Huge, massive, beyond exceptional thanks go to Carolyn who graciously agreed to read this section to make sure my legal junk was passable - even though it's my universe and I can do what I want
. To that end... In the last section, Clark said that Constance Hunter wanted to meet with them on Tuesday and the lawyer for Aunt Louise on Thursday. Because of Carolyn's advice, they're meeting with Constance on Thursday [everything needed a couple of days to get the system working] and Louise's lawyer on Friday.
That said - I think I got all the technical legal mumbo jumbo right but the changes I made have not been BRd so there's always the possibility of grammar or punctuation problems there. The generalities are the same just the time line is slightly different.
Thanks - as always - also go to Alisha and Beth for their exceptional work
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I also need to say that it's possible that I may need to go back to a twice a week posting schedule - Mondays and Thursdays probably. I started teaching in the classroom again today and so my time is cut dramatically for the next 8 weeks. If I can get through this week and get a bunch done, I may not have to cut it back, but... Sorry
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*****
Chapter 28
*****
"Why is it that I can confront Mayson or Lana or read that statement and be fine, but as soon as it's over, I collapse?" Lois asked Clark thoughtfully.
Their company was still inside playing a game of Trivial Pursuit, but Lois wasn't up to the mental challenge. She and Clark had moved to the balcony and were sitting on the chaise lounges they'd brought from her parents' home years earlier, sipping tea and staring at the stars.
He thought about it for a minute. "Maybe it's like the 'shakes'. You know, a cop or a soldier or whoever is fine during an incident, a shootout or standoff or whatever, but afterwards shakes like a baby. The adrenaline or training or something takes over while it's happening but afterwards, you have to come down off the adrenaline high and collapse."
"I guess that makes sense." They continued to gaze at the stars. "I'm not going to apologize to her, you know."
"I don't blame you. I wouldn't expect you to. What she did and what Mayson did... they were similar in the sense that they were both interested in me, but the motivations and attitudes were completely different. Mayson's not mean or vindictive, even if she was... misled about us. If she'd thought that things were great between us or whatever, she never would have said anything. If she hadn't thought that things were on the rocks – and I'm still not entirely sure why she did – she wouldn't have exposed herself to being hurt, if nothing else – self-preservation. And she's kept her word. She made statements to the police and the university and she hasn't contacted us except to send us that ticket.
"As for Lana..." Clark sighed. "She had completely different motivations. She had no reason to even suspect that I might want her, but she set out to have an affair anyway. Mayson wouldn’t have done anything like Lana did without me indicating that things between us were essentially over. She wouldn't have wanted to be the 'other woman' for long – she'd have expected a commitment, I think. But Lana said that a divorce wasn’t a big deal for now; it was just a detail and that she just wanted me regardless. That's completely different and I wouldn't expect you to apologize to her at all. I really didn't expect you to apologize to Mayson, either. And I certainly didn't expect you to thank her today."
"It was the right thing to do," Lois said quietly.
Clark reached for her hand, the silence broken only by shouts from inside.
"What do you think about the whole traveling thing?" Lois asked quietly.
"I've always wanted to see the world and not just from the air. I've done some of that since I realized I could fly, but I'd love to see it with you. Go to the places that aren't necessarily on everyone's top ten lists of things to do in an area. Out of the way beaches or restaurants or hotels with local flavor instead of a big chain or something. Write about them for the Planet and write a book too."
"Where would we go?"
"I don't know specifically. Sydney, Paris, London, Tokyo, maybe Africa or Athens. Rome. India. Scandanavia – did you know there's an ice hotel there in the winter? I forget exactly where it is – in Sweden maybe – but that might be kinda fun visit and write about. We could get an apartment in Paris for a few months and see a lot of Europe from there. We could go to Dubai and ski indoors. Alberta, Canada has the largest indoor water park in the world. Visit base camp at Mt. Everest. Whatever we want to do."
"That sounds nice."
"Do you want to?"
Lois thought for a few minutes. "Not forever. I think getting out of here and away from a daily grind where we have schedules and deadlines and stuff could be a good thing. I mean, if we're writing for the travel section, we'd still have deadlines, but no late night stakeouts or investigations, things like that. I still want to be an investigative reporter someday, but I think getting away for a while would help me in a lot of ways and I think it would be good for *us*."
"I think so too."
