Just Another Damn Love Story (18 page)

“What on Earth are you two talking about?”

“I’m talking about my man Sterling,”  David said.  “As the CEO’s wife, you’ll get first dibs on all the latest high dollar stuff.”

“Sterling is not the CEO of Vespasian,”  Kim said, waving them off.

All eyes in the room shifted to Sterling.

“Actually, I am.”

Kim recoiled slightly.

“Come on Kimmie, don’t pretend like you didn’t know!”  Shaun said, wrapping his arms around her.

“I didn’t,”  Kim said softly.  “
CEO
, Sterling?”

Sterling shrugged.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kim asked.  It was almost a whisper.

“Tell you what?”  Sterling asked, turning up his palms.  “I thought you knew.  I mean, the subject never really came up.  You knew that I was an executive, I figured you kinda knew what my position was.”

“No, I didn’t.  How could I have known, unless you told me. 
CEO
?”  Kim turned to Shaun.  “How long have you known.”

“David told me,”  Shaun said pointing toward him.

Kim turned toward David.  “How long have you known?”

“Since the library dedication,”  David said softly.

“Library dedication?”  She turned toward Sterling, who lowered his head.  She turned back toward David.  “What library dedication?”

“At The New York School for The Gifted and Talented,”  David told her.

“You gave money to a library?” Kim asked Sterling.

Sterling nodded.

“A library?  What library?"  Kim's thought process worked rapidly.  Like all New Yorkers she knew of the Gifted and Talented school.  She also knew what grade levels the school taught.  Still, she had to ask the question; she had to hear it from him.  "Why
that
particular school, Sterling?” 

“Because my son goes there.”

Kimberly’s mouth fell open and she gasped.  Her breathing became heavy and labored.

“Kim…”  Sterling reached for her.

“No!”  She pulled away, and began backing out of the kitchen.  “You have a
son
, Sterling?”

“Yes,”  Sterling said, reaching for her again.  “I was going to talk to you about that.”

“You were going to talk to me about it?”  Kim shouted.  “When?  When were you going to tell me that you had a child, Sterling?  When?  At his graduation?  When his mother busted out my car windows?”

“It’s not like that, Kim.”

“It’s not like what?”  Kim shouted.  “You have a child, Sterling!  A child!”

“I was going to tell you about him!”

“I asked you, Sterling!  I asked you, and you lied to me!  I can’t believe you lied to me!”

“I didn’t lie to you.  I never got a chance to tell you.”

“You never got a chance to tell me?”  Kim shouted.  “All of the time that we’ve spent together, and you couldn’t find ten seconds to tell me that you had a child?”

“Kim…”

“No, Sterling!  You deceived me!  You
lied
to me, and you betrayed my trust in you?”

“How did I betray your trust?”

“I had a
right
to know, Sterling!  I should have been able to decide whether I wanted to be in a relationship with you.  I should have been able to make that decision, before my heart got involved.  I should have been able to make that decision, without getting hurt!  What you did, is fucked up, Sterling!”

Brittany and Mia rushed into the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”  Brittany asked.

“I’m sorry, Brit,”  Kim told her.  “I don’t want to ruin your birthday, so I’m going to go.”

“Kim, what’s the matter?”  Mia asked.

“This asshole is the CEO of Vespasian,
and
he has a child!”

Mia and Brittany both shifted their glance toward Sterling.

“I have a son,”  Sterling announced.  “His name is Sterling Barrington Williams III.  He is my only child.  I was once married, and he is a product of that marriage.”

Kim began to hyperventilate.  “You don’t think I should have known all of this? 
You son of a bitch!
”

“Kim…”

Brittany held up her hand, stopping him.  Mia grabbed Kim, and led her out of the kitchen and into the bedroom to lay down.

“Brit…”

Brittany again held up her hand and silenced him.  “Sterling, I don’t know what to say, or what to tell you.  But for right now, I think that it’s best that you leave.  We’ll take care of Kimmie.  All I can say is that I’ll be praying that everything works out for you two, and that she’ll call you when she’s ready.”

