Dear Adam (21 page)

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 11:51 AM

To: Eden E

I will visit then. See, teamwork.

So now just send your son off to college,
and then we'll make babies and renovate a house. I jest.

I like the idea of land too, for deeply
thought out reasons. There is quite a bit of land with my current
home as well.

I think so much could be done with it.
Hmmmm.

Does property development interest you?

The reason I told you about this property is
that I thought it would be nice to include you in something like
this that I'm thinking about.

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From: Eden E

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:06 PM

To: Adam -

I don't really know anything about it.

Is it usually the case that the woman you're
with has to change, transform, become more like you are than the
other way around?

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:07 PM

To: Eden E

I don't think anyone should change, but
people should compromise.

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From: Eden E

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:13 PM

To: Adam -

Very true; however, any woman who wants to
be with you has to arrange her life a certain way or change certain
ways of thinking in order for the relationship to succeed. It's not
a very flexible, fluid situation with you. ***This isn't an
accusatory statement.***

You have such strong opinions on everything.
And you know how you want things done and how things should be in
your life. That's all I was thinking. To be with you, a woman has
to accept those things or else the two of you would be butting
heads all the time.

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:14 PM

To: Eden E

I think on some issues, you have to be in
harmony to be together, but I think that is either the case from
the beginning, or it just doesn't work. I think in other matters,
you meet in the middle.

I don't ever want to change someone, and in
the past I've never done that. The foundations need to be there
before things even get off the ground

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From: Eden E

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:14 PM

To: Adam -

You've never wanted to change anyone. But
has anyone ever made a drastic or significant change to be with
you?

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:15 PM

To: Eden E

No I don't think they have, maybe that's why
it didn't work, ha

Would you ever leave the US?

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From: Eden E

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:20 PM

To: Adam -

Okay, I'm leaving now. I look halfway decent
and don't smell. Yet. I'll wait for your call at 3?

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 12:21 PM

To: Eden E

3-4. Have a good time, darling.

Be good.

x

Eden was nowhere near ready to go out. She
wasn’t dressed and her hair was still in rollers. Adam’s last
e-mail stopped her in her tracks. He was asking her opinion of
properties, wanted to buy her expensive underwear, and now wanted
to know if she would ever leave the United States. He didn’t appear
to be the kind of man to say these things lightly.

Things between them were moving lightning
fast. She had no confusion about how she felt about him or why.
What confused her was how fast it was for him. He was not
sentimental or overly emotional, yet it sounded like he was
thinking of a future with her. She scrolled back to his earlier
messages that morning: "I wouldn't, not if we were at home." “So
now just send your son off to college, and then we'll make babies
and renovate a house.” He wrote that it was in jest – but was
it?

She liked that he was trusting her with
details of his life and sought her opinion, but the possibility of
a very real future with this man she had never even met scared her
just a little. Not because she didn't want it, but because the idea
of being with Adam, as wild and too-soon and unwise as it was, was
something she wanted very much.

Eden started to get dressed, still
preoccupied. It was strange that although Adam wouldn’t see her,
she still thought of him as she put on makeup, chose jewelry,
styled her hair. She knew that he would like how she looked today,
wearing a dress and heels, and it excited her. Someday it could
very well happen. He’d be out at a meeting and she would sit at a
café in town, all dressed up and waiting for him to finish.

After she ran her errands, she went to
Sephora and headed straight for the men’s cologne section. She
found Armani Code right away. Italian, in a simple black package,
classic - just like Adam. She sprayed it on a paper test strip and
inhaled. Very masculine, slightly musky, powerful. This was what
Adam smelled like.

She imagined a figure in a black suit,
standing tall and sharp and smelling like Armani Code. Adam would
come in the cafe where she was waiting and look around. Everyone
would look at him and wonder who he was. Their eyes would meet and
despite wanting to frown and seem displeased, she wouldn't help
smiling in pleasure because she had missed him all day. He would
walk over to where she was seated, then lean over and give her a
kiss so deep and hot, she would forget that he had left her alone
all day. He would sit next to her and nuzzle her neck while they
waited for his coffee, and the air would smell of Armani Code
...

Despite the air conditioning, Eden started
sweating. She immediately purchased a small bottle.

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 3:55 PM

To: Eden E

Not far from home but stuck in slow traffic.
Must have been an accident. Shouldn't be too long

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From:

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 3:57 PM

To: Adam -

Not to worry. Just looking at your
pictures.

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From: Adam -

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 3:59 PM

To: Eden E

It is an accident. A nasty one too.
Shouldn't be too long now

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From:

Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 4:01 PM

To: Adam -

Don't text & drive!!!

Eden reclined against her pillows. She was in
bed already, wearing in a black lace chemise. Dante was sleeping
over at his dad’s house and so she left her bedroom door open to
let the air from the open windows circulate. The August heat was
cooling down a bit, but it was still sultry. Frank Sinatra was
playing low from her laptop. She had Adam’s photos open and her
iPod ready and charged. She sprayed the Armani a few times so that
her room smelled of Adam. It was slowly driving her crazy.