"I don't think I want to make an official decision yet though. Let's wait until we know what settlements we're getting from UNT Met and the Star – if they're going to settle rather than go through a civil trial – and if we met whatever requirement it is Aunt Louise left for us. If we don't get decent money from those, I don't know that we can afford to do it, not without spending all of the money from your folks and I don't really want to do that."
"Okay. We should know more from Constance tomorrow about those two and Aunt Louise's lawyer will be here Thursday so..."
"Yeah. So we'll make a decision after that?"
"Sounds like a plan. Where would you like to go?"
Lois shrugged. "All of those places you mentioned would be good. Maybe East Germany – it's falling apart and it might be nice to visit – at least from a reporter's perspective. Or elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Korea maybe. I don’t really want to go be a war correspondent or anything, though."
"Me either." He took a deep breath then said tentatively, "There is something else I've been thinking about."
"What's that?"
"If there's a way I could maybe help sometimes. Given what I can do and all."
"How would you do that?"
He shrugged. "Nothing public, of course. Maybe visit rural areas and help with search and rescue after earthquakes or typhoons or whatever. Probably not for long periods of time – I wouldn't want to leave you like that – but maybe for 12 or 18 hours after a tsunami or volcanic eruption just to try to do *something* with the gifts I've been given."
Lois nodded. "I wouldn't want to stop you from doing that, if you'd be careful to avoid cameras and news crews and stuff. And I wouldn't want you to be gone all the time or anything. That would kind of defeat the purpose of us, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah and I wouldn't want to do that. I'm talking about major events and only rural areas away from anything that might expose us."
"Then, yeah, that's certainly something we can talk about more – logistics and stuff."
"Thank you for understanding." Clark pulled her hand towards him and kissed her fingers. "Somehow I knew you would."
*****
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent, it's good to see you." Constance Hunter met them in the conference room at the Daily Planet, early Thursday morning. Way earlier than Lois ever wanted to be up. They all took seats and she pulled out some paperwork. "I don't want to keep you any longer than necessary, so let's get down to it. I’m either meeting or phone conferencing with all of the women involved this week. We're trying to get those of you that are local taken care of today if at all possible. Clark, you're the only male involved in this thing, so if I just refer to females at any point, it's only for ease of conversation."
"No problem, Ms. Hunter."
"This should all be over very quickly. The university doesn't want the bad publicity from dragging this out and from what I can tell, Dr. Emmert especially, really cares about all of you and doesn't want to go through a trial for your sakes. That said, because it was just Dr. Snodgrass and Professor Smith involved and not a systemic administration wide cover-up conspiracy, the settlement offers are smaller than they would be if that had been the case. The university lawyers have probably also told Dr. Emmert and the board that, if this were to go to trial, they would have no control over the damages awarded and it's very possible they would be higher. That's something I need to tell you, too. The dollar amount could easily go up considerably if there's a trial, but it's up to you whether that's something you want to go through or not. That said, this is a first offer. First offers are almost always low balled. That's something else you'll want to consider."
Lois shook her head. "If the offer is low ball, and we decide we don't want to accept it, then what?"
"I take them a counter offer. They will probably counter back with something in between."
"How long is that going to take," Clark asked.
"We could still have it done today. I'm meeting with the two of you now and the four other local women this morning. I have a meeting with UNT Met's lawyers early this afternoon. I'll tell them what, if anything, those of you I've spoken with have decided. If there's counter offers to be presented, I'll present them. They may decide to counter again immediately or they may wait until later today or tomorrow. It's always possible that they'll decide not to counter at all, but we'll have to see what happens, if that's the route you decide to go."
"So you think it's possible we can get a reasonable settlement and put this all behind us soon?"
Constance nodded. "I think so." She pulled some papers from the folder. "We'll start with you, Mr. Kent. You, obviously were not assaulted or anything of that nature. Your actions against the university include slander because of the rumor spread by Professor Smith; the threats against the two of you about failing the course and so on; and 'loss of consortium'."
Lois sighed. "I know you explained all of this to us before but... I really don't remember it. What's that?"
"It means that Clark was deprived of your 'society, companionship and services' because of the injuries caused by what happened. That doesn't mean 'loss of sex' necessarily, though that can be part of it. We're talking about the affect this has had on your relationship in general. The nightmares, panic attacks, all of those things have affected your relationship and, legally, that means that what Professor Smith did has deprived Clark of your companionship and so on."
Lois nodded. "Okay. So what did they offer Clark?"
Constance handed a piece of paper to him with a number highlighted on it.
