The Staircase of Dragon Jerico
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“YOU WERE TERRIFIC,” Erin said when she and Preston got back to their office. “I had no idea you’d spoken to Teresa. It’s a great plan.”
“I didn’t feel like I’d given you enough support for the work you were doing,” Preston said. “I want to become a better partner.”
“You don’t want to, like, have your old job back? Seems like you could do it now, much more effectively.”
“God, no! I’ve improved enough to be able to read my prepared statements aloud. But I haven’t improved as an executive officer. You were right that I’ve been hanging around the office too much. I should be back out at Cloudhaven keeping that project on track. I should be making trips up to St. Louis to check on the Allard project. I should be doing the things a Chief Architect does. Most of all, I should be having faith in my Chief Executive. You are what our company has needed for seven years—ever since I took over as Chairman of the Board.”
“Don’t short-sell yourself, Mr. Carver. You’ve done a lot to create a corporate culture that is employee-positive. And you have clearly established the vision. I like working with you.”
“Um… Would you like to start the holiday season with me Saturday? I’d love to put aside the business and cook a nice meal for Jerry and his girlfriend.”
“Mmm. Jerry’s girlfriend thinks that would be a great idea. She’ll see him at five for a little goodnight kiss.”
“Yes. He’s looking forward to that.”
It appeared that the Chief Architect/Chairman of the Board and the Chief Executive had mended their fences. Now Erin could think about her relationship with her boyfriend. And the more she thought about it, the more pleased she was. She began to look forward to Christmas as she’d thought she never would again.
The last two days before the holiday vacation were busy, though. Preston had discussed the bonus policy with Ms. Lincoln, but he hadn’t actually written the policy or amendment to the bylaws. That needed to be taken care of so the board members could review it and discuss it at the January meeting.
They worked on it and went out to Jerico House to review the draft with Lawrence and Jacqueline. After a few more revisions they sent the draft off to the members of the board. They gave a little gift to their assistant and told her to have a good time visiting her family, then found themselves alone in the penthouse.
Lawrence and Jacqueline had invited the couple back to Jerico House for dinner, which cooled their potential ardor for the night.
“What are your plans for the holiday week?” Jacqueline asked.
“I don’t really have family to visit. I might find a way to see a friend from Cleveland. My bowling team is planning a little party the day after Christmas. It’s our usual bowling night, but there’s no league play that night, of course,” Erin said. “Aside from that, I’ll probably watch sappy Christmas movies and eat peppermint fudge.”
“Are you going to make peppermint fudge?” Preston asked excitedly.
“Oh, it’s one of my specialties,” Erin laughed.
“I’d love to learn that one. I’ve never been successful making candies,” Preston said.
“Then I invite you to my kitchen for a change.”
“And as we are inviting people, we will officially invite Erin to share Christmas with us,” Lawrence said. “Please join us.”
“Oh, thank you! Of course, I’d love to.”
Matilda called everyone to the table for a very homey meal of chicken alfredo on pasta. The atmosphere was relaxed as everyone settled down for the vacation. The stresses of the office melted away.
Erin had driven to Jerico House and returned Preston to the office. She declined the invitation to join him and said she’d see him Saturday afternoon. She drove home with her heart racing.
Her whole body was tingling with anticipation. She could have joined him. All she had to do was accept his invitation to come up for a nightcap. With the kissing and petting in the car, though, she knew they wouldn’t be drinking if she went up to the penthouse.
Yes. She’d made her decision. As a famous basketball player had once said, it wasn’t a question of if, only of when. Erin had decided.
Jerry was chopping vegetables for his special stew when she arrived Saturday afternoon and she quickly joined as his sous chef.
Of course, she didn’t get her hands on a vegetable or a knife before they’d kissed. It was definitely a kiss with intent. He sautéed the onions and garlic, then added the meat. After adding broth, he put in the potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. The kitchen was filled with the delicious aroma.
Between each step, the couple found themselves locked in an embrace that became more passionate with each step.
“Jerry, how time-sensitive is dinner?” Erin gasped after an intense kiss when everything had been added to the kettle.
