Chapter 7

Amy's first thought on awakening that morning was a feeling of panic that the alarm hadn't gone off and that she would be late for work. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was already past nine. Oh Jesus, she thought, now I'll get it for sure. She jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom to begin prettying herself for another working day.

The first splash of cold water on her face brought all the memories of the night before rushing back to her. She remembered the concert, the party afterwards, her horrible feeling of guilt as she was making love with Harry Bledsoe, and finally the humiliation of her discovery by Mr. Robinson and the degrading treatment to which he had subjected her in the rock star's bed. Tears of disappointment filled her eyes, but at the same time she was struck by an intense feeling of relief, knowing that she was out of a job once and for all and had thus made an escape albeit an involuntary one from the unethical compromises she had forced her body into making.

It took only a few minutes for the relief to win out over her initial disappointment. No longer would she have to face the possibility of screwing an endless succession of clients (not to mention her boss himself) in order to enhance her own career. Although she had proved that she could cut her way through the jungle of the music promotion business, she was still ashamed of the tools she had had to use to forge her path. Now, thank God, she could get back to being nothing more than what she had been in the past: an ordinary woman with a good man to attend to. Now she could simply go back to being Rick's wife.

The thought filled her with such joy that she found herself cheering into the mirror. Remembering that her husband was due home that afternoon, she immediately bent herself to the task of sanitizing the house. Starting with the bathroom, she cleaned everything, dusted all the furniture, vacuumed the carpet and beat the rugs, mopped the kitchen floor and shined the cabinets, realizing that in so doing she was also assuaging her guilt, cleaning out the corners of her slightly tarnished soul so she could present herself fresh and whole to Rick when he arrived. In the midst of her flurry of activity, she even managed to bake his favorite boysenberry pie.

When she was through cleaning, she called Mitzi, her best friend and former bridge partner, and made an appointment for cards for the following Wednesday. Then she sat down with their bills and bankbooks to analyze their financial situation. Once all the bills were paid, she figured, they would still have enough money to get through the next two months, and by then things should start to break for Rick. If not ... she shrugged. Something would come along; she was certainly not going to worry about it now. She spent the rest of the morning looking through the newspapers and flyers that came in the mail to make up her shopping list for the week.

Just as she was about to start fixing her lunch, she heard the sound of Rick's Pontiac coming up the driveway and rushed to straighten her hair and lipstick before the front door opened. When Rick walked in, looking battered but happy, with two days growth of beard and a sweat-stained flannel shirt, she almost flew to meet him at the door, throwing herself in his arms and covering him with kisses.

"Hey," he said, looking down at her with a bemused expression, "what's all this? Why aren't you at work? Christ, it's almost noon."

"Oh, Rick," she nearly sobbed, "I'm so glad you're home. I've been waiting for you, it seems like months and months, and now you're here." She continued hugging and kissing him as if it were their wedding day.

"Of course I'm home," he said, throwing his fishing hat on the couch. "What did you expect? But the thing is, I'm supposed to be home, and you're supposed to be at work. What gives?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "I don't work for Robinson and Klein anymore," she said. "As of yesterday I'm a free woman."

"You get fired?" he said, a worried look on his face. "Or did you quit?"

"I quit," she lied. "I got tired of being away from home all the time. I got tired of being away from you, to be more precise."

"You did?" he said, looking perplexed.

"Mm-hmmmm. Rick, I don't want to work anymore. I just want to be your wife. I want us to have what we had before that's more important to me than anything now. We were getting close to losing each other, you know."

"I know," he said. "But it was just as much my fault as yours."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I did a lot of thinking on this trip, and it occurred to me that I had been resenting you all along for something that you had a perfect right to do. It was my old-fashioned thinking that was ruining our marriage."

"Oh Rick," she exclaimed, "it's wonderful of you to say that, really, but I don't think you should take the blame. I was the one who was neglecting you."

"But you were also the one who was bringing home the money," he said, "and I was just too proud to accept that. Anyway, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that I've finally got my head screwed on straight, so if you want to call up Robinson and Klein and tell them you've reconsidered, it's fine with me."

"No thanks," she smiled.

"But why?" he said, looking genuinely puzzled. "You were so happy with your work, you told me so. And you said you were tired of being a housewife, which I can certainly understand after trying it myself for awhile."

"I've changed my mind," Amy said. "That's a woman's prerogative, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," Rick admitted. "But it's still hard for me to understand."

"Then don't try," Amy said, reaching up and giving him a tender kiss. "Just accept it. Amy's home again, and this time to stay."

"And what about money?"

"We're all right," she said. "I went over everything, and with my severance pay and all that we'll have enough to make it through the next few months until your season starts again. We may have to eat a lot of chili and drink a lot of water, but we'll make it."

"Good," he said, "but maybe it won't be all as tight as you think." He had a mischievous grin on his face as he said it.

"You found a buried treasure in the Sierras?"

"Not exactly," Rick said, "but that's actually fairly close." As Amy waited for him to continue, he stepped around her and walked toward the kitchen.

"What this?" he said. "Smells suspiciously like boysenberry pie."

Amy ran after him. "Hey," she said, catching up to him and grabbing him by the shoulders. "You just made an enormous change of subject. What's all this mystery of the Sierra Madre?"

"Okay," he said, turning around to face her.

"We were on our way back down from Rosalie Lake, and we stopped in a bar in Mammoth to have a beer. There was a guy sitting at the bar and we got to talking. It turns out this guy owns property all over the Mammoth area, and he wants to start developing it condos, hotels, ski resorts, restaurants, the whole shot. And you know what? This guy had seen some of the stuff I'd done over in Danville. He didn't have any idea that I was the one who'd done the building, but he mentioned seeing it that apartment complex, you remember? and he talked on and on about how great it was and how he'd like to get that builder to work for him."

"Incredible," was all Amy could manage to say. "And there you were."

"Yup," he said. "When I told him who I was, he just about went crazy. So to make a long story short, he wants me to take over all his construction projects, starting in thirty days, as soon as he puts the finishing touches on his financing." He broke into a broad grin. "Amy, do you realize what this means?" he said. "This project should net me at least half a million dollars."

Amy stared at him, speechless.

"And you know what else?" he said. "There's going to be so much work up there that I'm going to need someone to be a sort of combination troubleshooter and secretary, emphasis on the troubleshooter. Would you care to interview for the position?"

It was a few moments before Amy could speak. Finally, playing it straight, she said, "Yes, Mr. Barker, and where and when does this interview take place."

"Right now," he said, picking her up in his strong arms. "In the bedroom."

Amy wrapped her arms happily around his neck and allowed herself to be carried into the bedroom.

"Just think," Rick said as he laid her on the bed and began unbuttoning his blouse, "I'll be able to have an affair with my secretary with my wife's full knowledge."

"Just a minute," she said playfully. "I haven't accepted the position yet."

"Right," he answered, unzipping her skirt and pulling down her panties. "Well, let's take it one position at a time shall we?"

"Indeed we shall," his happy wife answered, reaching her head up to give him a long, passionate kiss . ...