CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
(part one)

Sunday morning – 5:20 A.M.

Valerie couldn’t help but smirk. From a block away, she saw Jill and Jacob. As if they were tragic lovers waiting for the train that would separate them for life, they clung to each other. Valerie pulled her old Mustang up to the curb in next to them. Valerie’s arrival, and Jacob’s imminent departure, launched the lovers into full lip-locked make-out mode. Finally, one last kiss, and Jacob was in the car. Jill waved to Valerie. Laughing, Valerie waved back.

“Ok, it’s not that funny,” Jacob said.

“It’s pretty funny, little brother. How was last night?”

Making her way to Lipson construction headquarters, Valerie continued up Welton. They were just turning right on Broadway when Jacob said:

“Perfect.”

“Took you a while to respond,” Valerie laughed.

“It’s weird, you know. We’ve been together for a while. It’s not our first night… but…. It’s like every thing is different.”

“Better?”

“Yeah. More solid. More real.”

“I felt like that after Mike and I got married. I felt like I’d reached a kind of bedrock. A foundation, you know?” Stopping at the light at Colfax, Valerie turned to look at Jacob. “I think that’s some of why we had so much trouble. That bedrock is addictive. But when things shifted for us, I…. I guess I wanted it back and….”

Valerie put the car in gear and drove through the light. She was silent through their short drive on Broadway. Turning right onto Eighth Avenue, she finished her statement.

“I guess I realized that it was there all the time,” Valerie said.

“That’s a lovely thought,” Jacob said.

“I thought for a long time that ‘true love’ was a curse Mom and Dad put on us. Just because it’s true love doesn’t mean it’s not work. It just means you don’t really have a choice to go find another person like a new pair of shoes. In the last months…. Well, really seeing you and Jill, I realize how lucky we are.”

“We’re lucky in our curse?” Jacob laughed.

“Something like that.” Driving the Eight Avenue curve to Kalamath Street, Valerie asked, “Are you ready for today?”

“We signaled a big fat fuck you to the bank yesterday by not responding. Our credit line is canceled. They called the debt last night.”

“Sounds so ominous.”

“No company has ever done this. At least any company that we can find a record for. We have to do it right. I don’t have the option to not be ready.”

“And if this doesn’t work?”

Jacob shrugged.

“We’ll figure something out,” Valerie said. “You’ll figure something out.”

“I’m glad you’re here and… participating… working.”

“I’m in Denver until January. I’m happy to help. I’ve had the greatest time, really. It’s like….”

“An old pair of shoes?”

Pulling into the parking lot of Lipson Construction, Valerie laughed.

“Who has old shoes?”

Denver Cereal continuest tomorrow….