Deceptive Nights

by Sylvia Hubbard

  “I’m sorry,” she said, feeling bad that she had not enjoyed the kiss.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who’s sorry. I just couldn’t help myself, Phoebe.”

  Moving away from him needing the distance, she said, “I should get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning for breakfast?”

  He glanced at the bed, then at her. “Yes, tomorrow at breakfast, Phoebe.”

  She allowed him to lean forward and kiss her cheek. When she was alone, she went to the private lined phone, which Mr. Quinn had in each bedroom, and called her home phone to check her voicemails. There were several hang ups only, so she decided to check her work voicemail in case Simon had decided to spring some weekend project on her lap by surprise because he had gotten too lazy at the end of the day to complete it.

  Simon’s voice sprung on the line, “You won’t believe who called here. Anyways, he went through the telephone computer prompts to find you and I just happened to be in your office. He asked for you and when I told him you had gone out of town for the weekend with a friend, he seemed very put out.”

  Phoebe buried her face in her free hand. She should have known Simon would do something like this. If he wasn’t the most dipping man she had ever meet.

  Simon continued, “In any case, I told him you’d be back in the office by Monday morning.”

  That was the end of the message, but not of Phoebe’s misery. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her. She should have told Jacoby about leaving out of town with Lawrence. There was probably no doubt he knew already, but it would have been nice if she had told him herself. Now it looked like deceit and that was the last thing Phoebe had meant to do. She knew exactly how she felt now after that kiss with Lawrence.

  She loved Jacoby.

  Staring at the phone, she wondered if she should make the attempt to call and speak with him. Assure him she was just doing this as a favor for Lawrence to help him get this account by buttering up the client with the children. Obviously the ploy had worked because Lawrence had come here just to ask Mr. Quinn for a trial period for computer services to his five different business ventures that needed server service. Yet by the end of dinner, Mr. Quinn was thinking about signing Lawrence’s company to a five year a little over five million dollar deal. That would be wonderful for his company and Lawrence looked ready to pass out.

  Picking up the receiver, she started to dial Jacoby’s phone number, but then changed her mind. Even though Mr. Quinn had said it was all right to make long distance calls, she didn’t want to over extend her privileges. Hanging up, she sighed wistfully with a grave sense of dread.

  Lying down in bed, she glanced back at the phone wondering if she had made the right decision.

  Chapter 18

  They returned early Sunday morning and she put the twins to bed immediately then with her mother checked the house. Patricia called her to the back porch where there were overturned planters. They looked at each other knowingly.

  “Do you think he knew we were out of town?” Phoebe asked worriedly, wrapping her arms around her waist from an invisible chill creeping through her senses.

  Patricia started straightening up the planters. “I think so. I guess that alarm system did come in handy.”

  “Momma, why would he be watching us?”

  “He’s broke. He has nowhere to go. He thinks he can get back in like Flynn because of what he thinks he can do to you. Men are so one tracked. I know that ass like the back of my hand and in about a couple of days I bet he shows his broke ass up on our doorway making apologies.” Patricia was clearly perturbed.

  Phoebe had been thinking the same thing and didn’t feel so bad to think such things now that her mother had said the same thing. “I’m going to unpack then check my emails. I’ll cook tonight. You’ve had a long weekend Momma, get some rest, okay?”

  “Yes baby.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek then looked into Phoebe’s eyes as if trying to read her thoughts. “Can he get back in, Phoebe?”

  Without hesitation, Phoebe said, “No, Mother, I no longer love Daniel or fawn over him. And I won’t let him hurt me again.” These words she was sure of.

  ****

  Abraham Blue was a big man of six feet five and three hundred pounds. He missed no meals, and was the best negotiating lawyer Jacoby had ever met. He had a son and daughter, who were also lawyers and worked with their father learning how to be the best like him. Yet, as big as Abraham was, his looks belied his gentle side.

