Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now (14 page)

“Yeah.
 
That’s what Carmen said.”

“What for?”

“How should
I know, Joey?
 
I just got the call.”

Joey shook
his head.
 
“He favors you and Teddy.
 
He always has.”

Gloria
looked at him.
 
“He favors me?
 
How does he favor me?
 
I’m one of dozens of staff assistants that he
pretty much ignores all day long.
 
How is
that favoritism?”

“At least
you’re on his staff,” Joey said.
 
“At
least you get to see him all day.
 
I’m
stuck down here in this dungeon all day.
 
And he almost never comes to see about me.”

Gloria
considered her half-brother.
 
Joey was
the youngest, and seemed to crave their father’s attention the most.
 
He also was the one who believed most
fervently that their father, by virtue of his absence in their lives growing
up, owed him.
 
Gloria slid down off of
the countertop.
 
“He’s never going to
baby us, Joey,” she reminded him.
 
“That’s just how it is.
 
He’s
never going to be some doting father concerned about our every move.
 
He blew that chance when we were kids.
 
Maybe he’ll make it up with the twins.
 
Maybe they’ll get the new and improved Mick
Sinatra.
 
We’ve got Dad.
 
That ship has already passed for us.”

They shared
a momentary glance that was almost as bitter as it was sad.
 
Because they both knew a profound truth:
their father, for all of his changes by bringing them into his business and
attempting to be a part of their lives, was still, on an emotional level,
failing them miserably.

“I’d better
get to my desk and await his call,” Gloria said, squeezed her kid brother’s
shoulder, and left.

Joey just
stood there, cold and alone and suddenly miserable.
 
He tossed the stack of mail aside, and left
his station.
 
“I’m going on break,” he
said to his staff.
 
His staff, five men
much older than he was, didn’t bat an eye.
 
The boss’s kid did whatever the hell he wanted, as far as they were
concerned.

It would be
another hour before Mick could see Gloria, and even then he was preparing to
leave for another meeting across town.
 
But he had a question for her.

He stood
behind his desk, putting on his suit coat, when she walked in.
 
“You wanted to see me, sir?” she asked him.

Mick looked
at her as he pulled down his shirtsleeve beneath his coat sleeve.
 
A part of him hurt deeply whenever his
children were in his presence.
 
Because
he could see their continued uncomfortableness around him.
 
And the fear in their eyes.
 
“Sit down,” he said to her.

She sat in
front of his desk.
 
“Have I done
something wrong?” she asked.

But her
father, being her father, rarely answered their questions.
 
But fully expected them to answer his.
 
“What was that about last night?” he asked
her.

She wanted
to ask him to clarify, but she knew that would only anger him.
 
She knew what he meant.
 
“I asked your wife to put in a word for
Fonz.
 
He’s an actor trying to break
through and he really wanted that part.
 
I was under the impression she had put in a word for him.
 
But she hadn’t.
 
It was disappointing, that’s all.”

“You
threatened to tell,” Mick said.
 
“To tell
what?”

Gloria didn’t
want to go there because she knew how it would end: he would take his wife’s
word over hers all day long.

“What were
you threatening to tell, Gloria?” he asked again.

“That Roz is
no angel,” she said before she realized she was saying it.
 
She knew her father didn’t particularly like
his children referring to Roz by her first name.
 
He preferred they call her Ma or something
equivalent.
 
And sometimes they did, and
sometimes they didn’t.
 
She wasn’t about
to after last night.
 
“That’s what I
threatened to tell.
 
That she’s not as
perfect and angelic as you think.”

Mick stared
at her.
 
“Explain what you mean,” he
ordered her.

“She’s not
angelic, that’s what I mean.”
 
Then she
hesitated.
 
“We saw her.”

“Who are
we
,” Mick asked, “and what did you see?”

“Fonz and I
saw her at this restaurant,” Gloria said.
 
“With this man,” she added and then looked her father in the eyes.
 
“They were super friendly.
 
And I mean super friendly, Dad.
 
Like touching and kissing.”

Mick stared
at his daughter.
 
“Touching and kissing?”

“Yes!
 
I saw it with my own two eyes.”

Mick
continued to study his child.
 
Why was
she lying on Rosalind?
 
Just because she
didn’t recommend her sorry excuse of a boyfriend for a part in some stupid
play?
 
He expected more out of
Gloria.
 
“Why would you suggest that my
wife is having an affair?”

Gloria
smiled and shook her head.
 
“That’s why I
didn’t want to tell you,” she said.
 
“You
wouldn’t believe me even if I showed you a video.”
 
