The View from Suite 2100 (3 page)

“Will he be here long enough for me to make him some fresh coffee? You know how he said he loves my Hazelnut coffee!”

I nodded and she rushed out of my office in a tizzy, suddenly her authoritative professionalism gone as she headed for her personal stash of Robust Hazelnut Dreams.

Chapter Three

I wouldn’t admit it to him, but I’d really been feeling it all day long. The late spring chill had been making me feel just that much more romantic. Feeling the need to just curl up with him in front of the fireplace in my den with an open bottle of, say, Riesling Eiswein, and spending the entire evening very slowly and sensually making up!

“Girl, you look so good!”

That silly grin started spreading across my face until I caught myself. Hold on a minute here, I thought. I still need to have at least a little attitude. Girl got to maintain some dignity.

But before I could cop my attitude he had gathered me up in his arms. Within seconds he slipped one hand under my chin and lifted my face to receive his soft, probing soulful kiss. It was nothing short of awesome. I had to take a couple of steps back to clear my head and to remind him, “Down boy, we are in the office.”

“You taste so good, I always get carried away.”

He licked his lips like L.L.Cool J and I diverted my eyes from him quickly.
Enough with the “so goods”, I’m still mad at you
, I thought. He nodded, reading my mind.

“Okay, I know you’re tee totally ticked off.”

“You’ve got that right.”

“I’m sorry, Rowena. I know how much you wanted to see Will Downing, and I’ll make it up to you, I promise. He’s appearing in Chicago on the 14
^th
and I’ve already gotten us tickets. Let’s make a weekend of it, fly down, you know, do a little shopping. I’ll even let you drag me all through Bloomingdale’s.”

Now you’re talking, I thought! Sister girl loves some Bloomingdale’s. He knows me too well. I saw him glance down at my new Emilio Pucci satin-print pumps as if to imply he’d buy me half-a-dozen more pair. He wasn’t being fair. I couldn’t let him think he could buy me off with a little leather!

I was just about to let my guard down but something, some sixth sense, made me pause. I folded my arms and cocked my head. There was an odd look in his eye and a little something extra clinging to the words he just spoken.

He eased down onto the leather couch against the wall, sitting on its edge. “I don’t deserve you, I really don’t, but you know I love you. That’s why I came … I wanted to tell you this myself, before you hear it from anyone else.

Sit down? I know he didn’t just tell me to sit down! But a little voice inside said, ‘yes he did, and if you know what’s good for you you’ll take his advice.’

My knees turned to jelly as I made my way around my desk and settled into my chair. Suddenly I wanted as much space between the two of us as possible. The length of my desktop between us hardly seemed enough.

“The reason I couldn’t make it to our date Thursday was, as I said, a family meeting. Turned out mother had invited Gloria Munson for dinner –“

An image of Gloria Munson sprinted across my mind. She’s his mother’s contemporary; a very stylish, attractive woman no doubt, but, like my assistant Carolyn, she’s several decades his senior. My mind was racing trying to get ahead of whatever blow he was about to deliver. What kind of commitment? I would think Gloria was an unlikely romantic candidate for him, not that I’d put that completely past his mother. No, that was ridiculous, but I couldn’t imagine any other kind of commitment between him and Gloria that should cause the kind of trepidation clearly written on his face.

“You’re familiar with the annual bachelor segment ‘Available and Looking’ that Noir Sophisticate features, right?” A guilty expression replaced the trepidation.

“Of course I am. Drew, what’s this about?”

“It seems mother agreed I’d be a part of that article this year, as a matter of fact, Gloria’s going to feature me on the cover as this year’s most eligible bachelor.”

Chapter Four

“You called 911?” Alexia asked as I heard Becca gasping in shock in the background on our three-way hook-up. “Get outta here!”

I now was the one pacing, walking room to room throughout my house on my cell phone, too antsy to stop and settle in any one spot. I called Alexia and started telling her about Drew’s ludicrous admission, but she wanted to include Becca in the conversation, so she hung up and had just called me back on a three-way.

“Yep, when the paramedics got there they just rolled Drew out on a stretcher!”

Alexia cracked up, but Becca didn’t realize I was joking.

“Oh my goodness, Ro, what all did you do to him? Will the Ardmore’s press charges against you for hurting him? Oh, Lord, with their money, too!”

As upset as I was, hearing Becca’s concern and Alexia’s devilish laughter at the same time on the other end of the phone was exactly what I needed at that moment.

“Now Becca, you know I’d never stoop so low as to let anybody, especially a man, make me do something that crazy, don’t you? I’m not going to jail for anybody! All I really did was hand him his walking papers. I am too, too through with him.”

There was silence a moment then I heard Becca exhale.

“Wow, Ro, you really had me worried there for a minute! You know, with his father owning all those manufacturing plants, and all the government connections his people have -- ”

“That’s okay, Becca. Thanks for being concerned. Drew is perfectly fine, but Ardmore Plastics and all its money or Drew senior and his controlling wife wouldn’t concern me if I had belted their ‘little boy’ one.” I sighed. “Plus, Melayne also believed I’d decked him when I told her the same thing I just told you two at first, too.”

