DUTCH AND GINA: A SCANDAL IS BORN (9 page)

Gina’s heart began to pound.
 
The idea that a good man like Roman Wilkes could be caught up in this craziness was one of the worst things about this entire ordeal.

“Go and get him, Chris,” Gina said without conferring with Dutch.
 

“Wait a minute,” Allison intervened as Christian hung up the phone.
 
She looked at the president.
 
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir.
 
He’s the man they’re claiming to be the father of your son.
 
That’s why Max felt no contact should take place ever again.
 
At least not until this thing blows over.
 
Public opinion is already running negatively against you as it is.
 
This meeting with Roman Wilkes will only make it worst.”

“I hate to say it, G,” LaLa said, “but I agree with Allison.
 
What if the press gets wind of this visit?
 
Y’all wouldn’t hear the end of it.”

Gina understood their concerns, but that still didn’t make it right.
 
She looked at Dutch.
 
He was tired, she could see the strain all over his handsome face, and it would be easier for him to not allow Roman anywhere near them.
 

But she knew her husband, and she knew he was never the kind of man to take the easy way out.

“My wife,” he said to both Allison and LaLa, “will not sacrifice her friendship, with a very good man by the way, on the altar of public opinion.
 
To hell with public opinion.
 
Go and get him, Christian,” Dutch ordered and Christian, smiling, went to get him.
 

Gina leaned closer against his big, strong body.
 
Sometimes she could hardly believe how blessed she was to have a man like him.

By the time Roman dispersions Wilkes entered the Residence, the air in the room had gone from a kind of unsure hesitancy to outright tension.
 
But Roman was accustomed to being the center of other people’s derisions.
 
His job, as the criminal defense attorney to the stars, most of whom were generally guilty as sin, often landed him at odds with the public.
 
His only concern, at this point, was Gina.
 
She didn’t deserve to be treated this way.

“Good evening all,” Roman said as he entered, his bright white smile against his dark skin as alluring as it had been a decade ago when Gina first fell in love with him.
 
Their love affair was brief, Roman wasn’t the settling down/one woman type, but their friendship had been enduring.

Dutch and Gina stood up as Roman approached, his hand extended.
 
Dutch liked Roman because he cared about Gina and looked out for her best interest.
 
Roman liked Dutch because he loved Gina and Gina, to his ever loving disappointment, was devoted to Dutch.

“Mr. President, how are you?” he asked as they shook with a warm handshake.

“I’m good, Roman, good to see you again.”

“Same here. Only wish it were better circumstances, man.
 
I mean talk about the Looney tunes.”

Dutch laughed.
 

“These people crazy,” Roman continued, smiling too.
 
“It’s as if insanity rules these days.”
 
Then he looked at Gina.
 
She seemed more beautiful to him every time he saw her.
 
“Hello, Princess,” he said and reached over and gave her a hug.
 

LaLa and Allison glanced at each other as Roman held Gina.
  
And then they looked at Dutch.
 
Although they were disturbed by the contact, Dutch revealed nothing.

“I’m so sorry they got you involved in this,” Gina said as Roman removed his arms from around her.

“Oh, I can take it.
 
I’m used to the disgust of men.”
 
Then he looked at her with all sincerity.
 
“It’s you I’m worried about.”

Dutch looked at Gina as she smiled weakly.
 
The toll all of this, not just the ridiculous, media-invented scandals but the marriage itself, was taking on her was noticed most by him.
 

“I’m okay,” Gina said.
 

“Sure?”

“Yes, thanks.
 
I just never dreamed they would take it this far.”

“If it’s politics,” Roman said, “it’s too far.
 
And you can take that to the bank and cash it.”

Gina smiled as the door to the sitting room opened and a presidential aide stepped inside.

“Listen, Roman,” Dutch said, extending his hand, “I have a meeting.
 
But please feel free to spend time here with Regina, I know you two needs to talk about Marcus Rance--”

“Yes, we do--”

“So feel free.
 
And nice seeing you again.”

“You, too, sir,” Roman said, shaking his extended hand.
 
“And all I want to say, sir, is that I can tell you with a one hundred percent degree of certainty that I am not the father of your son.”

Dutch laughed.
 
“Take care,” he said and left the room.
 
LaLa and Allison also bid their farewells, and left too.

Roman sat down beside Gina and crossed his legs.
 
“Alone at last,” he said.
 
Then he stared at her.
 
“How are you really, G?” he asked her.
 
“And I don’t want the public answer that you’re just fine and dandy.
 
