Maria called in the middle of the morning the next day. “Royce,” she said, “what would you say to our getting together again at your place tonight?”

“After last night it wouldn’t take much to talk me into it. I’ll tell you what, I’m sure grateful I do those workouts at Josie’s every morning, though.”

“I felt a little rusty myself,” she laughed. “I mean, it’s been ten years since Reuben, but that squeaking you heard last night was not from rust. I’ll leave Ramona with Naomi again.”

“I think Petra is on until eleven, if I understood the schedule change correctly,” he smiled. “That was just a little embarrassing, you know.”

“Better Petra than Ramona at this point,” she laughed. “I’m on until six, but I’ll grab a frozen pizza here in the store before I leave. That way we won’t have to mess around with going out. I’ve got to get back to work or the big boss will be mad at me. Catch you later.”

“See you later, Maria.”

Royce leaned back in his chair after he hung up the phone. There was no doubt that Maria was starting to grow on him, and the hours they’d spent in his bedroom the night before seemed like a lot more than a mere fling. This was going faster than he had expected, but he wasn’t sure he minded. If this worked out, it was going to wash away a lot of the crap that Maxine and Milt had shoveled onto him, some of it would never go away, but he felt like he was finally getting things back in balance.

It was nearly seven that evening before Maria showed up, wearing a full-skirted dress, rather short, showing off her nice legs. She brought with her one of the better brands of frozen pizza. He knew that it wasn’t anywhere near as good as fresh pizzeria pizza, but really, he didn’t mind. “Let me get this going,” she said. “Then let’s go out on the patio and talk while we’re waiting.”

Once the oven was warming they went outside. Royce plopped down in one of the lawn chairs, but rather than sitting down on the next one she climbed on top of him, legs straddling him as she faced him.

“Royce,” she said. “I’m really coming to like you, but before we go much further, there’s something I need to know. It’s about this thing with you and your ex-wife and her husband. I think I’ve gotten the story in bits and pieces, but if I understand correctly, you started that chain of Sandy’s Super Subs to drive them out of business, right?”

“That’s right. Maria, when a rich man wants to hurt a poor man, he usually wins because he has the money to do it with. I don’t consider myself all that rich but I’m in a far better financial position than they are.”

“I can understand that part of it. But Royce, why did you do it?”

“Because they’d hurt me so much over the years. They started out hurting me by cheating on me. They took my family away from me in the process, and I thought when I started it all that they’d taken my daughter away from me. They would have managed to do that if I hadn’t been smart enough to look into a few things more than they did, and then make the right moves when I found out about them. They hurt me for ten years, Maria. Ten lonely, bitter years when I had nothing better to do with my life but work to try to forget the pain. You know the story about Maxine wanting Milt to walk Petra down the aisle when she got married, and that was what finally got me mad enough to do something about them.”

“The wedding. You didn’t wreck that to get back at them, did you? Didn’t you care if you hurt Petra in the process?”

“Yes and no. I didn’t set out to wreck the wedding. I was just not going to show up because it would have just hurt me even more and I wasn’t going to let them get the satisfaction of rubbing it in my face one more time. Then I discovered what a louse Barry was, and I didn’t want Petra to go through the same sort of shit that I had to put up with. I probably could have done it a little differently, but I wasn’t sure at that point if I could get Petra to see the light or if she could have gotten through to her mother about it. Wrecking the wedding saved Petra and at the same time hurt the Wilsons, and once Petra knew the truth she was glad I did it. She did go through a couple of rotten days before she found out, and I could probably have handled that better.”

“Are you going to continue to try to wreck their lives?”

“I think I’ve pretty well accomplished what I set out to do. There’s no way they can stop what’s going to happen even if I don’t lift another finger. I have a lawsuit going against them over breach of contract on Petra’s visitation long ago, but in the situation they’re in now I couldn’t get anything out of them if I were to win it. It was intended to break them by paying out money for lawyers, but I’m pretty sure that the wedding and everything else pretty much made it superfluous. When the time is right I’ll probably drop the lawsuit since it can’t accomplish anything more than I’ve already managed to do and will just cost me money for nothing.”

