. So, I plan to do nothing at all about the ultimatum.”

“And what will you do about your marriage?” As far as Mitzy could tell, Dirk had gotten a good thing when he had married Bonnie, but he was young and apparently immature. Bonnie’s security was coming from her daddy, and if Mitzy had to guess, Dirk was very threatened by that. Earlier in the day, she had felt a twinge of jealousy that Roy had had all of those years with his wife while she and Alonzo were just starting out, but watching Dirk and Bonnie struggle to grow up together made her thankful. Not that any marriage was easy, but she’d take her struggles over the ones the very young Bonnie was facing.

“Dirk and I have been together since we were sophomores in high school. It’ll work out.” Her eyebrows were lifted ever so slightly, like she needed Mitzy to agree with her.

Mitzy nodded, but didn’t verbally agree. She hoped the marriage would work out. And she’d pray it would, too. “Would he consider marriage counseling?”

“He might.” This time, Bonnie actually swallowed some soup.

“If you need an idea of where to go, my church has good counselors.” She scribbled the web address on the back of her business card.

“Thank you.” Bonnie took the card. “What do you think I should do next… about the house… and stuff?”

Mitzy rubbed her lips together. “I like your idea of inaction. Do nothing about the house but wait and pray. And for the relationship, look at the website, talk to some counselors. Even if Dirk won’t go with you, you should do it.”

“Okay.” Bonnie sniffled. “But… you’ll still send me house emails, right?” Her eyes were full of fear and insecurity.

“Yes, of course. This will get sorted out, and in the meantime, I’ll be sending you information. But, I will limit them to things I think you will both like. Does that sound good?” She wished Joan would play along with the modern ranch redo. Seeing the drawings might help Bonnie and Dirk see that their life visions weren’t that far apart.

14

Mitzy went home a little earlier than usual. She had a hot date to get ready for, after all.

Standing in front of her full-length mirror, it was impossible to ignore her henna-decorated arm. She curled her lip in disgust. No slinky black dresses for her tonight. Of course, for all she knew, Al was taking her to see the Christmas boats or the Zoo Lights, and she’d freeze to death in anything without wool sleeves.

Ugh. The thought repulsed her. She pulled off her work clothes and got into a tank and shorts she liked to wear to bed. She would not go out on her first anniversary with the crazy hippy art up to her elbow.

She went to the kitchen and mixed up a lemon juice and sugar paste. Lemon was supposed to lighten skin and sugar was always in recipes for natural scrubs. It might work. She rubbed the lemon sugar all over her arm. Then she licked her finger. Not bad.

The scrub felt good, so she thought she might as well do both arms. She mixed up a bigger batch of sugar and did her other arm and then her neck and chest. She licked her fingertips again. Definitely delicious. She hoped they would go out somewhere that had a lemon dessert on the menu.

She seemed to have plenty of lemon juice on hand, so she mixed up a bit more and covered her legs in the sugar paste, too. She’d be as smooth as a baby tonight, which might make up for the ugly arm art, even if it didn’t remove it. The kitchen floor wasn’t the most comfortable place to have a scrub, so she and her bowl full of sugar paste went to the bathroom.

The
bathroom.

The only bathroom. One of the many reasons she had begged her husband for a new house those few weeks back. But at least it was a nice bathroom. Claw-foot tub, granite counter, slate floor. The beautiful custom work of a builder who had access to construction surplus just when he discovered his own bathroom was full of carpenter ants.

Mitzy checked her watch. It was only five. She had enough time for a long, hot soak before she expected to see her husband.

She turned the water on and lit a few candles. Her Kindle was in the hall, so while the bathtub filled up with steaming hot water, she went out and grabbed it. Her lemon sugar paste was beginning to flake off, but it looked like her henna was unchanged.

Mitzy stretched out on the fuzzy rug in her bathroom and applied more sugar and lemon to her arm. The steamy room, the sweet paste, the candlelight. She wished Alonzo would come home early.

And then he did.

She heard the door creak open, followed by his familiar footsteps. “Mitzy?”

“In here.” Her heart thumped in anticipation. She tried to pull her tank top off without sending sugar flying all over the bathroom.

“What’s all over the floor in here?” Alonzo called.

“Come find out.” Mitzy giggled. It was so rare in life that your secret wish comes true. And so rare for the two of them to run into an early night or a spare afternoon with nothing to do but romance each other.

“Just a second, I’m on the phone.”

Mitzy managed to get her shorts off, but left the tank on so that she wouldn’t disturb the lemon juice stuff on her arm. That was good enough for now. She rubbed more sugar on her upper thighs. Not that they ever saw the sun, but she thought Alonzo might like the extra… effort.

She rinsed her hands in the hot bathtub water and then ran them through her hair. Where was he?

While she waited, she folded her shorts and set them outside the bathroom. She hoped he’d catch a glimpse of her in her anniversary underpants, but he wasn’t anywhere she could see.

She leaned on the edge of the bathtub and let one sugary hand trail in the water. The nice thing about a claw-foot tub was that there was room for two. Or there was supposed to be. She was excited to find out if it was true.

She tried one foot on the edge of the tub, the other on the ground. The bad thing about a claw-foot tub was that the edges were so narrow. Her foot slipped into the water.

She straightened up a little, one foot on the edge of the tub, one in the water. That could work.

He was sure on a long phone call.

The bathroom door popped open and a cold whoosh of air hit her. Her other foot, and then her bottom, slipped into the tub with a splash.

