CABERNET ZIN (Cabernet Zin Wine Country) (6 page)

“I’m exhausted. I’m going to bed.”

“Goodnight.” Zack had his eyes closed. The wine massaged the fatigue from his day. His tongue tasted the Cabernet Franc – their wine had a finish that lasted for minutes if one were allowed the time to contemplate it –

“Don’t forget the kids need clothes for tomorrow. Do the laundry.”

“I get it that you are an executive at a big company and order people around all day.” Zack’s head turned so he could look at Lydia standing at the edge of the living room, “But you’re not giving orders around here. There are plenty of clothes to wear for days yet.”

“If this is your job staying home with the kids then you need to do the laundry. I don’t want the kids looking like ragamuffins at school. If I don’t keep on top of you to do stuff then it never gets done.”

“You know, somehow I graduated high school with honors, finished college in three years with honors, and got a great job at a major top twenty-five global corporation. And I managed that without you ordering me around all the time. There might be a correlation to the ordering around, the bickering, and how much I can or want to get done.”

“So you’re blaming me for everything again?”

“No, I’m just pointing out that if we fought less and worked together we could accomplish a lot more than we do. Everyone pitched in when I was growing up. That’s how I know how to cook more than noodles out of box.” Zack pressed the heel of his hand into his eye socket, “You know I have to beg for time together. All I hear is how you’re working, you’re tired, you have a headache, the kids had been too loud and you want some peace and quiet. Excuse after excuse –”

“It’s not like that.”

“I give hints all day long that I want that kind of connection with you. It seems as if once you figure out the hints, which is after I escalated them so they become statements and pleads, then you get mean. You pick at lint as if it’s the end of the world just to create a fight to block spending that time together. Men need physical sexual time together to connect. Without it we get depressed and angry and distant.”

“The exact reason women don't want sex - we want the connections first and then the sex. Men want the desert first. You have to earn desert, it’s not a treat given freely.”

“Earn it? Don’t you enjoy sex? I’d like to stay in bed and be creative together. You just want to lay docile in missionary position to get it finished as quick as possible. Then ask by whispering in my ear, “are you almost done yet?” is not a sexy thing.

“You should feel fortunate you get some.”

“Fortunate? Need to earn it? I’m a husband asking for more involvement in our physical relationship. I’ve planned romantic dates, tried offering the hot tub, I’ve studied books and videos –”

“– I bet you’ve studied them –”

“– To give you more pleasure that hopefully encourages you to demand more time with me. I don’t know what more to give you than those multiple body-bucking orgasms. Yet still you don’t want to spend time with me. Obviously, there is something else. See you in the morning.”

-:-:-:-O-:-:-:-

Zack said, “Any plans for what you want to do for the weekend?”

Lydia said, “Not now. The kids might like a museum trip. Or sledding.”

“I thought we might have gone to dinner tonight.”

Lydia sighed. “With as much running around I already did, I don’t want to go anywhere. We did fine watching that movie.” Lydia slipped off her jeans, her pajamas laid on the bed next to her. Zack had taken off his shirts and walked in his jeans to the closet to get a sweatshirt to sleep in. As he walked passed Lydia he stroked his warm palm down her bare thigh looking toward her face, waiting for her eyes to come up to his.

Lydia sighed, “I’m exhausted. I’m just going to sleep.” Zack only saw the part in the top of her head as she pulled on her pajamas and slipped her feet into her ragged socks. “I have to do all this work around here, after working all day. I have to yell at you to do stuff. I have to chase the kids. I’m just too tired.”

“Again with the too tired routine,” Zack watched Lydia pull up her very not-sexy socks. He hated sorting that damn mismatched rainbow of socks out of every week’s laundry.

“Look at what we do. Like Grace spilling juice on the carpet yesterday.”

“And I spent half a day cleaning it out of the rug.”

“– I can still see the spot.” Lydia said.

“Only because you know where it was.”

“When we entertain next – everyone will see it. I don’t understand how you so poorly discipline them – we could avoid those problems in the future if you were more firm with the kids.” Lydia flopped into bed, sprawling across the mattress from corner to corner – blocking off the field from any negotiations.

“Goodnight.” Zack shed his pants and put on pajamas he pulled off the closet shelf and went to the couch in the living room.

He tossed and turned on the couch. Something crumpled under the cushion. He flipped the light on and lifted the cushion and the oily orange residue from three nacho cheese chips glowed like nuclear fallout. He scooped and brushed the pieces of chips and what orange dust was still free of the fabric into his hand. Zack dumped the debris into the trash and then flopped back on the couch. He flipped over the child-sized blanket left on the couch that was too short to cover his whole body, and he stretched out. He tried falling asleep.

Memories of his visit to the winery flashed through his dreams. What is that girl Claire doing? If it’s eleven here it is still eight on the West Coast. Eight o’clock on a Friday night near Los Angeles. She’s probably all fixed up and going to a party with friends. He could only imagine what she might look like. He should stop. Zack rolled over and tucked his feet under the edge of the blanket. He had his kids. He loved his kids. A part of him still loved Lydia. He knew he needed to remain loyal to them, but his heart hurt. His wounded soul wailed loneliness. He was never happy anymore except with his kids.

-:-:-:-O-:-:-:-

The phone rang. Like a dream within a dream within a dream, the phone rang. Zack turned and remembered he lay on the couch. Something prickled his senses as if someone watched him. His eyes snapped open.