“Dinner?” he asked as if only just considering the subject. “Oh, this one isn’t time-sensitive at all. I can reduce the heat to simmer and let it cook for a couple of hours. Why?”
“Please do that.”
He reduced the heat, made sure the kettle wouldn’t either stick or boil over, and turned back to her.
“Now, Jerry, my love, take me to bed.”
“To… Upstairs… My bed… You want… I mean…”
“Yes. I want. I’m ready.”
He might have needed it spelled out for him, but once he got the point, he moved into action. He swept her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs as she continued to kiss his face and his lips. They fell to the bed, continuing to kiss and pet, pulling at each other’s clothes until both were naked.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered as he continued to pet her breasts and move down to her butt. “I can’t believe we’re finally going to do this.”
“I can’t believe we waited this long,” she answered.
Once they were committed, they slowed down and simply explored each other’s body. Erin was lost in his touch and he feasted on her as if he was starving. No part of her went unkissed.
Soon, he was positioned to consummate their love when he suddenly rolled to the side and reached into his side table drawer. He pulled out a condom.
“Oh, God! Thank you. I was going to say that. Thank you for remembering.”
“I’ve… um… never had sex without a condom. Not that I’ve had sex that often with one either.”
“If we ever get to the point where we decide to have children, you can throw them away and never use them again. Until then, though, let’s stay safe.”
“The very thought of children with you makes me so excited I’m shaking.”
“Let me help.”
She took the condom and rolled it onto his erection, then threw a leg over him and perched above.
“Is it okay this way?”
“Wow! Yeah. It’s really okay.”
She slowly lowered herself onto him, joining them for the first time.
“I never even considered falling in love with you,” she said. “I don’t know how it happened.”
“I fell in love with you while you were still waiting tables in the diner. I want to be with you.”
“Sharing an office hasn’t spoiled it for you?”
“You have to be kidding. I’ve been going crazy with desire. This. This is everything I want.”
They moved together and Erin thought how much more satisfying this was than anything in her short marriage. This. This was also what she wanted.
“I mean… Really… Just wow!” Preston managed as they cuddled together.
“I have to agree,” Erin sighed. “Just wow!”
“I don’t know what to say. I’ve never felt this way. Is it normal? Is this what it feels like to really be in love?”
“My experience has left me a long way short of this. I know sex affects the way we feel in the moment. I suppose we should wait to see if we feel the same tomorrow.”
“Will you stay, Erin? Don’t go away tonight.”
“I think I probably have a change of clothes and my nighttime necessities in the car. I don’t see a reason to go back to my apartment.”
“Did you plan this?”
“I don’t think this could have really been planned. But I was open to it. Jerry, we’ve been getting closer and closer to this moment for weeks. Ever since the annual meeting when we kissed. When I kissed you. I was so brash.”
“You couldn’t have done anything in that moment that I wanted more. Maizie… Erin, all my life I’ve thought love and… and anything that comes after that… was just a fantasy. I couldn’t love because I was unlovable. Who wants to be with someone who is so tied up in anxiety all the time. Is it… Is it really possible?”
“You are not unlovable, Jerry… Preston. We might have different ways of expressing our anxiety, but everyone gets anxious over something. I’ve been tongue-tied. Even since I was hired as CEO—I mean, that very night—I went home and cried myself to sleep because I didn’t know if I could do this and I was ashamed of having taken your job. I was so afraid it would mean that we could never have a future. I refused to let myself even consider it.”
“I insisted that I could never be involved with you because you were my employee and that was just too much of a cliché. Would I ever be able to believe you wanted me because of me instead of because of your job?”
“Do you think all the women you dated or met were just after your money?”
“I always thought I was just a guy, maybe with some social problems. I even asked a girl out when I was a senior in high school and she accepted. It was great. I fell madly in love with her and she became my first lover. But then she tried to convince me that she was pregnant with our child. It wasn’t possible. We’d never made love without a condom. It turned out that she was pregnant, but by another guy in our class. She wanted to force me into marrying her so she and her child would have a rich life with everything she wanted. Including her other lover. I was devastated. I thought I was in love with her and she was just in love with my money. From that point on, I just assumed everyone I met was.”
