Road to Casablanca (13 page)

“Oh yes, I remember now.
 
We go to
Dallas
quite a lot to see your family. How many brothers and sisters did you say you have?”

Now Cindy began sucking water from a straw and delicately licking the sugar from the corners of her mouth with the very tip of her tongue.
 

Does this woman realize she’s driving me wild? She sure doesn’t seem to.

“Two older sisters and they live in
Iowa
, not
Texas
.
 
And you?”

“What?”

“
Iowa
…my family lives in
Iowa
.”

“Oh, yeah, of course.”

“Are you paying a bit of attention to anything I’m saying over here?”

“Of course I am.”

Look at her face, her eyes!
 
You can do this!

 
“What about you?
 
Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Realizing concentration was becoming increasingly difficult, Erick finally looked away, and took a cool drink of water.
 
As he stared down into the valley, he wished he could put ice down his pants and cool himself off.

“Only child.”

“Oh…That makes a lot of sense.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Selfishness.”

“Selfishness?
 
What are you talking about?”

 
“You never had to share.”

 
“Hey! Are we going to have to have our first marital spat?”

“No, we already had that earlier in the room, remember,
dear
?”

Cindy busily twisted the ends of her hair in her fingers.
 

Didn’t I read someplace that means she wants sex?

“Very funny.”
 

“I’d call it a spat, even if you don’t.
 
We’re well past introductions, you know.”

“Yeah, I hear ya. Now back to business…the business of knowing each other.
 
I started a software company and sold it during the dot com boom and now I am looking to invest in the film industry here.”

“Are you a millionaire?”

Oh boy, here she goes.

He knew it had to be too good to be true.
 
The girl was starting to become sexier to him, she certainly seemed nice enough, but now here she was bringing up money.
 
They always did.
 
The spell she’d cast on him was instantly over, his crotch shrunk back to its normal size and his mind was once again back on the business of the day.

“I thought you didn’t care about all that.”

“I don’t. I told you that before.
 
Why don’t you believe me?”

Erick stared into her eyes and thought he saw sincerity there.

“Like I said earlier, I want to; I think I believe it, I’m just not sure.”

“Listen, I don’t have to know, nor do I particularly care how much money you’ve got.
 
That being said, I’m sure you meet lots of women who do.
 
Time will take care of you trusting me, but for now, in our little fantasy, I need to know whether or not you and I are millionaires.
 
That’s the kind of thing a wife and husband should know about each other, don’t you think?”

Erick admired her spunk.
 
She certainly didn’t act like the little gold diggers he was used to chasing him around
Hollywood
, and she was right about one thing – for this to work, he needed to trust her.

“Yes,
we
are millionaires, darling.”

“Well, that’s just fabulous!”

Cindy lifted her chin so she could look down her nose at him.
 
She was so cute and sexy, she was turning him on again as he stared at her long lean neck and thought about what it would taste like.

“Yes, it is. You really like the lifestyle a lot.”

“Oh, yeah?
 
Well you don’t seem like you’re suffering much from it either, my friend.”

He watched her and thought about wiping that smart-alecky attitude right off her face with a big wet kiss then carrying her kicking and screaming back up to his suite.
 
If he wasn’t here on such important business, he would have already taken her.

“And just how long have we been married?
 
How long has it been that I’ve been standing by my man waiting for things to take off?”

Erick laughed as he pondered the question wondering as he invented their life script if it was better for her to hook up with him when he was already made, or when he was still a financial nobody.
 

“I don’t know. What do you think?”

“It’s up to you, darling.
 
This is your fantasy, not mine.
 
I do think it sounds more noble for me to have been with you since the hard times, that we shared our struggles as we rose to the top, but again, you tell me if that will or won’t work for you.
 
It’s certainly up for discussion.”

 
“I think you’re right. You and I have been together since college and married for the past couple of years…which is when we moved to our new house in
Hollywood
.”

