She walked into his small Real Estate office with unmistakable intent, wearing what looked to him like a pair of Earth shoes from the 1970's and a loose fitting sundress that failed miserably at concealing that she was either still keeping herself fit or had been paying medical professionals for the upkeep.
Sunglasses and a large floppy hat partially concealed her appearance but it was readily apparent she was an attractive older woman - and by older he of course meant at least his age. Dark red curls cascaded down from under the hat, framing her slightly rounded face.
Carter turned fully in his seat to watch her strut right up to his desk.
"You haven't changed much," she said rather perfunctorily, "Except for the loss of your hair and a few extra pounds."
She removed her sunglasses and hat, placing both on his desk. He stared, at a loss to recall who she could possibly be, and scrutinized her face for something that would clue him in.
"You don't recognize me, Carter? That is something of an insult. Think back to a couple of days you spent in Reno with a cute young blonde, that should ring a bell."
His face indicated clearly that it didn't.
"Seriously? How many times have you spent a couple of days in Reno with a cute young blonde who banged you into complete exhaustion?"
She pulled a small upholstered chair over and sat down in front of him, putting both of her arms on the desk and then resting her chin on her interlocked hands.
With a little hesitation he replied, "Reno? It's been four states and as many decades since I've been in Reno, and a completely different frame of mind. You're going to have to give me more to work with than that."
She smirked a half smile and said, "Carter Bennett, you celebrated your 59th birthday a week ago today, and a week ago 37 years ago you celebrated your 22nd birthday in Reno with a young blonde girl named Fiona Buchanan. That jar anything loose?"
"Noooo..." Carter drew the reply out slowly and continued to scrutinize her face. "I remember bits of the week I spent in Reno for my 22nd birthday. Yeah. Me, Ramos, Tornillo and Wilson. We spent six days drinking, gambling, clubbing...generally having a good time. Don't think I slept more than two hours in a row the entire time we were there."
She pulled her head away from her folded hands and said, "Oh, you slept for at least 5 or 6 hours in a row at one point, of that I can assure you. It might have even been longer, but I wouldn't know for sure because I was still sleeping when you left my room."
"You were the cute young blonde?" Carter asked. "Was the blonde the dye job or is this dark red a dye job?"
"Now you're catching what I'm dropping. I was the cute young blonde, and so were you, though you were a natural blonde, and as you discovered that evening, I was not."
"Fiona is it? Wow, I'd think I'd remember that name and thus you - I do not recall ever knowing a Fiona."
"Most assuredly you have Carter, in every sense of the word, known a Fiona."
She gazed at him in a subdued yet slightly affectionate manner. "It's taken me a few years to find you, despite the wonders of the internet - you have lived quite an adventurous life, took a very long time to trace your movements - you practically disappeared from the face of the Earth for half of your thirties, and tracing your year-long sojourn in South America and subsequent residence on the island of Guadalupe was a task that would have challenged Sherlock Holmes."
Carter cleared his throat and for the first time noticed the unusual color of her eyes. Kelly green with a touch of hazel was all he managed to come up with.
"I gave up actively trying to find you for about three years - just after my 55th birthday, when I thought it was a dead end. Then my life circumstances changed and I started digging on the internet again and discovered you had returned to the states and set up shop here in little ol' Greenville, not even an hours drive from my home. I almost fell off my chair when I realized how close we lived to each other."
"Uhm, okaayyy...this is getting a little weird. Odd that I can remember the majority of that week, and what I remember was spending nearly all my time with three guys I'm still friends with...three guys who have never mentioned once that I spent time then with a cute young blonde - not once over the past 37 years."
"Not a surprise to me as when we met at that Casino in Reno you told me you were there with three friends to celebrate your birthday, but that you had all split up to, in as nearly as I can remember you put it back then, 'chase some tail solo'."
A faint ember of recognition began to glow in the back of Carter's mind.
"When we met you told me you had a full day and a night all to yourself and that you'd be most delighted if I'd spend that time with you. For whatever reason my then 21-year old self thought that would be grand, and the rest is history. History you apparently have forgotten."
"Well, in my defense I did drink quite a bit back them and have forgotten a lot of things - so what you're saying is very possible...but, uhm, you're saying we, uhm, got together in your room for awhile that day 37 years ago...does that mean you're here to tell me that I've been a father for the past 36 years?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that. Birth control was around 37 years ago, I'm sure you're aware of that. And as you should also know, we didn't share any diseases with one another either."
