Taking Care of Business

"The reason that I'm ringing you is that I want to arrange a staff meeting for Friday afternoon at 2:00."

"Staff meeting, what's one of those?"

"Don't be sarcastic. It's you know, when the staff all get together in one room and discuss topics connected with the running of the business. Will you do that?"

"Sure, but forgive me for saying this, but this is a radical change in operating procedures."

"I have made significant changes in my life over the past few days, and I owe it all to two women."

"Yeah, we read the papers and saw it on TV, about you and the 'Mystery Woman'. Would she be one of them?"

"Yes, but not the most important one. You will meet the other one on Friday."

"Any hints to who it might be?"

"You know her, that's all that I'm prepared to say at this point."

Miles took Rosita shopping for new clothes that would reflect her new status in his life. She surprised him by steering well clear of fashion brands and buying department store clothes. It mattered little, she looked beautiful in these.

The meeting on Friday resulted in major changes in Miles' business. Peter was curious as they walked into the lunch-room where the meeting was being held. "Peter, this is Rosita, you have spoken to her on many occasions, here she is in the flesh. But let me warn you, keep your eyes and hands off her, she's mine."

"Hi, How are you. It's nice to see the face behind the voice at last."

"Hello, I am pleased to meet you." Rosita held her hand out for him to shake.

"Can I have your attention please." Miles said. When it was quite he began to outline his plans for the future. "The reason that I have asked for this meeting is that I have decided to make some pretty radical changes to this company. First and foremost, I am offering to sell forty-nine percent of this company to you the staff. Don't worry if you don't have the capital to buy it outright, I will expedite a financial package that can make up the shortfall. The repayment plan will be very generous, the interest rates will be set at the current savings bank rate. I will hold the remaining fifty-one percent. You will run the company as your own. I will make myself available as a consultant if you should need my advice. Other than that I will not interfere in the running of the company. I have faith that you all have the knowledge and expertise to make this work. The rest is up to you. Any questions?"

"What has brought about this change?" Peter asked.

"I have been forced to take stock of myself, and how I have been living my life. It wasn't pretty let me tell you. I have come to realise that there is more to life than the making of money. If that is your sole driving force, then heaven help you."

"You have done a good thing." Rosita said as they left the office. "I am proud of you, my love."

"I would never have done it if it wasn't for you and Miranda. That reminds me, I want to try to find her. Don't worry, I am not in love with her, I never was. Oh don't get me wrong, I admire her, she has amazing perception when it came to me, she saw right through me and told me exactly what I needed to hear."

"We both have a lot to thank her for. She knew that I was in love with you and that you were also in love with me. She opened both of our eyes to that. Without her, where would we be now?"

"I hate to think."

Miles contacted the Casting Director for the play, and from him got Miranda's sisters contact details. He rang her. "Hi, It's Miles Mallison here. This might sound a strange request, but I want to get in touch with Miranda."

"Well you're out of luck there Mate. She left specific instructions that I do not give out her details to anyone, especially you. I don't know what you did to her, but she wasn't happy."

"Before you hang up, let me explain the reason that I want to contact her. I want to thank her, she told me things about myself that I needed to hear, but didn't want to hear. We had a good time together for a couple of days, but the reason that she doesn't want me to contact her is that she fell in love with me, and that scared her. She loves her husband, and would not think of leaving him, but to find someone other then him that she could love was too scary for her, so she left. But before she left she put my mind straight about my love life. I have been flitting from one woman to the next for years, but all of that time I have been in love with one woman, and she with me. I wasn't aware of it and the woman was all to aware of her feelings, and was being hurt by my indifference to her and her feelings. All of that has changed, all because Miranda saw it all, and set both of us straight. So you see, all that I want to do is thank her, we both do."

"The best that I can do is speak with her and see if she is willing to speak with you."

"Thank you for this." He hung up and turned to Rosita. "She's going to speak to Miranda. All that we can do is wait. What I would like to do, if she's okay with this, is to go to Italy, to Tuscany to meet her and her husband, and thank her in person. What do you say?"

"I would love to travel the world with you. I have never travelled beyond Palm Beach."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, she might not want to see us."

