Scent of Love

by Cristina Grenier

  Jerry’s mouth dropped open, “Uh, he means footballs. Not like… testicles or anything because, you know… that would be gay, and Alex clearly loves women.”

  He walked to Alex’s desk, holding up his hand for a high five but was promptly left hanging.

  “Oooh k,” she said, “I need you to look at these numbers and then sign it and send them back to me. I’ve put my email address on there so you can just scan them and send them back that way when you’re finished, ok?”

  Alex sat in his chair, mesmerized by the brown skinned beauty that stood in front of him. Her shoulder length hair was dark and sensuous like precious oil. Her dark brown eyes were alluring and the business suit she wore fit her body flawlessly. She held the papers out in front of him momentarily before he finally took them from her hand, slightly brushing his hand against hers in the process. He winked, “Thank you, Miss?”

  She shook her head, “Nicole Parker. Just be sure to have those back to me before 3 pm, please.”

  She turned to walk away as he stood up, “Oh, yes, Ms. Parker. I’ll have these back to you immediately because, as you know, I’m a minute man.”

  Jerry spoke up again, “He means, he’ll have this back to you quickly. Because he’s not a minute man, I know that for a fact. One time, when he was having sex he-”

  She rolled her eyes and shut the door before he could finish. Alex just stood there, glaring at the door as if she was still there. Like he had just seen an angel with his own eyes. It took Jerry a few moments to break him out of his trance. He walked over and put his hand on his shoulder as Alex stood motionless like mannequin, “Alex? Geez, snap out of it, will ya?”

  He finally came back to reality, “Oh my God, Jerry!”

  He grabbed him by the shoulders, “I’ve found her! I’ve found the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with! It’s her!”

  Jerry wiped Alex’s hands off of him, “Come on man, you… you can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, I am. I am as serious as I’ve ever been!”

  “You said you were serious about Rebecca, remember? What happened then?”

  Alex’s mind recollected the time he spent with Rebecca, his fling from last year. They hung out for a few weeks before he abruptly stopped speaking to her. She called him daily, but he changed his number and never came to the door whenever she stopped by. When Jerry asked him about her, he only said, “Bro, she wanted to settle down and get married. I mean, she’s the one but, who wants to get married? On top of that, she wasn’t cool with me having sex with other chicks when I was with her, so screw that.”

  Alex’s mind came back to the present time, “Oh, her? That was different. I’m much more mature now,” He said, reaching into his desk to pull out his Scooby-doo fruit snacks.

  “And out of all the women in the world. I mean, for God’s sake, even in the building, you pick her? Nicole Parker?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So? What do you mean, so? She’s clearly not like us.”

  He leaned forward on his desk, “What do you mean by that?”

  Jerry leaned closer to him, almost in a whisper, “She’s not like us… you know… us… me and you.”

  “She’s not a man?”

  “No… well, I mean yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean, just look at her. You can tell how she’s different, you know? I mean, I just never thought you would go for a woman…. Like that… you know? I mean, she’s cute and all, don’t get me wrong… I just didn’t picture… HER as your type?”

  He stood up at his desk and spoke with a mouth full of fruit snacks, “So, what are you trying to say about her?”

  He sighed, “Jesus, man, do I have to spell it out. She is… an accountant! We don’t talk to accountants! They are not agents like us, you know? I mean, some things just don’t mix buddy and that right there is one of them! Clearly!”

  Alex shook his head and plopped back down in his chair as Jerry went on in the background about the reasons why he shouldn’t get involved with Nicole. As he rambled on, he envisioned the two of them together, happily ever after with a house full of mixed grandchildren that his mother completely adored. She’s beautiful, he thought to himself; I know Mom would be pleased with her. She would have to be. He reached over to the papers she left on his desk. As Jerry kept speaking in the background, he quickly reviewed and signed them then ran over to his scanner to get them onto his computer. Seconds later, he pulled up his email and prepared to send them over to her.

