Adopting Janie

"I know Chase but we both know Peter is not ready for that. His heart pines for life how it used to be with Carol."

Chase sighed. "Yes I know."

"What would you like me to do for you, not that I can offer you much hope?"

"Thanks," Chase sighed and handed across a letter addressed: 'To Janie, from Chase'.

"Could you give this to Janie one day if you believe she is in the position to seeing me again. It includes my cell phone number."

"Yes of course but I have no idea how I'd even know if that occasion arose."

"You'll know Jennifer," Chase said simply and smiled.

* * *

Within two days of relocating, before she'd even found suitable accommodation, Chase had won a job at a flourishing regional theater that received sufficient local government funding to pay the salaries of the chief administrator and theater director plus the new position of drama coach. It was acknowledged that Chase was over-qualified for the position of drama coach but she persuaded the interviewing panel to accept her on a binding contract for one year.

There was a café two doors down from the theater and after her late morning interview Chase went there for early lunch but the woman behind the counter said it was too early at 11:15 to serve meals. The starting time for those was, as stated on the wall, was from 11:45.

"Please couldn't you make an exception?"

"No I'm sorry ma'am."

"Oh a lady with a feeling of entitlement that she is an exception," she heard a guy coming up behind her say.

Chase turned and saw a well-dressed guy with an attaché case. Chase felt her blood rising to the boil but his next comment defused her.

"Young women with a sense of entitlement and who are firm but not rude about it are rare and ought to be nurtured. Come through to the kitchen and I'll cook for you."

"Is it permitted to upgrade a request to be made an exception and spoil a lady?"

"In your case yes because you have a swell figure and good looks."

"Mr Campbell can do what he wishes ma'am. He owns this establishment but a warning ma'am, he's not much of a cook."

Chase smiled at the woman and thanked her for such concise and valuable information.

"Can you managed an omelet, either ham or chicken?"

Mr Campbell grinned and said that dish was his specialty.

"Please call me Alan."

"Hi Alan and thank you. I'm Chase Martin."

He looked surprised. "What the actress."

It was Chase's turn to be surprised. "That period of my life ended almost seven years ago."

"I recall my mother saying more than once that Chase Martin was the most talented, intuitive and co-operative actor she'd even directed."

Chase gasped. "Claire Thomas-Campbell is your mother?"

"Yeah well we've dropped the Thomas handle now she's retired. I give her a call to join us for early lunch."

"Oh please do that. She drove me hard but I came to respect her immensely, even to love her."

"That's my mom. Dad and my sister Annie and I respect and love her as well. She's that kind of woman."

Alan handed the attaché case to the woman. Please take out the cash for the front counter and put the bag in my office Maria. Oh the cheesecake special should be showing $1:75 a slice and not $2.75 which is the regular price."

"Oh my mistake. Sorry."

"That's fine. It was solved through good teamwork. Um what is the recipe for omelet?"

Chase laughed and told his to get out the things she wanted and she'd cook but first to call his mom.

"Oh call mom, yes. God you are efficient."

"I'm just female Alan."

Maria walked off cackling.

Chase considered herself tall at just on 6-feet and reasonably solid but the screaming woman who ran at her yelling and slammed into her was 6 feet 3 inches and 180 lbs. If Claire hadn't had Chase in a hug in all probability Chase would have smacked backwards through the wall into the storeroom.

"Oh Chase, my darling protégé who abandoned me and oh you poor darling, the death of your husband."

"Yes and all that and more," Chase laughed. "I recall your bouquet, two dozens mixed roses. I took them back home and many of them lasted well into the second week. Oh I have to cook our lunch."

"You sit with me and talk. Here's Alan with the drinks. I suppose Maria said he owns a café but can't cook."

"Something like that?"

"Cat's piddle. He's a top chef."

That meeting proved to be fortuitous. When Claire found Chase was staying at a hotel said firmly, "You are out of their in the morning Chase and will move in with us for a few days."

Claire was staggered that Chase was drama coach at the theater where she was honorary technical director.

"What does a technical director do?" Chase asked.