She stood up.
 
“Is there anything else you want, Dad?”

“I want you
to answer my question.
 
Why are you
implying that your stepmother is having an affair?”

Gloria
became angry.
 
And like all of his
children’s anger, it had more to do with him than the subject at hand.
 
“Because she is, alright?
 
I saw what I saw.
 
You can believe me or not, which I’m sure you
won’t, but I don’t care.
 
But I saw her
kissing and hugging another man.
 
I saw
it with my own two eyes.”
 
Tears were
about to appear in Gloria’s own big eyes.
 
“Now may I leave?” she asked.
 
“I
have work to do.”

Mick felt an
odd sense of burden when he saw that she was near tears.
 
He wanted to hold her.
 
He wanted to comfort her.
 
But she had just made a harsh accusation
about his wife.
 
He wasn’t ever going to
reward that.
 
“You may leave,” he said.

Gloria
stared at Mick.
 
“I’m not lying, Dad,”
she said firmly, before she left.

Later that
night, Deuce McCurry drove Roz through the gates of the Sinatra compound, and
parked, as he always did, at the foot of the steps that led to the front door.

“Have a good
evening, Deuce,” Roz said as the house valet walked down the steps and opened
the car door for her.

“You do the
same, ma’am,” Deuce responded.

His job was
to tabulate his hours for that day in the limo’s computer, and then drive it to
the garage.
 
But while he was tabulating,
and to his total surprise, the front door of the limousine opened, and Mick got
in beside him.

Deuce was
surprised.
 
“Boss,” he said.
 
“Where to?”
  
He knew Mick didn’t want to go anywhere because he was sitting in the
front seat, something he never did.
 
But
it was Deuce’s job to ask.

“Anything
you need to tell me?” Mick asked him.

Deuce knew
the only reason Mick was asking was because he knew what was going on, and he
wasn’t about to feign ignorance.
 
“She’s
been meeting with a guy,” he said.

Mick’s heart
dropped.
 
It was one thing to hear it
from Gloria, who had a dog in the fight.
 
Deuce had no such bias.
 
“Who?” he
asked.

Deuce shook
his head.
 
“Don’t know him.”

“You’ve seen
him?”

Deuce
nod.
 
“Yes, sir.
 
Several times.
 
Tall, good looking guy.
 
Her type.”

Mick didn’t
like to think she had a type outside of him.
 
But he knew she had.
 
“Where did
they meet?”

“Restaurants
usually.
 
But always in some out of the
way place.
 
None of her regular places.”

“Do you know
his name?”

“She calls him
William.”

Mick’s jaw
tightened, but he just sat there.
 
For a
long time.
 
Deuce wondered if he was
contemplating his own pain, or the pain he was going to inflict on Roz.
 
Because Deuce knew she was going to be
punished.

“You told me
not to spy on her, boss,” Deuce volunteered.
 
“That’s why I didn’t tell you.
 
Although I knew you had a right to know.
 
But you told me it was not my job to spy on her.”

“I know what
I told you,” Mick said dryly, his mind still in deep contemplation, his face a
mask of deep concern.
 
And he continued
to just sit there, thinking.
 
Sizing
things up.

Then, after
several minutes, he exhaled.
 
“Have a
good evening, Deuce,” he said to his longtime employee, got out of the limo,
and went into the house.
 

Deuce let
out a strong sigh of relief.
 
Mick didn’t
kill him for not telling him sooner.
 
He
felt as if he had dodged a bullet.
 
Now
he could only hope and pray that Mick, who could not abide disloyalty of any
kind he didn’t care who was the offending party, extend that same reprieve to
Roz.

Mick was
lying naked in bed, on top of the covers, by the time Roz got out of the
tub.
 
She had been soaking for nearly an
hour, after spending most of her evening with the twins, and was now looking
forward to relaxation with Mick.

But Mick was
still unsettled.
 
He was still in a state
of agitation.
 
He still didn’t know what
to make of what he’d learned.
 
It was one
thing to hear it from Gloria.
 
She had a
bone to pick with his wife.
 
Rosalind
didn’t recommend her friend, and suddenly she had the goods on Rosalind. It
seemed too convenient to him.
 
But when
Deuce admitted the same thing; when Deuce said Roz had been meeting up with
some man in some restaurant, it changed everything.
 
He didn’t know what to make of it now.

Roz was
naked too by the time she walked into the bedroom.
 
But despite Mick’s misgivings, she was still
a wonderful sight to behold to him.
 
He
was already rubbing his dick, but when she walked in, he didn’t have to.
 
