Chapter 2 #2
Ava had three choices really. Number one was to go on living in a world where she was just a fixture in a big, fancy house.
Number two was to make Vince understand that time with her wasn’t time wasted, and money wasn’t the most important thing in the world.
Number three was to start divorce proceedings.
She couldn’t bear to open door number one.
What was behind door number two was what she wanted most, but Vince had proven that his job at his dad’s big firm came first in his life.
Door number three beckoned to her like a shot of whiskey to an alcoholic.
Just end the misery and move on with her life in hopes that there was someone out there who would treat her as an equal and not see her as a poor little kitten he had picked up on the side of the road and was now ready to take to the animal shelter because she wasn’t cute and cuddly anymore.
“You look like you’re about to cry,” Minnie said.
“I thought I’d cried out all my tears, but it seems like my body keeps producing more,” Ava declared.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Sookie asked. “We’re just three old women, but we’re good at listening.”
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” Ava said.
The waiter brought their food and set it in front of them. “If you need anything else, just signal me,” he said with a smile.
“Thanks,” Dotty said. “This all looks great.”
Ava smeared cream cheese on her bagel and bit into it.
She would only be on the ship a week with these spicy old gals.
What would it hurt to confide in them? She didn’t have a grandmother or even a mother to talk to, and her older sister would tell her to suck it up and live with whatever Vince did or didn’t do so she wouldn’t lose all those lovely dollars she had at her disposal.
“I met Vince at a wedding a little over five years ago. We had a whirlwind romance, and he flew me down to the Bahamas to the very place where we’d met and proposed to me.
He comes from a long line of oil money and works in a huge firm as the in-house lawyer for his father, who owns the business now. I was an elementary school teacher.”
“Kind of a Cinderella story, right?” Sookie asked.
“I thought so at the time, but then Vince’s mother decided that I shouldn’t teach school anymore,” Ava said.
“Why?” Dotty’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I was a teacher for ten years. There’s no more honorable position in the whole world as far as I’m concerned.”
“Cargill women have educations, but they do not work,” Ava mimicked her mother-in-law’s British tone and then went back to her own southern accent, “I wanted to fit into the family, and I tried so hard. After watching my mother die with cancer when I was a teenager, I wanted to be a part of Vince’s family.
I agreed to do a little charity work with her, learn to throw a good dinner party, and all those things that Cargill women do, but nothing I did pleased his mother. ”
“Maybe you tried too hard,” Sookie said.
“Probably, but Vince is an only child, and I just chalked it up to her wanting the best for her son.” Ava picked up the wrong cup and took a sip of Dotty’s coffee. “Oh. My. Goodness! That tastes so good, but I’m so sorry that I drank out of your cup.”
“No problem, darlin’,” Dotty said with a grin. “You got to have a few things to make life worth living. Real cream and sugar are a couple of those that I indulge in.”
“Hmmph,” Sookie almost snorted. “A couple?”
“Hey, I love food, and my fat cells love me,” Dotty told her and turned back to Ava. “Now where was your evil mother-in-law brought up?”
“Wales, where she rubbed shoulders with royalty from the time she was born. My father-in-law met her on a business trip. When Vince and I were first married, things weren’t so bad, but it’s slowly gotten worse through the years.
He spends more time with his job and his folks than he does with me.
They have job-related dinners that his mother tells him I wouldn’t be ‘interested in’…
” She air quoted the last few words. “So he goes without me. I wouldn’t say we’ve grown apart, but more that we’ve been split apart.
Other than marrying me in a wedding that she told me was shabby and a disgrace to her son because we had it out on my grandparents’ old farm, I’m sure he’s never done anything against her will. ”
“Does he still love you?” Sookie asked.
“At this point, I don’t know,” Ava admitted. “I still love him, or at least I love the man I married. I’m not so sure about the man I’m living with at this point.”
“What can we do to help?” Minnie finished off her eggs, bacon, and biscuits.
“You’ve already done a lot, just by listening to me. My only living relative is a sister who is ten years older than me and thinks I fell into a honeypot when I married Vince. She tells me that I should just live with whatever it takes to keep him and the money.”
“Money doesn’t mean everything,” Minnie said with a sigh.
