Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (22 page)

Liz
had never experienced anything like this before, but then again she’d never had
a man who treated her this special before either.
 
“Okay,” she said.

“Sure
you can handle it?” Tommy asked her.

She
smiled.
 
“Can I handle it?
 
I’ve been in war zones before.
 
What’s a couple jaded ladies to me?”
  

Tommy
knew it was more than a couple, but she would find out for herself.
 
He wanted her to know exactly what she was
getting into if their relationship continued on this path.

When
he took her upstairs to his corporate board room,
 
Sal was coming out of the door just as they
were walking up to it.

“What
the hell is going on?” Sal asked his brother as he closed the door.

“When
did you get in town?” Tommy asked him.

“Not
long ago.”

“You’re
staying?”

“A
couple nights, yeah.”

“Gemma
came with you?”

“She’s
still in Vegas.
 
She’s got to be in court
tomorrow and all this week probably.
 
Another murder case.
 
But what’s
going on in there?
 
Your lady friends are
in there, do you know this?”

“I
know it.”

“So
what is it supposed to be?
 
The ‘
I Fucked Tommy
’ convention?”

“Not
funny,” Tommy responded.

“But what’s
going on?” Sal wanted to know.

Tommy
looked at his lady.
  
“Excuse us for a
moment,” he said to Liz.

“Sure,”
Liz said.
 
But when Tommy and Sal moved
aside, Liz went inside the boardroom.
 
To
see for herself, without the filter of Tommy, what she was up against.

There
were more than a couple ladies in the room.
 
In fact, there were six ladies in the room.
 
Most were black, all were beautiful, all were
on their smartphones banging out texts, strolling through messages, or talking
quietly amongst themselves.
 
When she
walked into the room, it was as if she was just another one of them, and
nobody, not one, gave her a second glance.

Outside,
in the corridor, Tommy pulled Sal aside.

“So
what’s it about?” Sal asked his older brother.

“I
wanted them to meet Liz.”

“Liz?
 
Who’s Liz?”
 
Then it registered with Sal.
 
“That’s who she is!
 
I thought I
recognized her.
 
She’s the chick who was
at Gemma’s parents’ anniversary party.”

“Right.”

“She
came with Gemma’s sister Chelsey.”

“Right.”

“What
is she doing here?”

Tommy
hadn’t revealed his relationship to anyone except his cousin and best friend
Reno.
 
“I’ve been dating her,” he said.

“You’ve
been dating her?
 
What do you mean you’ve
been dating her?
 
You mean like you’ve
been dating those women in that room?
 
They said you asked them to come here, and they knew all of your other
open relationship women would be here too.
 
Is Liz one of them?”

“No,”
Tommy said firmly.
 
“I called them
together to let them know Liz is not one of them.
 
She’s somebody I have an exclusive
relationship with.
 
I need them to
understand that.”

Sal
was stunned.
 
“An exclusive?”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Yes.”

“But
Tommy, after Grace and everybody else you’ve ever had, you think that’s a good
idea?
 
I mean, you haven’t exactly had a
great track record.”

Tommy
frowned.
 
“I know.
 
And it’s hard for me to believe I’ve gone
down this road again.
 
But I’ve gone down
this road again.”

“She’s
rocked your world, hun?
 
Miss Big Mouth?”

Tommy
smiled. “Yes, Sal.
 
Miss Big Mouth has
rocked my world.”

To
Tommy’s delight, Sal actually smiled.
 
“You sly rat,” he said.
 
“Backdoor
Tommy at it again.
 
Never let your right
hand know what your left hand is doing.
 
Sly rat!
 
You ran to your hole
with your piece of cheese.”

Tommy
laughed.
 
“I see why you and Liz didn’t
hit it off. Your sense of humor is about as nuts as hers!”

But
Sal’s look turned serious.
 
“So you
really like this girl?”

Tommy
looked his brother dead in the eye.
 
“Yes,” he said. “Very much.”

Sal
continued to stare at him.
 
“You love
her?”

“Early
days still.
 
We’ll see.”
 
Then Tommy nodded.
 
“Yes,” he admitted.

“Well,”
Sal said, running his hand through his hair, “she ain’t no Grace, that’s for
sure. You don’t have to worry about her punking out on you the way Grace
did.
 
She’s no little princess like Grace
was.
 
More like an ice princess if you
ask me.”

Tommy
took exception.
 
“I’m not asking you.”

“Okay.
 
I was out of line.
 
But damn, Tommy.
 
You’re serious, aren’t you?”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Yes,” he said.

“Okay.
 
Just as long as you know what you’re doing.”

Tommy
squeezed Sal’s arm and then turned to head back to Liz.
 
When he saw that she had gone, he frowned.

Sal
smiled.
 
“See what you’re getting
into?
 
Her bossy ass is gonna try to boss
you.”

Tommy
disregarded his brother’s snide remark and headed for the boardroom.
 
Sal shook his head and left.
 
If Tommy’s relationship lasted another month
with Liz Logan, he’d eat a bowl full of that nasty-ass salsa Gemma loved to
make.
 
