Triptych Interviews
Lissa
Saturday, July 30 (After Chapter 1 of Triptych)
LISSA: Guess it’s my turn to face the music.
aroslav: Come in Miss Grant. Thank you for agreeing to talk to me.
LISSA: Is this about a job?
aroslav: No. We’d just like to know a little more about you.
LISSA: I don’t do modeling anymore if that’s what you’re hoping. Either fashion or art. Well, mostly...
aroslav: Hmm?
LISSA: I still model for Tony. And Melody. And Kate. But those are private sessions. I won’t be modeling for classes anymore. That served its purpose.
aroslav: What was its purpose.
LISSA: [giggles] To get a certain someone to notice me as more than a competitor.
aroslav: That seems to have worked.
LISSA: I like the results.
aroslav: Could we start with some of the basic statistical information?
LISSA: 5'10". 34C-23-34. 125 pounds. Blonde hair, blue eyes.
aroslav: Thank you, but I was going to ask your full name, age, and birthday.
LISSA: That’s a new one. 27 on August 2nd.
aroslav: That’s just a couple days. Happy birthday.
LISSA: Thank you.
aroslav: Full name.
LISSA: I haven’t used it in years.
aroslav: Just for the record.
LISSA: Allison Steele Grant.
aroslav: Your name is Allison?
LISSA: I shortened it to Lissa when I started modeling at age 12.
aroslav: Does that create any challenges with being confused with another certain Allison that we know?
LISSA: I’ve never shared my full name with either Tony or Melody, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t either. The only time I was ever worried was when Tony and Allison were alone together. I was afraid he might call her Lissa and I’d have had trouble with that. But he tagged her with the nickname Ally and that’s so different from who I see myself as that it helped separate us. But it is kind of funny that we have the same name, we’re close to the same size, but she’s got bigger boobs, and I’m told she kisses a lot like me. If that’s true, I guess I’m pretty good.
aroslav: Tell me about your parents.
LISSA: Alice Steele and Damon Grant. Sadly, I have only a few clear memories of them. They were good to me. I felt loved. I still get sad sometimes, but Jane and Jack stepped in and were so kind to me that they...well, Jack, really...were an instant replacement.
aroslav: What happened?
LISSA: A drunk driver entered the freeway the wrong way on an exit ramp. My parents happened to be in the first car he came to. Then about a year later, Aunt Jane got uterine cancer and died. It was so fast neither Jack nor I had a chance to adjust from one to the other. Suddenly Jack was everything to me.
aroslav: Jack is quite a bit older than you are. How did he move from being your guardian to being your husband?
LISSA: He’s 32 years older than me and I didn’t and still don’t care. He and Aunt Jane never had children. Well, we found out later why she couldn’t. Her ovaries were non-functioning long before they discovered the cancer. But she and Jack were my legal guardians. We talked about whether I wanted them to adopt me, but we all thought it was too soon after mother and father passed away. Then Jane was gone and there was never a question about Jack being able to adopt me. He continued as my guardian and also as my agent.
Jack worked in the industry as a representative for a long time and got me my first modeling job while my parents were still alive. He was very protective. My mother, he says, sat him down before that first gig and told him that she held him personally responsible for my safety and if anything ever happened to me she would hunt him down and eviscerate him. I looked the word up when I was 15 and Jack first told me about it. My mother was very protective.
aroslav: So in addition to having guardianship, he was also your agent?
LISSA: I don’t think he ever collected a fee on my work, though. He insisted on giving me a financial report of my net worth every six months with an accounting of our travel expenses and living expenses. He had half a dozen other models that he rep’ed over the years and a couple of them were in far more demand than I was. I had a pretty good nest-egg when I retired.
aroslav: So how did it happen that he progressed from the agent-guardian relationship to husband.
LISSA: We were traveling nine or ten months a year—living out of hotel rooms and makeup trailers. Jack hated to go back to his house in Seattle after Jane was gone. Usually, he tried to arrange two rooms with a connecting door. He said I was a young lady and needed my privacy. But he always kept his side of the connecting door unlocked in case of emergency. I kept my side unlocked, too, but he never once came through that door.