It felt like she was waiting for Adam to come
home from work, and that as soon as he walked in the door she would
stand on tiptoe and wrap her arms around him to welcome him with a
kiss. She felt she should chastise herself for playing a sexy,
domestic woman waiting for her man.

But with Adam, it was different. It didn’t
feel like playing a role. She felt so soft and yielding. If by some
miracle he were to actually walk into her bedroom, she would be at
his mercy.

When her iPod jumped alive with the Skype
jingle, she put on her earbuds and answered with a silky
“Hello.”

“
Edie? Why didn’t you
answer my text messages?” Adam sounded slightly out of breath and
on edge.

Eden sat up, irritated. Here she was feeling
so warm and soft and he was grumpy. She turned off Frank Sinatra.
“Because you were driving! I didn’t want you to get in an
accident!”

“
Oh.” His tone was
instantly calmer. “You worried me. I wish you’d have answered, then
I wouldn’t have driven home so fast. I almost got in an accident
myself.” He gave a slight, embarrassed laugh.

Eden took a deep breath. “You sound like you
just got in.”

“
Yes. Two seconds
ago.”

And the first thing he did was call her. She
felt soft again.

“
Why don’t you relax,
undress, then call me in five minutes?”

“
No, I just needed to hear
your voice. I’m fine now. I thought you were mad at me.”

“
Mad at you? No.” She
settled back against her pillows. “I’ve missed you.”

“
I missed you too. The
whole day was so long. And all I wanted to do was go home so we
could be together.”

She smiled to herself. She pictured a dark
house, perhaps one light on. She would come up to him, embrace him
from behind.

“
If I was there, would I
get you something to help you relax? Beer? Wine?”

“
Whisky.”

“
Shall I take your jacket
off, loosen your tie?”

He breathed deeply. “That would be very
nice.”

She heard him moving around, opening a door -
perhaps a fridge. A slight hiss as he twisted off a cap, a bottle
of mineral water maybe. When his lips touched the neck of the
bottle, he made a sucking sound that made her think of deep
kisses.

"How was your meeting?"

"Interminable."

He told her a little about the people who
worked for him and the various issues he had to settle that day.
Never anything too specific, she was careful to note, but with
enough detail that she got a vague sense of what had happened. Eden
instinctively felt that probing questions of that sort would bring
his guard up or make her seem suspicious in his eyes. He was a man
who liked to keep parts of his life compartmentalized. Rather than
asking who or what, she wanted to know the whys. How he felt. Her
curiosity was focused only on Adam and how he ticked.

"By the time I retire in two years, I want
the business to be entirely ... in the light. And today and
tomorrow's meeting is part of that. That's why I had people fly in
this weekend."

"In the light?" Eden repeated, confused.

"To move from the dark ... to the light." he
said deliberately. Eden shook her head, trying to comprehend what
he was saying.

"You mean from illegal to legal?"

"Jesus, Eden! There's a reason I talk in
euphemisms!"

Her irritation returned.

"I don't see why everything is shrouded in
secrecy with you. I really don't. Who do you think is listening in
on us?"

"Eden," he said, his voice darkening. "What
little you know about modern technology is frightening. Your own
government spies on its citizens through wiretaps and traces,
e-mail sifting -"

"If my government could find every person who
ever talked about criminal matters," she interrupted, "Then why are
there so many criminals at large and so many crimes unsolved? If
the government is indeed monitoring everyone - which I don't
dispute and don't condone - they are looking for terrorists, okay.
Not mysterious Englishmen who import olive oil as a cover for
something else!"

"My business is not a cover. It's legitimate.
But it has its roots elsewhere. Like I told you, when I was young I
had no other choice if I wanted to make money. It was either ...
that or starve."

"I know. I'm not judging you."

"But you think I'm being paranoid. That my
need for privacy – asking you to delete my recordings, my photo -
is extreme. "

"Well -"

"Edie, if I were to Google Book Bohemian
right now, do you know how many pictures of you come up? At least
15. Do you know how quickly it takes anyone who has barely any
knowledge of search engines to go from Book Bohemian to your full
name to your address? Seven steps, Edie. Seven. It's not rocket
science to find out exactly who you are, what you look like, where
you live, where you work, how much is in your bank account. And
it's not just because you've got a blog and Twitter and Facebook,"
he listed with contempt, "Everything anyone needs to get to you is
in public records. If any dimwit who has the desire can find you,
think of what the government can do."

"I doubt the government is monitoring the
activities of a book blogger."

"Do you know that all the data transmitted
wirelessly is stored in an enormous database?"

"Adam, okay, you lost me there. What
government has enough time or manpower to sift through all that
data?"

"Humans aren't doing it, darling, computer
programs are."

"But what do you have to fear from my
government if your business in Italy is legal?"

"Your government is not the only entity who's
mining information and monitoring communications. While I wouldn't
call the government good guys, they are compared to others who have
really malicious intent."

"Adam," she pleaded. "If our communication is
so dangerous for you, then why bother then? I would think someone
as private as you would prefer to meet face-to-face. That before
you even said hello, you would have run background checks and
calculated the odds of my trustworthiness."