Vivian: Life in Estonia Ch. 30

"I replied to him speaking in German, 'As there are so few of us in the world, it would be a miracle if Your Majesty could converse in our language. However, my understanding is that Your Majesty is fluent in German as well and so, we can converse in this language. Since no one else at this table can speak German, Your Majesty is free to regale me with any naughty stories or observations that your Majesty may wish to impart but are reluctant to do so for fear of appearing gauche'."

In response to the guests asking whether the King did indeed say something naughty to her at the dinner, Vivian would reply, "I think I'll borrow a page from the King's book and say I'm not a girl who kisses and tells."

Jed Baxter was indeed Vivian's date for the state dinner in honor of King Frederik of Denmark. He did indeed accept the date with alacrity. It was definitely a depressing scene at the Baxter mansion as Felicia Baxter was battling her illness of lung cancer.

Unfortunately, it seemed like she was losing hope. Jed was truly in love with his wife, notwithstanding his extensive adultery throughout his forty plus years of marriage and definitely notwithstanding his attraction to our heroine. So, his grief was acute as his life had taken this miserable turn. Consequently, the White House event was a welcome diversion from the ugly reality of his wife's impending death. Even better yet, the sex with Vivian that night at her bedroom in the Estonian embassy was even a more pleasurable release from his current gloomy situation. The sex was also a release of Vivian's stored up grief in reaction to Raimond's death. Even though the sex was a perfunctory, missionary position, vanilla sex variety of vaginal penetration sex, nevertheless, each of them experienced an exquisite climax.

For Vivian it was a realization that she truly loved Jed Baxter. That is not to say she had loved Raimond Kruuse less. To explain away in her own mind the dichotomy of loving these two men equally, she compared it to her drinking disposition. For example, vodka and gin are definitely disparate in taste and yet she loved drinking either a vodka screwdriver or a gin and tonic. Which one she would select would depend on the inclination of her mood at the time, as opposed to permanently favoring one over the other.

As it turned out, the White House recital performance was set for the fourth Sunday afternoon, featuring Natasha Starikovich, America's premier violin virtuoso. In addition, the one and a half hours of performance would be televised on PBS, the public television broadcast network.

The buzz for this event was further enhanced by the choice of the piano accompanist for Natasha. The person was Ingrid Losnedahl, still a music student at Ohio State University. Ingrid had won the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia as well as the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna. She had also recorded a four disc CD set which garnered three Grammy Awards including Best New Artist, the only classical music artist to have ever won this coveted award.

Jed Baxter had also agreed to be Vivian's date for this event. He did not cancel when Felicia finally succumbed to lung cancer just before Christmas more than a month prior to Natasha's recital. Vivian arranged for a dinner party at the Embassy after the recital with the performers agreeing to attend. Vivian was able to entice them with an oblique promise that they each would be provided with a pair of suitable companions to entertain them. Vivian was able to recruit such companions from the ever-expanding list of male acquaintances she had acquired from all her social occasions. In any case Natasha and Ingrid seemed to have been satisfied as they did not subsequently complain to Vivian on her choice of the dinner companions.

That night in Vivian's bedroom, after a very wondrous coitus, Jed Baxter shocked Vivian. He proposed marriage to her! But not only that, but he also proposed that she take over total command of Baxter and Sons! When Vivian protested her lack of experience, Jed pointed out she had produced a very successful craft beer enterprise from scratch. Once Baxter & Sons had acquired Vivian's company as a subsidiary, Vivian had provided valuable contribution to Baxter & Sons, in her appointed capacity as an officer of the European division of the company. Having achieved all that Jed suggested that running Baxter and Sons overall would be a walk in the park for her. In any case he did not need an answer until September, when at that time he would be in a position to set the wheels in motion for the transfer of power.

Having gotten that proposal off his chest, plus in addition to the sex, had exhausted Jed, so he promptly fell asleep.

This left Vivian wondering what was she going to do?

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Readers note:

This cliff hanger ending will be resolved in the story "Maia Laaning"