"Fills in all the gaps so that we come out at the other end with first-class productions. It is just ridiculous a person with your experience and latent has been hired as a drama coach."

"Well the interviewing panel was reluctant to hire me but I suggested a year's contract to make them more confident that I would not walk out on them."

"A year? Oh that's fine. In the meantime you'll be nominated to compete for lead roles."

"What do you mean when you say in the meantime."

"Darling how would you like to become professor of directing on a fat salary at Arden College, the premier college in this city? The professor of directing Kathy Fowler retires in a year's time. I'm a consultant to the college in theater and I'll be totally open about my connections with you."

"They'll want a professor who is currently teaching."

"No dear, they'll want someone steeped in theater and drama and who knows about teaching. Make a success of your new position as drama coach and that would practically sew up that position for you."

"But what happens if I find I prefer adult theater?"

"That you don't go to college. In that case if you are not going for an acting role you ought to consider applying for the position of director of some of the productions. The theater has a very busy schedule and operates almost exclusively on volunteers. It sometimes has a production playing and two even sometimes three upcoming productions in rehearsal and it touring productions book into the theater. It really is all go for a regional facility."

Claire placed Chase into the guest suite and said she would accept only a small weekly contribution towards accommodation and meals.

"I'm sorry Claire but I cannot accept living here in such hotel-like surroundings and paying such a pittance for the privilege."

"Well I'm not taking any more money from you."

"Then in a few days I shall move into permanent accommodation elsewhere."

"You can't move out. I'd like you to live here."

"Then I must pay realistically for the privilege."

They stared at one another until Claire sighed and said Chase had her over a barrel.

"I insist on paying $800 a month for this suite and meals and for that it's a steal."

"It's extortion," Claire cried.

"You trying living in a long-stay hotel and pay for every meal for a month and see what that costs. What I'm offering you is a steal for me and I have money and can easily afford it."

"All right, all right. We have a deal," Claire said. "An if Alan chooses to sleep with you that's okay by me and Tony (her husband) won't need to know."

"Alan interested in me? Christ Claire what dope are you on?"

Claire shook her head. "Chase Martin, until this very minute I would never in a million years had regarded you as naïve."

Chase shook her head in disbelief at the thought that Alan would be interested in her. Women would go potty over a guy with his rugged looks and who drove a near new cream Porsche Cayman S.

Alan didn't arrive home before Chase had gone to bed that evening. Although the café closed early at 9:00 and operated only weekdays he was usually not home until after midnight on any night, "Being on the town" as his mother called it and Chase assumed that meant booze and fast women. Chase next saw Alan the following day when she went to the café for lunch and he came over and sat with her, bringing a bottle of wine and two glasses.

She stared at him wondering.

"What?" he grinned.

She looked away embarrassed and he reached across and took her hand and asked was she coming on to him?

Chase's face turned the color of beetroot.

"Don't fret," Mr Smooth said. "I regard this as a huge compliment. So I take it we date Saturday night?"

"Yes," she squeaked and gulped down her wine, knowing he was grinning at her.

She calmed and said, "Alan there is something you should know. Although I'm six years younger than you I was married for almost seven years. Then my husband died in a road accident."

"So what is it that you wish to tell me?"

"What I just told you... that I'm a widow."

"But I knew that. Mom told me when I called her to invite her to have lunch with us the first time you came into the café asking for special treatment and mom said yes that would be you as you tended to act as if you were graced by entitlement and that assumption is why you are such a damn good actress."

"Oh god," Chase said and held out her glass.

"Sorry you are limited to one glass of wine. You have to return to your briefing by the theater director."

"How do you know I'm having four hours of briefing today?"

"Mom told me."

"Oh of course. Has she told you when to sleep with me?"

Alan grinned. "She did say this morning I'm to try like blazes to date you this Saturday night. She added she and dad would be away for the night."

Chase gathered herself and in acting mode said grandly, brushing back her fringe, "Oh I wonder why I'm not surprised."

Alan looked quite impressed.

* * *

It was an extra-ordinary date although one that Chase found it easy to forget and to decide to never date Alan again.

