Mrs. Cramer-Part 2

(Read Mrs.Cramer Part 1)

Avery was sitting at the stool in front of the vanity that ran the length of the marble bathroom that she shared with her husband when she heard the front door open and close. She knew that she still had several minutes before she was face to face with him. He had a routine that he never strayed from when he came home from work.

At this very moment he was standing in the foray flipping through the mail that she had left sitting on the round table in the entry way. When he was finished with that, he would swoop into the kitchen to see what the cook was preparing for dinner, and then he would say a long and rambunctious ‘hello’ to the two greyhounds that he adored before stepping into his office, where he would check his email or something equally as important.

That task alone would last at least half an hour and then he would come to find her. Sometimes he didn’t even do that. On occasion he was still in his office when the bell rang through the house announcing that dinner was ready, and the first time they would see each other was when they sat at opposite sides of the table.

Avery had no illusions about her husband, she knew that he didn’t know any better; it was how he was raised. He was the oldest, and only son of one of the most rich, prestigious, and powerful families in the country.

The Cramers were by far the most powerful family in Connecticut, so it was no surprise when Avery realized that the man she was married to was being groomed to be the next politician that the illustrious dynasty produced.

Including Mike’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, the Cramers had already turned out two governors, three senators, a house representative, a Hartford mayor, and even one Supreme Court justice. Avery believed that the only reason there had not yet been a President Cramer was because no one had yet to run for that office. If a Cramer ran, a Cramer won.

She also believed that it was that very office, the oval one, that Mike’s parents were dreaming of for their son, and she had no doubts that he would reach that far, given the opportunity. What she did have doubts about was whether or not she wanted to travel that long, rocky road with him.

Marrying into the Cramers was like a fairy tale. No, it was a fairy tale. The American Dream. She was a simple girl, an army brat that had grown up on bases around the world and spent very little time settled down anywhere.

She had worked hard for her scholarship to Yale, and worked even harder once she got there. She had goals and ambitions, but when a cocky and handsome young lawyer that worked at the firm she had gotten an internship at set his sights on her, her whole world seemed to turn upside down.

When she met Mike, she knew that his last name was Cramer, but she hadn’t realized he was a Cramer. Once she realized that he was from the infamous family that she had read about in her American history books, countless magazines and supermarket tabloids, as well as seen Public Television documentaries about, she was more star-struck than in love.

The Cramer’s roots reached deep, back to the founding forefathers of this country. They lived an impressive life on the fringes of American royalty. Notorious for not only their politics, but also for the strict Roman Catholic religion. Prestige and propriety were the name of their game, at least from an outsider’s point of view.

It was made very clear, very early in her relationship with Mike that there were certain standards that she would be expected to live up to if she thought that she had a future with him. Avery had gladly obliged to them for the sake of the love that she felt for Mike. Raised a Methodist, her baptism and confirmation to the Catholic church wasn’t such a stretch or the strict dress code that Meredith, Mike’s mother, insisted on at all public gatherings. She had even agreed to give up the career that she had worked the majority of her life to achieve.

That was how badly she had wanted to be Mike’s wife. If she only knew then, what she knew now.

There had actually been media coverage of her wedding to the crown prince of the Cramers. That was the first moment that a horrendously overwhelming feeling that she had since defined as fear wiggled its way into her subconscious. She realized that there was a distinct possibility that she had made an awful mistake. There was no way that she could live up to what was expected of her. Not only did Mike’s ostentatious family have unreachable expectations, but also it seemed that the general public had their own set.

How strange it had been, the way that Mike made all of her apprehensions disappear with a single smile, or wink of his dancing eyes, or soft caress. However, as of late, even Mike couldn’t ease the panic that was starting to take over. In fact, Mike was one of the antagonists.

She remembered clearly the night that he announced, in no uncertain terms, that it was time to start a family. He actually stated that it would be of paramount importance to appear to the voting public as a family man.

Avery knew that somewhere in her past, the idea of having a family, especially a family with Mike, was something that she wanted. But things had been different, then. Once Meredith Cramer put her two cents in, suggesting that it was actually Avery’s duty to produce Mike’s children no matter what the inconvenience may be, Avery made the decision that under no circumstances was she going to be eager to bring yet another Cramer into this God forsaken family.

Her unconcieved children’s future was already planned. They would be baptized in the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the city amidst a grand affair with all the most important people, their lives would be watched—scrutinized even, they would attend the finest boarding schools and be expected to follow the family’s legacy of powerful, high profile importance. Who in their right mind would want that kind of life for their children?

It was this reason that she was still taking the pill every night. She kept them in the bathroom drawer, buried deep under her make-up near the back of the drawer so that Mike wouldn’t accidentally come across them. She felt sick about it. She had never lied to her husband, or anybody for that matter, and this seemed like an overly malicious deceit, but until she felt differently about the subject of children, it was her only option.