“I’m not. Even when I was a waitress trying to make a mortgage payment and pay back the loan on my 401k, I never thought about a hero coming to save me and bathe me in riches. I just knew making a living was something I had to do so I could get on with my life. I needed to get a job and earn my way. I’m not after your money, Jerry.”
“I’m confident of that. You have a much higher earning potential than I have. What I got mostly from inheritance, you will earn. But I’m not after your money either. It didn’t even enter the equation when I fell in love.”
“What equation is that?”
“Um… Intelligent plus fun plus pretty plus competent, multiplied by a great personality and really nice person equals love. How’d I do on that?”
“I think I could use the same equation,” she laughed.
“I suppose we should eat. We hardly even interrupted the timing of dinner,” Jerry said.
“Who says we’re done?”
Erin didn’t go home Saturday night, but went with Jerry on Sunday to dinner at Jerico House. Jacqueline was speechless.
“Hmm. Got together early this morning, didn’t you?” Lawrence said.
“Lawrence, don’t probe the obvious. Can’t you see they’re in love?” Gina asked.
“Are you… Did you… Have you…?”
“Mother, I’m the one who can’t finish a sentence. Did I inherit all my social anxiety from you?” Preston teased.
“You are! You did! Oh, my!” Jacqueline exclaimed.
“Erin and I are a couple,” Preston said. “I think I’m old enough to have my lover spend the night with me. And join me at Sunday dinner with the family,” Preston laughed.
“Yes. Yes, you are,” Lawrence said. “You are also old enough to keep us informed if we need to be making plans for the future. Jackie, that means no prying. Preston and Erin will tell us anything we need to know. I’ve never heard you speak of being a couple, Preston. That’s welcome news. Erin, welcome. You are welcome at our table.”
“Thank you, Lawrence. Um… We’re still a little overwhelmed, so being out with the family is… uh… kind of… overwhelming. I guess I said that.”
Preston looked at her in wonder and both started giggling like teenagers. It was a new experience for Preston to be calm and have a girlfriend who was anxious.
It took a while for things to settle down. Matilda, of course, was immediately accepting of the news and gave them both a hug, then served a pot roast for Sunday dinner. It took Jacqueline most of the meal before she was back to her usual talkative self.
Erin had her weekly glass of wine with Dolores Sunday afternoon, then stopped at her apartment to pack a bag with more than a single change of clothes. Then she went back to the penthouse where she stayed with her lover for the rest of the Christmas vacation. They joined the family for Christmas brunch at Jerico House and then took the pickup south to Cloudhaven.
The weather was crisp and clear with an inch of fresh snow on the ground. Driving down the access road into the development was a different experience than it had been the first time she was here. All the grading and excavating of the streets was complete. The sewer, water, power, and fiber optic lines were all trenched in so there would be no overhead wires in the community. The lodge was framed and weathertight so the crews could continue to work through the winter finishing the inside.
Running on a tangent away from the lodge, the cabin townhomes had been started. One was weathertight for interior winter construction. On the other side of the street, six portable buildings had been moved in so workers could stay during the week. Erin checked her cell phone and discovered a strong signal available.
“I told you once a long time ago that I wanted to take you to the cabin and show you the things that inspired me to create Cloudhaven. It’s a little cold to go out on the lake, but we can at least take a walk around the estate.”
“You have an estate out here?” she laughed.
“Well, Duval and his partners weren’t really the only holdouts,” Preston laughed. He pointed ahead. Just off the road was a house all decorated for the holidays. Lights twinkled along the roofline and outlined the trees. “I held onto my little piece of property out here on the edge of the community. It didn’t really register like their 160 acres. My estate is only five acres.”
He pulled up to the house which was a bit bigger than Erin had imagined. It had been added onto a couple of times and the cabin was the same style as the new structures Preston had designed for Cloudhaven.
“This is beautiful, Preston.”
“Come in and take a look around.”
