Part 13 (1/2)
”I've got a test tomorrow. I can't,” Nora responded. ”I'm not even going to go play tonight.”
”I'm having my famous manicotti with meat sauce, and that garlic bread you love so much,” Carla tempted.
Nora laughed again. ”Bring me over some later, and I'll freeze it for another night.”
Carla sighed. ”When are you seeing Rick again?” she asked.
”Friday, after school,” Nora answered. ”Then I'm heading up to State for Parents Weekend. J. J. asked me to come.”
”We're going too,” Carla said. ”Ride with us?”
”I will,” Nora said. ”I hate making that drive alone. Where are you staying?”
”The Fairfax Inn,” Carla responded.
”Me too! That's great.” Nora smiled. ”It'll be fun.”
”Okay, you're off the hook for tonight. I'll bring you some manicotti to freeze.”
But after meeting with her lawyers on Friday afternoon, Nora didn't know if she wanted to go anywhere. She felt sick with their news. More than anything, she just wanted to find a hole, crawl into it, and die.
”What do you mean, I can't get the house?” she demanded of Rick. ”It's the only thing I want from him. Nothing else.”
Rick sighed. ”It's been a long shot all along, Nora. Joe and I told you that right from the beginning. The house has always been in just his name, and that gives him the advantage over you. However, when he nicked the kids' college money he made a mistake, and that's been our club. It's a little club, but we've gotten you a really incredible settlement under the circ.u.mstances. The house has no mortgage, and you're going to get forty percent of the sales price. That ain't hay in this market, given the neighborhood we're in,” Rick explained. ”You should see close to four hundred thousand dollars, Nora. And you're going to get a thousand dollars a month in alimony for five years. J. J.'s scholars.h.i.+p is good for four years, and we've got Jeff to pay for J. J.'s dorm room. However, if the kid goes off campus, he's out of luck, and he'll have to buy his own meal ticket, but he'll manage it.”
”What about Jill's tuition at Duke?” Nora wanted to know.
Rick shook his head. ”Jeff loves having a daughter in law school at Duke, but he won't pay for it. He paid for her undergrad work, and this first year at Duke. No court will think him unfair to ask that she get scholars.h.i.+p money for her last two years. Jill is bright, and she's resourceful, Nora. She'll manage it, and we'll see she does, I promise you. What are friends for?”
Nora felt the tears, but she blinked them back. ”A car?” she asked hopefully.
Rick shook his head. ”Sorry,” he told her.
”What if I bought out his interest in the house?” she said.
”Nora, you couldn't afford it, and you couldn't get a mortgage in your name. You have no credit. Everything the phone, the electricity, the water company, the car, the credit card you had it's all been in Jeff's name. I told you this before. That's something you've got to do. Begin to establish your own credit. I've gotten the bank to agree to give you a credit card in your own name, but it only has a twelve-hundred-dollar credit line, I'm afraid.” He reached into his desk and pulled out an envelope. ”Here,” he said.
She took the envelope, heart sinking. She knew that Margo was very well-fixed, but she couldn't ask her mother for six hundred thousand dollars to buy the house. Her mother lived comfortably on her interest income and her late husband's Social Security. She would have to sell something to help Nora, and that would drastically cut her income. I can't do it, Nora thought. She loves being independent, and I can't make her pinch pennies. It isn't fair. But what wasn't fair was Jeff taking the house. ”There's no way of stopping him from selling?” she asked.
”If you got lucky, and he died s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g Heidi before the divorce, then you would get everything,” Rick said, ”but we can't count on that happening, Nora. But he's not going to put the house on the market until next April first, so you've got at least until then, and while the house will sell quickly, by the time the details are settled it will be June or July. Almost a year,” he finished, looking uncomfortable. Carla was really going to give him grief about this, but what could he do? They were dealing with the law.
”Don't tell Carla yet, Rick. I don't want to spoil our weekend. I don't feel much like going right now,” Nora admitted, ”but J. J. would be so disappointed.”
