Consequences

Consequences

By

David T. Lancaster

Chapter one

“Son of a bitch”!

“I’m sorry. I am so so sorry, honey”

“Sorry? Sorry? Look at my eye! Son of a bitch”.

“Nicole, honey, I am sorry. It will never happen again, I promise. It just….I don’t know what happened, I just snapped there for a second. I, I ….”

“Shut up Mark. Look at my eye, oh my god, I have to go to work with a black eye. Son of a bitch.”

“Well can you put some make-up on it? Call in sick to work today? I don’t know. I am sorry”.

Nicole Frazier stares at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Her left eye is black and….not sure what that color is, blueish/greenish, but definitely a real-life black eye. Here I am, Nicole thinks, a successful Vice President of a big insurance company and I have to walk into work with a fucking black eye.

“Look Mark, what is done is done now, nothing I can do about it. Yes, I will try to cover it as best I can with make-up but look at it. It is getting worst as time goes by. And no, I can’t call in sick today. Deb is out of the office, and I have to run the critical claims meeting today. There is no one else. And no, before you add anymore advise, I can’t do it virtual, I have to be there. Son of a bitch. I have to stand there in front of a bunch of people this morning with a fucking black eye. Thanks, Mark. I’ll wear some sunglasses I guess, but everyone will know.”

Mark Frazier, my husband of 5 years, is a very successful attorney for Barnes, Petersen, Andersen and Wilkey. Next week he is slated to be made partner in the firm and thus be getting a huge bonus and raise. He has never hit me before last night. Oh, I have had to deal with his psychological abuse. That started about a year after we were married after that storied courtship and wedding.

I have suspected him of infidelity. Pretty sure he was having an affair with that Kim Nortz in the real estate division. Late night meetings, calls that end quickly when I walk into the room, that sort of thing.

Last night, after another ‘late night strategy meeting’, I confronted him. Mark was drunk and we started yelling and then all of a sudden, he hits me with a right cross. Not an open hand slap, but a real, honest to God right hook.

“Look honey, I’ll make it up to you I promise. As soon as I make partner next week and get that big bonus, we’ll go and you can pick out a new Tesla, okay?”

“Mark, go to work. We’ll deal with this tonight. I have to focus right now and deal with this. Go”

Mark said “Okay honey, I’ll see you tonight, okay? And I am sorry about what happened”.

“Whatever Mark, go.”

Chapter two

Well make-up really didn’t do much good, thought Nicole as she pulls into her work parking lot. I’ll just have to gut it out with these sunglasses I bought in Cancun last summer. They are roundish and cover the eye, that’s all I can hope for at this point.

As she sits in her car, she tries to get her story straight. ‘When I walk into that building wearing sunglasses, everyone is going to know, or figure out pretty quickly what’s up My story is…I fell and hit my eye on the stair banister and here I am, ha ha a dumb klutz.’

As I badge in and get through security, people pass me and look at my face and then….look away.

“Son of a bitch” I mutter to myself. “Just get through this Frazier. Your Marine Corp Dad dealt with worst in Vietnam”.

I get to my desk and start my day, getting ready for the critical claims meeting at 9am. Just then my best friend, April, pokes her head in and says her usual ‘good morning’ and then stops and does a double take, looking at my face.

“What the hell happened to you, girlfriend?”

“Oh shit, is it obvious?”

“Ahh, yeah, you are wearing stupid looking sunglasses in doors. Let me see.”

“No”

“Let me see”

“Shut the door”. I reluctantly remove my sunglasses.

April gasps, ‘oh hell. What happened?”

Well, here goes, “I tripped and fell. Hit my head on the stair banister. I am such a klutz.”

April just looks at me. “Bullshit, you are the least klutzy person I know. You water ski like a champ and ski black diamonds. Tell me what happened. This is your best friend you are talking to remember?”

Yep, can’t BS April. “Mark hit me. Last night.”

There. It is out.

“That Son of a bitch” replies April.

“My words exactly”

I then give her a run down of the night and the morning. I feel ready to cry. No, I am Nicole, daughter of a Marine, I will not cry.

April says, ‘well did you call the police?”

“I can’t. Mark will get arrested and there goes his promotion to partner. I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, you got to do something”, says April. “Wasn’t it Mark, just last weekend at the dinner at my house, expounding on how the homeless are homeless because they are suffering the consequences of decisions and actions they have made if life?”

I think about that dinner and how Mark was going on and on about consequences.

“ If I remember correctly, weren’t his exact words ‘People have to accept the consequences of their actions?” said April. “So, what are his consequences?”.

“I don’t know April. I can’t deal with it right now; I have that meeting in 15 minutes. We’ll talk later okay”.

“Son of a bitch, he can’t get away with this, there has to be a consequence” she said and left.

Chapter three

I got through the meeting. No one said a thing, but they all could tell. I felt…ashamed. April ‘s words came back to me as I sat at my desk, ‘he can’t get away with this, there has to be a consequence’.