I want the truth.”

Gina exhaled.
 
Her relationship with Roman had always been a direct one, even when she found out he was seeing other women.
 
She confronted him, he was straight with her, and that was the end of that chapter in their lives.
 

But they somehow managed to remain friends.

“I’m not so great,” she admitted.
 
“I mean, I know some folks in this town had a problem with me and my style and my outspokenness and--”

“And your color,” Roman offered.

“But for them to even suggest that I would cheat on Dutch just astounds me.
 
I’m like where in the world did that come from?”

“Especially when it should be the other way around,” Roman said.

Gina found that an odd comment.
 
“What do you mean?” she asked him.

“I mean your husband,” Roman said pointblank. “Wham Bam Harber, remember?
 
The ladies man of ladies men?
 
I don’t want to be disrespectful, G, but he’s the one with the reputation with the opposite sex, not you.
 
You lived the life of a nun compared to him.”

“That was before we were married,” Gina made clear.

“I understand that.”

“That was before he met me.
 
So I don’t see why you need to bring up something like that when it doesn’t have anything to do with me and Dutch now.”

“I’m just stating a fact, G.
 
Dutch Harber got around, but it’s you they want to call the slut?
 
Seriously?
 
And it’s not just before he was married either.
 
Look at that mess with all of those women just a few months ago, and you were pregnant, G.
 
That was some crazy shit he put you through.”

Gina frowned.
 
“He didn’t put me through anything, what are you talking about?
 
You can’t blame him for what happened, he had no control over that.
 
And if you think for a second I’m going to let you just sit up here and run down my husband then you can say your goodbyes now, Ro, because I don’t need a friend like that.”

Roman, realizing his slip-up, smiled his charming smile and threw his hands in the air.
 
“Hey, wait a minute,” he said, “I come in peace.”

“You’re my friend, and I love you as a good friend of mine, but I’m not about to let you or anybody else talk about Dutch as if he’s some whore from way back who still have those tendencies.
 
It’s not true and you saying it don’t make it true.”

Roman considered her.
 
He always suspected she was blind when it came to that ladies man side of her husband.
 
But the thing about men who like the ladies, as Roman did, as he was convinced Dutch still did, they could never keep their true nature clamped down for long.
 
Just as Roman was beginning to feel stronger feelings for Gina, the feelings he wish he had for her when they were together, Dutch Harber wasn’t above those feelings either.
 
If the right woman came along.

And if that right woman did come, Roman was determined to be in perfect position to comfort Gina with a love she’d never want to lose again.

“I apologize if that’s how I was coming off,” he said.
 
“I like the president, you know I do.
 
It just angers me that he’s not doing more to squelch this craziness.”

“There’s nothing more he can do.”

“He can bundle up that baby and let the world see him, for starters.”

“They saw him.
 
Dutch released that photo this morning, remember?
 
But they still aren’t satisfied.
 
Now they want DNA tests.
 
DNA tests, Roman.”

“Then give’em DNA tests.”

“Why?
 
To prove what we already know?
 
Besides, they won’t believe the results and you know it.
 
All kinds of conspiracy theories will bounce around.
 
They’ll declare we rigged the tests or tampered with the results or something to prove their theories.”
 
Then she looked at Roman as if she had suddenly been enlightened.
 
“Unless you want to take the test, not to clear me, but to clear you?”

“Come on, Gina, what do you take me for?”
 
He touched her hand.
 
“I would love to be the father of your child, are you kidding me?”

Roman didn’t intend to go that far.
 
He looked at Gina.
 
She was staring at him.

“You had your chance, Ro,” she said, sliding her hand from his grasp.

“I understand that.”

“I wasn’t woman enough for you.”

“That’s not true.
 
I just didn’t realize what I had.”

“Well Dutch realizes what he has, and I realize what I have.”

“The point I’m making,” Roman clarified, disappointment surging within him, “is that I don’t have a problem with the rumors.
 
But I know they’re killing you.
 
And if you were my woman and I saw this country treating you this way, I’d put a stop to it.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“I think it is.”

“Well you think wrong.
 
Nothing will satisfy these people and we refuse to get caught up in their catch-22.
 
We give them a photo, they want video, then a live shot, then DNA, then another DNA test with the test being performed on reality TV, then on and on and on.
 
Nothing but the next big story will put a stop to this.
 
So we have to sit back and wait for that next big story to come; a story that will capture the imagination of the American people and get that fickle press off our backs.”

Roman shook his head, genuinely concerned for Gina.
 
“Some life you have,” he said.