“You talked to Melayne? Is she still in D.C.?” Alexia asked, surprised.

“Yeah, Rowena, if Melayne’s in town we need to call a real sister session at Magic Hands right now about this. You know we want to be there for you! I can request a couple of their private staff to come back in tonight for our session. A massage would do us all good. I know with all the crap I’ve been dealing with I could sure use one.”

I walked from the living room into my den and flopped down finally on the couch. I glanced across the room at the cold fireplace and grunted. To think, less than two hours ago I was daydreaming about being all cuddled up with that animal! It nearly made me loose my train of thought.

“Oh, yes, Melayne’s still here – think she’s stealing a little time for herself or something but I’m really okay, ladies. There’s no need to send out an alert for tonight. I just needed to commiserate with my girls for a minute. I’m feeling much, much better now.”

“Well, I’m calling Melayne.” Becca promised. “I can’t wait to talk to her about this. Rowena, you know she never really liked Drew! I bet she’s thrilled you dumped him.”

****

I did feel much better after talking to the two them, but I was a little concerned now about Melayne.

Melayne sounded strange when we spoke; not the kind of strange like she had company, which she almost always has, but, well, just strange. I didn’t get that Melayne effervescence that’s always her trademark. Maybe it was just all the planes she’d been bouncing on lately since getting hired by a couple of the news network to give her take on the political mayhem of the day as the election neared. Tom Joyner has nothing on her. I sure hope that’s all it is, I whispered to myself. I wish I didn’t worry about everybody so much.

I nearly dropped my glass of energy water when I came back from the kitchen into the den. The sudden explosive sound of an incoming email alert almost made me have a conniption. I forgot I had turned the volume up while listening to some love me or leave me music on internet radio, but the alert was so loud it sounded like someone had come into the house and slammed a door behind them. Talk about getting my attention! I assure you it got all of mine. Of course, I realized, that’s what it was designed to do.

I had sent my mother an email and was expecting a quick reply back from her, which is what I thought the alert was signaling, but instead of her reply what appeared on the screen was notification of an email that made me shake my head. It was from Sevens Plus Online Casino based in Nassau. I clicked the button and anxiously waited for the message to open. When it finally did, it informed me they had just deposited my winnings from two nights before into my casino account.

Took you long enough, I mumbled! I had signed off in the middle of playing Monday night because I ran through the last grand I put in my player’s account myself at the beginning of the previous week. Sevens Plus and the other online casinos were always ready to let you use your own money like presto! The minute you made a deposit it was there for you to gamble. But when you won some of their money they wanted to take you through a dozen changes before finally letting you have it. They even wanted you to fax a copy of your driver’s license to them, and like a fool, I’d actually done it. As dangerous and prevalent as I knew identity theft was I’d actually, literally faxed a copy of my D.C. driver’s license to who knew who somewhere in the Islands just so I could keep clicking those slots!

“I have got to stop this nonsense!” I heard myself saying aloud. My gambling was really starting to disgust me. I was running out of excuses to give myself for continuing the habit. Plus, the prospect of trying to justify the ridiculous sums I’d been drawing down as entertainment expenses to Sandra, my CPA’s accountant, when we met the next day was enough to make me never want to see a slot machine again, on or off line.

I signed off and started back towards the couch, determined I wasn’t going to spend my night in front of the computer screen clicking the “repeat bet” button mindlessly on the
Perry Square
or
Miss Qutie
slot games no matter how ticked off I was at Drew. This isn’t Drew’s problem, I reminded myself. Baby, this is yours, all yours.

I made it halfway across the room before I stopped.

“Dang, they just put $4000 back in my account. I can play at least a couple hundred of that before I tell them to send it to me in a check.”

It’s odd how I always talk out loud when I’m trying to give me permission to make a fool of myself. You do know I carried my stupid behind right on back over to the desk, sat down, signed on to Sevens Plus, pulled up
Miss Qutie
and started spinning and spending.

Chapter Five

Now who has the nerve to be knocking on my door at nearly midnight
, I wondered?

I signed off the casino screen with a sigh of relief. I needed an interruption. I was losing anyway, but hadn’t been able to force myself to quit. The knock repeated, this time louder.

For some reason my mind ran to Melayne and I wondered if what I heard in her voice on the telephone earlier might have been enough to make her take a cab across town in search of a willing ear. I put a little more urgency in my step. If it was Melayne I didn’t want her standing outside on my doorstep at that time of night. As pricey as Georgetown is, it’s still a beacon for thieves and a lot of other unsavory characters. A vulnerable looking, raven-haired vamp like Melayne, would be like waving a neon “come hither” sign to a thug. I assure you a thug would definitely have his hands full if he ever mistakenly took Melayne for a push over. That she’s not, but then who wants to have to go through all of that in the first place?

“Coming!” I called out and turned on the porch light.

I looked through the peephole and felt heat rush to my face. How in the world could Drew possibly have the nerve to be standing at my front door at this time of night after I’d put him out of my office this afternoon.