“Royce, I’m sorry I had to bring this up, but I needed to know a few things. The big one was whether you’re as mean-spirited and vindictive as all this stuff made you appear to be. It looked to me like you weren’t ready to let bygones be bygones, but were dredging up old things because you wanted to be sadistic.”

“That was never my intent. I only decided to do it when they pushed me too far, and that business about me not walking Petra down the aisle was what did it. I put up with an awful lot of shit from them for ten years, Maria. I put up with it for Petra’s sake, not mine, because I didn’t want her to be the rope in a tug-of-war. If I’d fought them every inch of the way, I could see that I’d lose her for sure. I thought I had when the issue of giving her away came up. With her lost, I had nothing else I could do but to make them feel some of the pain they’d given me. I’m sorry if it looked like something else, Maria, but it came down to the fact that I had to do what I had to do, and I had to use the tools I had for the job to hit them in a vulnerable place.”

She slid herself forward a little ways, to where she was now straddling his upper thighs. “Royce,” she said, “I had to ask you these questions because I need to know if you could ever be that evil and vindictive to me.”

He was silent for a moment considering his answer. It was obvious that how he answered was going to affect his future, perhaps a lot, but he realized that he had to be honest. “Maria, I can’t say no. But at the same time, you would have to drive me very hard to get me that angry. If Maxine had asked me that question twelve years ago, I would have said no. But she took ten years changing my mind and she finally drove me too far. If anything, I realize now that I can be that vindictive if I’m driven to it, but I don’t want to have to do something like that again.”

“Nothing is perfect in this life, is it?”

“No, we’re all imperfect, but we have to do the best we can.”

“Royce, I’ve gone ten years since I lost Reuben. It hurt a lot to lose him, but I eventually figured out that I needed to stop what I was doing and move on. I’ve spent years looking for the perfect man and I never found him. Now I’ve found a good man, and while he’s not perfect, he’ll probably be the best one I could ever find.”

With that, she reached up under the hem of her skirt, found the zipper to his shorts, and dug around inside it for what she knew she would find there – and it was as hard as could be, as hard as it had been the night before. It had already sprung to life, and she got it pointed in the right direction, lifted herself and thrust herself down onto it; only now did Royce realize she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

“Now I’ve got you where I really want you,” she smiled with him as deep in her as she could manage. “Royce, I don’t know exactly how to say this, but the last few days Ramona has been asking me if you could be her daddy. She’s never known a father, Royce, and I wouldn’t want most of the men I’ve met since Reuben to be her father anyway. A girl like her needs a father, Royce, and I’m sure you realize it more than most men. I think Petra has shown you that.”

“I don’t dispute a bit of it. I think Milt tried to be Petra’s father at least a little, but this is not the same thing.”

“No, it isn’t. Like I said, Ramona has never known a father. She likes you, Royce. She likes you a lot, and she’s getting to the age where she needs a father to watch over her even when she doesn’t want him to, like you had to watch over Petra to keep her from marrying Barry. You know you could have lost her forever in the way you handled that?”

“Of course I knew it, but it was a risk I had to take, especially since I thought I’d already lost her. In spite of everything, she was still my daughter.”

“Could you watch over Ramona like that?”

“I will if you want me to.”

She paused for a moment, smiled at him, and moved up and down a little to keep his attention, and because it felt so good. “Royce, a woman isn’t supposed to ask a man to marry him, and I think we’re probably rushing it to talk about it. But these days, being married isn’t a requirement for moving in with each other, and even kids understand that.”

“If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, I wouldn’t mind it in the slightest. I have only one reservation.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m still getting used to having one daughter living with me, and I’m not sure how well it’s going to work to have a second daughter and her mother join us. This isn’t that large a house, you know. I mean, I’d love to have you, but I think we need to work out the housekeeping arrangements and details like that with Petra.”

“I know that. I talked with her just a little bit while you were in the bathroom last night. We didn’t get into a lot of detail, but she’s for it. What she said was that while she still wants to be your daughter, you have needs that a daughter can’t meet. I mean the kind of needs we had fun with last night.”

