Chapter Fifteen
Following their plan, Robert visited Ramona at the bank again two days later and asked her out to dinner again, this time as his treat. They laughed when Robert described how he had tried to make a reservation at "Mom's Diner" which, he had been assured by the men working on his house, was the best place in town to eat. Frances Dilley, otherwise known as "Mom" and owner of Mom's Diner, had laughed out loud. "You're not from around here, are you?" he mimicked Frances saying.
The morning after their dinner date, Ramona held her co-workers spellbound by her description of what had happened.
"We got there and there were no cars in the parking lot. I was afraid there had been a mistake and the place was closed!" Ramona told them. "Then the door opened and Mrs. Dilley came out and took us in. He rented the whole diner for the night!" Ramona didn't have to pretend to be flattered. Robert hadn't told her he was going to do that. Robert had admitted that he asked "Mom" how much she made on the average Friday night and then offered her five times that amount to serve just the two of them. "There were four men in there with violins and guitars and I don't know what all, and Mrs. Dilley served us herself. It was just amazing!"
"How romantic" sighed Agnes Green.
"Did he kiss you?" asked Renee.
"Renee! I'm shocked you'd even ask that," said Ramona, trying not to giggle. "I will tell you this, though. I like him. We have fun together. He tells the most amazing stories."
Three days later the mood at the bank was almost the opposite. Renee brought in a newspaper that had a picture of Robert with another woman. The headline was, "Local millionaire samples night life," and there was a story about how Robert had come back from what the paper called his world travels, and was renovating his ancestral home in the town of Nettleton, which was, in fact, named for his family. The woman with him was identified as Lucinda Johnson, daughter of Magnus Johnson, who owned and operated the Johnson Furniture Emporium. The couple were attending a benefit fund raiser for a local orphanage, but she wore a slinky dress, and was covered with jewels and looked very much the part of a rich man's escort.
"That dirty dog is running around behind your back Ramona," snarled Renee, throwing the paper down on Ramona's desk.
Ramona was well aware that Robert was going to "take out" other women as part of his role playing, but seeing the smiling buxom woman on his arm still caused her gut to clench. It showed and Renee became a commiserator instantly.
"Don't you worry about it baby," she said to Ramona. "There are other fish in the sea. If he comes in here again I'll throw him out myself!"
Ramona smiled. "Renee, he's a grown man and he can date whomever he wants. I like him, but I don't own him. And don't you dare throw him out either. I may not be exotic and beautiful like her," she slapped the paper, "but I'm the better pick and I think he's smart enough to see that."
Renee agreed vociferously. "You're right. You're better than that blond bimbo any day, and if he's not smart enough to see that then he doesn't deserve you!"
That night Ramona reported the conversation to Robert, who identified the woman in the picture as the daughter of a man who had approached him to do business with. Robert, having problems finding "women to forward our plan" had agreed to escort the man's daughter to the benefit. Robert laughed about how the man tried to use his own daughter to seal a deal that Robert had no intention of entering into.
When Robert came into the bank the next day, he waved nonchalantly to Ramona, and went to a teller cage to do some business of some sort. Then he went and stuck his head into Frank's office, glad-handing like a politician. It was then that he went to Renee's desk and tried unsuccessfully to make small talk with her. Renee was frosty, and kept her eyes on her work most of the time.
Finally Robert sauntered over to Ramona's desk.
"And how is my favorite financial Wizard doing today?" he asked, loudly enough for several people, including Renee, to hear. Renee rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner at Ramona.
"Why I'm fine, Robert ... may I call you Robert?" she said sweetly.
"I would be devastated if you did not," he said smiling. "And when will you grace me with your company again, if I may be so bold?" he asked formally.
The newspaper Renee had given her was lying on her desk, where she had left it intentionally. "Why Robert, it appears that you have plenty of company. When would you ever be able to fit me in?" She let her fingers drift over the paper.
Robert laughed. "Ramona, let there be no mistake. I would rather spend one evening with you than ten with women like that," he said. "You are interesting, and beautiful and you laugh at my horrible jokes. I have tomorrow night open ... and the night after that ... and the next night too. Please, have pity on me," he pleaded.
