The Sauna Part 207

Richie arrived on schedule and got to the house by four-fifteen after stopping to pick up some things at his mom’s and he filled her in briefly. She was wonderful and wanted to know what the plan was too just in case anyone tried to catch her off guard. She sent along a tin full of cookies she’d made for her son and I hugged Richie as he came through the front door.

“Shit, man, I am so fuckin’ sorry about all this mess. At least the good news is that the lawyer called and they served Elaine with the Order of Protection this morning. At least you won’t have to worry about her coming near any of us again. We’re all included; even Ava” Richie smiled sadly.

“Ava? She didn’t try to contact Ava, did she?” I stammered, aghast at the thought.

“She sent her a text message on her cell phone telling her how much she still loved me” Richie confided and I shuddered.

“Fuck! That wicked little …” Jon stopped himself, remembering she was still the woman Richie once loved.

“It’s okay, bro, it ain’t nothing I haven’t called her myself” Richie said matter of factly.

We sat down at the kitchen table to wait for the guys to arrive and I poured Richie a cup of coffee. He looked like he’d already had enough booze on the flight here and he needed to be sober for this conversation. Hugh arrived first and David came several minutes later, carrying several boxes of pizza.

“I figured that no one’s eaten much yet today and I always considered pizza to be comfort food. Besides, it’s the last decent one we’ll get until we’re back in the States” he explained as he set the boxes on the table.

I got down some plates and poured coffee for everyone and David raised his eyebrows at Jon. Jon looked at Richie and knew we weren’t offering wine for a reason and nodded. Jon dialed Tico and reached for a slice of pizza before he began.

“Has everybody had a chance to read the garbage Elaine told the Enquirer?” he started and everyone nodded their heads and Tico grunted.

“Hey, you guys got pizza, didn’t ya? Damn. Eva, Chica, grab me a beer. Thanks babe” we heard Tico rumble.

“Are ya gonna sue her, Jon?” David wanted to know.

“I’m still considering it. Whaddya think, Rich? It’ll run out her finances and keep her mouth shut if we can get a gag order from the court” Jon observed.

“Yeah, the less money she has, the more open she’ll be to settle the damn divorce” Richie replied.

I knew Richie wanted this over as quickly as possible. He didn’t care what it cost up front, but he had frozen his bank accounts to keep her from bleeding him dry and using his own money to fight him. Jon had given him temporary access to one of his accounts so he had money to live on, but Richie didn’t want that situation to continue longer than necessary.

“Are you going to talk to her, man? Tell her face to face that the marriage is over?” Hugh addressed Richie.

“I’d rather it go through the lawyer to be honest, but if you think I should tell her in person, I’m willing” he said resignedly.

“Only if your lawyer is present, man. No tellin’ what spin she would give it if someone ain’t there as a witness” Tico advised and they all nodded.

“There’s no time before we leave for the U.K. tomorrow, but when we get back, I’ll have the lawyer set it up” Richie agreed.

“We gonna have a press conference, boss man?” David asked, munching on pizza.

“Not a formal one anyway. Trish has an idea how we should play it. Trish?” Jon nodded to me.

I explained what I’d told Jon that morning and I identified several specific things that we each could address if and when asked. Only Richie could really confirm that Elaine and Jon had never had the opportunity to be alone prior to this incident, but they all had examples of her behavior which made them suspicious of how she acted around Jon. Even Tico thought that she acted strange for a newlywed that day of our wedding.

It was painful for Richie to hear what the others had seen as signs all along, but it put to bed any lingering doubts he had had that maybe Elaine really loved him. A part of him wished that her story had been true, but he knew in his heart that it wasn’t. He’d done quite a bit of thinking since everything had blown up and there were things he had seen too. Her behavior changed dramatically after their wedding and she seemed to avoid any opportunity to make love or she came up with excuses.

But it was something that Ava had said that really stopped Richie dead in his tracks. She’d told him that she didn’t like the way that Lainie looked at him, or rather the way she never seemed to look at him unless there was a camera around. Ava said she reminded her of an actress playing a role and that even though her mom was an actress too, she always noticed that her mommy would steal glances at daddy when he wasn’t looking. She said that Lainie never did that and that she never seemed to be looking directly at anyone. Richie cursed himself inwardly for being such a fool.

The guys all agreed that the plan I suggested made sense. No one would initiate any discussions with the media, but if they were asked they would share what they knew and what they had noticed about Elaine’s behavior, bearing in mind that the less said about any of it, the better. No one wanted to draw any more attention towards such a ridiculous story, but they wouldn’t pretend that they hadn’t heard about it. Elaine wouldn’t be giving any more interviews either, as the story in the Enquirer was labeled exclusive and that meant that they owned the rights to the story.

The brotherhood was united and they would deal with this nonsense just as they had dealt with all the crazy rumors in the past. This was no different, it just struck closer to home and the attack was more personal than others had been. But they had weathered many storms in their nearly twenty-five years together. Tico summed it up nicely.

“This too shall pass.”