“She has a point,” he grinned. “You haven’t seen one bikini she wears for laying out in the sun. I mean, a father ought to be embarrassed to have his daughter running around wearing a bikini like that.”

“Maybe I’ll have to see what it’s like so I can get one, too,” she laughed. “I may be a little older than your daughter but I think I still have the body for one.”

“After what I saw last night, I’m sure you do.”

“You are a tease and a flatterer, and I’m sure you know it. But talking about last night brings up something else we really ought to talk about. Royce, I’ve been on the pill for a while, ever since you moved Ramona and me into our apartment, since I thought there was a chance something like that might happen, and I’m glad it did.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Royce, I’m not too old to have another baby, maybe even two, but we can’t put it off for long since I am getting old enough to where it’ll soon be an issue. I wouldn’t mind having another one, but what do you think?”

“Do you want to know the truth?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t mind raising another daughter and be able to go all the way through it the right way this time, but let’s hold off until we’re married before we start getting serious about it.”

“That sounds just fine to me. Now, one final question.”

“What?”

“Do you want to do it like this right out here on the patio, or do you want to go to your bedroom?”

This was probably a fool’s errand, Maxine thought as she drove the battered old car through the subdivision. It had barely been able to make it all the way here.

Three years had gone by since she and Milt had been forced to leave the city with their tails figuratively between their legs. The bankruptcy laws had protected their house, but payments still had to be made even though there had been no way to make them. They owed more on the house than it was worth anyway, so it had been fairly easy to decide to give the keys back to the bank and let them figure out which loans would get repaid.

The stores were a little simpler. Some of them were in leased buildings, so they just quit paying the leases. The ones that they still owed on went to the banks, and that was that.

Before they let the house go they had a big yard sale. It didn’t bring in a lot of money but did get rid of a lot of stuff. They managed to save a few hundred dollars in cash from the sale, money the bankruptcy referee didn’t know about; that, and one car was what they had to start over with.

She and Milt weren’t getting along very well by then, but they had at least worked out that they would be better off staying together rather than going their separate ways, which both of them really wanted to do. It had proved to be a wise decision, since there had been no way either of them could have afforded to live on the income from whatever minimum-wage job they’d have been able to find – which they hadn’t always been able to do in the first few months. In their case, two had to live as cheaply as one whether they liked it or not. Good jobs had proved to be particularly hard to find for a while, and they had to move several times to find better opportunities. After a year, they found a better deal: Milt went to work as a line worker in a sub shop; with his experience he soon was making better than minimum wage, while she had a job in a motel, making up rooms. It had been hard for her, since she hadn’t held down a job since she’d gotten pregnant with Petra almost a quarter of a century before, but it was something she had to do, so she did it.

Every once in a while a honeymoon couple would come through the motel on their way to somewhere else, and when that happened she always thought about Petra and how nice her wedding would have been if Barry hadn’t run off and everything had come off as planned. Milt got tired of hearing about it, but that didn’t mean she had to quit thinking about it.

After a while things eased up for them a little, until one day when Barry, of all people, walked into the sub shop where Milt was working. There were angry words, and then a fight; it ended with Milt cutting Barry up pretty badly with a bread knife. The last she’d heard, he probably would bear scars for the rest of his life.

That was the good news; the bad news was that Milt was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. There was no money for an attorney, of course; the public defender assigned to the case wanted to plea-bargain the charge down, but even after it was done Milt was going to be facing at least a couple of years in the state prison.

That cut out the majority of her income; she knew that she couldn’t live on what she made cleaning motel rooms, even if she took two jobs. They had barely been able to make it day to day before, so the only thing she could think of to do was to take the money from her last paycheck and head back on the off chance that either Royce or Petra would take a little pity on her. They had their pound of flesh out of her, and more.

She had never spent a lot of time in the subdivision where Royce and presumably Petra lived, but she knew how to find the house. She pulled to a stop in front of the house, but had to work up her courage to get out, go up, and knock on the door.

