Alicia was envisioning a future. With me.
The cold, successful loner had not just gotten himself a girlfriend.
I now felt happy thinking of this girl thinking about me in the long term.
But there was something that needed to be said on my part.
“There’s something I need to tell you, Alicia,” I said to her gravely. “And it’s more important than brown rice. I think we need to sit down.”
I guided her to a bench as her face began to grow fearful for a second. This was New York City. Stories abound every weekend of women who believe they have a future with their significant other only to realize he has a wife and family in Kansas City.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I need to tell you something important,” I said, looking down.
“Please tell me,” she said, anxious and breathless.
Almost too much fun.
“I guess, I mean,” I began and I could see the look of impatience on Alicia’s face as she probably waited for me to tell her I was married and my wife lived in Vail. “It’s just that if we’re going to talk about brown rice and Brussels sprouts then I should tell you that … I love you, Alicia Sullivan.”
For a moment, Alicia looked at me with puzzlement. Then delight. And then happiness, satisfaction, and love.
The weather was perfect and it was only 11 am in the morning. A perfect day in a perfect park in the perfect city with the perfect girl.
“Oh my God Derek Lowell,” Alicia said, a broad smile lighting up her face. “I love you so much!”
She brought herself forward and wrapped her arms around me as we kissed for a long moment on the park bench.
When we finally disengaged she looked at me and wrinkled her nose. “And if you ever do something like that again to scare me, I’ll … break both your arms!”
I laughed. We had talked earlier of going to Paris and she had told me she really wanted to see the Venus de Milo more than anything else.
Eventually we began to walk back to my apartment.
“So, do you like your oysters raw or fried?” I found myself asking her.
Yes. I was really in love.
Let's hope she stayed in love with me after this was all over.
145
Alicia
You know, whoever said balancing a career and a love life was easy never probably went up against discovering that the guy they had fallen in love with wa
s involved in an international money laundering conspiracy.
I mean, I'm just saying that if those career women who have time for kids and a love life with their husband every night like they write about in all the magazines ever had the mental worry and anguish I'm going through, they'd either be career-oriented spinsters, or happily married and unemployed.
I mean, I'm sitting here, looking at these trades.
There is no doubt about it. No hiding from the fact.
There is someone at Carter Jeffries or acting for Carter Jeffries that is executing orders from Derek's account moving vast sums of money around the globe to countries and entities that violate so many different laws that it's not even funny.
It's no wonder that whoever has done this hasn't been caught. Derek is a high net worth private client, and the bank has a strict policy on confidentiality. I had to basically get promoted to get special access to see his account.