Ava raised an eyebrow. “Do I hear a note of regret there?”
“Yes, you do,” Minnie answered. “My husband made Midas look poor, but all that money didn’t save him when he had an acute heart attack and dropped dead on the bathroom floor at the age of fifty-five.”
“And my late husband’s fortune wasn’t worth much when he got terminal cancer,” Sookie said.
“Or mine when he worked hard on a huge Texas ranch his whole life, and didn’t live to see sixty-five,” Dotty told her.
“I’m so sorry for all of you,” Ava said.
“And we’re sorry you are in this place in your marriage, but we’re here to help if you need us,” Sookie said. “Looks like we’re finished here. Let’s go out to the deck and watch the world go by. Everything always looks better out there where all we can see is sky and water.”
“Puts things in perspective.” Dotty placed her napkin over her plate and pushed back her chair.
Ava followed her lead and stood up. “I hope so,” she muttered.
***
Vince sat on his balcony, watched the sun rise beyond where water touched sky, and felt miserable and empty. Stupid didn’t begin to describe his actions. He was man enough to admit that this separation from Ava was all his fault. She’d done her best, only to be shot down at every turn by his folks.
In the beginning of their relationship, he and Ava had talked for hours and hours about their dreams and hopes, and how that they wanted to travel to another country.
Then his folks offered him a fortune to go into the family business—and he couldn’t say no to his mother.
Ava had begged for time with him, but he’d kept telling her that they would have time to spend together later.
His excuse was that he had to learn all he could about running a multibillion-dollar oil company.
He finished off the breakfast he’d ordered from room service, poured himself one more mimosa, and then stood up, opened the sliding glass doors into his private cabin, and went inside.
He should have enjoyed the view of nothing but ocean and sky as the ship glided across the water, but all he could think about was that Ava could have been sitting across the little round table from him.
What was she doing that morning back in Texas?
Had she begun packing to leave him for good?
He dressed in khaki shorts and a red polo shirt and slipped his feet into a pair of sandals. He ran an electric razor over his face. Mother said a gentleman didn’t go out in public looking like a beggar, but since Ava moved out, he’d been rethinking listening to everything his mother told him.
Can you even see what kind of situation listening to Delores Cargill has caused? the pesky voice in his head asked.
“It’s not all on her,” he muttered. “I’m the cause of most of this trouble because I haven’t stood up to her but three times in my life.
Once over my career, and she won that time in a sense.
Two when I married Ava, and just this week when I decided to take a week off for this cruise to try to come up with a plan to talk Ava into giving me another chance. ”
Sometimes it’s too late to do what you should’ve been doing all along. This time his grandfather’s voice was in his head.
“I hear you, Granddad.” He shoved his room key into his pocket and looked back at the bed that he and Ava should be sharing.
He snagged a cup of coffee in the dining room and carried it out to a deck where chaise lounges were lined up.
He chose one at the very end of the row and leaned back to enjoy the view.
In a few minutes, an elderly gentleman who reminded him of a skinny version of Sean Connery sat down beside him.
He sported a gray mustache like the actor had when he played in roles later in his life.
His gray hair was feathered back perfectly.
His size, posture, hair, and everything about him, other than that little mustache, reminded Vince of his own grandfather.
“Are you saving this for someone?” the guy asked.
“No, sir, and I’ll be glad to sit beside James Bond. Can I go get you a cup of coffee?”
“Just plain old Henry O’Dell, who recently sold his ranch in West Texas and decided to take a year’s vacation on cruise ships, and I’ve had enough coffee this morning,” the guy said. “And you are?”
“Vince Cargill. Pleased to meet you, Henry.”
“Likewise,” he nodded. “I see by that white mark on your ring finger that you aren’t attached, but you have been.”
“Yes, sir, that’s right,” Vince said with a nod. “I made a huge mistake.”
“Can you fix it?” Henry held up his hand.
“My white line has gone. My sweet wife died ten years ago, but we had a good long and very happy marriage. Kids were grown and gone on their own paths of life when I lost her. I wanted one of my boys to take over the ranch, but neither of them wanted it, and my daughter couldn’t wait to get away from Texas.
I gave them all a healthy little chunk of inheritance and decided to treat myself to an extended vacation. ”