Alan had said he'd arrive home at 6:15 to get ready and Chase was ready from not long after 5:00 in case he arrived early. Alan arrived just before 7:00 and kissed her like a brother and that had disappointed Chase who'd been expected their first 'real' kiss. Claire and Tony, an attorney, had left early that morning to attend a two-day law seminar.

Claire had told Chase she was always reluctant to go to such events. She'd be socializing in a virtual vacuum with a bunch of social climbing women who regarded talking about past law seminars and conventions as if attendance and experiences were revered like an art form. Claire had Chase screaming in laughter when she said dryly, "Half of the non-lawyer partners are bimbos who look at me blankly when asking what I did as a career. I say retired thespian. Some seem to think it is my saying lesbian with a lisp while the other half appear wondering if it's a level of prostitution they are ignorant about."

After that brotherly kiss Alan dropped a hand casually on to one of Chase's boobs and rested it there and asked was she interested in having sex before he went off to get ready to go out.

Of course she eased his hand away and smiled and said no. He walked away whistling, calling into the kitchen to grab a beer and leaving her to get her own drink. Of course she muttered, "You ape."

This was the first time Alan had been a disappointment to Chase but the night was not yet over.

When they went out to the car he went to the driver's door and called hop in. Well he would be used to dating bunnies wouldn't he and Chase knew other men who never politely opened the passenger door on the first date although some would when leaving for the designated area for seduction.

Conversationally Alan was brilliant, as Chase anticipated he would be and he had her almost believing he had some depth to him but he irritated her by constantly looking at other women and even perform a thorough breast inspection whenever a waitress bent to deliver food or drink.

On the drive home he gently probed into her background, asking questions like how old was she when she first had sex, did she enjoy sex and how often did she have it.

Normally Chase would have kissed him at the door like a sister and gone off to her suite and locked the door. But Chase was feeling the need to have sex because she'd gone without for quite some time. When they entered the house and as Alan kicked the door shut, Chase wrapped into him and delivered her sexiest of kisses. The guy actually appeared most surprise and she almost heard his motor start.

Chase half expected him to have a boob out and his tongue down her throat within ten seconds. But no, he pulled back from that first real kiss and looking deeply into her pale blue eyes said grandly, "You are so damn attractive and sophisticated Chase that I scarcely know what to do with you."

"I know," Chase warbled. "Fuck me."

In a flash Alan had both her boobs out and his tongue rammed into her mouth.

She felt herself lubing and thought of a leaky fire hydrant as he carried her to her bed and tossed her on to it and he kept his focus on her as he stripped. His dick was surprisingly short but fat and as she would soon find out his fingers were splendidly long and he had her writhing and gushing from intense cunnilingus within two minutes of commencement of its administration.

"Oh boy, I can see you like sex," he said.

"Yes," Chase managed between her gasps for breath.

"No I don't require you to suck me," he said, pushing her flat on to the bed.

"Place your feet over my shoulders."

"Er one of your feet over each of my shoulders... the outer part of my shoulders," he coached.

Chase squeezing one of her breasts and embarrassed that he would be thinking she was not up to bimbo level. He drove into her and added a finger and she he pushed a long finger into her butt. She screamed into a big orgasm.

"Jesus," he said. "Um is that the end of you?"

"Oh no, I can climax multiple times."

Chase found the look of relief on his face quite comical and thereon concentrated on putting everything into it to maximize her enjoyment.

Three hours later that included rests, he rolled off the bed and muttered thanks, leaving the four used condoms where he'd thrown them.

"Bastard," Chase muttered as she wearily picked them up to dispose of them and to run a bath.

CHAPTER 2

Three months after settling in at Clayton City, Chase received a call from Jennifer Kerr, Peter Barrett's sister.

"Oh hi, of course I remember you," Chase said. "Have you news for me about Janie?"

"Yes but just in a general way. She has just gone home after spending a long weekend with David and me. Peter has met a new lady and they went to her home city for Peter to meet her parents for the first time and we were asked to have Janie."

"Oh then how is she?"