"So what did we do? I mean, other than, you know, sex stuff."
"We actually did a little socializing first, and in more places than my room - had dinner at a little place not too far from the rose garden, got our picture taken under the arch - you know, we did flirty stuff that people who are attracted to each other do when they first meet."
"Okay, sounds like we had a good time and I suppose it could be true. But if you didn't get pregnant and neither of us contracted anything...did you track me down just to remind me of a great time we had as infatuated kids in Reno 37 years ago? Are you thinking we can somehow rekindle that moment or develop it further at this point in time?"
"Oh no, nothing like that!" She laughed as she spoke. "There were a few other things we did in the hours we spent wandering around Reno before we went up to my room for our passionate romp. This is one of them."
With that she pulled an envelope out of her purse and handed it to him. Carter took it from her and opened it, then removed an official looking document. It was a marriage license, dated 37 years and one week ago.
He looked over the document carefully, noticing his signature, what he assumed was her signature, the signature of a witness he did not recognize, and an officiants signature. He looked up and across the desk at her.
She looked straight back at him and firmly stated, "The first manner in which I need you to help me, Mr. Bennett, is by granting me a divorce."
"Holy cow! We've been married since the day we met!" Carter's face nearly exploded in surprise. "That's wild!"
Fiona looked at him and spoke as if she was giving testimony in a courtroom. "I have never married Carter, at least not other than this one time, and everything I've learned about you leads me to believe you never have either - is that right?"
"Yeah, I've never been married - lived with a couple of women, but neither of them were the marrying type, if you know what I mean. So I guess that means neither of us is guilty of bigamy."
"And, Fiona began with a smile, "it makes this next part a little easier to settle."
She handed Carter another envelope which he dutifully opened. He pulled out a few folded sheets of paper and started to pore over the pages.
"This, this is incredible. When did we have time to go to a stockbroker?'
"Right after we won a little over $16,000 on a slot machine. We decided to pull the handle together and agreed that if we won big we would split the jackpot three ways - a third to each and the remainder to be invested in whatever stock the nearest stockbroker we could find would recommend to us."
Carter stared at the pages with incredulity.
"As luck would have it, we walked into a bank that Thursday and were recommended to a stockbroker who had an office on the second floor of the building. He was excited about an IPO for a computer company - he raved about computers being the wave of the future and how we'd be fools to ignore this ground floor opportunity - the usual pitch excited stockbrokers make."
"You mean to tell me that you've had these shares in your possession for 37 years and you didn't do anything but sit on them?" Carter stared at Fiona in abject disbelief.
"Not quite in my possession Carter - you gave me the paperwork we got from the stockbroker that day, that much is true, but I in turn asked my Mother to hold on to them for me when I returned to college - you no doubt do not recall that I was in Reno on Spring Break. I went back to college with the $5,300, give or take, and used it in probably the same fashion you used your $5,300 - quite recklessly. After all, in my mind it was free money and I was a 21-year old in the last semester of college - other than buying a round trip ticket to Paris and a Eurorail pass, I pretty much partied that 5k away."
Looking up, Carter laughed and said, "Yeah, I didn't even make it out of Reno with a penny of that 5k."
The both looked at each other for a few seconds. Fiona finally broke the silence.
"When my Mother passed away I found our marriage license and the stock ownership papers in a box in her bedroom closet, along with a number of unopened letters from the stockbroker and the computer company detailing the company's growth and the stock's performance. It had slipped my mind that I had given my Mother's home address as our contact info. Truth be told, over time I too had pretty much forgotten all about those few days in Reno. But having the paperwork in my hands quickly refreshed my memory."
"Wow." Carter repeated the terse statement three more times. "We are both very, very rich. This is absolutely mind-boggling. That stockbroker sold us 249 shares of the Microsoft IPO and put it all in an ARP portfolio for us. The stock has split something in the neighborhood of 35 times since we bought them - mostly 2 for 1 splits but I think there were some 2 for 2 splits. That is just...mind boggling."
"Yes, yes it is Carter. Now the question is, what do we do first - get a divorce or split up the stock?"
Carter looked at Fiona for a long minute. "Truth be told Fiona, the first thing I would like to do is kiss you."
Fiona leaned in across Carter's desk, lips pursed and eyes closed.
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