Some Came Desperate: A Love Saga (33 page)

       Simone sighed.  “To talk.”

       “To talk about what, Simone?  The two of you getting back together?”

       “Of course not!  He’s a married man, remember?”

       “Oh yeah, I remember.  But do you?”

       “How did the dinner date go?” Shay asked, still certain that there was more to that night than Simone was letting on.

       “It went fine,” Simone said. 

       “No fireworks, no nothing?”

       “That’s right.”

       “You had supper and you and Ethan left without a hitch, right?”

       “Well, yes.  Except Ethan got an emergency call and had to leave and Nick took me home.”

       “Uh-oh,” Shay said.

       “He just took me home, okay?  Why y’all looking so stricken all of a sudden?”

       “What happened?” Jules asked, staring at her.  If the Rivers sisters knew anything, she thought, it was how to pick the absolute wrong man. 

       “Nothing much happened at all.”

       “Uh-oh,” Shay said again.  “She said nothing much.  Which means something happened.”

       “What happened, Simone?” Jules asked.  “You already told me that he tried to kiss you,” she reminded her.

       Simone didn’t respond.  Shay smiled.  “Ain’t no tried in it,” she said.  “Your boy kissed her, I can see it all over her glowing face!  She might even have passion marks.”

       “Girl, please,” Simone said, but she didn’t dispute Shay’s main point.  Jules leaned her head back. 

       “We are the sorriest females on the face of God’s green earth,” she said.  “I got one sister who wants to marry a man who can’t stand the sight of her.  I’ve got another sister who wants a man who’s already married and nearly caused her her very soul the last time she was fooling with him.  And—”

       “And what?” Shay asked. 

       “And me,” Jules said with a frown.  “The sorriest of all.”

       “Ah, don’t even try that.  What’s your problem?  You so quick to name ours.  What’s up with you?”

       As if on cue the intercom system buzzed on and the secretary announced: “Excuse me, Miss Rivers, but Dr. Druce is here to see you.” 

       “The problem is here,” Shay said.

       “Tell him I’ll be with him in just a moment,” Jules pressed the phone’s intercom button and said.  Then she began to rise.  “Listen, I’m going to have to talk to y’all later.”

       “Jules,” Simone said, “he can wait.”

       “He’s a very busy man, Simmie, and you know it.  No, he can’t wait.”

       Simone and Shay looked at each other and shook their heads.  But they stood up. 

       “What about what we were talking about, J?”  Shay asked her.

       “I’ll talk to him but that’s all I’m going to do.”

       Shay smiled.  “For real?”

       “Yes.”

       Shay hugged her neck.  Then Jules looked at Simone.  “Call me, Simmie, before you do anything else.”

       “And back at ‘cha,” Simone said with all seriousness.  She and Jules shared a knowing look, as if both understood that life was easy, love was hard.

       Jules walked them to the door.  As soon as she opened it, Jeremy came walking toward it.  When he saw Shay and Simone, he stopped.  “Hello, ladies,” he said with a smile.  

       “Hey, Jeremy,” Shay replied, but Simone only grunted in his direction.  He laughed and walked into Jules’ office.  When the door closed, he frowned.

       “You had me waiting because of them?” he said.

       “Jeremy, not today, okay?”  Jules said and began walking back toward her conference table.  She fully expected him to sling her back around and get hot all over again, but he didn’t.  He just stood there.  When she looked back at him, he began walking toward her.  “Listen, Jules, about last night—”

       “Jeremy I,” she said and then just held up her hand.  “What do you want?  Your medical practice and the Drake Society isn’t enough to occupy your time?”

       “I’m not going to accept their award,” Jeremy said and this did exactly what he expected it to.  It stopped Jules cold.

       She looked at him.  “Are you serious?”

       “As a stroke.  And I’m a surgeon, I know how serious that is.”

       “But why did you turn it down?  According to you they’re nothing but a right wing think tank.”

       “I didn’t like how painful it was to you,” he said.  “And after last night, after what I did to you, I couldn’t bear. . .”

       Jules closed her eyes.  Another one of his apologies on the way, she thought.

       “Jules, I’m sorry,” he said as if on cue.  “That won’t ever happen again.”  Then he pulled her to him, wrapping her in his arms, her hands jammed against his chest.  “I promise you it’ll never happen again.” 

       Tears began to stain Jules’ eyes.  She and Jeremy couldn’t continue like this, she knew it, but she felt so powerless to do anything about it.  He took her chin and raised it up to his face.

       “I love you,” he said. 

       “You was so rough with me, Jeremy.  How can you say you love me and treat me so—”

       “I know.  And I’m sorry.”  He wiped her tears away.  “Does it still hurt?” he asked her.  “Are you still sore?”

            She was, but he’d never know it.  “I’m okay,” she said and pulled away from him.

       “What’s the matter?” he asked her.

       “Nothing, I just need to get some work done.”

       “I said I was sorry, Jules.”

