Chapter 35
April, 1988 -- Joe's Proposal to the Bankers
It was the fourth year of Val and Joe Marcolina's marriage. They now had a three-year old daughter, Caroline; and were returning home from a social dinner at the home of the most prominent banker in Eastern North Carolina, Edwin Carlson. Joe was in the business of banking, and doing fairly well at it. By nine in the evening, Joe was half drunk, unusual for him, but his proposal to buy up as much coastal and ocean front property as possible with loans from the banks controlled by the men at the function had been well received.
His proposal was centered on the new I-40 connection between Raleigh, North Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina. He felt that the connection between the two points would virtually treble the area's population. With the baby boomer generation rapidly nearing the age of retirement, it was a certainty that many would be moving south, and now Wilmington would, or could be the choice of many.
His plan was simple enough. Buy key pieces of property, and then sell them back and forth among themselves, each time increasing the land's value so that when the land rush began, the price of land would be artificially inflated some three to four times actual value. The key bankers at the meeting thought it a splendid idea, and as a consequence, Joe Marcolina was going to be a rich man, a very rich man.
****
Val leaned into him as the limo wound its way to their small home on Wrightsville Beach. "I'm so happy your deal met with approval, Joe. How soon will it be implemented?"
"It's already underway. I started without their okay," Joe told her. "I was concerned going in to the meeting. I didn't want to worry you, but I borrowed as much as I could and bought some very nice properties for next to nothing."
Val smiled and gave his thigh a light squeeze.
"And by the way," Joe added
,
"that was very nice of you to butter Carlson up. I was concerned about him. But you apparently have him wrapped around your finger."
"Not him so much," Val whispered in his ear. She was taking no chances that the driver might hear what she was about to convey to her husband.
"Oh?" Joe said, and then waited to hear the rest.
"I hope you're not angry with me," she said, beginning her confession.
"So, what have you got to tell me?"
"I don't know if I dare."
"Try me."
"Okay, but remember, I did it mostly for you... and your proposal, right?"
Joe nodded, impatiently, and said, "Go on."
"It was Mrs. Carlson, um, Wanda. You must have noticed her. She was the silver blonde in the pale blue gown."
"I know her."
"It, um, has to do with something we've discussed over the last six months or so."
"Get to the point, Val," Joe said, hating the way she came at things so obliquely that it took forever until she reached the meat of the subject.
"Well, we were talking... and, please remember it was you that brought it up in the first place."
He held himself in check, and remained silent. She would get to it in a moment he knew. Joe glanced out the tinted window of the limo, and noted they were perhaps five minutes from home.
"You know," Val said, "you've urged me to try different things."
'Oh, shit, what's she done?' he wondered, and almost bit his tongue from the sudden concern.
"Like I said, Wanda and I were talking, and..." she paused, and then with a rush, whispered, "... I let her lick my pussy, Joe."
"You what?" Joe said, not believing his ears.
"Are you angry with me?"
"No, I'm not angry," he said, then remembered the driver might be able to hear them, and lowered his voice. "Val, I'm confused. Please, tell me exactly what happened. No, wait; let's keep it until we get home."
Val nodded her agreement, and then fidgeted until the limo swung into their driveway, where the driver leapt out and opened the door for them. Joe tipped him, and opened the front door to their large cottage just off the Inter-Coastal Waterway.
He helped her off with her wrap, tossed his dinner jacket over the back of a dining room chair, and led her to the sofa, where they both sat. "Tell me," he said.
"I licked hers too," Val began.
"You didn't!" Joe said, his jaw hanging open in surprise.
"I did. And I loved it! It was terribly exciting."
"Tell me," he said again. He recalled her and Bernie doing it shortly after they had first met.
Of course, Val had set him up with Bernie first...
was it deliberate?
he wondered, and not for the first time.
"What shall I tell you? You don't want all the details, do you? Are you a dirty old man?"
"I want as many as you care to share with me. How did it come about? Did she speak to Carlson about my proposal?"
"I asked her to put in a word, yes."
"Good," he said. "All right, I won't say a word. Please, continue."
"Maybe, just maybe, I had drunk a little too much to fast."
"Oh, Val...."
"Anyway, you may recall me volunteering to help Wanda in the kitchen."
"No, but go on."
"Wanda asked me to help with the salads; and as we were placing the ingredients on the plates, she said, "Do you have any idea why your husband was invited to this meeting?"