  So it wasn’t odd that when he met Jacoby and Desmond at Fishbone’s in Downtown Detroit for lunch on Monday, he gave them spine breaking big bear hugs. His laughter boomed to the ceiling because he was very happy to see them and tell them of the wonderful time in Davenport, Ohio. He had the papers for Jacoby to sign, and the layout plans for Desmond to work on for new software and computer systems.

  Desmond was slightly perturbed because of what Jacoby had done earlier that morning for Phoebe, but he kept his comments to himself being reserved and defensive. Jacoby didn’t really care how Desmond felt about his relationship with Phoebe, but he at least expected Desmond to be a little happy he had found a woman he could trust and wanted to be with. Desmond was always saying how Lawrence and Jacoby needed to find good women and settle down like he was about to do, yet now that Jacoby had found one, it was as if Desmond was dreading that it had happened.

  Jacoby concentrated on the meeting and not on what Desmond thought of his involvement with Phoebe.

  “You bought yourself a steal. This company’s on the cutting edge of setting up Internet research technology that people will pay big money for. There is so much information the company has, it was just never filed and managed properly. I figure with a great computer program, the information to cure the Ebola virus might be hidden in all that shit they’ve complied. Hey Jake, did you ever find yourself an office manager for Detroit?”

  Jacoby sighed tiredly, “Not yet, but I had plans to steal someone in particular.” A wicked smile graced his lips.

  Desmond’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious. Madeline would be a fool to let her go.”

  “Madeline doesn’t know how to appreciate a good thing,” Jacoby protested.

  Abraham agreed wholeheartedly, “She sure as hell knows how to take advantage of people though. That bitch don’t fool me with her pretty looks and soft style of speech. She’d screw the pope out of his robe if she needed it to make a penny.”

  “I think you all are being pretty harsh on her,” Desmond said defensively. “Madeline’s helped us in a lot of ways, with contacts, setups and so on.”

  “To get something out of us,” Jacoby said, matter of fact. “You don’t think she doesn’t know we’re using her? She’s all business, Desmond. You’re only charging her about fifty percent less than what you charge other clients. When she doesn’t need us anymore, she’ll throw us to the curb.”

  Abraham added, “Let’s just hope we can get up and walk away if that happens too soon, but I can tell you now, I’m getting mine and getting gone before that bitch decides to throw me to the curb.”

  Desmond shook his head. “I haven’t seen one deceitful bone in Madeline’s body.”

  Jacoby asked, “So inviting me to stay at her place while I’m in town is no indication she is up to something? When we both have an understanding that we won’t be seeing each other anymore.”

  “No. She’s only being a friend,” Desmond defended.

  “My ass she is, Desmond. That woman’s got something up her sleeve and I don’t trust her.”

  “You don’t trust any woman,” Abraham pointed out.

  “I bet you trust Phoebe,” Desmond said quietly.

  “Who’s Phoebe?” Abraham asked, seeing the tension between the friends.

  “Madeline’s office manager that your client decided to dip his tool in, while dipping in the boss too.”

  “I didn’t know she was her manager when I was dipping and I told you Madeline and I had an a
rrangement. I used her and she used me for one purpose.”

  “You mean that girl Maddie’s been bragging she got for a peso, but she’s worth her weight in gold?” Abraham asked, sucking greedily on some crawfish.

  Jacoby was far from hungry and pushed his plate away. “Yes, the one and the same, Abraham.”

  Abraham looked grievously. “Damn Jacoby, does Maddie know?”

  “Not yet,” Desmond said.

  “And when Maddie does find out, hopefully Phoebe will be out of that situation and getting paid what she should be getting paid.”

  “Maybe Phoebe likes it there and you just fucked it up for her,” Desmond said angrily. “Maybe you don’t know shit and you shouldn’t be so selfish. There was life before you, Jacoby, and you should open your eyes before just going after people.”

  Jacoby had a feeling that Desmond was upset about something else other than what they were really talking about. He decided to change the subject and get Abraham out the way before talking with Desmond.

