I'm Forever Yours

Laying in bed that night I asked her what that was all about. "I feel safe with you Les, especially when your hand is on my most intimate parts, I love the feel of you feeling me, if that makes any sense."

I kissed her, told her it made complete sense to me and lay there wondering what she was talking about as I drifted off, reaching the conclusion it had to be a woman thing. Or I was severally obtuse, one of the two. My first few days at work were mostly instructional and acquainting myself with the company. Liz and I were able to sit together at lunch, greeting the other with a kiss and hug. You'd have thought that was enough to let everyone know we were together, that and the matching wedding bands.

But like any other office space there are those who never do figure things out for themselves. My office area was adjacent to the coffee break area so I chose not to take a regular break like the others, opting to get a cup and drink it in my office as I worked. I would see my girl with her friends, she always managed to catch my eye at least once during her break and send a silent kiss to me. There was a mix of new hires, mostly men, some single, some married, the married guys respecting the boundaries and not being a pain in the ass.

There are always that handful of single guys who think they're gods gift to women, guys who never look to see if the woman is married, to them she's no more than the next conquest. I noticed there were two black guys and a white guy that always found their way to the table my wife was at, chatting up all the ladies. I watched as Liz pointed out her ring and I assumed she was telling them she wasn't interested. All three got up, the next break the two black guys sat elsewhere, the white guy was right back at her table.

I could tell by her facial expressions and body language she was not pleased with his existence. I rose, grabbed a coffee and sat next to Liz. Looking at him I commented, "It's Tim isn't it? From accounting, right?"

"Uh, yes I am, and you are?"

"I'm Lester Arroyo and this is my wife Liz. If I'm not mistaken, as the CFO you work for me, don't you?

Yes, yes you do and I'm here to tell you Tim if I find you bothering my wife or her friends again, we'll take a little trip to the CEO's office. Understand?"

He nodded yes, stood, departed and that was the last of that issue. The lady's thanked me, Liz gave me a sweet kiss and I went back to my office. Our next bothersome encounter was at the company Christmas party. Andy, the CEO, warned me there would be a few guys try to hit on Liz once the booze was flowing, two in particular he knew had a thing for black girls. I told Liz what Andy told me and she said she knew of Calvin, but not Harry in shipping, now that she knew she would be ready for them.

We didn't stay side by side all night, most of the time, but not always. I noticed the guy from shipping talking with Liz, she must have set him straight real fast because he walked away leaving the party early. The party was winding down by nine, I was standing three or four feet behind Liz as she talked with a lady in her department. Suddenly a short chubby greasy looking guy approached her, putting his hand on the small of her back. I was going to step forward when I saw her spin, punch him in the chest and tell him her body was not his to touch.

She saw me watching her with a big grin on my face, then I heard something I never would have thought anyone would say. The little twerp actually asked if my wife would ever consider taking a white dick? Then he told her he supposed her husband had one of those Mandingo cocks that hung half way to his knees. I watched as my mischievous naughty little girl got into the swing of things.

"You know Calvin, it is Calvin isn't it? Good, here's the deal Cal. My husbands dick doesn't hang half way to his knee, oh no, it hangs all the way to his knee. Cal, that fucker is so huge that when he nails me I walk like I have a broom stick up my ass for two days. So no Cal, I don't think your little white pecker would satisfy me, you run along now and find the Mrs. I'm sure she's happy with what you have."

I laughed inside as I watched the color drain from his face. He stepped back and we didn't see him again. Walking over I reached for her, "Do I have your permission to touch this body Mrs. Arroyo?"

"You have permission to take me home and pummel me with your Mandingo cock, which in Calvin's mind is at least twelve inches long and fat as a beer can. I'm telling you Les, these white guys have some fucked up ideas about cocks. Now, take me home and ride me hard cowboy."

As we were saying our goodbyes at the door Shelly, the CEO's wife hugged Liz and apologized for Calvin's behavior, then smiled and told Liz how impressed she was with putting Calvin in his place.

Laughing she told Liz she'd better take her 'Mandingo man' home and ravage his body. On our way home we were tired of Christmas songs and had tuned into a classic rock station, playing was Journeys song Faithfully. Liz sang along, when it reached the chorus of "I'm forever yours, faithfully", she turned and said, "That's me honey, I'm forever yours."

Our work and personal lives had found a rhythm of their own. We were together anytime we weren't at work, by spring we began looking at possibly buying a house. Though we talked with mother almost weekly we hadn't seen her In over a year and decided it was time to take a trip. Having only four days of accumulated time we made the decision to fly, with a car and hotel package included. If we flew out early Saturday morning we'd have the week with mom, with only Friday not being covered by our personal time off. We'd spoken with Andy and all was fine.