“You sure are good at filling in the blanks!
 
What college did we go to?”

“UCLA.”

“Okay, but if they ask me about that, I’ve never been there.”

“Don’t worry, I doubt that will come up.
 
Basically, the story is this: you stuck with me through the ups and downs, ever since college, and now you and I are reaping the rewards, enjoying the fruits of my labor.”

“
Your
labor?
 
What about me?
 
Who cooked and cleaned for you while you went out there and made it happen?”

“You’re right,
our
labor.”

“You’re darned right,
our
labor!”

Erick admired Cindy’s bare shoulders as the sunlight hit her hair.
 
She was a pretty lady and a funny one as well.

“Anything else we need to know about our life together?”

“Why don’t we have any kids, or do we?”

“No, we don’t.”
 

Cindy rolled her eyes and laughed.

“What?”

“Figures you’d say that, like they’re really going to believe
I
don’t want them just because
you
don’t?
 
What’s
our
excuse?”

“We enjoy traveling so much, we just don’t want them.”

Cindy laughed so loud several people turned to look at them.

“Shh…you’re drawing attention to yourself.
 
What’s wrong with that?
 
Lots of people like to travel.”

“Uh, yeah right. I love to fly.
 
Couldn’t you tell by my latest airport fiasco? That one should go over real well.”

Erick thought back to the scraggly woman who stepped off the plane and could hardly believe she was the same person sitting across from him now.

“That’s not a problem.”

Cindy rolled her eyes again.

“Uh huh.”

“What?”

Erick noticed Cindy became much more contemplative.

“Nothing.”

“What?
 
Tell me,
wife
!”

“I’m still thinking about the no-kids story.
 
I wonder how that is going to play with your new family-oriented friends.
 
I’m sure they all have tons of kids and place value on that.
 
You know a lot of people do.
 
It seems to me if you really want this scam to go over, you need to play it to the fullest.”

Erick gazed into her dark eyes, which he was happy to be able to see since she left her crazy glasses up in the room.
 
She was smart, that was certain; more importantly, she was right.
 
It was foolish not to consider it after the lengths he’d gone to so far.
 
Family was important to his new business associates.
 
Period.
 

“Okay, let’s just say ‘not yet.’”

“’Not yet,’ what?”

“When they ask about our kids, we say we don’t have them yet.
 
And again, about your fear of flying, nobody knows about that but me.
 
I don’t see that as a big deal.”

“Okay.”

“Besides, by the time you get home, I’m sure you’ll have that one licked.
 
Don’t you think?”

“Yes, absolutely.
 
After that many hours in the air, I know things will be much better on the way home.”

“See?
 
Everything is under control.”

“If you say so…”

They both laughed as Erick raised his tea cup to her.

“To us, a happily married couple.”

“To us.”

“So now, wife, I am about to leave you to your day at the spa while I go off and do some of my more husbandly duties.”

“And what exactly would that be?”

“It’s an ancient ritual involving a long stick and a ball.”

“Sounds a bit like masturbation.
 
Is that what you have in mind?”

Actually the more Erick sat here with her, that might be another addition to his afternoon plans.
 
This lady was driving him mad.

“No, it’s called golf.”

“Ah, I see.
 
And how long will that activity take?”

“Already playing your role, aren’t you? Why do you think I invited you to the spa all afternoon?
 
By the time you are finished, I too will be finished and you can join me for a romantic dinner.”

“Sounds fine by me.”

Erick couldn’t help scooting his chair over next to her, grabbing her face in his hands and kissing her deeply on the lips.

He felt her struggle for a moment then relax into his touch.

“You taste about as good as you look, you sexy little bride, you.”

“You are too kind, sir.
 
Thank you for lunch.
 
I have to go now.”

Cindy popped up out of the chair before he could stop her and he watched as she slowly sauntered away, her backside swaying ever so gently beneath her dress.
 

Later tonight, that will be mine.

“Erick?”