"You're a charmer, I'll give you that," sighed Ramona. She had the urge to giggle so much that she had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop it. "All right. I haven't been roller skating in years. Do you roller skate Robert?"
Robert looked stricken. "I will learn!" he said. "Surely such a thing cannot be so difficult. I understand that hundreds of people do it."
The date was made and Robert left, shaking hands with everyone he could reach.
Renee was at her desk before the outside door closed. "Are you really going to take him skating?" she asked.
"Sure" said Ramona. "Why not? He's just a man. Why don't you and Ted come along too?"
"I might just do that," said Renee. "I'll suggest that if he isn't a little nicer to me I might feel inclined to get to know the very wealthy Mr. Robert Nettleton a little better. It doesn't hurt a bit that he's cute too." She giggled as Ramona chided her for being mercenary.
In fact, by the time Robert escorted Ramona into the "Skate Inn", there was a sudden resurgence of interest in roller skating by a surprising number of adults, most of whom worked at the bank, or were married to someone who worked at the bank.
It was a riot. Robert had never had skates on in his life, while Ramona had gone skating with Richard quite often, and was really quite good. She unfailingly picked Robert up off the floor each time he crashed down, and steadied him as he rolled along uncertainly. Her co-workers helped pull him up too. By the end of the evening he was able to stay up most of the time as she pulled him, hand in hand, around in circles. Everybody went out for drinks at Duffy's Tavern when it was all done. Robert didn't act at all stuffy. He also made sure he told some very horrible jokes.
From there it was just a matter of making sure that people knew Robert took Ramona out more than he took any other woman out. Then their plan moved to the phase where he took only Ramona out.
No one, at least who lived in Nettleton, was surprised when, three months later, Robert Nettleton proposed marriage to Ramona Franklin.
Ramona's wanted Renee to be her maid of honor, with Debbie as the only other bridesmaid. That decision was relatively easy. In thinking about Robby, however, Ramona's feelings were much more conflicted. That was the result of reflection on the persistent feelings she had developed for her son, and her discussion about that with Robert. Her un-motherly attraction to him, in a way, made her feel like she was closer to him than any man other than Robert himself. In that sense, she felt like that, when she married Robert, she would distance herself from something very special by "leaving" Robby. In a philosophical moment she decided that it was appropriate, in a very private way, for Robby to give her away.
With that in mind, she talked with her children about those roles and said she wanted to spend an evening with each of them, alone, to just talk about things and settle in everyone's mind what their expectations were for life in the near and not-so-near future. What they were doing was a big decision, and their lives would change considerably because of it. Ramona didn't want to lose anything she had with her family as they gained other things.
Her night with Debbie was scheduled first. Robby spent the night with Mike, who wanted an update on what was happening with the Nettleton mansion and the crazy hermit they had all seen together, and that left the house to his mother and sister.
Ramona and Debbie talked about a lot of things, but two of them were probably more important than the others.
"I need to know how you feel about the money," Ramona said, as she ate spoonfuls of ice cream out of her quart of Rocky Road, while Debbie did her best to destroy a quart of Butter Brickle.
"Well, we've never really had a lot of money," said Debbie. "I don't know what it will be like."
"Do you think you'll just be able to buy whatever you want?" asked her mother.
"That would be nice," said Debbie. "But I've seen some of the rich kids at school, and they seem ... empty somehow. At least sometimes. It's hard to explain."
"It's important to me that you stay who you are," said Ramona. "I don't want money to become too important to you."
"I think if we talk about that, it will be okay," said Debbie. "Even though I argue with you sometimes I think you're pretty smart for an adult," said Debbie smiling. "You usually give me pretty good advice."
"Okay, we'll agree to talk things out then," said Ramona. "Now, what about Robby?" she asked. "I have some advice for you about that."
Debbie shifted uncomfortably in the overstuffed armchair she was currently occupying. "I love him mother," she said.
"I know that, and I understand that. But what you two are doing has real consequences," said Ramona patiently. "Things have been so crazy that we haven't taken care of protection yet. And I suspect you two haven't decided to stop for a while until that gets done."
Debbie had the grace to blush, but didn't confirm her mother's suspicions.
Ramona bored on. "What, for instance, are you going to do if he makes you pregnant?"