       “I know that.  I’m not. . . I just need to get this done.”  She began picking up contracts again, although she couldn’t concentrate on a word.  After a few seconds of this, she looked at Jeremy, whom, she could tell, was staring at her.  “What?”

       “Did you do it?”

       She had no clue what he was talking about.  “Did I do what?”

       “Did you tell lover boy to hit the road, come on, you know what I’m talking about.”

       Jules rolled her eyes.  “That man is not interested in hearing from me, Jeremy, okay?  I told you it was hello and goodbye.  Les Carter barely remembered me.”

       “Why wouldn’t he remember you?  He’s supposed to be this big fine stud.  This Mandingo-looking Negro.”  Then he smiled.  “Oh, I get it now.  I got it now.  He dumped you, didn’t he?”

       Jules looked at him as if he had just grown an additional head.  “What?  I was not dating him to be dumped.”

       “Yeah, he dumped you, all right.  I know what I’m talking about.  You tried to go behind my back and hook up with some character like that.  Yeah, see what you get?  I told you nobody wants you, girl.  Didn’t I tell you that?”

       She couldn’t count how many times he had told her that.  “Jeremy, I’ve got work to do,” she said.

       He looked at her.  And then started laughing.  “He dumped you!  You ain’t all that.  I told you you ain’t all that.”

       Jules slammed the contracts on the table and looked at Jeremy.

       “Okay, I’m leaving,” he said, holding his hands up.  Then he reached over to kiss her on the lips, but she turned her cheek.  He laughed.  “You just make sure that Negro don’t change his mind.  Understand?  Because you’re still off limits.” 

       Jules said nothing.  Jeremy started laughing as he headed for the exit.  “And Jules,” he said.  Jules looked his way.   “Those sisters of yours better stay out of our business.  I had better never hear about either one of them knowing anything about what’s going on with us.  Got me?”  Nothing from Jules.  “Jules?”

       “I hear you, Jeremy,” she finally said.  “Hear you loud and clear.”

       Jeremy smiled.  “That’s my baby,” he said in a way that made Jules’ skin crawl.  “And oh, by the way,” he added as he began leaving and then turned back around.  “I won’t be able to make it Friday night.  Sorry.  Work and more work.”

       Normally Jules would have been astounded.  How could he not make it to her birthday party, a party he knew she had planned for so long?  But now she almost felt relieved.  “Okay,” she said, and she said it so calmly, so cavalierly when Jeremy obviously was expecting much resistance, that it didn’t sit well with him.  Which, Jules had to admit, pleased her mightily.  

TWENTY-SIX

Simone could not believe that she was doing this.  But she was.  She was actually walking into the Colgate building for the first time in seven years, taking the B elevator up to the fourteenth floor, and telling the secretary that she was there to see Nick Perry. 

       He had phoned last night and asked to see her today.  He had wanted to come over to her hotel room, after work, but she had said no.   She could not bear a repeat of the previous time they had been together. No more of that emotional wreckage they had wrought.  But then he asked if she could come to him, at the Colgate building, at his law firm. She wanted to nix that idea too, to tell him thanks, but no thanks, but she couldn’t find the courage.  She, instead, told him she’d see if she could come by. 

       And now she was there.  Remembering the place.  Remembering seeing Delia there for the first time, coming out of Nick’s office, although she didn’t know that it was Delia at the time.  But now she knew it.  And Delia wasn’t just the girlfriend anymore, but the wife.  Nick’s wife.  And that more than anything was why she felt it necessary to come see Nick and make it clear to him that she wasn’t about to have any kind of relationship with a married man.

       When the door to Nick’s office opened, Simone jumped, causing the secretary, a new woman Simone did not recognize, to glance at her. 

       “Hello, Miss Rivers,” Nick said, and he said it so professionally, as if it was all business for him, that it did aid in calming her back down.  “Come in, please.”

       Simone stood and walked slowly into Nick’s office.  He smiled at her but no more, she suspected, than he would have smiled at any other client.  Only she wasn’t a client, which made this entire scene all the more unseemly to her.

       “Have a seat, Simone,” he offered as he closed the door and walked in further.  Instead of sitting behind his desk, however, he took the seat next to Simone’s, and crossed his long legs. 

       “Thanks for coming,” he said to her.

       “Look, Nick,” she began, but he interrupted her.

       “I didn’t think you would come.”

       “We need to talk.”

       “Yes, we do.  Unfortunately, I’m due in court in about twenty minutes.”

       “Oh,” Simone said, rising, “I came at a bad time.”

       “No, no,” Nick said, motioning her back into her seat, “you’re fine.  I just got the word.  The jury’s got a verdict in a criminal case I’ve been trying.”

       “And you aren’t nervous?”

       Nick smiled.  “I’m terrified.”

       Terrified, Simone thought.  Why he looked calm as a bird.  He was a man who knew how to hide his true feelings, she thought. Or how to show his false ones, she thought again.