I developed all the usual hormones and there were a lot of opportunities for short-term relationships to develop. It’s not that unusual for models to develop an attraction to another model. We spend half our time getting dressed and undressed in front of each other on sets. There’s not much modesty backstage at a runway show. I had a couple of affairs with girls when I was 17 and then was afraid that I was turning into a lesbian. In spite of all the information available, and even Jack’s assurances that it was natural to be attracted to such beautiful people and for them to be attracted to me, I set out to prove I wasn’t a lesbian.
After I turned 18, I started going through the door between our rooms. Jack was reluctant, but not to the point of pushing me away. I was 18, beautiful, and willing. No, actually, I was more than willing. I let my love for him change, and by Christmas that year, we were only booking one room when we traveled. We were in Paris a year later when I told Jack I was pregnant. Marriage in France requires residency for at least 40 days, so we rented a cottage at Deauville and proceeded to get all our papers in order. We were married on the Ides of March by the mayor, who as far as I can tell has no other duties. Jack insisted on a prenuptial agreement that kept my trust separate from our joint estate. Damon was born in July and has dual citizenship. We returned to the U.S. in the fall and I started taking classes. I still did an occasional local modeling job, but I lost interest in it pretty quickly. It was too hard with a child and school.
aroslav: Did you complete your degree?
LISSA: I got an associates’ degree in Fashion Merchandising just after Drew was born. I’d already been working part-time for Forever Lily, and they made me a buyer after I started full-time.
aroslav: When did you become involved in racquetball?
LISSA: When I was trying to get my figure back after Damon was born. Jack insisted. He said that I would regret it if I didn’t lose the birth weight because I’d grown to identify so strongly with my body image as a model. I did the usual workouts at a gym and even had a trainer, but they were boring. So I asked what I could do that was fun. My trainer suggested tennis, but I found that too slow. Racquetball, though, is so much faster. It’s exciting. I got pretty good at it. I started competing three years ago.
aroslav: Is it painful to talk about your divorce?
LISSA: Yes and no. It’s sad that Jack and I didn’t stay married. He’s still very important to me. We were together for 11 years, married for four. He fathered my two beautiful boys and loves them so much it’s beautiful. He made sure I was well-cared for, insisted that I buy a house and protect my investments, and then shared his property with me. The pre-nup only protected my assets from him. Under Washington laws, everything else was split equally and I transferred half my individual assets to a trust for the boys. I’m not rich, but I own a home and I know that between Jack and me the boys are well taken care of. I couldn’t be starting a business without Jack there to share responsibility for the children.
aroslav: Tell me about the business. When did you start considering it?
LISSA: A couple of years ago...actually three. It was my first open tournament and I was competing in the 24-and-under age group with my brand new Division A ranking. I got clobbered in the third round. But it was great fun and I spent a good bit of time expanding my wardrobe from the various vendors who were displaying in the tradeshow. Each time I looked at a clothing exhibitor I thought, “Oh, if that were my line, I’d...” The seed was born and I started thinking about what I’d actually do with a line of sportswear. As I traveled representing Forever Lily, it was easy to make contacts with various manufacturers and I spent some time learning the ins and outs of having a clothing line. I never imagined it on the scale of what we are planning now, though. I thought I’d have a little table at the exhibitions and sell a few outfits.
aroslav: Sounds like there’s a lot riding on Opens this year.
LISSA: Yes, but we’re stacking the deck. Don’t you just love the sound of The Ice Queen and Tornado Alley Ames in mixed doubles?
aroslav: Really? I didn’t know a college player could play in the U.S. Open Championships.
LISSA: Racquetball is an interesting sport. It’s not a varsity sport recognized by the NCAA. It’s called a club sport. Usually, a college player only plays intercollegiate tournaments, though the Ektelon National Singles Championship has both collegiate and non-collegiate divisions. Most colleges don’t “send” players to Opens. But the higher ranking players and those who have exceeded their eligibility at the college sometimes foot their own bill to go to Opens. Since Tony is going as my coach, we thought he might as well play, too. It will be good experience as he goes into the intercollegiate season and will give him some chops as he organizes SCU’s club.
aroslav: Do you tour with the national team?
