Something to Talk About (27 page)

Alicia stared at him with unhappy eyes and he leaned down to take her lips in a long and tender kiss. “I’m not leaving you, Allie. You’re my heart. But I’ve got to put some space between me and this whole mess. I’ll call you.” Before Alicia could say anything else, he turned and left the office.

Chapter Seventeen

John Flores sat behind his desk in a big swivel chair dutifully putting away the files he was taking from a corrugated box. He glanced up and realized this one box barely made a dent in the sea of cartons all waiting to be unpacked before the place would resemble an office. He was bone-tired and this was the last place he wanted to be, but the job had to be done. Thank God he had a helper, albeit a rather unwilling one. He pulled open the drawer in the center of the desk and located a small glass container of paper clips. With a smile on his handsome face he began pitching them into the very perfect updo of the woman who was kneeling next to a partially unpacked box, taking out books and arranging them in the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that made up one wall. A small tightening of her lips was the only indication that she was aware of his activity.

“Do you know how irritating that is? How childish?” she said in her ultra
-
precise diction.

“Yes, Miss Parker, I do. That’s why I’m doing it.”

She rose, and with a toss of her head, dislodged all the clips. “If you want me to get this office in some kind of order, I suggest you stop it now. And can you please explain to me what this is doing here?” She held up an oddly shaped piece of sporting equipment with a look of forbearance. “There’s a whole box full of this sort of thing, whatever it is.”

The apparatus in her hand was a long metal stick with an oval ring attached to the end of it, a ring that was strung with heavy cords like a misshapen basketball hoop. John smiled as he looked at the device.

“Careful with that, that’s my favorite lacrosse
stick
. I’ve been playing lacrosse since I was a kid and some of those sticks, the wooden ones, are antiques. I was planning to mount them on the wall.”

Miss Parker leaned the stick against the wall and dusted her hands together briskly. “Moderation is pleasant to the wise,” she murmured. “Wouldn’t a couple of nice diplomas do for decoration instead of these . . .
things?”

Before John could reply, he was rescued by the ringing of his cell phone. With a grateful grin he answered it. “Hello?”

His grin turned into a real smile as he recognized the friendly voice of Benita Cochran-Deveraux.

“Well, this is a pleasant surprise. How are you, Benita?”

“I’m just fine, John, and yourself?”

“Couldn’t be better.
I’m just trying to get acclimated to yo
ur Michigan weather and get settl
ed into the new office.”

“Sounds like you could use a break, like a nice meal,” she suggested. “I’m in Detroit with Clay and the children, would you like to meet for dinner tomorrow?”

“That sounds like a great idea. What time and where? Do you want to meet in Detroit? I’m still not too familiar with the area but I think it’s pretty close, right?”

“Yes, it is, but I haven’t been to Ann Arbor in a billion years, so let’s meet there. I think my brother Andrew is coming, too, if that’s okay.”

“Sure, the more the merrier,” he replied.

They agreed on a restaurant and a time to meet and John ended the call with a happy look on his face.
 
Belatedly he remembered there was someone else in the room and asked if she had plans for dinner the next day.

She looked at him over the top of her severely chic designer glasses and sniffed. “No, thank you. There’s a track club here in town and I’m going to see about joining. If I’m going to be here in the back of beyond for the next couple of months, I don’t want to get out of shape,” she said crisply.

Wouldn’t you have to get a shape in order to lose it
?
 
John
thought uncharitably and was immediately ashamed. It was just that Miss Parker was possibly the skinniest woman he’d ever seen apart from Olive
Oyl
and some truly emaciated models who’d participated in one of his therapy groups for eating disorders. She was rail thin, tall, and very fashionable, but she normally had the disposition of a pit viper. Always polite, always professional, but as cheerful as a fune
ral procession most of the time:
that was Miss Parker. To be honest he was glad she’d turned down the invitation he’d offered out of politeness.

They left the office shortl
y after the phone call,
each going in a different directi
on. John smiled to himself on his way to the temporary housing provided by the university. He was looking forward to seeing Benita again; he always enjoyed seeing her. Ever since their first encounter years before, she’d held a special place in his heart. He was too ho
norable and practical to waste ti
me railing against fate for bringing her into his life, but he had to occasionally laugh at the irony. There was something about Benita that he couldn’t ignore, couldn’t forget.

He knew in his heart that if she’d been single he would’ve tried to get to know her on a much more personal level, but her marriage made that impossible. He’d never seen two people more in love than Benita and Clay. Still, he couldn’t deny the way she affected him. There was something there, something he’d never found in another woman. He laughed bitterly, thinking about his new circumstances. God knew what he was doing after all. Even if she’d been free, they wouldn’t have a future together. The news he’d received two months before made that a certainty.
If you want to make God laugh, make plans.
He laughed again at the painful irony.

***

Roxy took a deep swallow from her glass of chilled mineral water with the slices of lime floating in it. She and Alicia were getting pedicures after a long day of pampering, as
Roxy
made
good on her promise to treat
Alicia
to a day at the spa. “So I was right and you were wrong,” Roxy gloated. “And aren’t you glad I was right?”

Alicia tired to look indifferent, then coy, and then gave up.
“Yes,
a thousand ti
mes yes,
Rox
. I’ve never been so glad to be wrong about anything in my life. Adam and I, we’re just... it’s just wonderful. I had no idea it could be like this between a man and a woman. My life feels like one of those juicy novels you always pretend you don’t read.”