Clark looked at it and passed it to Lois, whose eyes widened slightly.
"*That's* lowball?" she asked.
Their lawyer nodded. "I think so. I think you can counter at probably four or five times that, maybe even a bit more to make it a nice round number, and end up with somewhere between two and three times that amount."
"Wow." Clark slumped back against his chair. "That's a lot of money and that's just for my little part in this?"
Constance nodded. "You two can discuss it and get back to me as soon as you decide."
"The women who chose to file civil suits are receiving offers based on their specific situations. Those who were in consensual relationships are receiving one offer because their relationships – though there was likely pressure because of his position of authority – were not forced or coerced. Those women who were raped are receiving another offer. Those who were raped and had it covered up are receiving a third offer. You, Mrs. Kent, are receiving a different offer from the rest of them. The attack on you was 'only' attempted rape – and I don't use the word 'only' lightly there – but you were also the one who was instrumental in bringing the whole sordid thing to light. With each of these settlement offers come real nondisclosure agreements. Those agreements apply only to the dollar amount and other specific details of the settlement, including the names of those involved. That includes discussing it with other parties involved with this lawsuit – specifically dollar amounts. Each person involved, even within each of the broader categories, has a slightly different offer. Of course, they do not expect the two of you to keep it from each other and that stipulation is in each of the agreements they will ask you to sign." She pulled another sheet of paper out and passed it to Lois.
Lois took it from her, almost scared to look at it. What dollar amount could be put on the suffering she and the other women had gone though? She had a number in mind of what she thought they might offer, but really had no idea what they would actually do. She took a deep breath and looked at the number highlighted in yellow.
Then she gasped.
"And you think this is probably low ball too?" She passed it to Clark.
"I'm almost sure it is. The university has insurance for these kinds of things and they know what kinds of damages have been awarded by juries in recent years. This is significantly less than most of them in this area over the couple years and they know that. Most likely, they hope you'll take it and run, but they are also probably willing to go higher to make this all go away quickly."
"What happens if not everyone accepts the settlement offers?" Clark asked.
"It doesn't matter. Each civil case is separate. If you choose to accept the offer or the counter offer or some other offer at some point down the line, it's over for you. If you, Mrs. Kent, decide not to, then it goes until you reach a settlement or the trial and appeals are over. Same for any of the other women."
"Okay." Lois stared at the piece of paper. "How long do we have to decide?"
"Officially, the offer expires after seven full days. However, if you make your decision before that, the sooner the better, I think."
"I don't mean to sound crass, but just so we know..." Lois took a breath. "How much of a cut do you get? I don't remember discussing it with you."
Constance shook her head. "I did this pro bono. Too many women are raped or otherwise sexually harassed or assaulted and have no one on their side. In reality, as far as cases go, it's been pretty easy and not nearly as time consuming as many cases I've worked. Should you have an overwhelming desire to compensate me, please make a donation to the Red Cross on my behalf."
"So, all of this – or whatever settlement we accept – is ours, to keep?" Lois asked.
"Should you both choose to accept the settlements, then yes. After applicable taxes, of course, but you'll want to consult an accountant or tax attorney about that."
"Now..." She pulled out a different folder. "The Star is also offering settlements."
Lois did a double take. "They are?"
"Yes. Not nearly as high as the ones from the university but they are." She pulled out two pieces of paper and handed one to each of them. "In this instance, everyone was equally grieved and the settlements are based on how early the contracts were terminated. For the two of you that was about three weeks. There are also nondisclosure agreements with these – similar to those from the university. They tried to stipulate that you can only discuss the case with the Star, but I made sure that was redacted out. These I think are pretty fair. You would probably get more through a trial, but maybe twice more than that, probably not much more. Basically, they figured out how much you would have made during the time left on your contract and multiplied it by ten. It's not a huge sum of money, but at the Star the only complaint is 'wrongful dismissal' and the losses are mainly monetary. We could make a case for some psychological trauma but I don't think the amount on that would be very large." She stood and gathered her things. "I need to speak with Perry for a moment, but you can contact my office when you've made your decisions. You can accept or reject any of the offers you choose. It's not an 'all or nothing' thing."
"Thank you, Ms. Hunter," Clark said, standing as she left the room. "We'll be in touch soon."
He sank back down into his chair as the door closed behind her. "Wow."
"Yeah." Lois leaned back. "What do you think?"
He thought before speaking. "I think she's right about the Star settlements. They seem pretty fair. With Preston Carpenter buying them out next week, it's not going to break them – even for all six of us."
