Carmen's New York Romance Trilogy

  "Are you sure Kurt isn't mad at me?" Laura said.

  "He can't call you, Laura, because his lawyers have advised against it," Carmen said. "But you could see him in person."

  "He would see me?" Laura asked.

  "Sure he would," Carmen said. "You hurt him personally and professionally with that court case," she said. "But he still cares for you. Kurt was really upset when you attempted suicide."

  "That was so stupid," Laura said.

  Carmen laughed. "It sure was! And the newspapers all blamed Kurt so that, really, you made everything worse. But hey, you felt guilty, I really get that. I have a truck load of guilt myself, enough to fill a New York City Garbage Barge. You have no idea of all the stupid mistakes I've made. Seriously, yours wasn't so bad - it has just kind of gotten out of hand. But if there is one thing I'm sure of, it's that Kurt Nielsen is a good person and the least violent man I know."

  Laura agreed, and Carmen confided to her how she had been physically abused in a relationship, so she knew all about violent men. They talked together for almost an hour, and Carmen explained that she was in crazy in love with Kurt, and had come to see Laura because the situation simply couldn't go on like this.

  "The thing is we have to make it right," Carmen said.

  "But how do we do that?"

  "Well," Carmen said. "I have this idea….

  As Laura was now a voluntary patient, she was able to discharge herself or go on day leave. When she signed herself out, Stella and Carmen were there at the exit to the psychiatric unit to greet her. Carmen was once more dressed in normal clothes and not a hospital cleaner.

  "You know this is crazy, right?" Laura said.

  "You think?" Stella said shaking her head in bemused disbelief.

  Carmen laughed. "As long as the paparazzi don’t see us all together we will be fine." Carmen looped her arm in Laura's. "Where's your sense of adventure, girl?"

  19. Party

  Kurt didn't get together with the girls for lunch - they called and said that they were too busy. At the time he thought it was odd, but it was so hectic at work that he didn't mind. His main building site, the largest project he was involved in, had passed all the current mandatory inspections.

  Tomorrow he would take a day off to celebrate.

  Kurt still thought about Carmen for much of his day. She hadn't just survived that hell she went through, she had stubbornly thrived. How had she kept her humor? No one made him laugh like she could.

  Kurt called his lawyer and instructed him to arrange to pay the back taxes on Carmen's grandmother's house. Losing that would be a blow to her, perhaps. Mainly because of how much she had loved her grandmother. He wouldn't tell her just yet, but he wanted to prevent foreclosure.

  Kurt also called DEA Agent Lois Cohen, and even talked to Huber. Robert Ellis was obsessive about Carmen. He would come after her – Kurt was convinced of it. He asked them to keep in touch and let him know of any status change. They had already exchanged the recording for the photocopy of the ledger. Wasn't it amazing what could be done when people wanted something?

  What Carmen should do with that video of herself, well, that was the million dollar question.

  Jack Huber told Kurt he wanted to see him in extreme confidence before he returned to L.A. Would tomorrow be night be acceptable? This would be on the QT. Huber didn’t want his partner Lois Cohen to know, yet it would be in Carmen's best interests. They agreed on a time and place where they could meet with no one the wiser. Huber also wanted Kurt to bring an envelope with $10,000 in unmarked one-hundred dollar bills.

  Say what?

  Kurt called his bank and arranged to pick up the cash. It would only be a small envelope of money, verses that briefcase of smaller bills that he had arranged without notice. What Huber was planning, Kurt had no idea. Yet if it may help Carmen, he was all for it.

  After a long day at work, Carmen sent him a text to tell him that she and Stella had dinner waiting for him.

  It was 7:30pm when Kurt got home.

  As he unlocked his door, he heard loud music pumping and singing. Not just singing… off key, raucous singing. One voice he recognized: It was his sister, Stella. Who else was here? And was that Beyonce playing in the background? It sounded like that crazy song, something about buying wedding rings.

  "Wuh uh oh uh uh oh oh uh oh uh uh oh."

  There was thumping sounds and giggling coming from the Home Theater room. Kurt made his way there, walked in and came to a complete stop. Then his mouth fell open.

