by J. S. Cooper
“Yeah, I hope so.” He texted something into his phone. “I’m going to have to miss all of my morning appointments.”
“Shall I cancel them for you?”
“You?” He snorted. “No, I have a secretary that will take care of that.”
“No need to look at me like I just asked if you would give me ten million dollars to start my snail farm business or something.”
“Snail farm?”
“I don’t want to start a snail farm, it was just an example.”
“Certainly.” He nodded. “Well, I have to go now.”
“Do you want me to come with you?” I wasn’t even sure why I’d asked. Of course he wouldn’t want me to come with him. His phone call had sounded private and I certainly didn’t want to intrude.
“Actually yes.” He nodded slowly. “I think you could be helpful.”
“Oh really?” I stared at him in surprise. “How so?”
“I think my friend Justin would be more interested in chatting to a pretty woman than to me right now.” He shrugged.
“Is this some sort of hookup?”
“Is that all you think about Marcia?” He studied my face. “Did you come to the City with the sole intention of finding different men to hook up with?” He paused. “I don’t think so...you wouldn’t have blown me off that night if you had.”
“Maybe I blew you off because I wasn’t interested.”
“But we both know that wasn’t the case.” His face was thoughtful. “You intrigue me.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the first woman I’ve met in a long time who has put me in my place.” He grinned. “And you make me smile.”
“I do?”
“Surprisingly, you do.” He nodded towards the entrance. “Ready to go?”
“Do I need to tell Gloria or Jasper or anyone?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’ve taken care of it.” We walked towards the front of the building and I could see Shantal gawking at me. I was going to have to tell my friends later exactly what was going on. They would never believe me; I didn’t even know if I really believed it myself.
Twenty-Two
"So I'm glad to see you're not wearing your heels today." Finn looked at my feet as we made our way out of the office building.
I looked at him in surprise. "Oh, we're walking."
"Yeah," he nodded. "That's not going to be a problem, is it?"
"No," I said, "I'm just surprised we're not taking a car. You seem to love to be driven by your chauffeur."
"That's not true at all," he said, shaking his head. "In fact, I very much hate being driven by a chauffeur."
There was a light in his eyes that I didn't quite understand, and I stared at him for a few seconds. "Really? Why?"
"This is the life I was born into, not the life that I wanted. It's my responsibility to carry on the family business," he shrugged.
"You didn't want to," I said, finally understanding.
"No, I didn't. I always thought my older brother would take over the company, but..." He paused and signed. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now. What's to be will be and what's not to be won't be."
"You wish you could live in the mountains."
"Yeah," he said. "I'd do anything to live in the mountains."
"But what would you do there?"
"I think I told you I'd open a small little resort."
"Wow. That sounds..." I paused. I didn't want to lie. I didn't think it sounded cool. I mean, it sounded cool, like cold, but it didn't sound cool like fun and exciting. It totally wasn't my thing.
HE started laughing. "I can tell exactly what you're thinking."
"What do you mean?" I said quickly.
"Your face. You know there's a saying that faces are the windows to the soul?"
"I think the saying is eyes are the window to the soul."
And he paused, “You're right. I think that's the saying. Anyway, when I look at your face and into your eyes, I can tell exactly what you're thinking. You can't lie."
"Well, I can lie, but-"
"But you can't lie about your emotions," he said. "I can tell when you're happy. I can tell when you're sad. I can tell when you're angry."
"Oh, wow. I didn't know you'd seen so many different emotions on my face."
"Yeah," he said, "I have. So now you know my dream. Tell me more about yours."
"I want to make documentaries. That's why I came to the city."
Oh. Just random documentaries, or...”
"No, I want to tell the stories of Puerto Ricans."
"Puerto Ricans? That's quite specific," he said looking taken aback. "Why Puerto Ricans?"
"Because my mom is from Puerto Rico, and I have a whole family from Puerto Rico, and I want to get to know more about that part of my background."
"You don't know much about it?" he said.
"Not really," I sighed. "My mum married my dad when they were quite young, and he's Irish American. And I know a lot about that part of my family, and they're lovely. Really lovely. But I don't really know much about my Puerto Rican side, and I kind of wanted to do a documentary on what it meant to be Puerto Rican and American."
"Well, Puerto Ricans are Americans, right?"
"Of course. They are Americans, but they also have their own identity as Puerto Rican. You know? I just wanted to delve into that more."
"So do you speak Spanish?"
"No," I shook my head regretfully. "I wish my mother would've taught me when I was younger. She speaks fluent Spanish, but I guess she didn't think it was necessary." I half laughed. "Little did she know that Spanish would take over the world."
"Yeah, you could have really made it into a high executive position if you were fluent in Spanish," he said with a smile.
"Yeah, but I don't really want to be an executive, no matter what I said about being president of marketing."
"Okay then. So, I guess I won't offer you that position."
I started laughing. "We both know you weren't about to offer me any president position."
"Well, we don't know that for sure, but ..." He nodded. "Most probably not anytime soon."
"Yeah," I said as we continued walking down the street. "I just want to be in the street with my camera and documenting people."
