Janet stared at him. “You mean from two days ago?”
“I mean from six years ago.”
Janet smiled. “You remember me?”
Richard frowned. “I absolutely remember you. I never forgot you.”
Janet was shocked to hear it. She’d never forgotten him, either, but she chalked that up to her own desperate need. But there was nothing desperate about Richard, and he never forgot her! Now she was intrigued.
“What have you been doing with yourself?” he asked her.
“Working. Living. Doing what people do with themselves.”
Richard laughed. “Got cha,” he said. “Although,” he added, “you’re no longer with Rooney and Rice. Why not?”
Janet exhaled. “It goes back to fighting battles. That’s all I’ve been doing for six years at that firm and it got me nowhere.”
“So, you gave up?”
“I gave in. Especially after our meeting with you.”
“With me? Why would that little meeting cause you to give in?”
“Mr. Rice seemed to think I was the reason he lost that contract.”
“Nonsense! He never had the contract to lose,” Richard said.
“But he decided to make it all about me. And I was tired of every negative turn being all about me. I already planned to leave that place as soon as I lined something up. I just left a little earlier than I planned to leave.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Janet was quick to shake her head. She remembered the last time he helped. “No, thank you. I have some interviews lined up.”
“If they don’t work out, you promise to come and see me?”
Janet smiled. Working for him wasn’t going to work. Even she saw that. “I have some interviews lined up,” she said again.
Richard laughed. “You’re a stubborn one,” he said. And then the waiter brought her drink, and they placed their dinner orders.
When the waiter left their table, Richard decided to go there. He liked being with her. He liked looking at the expressions on her face. She intrigued him. “What about your love life?” he asked her. He needed to know. He didn’t invite her to that restaurant for his health. He invited her to see if there was some there still there. He now knew it was there in spades.
If she was in a relationship, he was wasting his time.
But Janet was curious about his question. Why would he want to know something like that? “What about my love life?” she asked him.
“Are you seeing somebody right now?”
Janet hesitated. What was the correct response? To ask him why would that matter to him, and thereby get more of an explanation as to why he would care? Or to just tell the truth?
She settled on the truth. “No,” she said to him.
Richard inwardly felt relief. But you couldn’t tell it to look at him.
But two could play that game, Janet thought. “What about you?” she asked.
Richard looked at her. “What about me?”
Janet felt odd asking him such a heady question because she knew it would imply she had a chance with him. But if he could make that implication regarding her, she should have the right to make it regarding him. “Are you seeing someone?” she asked him.
Richard wanted to say no the way she had. Point blank period no. But he would be lying to her. And he wasn’t going to do that. “I see lots of people, Janet,” he said to her.
Janet’s heart dropped. That was what she got for trying to grab for somebody so beyond her reach! What was she thinking? “I see,” she said, and managed to smile.
But Richard saw the pain in her smile. And he couldn’t handle that. “But right now,” he said, deciding to rely on truth with nuance, “I’m not seeing anybody.”
Janet looked at him.
“I’m tired of the hit and runs,” he added, and then looked at her. “You know what I mean?”
She only had one experience with a hit and run, and he was the perpetrator. “Yes,” she said.
And she did feel better, but his first answer had put her on notice. He had lots of females. That was what he was saying initially. Which made it clear to her that he wasn’t interested in her that way. Which she should have known all along. But now she knew. Don’t ever get comfortable with him, she told herself.
And as if they had conjured it up, they both suddenly heard a voice. One of his ladies?
“Hello, Dicky.”
When he looked and saw Margo, who was indeed one of his lady friends with benefits, he wanted to tell her to scram. It was as if he was in delicate talks with a super power nation, where his happiness depended on the outcome of those talks, and some banana republic interrupted him. But there she was, with two of her girlfriends, standing at his booth.
Janet saw her too, and the one thing she saw about her, just like she saw with his secretary Doris, and probably every woman he currently had, was how beautiful she was. Which only served to remind Janet of how beautiful she was not.
“Hello, Margo,” Richard said with no enthusiasm.
But Margo was smiling and looking at Janet. “Who’s that, darling?” she asked Richard. “Your housekeeper?”
Why that little heifer, Janet said to herself, as Margo’s girlfriends giggled at her little joke.
But Richard didn’t skip a beat. “No,” he said, “she’s not my housekeeper. You’re hers.”
Margo smiled a puzzled smile. “I’m hers? What kind of sense does that make?”
“The same kind of sense that shit you just said made,” Richard fired back.
Margo’s smile left. Her girlfriends’ smiles did too. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked him.
“It means get the fuck out of my face,” Richard said and stared her down. “That’s what it means!”
And he wouldn’t relinquish his stare until Margo and her girls got the message and left his booth. But not before Margo gave Janet the harshest look she could muster. But Janet smiled at her. Yeah, he shamed your shameful butt, she wanted to say. But she didn’t go there. Richard had already said it all.
When Margo and her posse left, Richard looked at her. “Sorry about that,” he said.