Debbie was silent for what seemed like a long time. "I have mixed feelings about that," she finally said. "Part of me is horrified at the thought of being pregnant at all. I mean that would change so many things. But part of me thinks that having Robby's baby in me would be the neatest thing in the whole world. I love him so much it hurts sometimes."
"That's one of the things the money changes," said Ramona. "What I mean is that there won't be any financial burden on you. In theory you can have all the babies you want to. We can hire a live-in nanny to help you take care of them. That part is easy. But having children changes your life radically because then they are the most important thing and you have to sacrifice some of the other things you might want to do."
"Like what?" asked Debbie. Talking with her mother about this was something she hadn't thought she could do, but she found, to her surprise that it was not only easy, but immensely relieving too.
"Like meeting another man you like, and already having children that he may not feel drawn to because they aren't his," said Ramona. "Like not being able to go to college because you have a family to take care of." Ramona thought some more. "Like being in a relationship with a man who you can't kiss in public, or acknowledge as the father of your children. Like being thought of as a slut because you have children out of wedlock. You'd be living a secret life, and that's not easy," she finished.
"Good points" admitted Debbie. "But I'll argue with you about some of them." She took another bite of ice cream. "For one thing, I love Robby so much that I'd marry him if I could ... like you and Uncle Bob. So I'm not sure that I'll be interested in other men." She took another bite. "And, if I don't have to work, and have help ... because of the money ... then I think I could manage going to college, whether I have children or not." She frowned. "I agree that it would be very hard to love Robby in secret. I do that now, and it's not too hard right now, but you're probably right about that not being the most satisfying kind of life. And I don't care what people think about whether I'm a slut or not. Once the famous Robert Nettleton becomes my step-father I'm sure people will treat me differently anyway. I think there will be enough advantages to our lives that they will outweigh that."
"You're right about people treating you differently. It's important that you just be who you are and act that way when you can. Your friends might be put off in the beginning, but if you keep on being just plain Debbie then they'll come around sooner or later. And if they don't, they they really aren't your friends."
Debbie cocked her head. "Hey, I have a question for you."
"Go ahead," said Ramona, still processing the other things Debbie had said.
"What about your money? I mean I know how you feel about it, but couldn't it be used to do a lot of good things?"
"What kind of good things?" asked Ramona carefully.
"Well, I don't know ... things like helping people? I mean there are all kinds of problems in the world with education and racism and hunger and stuff like that. I think it would be kind of cool if we could help with some of that kind of thing."
Ramona felt a measure of shock. It was a combination of not having thought of that herself, which caused her pangs of guilt, but it was also surprise that her daughter, on the verge of becoming very wealthy, would be so unselfish.
"I think that's a very noble idea," she said. "I think that's something we should have a lot more talks about."
"Me too," said Debbie.
Then they talked about dresses and wedding arrangements and other things that mothers and daughters talk about when life is good.
Ramona's night with her son was almost completely different. She intended to come to grips with their feelings for each other, and put them to bed ... so to speak.
Those feelings were put to bed. But not in the way Ramona had intended.
She started by explaining why she wanted him to give her away. She had no idea whether he would grasp the philosophical reasoning for that, and was actually surprised when he nodded.
"I get it," he said. "I feel kind of the same way. Knowing that you're getting married, and I don't think it would matter who you were getting married to either, I feel kind of like I'm losing you somehow."
"You'll always be my little boy," she said, chewing. Tonight there was no ice cream. Instead, she had baked hot rolls, because she knew he loved them, and would eat a whole pan of them if allowed to. They sat, tearing little pieces of the rolls off and eating them. The rolls were so good that the butter and strawberry jam she'd put out weren't touched by either one of them.
"I know that," he smiled. "But this new feeling ... it's something I haven't even figured out yet. I mean I know I'm not supposed to feel stuff like that for my own mother ... but I do. And now you're getting married and I'm happy for you. I think you should do it. But I think I'm a little jealous too. Doesn't that sound stupid?"
Ramona shook her head. "No, it's not stupid. Not to me." She sat, her feet tucked under her and stared at her son. "It makes me tingle when you say you're jealous."
Robby looked back. "You know how sometimes you want something really bad, and it's all you can think about? You save your money and you dream about going to buy it, and what it will be like when you have it and all that."
Ramona nodded.
TBC