The Trust Ch. 10

"That's the second question you've ducked mother." Ardella told her and grinned. "How wild are you, and how long? Were you guys doing this while I was growing up?"

Her mother blushed, then grinned. "Pretty wild, at least everyone seems to think so. I just want to have fun though, and no, we didn't do any of this until we moved down here." She told her. "It just kind of happened, I ran into one of my old sorority sisters and she invited us to a party. When we found out what kind of party it was, your father and I went home together. But after a while, we got to talking about it and the idea kind of grew on us. We started pretending when we were fooling around and when Marge invited us a second time, it just happened." She shrugged, then grinned. "What can I say? Your father has always been a great lover, but we've been together for thirty-two years now."

Ardella let the silence stretch for a moment, then put an arm around her mother's shoulder and drew her close. "You guys are doing okay though?" she had to ask. "No divorce or other surprises headed my way?"

"Oh heavens honey, no. We're more in love now than we've been in decades."

"So dad isn't jealous?" she probed a little more. "I heard that friend of yours talking about favorites." But her mother laughed.

"Did you ever catch a glimpse of your dad growing up?" she asked Ardella, grinning when she blushed and shook her head. "Well then, let's just say that when people start talking about black men having monster cocks, your dad doesn't have to leave the room." And she chuckled. "He's that bull at the top of the hill now that tells the other bulls, 'Let's walk down and fuck them all.' If one of us was going to be jealous, it wouldn't be him."

Ardella laughed at that, thinking about Mason, and her mom gave her a searching look. "I guess I can relate to that." She admitted, and told her about living at the hall, along with all of its sexual perks. "Mason wouldn't have to leave any rooms either." She finished with a conspiratorial grin, and her mother laughed.

"Maybe your father and I should come visit you." Her mother told her, and doubled over laughing when Ardella started shaking her head.

"Don't get any ideas mom." She told her. They talked for another twenty minutes, and Ardella told her that they should go to the party. They had visited and caught up, and she was going to head back to Daytona in the morning anyway, so she'd just take off when they got ready to go. "If I get back to the villa before bed time, I might just get a little myself." She told her and they laughed.

***

This trip was killing her, when the money had been handed out at breakfast, it had only made the guilt Terri was already dealing with worse. She'd begged her way onto the plane thinking it wouldn't really cost anyone that much more, and they'd casually tossed five hundreds in her lap. What kind of people just handed you money like that? She'd tried to give it to Pat, but he had refused to take it, telling her to have fun with that damn smirk of his.

Now they had dragged her into Hot topics, one of her all time favorite stores with enough cash to go crazy, and all she could think was how she could get Cybil alone again. She watched as the little one picked a couple t-shirts, then went to the changing rooms, her heart almost stopping when Cybil looked back at her and grinned, one finger of the hand holding the shirts giving her the come here wiggle.

Shelby watched the two of them disappear and grinned, maybe Teri would sleep that night, instead of tossing like she had the night before.

The girls weren't back at the villa yet when Mason and his group got there about four. They were all a bit foot-sore after walking the car corral looking at the cars up for sale. They'd checked into the little scooters that people were riding around, but when they found out it was seventy dollars a day each, they had opted to stay afoot. Mason had had to force himself to walk passed at least fifty cars he would have loved to buy and work on. But he had the GTO, and knew it would probably take up most of the time he could personally find for such things.

There were a few cars that he was seriously thinking about though. He'd seen Marcus actually caress the fender on a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet like the one Peter Sellers drove in the final chase scene in the first Pink Panther movie. And one old guy had a dozen used and abused Ford T-Buckets, all of them needed work and paint, most needed glass and lamps, but they were priced to sell, and there had been a lot of wistful chatter among his friends after they'd walked away from them. He was tempted to make the guy an offer on the lot, but wanted to talk to his new friend Eddie before he jumped and see what he knew about parts availability.

Benny wasted no time hunting Maggs down, he was hoping she had considered his offer to take her dancing. He was up for it, even if she didn't set Saulie up with her friend. He found her and Ulap folding linens in the laundry room.

"Hello Miss Maggs, have you given any thought to where we might go dancing?" He tried, hoping a show of confidence would sway her and was relieved to see her smile at him. "Miss Ulap." He said to her friend in greeting, tipping his head towards her in a quick bow.

"Which one is Saulie?" Ulap surprised him by replying, she had the accent he'd expected Maggs to have, and was a tiny thing, even smaller than Cybil.

"I'll run get him." He told her, smiling as he headed back down the hall, sure now that they had a shot. Saul was taking a couple of Aleve for his aching feet, "Good idea." Benny told him, popping a couple that he swallowed dry. "Come on, I think we're in." He told him, taking his arm and dragging him out of their room.

"We're in what?" Saul demanded, shaking his arm loose, but he continued down the hall with him.

"Dancing Saulie, weren't you listening to me earlier?"

In fact Saul hadn't really been listening, Benny was always talking out his ass about something or other, so going dancing with the maids sounded like just one more pipe dream, and he tended to tune him out after about the third Saulie anyway.

"You get Ulap, she's the tiny one." Benny was telling him as they approached the laundry. "Maggs is mine."

The trip was over way too soon, though it was a tired and sunburned lot that stumbled from the jet when they got back. Not surprisingly, the luggage compartment had barely been big enough on the return trip. Getting everything from the airport to the hall, then sorted was a chore, but eventually it was done, and everyone headed to their respective homes, ready to work or study the next day. Mason settled down with Cybil and Brigid, glad to be in his comfortable familiar bed, but missing the stars and the sound of the river they'd fallen asleep to the last couple of nights. Ardella drifted off thinking about the wings that were pinned to the lampshade by her bed.