But Janet smiled. “She’s mad at you. And you know what?”
“What?”
“You don’t give a damn!”
Richard laughed out loud. “Got that right!” he said. He truly liked this girl!
But then he stared at her again. He loved her spirit, but he knew it came from a place of pain. “It doesn’t bother you when others disrespect you like that?”
Janet gave him a sincere look. “I’m used to it, Richard,” she said.
“But how? How do you get used to something that vile?”
“When everybody treats you that way,” Janet said, “it’s surprisingly easy to get used to that treatment. It’s not news when I’m mistreated. Trust me on that. The news is when I’m treated well.” She gave him a look of total acceptance of the truth of her life. “I’m used to it. Don’t cry for me, Argentina. No big deal at all.”
Richard tried to smile at her little reference to that Evita tune, but he couldn’t pull it off. What she had said, that mistreatment was the course of her life, touched him to his core. Instead of smiling, or playing it off the way she did, he, instead, studied her. And he made up his mind. Just like that. He inwardly decided that he would never allow anybody to ever mistreat her again. God as his witness.
And after her drink and then their meals arrived, and as they ate and small-talked their way through dinner, he realized in stark realness that not pursuing her all those years ago was the mistake of his life. He could have had Janet with him all those lonely nights. But he had gorgeous bedwarmers instead. Nobodies he didn’t care about, and who didn’t give a damn about him. As he ate and watched her, it was a startling realization. He could have tried to change for her. He didn’t even like his lifestyle! Why didn’t he try to change? He was certain he would have broke her heart. But he didn’t have
to break it! Why didn’t he realize that at the time?
Because he didn’t. He just didn’t. And it was a mistake.
He wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
“You owe me,” he said to her when they finished their meals.
But Janet had a sudden stricken look on her face. What was he talking about? Her drink? He wanted her to pay for her drink? She would in a heartbeat.
But she realized she was being irrational. That man wasn’t interested in her chump change! “I owe you for what?” she asked him.
“The last time we spent the night together,” Richard said, “was at your place.”
Janet stared at him. “Okay.”
“Tonight,” he said, staring at her, “we’re spending the night at my place.” And he was looking at her to make certain she registered what he was telling her. “Okay?” he asked her.
Janet knew exactly what he was saying. And she understood what he meant. But she had never done anything like that before in her life. Except once. And for Richard to be her first and second time?
It was exhilarating. But terrifying too.
And she wasn’t the kind of person who was down for whatever. She needed more information before going down that rabbit hole. “Why?” she asked him.
Richard continued to stare at her. Did she not understand what he was referencing? “Why what?” he asked her.
“Why me, Richard? Why not that beautiful woman who felt confident enough to call me your housekeeper to my face? The one you called Margo? Why me and not her tonight? You love beautiful women. Everybody knows that. Why would you want to bother with me?”
A different expression appeared on Richard’s face. An expression Janet saw as either compelling, or repellant. He seemed bothered by her question.
And then he exhaled. And answered her. “When I see you, Janet, all I see is beauty.”
“Come on, Richard,” she said with a don’t bullshit me look on her face.
“Listen to me,” he responded. “I’m not going to patronizing you, okay? I love your face, is what I’m saying. It makes me smile. I love your spirit. It makes me want to be a better man.” Then he frowned. “The honest answer is that I don’t know why you, Janet. I just don’t know. But what I do know? I don’t want it to be anybody else but you.”
But Janet still looked perplexed to Richard. “And you decided this when?” she asked him. “Because two days ago, at that meeting, you acted like you didn’t remember me at all.”
“Oh, I remembered you,” Richard admitted. “I definitely remembered you.”
“But?”
Richard hesitated. “But I didn’t want to put it all on the line like that.”
Janet still felt as if he was talking around the point, instead of getting to the point. “Why not?” she asked him.
Richard hesitated again. Then he decided to just put it out there. “Because I didn’t feel that I was good enough for you, Janet,” he said.
Janet stared at him. Not in disbelief. But in shock. Utter and complete shock.
But all Richard saw was her lack of response. Was she so against the idea of being with a man like him that it repulsed her? He smiled and attempted to play off his embarrassment. “I guess you agree with my assessment that I’m not good enough for you, hun?” he asked.
But then tears appeared in Janet’s big hazel eyes. And it stunned him. “Janet, what is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“All my life,” she began, but then she stopped to wrestle back control of her emotions.
Richard just sat there, his heart aching for her. What did he say that would render her teary-eyed?
“All my life,” Janet began again, “I’ve been relegated to the back of the room. People ignored me. Or picked on me. Or tried to bully me. They used to call me horse face. Shit face.
Richard was shocked. “They called you those names?”
“When I moved in with the Henleys, my so-called foster family, yes. They called me those names every day of my existence with them. Or they just called me Jane, a name I hate to this day, or PJ.”
“PJ?” Richard asked. “Why PJ?”
“It was for Plain Jane.”
Richard stared at her. “Plain? There’s nothing plain about you.”