They went inside and kicked the snow off their shoes before removing them and putting on slippers, found in abundance in the mudroom. Then they toured the rustic interior.
“I can imagine many relaxing days here,” Erin said. “I have to admit, though, that I can’t imagine living in this long term. It’s just a little too primitive. I hope that isn’t heartbreaking to you.”
“Oh, no. I agree,” Preston said. “What do you think about this, though?”
Preston lifted a cloth off a table in the middle of the living room, reminiscent of the work table in their office. What he unveiled was a model of a beautiful home, stylistically in keeping with the resort and townhomes, but like them, complete with all the modern conveniences.
“How delightful!”
“I have the foundation staked out just up the hill from here. Would you like it as a wedding gift?”
“It’s… wedding? What do you mean?”
Jerry sank to one knee.
“Erin Scott, will you marry me?”
“Jerry! It’s… You… We just… I’m…”
It was so sudden and out of the blue that she found herself hyperventilating and growing woozy. Jerry jumped to his feet and caught her as she fainted.
When she awoke a moment later, they were sitting on a sofa and she was held in his arms.
“I’m s-s-s-sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what happened to me.”
“Happens to me all the time,” he laughed. “I didn’t mean to shock you so much you fainted.”
“It’s… so sudden. Jerry, we just became lovers. I don’t know…”
“I guess I let myself get ahead of things. I don’t even have a ring here or anything. Um… Just forget I mentioned it, okay?”
“Are you kidding? I will never forget it. And even if I’m not quite ready yet, I’m not saying no. Jerry, I do love you.”
“I love you, Erin. I love the way we work together. I love the way you’ve always been a step ahead of anything I needed. I love cooking with you. I love… talking to you.”
“I love making love to you, Jerry. Do you have a bed in this little cabin?”
“You did it? You asked her to marry you?” Gene exclaimed as they paused their Sunday morning basketball game. It was really just shooting around because it was too cold and slippery for anything else, the weekend after Christmas.
“Yeah. I did it.”
“Congratulations. I think. Did she say yes?”
“She didn’t say no.”
“Uh… is that okay?”
“It was dumb of me to ask so soon after… we became lovers. She’s been staying with me all week.”
“I knew the right woman for you was out there someplace,” Gene laughed. He took another shot, but it was obvious they were finished playing. “Congratulations. You needed a woman who could take control. She’s sure shown she can do that.”
“Yeah, but she’s not like that. Not with me. Except in the office.”
“What do you mean?”
“The company couldn’t have a better chief exec. She doesn’t mince words. She’s direct and tells people what she expects. Then she backs off and lets them do their—our—jobs. Even Duval has grown to respect her. She just doesn’t take any bullshit from him.”
“God knows we waded through enough of that over the past few years.”
“Yeah. My bad.”
“No. I think we all knew what was happening from the start. It seemed like the best solution we had, though.”
“Yeah. But Erin… She isn’t like that when we’re together. She doesn’t order me around or rush me to say things. She’s as orderly as I am. I mean, the first thing she does when she comes into the office is still to grab disinfectant wipes and wipe down all the surfaces. She’s about got Miss Anders in the same mode. I don’t think a germ could live anywhere in… um… our bedroom.”
“Our?”
“Well, she’s stayed with me all this week. She’s patient and quiet. And she’s fun to cook with. We made a great cassoulet yesterday.”
“She stayed last night and you left her this morning to come and play basketball? Are you crazy?”
“You and I agreed to play today. Of course I came here.”
“Dude, you could have called and cancelled. I’d have understood.”
“We have lives. She was ready to go home this morning to get herself ready for the coming week back at work. She has a Sunday afternoon visit with her friend to drink wine and gossip. Oh. Don’t tell Mother or G-Pop about this. They know we’ve become lovers, but they don’t know I popped the question. Prematurely ejaculated the question, I’m afraid.”
“I hate to tell you this, but you and she might be the only ones in Jerico City who are surprised by this.”
“Erin was so surprised, she hyperventilated and passed out,” Preston said.
“Oh, that’s a match made in heaven!”
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