  Once the meeting was over with, Desmond and Jacoby headed to Madeline’s apartment not too far from where they had lunch. Madeline called Desmond on his cell phone to let him know she was on the way over to meet them at the apartment for testing.

  “What the hell is going on?” Jacoby asked as they took the elevators to the fifteenth floor.

  “I’m just saying, your involvement in Phoebe’s life needs to be just business if you don’t want to get hurt.”

  “Hurt by whom? Phoebe?”

  Desmond took a deep breath of regret. “Both of you are my boys and I don’t want to see any woman come between us, but she’s playing both of you like a deck of cards.”

  The elevator doors opened as Jacoby was just catching on to what Desmond was trying to say. They arrived immediately at Madeline’s apartment.

  “What’s going on Desmond that I don’t know about?” he demanded to know.

  “One day she’s with you, the next she spending the weekend with Lawrence at Quinn’s. She’s got you so wrapped around her finger if she unwrapped you, I think you might fall so hard you’d never get up, but I can’t keep my mouth closed another minute. I don’t want to see the two of you hurt. Lawrence likes her a lot and so do you, but the way it looks, she could give a fig about either one of you.”

  The door to the apartment opened and Lawrence stood there innocently. “It’s about time-” He was cut short as Jacoby’s fist connected with his jaw.

  Desmond held Jacoby back from taking another swing.

  Jacoby exclaimed furiously looking heatedly at Lawrence, who was still in shock over the blow. “You son of a bitch, you knew how I felt about her and you still tried to move in on her!” Jacoby fought to be released from Desmond, but Desmond wouldn’t let go.

  “I’m the son of a bitch?” Lawrence said, coming to his senses and realizing what Jacoby was mad about. “I’m not the one trying to buy her pussy.” He suckered punched Jacoby back in the jaw.

  Desmond was knocked back from the force of the blow and released Jacoby. Jacoby wasted no time swinging back and landed several punches to Lawrence’s mid section, before he was tackled against the wall and Lawrence gave him two sharp blows to the stomach.

  They were oblivious to the fight until Phoebe’s voice screamed, “Stop! Stop! Dammit Stop!”

  They looked around to see Madeline, Simon, and Phoebe standing in the apartment staring at them as if they had lost their mind.

  Jacoby shoved Lawrence away and faced Phoebe directly. “Was this all a game for you? Did you have fun fucking us both? How much did he have to pay for your pussy, bitch?”

  The room was so quiet, a 747 flying above could be heard clearly.

  Phoebe’s eyes narrowed to slits as her hand came up and slapped him as hard as she could. The slap didn’t seem to budge her, but the stinging in her hand was evident as she held it close to her chest. She turned and ran out the apartment.

  Lawrence shoved Jacoby out the way and followed Phoebe out. Jacoby looked over at Madeline, then turned away and went into the bathroom not caring how Desmond decided to straighten things out.

  Chapter 19

  Phoebe made it down to the street looking around desperately for a cab as the tears fought to escape her. Lawrence pulled up beside her and honked the horn. She ignored him still searching for a cab.

  “Get in, Phoebe,” he ordered unlocking the doors.

  “I don’t want anything to do with either one of you. Just stay the hell away from me, Lawrence,” she ordered, wiping her wet face with the back of her hand.

  “You don’t mean that, now get in the car and let’s discuss this,” he insisted blocking her from crossing a street by pulling his white Lincoln Continental, with burgundy furnishings interior, in front of her.

  She knew the bus station was a long way from where she was and she had on heels instead of her walking shoes, she regularly changed into before leaving work. Reluctantly she sat in the passenger seat, but kept her eyes straight holding her purse close to her chest as if at any moment she would jump out the car and make a run for it.

  He drove - slowly - going towards her office, which was two minutes from Madeline’s new apartments.

  “Look, I told you what happened between you and Jacoby meant nothing to me,” he insisted. “I still want to be friends, Phoebe.”