"But we can still travel, can't we?"

"Of course, anywhere you want to go, you name it."

"I would like to go to the Philippines, to the village that my mother came from. She never spoke of this, neither did my grand-mother. It was as if they were ashamed of where they came from."

"I hate to tell you this, but most of the mail-order brides don't come from the cities, but from isolated villages. Marriage to a foreigner is seen as their only way out of the poverty of their existence. They're not made aware of the conditions in which they will find themselves, and many of them are treated poorly by the men that buy them."

"I would still like to see where she came from."

"If that's what you want. Let us wait a short while and see if Miranda will see us. We can combine the trips."

We didn't have to wait long, but it was not what we expected. "Miles, It's Melanie, Miranda's sister. I have news for you. Miranda is back in Sydney."

"Can I speak with her?"

"No, she doesn't want to speak to you."

"Well then, will she talk to Rosita?"

"Hold on, I'll ask her." Miles could hear mumbling in the background. "Put her on."

Miles handed the phone to Rosita. "Hello, Miranda, how are you?"

"Not so good. Look, I wanted to speak with you first, to see how things are with you and Miles."

"They are perfect. He is a very good lover, as you told me, and yes I am very much in love with him, as he is with me." Miles nodded. "What has happened, and how can we help?"

"When I got back to Tuscany I found that my loving husband had begun a new painting, a nude portrait of a pretty young woman. It is going to be a very good painting when he has finished it, that's if he ever gets around to finishing it. He has been spending more time fucking the model than painting her. He told me that he didn't love me, and that he loved her. I had flash-backs to how I met him, he painted my portrait, and made love to me. I have left the bastard and his slut back there in Tuscany. I will divorce him in due course, but I might need Miles' help. I need your approval to ask for it."

"What is it that you want?"

"I might have burnt my bridges with the Producers of the play that I was supposed to star in. I need his help to get the part, do you think that he will do it?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Is that okay?"

"Yes. Here he is." She handed the phone to Miles. "Miranda has left her husband and wants the part in the play, can you help her?"

"Hi Miranda. Sorry about your husband, and thank you for what you have done for Rosita and me, I appreciate it, and I have made many changes to my life because of you. As for the part, let me speak to the Producers, I'll withdraw financial support if I have to. Why don't you come over for lunch tomorrow, we'd love to see you. We can discuss life, the universe and everything."

"Don't worry my Darling," Miles said to Rosita after he ha hung up. "I have no intention of doing anything other than help her get that role back, after that she is on her own. We can still be friends if it works out that way, but nothing more. Do you think that I would do anything to ruin what we have?"

"I know you won't, my love. Come with me while I show you why I know that you won't." The passion with which Rosita gave herself to Miles was the perfect demonstration of her love and commitment to making their relationship inviolate.

"Look at you two," Miranda had not swept into the room with the same confidence that she would have in the past. "Any thoughts that I might have had of forcing my way between you have been shot down in flames. I knew that the two of you were in love, how much defied comprehension. Congratulations, when are you going to make the formal announcement and break the hearts of millions?"

"Soon, I have a few more things to tidy up. I am just about to do a Bill Gates, and hand over my company to the staff. When I say hand over, I mean the running of it, I will still have some financial interest in it."

"What are you going to do with all of that spare time?" She caught the look that passed between them that told her that they had already found a way of occupying their time.

"We plan to travel. I have been too busy in the pursuit of wealth to take the time to see the world. We had planned to go to Tuscany and thank you in person for bringing us together. Speaking of which, what happened?"

"I should have known better than leave him alone for too long, after all that was how I met him in the first place. I was young and pretty, and he asked me to sit for a portrait. One thing led to another and we married, after he had divorced his first wife. I was out of the picture and he found another model. By the looks of her, she is soon to give him something that I was never able to, her pregnancy is just starting to show. I'm sure that his portrait of a young, pregnant and very naked woman will sell well."

"I have news that will cheer you up." Miles said. I have spoken to the Producers of that play, they jumped at the chance of having you back in the cast. It would seem that you made such an initial impression that they were unable to find anyone that came close to you. I didn't even have to threaten them with pulling my backing."