"Yeah, I agree with you there. I do hope that some of the ones from longer ago were at least adjusted for inflation."
Clark smiled. "I'm sure they were or the women involved were so far past expecting any compensation that they may consider it good enough."
"I hope they're not using that idea to low-ball the other offers."
"Oh, I doubt it. But let's take Olivia Anderson. She was fired a month early. If she was making $1500 a month, which would be a lot for our position six years ago, that's $15,000. That's a drop in the bucket for the Star, but could do her a world of good. It could set up a college fund for her son or put a down payment on a house for her and Mike, once they get married." They'd received a note from the young woman the week before telling them that she was officially engaged to the wonderful man in her life.
Lois nodded. "Yeah, I see what you're saying. So, we're okay with the Star settlements?"
"I think so."
"What about the university?"
"Well," he said slowly. "I don't really have any idea what dollar amount could be put on the pain and suffering all of you went through – are still going through."
"I don't think there is, but I will say I was surprised by the amount they offered. I had no idea what to expect, but I think it was only about half of that."
"I didn't either. The number they gave me isn't large, but given the scope of this neither were my 'injuries'."
"And that's low ball."
"That's what she said."
"So, do you want to counter?" Lois asked him.
"Perry trusts her judgment and she says counter."
"So we counter and hope for the best?"
"I think so."
"And hope for twice this offer?"
"That sounds like what she thinks."
"It's more than enough that we could go travel the world for a while without worrying about what Aunt Louise's stipulations were."
"Yeah, it is that."
"We could even save a large chunk of it to buy a house with someday or something, just in case we don't get the money from her estate. We'd still have enough, especially if we supplement it with articles and stuff, to travel for a long time without blowing it all or touching the money from your parents."
"And then some. But you know that doesn't bother me."
"I know, but still... I don’t know that that's what we want to use it for."
"What else would we use it for?"
"I don't know, but I don't want to blow it all on what's essentially a long vacation."
He smiled at her. "Or a long second honeymoon."
She instantly tried to pull her hand from his.
"No, don’t take that the wrong way. We had fun on our honeymoon, didn't we? Even if we didn't... you know."
"Yeah, we did," Lois admitted quietly. "I don't know that I want to sit in a hotel or an apartment in Tokyo playing Scrabble though."
Clark laughed. "We won't. Well, we might, but that's not all we'll do. We'll see places and do things that most people only dream of. We'll write about them for the Planet and write about them in more detail – or different detail – for our book."
Clark glanced towards Perry's office. "She's still here."
"Let's go tell her then and hope we can get this over with today."
Clark stood, pulling her up by the hand. He wrapped his arms around her. "I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I'm so proud of you."
They stood there for long minutes until Clark pulled back. "I think she's about done talking to Perry."
"Let's go."
*****
They'd told their lawyer – they had a lawyer; that was something they still had a hard time believing – that they would accept the offers from the Star and that they wanted to counter the offers from UNT Met.
She said that was probably a good decision and they'd agreed on an amount. She'd be back in touch later in the afternoon. They'd told Perry all about it and he'd agreed with her – that it was the way to go.
Lois spent the rest of the day working for Cat helping her research a story and Clark went with Eduardo to a press conference. He'd just returned when Constance returned to the newsroom. They made their way back into the conference room.
As they sat down, her face broke into a big grin. "Well, it's better than I would have guessed. They didn't like our counter offers, but we didn't expect them to. However, their next offer was more than I would have expected it to be." She pulled out some papers. "Clark, here's your new offer."
He whistled. "That's three times what they offered this morning."
"Yes, it is." She handed the other sheet to Lois. "And, Mrs. Kent, here is your offer."
Lois could only stare at the sheet. "Wow."
"It's part of my job to tell you both that if this did go to trial, juries would probably be very sympathetic to you, especially since you’re the ones who blew the whistle on the whole thing and you're married rather than single like the other women. That makes a difference. It's entirely possible they could come back with a judgment well into the several million range, but there is no guarantees of that and you would have to face a long, drawn out and probably very public trial."
Lois nodded. "Can we have a few minutes to discuss this?"
"Of course. If you want to counter again, we can. If you simply want to reject either one, you can. If you want to take it, you can do that too." She stood. "There was something else I wanted to talk to Perry about. Let me know when you decide."
Clark waited until the door closed behind her. "What do you think?"
"I thought it was a lot of money this morning, but this..."