  Whatthefuck? he thought. If he had seen Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy all kicking up their heels, carousing together, he couldn’t have been more surprised.

  Carmen, Stella and… Laura? Laura? Am I seeing things? My girlfriend, my sister and my ex girlfriend… all right here.

  The three girls were all singing and dancing happily together in his house. The place was littered with empty red wine bottles and wine glasses. All three women had nothing on their feet and they were horsing around playfully, having a great time, blasting away with the MTV Channel.

  Carmen drew his eyes first. Her hair was mussed as she shook her head to the beat, one arm raised up in the air, her other hand holding a fictional microphone as she sang, "Wuh uh oh uh uh oh," along with Beyonce.

  She was wearing the dark scooped necked business outfit he had bought her, but there was nothing remotely professional about that look now.

  His little sister Stella's gold blouse was unbuttoned dangerously low. It was untucked from her deep purple skirt. She also was singing – screaming really, her body gyrating in circles, one arm above her head making motions as if she was a cowboy swinging a rope, the other slapping her buttocks like she was riding a horse.

  Now that was something he didn't get to see every day.

  Tall and willowy, Laura was in a green sheath dress. She was gently rocking to the music, kind of like a long strand of seaweed would under a placid ocean wave. Her eyes were shut and she seemed somewhat ethereal, listening to perhaps a different type of melody all together.

  They all were flushed and shiny with perspiration, literally bursting with youth, health and happiness. It took Kurt a few moments to get himself together and to tear his eyes away from this astonishing scene. Eventually he shook his head, reached over and used the remote to switch the TV off.

  In the subsequent silence the three girls all became aware of his presence.

  "Kurt!" They screamed, almost all at once. "Kurt's home!"

  More giggling ensued and all three girls surrounded him with a cacophony of simultaneously spoken questions and comments. "We love you, Kurt!" "Are you hungry?" and "Did you have a good day?" "I missed you' and "I hope you can forgive me." "You're the bomb, Kurt!" It was a loud string of mostly incomprehensible noise.

  Kurt suddenly raised both arms and shouted out: "Silence!"

  Every mouth shut.

  "Sit," he said pointing to the couch.

  The girls fell on the couch in front of him, bumping into each other, exchanging sheepish expressions and knowing looks, while snickering and giggling and covering their mouths. They looked like naughty school children, waiting to see the principle.

  Standing directly in front of the couch, Kurt smiled at the three of them.

  Big-eyed, they were nodding wisely at each other and pretending not to be utterly intoxicated, while occasionally falling into fits of the giggles.

  Kurt waited until they settled. Somewhat. Kurt still couldn’t believe it.

  What had these three mischief makers been up to today?

  20. Interrogation

  My God, Kurt thought. They are all totally smashed.

  It tickled him to death. But what in the world Laura was doing here, he could not imagine. As Carmen and Laura both started to talk at once he held out his hand in the motion of a stop sign.

  "I will speak to one person at a time," he said and pointed to his sister. "Stella, did you go shopping today?"

  Stella'
s eyebrows drew down into a frown. She seemed to be thinking really hard.

  "It isn’t that difficult a question, Stella," Kurt said gently, his mouth twitching from the grin that he was trying to hold in check.

  "Um…no?" Stella said.

  "Ah," Kurt replied, beginning to understand. "Carmen," he said, turning toward her. "I suspect that you have a story to tell me?"

  "Oh, do I ever," she said and then she bent over and began to laugh, while holding her stomach.

  This was apparently too much, and all the girls started up again, falling over themselves and each other, shrieking gleefully. Kurt just couldn’t be upset watching them. They were so damn funny and without doubt utterly hammered. He wondered if he was going to get sense out of any of them tonight.

  "Carmen?" he said, reminding her, once they had wound down a bit. "Your story?"

  "Stella and I went to the hospital and rescued Laura," she said.

  "We set her free," Stella agreed.

  "I made my escape!" Laura added, giggling hysterically like a madwoman. Kurt decided that if the psychiatric staff saw her now they would put her in a straight-jacket for sure.