  He thought for a few moments about what he should write until it eventually came to him, “Hello Ms. Parker ((and I am hoping it is Ms.)), I have signed the enclosed papers. The numbers look beautiful but of course, they pale in comparison to yours. You know, I thought of a poem when you came in. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I am in love, and I believe that it’s with you. Ha, ha. I’m just kidding about the love part but honestly, I mean, if you’re not doing anything later. Or tomorrow. Or even the next day, maybe we could hang out? I mean, that’s if you’re down with the swirl. I know I am (wink).

  p.s.

  That wink was in no way implying anything sexual. As a matter of fact, neither was the swirl comment. I was just, you know, being cool because that’s who I am.”

  He pressed send on the email, confident that she would read it and just be head over heels excited about the fact that Alex Rawlings, the CEO of Saavy just emailed her about his interest in her. Jerry viewed the email in horror, “Bro, you did not just send that to her?”

  He didn’t respond. He only reclined back in his seat with his hands behind his head and his feet resting on his desk. He had a confident smile on his face, and he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she would be emailing him back any second now.

  Nicole read through the email, shaking her head at every sentence she read in the email. She had been employed at Saavy for the past year, but the position she just acquired is the reason why she had to go to his office. She had seen him walking through the building many times with the same, silly bounce in his step and his stupid, generic smile that he gave everyone in his sight, “the wink and the gun.” What a bumbling idiot, she would think to herself as she stayed clear out of his line of view. She had heard many things about him, primarily how much of a womanizer he was. Although she had never dated outside her race, she definitely wasn’t opposed to it, but Alex Rawlings would not have made her short list. Not even by a mile. She printed out the paperwork and then swiftly moved his email to the trash can. No, don’t have time for that, she said to herself as she got up and left her office.

  Nicole Parker was an educated, single mother from D.C. She got her accounting degree from Georgetown and although it was tough for her to break into the field, her efforts eventually paid off after a few internships with Regency Motors, a car company just outside the city. She was everything you would want in a woman, beautiful, confident, and strong-willed and she didn't take any crap from anyone. She had to have that mentality though because if she didn’t, she would be taken advantage of and she knew it. It was the way she was raised.

  She took the elevator to the 2nd floor, the place where the least used café in the building was situated. She preferred to be alone instead of around the noisiness of her coworkers who did nothing but discuss the latest gossip. As she sat down, she got a text from her off and on a friend, Michael. Michael was 29 years old, just four years older than her. Even though she only used him for companionship, he thought that they were much more than what she was leading on. The real reason she kept him around was due to the fact of his relationship with her son. Her 11-year-old son, Taylor, was oddly fond of Michael, and she just couldn’t figure out why exactly but if she had to guess, it was because he would spend hours at her house playing video games with her son. There were times when he would come by on a Saturday at around 1 pm and then stay in the child's room from then until he left later that night. He would only leave the room for something to drink or a snack. Nicole literally felt like she had a
nother child in her possession and had the mind to file for some sort of child support as he spent hours upon hours at her house.

  “Hey baby, how is your day going?”

  She cringed whenever he called her that, “I’m not your baby. I am eating lunch.”

  “You’re just playing hard to get, I understand. Listen, I was going to come by later to spend some time with Taylor.”

  She shook her head. She knew that he was just coming over to play video games.

  “It’s a school night. Taylor needs to get his homework done and get in the bed.”

  “Ok. Well, I’ll just keep your company then.”

  She didn’t respond. She knew he would be over there one way or the other and even though she would rather not deal with him, a sick, twisted part of her actually appreciated his company. Just having somewhat of a man in the house just in case anything went wrong. She grew up without her father in the home, and Taylor’s dad decided he wanted to go into the Army, so he was stationed in Afghanistan. Even though Taylor’s father swore up and down that he wanted to go into the Army, she had a feeling that he did it more to avoid his responsibility as a father. She wrestled with that thought frequently.

  After she had finished eating, she made her way back up to her office. Alex was heading down the hallway as soon as she stepped off. She tried to spin on a dime and get back on before he noticed her but it was too late, “Hey, Ms. Parker!” He yelled.