So, what CAN I do ? thought Nicole. What are my options? So, I do what I always do when I have a problem, I make a list.

Call the police and report the incident. No that won’t work, too messy for him and for me. It has to be a consequence for him.

Take the Tesla. No, that is no real consequence for him either. We’ve got plenty of money, plus it hurts me as much as him seeing as our finances are tied together.

File for Divorce. Hmm, an option.

Let HIS work know what he did to me. Ooh, now that is a real option on the table. He can feel that shame I am having to deal with today and probably the next week or so. Not sure what the aftermath will be, but…there it is, a real consequence for Mark.

Let’s see how he likes dealing with the consequence of his actions. A plan starts to form in Nicole’s mind. She informs her assistant, Chris Moser that she is taking the rest of the day off. He nods like he expected that.

She stops by and tells April her plan. “Do it” she says.

Nicole drives home formulating her plan of action. When she gets home, she is actually smiling and going over what she is going to say and how it is going to go.

First, she gets out her cooking stuff and bakes a batch of Mark’s favorite cookies, chocolate chip with macadamia nuts. Next, she gets a fancy plate and puts half a dozen neatly arraigned on the plate and seals it with cellophane. To add to the ‘gift of cookies. She puts a bow on it and a little handwritten note ‘all is forgiven, xxoo Nicole.’

She then drives to Barnes, Petersen, Andersen, Wilkey and Associates and parks her car. She looks in the mirror and thinks ‘am I really going to do this?’.

“Damn straight I am” Nicole says aloud and takes off her sunglasses and gets out of her car.

Chapter four

Nicole rides the elevator up to the top floor with her plate of cookies and gets out on Barnes, Petersen, Andersen, and Wilkey and Associates floor. Steeling herself for the next ten minutes, she walks through the front lobby and up to the receptionist desk.

“Oh hi, Ms. Frazier” says Suzanne, the long-time front desk receptionist. Suzanne knows me pretty well and is the office gossip. Mark has told me many times that if you want to know what is going on at Barnes, Petersen, Andersen and Wilkey, just ask Suzanne.

“Well hello Suzanne, how are you doing? I brought some cookies for Mark. I know he has that big case he is preparing for and thought he could use some nourishment” I say.

Suzanne smiles and then does a double take. “Oh jeez Ms. Frazier, what happened to your eye?

“Oh this?” I say touching my eye. “Mark hit me last night”.

Silence. Suzanne just stares at me waiting for the punch line. There is no punch line.

“Um, really? Mr. Frazier hit you ?

I nod.

“That Son of a bitch” is her reaction.

“My sentiments exactly” I say. “I’ll just go on back to his office. Don’t let him know”.

“I won’t” she replies. “I am sorry Ms. Frazier”.

“Consequences” I mutter as I walk past her. I know the coconut telegraph is starting and half the office will know what happened by the time I leave Marks’ office.

As I walk through the offices, people look up at me and then just stare and my face. I keep my head held high. Retired Marine Corp daughters are not people to be messed with I thought.

I see Mark hunched over a bunch of documents, deep in thought when I tap on his office door. He looks up and does a double take. I smile and hold the plate of cookies up and let myself in.

‘Hi honey. I know you are working hard on that case and thought I would bake you some cookies and bring them over. They are your favorite, chocolate chip with Macadamia nuts” .

“Nicole, what the hell are you doing here? Jesus, where are your sunglasses and make-up? Oh my god, people are going to see you and think….”

“Think what Mark?” I say.

“Jesus Nicole, people are going to think…I hit you or something. Why did you even come here, to my office?”.

“Mark, honey, people are not going to think, they will probably know that you did in fact hit me. Suzanne asked me what happened, and I told her the truth. Aren’t you the one always going on about integrity and telling the truth?”.

“Oh Jesus Nicole, please tell me you are joking?” I shake my head. “Oh Jesus, it will be around the office in ten minutes. What do you think you are doing? You know I am up for a partnership next week. Oh Jesus Nicole, if the Senior Partners find out…Oh Jesus. Why? Why Nicole?” he asks.

“Consequences’, I say. I turn around and leave.

Epilogue

Well, I never did get that Tesla. As expected, Suzanne did what I thought she would do and the whole office knew by the end of the day that my now ex-husband hit me. By the next morning, the Senior Partners of Barnes, Petersen, Andersen and Wilkey and Associated called an emergency meeting and fired Mark on the spot.

The fall out was the whole legal community in our community knew that Mark was a wife beater. He couldn’t get a job as a lawyer anywhere.

We filed for divorce pretty soon afterwards and the Judge gave me everything, the house, the car and a generous alimony, that Mark is struggling to keep up with.

Here I sit on the beach in Cancun, drinking a Mai Tai thinking about consequences.

They can be a bitch sometimes.