  "Oh good, very good, thank you," Kurt said. He held up his hand again and waited for silence. "Laura, was this legally done, or can I expect the men in white suits to arrive on my doorstep at any minute?"

  Biting her lip, Laura looked up, contemplating the ceiling for a minute while apparently trying to remember. "It's okay," she finally said with a smile. "I signed myself out."

  "Well that's a relief," Kurt said. He wasn't certain where to go from here, but he was pretty sure that Carmen was behind the whole thing.

  "Carmen," he said, "can I hear that story now?"

  Carmen then began a long winded explanation that oddly, in a convoluted sort of way, actually made sense. She had seen the nasty article on-line this morning, and it had made her furious. So she had phoned some TV stations and Newspapers and magazines to see who would pay the most for an exclusive of Laura's story. She found the top bidder, and then went and sprung Laura.

  They had met with the support of Terry Bleacher, that really nice lawyer. "Wasn't that a good idea?" she asked. "Terry thinks your law firm sucks."

  Laura, it turned out, was paid $100,000 to tell her story.

  "Isn’t that just great?" Carmen asked.

  That senior partner, Terry Bleacher was really helpful. She drew up contracts and made sure everything was just right. Carmen didn’t think Kurt would mind? Terry Bleacher was going to send him a really big bill. But what a legend Laura was! She got the story straight and apologized and now everything would be okay.

  Laura told the world that Kurt was a gentleman and had never hurt her, and that she had been advised to go to court for money. Every day she felt more and more terrible about it and she had attempted suicide because of remorse and regret.

  "You were never mean to me, Kurt," Laura said. "Carmen told me that you knew it was my mother's idea. Sooo stupid!" she said, sitting up and slapping herself on the forehead.

  A long moment passed while Laura got over that hump, and then abruptly she brightened, bouncing on the couch with a little hop and whoop of joy. "Now I have lots of money!" Laura said, a little too loudly while throwing her hands in the air. "I'm going to live far away from my mother and get another job since I lost my last one. Are you sure you're not mad at me, Kurt?"

  "I was angry," Kurt said, "but not at you, Laura."

  Laura jumped to her feet and embraced him. Kurt found himself automatically putting his arms around her. Slightly taken aback, Kurt looked at Carmen, to make sure she was okay with that, but then Stella yelled out, "Group hug!"

  All three girls gathered around and hugged him and hugged each other, kind of like a pig pile, only they were all standing up.

  Kurt wanted to take a picture, if only he could figure out how to do it.

  They all made their way into the kitchen and watched Kurt eat Indian take away, joining in, chattering away like parrots and laughing. They were all proud of themselves, rightly so by the sound of it. It didn’t take long before the girls started to wind down from their alcoholic high. When had they started drinking? he wondered.

  Kurt put Stella in the spare room, and Laura in the guest room.

  Then he took Carmen to bed. He planned to get her out of those clothes and showered, but by the time he came back from visiting the bathroom himself, she was fast asleep. She was also snoring softly with her mouth wide open.

  How perfectly charming, he thought, amused. Yet even drunk and snoring, Carmen really does charm me.

  Kurt pulled her dress off, and her bra and panties, in order to make her more comfortable. The woman was so out of it that she simply rolled around like a rag doll. Then he tucked her in, hopping in bed himself.

  It had been a long day and he was really tired.

  Kurt imagined telling his gramma Annie about his evening, and how much she would laugh over the three girls' antics. Then he thought about how he wanted Carmen to meet Annie, maybe even tomorrow.

  Turning the lights out, Kurt shut his eyes and curled up against Carmen, putting his fingers on her neck for a moment. She made a soft sound and curled toward him, an unconscious reaction that made him instantly hard. Her pulse beat slow and deep and regular, and she breathed in and out in a steady rhythm.

  She smelled like a winery.

  Kurt grinned, remembering the sight he had seen when he arrived home. Those three girls all singing and dancing like crazy, all happy to have done something that they knew would please him.

  All three women cared about him.