Sterling headed for the door, with the crowd parting and making way for him.   Passing through the apartment full of judgmental eyes made him feel a way that he had never felt before.  He was the CEO of his own company.  He had graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard.  He had graduated at the top of his high school class.  Never in his life had he been made to feel inadequate until that moment.  Their eyes made him feel as though he were the lowest life form on Earth, and that he didn’t deserve to be among human beings.  He closed the door to the apartment, wondering what had went wrong, and how things had degenerated so rapidly.  He went from wanting to marry Kim, to being the bane of her existence.  How he was going to make this one right, he had no idea.  But what he did know, was that he loved her, and that he was
in love
with her.  He knew that he wanted to share the rest of his life with her.

Chapter Twenty Three

“Come in!”  Sterling shouted.

Gianna pushed open the door to his office and stepped inside.  “You wanted to see me, boss?”

“Yes,”  Sterling waved his hand, motioning for her to take the seat opposite his desk.  “Sit down.”

Gianna seated herself, and crossed her legs.

“Wilson tells me that you turned down his offer to be CEO of our women’s line.”

Gianna leaned back in her seat.  “I did.”

“Why?  Gianna, don’t you realize the importance of this position?  It’s a huge jump in pay for you. It would also make you a vice president in the parent company.”

“Some things are more important than money,”  she told him.

This time, it was Sterling who leaned back.  He examined her carefully, as if to try to gain some measure of her soul.

“This promotion, it would mean that I would have to leave Italy and come to America.  I do not want to leave my family.  Italy is my home.”

“You can fly home on the weekends if you like.”

Gianna shook her head.  “No thanks, I’ll pass.”

“I can’t believe you are turning down this promotion.”

Gianna shrugged.  “What does this promotion give me that I don’t already have?  Money?  I make plenty of money.  Freedom?  I have complete creative freedom already.  It would bring only headache, and distract me from what I truly love, which is design.”

Sterling exhaled.  He knew that she was right.  But he also knew that she would have been perfect for the position.  Now, he would have to keep searching.  The question was, once he found someone, what if that person’s vision clashed with Gianna’s?  Would he back Gianna, his bread and butter?  The woman whose vision had taken his company thus far?  Or would he back his new CEO?  No doubt he would probably end up backing Gianna, the young woman who had been with him almost from the start.  But that would definitely leave bad blood between him and his newly hired executive.  And in this industry, where egos were larger than entire solar systems, perceived slights could come back and haunt a person years down the line.

“You’re thinking about me?”  Gianna asked with a smile.  “Taking my measure.  Wondering who is this woman who turns down this glorious position?”

Sterling laughed.

“I never wanted my own house,”  Gianna told him, in her thick Italian accent.  “I only wanted to design beautiful clothes.”

Sterling nodded.  “I remember.”

Gianna smiled.  It was a crooked little smile, one that only she and the Mona Lisa could conjure.  “I was sixteen.”

“That day outside of the fashion expose in Milan,”  Sterling continued.

“And you were the only one who would listen to me,”  Gianna said.  “You took the time to look at a young girls design portfolio.  The
only
one.”

“I’m glad that I did,”  Sterling said.  “Even then, your designs were ahead of their time.  You are an amazing talent.”

Gianna nodded.  “And you are an amazing person for seeing it, and for giving me a chance.  It is he who has the bigger heart, who sees and encourages greatness in others.  I remember my grandmother telling me, that the true measure of a person’s soul, is how they treat someone who can do nothing for them.  I could do nothing for you, Sterling, and yet you treated me with respect, and kindness, and dignity.”

Sterling ran his hands over his face, rubbing his weary eyes.

“Long days?”  Gianna asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Even longer nights,”  Sterling said nodding.

“Love is not worth it, if it doesn’t make you suffer.”

“What?”  He lifted his head.  Her statement had taken him by surprise.

“But in the end, you must go to her,”  Gianna continued.  “You must make things right.”

“What are you talking about?”  Sterling asked.  “What have you heard?”