"People or Puerto Ricans?" he asked.
"People. I want to go to the Bronx, and I just want to talk to people, you know? I want to get to know the melting pot of cultures and how it makes up one of the greatest cities in the world."
"You sound like you're really passionate about it."
"I am," I nodded.
"And so how's the documentary going?"
"Honestly, it's not." I shook my head. "I don't have microphones. My camera's kind of old. I don't really know anyone else that's interested in documentary filmmaking." I chewed on my lower lip. "I guess I'm kind of nowhere. It's a pipe dream."
"It's not a pipe dream," he said. "Are you doing anything to get yourself in a position to start making your documentary?"
"Yeah," I said. "This job for one."
"Oh?" He looked surprised. "I thought this job was more about you paying your rent, but...”
"No, it's about paying rent, of course." I heaved a deep sigh. "I feel really guilty."
"Why do you feel guilty?"
"I dragged my best friend, Susie, with me. I had a bad situation back home, and, well, I'd always wanted to move here, and I convinced her to come with me, and she spent a lot of her savings helping to pay the bills for both of us. I know earlier you made a comment asking if we were codependent, and it's not that we're codependent. It's just that I'm not good with money, or rather I don't really have much money. And so that's why it was really important for me to get this job. That's why it was really important for me to be able to provide and pay for the bills that are stressing Susie out day and night. She's my best friend, and yeah, I could get some part-time job and go and buy equipment and start making my documentaries, but that wouldn't
be fair to her."
"Does she have a job?"
"Um, not really."
"What do you mean? She either has a job or she doesn't."
"I think she got some like marketing job. That's not really what she wants to do," I sighed. "I feel selfish, you know?"
"Why do you feel selfish, Marcia?"
"I feel selfish because I've always kind of looked out for myself number one. Don't get me wrong, I love Susie, and I would do anything for her, but she's more quiet and she's more compassionate and understanding, and she allows me to pursue my dreams and go for what I want, and she sort of stands back in the shadows. And while I thought she didn't mind, I thought she didn't have dreams of her own, but I'm starting to think that perhaps I was wrong."
"Oh? Why is that?"
"Just a comment she made to me the other day." I shook my head. "I don't think she's enjoying the city as much as I am. Well, at least I don't know," I said. "Are we nearly there?"
"We're about 10 blocks away," he said. "You know, if she really wants a job, she can come and work at Winchester Enterprises. We're always looking for temps."
"Well, I asked Gloria, and...”
"Okay. It doesn't matter what Gloria said if I'm telling you I can hire her."
I smiled at him. "I guess you're pulling rank over Gloria, huh?"
"I am the CEO of Winchester Enterprises. I am Finn Winchester," he grinned.
"Thank you. That's really sweet of you, and you don't even know Susie."
"I know she's your best friend, and I know that she's loyal," he grinned, "and those are two very positive traits. I think she'd make a great addition to the accounting department seeing as she seems to do your personal finances, even if you don't seem to have much."
"Yeah, we don't," I laughed. "But that's no fault of hers. It's my fault, and..." I sighed. "You know, I want to tell you something."
"And what's that?"
"You were kind of right when you said to me I was closed off and was sort of taking stuff out on you when I first met you."
"Oh? How so?"
"So the last guy I dated in Florida, he was gorgeous, and I really fell for him, and he ended up cheating on me. And like a fool, I took him back, and he ended up cheating on me again, and he gaslighted me. He made me feel like it was all my fault, and he made me feel like I was an idiot for expecting that we were in a monogamous relationship and that he had feelings as deep for me as I had for him. It really played with my head."
"I'm sorry. I'm not your ex though. I don't know why you would judge all men based off of one man."
"It's not just about that relationship though." I sighed.
"Oh? What else is it about?"
"When I was in college my freshman year, I dated a man," I groaned. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this, but I felt you should know."
"Tell me, please."
"He was gorgeous, and he was confident and he had money."
"This is a guy in college?"
"No," I shook my head. "I was in college, but he was working already."
"Okay, so he was an older guy?"
"Yeah, and I fell in love with him." I chewed on my lower lip. "Like, I thought we were going to get married."
"Oh, wow. Okay. What happened?"
"Well, one day he told me to meet him for dinner, and I got ready and I waited for him to come and pick me up, and he never came. And so I started getting really worried and was calling him, and he wasn't calling me back, and I even ended up calling the police to see if there'd been any accidents."
"Oh, shit. Was he okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah, he was fine."
"So what happened?"
I played with my hair for a few seconds and then looked at him. "I went out later that evening to get ice cream with one of my roommates and her boyfriend."
"Okay."
"And we drove maybe a couple of blocks away. Not far."
"Okay."
"And I saw his truck. He drove this souped up truck. He used to, like, race them and have them in shows. It was pretty obvious to me that it was his truck."
"Okay. And so he was okay?"
"Yeah, he was more than okay." I rolled my eyes. "His truck was parked outside a sorority house, so I had my friend's boyfriend stop his car, and me and my friend got out. We walked up to the door, knocked, and one of the sorority girls opened, and I said that I was there to see Ricky."