"*This* is a lot of money."
"It's more than I expected to see in my lifetime, much less in one fell swoop."
"Yeah, it is," he said, stroking her knuckles with his thumb. "Is it enough to compensate for what's happened without going through the ordeal of a trial?"
She fingered the paper with her settlement offer from the university on it. "What do you think?"
"It's your call."
"But I need to know what you think."
"It's your decision, but a big part of me says take it and run. You and me, run off together."
Lois nodded. "That's my thought too. Honestly, it's more than I ever dreamed of."
"So we take both of them?"
"Yeah, I think we take them," she said slowly.
"And tell Perry we're leaving?"
She nodded. "We can work out the details of when and where and stuff later."
"Sounds good." They looked through the window to see Constance shaking hands with their editor.
"Let's go tell her."
*****
Friday night Lois sat on the balcony watching the stars while Clark went through some paperwork inside. Before long, he joined her, handing her a piece of paper.
"*This* is our net worth?" she asked incredulously.
He nodded. "Sort of. That includes my inheritance, the value of the farm, a third of the inheritance from your parents, all of the settlements and the first part of the money we're getting from Aunt Louise, but not the brownstone or the other two parts. I included a third of your inheritance because it doesn't look like Lucy will need most of it for college so if she uses a third and you two split the rest..."
She leaned back in her chair. "Wow."
"I know we don't actually have all – or even most – of it in our names yet but... All but the inheritances from our parents will be in our control by the middle of July – and the first part of the inheritance from Aunt Louise by the middle of next week. We'll have yours in about six months. Wayne technically has veto power over mine for a couple more years but as long as we don't do anything stupid, he'd let us have it so I included that in there too. But we probably need to talk to Perry about finding a good financial advisor."
Lois nodded. "I thought we'd have to be a hundred or so before we had this kind of money. I know you told Wayne we wouldn't have enough to retire before we even started but..."
"Well, when I told him that, I hadn't even thought about the settlements."
"I wish that lawyer told us what the stipulation was. He must have asked a hundred questions. How are we supposed to know which one had the 'right' answer?"
"I think I can tell you," Clark answered with a gleam in his eye.
"You can? How?"
"I, uh, monitored his heart rate. It sped up at certain questions. It could have had to do with the nature of the questions, or..."
"Because those were the answers that affected the outcome."
"Exactly."
"So what questions were they?"
"What our immediate plans were."
"We told him we were going to travel the world together."
"And he relaxed a bit when you said that. I think that was the requirement for this one – that whatever we were doing, we were doing it together."
"Okay. What were the other ones?"
"Ah, the ones about babies and pregnancy and birth control and stuff."
"You mean the one where you said 'when necessary, barrier methods are used'?"
"Yeah."
"Way to say something without saying it."
"Well, it wasn't a lie necessarily. Saying you were on the pill would have been a lie. Saying that when necessary, barrier methods are used is saying that every time we..." He waved vaguely towards the bedroom. "...use a condom or something, which technically is accurate. We've never been together without one," he pointed out. "Besides you say stuff like that all the time – technically accurate but not necessarily the whole story."
"I know."
"Anyway, I think he was digging for whether or not we've... whether you've worn whatever it is she gave you that night." Clark stared at the table.
"Ah." She thought about that for a minute. "So we get a quarter of our inheritance based on whether or not we're having sex?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't know. That's what it sounded like. Or maybe it has more to do with having kids – or finding out that we're not able to have kids. Because if we're not able to for some reason – like me being an alien – then that would indicate that we've tried or taken steps to determine if we can or something. Like we get that part of it when our first child is born and a certain part of it goes to a college fund or something."
"That makes sense, I guess." She fiddled with the pencil. "Do you want kids, Clark?"
"Yeah," he answered softly. "Someday I'd love to have kids. With you. Do you?"
"Maybe. Someday."
They sat for a few more minutes before Lois spoke again.
"So, where do we want to go first?"
Clark grinned at her. "Shopping."
She laughed. "You did say that was the first thing we were going to do, didn't you?"
"Yeah. So do you want to go to New York to shop or Paris or where?"
"I think the mall will be just fine."
"Okay, we'll go shopping at the mall. But we're also going to go somewhere and get you a couple of really nice dresses and me a tux so that I can take you out for a night on the town in whatever cities we end up in."
"That sounds nice." She chewed on her bottom lip for a minute. "You know, it would be a lot easier than we think to blow through all of this if we're not careful."