It began to react all on its own.
 
Roz smiled as he grew larger and larger
before her very eyes.
 
It still seemed
magical to her.

She stood at
the side of the bed and looked at him.
 
At his sculptured body first, and then into his eyes.
 
But what she saw in his eyes concerned her.
 
Was he that exhausted?
 
“You okay?” she asked him.

He took her
small hand and placed his fingers between her fingers.
 
“What about you?
 
You okay?”

 
The stress was all over his face.
 
Even in his voice.
 
Something had happened at work, she assumed,
that still had him reeling.
 
But Mick
never launched into his problems like that.
 
He probably was never going to tell her.
 
Her job, as she saw it, wasn’t to add to his stress by asking him a lot
of questions, but to soothe him when he was in distress.

She soothed
him.
 
She sat on the edge of the bed,
leaned down, and put his penis in her mouth.

Mick moaned
when first she touched him, and then began to suck and lick him.
 
He rubbed her back as she went down on him in
that loving way he adored.
 
She knew
exactly what he needed: relief.
 
Sweet
relief.

But as she
did him so expertly, he couldn’t stop thinking about this William person and if
she had ever had her beautiful mouth on his disgusting penis.
 
And then he caught himself.
 
Roz would never do that to him.
 
Never!
 
But Roz could feel his sudden pullback.
 
She looked up.

“What’s
wrong?” she asked him, confused.
 
Usually
her oral did as it was intended.
 
Usually, her oral did even more than that.

But not this
time.

She was especially
concerned when, instead of telling her to continue, he sat up on the edge of
the bed beside her.
 
“What is it, Mick?”
she asked him.

Mick sat
there momentarily, then looked at her.
 
He wanted to touch her beautiful face.
 
He wanted to blindly keep going and pretend he had not heard what he had
heard.
 
But he did not have a blind bone
in his body.
 
“Who is William?” he asked.

He could see
Roz’s entire look change.
 
And it floored
him.
 
“Why would you ask that?” she asked
him.

He stared at
her.
 
She knew he was not going to answer
her, but he absolutely expected her to answer him.
 
That was Mick’s way.
 
But she had her own way too.
 
“Why are you concerned about William?”

“Who is he?”

“Why?”

Mick’s
patience was gone.
 
His anger rose.
 
“Who the fuck is he, Roz?” he blared.
 
“Answer me before I kick your ass!”

“Don’t talk
to me like that!”

“Who is he?”

“He’s a
friend of mine, alright?”

“A
boyfriend?”

Roz
frowned.
 
“How dare you ask me a question
like that?
  
Of course he’s not my
boyfriend, Mick, you go to hell!”

She moved to
get up, but Mick pulled her back down, her breasts bouncing like jugs of water
from the pulldown.
 
“What are these
meetings about?”

“What
meetings?”

“You haven’t
been meeting with him?”

“I’ve had
lunch with him a few times, if that’s what you mean.”

“You kissed
him during these lunches?
 
You hugged
him?”

“We hug and
kiss when we meet, like friends do.
 
Yes,
we did.
 
So what?”

“So why the
fuck have I never heard of him?
 
Why the
fuck did you never mention him to me, if he’s such a friend?”

“Since when
do I have to mention every friend I have to you?
 
Is this a marriage or an imprisonment, Mick?”

Mick
frowned.
 
“Imprisonment?”
 
He was so angry by her characterization, and
by the idea that she was kissing and hugging on some man, that he grabbed her,
pulled her over his knee, and began wailing on her behind.
 
“You want punishment?” he angrily asked as he
spanked her.
 
“I’ll give your ass
punishment!”

“Mick,
stop!” she kept yelling as he spanked her.
 
“Mick, stop!”

She managed
to pull away from him, and stand on her own two feet, forcing him to stop.
 
And her anger was equally high.
 
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked him.
 
“I told you he was just a friend!
 
He’s not even straight!”

Mick stared
at her.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She didn’t
want to go there, she didn’t feel she should have had to betray a friend’s
confidence, but Mick was taking this too far!
 
“William is a director who also happens to be a friend of mine.
 
And in answer to your question, he’s gay
undercover.
 
That’s what it means.
 
Alright?
 
His parents came up from Arkansas, his very conservative, very religious
parents, and he needed me to be his beard at a few lunch dates.
 
That’s it.
 
And yes, we were affectionate.
 
He
would have killed himself if his parents found out the truth, and I mean killed
himself.
 
He’s like that.
 
So yes, I helped him out.
 
Once or twice his parents wanted us to show
affection, and William accommodated them.
 