Finally she managed to do it. She rang the bell, but couldn’t hear it inside the house, so knocked on the door once, then twice. Just when she thought no one was home, the inside door opened. Behind the still-locked screen door there was a young girl, perhaps thirteen or fourteen, with long, full black hair, pretty in a way that indicated that she was going to be downright beautiful when she got a little older. Her heart sank; maybe Royce and Petra didn’t live here after all.

“Hi,” the young teenager said. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Petra Palmer,” Maxine said. “Do you know where she lives?”

“Sure,” the girl said with a smile. “But I can tell you that she won’t be at home right now. She’s an assistant manager at a supermarket. You might be able to catch her there, but she and Jeremy are planning on taking off as soon as she gets off work.”

“Jeremy? Who’s he?”

“He’s her boyfriend. Well, he’s her sort-of boyfriend. They are sort of married and all, but she doesn’t want to get married until she can find an Elvis impersonator to do the wedding. They’ve got a little boy and I get stuck babysitting for them sometimes. Dustin is a cute kid but he’s still a baby so he gets a little messy.”

My God, Maxine thought. Petra had a baby! That means I’m a grandmother and I didn’t know a thing about it. You’d have thought she would have said something . . . but how would she have found me if she’d wanted to tell me in the first place? “She’s not staying at home with the little boy?” she asked incredulously.

“Oh, no, she went right back to work as soon as she could. She probably won’t be an assistant manager much longer. Dad wants her to get some store management experience before she’s appointed as regional manager. That’s probably a couple years off.”

“Your dad? Who’s he?”

“Royce Palmer. He’s not my real dad but I like to call him that. My real dad is dead, a long time ago, and I don’t remember him, but Mom says that Dad is an even better father than my real dad would have been.”

“I didn’t know Royce was married.”

“Oh, yeah, almost three years now. They’ve got a little girl, Astrid, and another one on the way. I get stuck with sitting for Astrid too, but they don’t want to have me do it all the time. It’s OK, but Dad says that when I turn sixteen I can get a job as a stocker, and I think I’d rather do that than baby-sit. Dad says it’s important for me to learn how to work, and not just sit around the house. We’re not going to be here much longer anyway. It was kind of tight when Mom and Petra and I were living here with Dad, but we got through it all right, but Mom said it would be nice to have a bigger house if they’re going to have three kids in it.”

“Your mom doesn’t stay home with you?”

“Oh, no, she believes in working, too. She’s operations manager for Hot Dog Huts. That’s where Jeremy works, he’s the president. They’re opening a whole string of new stores soon.”

Maxine remembered seeing Hot Dog Huts around, and not just here in the city. They were a really fast-growing chain. She’d stopped at one on her way here; the hot dog was cheap and tasty, and she had really liked the refried beans, onions, and cheese on hers.

“That’s good. They’re doing well, I take it.”

“Oh, yes, very good.”

“That’s nice, but can you tell me how to get in touch with Royce?”

“No, ma’am. I know who you are, or I wouldn’t have opened the door for you. I was told to tell you if you ever came here that you’ve still got seven years to go before Dad or Petra are willing to talk to you, so you might as well leave. Have a good day.” With that, she closed the door, and Maxine heard the lock snap shut.

No, there would be no forgiveness, not yet, Maxine thought as she turned away from the door with tears rolling down her face. Her grandson wouldn’t even know her, and she’d missed the wonderful days of being the grandmother of a baby that she had so looked forward to for many years.

What to do now? She had no idea, no idea at all. About the only thing she could think of was to find some small job that would give her enough money to get back to where she had been living. It would be a struggle, and might mean she’d be sleeping in her car for a while, but there was no future to be found here anymore.

There were even more bitter tears as she drove away from Royce’s house. Royce was clearly doing fine. He had a nice house and was looking at getting a better one. He had a wife, and apparently one who loved him, along with a nice teenage stepdaughter, a baby girl, and another kid on the way.

That could have been hers if she hadn’t been agreeable to having a little fun with Milt when the chance came up, but there was nothing she could do about it now, and it had cost her everything. That was a stiff price to pay for a little fun and a lot of mistakes to try to cover it up.

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