He looked relieved. ”Yeah,” he agreed. ”If we tell Carla, she'll go on about it all weekend, and no one will have a good time. What do you want to say?”
”Let's give her something or she'll be suspicious,” Nora told him. ”We'll tell her about the five years of alimony, and J. J.'s dorm room. You can say you and Joe are working on the rest, okay?”
”You're a good friend, Nora Buckley,” he told her.
”So are you and Carla,” she responded.
The leaves were turning as they drove to the state university at Whitford. At the Fairfax Inn they discovered that Nora's reservation in the name of Mrs. Jeffrey Buckley was now in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Buckley.
”There's an error,” she said. ”My husband and I are in the midst of a divorce. Here's my reservation number. See? Three-six-nine-one-one.” She held out the postcard to the clerk. ”And you will note it is addressed to Mrs., not Mr. and Mrs.”
”There's obviously been an error,” the desk clerk said, ”and Mr. and Mrs. Buckley checked in a half an hour ago.” He looked uncomfortable.
”That would be my husband and his girlfriend,” Nora replied sweetly. ”Well, give me another room, then.”
”I can't.” The clerk looked agonized now. ”We're full. It's Parents' Weekend, madame.”
”I know, and I'm here to visit my son, who is one of the junior varsity soccer stars.” She smiled a dangerous smile. ”You have a choice, young man. Either give me another room, or remove my husband and his little playmate from my room.”
”Is there a problem here, Roberts? We're stacking up with check-ins,” asked an officious man in a dark blazer with a name tag on his lapel that read C. ELDERS, a.s.sISTANT MANAGER.
Before the poor besieged clerk might answer, Nora said coolly, ”The reservation I made has been given to my husband and his girlfriend. Roberts says there are no other rooms. I have my confirmation, and I will wager that no confirmation number was checked when Jeff arrived. I want my room. And I want it now.”
”We can give you a room in the annex, madame. We do keep a few vacant for emergencies,” C. Elders said. He glared at the check-in clerk.
”But I don't want to be in the annex,” Nora replied, and she gave the man a steely smile. ”I want my reservation that is next door to my friends. Put Mr. Buckley and his tartlet in the annex.”
”Madame, we are doing our best,” the a.s.sistant manager sputtered.
”I am Mrs. Buckley's attorney,” Rick broke in, ”and I should hate to see this incident become any more public than your inefficiency is making it. Mrs. Buckley will wait in our room while you remove Mr. Buckley and his friend from her room. Is that clear, Mr. Elders?”
”Yes, sir,” the a.s.sistant manager said, and then he turned to the hapless check-in clerk. ”See to it, Roberts! Immediately!”
Nora and Carla looked at each other and swallowed back their laughter.
”Doncha just love him when he get tough?” Carla said, grinning.
”He's quite amazing,” Nora agreed. ”It's a whole 'nother side of Richard Johnson, and I have to say I like it.”
They went upstairs, and Nora listened with a large grin on her face as she heard Jeff b.i.t.c.hing when he and Heidi were moved out of the room next door.
”Does this other room have a fireplace?” Jeff demanded to know. ”I want to speak with the manager!”
”I'm sorry, sir. The manager isn't here this weekend, but you can speak with Mr. Elders, his a.s.sistant,” the bellhop said.
”I've already spoken with that moron,” Jeff almost shouted. ”How the h.e.l.l could this kind of a mix-up occur?”
”I don't know, sir,” the bellhop said, and they heard the elevator doors closing.
The trio burst into laughter.
”He'll figure it out soon enough,” Nora said with a chuckle.
Shortly afterwards there came a knock on the door, and Mr. Elders himself was outside it. ”I've had the bellhop bring up your luggage, Mrs. Buckley. The room has been cleaned, and is ready for you. I apologize for the distress this mix-up has caused you. May I escort you?”
”Thank you,” Nora said quietly. Then she turned to her friends. ”What time are we meeting the kids?” she asked.