Lydia’s face was inches from his, “Why are we getting a phone call at twelve thirty in the morning?”

Zack sat up and took the phone handset from Lydia, “Could be my client in China, it’s lunch time there.”

“I need my sleep. I’m exhausted. Take care of it.” She stomped her feet toward the bedroom in an angry blitz.

“Hello?” Zack asked, the house chilly now that the setback thermostat knocked everything down from the high sixties into the low sixties to save on the heat bill.

“This is Martin. I hoped nine thirty isn’t too late to call?”

“Martin, it’s twelve thirty. We’re on East Coast time here in Detroit. Three hours ahead of you.”

“Oops. Sorry for waking you and your wife. I forgot you lived near Detroit. You’re from the future! I could really use some help out here if we want this investment to take off. Payroll is killing us. We have this line of credit but it’s a steep interest rate with the whole banking situation. They don’t give anything out in savings interest but they lap it up on the lending side – and that’s the side we’re grubbing our working capital from.”

“No, it’s not good.”

“I’m calling as many investors as possible, to see who can come out. I think if we do this in shifts with the number of investors we have we can cut this outlay significantly.”

“You’re getting the smaller investors mostly?” Zack asked, rubbing his face and waking up.

“Yes. The big investors have different cost to time values. They would rather we make a larger capital call and carry on. I’m already managing the winery for free, lucky my investments are ok elsewhere to fund my living costs but not for me to match the larger capital call either. So I’m as stuck as you are Zack.”

“Martin. I understand. In some ways I’m lucky I have a somewhat flexible work arrangement. I can do most of my work from out there as easy as here. The hard part is I also take care of my kids.”

“I understand. Can you think about it over the weekend and let me know?”

“How pinched are you for help?”

“I’m good until the beginning of next month.”

“Then I’ll have a couple of weeks to plan and arrange. That’s good. I’ll talk to Lydia and see what we can work out.”

“Let me know sooner rather than later. The management council and I are working on how to value the time compared with putting in more capital. Taxes. There is probably something with taxes to worry about so our CPA will have a chance to bill us, but better than surprises later.”

Zack said, “Martin, I’ll talk with Lydia and let you know.”

“Thanks, Zack.”

Lydia’s voice filtered out of the bedroom, “What was that call about?”

Zack carried the phone back to the bedroom and dropped it in its recharge cradle, “Martin needs my help at the winery. Probably a week each month through the end of the year.”

“You can’t be serious? You’ll leave me with the kids every month? What about your work?”

“Can you ask your mother to watch the kids when I’m gone?”

Lydia said, “She’s retired and doesn’t want to have a job watching kids.”

“I already know that. Could she make sure they get to school and then back home and watch them until you get home for a week a month?”

“She might go for once every other month.”

“See what she can do. Otherwise we’ll have to hire out for someone.”

“She won’t understand why you’re gone out there so much.”

“Protecting our investment.”

“First we put money in, then we put more money in, then you have to start putting time in. When will it end and we start seeing earnings?”

“You realize we are in a deep recession.”

“If you had a job then we wouldn’t be worried about that mischief out there.” She sat up, “What are we going to do about flight tickets? Twelve trips to California will be a lot of money. Where are you going to make that money? Your job? How will you do what crazy job you
do
have?”

“We can do it. Maybe the kids can come out with me once school is out.”

“And who will watch them while you help at the winery? More plane tickets. I’ll bet most of the other investors live local that do this so they just drive over.”

“I’m sure we can write expenses off against the investment.”

“That assumes the investment is making money – it’s currently just a big hobby.”

“Yes.”

“I can’t believe you put that much of our money into that so-called
investment
.”

“I put more money into paying off your college loans.”

“You like to toss that at me all the time.”

“Only because you have some of your own money ownership arguments. I worked until the kids became too much so we decided to split our focus.”

“But that investment – now we’re stuck and have to struggle with not only our own stuff but protecting that money.”

“You know, it may spin off enough cash eventually that we can afford the kids’ college.”

“Or we keep getting sucked into working and thinking about it along with the capital calls and we never get ahead – so we still can’t afford the kids’ college.”

“Since we set you up for the big career, you should be able to earn more and pay for it, perhaps?”

“Always me. Work. Work. Work. You expect me to keep working – for how long?”

“That’s what we signed up for when we made the children decision.”

Grace strolled in, rubbing her eye with her little round fist, “Are you fighting over us?”

“No Grace, just your Mommy and I are talking about adult things.” Zack hugged Grace, “We love the two of you.”

Lydia said, “We’re done talking Grace.” She got out of bed and walked Grace back to her room. Zack saw the anger in Lydia’s back as she took the little girl to her room. Zack heard the creak of Lydia lying on Grace’s bed to help their daughter return to sleep.

-:-:-:-O-:-:-:-

“Hey, Harold,” Zack said standing at the entrance to Harold’s cube.

“Oh. Hi Zack.” Harold motioned for Zack to take the single chair. “What brings you into the office today?”

“I – I need to ask a favor. A big favor.”

Harold paused.

“This business I’m involved with in California. They need each of the investors to work out there to cut costs.”

“Zack, this sounds like moonlighting.”

“No, it’s my investment.”

“An investment that makes you work? I thought an investment was supposed to have all those little dollars out huffing and puffing and pulling themselves along while they spilled pennies in your pocket?”

“It’s an issue and I need to protect the money that is invested already. My kid’s college tuition. You can understand?”

“Zack. This is hard. We have clients that need attention on their investment. I need your help here.”