But it was an act.
 
It was
nothing.”

It sounded
far-fetched to Mick, but all of those showbiz types were oddballs to him.
 
But that still didn’t negate the fact that
this William was a man, gay his ass, and Roz was kissing on him.
 
Mick stood too.
 
“You don’t kiss on any man but me,” he made
himself clear.
 
“You hear me?
 
I don’t give a fuck who he is!”

“He was just
a friend!”

“I don’t
care, Rosalind!
 
I don’t care!
 
Because I know men.
 
Pretending to be gay is an act for many of
them too.
  
You see it as some innocent
friendship.
 
He sees it totally
differently.
 
Nobody is coming between
us!”

“He’s not
trying to, Mick!
 
He’s just a
friend.
 
Stop turning it into something
it’s not!”

Mick was
torn.
 
Because he realized he had to do
something he would never dream of doing, given what he knew, with any other
human being.
 
He had to believe her.
 
He couldn’t leave her, and he couldn’t stay
if he knew she was unfaithful.
 
So he had
to believe her.
 
For the first time in
his life, somebody else had control over what he did.

He went up
to Roz.
 
He expected her to wince, given
what he did to her before, but she didn’t.
 
She held her ground.
 
And he knew
even more what a prize he had.
 
And he
knew even stronger how she was a prize he was going to have to work overtime to
keep.

He placed
his hands on her arms and looked into her eyes.
 
“I apologize for not trusting you,” he said.
 
“I guess I was a little afraid.
 
No, that’s not true.
 
I know I was afraid.
 
Of losing you, Rosalind.”

Roz was
touched by his apology.
 
She was touched
by his sincerity.
 
But she was still
upset.
 
“Why would you think I would be
cheating on you just because I had lunch with a man?
 
How could you go there, Mick?
 
If I saw you having lunch with a woman I
wouldn’t automatically assume an affair.
 
Why wouldn’t you give me that benefit of the doubt?”

“If I was kissing
and hugging on that woman, even a lesbian woman, would you have given me the
benefit of the doubt?”

Roz didn’t
expect that comeback.
 
She had to
smile.
 
“Okay, okay, I get your
point.
 
It won’t happen anymore.
 
The only reason I agreed at all was because
I’m just about the only person that’s not his lover who knows he’s gay.”

Mick didn’t
even mention what Gloria had seen, and what Deuce had said, because he never
involved others in his own actions.
 
But
also, if he had to be honest with himself, it wasn’t about what they said or
seen anyway.
 
It was about him.
 
And his own insecurities.
 
“I’ve never felt as strongly about a woman as
I feel about you, Rosalind,” he admitted to her.
 
“And the idea that you could . . . that you
would . . .” He squeezed her arms.
 
“I
don’t want to ever lose you,” he said.
 
“That’s all I know.”

Roz felt the
same way about him, so she knew where he was coming from.
 
And she smiled, and placed a hand on the side
of his beautiful face.
 
“You won’t, Mick.
 
I can promise you that.”

He pulled
her into his arms.
 
And held her.
 
The vulnerability of it astounded him.
 
His heart felt as naked as his body was, and
it was a heady feeling.
 
Because it gave
way to desperation.
 
Because that was how
he felt at that very moment.
 
Desperate.
 
In deep love unlike he’d ever been in love
before.
 
Hungry for the only person who
could fill him.
 
Rosalind.

He began
kissing her.
 
Roz suspected it was going
to be rough by the pressure he put on her mouth, and by the tightness he held
her in his arms.
 
And when he lifted her,
and put her on the bed, and began massaging her with his fingers as he kissed
her, her suspicion was right on.
 
Mick
was drinking her dry.
 
He was kissing her
so passionately that she could barely breathe.
 
And the pressure on her body.
 
Her
ass was still red hot from his spanking, but that didn’t stop him from climbing
on top of her.

He put his
thick dick deep inside of her, and began fucking her hard.
 
Every now and then he put it on her this
way.
 
A rough fuck.
 
A fuck that was less about their love, or
even their lust, but more about his brand.
 
He was branding her all over again.
 
He was making sure they both knew whose she was.

But Roz
loved when he did her this way.
 
She held
on and let him pound the shit out of her.
 
Because she was giving as good as she was getting.
 
Mick was groaning as he fucked her, because
of how powerfully she gave.
 
He was
reminding her that she belonged to him.
 
But as she opened her legs wider, and wrapped them around his back, and
as he pounded harder and felt her wonderful muscles constrict around his cock,
she was reminding him of something too.
 
She was reminding him, just as strongly, that he belonged to her.