"She's fine and brought Patch with her. After the repeated screening of that advertisement you placed her in Janie says she has lots of friends and everyone in her neighborhood knows Patch and many people called him by name."

"Oh that's lovely. Did she say anything indicating the level of relationship with her father."

"Well I was interested about that too but I failed to learn much apart from the fact that daddy is very attached to his lady friend but Janie did indicate she doesn't like the woman who's not sweet and pretty like her mother was."

Chase said that was understandable because Janie probably regarded the woman as an intruder and Jennifer said that was very likely.

"Janie and I didn't mention you and I found no reason to give her your letter but it had to open it to get your phone number.

Chase said that was okay.

"Why I'm calling is during the school break Peter wants to go on a two-week hiking trip with this woman, Terri French, and I have agreed to Janie staying with us and Patch will be placed in a boarding kennel. During the second week of that stay David will be away at a medical convention. I was wondering whether you would like to stay with Janie and me during that week, I mean if you'd like to do that."

Jennifer told Chase the dates.

"Oh Jennifer what a wonderful offer but regrettably I can't do that. I will be in final rehearsals of a play I'm directing and have been chosen for the lead female role. Every evening I'll be committed for three to four hours."

"Wow you are a busy lady and just as well I didn't mention to Janie..."

"Jennifer, no wait. I have an idea. You bring Janie here on vacation for that week. I'll pay the travel costs and the costs of accommodation. I'll take a double suite in a reasonably good quality hotel and Janie can room share with you."

"Ooh, that sounds lovely. I haven't been to Clayton City but understand it's a lovely place. But I'll pay our travel costs and two-thirds of the accommodation costs."

Chase countered. "Here's the deal Jennifer and it's a clean arrangement. Let's agree to split costs down the middle."

"You sound very determined."

"Good thinking Jennifer," Chase giggled. "Deal?"

"Yes," said the older women. Let's settle financially on the final night. That is very generous of you. I had thought of sending Janie to you unaccompanied but then thought Peter might explode over that. He's so unpredictable these days. I'm hoping this Terri would help sort him out. A good bit of sex can do wonders for a man."

They giggled over that and ended the call after arranging for Claire to email details once she had booked the flights.

Chase had found she'd thought less about Janie as she became more involved in theater work and was surprised just how intense she felt about Janie's visit. She was almost tingling in excitement. That was the moment when she first thought about the possibility of adopting the 7-year old and what would have to happen to make that happen if the opportunity arose.

That evening she told Claire about Janie and Claire was most interested, particularly when Chase said she would have to quit her theater work because it involved heavy evening commitments.

"The college position I spoke to you about some months ago remains viable if you become a parent."

"Yes and I'd like to begin thinking serious about that."

Claire said then she would arrange for the theatre to send some complimentary tickets to the theatre and drama department at the college for the opening night of Chase's directorial debut of 'Debbie Jakes Gets Married'.

Smiling Claire added, "With you also playing the role of Debbie Jakes that will that mirror your talents and professionalism or will it what?"

"Yes! What a great idea."

"Yes and I'll get someone to nominate you to lead the college's three-day theater workshop for freshmen in September. Everyone at the college connected with theater is out in force to observe those sessions to size up the talent of this new intake of students. The college invites an outside to lead the workshop to leave the department head and tutors free to watch and listen unhindered."

"Omigod Claire if you can pull that off I'll be in your debt."

"But not sufficiently deep in debt to marry my son and calm him down."

Chase lost her smile. "Oh Claire, I tried to establish good rapport but it was not to be. We had that one night together and have not dated since but remain civil towards each other as you well know."

"It's okay sweetheart. I know the problem. My son is addicted to pussy, the bigger the variety the better."

They screamed in laughter and Claire said she'd get her husband to speak to Chase about adoption law and the obligations and the fishhooks in getting through the processes.

"Oh god."

"Steady on darling, there are some good things to consider. Adoptions in this country are now being granted in increasing numbers to single people providing a network of support from family and friends and agency contacts are in place. Should Janie's father no longer wish to be responsible for her and the Janie has an established relationship with you then the authorities would take those things into account."