Roxy raised an eyebrow. “Don’t
be
hatin
’
on me. If you ask me,
all
Janice Sims novels should be required reading for all couples. Her books are an education, honey. And you read them too, you know you do.”

Alicia gave her a very satisfied smile. “You’d better believe it. You’re going to be my maid of honor, you know.”

Roxy wiggled her toes in excitement, something that didn’t thrill the nail technician who was caring for her feet. “Sorry,” Roxy said winsomely, “but it’s not every day your best friend gets the man of her dreams. I’ll be still, I promise.”

Claudia, the nail tech, just smiled and waved away her apology. “I feel you, girl. When my sister got engaged I screamed so loud I lost my voice for three days, so you go ahead. Just let me know when you want to
holla
so I don’t snip you with these nippers,” she said, brandishing a sharp and ominous-looking tool.

In a short while they were ready to leave the spa, although Roxy confessed that she’d like to move in. “Can you imagine getting a massage like that every day?” She sighed.

Alicia agreed absentmindedly and her lack of attention didn’t escape Roxy’s keenly observant eye. “Your mind is a million miles away, isn’t it? You’re all caught up thinking about Adam and the lost Cochran, aren’t you? You have to take a step back, Alicia; you can’t let this consume you. If you go all mushy in the head you won’t be a bit of good to Adam. He’s going to need you to have a cool and neutral perspective. This is a lot of drama for any family, even one that’s used to the limelight like the Cochrans.”

“Drama is probably the right word.” They were in the Mini Cooper, driving in no particular direction. “Are you hungry?”

Roxy laughed. “Is fat meat greasy? Have you ever known me to not be hungry? What do you suggest?”

“My mother’s house.
Papi
is off the road for a couple of days and I know she has something wonderful to eat; she always does when her boys are home.”

Alicia was right, her mother indeed had a wonderful spread, succulent baked chicken, succotash made from peaches-and-cream corn and lima beans with sweet onions
,
okra and tomatoes, a luscious cucumber salad with a tart vinaigrette and sour cream, and best of all, collard and turnip greens and hot-water cornbread. Roxy sighed with repletion.

“Mrs. Fuentes, I haven’t had food this wonderful since the last time I ate at your house. Can you adopt me?” she asked, completely serious.

Raphael and Carlos, Alicia’s big handsome brothers, were sitting on either side of Roxy at the long dining room table. Both of them said “no” in loud resounding voices.

“Can’t do it, Foxy Roxy.
That would make you our sister,” Raphael explained. “And as soon as I get through sowing my wild oats I intend to marry you, so sorry, adoption is out of the question.”

Everyone laughed except Carlos, who frowned at Raphael. “Excuse me, but I’ve had my eye on Roxy for years and you know it. I told you years ago that she was the woman I planned to marry. This,” he said possessively, putting his arm around Roxy, “is the mother of my future children, so you can forget it.”

Roxy looked from Raphael to Carlos and smiled widely. They were both well over six feet, big, dark brown muscular men with thick shoulders and huge arms. They looked a lot like their father, Jose, with wide, handsome faces, thick black hair, thick eyebrows, and big pouty lips.

“You two need to quit I have witnesses and I plan to hold you both to those proposals. You won’t find it so easy to wriggle out of them in a court of law,” she said demurely.

While her brothers flirted outrageously with Roxy, Alicia helped her mother clear the table and clean the kitchen. Leah waited until they were alone in the kitchen and took both her daughter’s hands.

“What is it, sweetness? You must want to talk to me about something; you know the boys would have cleaned up the kitchen for me. Come and sit down, let’s talk,” she said, drawing Alicia over to the breakfast table.

“Adam is closing me out again. After he went over to talk to his father, he packed his bags and left town,” she said sadly.

Leah’s pretty face creased into a frown. Alicia looked very much like her
mother,
even more so since she’d cut her hair. Leah looked much the way she did when she was a
college student at
Spelman
in Atl
anta, where she swept a certain brash minor league baseball player off his feet with one look. She had the mature sexiness of a woman who is completely loved and completely happy, while still maintaining a youthful charm. But she also had the wisdom her daughter needed at the moment.

“He left town?
Without a word to you,
mija
?”

Alicia explained that this was a scheduled business trip, but under the circumstances Adam could easily have delegated someone else or rescheduled the trip. “He needed to be alone,
Mami
.
He had too much too deal with and he needed to put some space between him and his family. It’s all just too much for him to take in.” She sighed.

“Alicia,
mi
corazon
,
it seems like you already know what’s going on in his heart. You can’t torture yourself like this, you have to let him come to you in his own time and his own way,” Leah counseled.

“
Mami
,
Adam asked me to marry him. I can’t see how a marriage can survive if he’s going to keep doing this. He gets cold and distant and uncommunicative and I can’t imagine living in the same house with him when he does it
.
I’ve known him for ten years and I know he’s this way, but we haven’t been living under the same roof twenty-four-seven. When he’d be brooding about something, he’d go one way and I’d go another and we’d hook up again when he was over his mood. How am I supposed to live with that distance all the time? How am I supposed to handle it without drivi
ng myself c
razy, or him?” she asked passionately.

Leah smiled
sympathetically
. “Honey, do you think your father is a good man?”

Alicia looked startled. Her father was the sweetest, most considerate, attentive husband in the world. What was her mother asking? “Of course he is,
Mami
.
Papi
is wonderful,” she began, only to be cut off by a roll of her mother’s eyes.