"I know."
"How do we prevent that?"
Clark shrugged. "Do the same thing we've been doing, just with a little bit larger numbers. We live on what we make as much as possible. When we get to a new city, we try to find a decent, furnished apartment in a fairly nice part of town rather than whatever flea trap we can get cheapest. Not go overboard or anything, but nice and functional for what we need. Close to public transportation. Perry said yesterday that he could get us up to a certain dollar amount a month reimbursed for expenses directly related to the articles we're writing and if we're writing articles, there's a good chance we can get hotel rooms or admissions, things like that for free or reduced rates. He wasn't sure how much they'd reimburse but that he'd get us a number and we'd have to submit expense claims and stuff."
"You realize that we'll probably have to take commercial flights sometimes, right?"
His head jerked up at that. "What? Why?"
"Well, we wouldn't want anyone to look and realize that we've never been on a commercial flight. I don't mean for our trips home, but when we leave here and go to... Spain or Manila or wherever we go first, it should probably be on a commercial flight. And when we come home for official visits for the holidays and stuff."
He covered his face with his hands. "Oh, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Do you know how close I came to hyperventilating when I flew out here?"
Lois smiled at him. "I'll be with you the whole time."
"Will you hold my hand?"
Lois reached for it and twined her fingers with his. "After all you've done for me the last few weeks, the last few years, most of the time without me even knowing it... it's the least I can do."
Clark looked at their joined hands, well aware that this was the first time that she'd initiated this kind of contact. "Thanks," he said and he meant it for more than just the promise to help him through transoceanic flights.
"It's what I'm here for."
"To help me with my irrational fear of flying inside a metal tube?"
"Something like that."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you."
Lois laughed. "I'm glad."
"Seriously, what are you thinking?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Lucy wants the apartment and I don't blame her; it's a lot better than the dorms, but she's leaving for 10 weeks soon so it would be empty. We'll leave most of the furniture, but leaving it empty for that long probably isn't the best plan. And I really don't want to wait until August to leave."
"Me either. Maybe Jimmy would stay here and watch it for us." Lois raised a brow at him, before he continued. "It's not like Lucy's going to be here. And they are both adults," he pointed out. "She's graduating next week."
"I know, but still."
"I know." They sat for another minute. "He told me the other night he plans on asking me if he can marry her before too long."
"That doesn't surprise me. I wish they'd wait till they get out of college but I don't think that's probably going to happen. I mean, look how hard it's been for us trying to be married and in college at the same time."
"They're not us, though. They've been dating for two and a half years already. It just isn't the same as it was for us. Jimmy's got a good job and a college fund that's paying for his tuition. That's one thing his dad did right. He's still living with his mom for now. He'd probably appreciate the chance to be on his own, even if it's just for a few weeks. Did Perry or Lucy tell you that she's getting on at the Planet, too? Part time photo and research assistant. So she's got a good job. And they'll be able to do their internships there instead of at the Star or somewhere else. And they won't be raising a teenager either."
"If that's what they decide to do I hope it's a lot easier for them than it has been for us."
"They'll have each other in a way we never did," Clark said quietly. "We both essentially isolated ourselves for a long time, for different reasons, especially from each other and they won't be in that position. Think about it for a minute. If we'd married when we did, but had been dating for a couple years and were madly in love like they are, don't you think things would have been easier?"
"'We ain't got money, honey, but we got looooove'?" Lois had listened to the finance guy on the radio from time to time, too.
Clark laughed. "Something like that. And they'll have the insurance money from your folks to help and we didn't so they shouldn't have the problems with money that we've had." He untangled his hand from hers and did something that was becoming a common gesture – he tucked her hair behind her ear. "I think they're about done with their game. You ready to turn in?"
"Yeah, I am." Lois pushed herself up and leaned her forearms against the wall. "So, flyboy, where do you want to go first? After we go shopping, of course."
Clark stood next to her. "I don't know. How about this – we think about it for the next couple of days and each make a top ten list – in order of preference. We'll compare lists and see if we have any matches."
"Sounds like a plan. And if we have an idea of where we're going, we can shop accordingly. If we're headed to Alaska, we'll need to buy different clothes than if we're headed to the tropics first."
"Good point."
Lois turned and headed inside. "But I think I'd prefer the tropics over Alaska first, given my choice."
Clark opened the door and stood aside to let her go in ahead of him. "I'll keep that in mind."
*****
TBC