Our time with mom was precious, it became clear that she wasn't very long for this world, she wasn't sickly, she was just worn out and ready to call it quits. The hot weather compared to the cold of New Hampshire was the hardest thing to adjust to. We saw mom each day after lunch, it was her best time of day. On Thursday afternoon we took her to IHOP for a treat and upon returning she asked us to stay a bit longer. Liz fixed some tea as we sat conversing, mother finally got off her chest what had obviously been there the entire week.

"Lester, Liz, do you still live together?" We nodded yes. "You're planning to stay together aren't you?"

When I tried to interrupt, she held up her finger telling me to be quiet without saying a word, as she had done hundreds of times growing up.

"I don't want to hear what you have to say Lester until I'm done. You two live as husband and wife, you've taken off the rings, but I can see where they've been on your fingers. I need to know one thing, it's a simple yes or no answer, don't muddy the waters trying to explain anything. Are you happy together?"

Before I could open my mouth Liz was talking. "Mama, I've never felt more loved, safer, or more content in my life, yes, we're happy. Very happy."

Mom had tears in her eyes as she responded. "If you kids are happy, I'm happy. It isn't what I dreamed for the two of you, but I'm not disappointed either. I'm the last of any family who might figure it out, it will never leave my lips and I don't think I'll be around another year. Live your lives, continue being happy, and don't let anything or anyone tear you apart."

We chose to spend all of Friday with mom, laughing, crying, having a fun time in general. The flight home was somber to say the least. We had missed enough at work that it was easy to throw ourselves back into being engrossed with our jobs. While we had been with mom we made contact with her lawyer getting POT's in place and making sure we were signatories on all of her financial transactions. The assisted living was being covered by dads life insurance and there was enough in the account to cover another two years.

Mothers health went downhill rapidly after we'd been to see her, Liz and I got the impression she had been hanging on long enough to see her babies. Once she knew we were settled and happy it's as though she decided she was through. In less than two months she was gone, I was back in AZ to settle her estate and bring her ashes back. With her house sold, what she had in savings, what was left of dad's life insurance and her life insurance policy, Liz and I banked $347,000 after the taxes, cremation and lawyer fees. Not a lot of money in some people's eyes, but a lot in ours.

We'd been diligently putting money aside for a house and had just over $60,000 with our work savings and my former jigalow money. Nice houses in our area were in the 150 to 200 thousand range, at least the houses we thought were nice and would fit our budget. We purchased a four bedroom two and a half bath with an attached three car garage for $199,000, being able to pay cash we weren't saddled with trying to get a loan without a marriage certificate.

That experience did make us aware of our dilemma on a long term basis. After pondering what to do for several weeks we made the decision we should talk with Andy and Shelly, two people we trusted and knew would give us solid information, not simply a bunch of inuendo. We invited them for dinner, after a very small amount of chit chat Andy looked at us and asked what was up, we hadn't invited them to talk about the weather.

I was very hesitant, not knowing how to broach the subject. Andy finally broke the ice.

"Does why we're here have to do with the fact that your brother and sister?"

My heart sank, how did they know, what would happen now. Liz was crying, my head was hanging as I told him yes.

"Get your heads up and knock this shit off. You've nothing to hang your heads about. Did you really think we wouldn't know in time? Not only through background checks but also your devotion and love for each other. That doesn't come in a young couple recently married, it was obvious to Shelly and I that you had known each other a very long time, and not just as friends. So, what's on your mind, how can we help you?"

"We realized through the process of buying our home that we dodged a bullet by being able to pay cash and not go through having to provide a marriage certificate. We're young though, at some point in the future we're going to need the proper documentation. We don't know what to do, and the only people we trust implicitly are you two."

Liz had stopped sniffling and was holding onto my arm for all she was worth as both of us waited for the world to crash around our shoulders. To our amazement it was Shelly who answered.

"Andy and I anticipated this day would come at some point. Before Andy and I met I worked in Chicago for what some would call... guys involved in the racket. I wasn't in deep enough that I could never leave, so when Andy proposed and we decided to open our business in New Hampshire the powers that be had no problem letting me go. I have maintained a minimum contact with them through the years, these people have access to almost anything you can imagine."

I was confused, "Yes, but what does that have to do with our situation?"