“Why are you wearing your clothes in the tub?” Alonzo asked, his eyes fixed on her tank-top-covered torso. He looked at his phone again. “I’ll be back in two hours.” He shut the door.

Mitzy slapped her hands on the water’s surface. The bath, which had seemed so inviting moments before, had lost its interest.

The sugar had dissolved on contact, and her arm was every bit as covered in red-brown, swirly fertility symbols as it ever had been.

She slipped down until the water was at her chin. Why was she in the bathtub in her clothes indeed?

Finishing her bath and dressing for her date in a short leather skirt, knee-high boots, and a silky blouse that managed to hide most of her henna without making her feel bundled up, managed to use up most of her two hours. The pile of clothes on the bed was a loud testimony that the job hadn’t been easy. She did her makeup and washed her face and did it again almost as many times as she changed her clothes. Whether it was the casual and quick nature of their wedding or the failed attempt to seduce him earlier, Mitzy wasn’t sure, but she was determined to be perfect for their date, whatever it happened to be.

When she couldn’t change her mind about even one more thing, she sat down to check her messages. She had two—one from her client Cheryl and a text from Karina.

She was especially curious about how Sean had taken Cheryl’s change of heart, so she listened to the voicemail first.

“
Mitzy… this is Cheryl. I think Sean and I are interested in maybe moving. So, if you could call me back at this number. Thanks.”
 There were brief pauses in the message that made her sound unsure or even vulnerable. But there was an up-note, almost a lilt, when she said “
Sean and I.”
Mitzy’s heart fluttered on their behalf. She would love nothing more than to help them find a house together.

She checked the text message next, though she knew nothing good could come of it.

“Need U ASAP. KDZ cming. TLK HS.”

It irritated Mitzy to see Karina use some sort of hybrid old person text speak. First of all because Mitzy didn’t do that, and second, because she had to guess at what it meant. KDZ cming…kids? Did that refer to Zachary and Deanna or someone else? And TLK HS… was that talk about the house? She checked the time. 7:05 p.m. She certainly wasn’t going to rush off to Karina’s on her first wedding anniversary to spend the evening soaking in their dysfunction. Especially since she had bowed out of her commission. She turned off her phone. This was quite possibly the most important date night of her life. She would not entertain their issues.

“Mitzy?” Alonzo stomped through the house like he was in a hurry and wearing boots. He threw the door to the bedroom open. He did still have his work boots on. “I am sorry I’m late.”

Mitzy glanced at the clock. “You’re not very late.”

He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his arms. “You smell delicious.” He kissed her warmly.

“I was delicious about two hours ago,” she said, when he released her.

He lifted an eyebrow. “This is why we ought to have a strict ‘no cell phones in the house’ rule.” As he spoke, his phone rang.

Mitzy laughed. “Go ahead and answer it.”

He shook his head. He turned it off and tossed it on the bed. “It’s seven o’ clock in the evening on the anniversary of the day I married the woman of my dreams. Grab your coat, babe. It’s time to go.”

Mitzy bundled up in her wooliest coat, scarf, hat, everything she could think of to compensate for her exposed legs.

Alonzo helped her into the truck and headed east.

Mitzy twirled her hair around her finger. “Hmm… so, we’re not eating downtown or in Sellwood.”

“Nope.”

“And we’re not eating in… uh… is there anywhere great to eat east of Sellwood?” She laughed. “Where are we going?”

Alonzo stretched his arm across the back of the seat.

“We’re not eating at the inn, are we?”

“Not unless you hired a chef for The Miramontes without telling me.”

“I didn’t.” They drove past the turn they needed to take to get to the inn Alonzo’s sister managed for them. “Are we going out of town? To Hood River?”

Alonzo’s smile widened. “You will never guess.” He turned south, in the general direction of Karina’s house up on Concord Street.

Mitzy rested her head on Alonzo’s arm. “I’m glad we got married.”

“Even though you didn’t get a big wedding?”

“What does that matter?”

“Or a honeymoon?”

“There’s still time.”

They came to a stoplight, and Alonzo kissed her head. “There is still time. I think we ought to go on one this summer. I know it’s a long time from now…”

“But your job will be done by then, right? So it’s a good time to go.”

“Exactly.”

Alonzo had driven up and over the hill, past Karina’s street. He turned into an older development. The big houses were perfectly outlined in Christmas twinkle lights.

“So pretty,” Mitzy said. Her stomach grumbled a little, but she didn’t mind seeing the lights before they ate. “We ought to hire someone to do this to the inn.”

“Good idea.” He pulled over and parked. “I have an anniversary gift for you. Two, actually. Can I give them to you now?”

Mitzy grinned. “Uh, yes? Thank you?” She squirmed, a thread of giddiness tickling her spine. A gift he couldn’t wait to get to the restaurant to give had to be a good one.

He pulled a portfolio from the backseat and zipped it open. “Uh, here.” He passed it to her and smiled.

The art was beautiful, sure. Mitzy traced the artist sketch of a modern interior. She turned the page and read the miniature blueprint for a remodel. “Is this the remodel idea I wanted for Dirk and Bonnie?”

Alonzo nodded, his smile creasing his face, his eyes crinkling.

Mitzy stuffed the feeling of disappointment that threatened her back where it belonged. “It’s really nice.” She plastered a smile on her face. “Did Joan come through with design help?”

“Nope, it was all me.”