And he’d die before he ate that!

Tommy,
however, wasn’t privy to Sal’s wager.
 
He
was too concerned for Liz.
 
He entered
the boardroom looking, not at the faces that he knew so intimately, but for
Liz.
 
When he saw her lining the wall
along with some of the other ladies, he relaxed.
 
Then he looked at the ladies at the
table.
 
At Freda, his Nigerian
beauty.
 
At Menira.
 
At all of the ladies he currently had open
relationships with.
 
His friends with
benefits, although he hated that term.

Tommy
stood at the head of the table.
 
“Hello,
ladies,” he said.

They
spoke to him.

“Liz,
come here,” he said and Liz made her way to the head of the table with
him.
 
He held her
 
hand.

“What
is this about, Tommy?” Freda asked him.

“I
asked you ladies to meet me here because I needed to make something perfectly
clear.
 
I have been in an open
relationship with each one of you.”

“Common
knowledge, Tommy,” Menira said.
 
“I don’t
know these ladies, but I assumed that was the common thread here.”

A
smart one, Liz thought.
 
She could be
trouble.
 

“And
you’re right,” Tommy responded to Menira.
 
“Your assumption is correct.”

“When
you stopped returning my calls,” Freda said, “I figured something was up.
 
Is she that something?

“Yes,”
Tommy said.
 
“I want each of you to meet
Liz Logan.”

Menira
smiled. “Welcome to the club, Liz Logan.
 
Tommy doesn’t usually throw his ladies a meet and greet, but there’s a
first time for everything, right?”

“She’s
not one of my ladies,” Tommy said.
 
“I’m
currently in an exclusive relationship with her.
 
She’s The Lady.
 
It will remain exclusive. I wanted to make
sure each and every one of you understood that.”

“Because
of what happened with Grace?” Menira asked him.

“Yes.
 
I want there to be no doubt about my
commitment to Liz.
 
None.
 
And even if you disbelieve me, I would not
suggest you try me.
 
Our prior
relationship will not mean shit to me if you try me.”

The
women knew all sides of Tommy, including Tommy the Terrible and they weren’t
about to test him that way.
 
They asked
few questions, got straight answers, and that was it.
 
Liz was amazed at how understanding the women
were.
 
They were disappointed, she could
see that even through their smiles, but they behaved as if he was just one last
fish in the sea.
 

But
when they began leaving, she realized that it wasn’t that at all.
 
He was still the king fish in their
eyes.
 
It wasn’t that he was no longer on
the market.
 
For them, it was
 
more about how long it would take before he
was back on the market.

“Six
months,” Liz heard one of them say as they were leaving.

“Not
even,” said another.
 
“I say three,
knowing Tommy.
 
He’ll be back in three.”

Tommy
heard it too.
 
He put his arm around
Liz’s waist.
 
“Disregard that,” he said.

“They
may very well be right, Tommy,” Liz said.
 
“I’m not going to disregard anything.
 
We may not last that long.”
 
Then
she looked him in the eye.
 
“But
thank-you for putting yourself out there like that.
 
At least they all know.
 
At least not one of them can say they didn’t
get it.
 
You made it clear.
 
That made it worth it for me.”

Tommy
smiled and hugged her.
 
He looked at
her.
 
“Then it was worth it,” he said.

And then,
if that scene in the board room wasn’t surreal enough for Liz, she made it to
Tommy’s house and finally, after dating him exclusively all these months, she
met his Destiny.

She
was seated in an oversized chair in the living room, dressed beautifully, Liz
noticed, in a pretty pink dress with a big white sash.
 
She was a brown-skinned beauty already.
 
Liz stood slightly behind Tommy.
 
This was not like meeting his ex-lovers where
they were her equals and she could give as good as she could get.
 
She was out of her element here.

After
the nanny, a middle-aged woman, introduced herself, she left out of the
room.
 
Tommy asked Liz to have a seat on
the sofa, he sat beside Liz, and then he called Destiny over.

What
Liz loved about this entire situation was how simple it was.
 
He didn’t introduce her at a family cookout
or some other major event where lots of other people were around to influence
the situation. He introduced her one on one.
 
Woman to child.
 
As if this was
one of the most important moments in their relationship.
 
Meeting his ex-lovers paled by comparison.

He
sat Destiny on his knee, facing Liz.
 
“Destiny,” Tommy said to his daughter, tightening her sash, as nervous
as Liz had ever seen him, “I want you to meet Liz Logan.”

“Hi,”
Liz said to her.

She
waved her hand.
 
Then she looked at her
father. She was precocious for a two-and-a-half year old, and Tommy realized
that, but he also realized that she was still only two-and-a-half.
 
“Do you remember what I told you about her?”
he asked her.

She
nodded her head.

“What
did I tell you about her?”
 

“You
told me,” Destiny started saying, and then, as if she couldn’t quite explain
it, she hesitated.
 
Tommy waited. He knew
his daughter.
 
Then, sure enough, she
started talking again.
 
“You told me that
she’s your special friend.”