A Special Relationship (36 page)

 
Carrie exhaled.
 
Her sister, whom she was asking again to help her out, did deserve an explanation.
 
“He’s helping somebody out, so I had to move.”

 
“Who’s he helping?”

 
“Somebody.
 
You don’t know her.”

 
“Her?
 
You mean to tell me he moved a female up in there and kicked you out?”

 
“No.
 
I mean, yes.
 
But it’s not like you mean.
 
It’s his ex-wife.”

 
Mona smiled and then laughed.
 
“His ex. . . Girl you got to be jiving.
 
He kicked you to the curb so he could snatch back up an ex?”

 
“She’s in a wheelchair, Po.”

 
“So?
 
What that got to do with it?
 
Did he put her in that wheelchair?”

 
“No.
 
Of course not.”

 
“Then that ain’t got
nothing
to do with it.
 
He wanted her, that’s why he took her back.
 
White woman too, ain’t she?”

 
“Yes, she’s white, but that doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

 
“Sure, it
don’t
.”

 
“It doesn’t!” Carrie said defensively.
 
“Besides, he doesn’t love her anymore.
 
He just feels he has to help her.”

 
“Oh, I’m sure he does.
 
And how does he repay you?
 
He put you in a cab and
send
you on your way.”

 
“He drove me to an apartment he has in town, for your information.
 
He gave me the key and expects me to stay there.”

 
This surprised Mona.
 
“Oh really?
 
Then why ain’t you there?
 
I’m sure it’s more high class than this.”

 
Carrie shook her head.
 
“I’m getting my own thing,” she said.
 
“I’m going to stand on my own two feet.”

 
“But you’re working though?”

 
Carrie hesitated.
 
“He hasn’t fired me, no, but I don’t see how I can continue at Dyson.
 
Not with all this going on.”

 
“All what going on?
 
Him screwing his wife?”

 
“His ex-wife and he’s not
screw.
. . he’s not doing that with her.
 
He’s just helping her out, Popena, I told you.”

 
“Sure you told me.
 
Just like he told you.
 
But I don’t believe it and
you’s
a fool if you do.”

 
“Whatever.”

 
“Whatever whatever.
 
What the hell ever.
 
I’m just trying to school your little sanctified butt.
 
You need to wake up, girl.
 
See these white folks for what they are.”
 
Then she paused, staring at her sister.
 
Seeing an opening.
 
“Why don’t you come to work with
me.
”

 
“I told you I’m not stripping for—”

 
“Ain’t nobody said nothing about stripping.”
 
She hesitated, trying to think it up as she went along, but also trying to sound sincere.
 
“Dooney needs a cashier for real.
 
I know you
was
doing that in Attapulgus.”

 
“A cashier?”

 
“Yeah.
 
And you know no cashier don’t be hanging off of no poles.
 
They’re strictly legit.
 
Can get tips too.”

 
“Oh, yeah?”

 
“Yeah.”
 
Carrie kept staring at her.
 
“What, you don’t believe me?
 
Come tonight and see.
 
Dooney will hire you on the spot.”

 
“As cashier and nothing else?”

 
“As cashier and nothing else.”

 
Carrie thought about this.
 
She didn’t expect a break so quickly.
 
But she
need
a fast break.
 
She needed to get what she had to get so that she can not only get out of Dodge with the quickness, but stop thinking about why she was back in Dodge in the first place.

 
“Okay,” she said, just like she said it to Robert in Maryland.
 
Just a word.
 
Just like she said it to him again not an hour ago, when he left her at his condo.
 
As soon as he left, as soon as he kissed her on the lips and went back to his real residence and his ex-wife, she couldn’t get away from that condo fast enough.
 
His ex-wife, he had said when they were still in Maryland, didn’t play second fiddle to anybody.
 
But Carrie kept getting the feeling that the only reason Robert even offered for her to stay at his “second” residence, at his condo, was because he didn’t believe the same about her.
 