LISSA: It’s optional. I am usually able to get to a couple of matches. Last fall I toured a lot, but after Christmas I really wasn’t interested in being away that much.
aroslav: Tony and Melody?
LISSA: Well, I’d be lying if I said they didn’t make me want to be home more. What a great reason not to get out of bed in the morning. But it was really the boys. I was away too much.
aroslav: Tell me about being a parent and a single mom.
LISSA: God. Nobody told me. I love Damon and Drew. They are the most important people in my life...bar none. I would do anything anytime I needed to for their health and well-being. That being said, I’m still thankful every day that Jack is in their lives. Since we’ve been divorced, he has taken on even more of a role than I have in their lives. We share custody and rotate back and forth each week unless I’m traveling. I get them on Friday after school until the next Friday after school and then Jack takes them. It’s really nice to have my first day with the kids be the weekend. It makes it exciting for all of us to get together. That’s the opposite of what a lot of kids in this situation get. They get dropped off Sunday night and all they can think about is school the next day and you have to get them to bed early and make sure their homework is done. This way is much nicer for all of us.
aroslav: How do Melody and Tony fit in to the family?
LISSA: Of course, they’re great. The day Damon interrupted Tony just as he was getting ready to paint and I heard Tony tell him that his family was more important than any picture he had to draw, I ran to the bathroom and cried for half an hour. But, it’s so hard for them—I mean Tony and Melody. Melody picked up so much slack while I was sick and then when we got back home, but she’s not the boys’ nanny. Jack and I split the cost of Molly because we’d both be overwhelmed otherwise, and we’ve been with them since they were born. Tony and Melody are only 19 and they get involved with me and it’s instant family. I expect them to act like Jack and me, but no matter how much they love the boys, they don’t have the same frame of reference.
It’s the one thing I struggle with most in our relationship. Not about sharing the boys with my life partners, but about how unfair it is to saddle them with this kind of responsibility when they are in college. Even an unplanned pregnancy can be easier to cope with than being 19 and realizing you have two kids aged four and seven and you can’t go out with your buddies tonight because you have to pick up the boys. Or worse, you can’t paint or get to class on time or get an assignment done. Who can possibly cope with that?
aroslav: With that different frame of reference that you have—being a little older, having life experiences that they don’t have including children, divorce, and travel—why did you ever become involved with them in the first place?
LISSA: Have I mentioned the fact that I’m not known for making good decisions? I think with my heart. Sometimes with my pussy. I opened the door between Jack’s and my room on my 18th birthday. I closed it the day we filed for divorce. I’d built up a lot of pressure on myself not to make a bad decision again and it earned me the reputation of Ice Queen both on and off the court.
Tony and I had been tossed together at the club when we posted for racquetball matches. I liked him right away. He was a brooding artist—what girl isn’t going to fall for that? But he was an intense player, too. Still, even though I was thawing, I hadn’t melted until I met Melody. I never thought I’d come between them, but I thought they’d be fun to play with. Turned out Melody thought so, too. So I helped her seduce Tony with the understanding that we’d all get together. In fact, I discovered just how good a seductress Melody is. Who was seducing whom?
But after that first weekend together, I knew we’d all changed. When I saw Tony’s mural painting, I was lost. It scared the hell out of me and I tried to back away from what I saw and what I felt, but they wouldn’t let me. I tried a couple more times, but each time I felt so wounded that I couldn’t help but go back to them. I’ll never leave them again—never try. I love them so much that my heart breaks when we’re apart. I know who Lissa Grant is, but I also know that she is so much more when she’s Lissa and Tony and Melody. I’m in love.
aroslav: It sounds wonderful.
LISSA: It is. I hate to cut this short, but I have a date tonight and Tony and Melody are waiting for me. Can we finish?
aroslav: Lissa, thank you for sharing so much with us. And good luck with the new business—and with your date tonight.
LISSA: You’re welcome. I can’t wait for the next chapter in our lives to unfold.
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
