Governors Retreat

We drove up the snowy, winding road towards the cozy A-frame cabin. It was just me and my secretary. I had told my wife I was going up there on business. I just didn’t tell her what kind of business.

I had to be careful not to get caught. I was the most famous person in the state, after all. I was the governor of California, Jerry Tenant. If anyone so much as took a picture of my secretary and me while we were here, my wife would question why I brought Riley on a business trip. I could say I needed help with the work load, but my wife was too smart to believe that. The negative publicity I’d get from an affair would ruin my re-election campaign. And I most certainly would not get elected president when the time came, and if anyone deserved to be elected president, it was me. I was the best governor California had ever seen, and I’d be the best president America had ever seen. I was always the best at everything. I was best in school, always got straight A’s. I was best in sports, winning the tennis and golf tournaments all those years in high school, and even after I graduated I still won any tennis and golf tournaments I joined. And, I graduated valedictorian.

Riley wanted to go to a romantic dinner before we got to the cabin, so I called a restaurant ahead of time and reserved all the tables hoping no one would see us. We got there and it was just us, the maître D, the waiter and the chef. The maître D showed us to our table, even though they were all available.

“This is perfect, Jerry. Thanks for dinner, sweetie,” Riley said.

“Don’t call me sweetie. Only Grace gets to call me that,” I said.

“You keep saying you’ll leave her for me,” Riley said.

“No, you strongly suggested I leave her for you. I made it clear that wasn’t going to happen. I’m in a perfectly happy marriage,” I said.

“Then what am I? Why are you with me?” Riley said.

“You’re a… fling. You’re fun, you know. But you’re not my wife,” I said.

“That’s all I am to you, a fling?” Riley said and threw a glass of water on my face.

She got up and started to walk away. I grabbed her arm and said, “Babe, wait. Listen, that was a poor choice of words. You’re a good friend, too. You’re just not my wife, ok. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you,” I said.

I didn’t love her. That’s really all this was, was a fling. But I couldn’t have her blabbing all over town about our affair. I said what I had to say to shut her up.

She sat back down at the table and we made small talk until the waiter brought us menus, gave us a few minutes to look them over, then came back to take our order.

“I’ll have a steak, medium rare. Riley will have a salad, light on the dressing. She’s trying to maintain her figure,” I said. Riley gave me a dirty look but didn’t say anything.

We finished dinner and continued our journey to the cabin. We had a wild night of love making, then fell asleep.

I got up then next day feeling happy and refreshed. I showered, got dressed and told Riley it was time to go.

“Thank you, Jerry. This was fantastic. Let’s do this again some time,” Riley said.

“Sure babe, next time I have a governor’s event. I just need an excuse to come up here so no one gets suspicious,” I said and smiled.

We were about to leave and someone shoved an envelope under the door. I ran outside to try and catch the person.

“Hey, you. Stop,” I yelled. The person got on a motorcycle and drove off.

“Who was that, Jerry?” Riley asked.

“Some guy on a motorcycle. He must have followed us up here from the restaurant. Damn it, Riley, I knew we shouldn’t have stopped to eat,” I said.

“But I was hungry. And I thought it would be romantic. I’m sorry, baby,” Riley said.

“It’s fine. We’ll deal with it. And don’t call me baby,” I said.

“Again, I’m sorry. What’s in the envelope?” Riley asked.

I walked inside and opened the envelope. It was pictures taken from outside of the cabin showing me and Riley making love.

“Damn it. It’s blackmail,” I said.

“Oh my god. Who’s blackmailing us?” Riley asked.

“Me. They’re blackmailing me. Your reputations not at stake here. You can get another job, I can’t,” I said.

“Well, do you know who it is?” Riley asked.

“I don’t know, why don’t you go ask the man on the motorcycle,” I shouted.

“Hey, this isn’t my fault. Why are you yelling at me?” She asked.

“I’m sorry. You’re right. Hopefully he’ll call and tell us what he wants and we can make this all go away,” I said.

“You’ll fix this, Jerry. You always do,” Riley said.

“I do always fix things. Thanks Riley, it’s always nice when someone recognizes my genius. I really am the best, aren’t I?” I said.

“Of course. I love you, Jerry,” Riley said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Do you love me too, Jerry?” Riley asked.

“Come on, Riley, lets head home so I can fix this,” I said. I walked to the car and got in. I looked at Riley who had her hands on her hips and was giving me a death stare.

I rolled down the window and asked, “Come on, you getting in or what?”

“Fine,” she said. She huffed and got in. I spent the next three hours driving us home. I dropped Riley off at her apartment.

“You know, if you want me to keep this little affair of ours a secret, you’re going to have to start paying me more,” Riley said.

“It might be too late for that. You give me time to fix this and take care of those pictures, I’ll give you a raise,” I said.

“Ok, that’s fair. I guess,” She said. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked inside. I drove to the florist before going home and bought my wife a dozen red roses. I then pulled into the driveway of my mansion. I got out of my car and looked in awe at my mansion, then looked at my Rolls Royce Phantom. “You guys really go well together, don’t you?” I asked myself. I have the best life. I had a big house, a nice car and multiple women who loved me. Life couldn’t possibly get any better. Now I’d head inside and put an end to this blackmailer.

I walked inside and shouted, “Grace, I’m home.”

Grace walked downstairs slowly, in the most gorgeous red dress I’d ever seen. It was sparkling with red sequins.

“Hey, Grace. What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“What’s the occasion for the roses?” She asked me.

“I felt like getting you something nice,” I said.

“You mean, it’s not because you cheated on me with that damned twit of a secretary in your cabin?” She asked.

“Baby, listen…”

“Don’t baby me. I hired a private investigator to follow you up there. You’ve been acting strange for months now. You’re more nervous and twitchy then you’ve ever been, and I got suspicious,” she said.

“Babe, listen. I can explain…” I started to say and she pulled out a gun.

“Be man enough to admit what you did,” Grace shouted.

“Yes, I had an affair. Please, please don’t shoot me. Look, I can explain. Just please, please put the gun away,” I said.

“I’m not going to shoot you, Jerry. I have all I need. I recorded everything, and it’s all going to my lawyer. If you cheat, I get everything. I should be thanking you,” Grace said. She started to walk out the door and I grabbed her arm.

“Give me that recording,” I said.

“Back off, Jerry. I still have the gun,” Grace said and pointed the gun at me. I backed up. She walked out. I ran outside after her.

“Grace, please. Stop, don’t do this! You’ll ruin everything if you release the recording,” I said.

“You’re the one that ruined everything. You shouldn’t have cheated,” Grace said.

“So, I made one mistake,” I said. She smiled, got in her car and drove away.

The next day I was all over the news. They even interviewed Riley, who was honest about everything.

I knew my career and dreams were over. My whole life had just been shattered. I also knew I was inevitably going to go broke from being unemployed and having nothing in savings, because I had some very expensive shopping habits. I went to the roof of my mansion and jumped off. Jumping was better then going back to work as a fry cook. I hated that job. These were my final thoughts as my body hit the ground and splattered. The maids would have to clean the mess in the morning.

Copyright ©11/28/2022 by A.H. Mittelman. All rights reserved.