  She sucked her teeth, “Dear God, what does this man want with me!?”

  He approached her just outside the elevator, slightly out of breath from running,

  “Hey, Ms. Parker. Did you, um… Did you get my email?”

  “I did,” She smiled, “Thank you for sending those papers back to me expeditiously.”

  “Oh… oh yeah, I had a Ford Expedition once. It was fast, but it wasn’t as fast as me.”

  He smiled as she looked at him, just as confused as anyone else would be.

  “Um, ok. That’s great. Well, it was good talking to you.”

  She walked around him, but he quickly repositioned himself in front of her, standing in a position that would accentuate his muscular physic. She rolled her eyes, apparently not amused with what she saw, “So, I was looking for a new workout partner and you seem to care about your shape… I mean your health. What do you say? I have a friend that owns a gym not too far from here. Free membership. What do you think?”

  He leaned against the wall; a stupid smile plastered across his face. She looked up and down the hall, hoping and praying that nobody would come and see this monumentally embarrassing situation she was experiencing. She did not want to add fuel to any gossip that was already going around the building,

  “Listen, Mr. Rawlings.”

  “Just call me, Al.”

  “Um, Mr. Rawlings. I appreciate your fondness for me; I really do but I um. I have a boyfriend.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is his name?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  Because I want to kill him, he thought to himself, “Just asking. I mean, who knows. I may know him.”

  “His name is Michael.”

  “Michael?”

  “Yes.”

  “Michael…. With an ‘M’?”

  She answered sarcastically, “No, Michael with a ‘P’”

  He looked confused, “So, wouldn’t that be… Pichael?”

  She sighed, “Look, that was fun talking with you Mr. Rawlings, but I have to get going. I have a meeting at 1 pm.”

  She hurriedly walked past him as he yelled down the hallway,

  “Well, tell Pichael I said hello.”

  She rolled her eyes as she walked down the hallway, doing her best to clear herself from Alex before anybody else came. Alex stood in the same spot, watching her walk away. He hadn’t felt the sting of rejection before and personally, he didn’t know how to deal with it. Is this a tear in my eye, he said surprisingly as he took his finger and ran it across his face. It is! She made me cry my own tears! Is this what rejection feels like, he thought to himself, because if it is, this shit sucks!

  He walked down the hallway dejected as Jerry appeared out of nowhere, strolling right next to him, “How’s it hanging, man?”

  He looked at Alex, “Hey, what’s wrong, bro? What is it? Are you crying? Holy shit, who made you cry?”

  “Shut up, man! I’m not crying. I yawned, that’s all.”

  They walked down the corridor back to his office as he shut the door behind him.

  “She has a boyfriend.”

  Jerry picked the basketball up off the rack and began bouncing it, “Who?”

  “Nicole. She has a boyfriend.”

  “Bullshit.”

  He said, taking a shot at the basket. He swished it all net and walked over to get the ball again.

  “No, seriously. She has a boyfriend. His name is Pichael.”

  “Pichael? The fuck kind of name is that?”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Jerry bounced the ball again, taking another shot. Swish. “So, what now?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, I know she is who I want to be with. I know it without a doubt.”

  Swish.

  “You need me to do anything, bro?”

  “Yeah. Kill him.”

  Clang! The ball bounced off the side of the rim and knocked some books off the shelves. Jerry stood with his mouth hanging open, “Kill him? You can’t be serious.”

  Alex paused, “Would you do it?”

  “Fuck no!”

  “Well then shit, I’m not serious then. I just fucking hate Pichael, I’ll tell you that much.”

  Jerry went over to pick up the books that had fallen to the floor, “Look, how about this. I’ll snoop around, and I’ll find out whatever I can about this Pichael fella and then we’ll go from there.”

  Alex’s eyes lit up, “You would do that for me?”

  “What? Are we not BBFL?”

  “Yes, we are! Wait, what does that mean?”

  “Best Bros For Life. Come on, man; you gotta keep up.”

  “Sorry, dude. I guess I’m not as connected to slang as I thought I was.”