Avery gave herself one more glance in the large mirror and then stood, swooping up the jacket that she had draped over the back of her stool. She turned from the vanity, her attention on the wrinkled jacket and her futile efforts to smooth some of the bigger wrinkles with her hand as she walked toward the humongous walk-in closet. She was so preoccupied with the sad state of the expensive article of clothing that she didn’t even notice the tall shadow that had appeared in the doorway.

She nearly dropped the jacket she was holding she jumped so when she heard his deep voice.

“Do you have any idea what you did to me today?” He asked, in not an overly loud, but firm voice.

Her brown eyes snapped up to his face, wide with start, and her mouth was probably hanging open, she knew. “No.” Was her simple reply since she honestly wasn’t sure what he was talking about and was still a little surprised to see him in their bedroom this soon after arriving home. He had apparently skipped his normal routine and come straight to her, indicating that he was obviously upset with her.

Mike raised an eyebrow, and took a step closer to her. “You seriously have no idea the state that you left me in.”

“No.”

He took another step toward her, close enough to reach out and pull her into him, which is exactly what he did. “Allow me to show you.” He said, brushing his knuckles over the soft skin on her cheek before lowering his mouth to hers.

His lips were soft and gentle, but purposeful as they moved over hers. His tongue traced the line between her lips, softly teasing, until she finally parted her lips and allowed him the entry that he was aching for.

Avery sighed into the kiss, dropping the jacket to the floor, and wrapping her arms around his neck as he filled her mouth with his strong taste. She heard his deep groan when the tip of her tongue met with his and guided it deeper into her. And it was her turn to moan when she felt his hand slip from her cheek, tracing the outline of her body on its way to her hips.

She had no idea how long they had been standing there, but judging by the breathless ache in her cheat it must have been awhile. When Mike reluctantly pulled his face away from hers, she remained in his arms, her eyes still closed, trying to catch her breath.

“Do you know how hard it is to work the rest of the afternoon with a hard-on because your wife stopped by and turned you on just to hurry out of your office?” He joked.

Avery let out a soft giggle and eventually opened her eyes to look up at him. “I can’t say that I do.”

“Yeah, well. It’s damn difficult. I wasn’t able to concentrate on anything for the rest of the day.”

Avery smiled with an odd satisfaction. She was a little impressed with the power that she still had over him, to say the least. She hadn’t really thought that she could still do that to him. It had been years since he hurried home from work just to kiss her and judging by the twinkle in his eye, she thought that he actually had a few other things in mind as well.

“Dinner will be ready in a few moments.” She said.

“I’m not very hungry.” He replied. “At least not for food.”

“Well, I am.” She said, pressing against his chest to free herself. She stopped to pick up the jacket and skirted around him to put the garment away. “Besides,” She said over her shoulder. “I thought you would still be mad at me.”

“Because you didn’t go to the doctor?”

“Is there another reason that you would be mad at me?”

“I don’t know, Avery. You tell me.” He replied, hitching an eyebrow high on his forehead.

Avery rolled her eyes, her back still to him. “Mike, I really don’t feel like getting into a fight this evening.”

“I don’t either, but you’re the one that brought it up.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.” She protested, twirling to see him. “You’re just hard to read sometimes, that’s all.”

“I’m hard to read? That’s rich. I never know what the hell to expect from you anymore.”

“Mike, it’s just that when I left your office you were mad at me and then you come home and start kissing me. It’s confusing.”

Mike narrowed his eyes and looked her in the eye. “I wasn’t mad at you. You were the one that left in a huff. I’m confused, myself. I don’t understand why you won’t go to the doctors.”

Avery looked at him but didn’t respond. She stood for several seconds then decided to walk away from him.

Mike let her leave the room for the second time today. When she was gone he let out a sigh and walked over to the sink. He glared at himself in the mirror for a long time, listening to the faint voice of his wife carrying from the kitchen downstairs.

He reached and pulled open her bathroom drawer, dug through its contents and then pulled out a small plastic container. He flipped open the compact and counted the pills that remained in the bubble pack, seeing if she had forgotten to take one of the pills. She hadn’t and he hadn’t really expected her to, but he still didn’t know why she was lying to him about it or why she was taking them in the first place.

If she only knew how much a child would mean to them, he was sure that she would want one as much as he did. Avery would be a wonderful mother, he knew. She was patient and kind and had so much love to give. She was strong, too. She wouldn’t let his mother tell her how to raise their children, and for the first time in two hundred years, there was the possibility of a Cramer that would benefit from a happy childhood, since he knew that Avery would accept nothing less.

He had no idea why she was so opposed to the idea, and when she had shrugged off his first attempts at suggesting children he had even tried to be political about it, telling her that a family would further his career. That hadn’t worked either.

He was out of ideas. He wanted kids and he wanted them with Avery. His daily ritual of counting her birth control pills had become almost an obsession and the day that he noticed a skipped pill, he intended to act on it. He’d thought about tampering with the pills, but decided against it. That would be worse than her lying to him about the pills in the first place. But he had no intentions of letting the subject die. He would pursue it as wholeheartedly as he had pursued her.

With hope, luck, and a little perseverance she might come around and realize how perfect their life would be with children in it.


(To be continued in Part 3...)