Romancing Tommy Gabrini (27 page)

And
then, when the rumblings began to ebb, they just lay there, satisfied, as
Albert continued his slow drive around block after block.
 
But Tommy could not have been more
gratified.
 
He would crave her sex, he
knew, while he was in Sydney.
 
But she
was going to crave his, too.
 
And that
was what he needed.
 
He needed her to
remember him.
 
He needed her to
understand that he had completely changed his ways and she was no casual affair
for him.
 
She was everything to him.
 
And Ray or Jay or any other man would be
warned to leave this one alone.
 
This
one, this beautiful black woman he had in his arms, was his girl.
 

Grace
McKinsey, he thought with great pride, was Tommy’s girl now.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Grace,
come here!” Jillian ordered as soon as Grace stepped off of the elevator and
was making her way to her own office.
 
Problem was, she had to pass Jillian’s first.

“Good
morning,” she said as she entered.

“Close
the door,” Jillian said.
 

Grace
did and then walked up to her boss’s desk.

Jillian
leaned back.
 
Grace wore a simple pair of
mauve dress slacks and a silk blouse, but she wore it with such style.
 
Jillian always had to work at being stylish.
 
But it always seemed to come natural to women
like Grace.
 

“Sit
down,” she said to Grace.
 
Grace
complied.
 

Jillian
sipped her cup of coffee, leaned back again.
 
“I understand Tommy’s out of town,” she said.

Grace
assumed it would be about Tommy and that conversation he apparently had had
with Jillian about them.
 
Grace had
expected Jillian to approach her about it yesterday, but Jillian didn’t come to
the office at all yesterday.
 

“That’s
right,” Grace said.
 
“He left for
Australia last night.”

“Oh,
my.
 
That’s an eighteen hour trip.
 
He’s still in the air then?”

“Yes.”
 

“You
heard from him?”

Why
was that her business, Grace wanted to say.
 
“Yes,” she said instead.
 
“He
phoned this morning.
 
He was just getting
ready for a round of videoconferences from the plane.”

“Oh,
the technology nowadays,” Jillian said.
 
“I will never be able to keep up.”

“Me
either, really.
 
Every time you think you
figured it out, they create something even more innovative.”

“Why
would you break Cam’s heart?” Jillian suddenly asked.

Grace
looked at her.
 
“Excuse me?”

“You
know how much he loves you.
 
How could
you do that to him?”

Grace
was baffled.
 
“I don’t know what you’re
talking about.
 
How could I do what to
him?”

“Sleeping
around with Tommy Gabrini, that’s what!
 
Let’s not get ignorant all of a sudden, okay?
 
I know Tommy.
 
He has his pick of the litter, honey, trust me.
 
And meaning no disrespect, I’ve never known
him to waste a hot minute on a woman who was quite like you.”

Grace
knew she should have ignored Jillian’s nonsense, but Jillian had known Tommy
for years.
 
Grace was just getting to
know him.
 
“What do you mean?” she asked
her.

Jillian
stared at her.
 
“You’re pretty enough,”
she said.
 
“With your large, golden eyes
and your well put together body, you’re even attractive.
 
But Tommy loves glam, my darling.
 
He loves flash.
 
He loves girlfriends like that supermodel
Tracy Gettis.
 
Or that wine heiress
Lakita something-or-other.
 
Or ShoShawna
Shanks.
 
He never dated a woman who was
merely pretty or even, as I would say you are, a woman who’s smart in the
boardroom.
 
He dates women who are also,
let’s face it, freaks in the bedroom.
 
And I mean super-freaks.”

Jillian
smiled.
 
Grace just stared at her.

“But
by that prescription, you are automatically disqualified, my pet, from any long
term consideration Tommy would ever think of committing to.
 
You’re simply his change of pace female of
the moment.
 
You’re against type and
sometimes that’s nice too.
 
But as soon
as he starts itching for that freaky shit he likes in his bed, he will give you
that long goodbye.
 
And you know what a
long goodbye is, don’t you darling?
 
It’s
the kind where he never has to say goodbye, but will ultimately just move on to
the next one, and you’ll get the picture.”

Jillian
stared at her, as if she had just made some major pronouncement.

“Your
point?” Grace asked, refusing to let her see her sweat.

“Go
back to Cameron.
 
He loves you,
Grace.
 
He’s more your speed that Tommy
Gabrini, come on!
 
Tommy eats young girls
like you for breakfast!
 
Cam loves you.”

“Oh,
I’ll bet he loves my ten shares more,” Grace said as she stood.
 

Jillian
feigned astonishment.
 
“What?
 
Your ten shares?
 
Don’t be absurd!”

“Anyway,”
Grace said, “I’ve got a lot of work to do.
 
I’ll see you later, Jilly.”

Although
Grace left Jillian’s office composed and unaffected, as soon as she entered her
own office, and closed the door, she leaned against it.
 
She had already fallen in love with Tommy
Gabrini, there was no doubt in her mind about that.
 
She could actually see him as her husband,
and as the father of her children.
 
He
was the only man she wanted for those roles.

But
the idea that he could get bored with her lack of sexual prowess had crossed
her mind more than a few times.
 
And the
fact that Jillian was all but confirming it, was a distressing revelation.
 