She’d play second, third, or fourth fiddle, if she had to, his actions seemed to say.
 
And that, more than anything, was what was eating her alive.

TWENTY-FOUR

Nearly two weeks later, Robert returned to Dyson.
 
He had been spending time with Gloria, getting her re-acclimated to life in Florida, making his home more wheelchair assessable.
  
He worked from home during the days, and he and Gloria had long conversations in the evenings.
 
She was worried about Ashley, whom she believes is experimenting with drugs, and she was still upset that Ashley refused to return to Florida with her.
 
Robert was turned off when Gloria told the child that she should be with her “parents,” as if the fact that Paul, not Robert, was Ashley’s
father
 
suddenly
didn’t matter.
 
But he put up with it.
 
Gloria had been through hell, from what she had told him, and he wasn’t about to add to her distress.

 
But what about Carrie, he kept saying to himself.
 
He had taken her to his condo and left her there, giving her the keys to the place and to one of his cars, his BMW.
 
He wanted her to drive it to work and anywhere else she pleased.
 
He also wanted to give her cash, but she wouldn’t take it.
 
She, in fact, was the only woman he’d ever met who never seemed to want anything from him, although he wanted to give her more than he’d ever wanted to give any other woman.
 
And when Gloria was back on her feet, he was determined to prove how much he truly loved Carrie Banks, because he truly loved her.
 
Everything about her.
 
And he was going to marry her.

 
But right now he had to care for Gloria.
 
He had told Carrie so and Carrie said that she fully understood.
 
He knew that she would.
 
He promised to get in touch with her soon, after he’d gotten Gloria fully settled, and today was that day.
 
He felt it would have been too awkward for Carrie to see him at work every day when his invalid ex-wife was at home alone.
 
That was why he worked from home.
 
But now, with a new merger ready to be finalized, he came into the office.
 
For the first time in nearly two weeks.

 
“You look different,” Marva Cox said as she followed him into his office.
 
Robert smiled.

 
“Different how?
 
Good I hope.”

 
“Tired.
 
Worn out.
 
Drained.”

 
Robert looked at her as he sat his briefcase on his desk.
 
“You’re serious?
 
I haven’t been working that hard.”

 
“
You been
doing something.
 
And it hasn’t been agreeing with you.”

 
Robert hesitated.
 
His life with Gloria had changed him somewhat.
 
He felt as if he was living something akin to a lie.
 
He was helping this woman, he was doing all he could for this woman, but in truth he couldn’t stand the woman.
 
She had hurt him so completely, with her lies and her arrogance, that he still held a bitter taste in his mouth for her.
 
And even in the evenings, when they’d sit around and talk, he felt a tinge of anger seep through him over and over.
 
He could have been sitting around talking with Carrie.
 
Instead, he was with Gloria. Gloria had the stage again.
 
And why did he feel so obligated anyhow?
 
He never hurt her, yet she devastated him.
 
But there was something in him, something he couldn’t shake, that wouldn’t allow him to take a woman he had loved and was married to for nearly twenty years, and discard like trash.
 
She had discarded him as if he was something less than trash, but he didn’t have it in him to return the harshness.

 
“Anyway,” he said to Marva, to steer the conversation differently, “you actually look beautiful.”

 
“Oh, go on.”

 
“You’ll give any woman around Dyson a run for her money.”

 
Marva shook her head.
 
“You’ve been drinking too much illusion juice.
 
I like the mean, grumpy old Robert instead.”

 
Robert laughed.
 
“Just get those Clayton proposes ready, will you?
 
And tell Steinman I’d like to meet with him in about an hour or so.
 
We need to go over the Bayfront account.”

 
“Will do.”

 
“And where’s Carrie?
 
Tell her to come in here for a minute, please.”
 
This was the real message.
 
This was the part of the day Robert couldn’t wait to begin.
 
The day he’d be able to feast his eyes on his lady again.
 
Marva, however, only stared at him.