Sudden Pleasures

'An arranged marriage. It sounds so cut-and-dried. So loveless,' Rick said. 'I thought people had to fall in love to get married. What are they going to do about the sex, I wonder?'

'That's one matter they'll have to negotiate themselves,' Joe said, grinning. 'We can set up the prenups with Ray, but the rest of it is going to be up to them.'

'What do you think he's like, this Mulcahy guy? Is he really so busy he can't make time to go courting?' Rick wondered.

'Want to check out what the girls have found?' Joe said as he picked up the second half of his hero.

'And let them know we're as nosy as they are? I think not,' Rick said. 'I'll wait till I get home to Google him. Carla's filling in tonight at the hospital for one of the night nurses. She won't be home until around eleven thirty. God, I hope she likes him. We gotta get Ash settled, and soon. Old Kimbrough will come out of his grave if we let his wealth go to SSEXL.'

'Then he shouldn't have been such a smart-ass and added that clause to the will. I told him not to do it,' Joe grumbled. 'Mulcahy is probably all right. Have you ever seen an ugly Irishman, Rick?'

'Yeah, as a matter of fact I have,' Rick replied. He cocked his head to one side. 'Did you just hear a 'woo-woo' from Tiff's cubicle?'

***

'Oh, my God!' Tiffany Pietro d'Angelo stared at the computer screen. 'Well, he ain't ugly,' she said. 'You're going to have beautiful babies, honey.'

But Ashley wasn't really looking at the face on the screen. She had given it a quick passing glance to ascertain whether he was normal-looking, and then she had moved on to his biography. He had gone to Catholic school first, done his undergrad work at one of the state universities, then gotten a second degree from the Wharton School of Business. Smart, Ashley thought. The state school was cheap, and good for a bachelor's. It was the grad school that had to be the best, and it was.

'Will you look at that face!' Tiffany enthused.

'He's nice-looking,' Ashley said, 'but I'm more interested in his background.'

'Nice-looking?' Tiffany said, surprised. 'He's a god.'

'Look at how fast he brought his father's business from just a restoration house making a nice bottom line to a restoration and reproduction business with an incredible bottom line. Boy, I would love to do that myself for Lacy Nothings. Think he would give me some advice, Tiff?'

'I don't believe you,' Tiffany said, exasperated. 'Here is this gorgeous man whom you will probably marry, and all you're interested in is his business acumen?'

'Tiff, if-and it's a big if-Mr. Mulcahy and I decide to marry, it's just a business arrangement. We've both been the recipients of bequests that will screw us out of our inheritance unless we get married. I've got lousy luck picking men, and he's too busy to properly look for a wife. And time is running out on both of us.'

'Marriage isn't a business,' Tiffany said, not certain whether she should be shocked.

'Sure it is,' Ashley told her.

'What about love?' Tiffany asked.

'What about it? Three times I thought I was in love. I obviously don't know what love is, and any man willing to marry to keep his money doesn't know either. Love will not be part of the equation here.'

'Sex?' Tiffany said weakly.

'I've got all the sex I can handle on the Channel with Quinn and Rurik,' Ashley said. 'Tiff, this isn't happily ever after. It isn't personal. It's business. If he wants to have a girlfriend it's fine with me, as long as it's discreet.'

'My God!' Tiffany said. 'What have I done?'

Ashley laughed and patted Tiffany's hand. 'You've probably saved me from a fate worse than death-poverty! Now, I've gotta go. Nina has a dental appointment at one fifteen, and I'll need to be in the shop. Brandy doesn't come in until after school.'

Tiffany Pietro d'Angelo watched her go, and then walked back into the conference room, where her husband and his partner were just finishing their lunches. 'This is terrible,' she said, plunking herself into a chair.

'What's terrible?' Joe asked.

'Ashley said any arrangement made will be business, no sex, and he can have a girlfriend if he's discreet,' Tiffany said.

Rick snickered.

'Good,' Joe replied. 'I'm glad Ashley understands, and doesn't have any silly romantic ideas in her head about Mulcahy.'

Tiffany looked at her husband as if he had just returned from the moon.

'Is the guy hot?' Rick wanted to know with a grin.

'Yes, he's hot,' Tiffany snapped. 'Joseph Anthony Pietro d'Angelo, where has your heart gotten to, and don't you see how awful this will be for Ashley if she isn't loved by her husband? And what about kids?^What the hell good is all that money going to do either of them without kids to share it with or help out?'

Joe reached across the table, took his wife's hand, and kissed it. 'My own little romantic,' he said with a smile. 'Listen, honey, Ashley and Mulcahy have a problem, and getting married will solve that problem for them. If they like each other, maybe something good will come of it. But for now it's just business. An arrangement like this can't be anything else but business.'

'I think this is so sad. When I suggested it I wasn't considering the reality of it all,' Tiffany responded with a deep sigh.

'What would be sad would be if these two hardworking people lost everything because some damned fools added dumb clauses to their wills in order to get their own way even after death,' Rick remarked. 'I don't know about Mulcahy's father, but why the hell Edward Kimbrough thought Ashley couldn't survive without a big, strong man to keep her safe I'll never know. She is one competent girl.'

'Yeah,' Joe agreed.

Tiffany got up from the conference table and looked at both of them with a jaundiced eye. 'Well,' she said, 'at least you guys understand that women are capable of managing alone if we have to or choose to, or whatever. Now I've got to think about what I'm going to wear tomorrow.'

The two men laughed as she left them.

When she had gone Rick Johnson looked at his partner. 'Do you think they'll like each other?' he wondered.

'They have to,' Joe said. 'I don't see that either of them has a choice except to give up everything they've gotten or worked for, and that's just plain crazy.'

***

The following morning the two partners stood in the conference room window looking down at the silver-gray limousine that had just pulled up in front of their building. Joe had already told Rick that his cousin had never learned to drive, and used a car service on a regular basis. Normally he would have arrived in a Town Car, but as his wife would also be with them he would want a bigger vehicle. The driver jumped out and ran around the car to open the door. Two men stepped out.

'That's Ray,' Joe said, pointing to the shorter of the two men. 'He's older than me by a couple of years. He was always good to me when I was a kid.'

'That why you went into law?' Rick asked.

'Yeah, I guess it was. I've always admired him. He's a senior partner at ASK. When Joshua Alexander retired a couple of years ago he handpicked Ray for his place. But Alexander's name remains on the letterhead,' Joe explained.