"Thank you, thank you."

"You can kiss him." Rosita told her. It was a perfunctory peck on the cheek, nothing to be read into it. The kiss that she gave Rosita was more demonstrative of her thanks to both of them.

Three months later, Miles and Rosita arrived back from their trip to the Philippines, in time for the opening night of the play. On one hand they were very subdued. The living conditions in which her family were forced to live were atrocious, not helped any by the damage caused by a recent typhoon. On the other hand Rosita had just had her pregnancy confirmed.

The dressing room after the final curtain call was crowded with well-wishers and much back-slapping. "Darling, you were absolutely fabulous" The director enthused over Miranda. "I want you to meet Hector Millhouse, he wants to whisk you away from us and have you star in his new Hollywood blockbuster."

"Not interested." Miranda said. "I have another offer on the table. I have read the script and I love it. His offer will have to be spectacular to top that one." The two of them adjourned to a corner of the room to confer.

"I haven't really," She told Miles and Rosita. "But it doesn't hurt to let them think that I have. I see that you two are positively glowing, and anxious to tell Aunty Miranda the good news. You are, aren't you?" She asked, patting Rosita's belly.

"Yes, we've just had it confirmed. We have decided that we should get married as soon as possible, and, of course you are invited, in fact Rosita has a favour to ask."

"Miranda, I would be honoured if you were to be my Maid of Honour. I have no family here apart from my grand mother."

"I would be honoured." She kissed Rosita.

"What news do you have, have you filed for divorce yet?"

"Ah, now this is where it gets interesting, the bastard is pushing for a reconciliation. It would appear that it is not such a good idea to knock up the daughter of the Town Mayor, especially not when she has been promised to the son of the wealthiest and most powerful land owner in the district. He was run out of town, his studio burnt to the ground in a mysterious fire. Arson was ruled out by the police, paints and solvents accounted fort he severity of the blaze. He was informed that this decision would be reversed if he showed his face back there again. She has been sent off to a distant relative in the US to await the birth of her child. If she promises to never make that mistake again, the wedding will go ahead on the condition that the child remains in the US. If it were me I would tell the family to stick it up their collective arses and, parade my pregnant status around the district. But then she isn't me, so who knows what will happen."

"Will you? Go back to him that is."

"I already have. Call me stupid, but I do love the guy, and he has been good for my ego in the past, and I hope, will be again. Who knows? It is early days yet and a work in progress. Wish me luck."

Wonders will never cease. Miles invited his parents to the wedding, fully expecting two refusals, instead he received two acceptances, and in another amazing twist of fate, they were coming together. A phone call was necessary. "Mum, Miles, what is going on, you and Dad haven't said a civil word to each other for as long as I can remember, and now you're both coming to the wedding. Tell all."

"You know that he hasn't got long to go. He has decided that he doesn't want to be a lonely old fool any longer. Seeing you and Rosita might have had something to do with that. I decided that I should try to make his last few months as happy as I can. So, we'll both be there."

Miles was sitting on the floor with Rosita between his legs and leaning back against him. If she was a cat she would have been purring. His arms were around her and he was caressing her belly/ A belly that was reaching the stage where denial would be impossible. "Mmm, Miles."

"Yes?"

"I was talking to the girls at your office yesterday. They want to throw me a bridal shower. What do you think, should I let them?"

"Of course. They are coming to the wedding, and they are a part of our lives even though I don't actually run the show any more. If Peter wants to bung on a bucks night I might have to say no."

"Why? They are part of our family too."

"Going to a dive with a bunch of guys all intent on getting me pissed, and lining up some naked dancer to come and grind in my lap, is not my idea of fun, I am a responsible citizen these days, who is just about to marry the most amazing woman. This kind of debauchery is no longer on my horizon." His mind went back to a time, not that long ago, when he would not only have welcomed such a diversion, but would have instigated it. Times have changed, lives have changed, and he has never felt more contented in his life. He leaned forward and kissed Rosita on the neck, the hand that wasn't busy caressing her tummy moved to cup a breast.

"If you keep that up, I'll have to ravish you." She purred.

His hand moved from her belly to between her legs. They didn't make it to bed.