  “It’s not you, Lawrence,” she said in all honesty. “I don’t want to have anything else to do with Jacoby and since you’re his close friend, I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

  “I value your friendship Phoebe. I don’t want to lose that. Please don’t deny me this little pleasure that I treasure.” He pulled near the side of her office building, which was near Cadillac Square. “Plus, hopefully Desmond will work out what just happened and you’ll be alright in Madeline’s book. You did nothing wrong in my opinion to Madeline. How could you have known you were getting involved with a guy already involved with someone else. He’s the one that needs to do all the explaining not you. I think he would be wrong to blame all this on you. You’re the innocent one in all of this. Don’t feel guilty because he should have made some indication to Madeline that he wasn’t going to be just hers.”

  Phoebe bit her lip staring deep into Lawrence’s cool brown eyes. What was Lawrence’s game? Even though his words sounded sincere, he didn’t sound as if he knew anything about Madeline and Jacoby’s arrangement. Phoebe knew more than Lawrence did about the arrangement. Why was he trying to make her hate Jacoby? Did he really want to be with her that bad? Did he really have true feelings about her? Was that what he was trying to do and should she try to become more with him, since he didn’t care about what she did with Jacoby?

  Looking away, not wanting to show her doubtfulness to Lawrence, she said, “I just need time to think about us, Lawrence. You are a good friend, but I do have a lot of personal issues I need to work out before I even think about having close friends in my life.”

  He took her hand and kissed the back. “I understand. You’ll call me though if you need anything?”

  Glancing up at him and giving him a smile, she promised, “Yes.” After lightly kissing his cheek, she got out the car and went up into her office. Simon and Madeline had yet to return and she decided instead of running away from Madeline, she would stay and face her boss. A little of what Lawrence had said was true. In the beginning, she had not known that Jacoby was Madeline’s lover. There was nothing to tell her that he was and she should not be blamed. Now if Madeline knew about the second time when Phoebe did know who he was involved with, that would be an even bigger problem.

  Madeline and Simon came back an hour later. Simon went straight into his office and Madeline stopped in Phoebe’s and closed the door. Phoebe watched as Madeline went over to the window and looked out over the Downtown Detroit area. It was a beautiful view and Phoebe often loved to stare it at herself. The view was relaxing making her feel that she was not alone in this great big crazy world and that maybe her probl
ems were probably small compared to others out there.

  Phoebe made no attempt to start talking. She watched the tension in Madeline’s back and wondered what her boss was thinking.

  “Desmond explained to me what happened,” Madeline said quietly. “If you want to know, I don’t blame you. He did stress you didn’t know. Neither were you aware of who he was when you were together.”

  Unsure of how much Madeline knew, hesitantly, Phoebe explained, “It was just supposed to be a one night stand.”

  “I know. You’ve already told me that.” Madeline was silent for a long moment before she turned and said, “I can’t really be mad at him either. It was an arrangement and no commitments were ever discussed. Plus, he didn’t know who you were either.” She sat down in front of Phoebe’s desk. “Given that he is insatiable I don’t blame him, but I am interested in how you met. Desmond said he couldn’t really remember, but I knew he was trying to blow me off.”

  Phoebe chose her words carefully. Madeline had a bullshit detector and Phoebe would not be making alarms go off. “He approached me, gave me an offer too good to be true, I accepted and like I told you it was a one night stand.”

  Madeline gave a long hard look, but then relaxed. “It sounds like him and he is quite irresistible.” She smiled to herself. “And to think I actually insisted you meet someone like him.”

  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to discuss Jacoby with Madeline and hoped Madeline wouldn’t do anymore prying.

  “I don’t want you to worry about your job. I’m not going to let a man come between my business. I never have and I never will.” She stood up and asked, “I will see you Wednesday?”

  “Yes,” Phoebe assured her, but felt as if she was lying. Yet at least this reminded Phoebe tomorrow was the twins’ doctor’s appointment.

  Madeline started to leave, but stopped in the doorway and said, “I see the system is getting full and this might be a busy week seeing that Thanksgiving is next week. Why don’t you raise the purge to forty eight hours until Friday so we won’t fill up too fast?”