“It was their way of saying that they knew what beauty was, and it wasn’t me. Which was fine. I didn’t care what they thought of me. But if I were to be truthful, it does take a toll on what you think of yourself. Their putdowns took a toll on me.”
Richard’s heart began hammering. How could anybody think of her as anything short of magnificent, he wondered.
And Janet continued. “When everybody who’s supposed to care about me are telling me that there’s something wrong with my face, how was I supposed to look at myself? My face is what shows up in the world. If they’re saying it’s a bad face, or an ugly face, what am I supposed to do with that? Hide it? How can you hide the very essence of who you show up in the world as? But I guess I did retreat. Trusted no one. Verified everything. Which didn’t help me, either, in the romance department.”
Richard took Janet’s hand and placed it in his own. “I had no idea,” he said to her. “I thought men would see what I see whenever I look at you, and beat your door down to be with you. Better men than me, is what I envisioned for you. But that didn’t happen?”
Janet shook her head. “No. Nothing of the sort happened. That’s why when you said that you, that a man like you weren’t good enough for me? For a girl like me?” Janet shook her head. And then she smiled that high-wattage smile Richard was beginning to adore. “It kind of made my day, to be honest with you,” she continued. Then she smiled again. “Who am I kidding? When you said those words to me, it kind of made my life!”
Richard laughed out loud. He laughed so loud that Margo and her crew, who sat further over, looked at him with nothing short of disgust on their faces.
“What I’m trying to say,” Janet said, “is that it felt good to finally be thought of, in a positive light, by somebody.”
“Oh, I’m sure many men think of you in nothing but a positive light,” Richard said, still unable to believe that men could be that shallow. Not realizing how shallow he had been himself. “The reason they may have stayed away is the reason I didn’t pursue you. They didn’t think they were good enough for you either.”
Janet laughed. This sweet man! “I doubt if that’s the reason, Richard,” she said to him. “But I’ll take it.”
He continued to smile back at her, but then his look turned serious. And then he placed her hand in his hand again, holding it and rubbing it at the same time. “And what I said earlier?” he asked her. “About spending the night with me? You haven’t given me an answer.”
“Me?” she asked. “Spend the night with you?”
Richard’s heart was in his throat. Was she about to turn him down? Did she still not believe him when he spoke of her specialness? He wasn’t lying! Did she believe he was?
Then she smiled, alleviating all his fears. “I’ll be happy to, Richard,” she said.
And he smiled too, but he wasn’t going to delay any longer. He called for the waiter and paid for their ticket, and then looked at her. “Ready?” he asked, standing up.
“I’m ready,” Janet said, gathering up her purse as he hurried over to assist her to her feet.
And as they headed out, and as they approached Margo’s table, Richard placed his arm around Janet’s waist. Around his so-called housekeeper’s waist. Because nobody was disrespecting Janet ever again.
Margo saw that move of possessiveness Richard showed toward Janet, a woman she considered to be an unworthy vessel of any man’s affection, and couldn’t hide her disgust. Richard saw her disgust.
But Janet was right. He didn’t give a damn.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Her Honda Civic followed his Porsche to a big brick house on the other side of Tulsa. As they drove down the long, winding driveway, Janet was shocked by the m
any layers to the house. That roof went on for days, it seemed to her, as there appeared to be so many different sections to that house that she couldn’t keep count. Janet knew that Richard was a very rich man. But she never could wrap her brain around just how rich until she saw that house, a house located in a neighborhood that was filled with similarly-situated big, beautiful homes. She didn’t realize people lived that lavishly in Oklahoma. She’d never seen that side of the world before in her life.
And she was about to spend the night with the king of that side of the world? Was she insane???
But she refused to overthink it. Even after spending that one, precious night with Richard six years ago, and what followed that next morning, he remained her shining example of a good man. A man who found her mother’s photograph. A man who gave her a luxury automobile, and attempted to give her a major promotion. A man who held her all night when those nightmares she’d had all of her life returned. Why they returned that night, she’d never know. But they had. And he was there for her.
And as they parked in the horseshoe driveway and she got out of her Civic, she felt so out of her depth that it stunned her. And she still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to go to his home and spend the night with him. But if not now, when? If not Richard, who? If she was going to lose her heart to any man, she wanted it to be to Richard, who showed her that he could be a very caring man.
He’d also shown her how he could leave her and never give her a second thought. But it wasn’t as if he made any such commitment to her back then. He didn’t. And he hadn’t this time either. She had to remind herself that a man who wanted to go to bed with her wasn’t saying, in any way, shape or form, that he wanted to be with her afterwards. She had to resign herself to that reality too. That Richard, despite his kind words, could very well make love to her, and then leave her once again.
But this time, she feared, he just might take a big chunk of her heart with him.
Richard got out of his sportscar and flapped his suit coat over his shoulder. He was amused to see how Janet just stood there staring at his big home. “What do you think?” he asked her.
Plain Jane Evans and the Billionaire Page 12