"They can provide you with all the documentation you need if you're willing to pay the price. Not some shoddy looking thing that looks like it came off a copy machine. Official and original documents. Going price for a birth certificate and a new SS number is five grand, if you do that and a marriage cert at the same time they'll do the marriagecertificate for another three grand. For less than ten grand you'll have your documents."

Liz and I looked at one another, nodded to each other and asked how quickly that could be accomplished. Shelly said she'd call Monday, but probably three to four weeks. I asked about the money, she told me they'd cover it and we could pay them. Five weeks later we had our documents considering it to be one of the best ten thousand dollar investments we would ever make.

The only thing left to complete our life together was children. We tried for nearly a year and decided we should have some tests done, once again we turned to Andy and Shelly. They steered us to a doctor in Quebec they knew dealt with situations like ours and was very discrete. What he found was that Liz was not likely to conceive, then went further to explain that it was for the best as our genetics would have produced malformed children.

We were heart broken in one sense while being ecstatic in another. We wouldn't have babies of our own, but we knew there were lots of them that needed to be adopted if we truly felt we needed children. We never did adopt, there were too many hoops to jump through, it frightened us enough thinking we might be discovered that we chose to be happy with one another.

We'd been with Andy almost three years when he asked us to have dinner with he and Shelly at their home. That evening they told us they were going to be selling the business to a conglomerate from Canada within the next year. They were including concessions for all present employees to remain employed, but that would only be guaranteed a year. They told us that one of the positions to be eliminated as soon as that year is up will be the CFO, and during that year I would be working under someone else.

Andy suggested we begin looking for a better position before the sale went through. We'd been on a cruise the year before and loved the island of St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands. It took several months but I was offered a very lucrative position with one of the large shipping companies. After four years in New Hampshire we packed our belongings and moved, St. Thomas became our new home. Liz wanted to take some time to decompress before looking for work.

I came home one evening to see the faces of three street urchins staring at me. Liz had seen them panhandling three days in a row near the shopping area and had followed them to a shoddy looking area discovering they'd been living in an abandoned dumpster to keep the rain off them at night. As she enquired as to who the children belonged to an older lady in a small shop told Liz they belonged to the streets. That people would come from other islands, drop off their unwanted children and never return.

Liz asked if she thought she should go to the authorities, the woman's response was quick.

"You look like you can afford to take care of these babies, why don't you just take them home and raise them, nobody will know or care."

That's exactly what Liz had done, she brought them home, got some food in their tummies and laid them down in cots on the patio. She told me the entire story as I walked in, asking what I thought we should do. I knew she wanted to be a mom so very badly and couldn't in the natural sense, perhaps this was the way her dream could be fulfilled.

"What we should do dear is get their stinky bodies into the bath tub and scrub them clean. Any idea how old they are? Do they speak English?"

Liz clued me in right away. "The boy is 7, the oldest girl is 5 and the baby girl is 3-1/2. Yes, they all speak English with a heavy Caribbean accent. I have a list of some generic sized clothes and underwear, I want you to go to Wally World and pick this stuff up, I'll have them bathed by the time you return."

Three fed, warm, clean and safe kids went to sleep in beds for the first time in who knows how long. And our life as parents began. We enrolled the older ones, Thomas and Lana, in school using our last name and by the time the youngest, Angela, was ready we had obtained birth certificates with our name for them through Shelly's mob friends in Chicago. With those documents we no longer worried, we attended all their school activities and functions.

Liz chose not to go back to work, we functioned quite well on my salary and she loved being a hands on mom. We helped them through their teen years and puberty. Thomas and I quickly learned when all three had their cycle at the same time we needed to head for the garage or workshop, thank God it was only once in a while. None of the kids were very athletic, they would rather read or spend time doing what some refer to as nerdy activities, but in the end it proved beneficial for all three.

Thomas wanted to become a harbor pilot and enrolled in that program upon graduation, Lana went to the local junior college getting an associates degree in marketing. Thomas graduated highest in his class and was hired by one of the large cruise ships franchises that dock in St Thomas, Lana works for the government in tourism and Angela will finish her final year at Florida State this year with a degree in teaching. She plans to teach on the island. Mom would have been thrilled to know Angela was following in her footsteps as a teacher.

Thomas and his wife have not given us any grandkids yet, they both grin and tell us they're diligently working on that. Lana will be married this summer right after Angela graduates and moves home. As for Liz and me, we're living our dream. We don't go back to the mainland much, with no living family there isn't much to return for. I plan to retire in the next five years and do nothing but spend time with my precious bride and dote over grandchildren.

Our initial steps as an adult couple started out on shaky ground, but against the odds and life itself, we could still say at the end. "I'm Forever Yours, Faithfully."