“Everything,”  Gianna smiled.  “This industry is too small to keep secrets.  Especially secrets of the heart.  The great Sterling Williams and the love of his life had a public falling out?  Wilson and Marvette pulled every string they had to keep it out of the tabloids.  But still, models talk.”

“Ah,”  Sterling nodded.  There had been several models at the party.  As well as a few people he recognized from various magazines.  He knew that eventually things would get out.  He figured that he would probably make page three of the Posts, and maybe even page five of the Times.  He was grateful to Wilson and to his publicist that they had been able to squash the story and keep it out of the papers and the tabloids.

“You love her?”  Gianna asked.

Sterling nodded, while staring off into space.

“And she is upset because you lied to her?”

“I did not tell her about Third,”  Sterling explained.

“And this woman, she is angry because of this?”  Gianna asked, with her thick Italian accent on full display.  “She should have been happy.  You have a family already, and she didn’t have to lay on the table and let the doctor take it out of her!”

Sterling laughed heartily.  “American women don’t think like that, Gianna.”

“Why not?  Woman is woman.  No pain is good.  American woman have baby
is
pain, Italian woman have baby
is
pain.  All the same.  No pain is good!”

“She feels like I lied to her,”  Sterling explained.  “Like I deceived her because I didn’t tell her.  She had problems with her last boyfriend because of his children’s mothers.”

“And she blames you for this?”

Sterling shook his head.  “No, but she doesn’t want to go through the same thing again.”

“This I don’t understand.  They say that America is great.  Land of optimism.  But yet, people in America are cynical.  They don’t give chances here in America.  This woman, she did not give you chance to fail or succeed.”

“She did,”  Sterling said softly.  “And I failed her.”

“No,”  Gianna said, shaking her head.  “You are not that man, Sterling Williams.  I know you.”

“I did, Gianna,”  Sterling told her.  “I should have told her.  I could have told her any number of times.  I was just so scared that I would mess things up.  I kept putting it off.  I kept telling myself that I would tell her at the right time.  I was always searching for a better time, but that time never came.”

“And now her heart is broken because she feels like she cannot trust you?”  Gianna asked.

“Exactly,”  Sterling said, nodding.

“I vouch for you,”  Gianna smiled.  “Sterling is good man.  A man who gives people chances.  A man who sees the best in people.  I trust, and so she can trust.”

“I wish it were that easy.”

“I’m flying back to Italy on Friday,”  Gianna told him.  “How is the women’s line coming along?”

“Very well,”  Sterling said, piping up.  “We just need someone to run the show for us.”

“I have the designs ready for fall, winter, spring, and summer.  You will love them all.  Also, I have designed two more handbags, and a line of scarves.”

“You are
fantastic
, Gianna.  I don’t know what we would do without you.”

“You know that I hired my younger sister.”

Sterling nodded. “I heard something about that.”

“She is more talented than me,”  Gianna smiled.  “Wait until I send you some of
her
designs.”

“I can’t wait to see them.”

“I will run the line for you from Italy, until you find someone, Sterling.”

“Gianna, it really has to be done from here,”  Sterling told her.  “If for no other reason than the daily stuff that we need to consult on.  Everything is basically done from here.  Our marketing department is here, our finance department is here, our buyer coordinator, our entire corporate structure is here.  Italy is basically our faux corporate headquarters and our design studio.  There is no way to run a major division of the company outside of this building.  You’d be on the telephone or in video conference ninety percent of the day.”

“I’ll fly back and forth to New York, and help to get the house set up, until you find someone permanently.”

“It will take away from your design time,”  Sterling warned.

“I want to help you, Sterling.”

“What changed your mind, Gianna?”

“Remembering how you gave a sixteen year old girl a chance.”

“You’re the right person for this job,”  Sterling told her.

“As soon as you find someone, I want out.  I go back to my little design studio.”

“Little?”  Sterling lifted an eyebrow and smiled.  “Your little design studio is bigger than my new office.  Five times bigger!”

“Oh Sterling, let’s not fuss over the little things.”

“I guess I can’t complain,”  Sterling smiled. “You’re a vice president now.  Vice President of Vespasian Group, and CEO of Vespasian Woman Ltd.”