  Kurt wondered, was there was any man in the whole world, luckier than he was? And as he considered the matter, he didn’t think that there possibly could be.

  21. Park Benches

  Kurt sat in his kitchen, smiling.

  It was 8am, which constituted a sleep-in for him. He was an early riser, and because the girls had gone to bed early, they were up early, too. There was surprisingly little in the way of hangovers, although everyone was unusually quiet.

  "Kurt," Carmen said, looking through the kitchen cupboards with Laura, "don't you have anything to eat? I was going to make pancakes or something."

  "Bachelor here, not much of a cook," Kurt said. "There's milk and cereal, or we can go out, or order in."

  "Sorry, kids," Stella said brightly, walking in to the kitchen. She was already dressed and ready to go. "I've got to run. Do you want a lift, Laura?"

  Laura smiled in her soft, sweet way, "Oh, Stella, do you mind?" she asked in that wide-eyed, childlike manner that she had.

  Kurt enjoyed Carmen's furtive, 'Is she for real???' look after that comment. The truth was that Laura was just too damn sweet all the way around. With Carmen, Kurt had discovered a taste for salt… or perhaps burning hot chili.

  "Of course I don’t mind, Laura," Stella said. "But we have to go now."

  Laura went off to gather her things, and then she came to say good bye. First she hugged Kurt. "I couldn't stand the idea of you hating me."

  "No one could hate you, Laura."

  "I think you'll like the interview," she said. "It'll go to air this week." Laura then hugged and kissed Carmen. "You are just the nicest person," she said.

  "Not really," Carmen said with a laugh.

  "No, no," Laura said. "You are. I can’t thank you enough. Can we still be friends?"

  "Girls," Carmen said, putting her arm around Laura's slim waist and Stella's only slightly bigger one. "After the party we had yesterday, and all the things we did together, we are more than friends. We're like sisters, now."

  "Oh," said Stella with a grin of delight. "I've always wanted a sister."

  Goodbyes were said and both girls left, which was perfect. Other than a half an hour meeting with the DEA agent Jack Huber, which wasn't until after 9pm tonight, Kurt had nothing else he had to do.

  He was looking forward to spending the day alone with Carmen.

  ~~~

/>   Kurt and Carmen went out to breakfast, and then he took her shopping for a few clothes, nothing fancy. Carmen bought blue jeans, sketchers and a Yankee's tee-shirt, which she wore with her leather jacket. Hand in hand, they walked through Central Park, around Cherry Hill and then to the Bethesda Terrace. They ate lunch at the Boathouse overlooking the lake.

  Kurt could not recall ever having such a lighthearted day.

  Carmen had an acerbic wit, and she wasn't above poking fun at him. According to Carmen, Kurt had grown up rich and therefore was ignorant of the 'real world.' As they walked she pointed out drug dealers and prostitutes, from how they were standing, or the looks they gave. She was so damn observant.

  "Are you sure that guy is a dealer?" he asked, taking another surreptitious glance.

  "Totally," Carmen replied. "Good-looking, young, trendy dresser – he's perfect for mid to up-market sales."

  Bemused, Kurt frowned.

  "In this area only good-looking and well dressed people are used to move product," she explained. "Have you ever seen a new car commercial with really old, ugly, or poorly dressed actors? Of course not. Advertising and Marketing 101. Youth and good looks sell. What, did you think that the illegal drug industry didn't know that?"

  Sometimes Carmen made him feel really naive.

  Kurt told her when he discovered his desire to sexually dominate women, and then chatted at length about André. Carmen confided to Kurt that the first man she actually enjoyed sex with was Voldermort. The evil one had been aware of her submissive nature before she was.

  "The evil one?" Kurt asked.

  "You know," Carmen said, and her full lips twitched with sardonic humor. "Robert Ellis. He Who Must Not Be Named."

  "Ah, I get it," he said. "Yeah. The evil one works for me."

  They talked about favorite books and movies. Kurt admitted that he adored Pride and Prejudice, because Austen was so witty. He thought that story was not unlike the way they had first met.

  "Why, because you thought I was a prostitute?" Carmen asked.