And when she mentioned that ShoShawna Shanks
again, that didn’t help, either.
 
That
was the first name that woman Trina had mentioned when she phoned the other
night and invited Tommy to her son’s birthday party.
 
She just knew Tommy had gotten back together
with ShoShawna and would be bringing her with him.
 
As if he was always breaking up with the
woman and going back to her.
 
Even Tommy
had admitted that, after she had stood him up at the altar, he still went back
to her.
 

Grace
made her way to her desk.
 
What she
thought was a beautiful morning after the kind of sex Tommy had put on her last
night, was already turning into a nightmarish day.
 
She was already in heartbreak territory with
Tommy.
 
She was already emotionally
vested in him to such an extent that, if he were to leave her for another
woman, she would be pretty broken up by it.
 
Maybe even a little devastated.
 
After Cam, it was a position she swore she’d never put herself in
again.
 
Now, she had already positioned
herself that way.
 

She
placed her briefcase on her desk, tossed her keys, and sat down too.
 
She trusted Tommy in a lot of ways, but she
didn’t really know him like that yet.
 
He
seemed like a great guy, like the perfect guy.
 
But nobody was perfect.

But
then she decided to bump it and get to work.
 
She couldn’t sit around worrying about something she couldn’t
control.
 
She turned on her
computer.
 
What was she going to do about
it?
 
He could be with a woman right now
for all she knew.
 
And that, she
realized, was the point.
 
She had
consciously put herself out there when she agreed to give him a shot.
 
She was no fool, she knew it could lead to
heartbreak.
 
And given all of her past
relationships, and the fact that he was commitment-phobic, a broken heart was
more likely an outcome than a happy-ever-after one.
 

But
she had agreed to take a chance on Tommy Gabrini because she believed he was
worth the chance.
 
And the only thing he
promised her, that he wouldn’t break her heart, was the very promise she was
depending on him keeping.
 
And as she
typed in her password on her lap top computer screen, she knew she had to take
him at his word.
 
He wouldn’t break her
heart.
 
More than Jillian’s talk or her
past relationships or even his past behavior, she was going to stand on his
word.
 
He wouldn’t break her heart.
 
She was going to hold him to his word.

And
that quiet acceptance allowed her to get on with her work.
 
She worked diligently for most of the morning
without interruption.
 
Until her phone
rang.
 
And it was her mother.

Grace
froze at her seat as soon as she heard her mother’s voice.
 
Even the receptionist, who had buzzed her,
hadn’t said the name.
 
Just that there
was a call for her on line nine.
 

“Mother?”
she asked, although she was certain of that strained voice.

“Hello,
Grace.”

“I
didn’t expect to hear from you.”
 
Grace
never heard from her mother.
 
Not
ever.
 
If she wouldn’t have bothered to
phone her mother at least once every few months, they would never speak.
 
“How are you?”

“Not
good,” her mother said.
 
“Ralph has
died.”

Grace’s
heart squeezed.
 
Ralph Morton was
dead?
 
The man her mother had had an
affair with and divorced her father over was no more?
 
The man who hated Grace and didn’t want her
around so badly that her own mother, still so in love with mighty Ralph, took
his side.
 
Grace was a small child when
she moved to Seattle to live with her father, but she was glad to go.
 
She didn’t like Ralph either.
 
He beat on her over petty things and loved to
call her names when her mother wasn’t around.
 
But praises be to God it worked out beautifully for Grace in
Seattle.
 
Her father was a wonderful man
who took wonderful care of her.
 
She
ended up exactly where she needed to be.
 

But
her relationship with her mother would never be the same.

Now
Ralph, the reason for her mother’s existence, was gone.

“What
happened?” she asked her mother.

“A
heart attack last night.
 
He was fine,
and then he wasn’t.
 
And it was all over
just like that.”
 

Grace
knew her mother was crying when silence ensued.
 
She didn’t know what to say to her, so she let her have her tears.

“Anyway,”
her mother finally said.
 
“I thought you
should know.”

“I’m
on my way,” Grace said.

“You
don’t have to come.”

“I
should arrive this afternoon.”

“I
know you’re busy.
 
You don’t have to
come.”

“I
know I don’t have to.
 
But I’m coming.”

There
was a pause.
 

“Thank-you,”
her mother said.
 
And then hung up.

In
Sydney, Australia, Tommy walked through the elegant corridor of the Ambrose
hotel and followed the bellhop to his suite.
 
The young man placed Tommy’s luggage in the bedroom, accepted his tip,
and left.
 

Tommy
was exhausted, but not so jet-lagged that he couldn’t pick up the hotel’s phone
and give Grace a call.
 
Her cell phone
immediately went to voice mail.

“Hey,”
he said.
 
“Didn’t want anything.
 
I’m here in Sydney, I just got in.
 
I have meetings all day so I’ll call you
tonight.
 
Since it’s (he looked at his
watch) three p.m. your time, and ten a.m. here, I’ll try to phone you before
it’s too late.
 
Make sure you have some
dinner and if you go out tonight button up.
 
I understand the temperatures are taking a dive in Seattle.
  
So wear a jacket, Grace, I mean it.
 
All right.
 
Love you.
 
Bye.”
 
He hung up.