  He picked the ball up and swished it one more time before he headed out of the office, “It’s cool. I just made it up anyway.”

  Chapter 5: What’s the 411?

  Jerry snuck around the building like a private eye, holding up a magazine over his face and then lowering it when he got close to the commotion. He was friends with a few people who knew Nicole personally. He snuck by them while they sat in the large café on the top floor of the building. The room was crowded as the chatter increased in volume the further he moved from the room. He scanned the room until he saw Nicole’s friends, Charlotte, Katie and Amanda all sitting at a table towards the middle of the room. He did his best to be inconspicuous as he held the magazine in front of his face, sitting just a few tables away from the group of women.

  “Jerry? Jerry, what the hell are you doing? We know it’s you! We see your fat ass head behind that magazine.”

  He put the magazine down, a scowl on his face, “Sssshhhhhh,” he said, looking around, “I need information on Pichael.”

  Charlotte spoke up, “Who is Pichael?”

  “Sshhhhh!” he looked around again, “Nicole’s boyfriend Pichael.”

  “Nicole doesn’t have a boyfriend named Pichael.”

  “Yes, she does.”

  “No, she doesn't.”

  Katie interjected, “Do you mean Michael? Because I know she has a friend named Michael but he is far from her boyfriend.”

  Charlotte responded, “Michael? Oh,” She laughed, “She cannot stand that man. I mean, he’s a good friend of hers or whatever, I guess. But, that’s not her boyfriend. She said he is good with her son, so to keep her son happy, she lets him come around. That’s all that is, though. At one time, she thought it could be something, but it just didn’t turn out the way she thou
ght it would.”

  “So, Michael is her friend. Great. But I’m asking about Pichael!”

  Katie reached out to smack Jerry across the head, “Fool! There is no Pichael! What kind of dumb name is that?! The man you’re talking about is named Michael, and that is not her boyfriend.”

  Jerry looked curiously between the women, “So, you’re telling me that Pichael doesn’t exist, but Michael does. And Michael is not her boyfriend?”

  “Right. That’s,” Charlotte paused, “now, wait a minute. Why are you asking about Nicole’s love life? Aren’t you married?”

  “No, I’m not married! And this is not for me, anyway. This is for a friend.”

  Amanda spoke up, “Well, who is your friend?”

  “Nobody!”

  “Oh, I know,” Charlotte said, “It’s gotta be Alex.”

  Katie licked her lips, “Oh my, Mr. Sexy Alex Rawlings. Um, um, um! My husband gets mad every time I bring his name up casually. He starts to get all jealous and everything. I mean, it’s cute and all but honestly, right now? Especially how things are going at home, if I had to pick between the two, I’ll take Alex for $300 Bob.”

  She laughed as Charlotte agreed with her, “Girl, who are you telling? Listen, I wouldn’t usually date white men but that Alex? That Alex can get all,” She rubbed her hand over her large breasts that coincided with the rest of her body, “Of this, you hear me? All of this chocolate goodness.”

  Jerry spoke up, “Ok, first of all. That’s nasty. Second of all, it’s not Alex!”

  “We know it's Alex because anybody else wouldn’t have sent you snooping around just to find out more information about her. It’s either you or Alex.”

  “Ok, it’s me.”

  Charlotte and Katie looked at each other silently, then burst out into laughter, “Boy, bye! You would have a better chance beating a bear in an arm wrestling match than landing a date with Nicole.”

  They laughed him to scorn as he got up and walked away, hoping that he at least deflected the attention off the fact that Alex was interested in Nicole. It was something he was willing to sacrifice to keep Alex happy. Jerry was still looking for a client, and he hoped that his initiative in this situation would show that he was capable of performing the same way in other cases. He ran back to Alex’s office, bursting open the door and shutting it behind him. Alex stood at his window, looking back towards Jerry with a perplexed look on his face. Jerry bent over to his knees, catching his breath, “Just wait, “He said, taking deep breaths, “Just wait one second. I got… I got some good… some useful information for you.”