"Oh, boy," he said. "What happened?"
"Well, the girl opened the door and we were walked inside, and I went upstairs, and..." I shook my head. “There was Ricky."
"Oh?" Finn stared at me. "Do you have detailed information, or...”
"He was going down on one of the girls at the top of the stairs, whilst another girl was blowing him."
"No way," Finn said, his eyes wide. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I later figured out that he preyed on college girls, and there were a number of us he was fucking with," I sighed. "I had to go and get STD tests just to make sure that he hadn't given me anything, and I just remember feeling like such a fool. And the worst part was he showed up at my door about a month later thinking I was going to take him back, and I can just remember the smug, cocky look on his face, how self-assured and confident he was."
"So that's why you hate handsome men, because you've been burned?"
"It's not just that I hate handsome men. It's that I just feel like if a man is too handsome and too confident and too cocky and sure of himself, well, it just reminds me of my exes and how they broke my heart and stepped all over me, and it's just hard, you know?"
"I guess I should take that positively," he said with a raised eyebrow. "You think I'm very handsome, but then you're also saying you think I'm cocky and self-assured."
"Come on now, Finn. You're not confident?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe I appear to be more confident than I am. Maybe you can't judge a book by its cover."
"You know, you're the second person that's said that to me in the last couple of weeks. Maybe you're right."
"Maybe I am," he said, and then stopped outside a diner. "Okay. We're here."
"Oh, and where is it that we're going?"
"Inside there," he nodded at the diner. "We're going to see Justin."
"Your friend?"
"Yeah. He's my friend, my little brother."
"Oh, I didn't realize you had a little brother."
"Come on. You'll see." He opened the door and looked around and then headed towards the back of the diner. Sitting in one of the booths was a young boy, about 12 years old. "Hey, Justin," Finn said.
The little boy looked up. "Hey, Finn. What's up?"
I stared at Finn, and then I stared at the little boy, who appeared to be Black. I wasn't a scientist or a biologist, but they didn't look like they were related.
Finn nodded towards me. "Justin, this is Marcia."
"Hi," I said. "Nice to meet you."
"Hey. Are you Finn's girlfriend?"
"No, no," I said quickly. "I just work for him at the office."
"Oh, okay," he grinned at me. "I was about to say, Finn, you never told me you had a girlfriend."
"I don't have to tell you everything about my life, Justin." Finn slid into the booth, and I slid in next to him. "So did you get something to eat?"
"Ordered some pancakes," Justin nodded. "And some eggs. "You want anything?"
"Maybe I'll have some pancakes as well. You want anything Marcia?"
I shook my head, confused about the situation I now found myself in. "So you two are brothers?" I hated the fact that I'd asked, but I just really wanted to know.
"Yeah," Justin nodded and grinned. "You think we don't look alike, huh?"
"No, I mean, I would never say that." My face was bright red.
"We don't look alike," Justin laughed. "He's my big brother."
"Um, okay." I looked at Finn, and Finn grinned.
"We're part of the Big Brothers, Big Sister program. Justin's been my lit
tle brother for the last four years now, so it's like we're practically blood."
"Practically," Justin said and sat back. "I don't want to go back to school today."
"You know you're going to have to go Justin," Finn sighed. "You can't skip school, and I'm sure everyone must be wondering where you are, and-"
"No one cares about me," Justin shook his head. "Mom's at work, and her stupid boyfriend's just at home, and he don't care."
Finn sighed. "Well, I care, and you need to get your education, especially if you're going to come and work for me."
"I don't need school. School sucks, Justin said. He stared at me. "What do you think, miss?"
"Well, if I'm honest," I said softly, "I didn't really like school either, but I had to go to school in order to go to college, and I had to go to college in order to get a job. I had to get a job so I could pay my bills and achieve my dreams, which is what I'm working on now. So," I said, "even though I didn't like school, it's still helpful. Kind of like spinach."
"Spinach?" Justin looked at me confused. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you know how Popeye had to eat his spinach to be all strong?"
"Uh, Popeye the cartoon?" He looked at Finn.
Finn nodded and laughed. "Yes, Justin, Popeye the cartoon."
"Yeah. Um, do you guys still watch Popeye these days? Sorry. I don't really know any kids."
"Um, I've seen Popeye a long time ago," Justin said, and I wanted to laugh because he was so young as it was. How long could a long time ago have been?
"But Popeye had to eat his spinach," I continued, "to stay strong, even though spinach doesn't even taste that great, and that's kind of like going to school." I groaned. "Okay, that's kind of a shitty metaphor." I slapped my hand against my mouth. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I-"
"It's fine," Finn chuckled, staring at me. "He's heard worse words than that."
"I have, truly," Justin said with a grin. "Don't worry about it."
"Thanks. Sorry. Like I said, I haven't been around many kids."
"That's okay," Justin beamed at me. "You're cool. I like you."
"Thanks. You're cool too."
"So I guess I will go back to school after my pancakes," Justin said. "But only if...”
"What do you want?" Finn said.
"If we can play basketball this weekend."