118. Grandparents
It was the third day, and Mara was getting excited about welcoming Keegan back. She never thought she’d miss someone this bad. But she did miss Keegan. No matter how she busied herself with her friends, hanging out, and talking about their plans, or how she spends time with Cody.
Mara was at Charlotte’s, spending the day while waiting for Cody to finish school. They were discussing their future night out when she received the call. It sounded like an older man, his voice was low and at the same time sounded gruff she was about to end the call when he told her not to.
“Please, I’m sorry if I’m invading your privacy, Mara, this is your grandfather. My name is Rueben Newton. I believe your mother is our daughter, Marcella.”
Mara was silent as if she was hypnotized by his voice alone. She had thought about what she would say when she got in touch with her grandparents. But she never did expect one of them to get in touch with her. Though their PI, Brooks Langston had found her and told her of their interest in meeting her and Cody.
“I am not even going to ask how you managed to get my mobile number.”
The man chuckled telling her that she sounded just like their daughter. Really? He’s going there? Mara thought as her insides brimming with spite.
“You don’t know my mom. You don’t know what she put me through. I don’t even know why I’m considering meeting you.” Mara might sound confrontational, but she hated the fact that her grandparents abandoned her, that they didn’t try harder to help her mom, and that they decided to swoop in when everything was perfectly okay in her life.
“Mara, I know we should try harder. I couldn’t even imagine what you’ve been through.”
“Why now?”
“Honestly, we lost touch. She moved to another town with her first husband, and Marcella demanded to be left alone. So… we did, she threatened to leave the country if we kept on looking for her. Look, the truth is my wife and I regretted it and now, in our old age, we’d like to straighten things out. If you let us…”
Mara was once again silenced, her mom never talked about her parents. She never introduced her and Cody to any family members. Mara never knew why, she just assumed her mom didn’t have any relatives.
“Give me time to think.” That was all Mara said before she ended the call.
“Everything okay?” Charlotte asked when she was done, Mara had forgotten that her best friend was there, listening in on her conversation. While Mara didn’t mind, she hesitated in confiding her about her grandparents. Charlotte had helped her too much and this came from where she used to handle her problems. Mara was still getting used to people helping her with her situation.
“Um… that was my grandfather, said his name was Reuben Newton. His PI approached me and Cody a couple of days back. He told me that our grandparents wanted to reconnect.” She sighed telling Charlotte that this was all Keegan’s doing. “We were invisible to them until Keegan reached out when I had issues with my stepdad.”
“Well, Keegan means well. So, why don’t you want to reconnect?” Charlotte asked, looking genuinely wanting to help her.
“It’s not like we have connected before. I don’t even know why mom never mentioned her parents. I assumed they wanted nothing to do with her, so I never asked.” Mara rested back on her seat after drinking her coffee.
“I say you have nothing to lose in meeting them. Take Keegan with you. You don’t have to take Cody for the initial meeting if you don’t want him to know them before you can assess your situation.” Charlotte was making a good point. Mara told herself that she did intend to meet them at some stage with Keegan, but she wanted to think it through before making any kind of decision, and by not taking Cody, it was actually a very good solution.
“See, I can make good input. You really need to keep me around.” Charlotte teased, then asked about her and Keegan.
“Well, I miss him and I’ve been thinking about a way to welcome him tonight,” Mara said blushing and Charlotte gave her old co-worker a mischievous grin.
“I vote for a sexy lapdance. Do you have time for a quick lingerie shopping? I know just the perfect place. I’ll take my driver and you go with Blain so later you can go straight to pick up Cody at school.”
“You’re going to get me into trouble aren’t you?”
“What? No way! I’m helping my bestie, well… I’m also going to make Seamus’s most trusted man very happy.” She laughed, already getting up from her seat and telling Mara that she was going to change real quick.
Twenty minutes later Mara and Charlotte arrived at the appointed shopping place. She didn’t know such a place existed, though she was just glad that the shop was located deeper in the shopping complex and that Blain didn’t see the provocative display of lingerie. Being a stripper she was never shy about shopping for lingerie, but the place was a whole other level. They have theme lingerie and Charlotte was looking like she was at home already when she was talking with a young woman. They were giggling before Mara heard Charlotte talking about the shipment of the playful lingerie collection that had just arrived.
“Come on, ladies, let’s get you to the back of the store where we have all the good stuff.” She grinned and Charlotte grabbed Mara’s hand, practically tugging her to follow the sales lady.
“Oh… my God, this is it. Seamus is going to ravish me in this naughty pirate costume.”
“Uh, really Charlotte? There’s not much of a costume there.” Mara laughed when she showed her the see-through lingerie with only a pirate hat that indicated that it was supposed to be a pirate costume. Well, there were also the sexy boots which Mara had to admit would look good on Charlotte’s figure.
“Okay, I’m getting this, and you Mara will be getting this,” Mara gasped when she saw the deep plum-colored lace that’ll look perfect on her. “You will look like the perfect gothic bride, look at the garters! Ugh… Keegan is going to pull them off with his teeth.” She shuddered excitedly for her friend.
“Okay, you have too vivid imagination there, you need to dial it down or I’ll be thinking of you when he does pulling them off with his teeth.”
Charlotte laughed and already picked up the perfect stripper heels to match the gothic lingerie. She also added the fishnet stockings before they moved to the other section of the store where the sales lady suggested them the scented body lotion to match their outfit.
A two-hour trip to the beauty saloon later, both women left freshly primped. Their hair and nails were done, and both of them were perfectly waxed so their men could ravish them thoroughly later.
“We need to meet up tomorrow to exchange notes,” Charlotte suggested with her most devilish smirk that made Mara laugh.
“You are a very bad influence.” She told her off though Mara knew she was going to set that exact meet up and spend the day talking about their men.
“You love my influence and your man is going to adore you,” Charlotte winked before hugging her. They parted to their cars where Mara hid her purchase at the very end of the back seat, not wanting Cody to see them.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.
*****
It was ten and Cody had long fallen asleep. Keegan was in his home office finishing off his work before joining her in the master bedroom. Earlier, Keegan had kissed her the second he entered the house and Mara had kissed him back telling him that she missed him. The man spent time with Cody and they all had a nice takeout dinner from his favorite restaurant. When he retreated to his home office after his shower, Mara let him be and decided to put on her new lingerie. She had taken a quick shower before putting on her new scented body lotion, it smelled exotic and mysterious. She smiled thinking that she would not choose that lotion because she preferred sweet scents, though somehow the scent fits her perfectly for her gothic appearance.
Mara put on very little makeup, a hint of black eyeshadow, and a clear gloss on her lips. Then, she perfected the look by putting her hair up to elongate her slender neck. She put on the stripper heels when she was in front of Keegan’s home office since Mara wanted the element of surprise.
She was giddy when knocked on his office door. “Keegan?” Mara asked the moment she opened the door, peeking inside his space.
“Yeah, come on in, I’ll be finished in just a second.” He replied from his desk, his eyes still glued to his laptop, his hands typing away. From behind him, she smiled thinking that Keegan could be mistaken for an accountant working late from his home office when no one saw the safety box above his head containing his handgun. The man had probably had several more guns secretly stored in other places, though Mara tried not to think about them. She was distracted by looking at him, completely forgetting about her attire when he let out an audible groan the second his eyes swept at her from head to toe.
“Damn, baby…”