       Simone stood up, causing Nick to stand too.  “What are you doing?” he asked her.

       “I’m not going to keep you.  I know you need to meet with your client and—”

       “I need to meet with you.  You’re right, Simone, we need to talk.”

       He sounded almost as if he wanted to make some things clear to her, too, which actually pleased her.  “I’ll tell you what,” he said.  “Maybe after court today I could come over—”

       “That’s not a good idea, Nick,” she said.  “That’s why I came here.  I wanted to be as clear as possible.  We can’t see each other again.  Not as friends.  Not as anything.”

       This, to Simone’s surprise, seemed to alarm Nick.  “Why not, Simone?” he asked her, as if it wasn’t obvious.

       Simone looked deep into his clear, tired eyes.  Was he in denial somehow? “Because you’re married,” she said as if that said it all. 

       Nick placed his hands in his pants pockets.  “About me and my wife, you don’t understand,” he started, but Simone stopped him.

       “And I don’t want to understand,” she said, although her heart was breaking.  “It’s none of my business to understand.”

       “Simone— ”

       Simone began leaving, desperately needing a quick getaway.  But Nick grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back to him.  When she looked into his eyes, tears were there.  But she refused to relinquish her morality.  She refused to relinquish her certainty that any kind of relationship with him would be wrong.  And he could see it in her eyes, which weren’t tear-stained, or doubtful.  But determined. He released his hold on her.

       She hesitated, as if her iron will was suddenly coming undone, but then she hurried to his door and left his office.  She felt awful, as if she was making some kind of earth-shattering mistake, but to not make it would be worse.  That was why she was nearly running to the elevators, thankful for a clean getaway.  Until the elevator door clanged open, and Ethan Graham stepped out.

       “Simone?” he said, delightfully surprised.  “What are you doing here?”

       Simone could hardly believe it.  “Hey,” was all she could manage to say. 

       “Hey yourself,” he replied as he pulled her aside and away from the numerous bodies attempting to get on and off of the elevator.  “What brings you over here?”

       The moment of truth, she thought.  And she knew she had to come clean.  She wasn’t interested in Ethan.  After Nick, she didn’t think she could ever be interested in another man.  Stringing him along, not unlike the way Nick had strung her, would be cruel.  “I came to see Nick,” she said.

       “Nick?  Mr. Perry?  Whatever for?”  Then he smiled, only it was a nervous,
now I get it
smile.  “Nick, is it?”

       She nodded.  “Yes.”

       “So you know him?  I mean, before I introduced you?”

       She hesitated.  “Yes.”

       He waited for more, but Simone said nothing.  “I thought so.  I mean, he kept asking me about you.  We were supposed to be negotiating my contract and he kept asking me about you.”

       “It’s not like you think, Ethan.”

       “How long?” he asked as if the last thing he wanted to hear was why it wasn’t like what he knew it was exactly like.

       “Many years ago.  Before he was, before he married.  It was a very painful departure and it’s a long story that I can’t repeat.”

       “You can’t repeat the story or you can’t repeat the pain?”

       “Both.”

       Ethan nodded.  Looked her up and down.  “So he hurt you?”

       Simone paused before speaking.  She almost wanted to minimize Nick’s role in her pain.  But she caught herself.  “Yes,” she said.

       Ethan nodded.  “And what, you decided to come back for more?”

       “Ethan—”

       “Answer my question please.  Did you decide to come back for more?”

       “No.”

       “Then what are you doing here?  You certainly wasn’t here to see me because you didn’t know I would be here.”

       “Please lower your voice,” she said and Ethan did look around.  Then he exhaled. 

       “Anyway, I have a meeting.”

       “Oh, he’s been called to court.  There’s a verdict in one of his cases.”

       “I’m not meeting him.  I’m meeting one of his associates.  After he ropes you in he leaves hiring matters to his underlings, didn’t you realize that?  But I guess you did.  Being that you know him so intimately and all.”

       “Ethan, please.”

       “Women are all the same, you know that?  That’s why I always keep me two or three in the background, just in case my main squeeze starts acting a fool.  But boy did you have me snowed.  I didn’t think you’d mess up this soon.  And with my new boss no less.”  Then he shook his head.  “I thought you were something different .  . .  I thought you were . . . Ah, forget it.”  He frowned.  “Bye, Simone.”

       “Ethan!” Simone said as Ethan began walking away from her. 

       But he kept on walking, not toward the receptionist desk, but back on the arriving elevator. 

       And she just stood there.  She and Nick had only spent one night together and already the hurt, the pain, was beginning again.  Had Ethan changed his mind about joining up with Nick’s firm?  Had her little appearance caused him to decide to blow the chance of a lifetime?  Couldn’t be.  At least, she prayed it couldn’t.  Because that was the last thing she needed, she thought, as she decided to take the stairs.  She couldn’t bear being responsible for another victim, another casualty of her and Nick’s poor judgment.