“No, she wouldn’t!” he said out loud to himself.
Amanda raised her eyebrow at him. “What did you say?”
Rickey sipped his drink. “Nothin’.”
They were both silent. Amanda watched him as he slowly chewed his veal. His mustache didn’t have a hair out of place, and his skin was as smooth as chocolate brown satin. Rickey’s good looks remained true to him over the years. Too bad the rest of him was such a lie.
“Okay, Rickey, it’s pretty evident that we are not going to be able to resolve the letter issue, but can you at least be truthful about how you found Tracey?”
Rickey’s face showed his disappointment that she still did not believe him. “Fair enough. Well, if you don’t believe me about the letters, I doubt if you’ll believe me about how I met Tracey.”
“You’re probably right. But tell me anyway,” Amanda sneered.
Rickey shook his head and looked at her intensely. “All right, Miss Smarty. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Amanda rolled her eyes and felt the urge to just get up and leave. What a waste of time it was coming down here to meet him. He wouldn’t know the truth if it crawled out from under the table and set him on fire.
“Amanda, I’m telling you, it was so surreal. I was on the radio about the same time Tracey found those letters, I guess. It was Kiss FM, I think,” he said, tapping his fingers on the table, trying to remember. “The interview was about young men who were getting drafted from their second year in college and going right into the NFL, like I did.”
“Rickey, will you just get to the point, please? I didn’t come here to listen to your stories about your radio interviews or your—”
“I know, but this has everything to do with Tracey,” he pleaded.
Amanda sat back, impatiently folding her arms across her chest and nodding for him to go on with the story.
“Anyway, I swear they must have answered fifty calls, but it was that last one that blew everyone away. I’ll never forget it. DJ Cal said, ‘We only have a few minutes on the line here with Rickey Mavers. What’s your question?’ A young woman’s voice blazed through the phone like a flare gun. She said, ‘I’d like to ask Mr. Mavers why he has not seen his daughter in seventeen years?’”
Amanda opened her mouth to speak, but managed only to gasp.
Rickey paused for a moment. “You asked me to tell you about how Tracey and I got together. I know you want to know, but do you think you can handle the truth?”
Amanda nodded slowly. She wasn’t sure. If the rest of the story was going to be more dramatic than this, then maybe she needed another drink. She signaled the waitress with her glass to bring her another Cosmopolitan. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had alcohol, and it had been even longer since she had two drinks back-to-back.
Rickey chuckled to himself, watching Amanda take another sip of her drink as soon as the waitress set it down. He knew how she felt. He’d felt the same way when he heard Tracey’s voice for the first time.
“Anyway, Cal looked at me, and I must have been in total shock as he scribbled onto a piece of paper, ‘You wanna answer this, man?’ I was speechless. The lines on the phone lit up like a string of white Christmas lights. Then Cal picked up the line she was on and asked if she wanted to leave a contact name and number where I could call her. She said, matter-of-factly, ‘He knows my name, and as for my number, it’s 404-555-6189.’ I couldn’t take any more calls after that! They had to break right into a commercial.”
Amanda stared into space. She didn’t know if she was in shock from Rickey’s story or if she was just tipsy. “Rickey, I don’t know what to say. What did you do?”
“Well, Cal came over to me and said, ‘Hey, man, you all right?’ I could only shake my head slowly from side to side. I said, ‘I can barely breathe, man.’ He had one of his staff members go and get me some water and the phones were still lighting up like crazy and then he asked me, ‘What you wanna do, man?’ I couldn’t do nothin’. Not a damn thing.” He took another sip of his drink and closed his eyes. “The call just made me weak, you know? Like I had just been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer.”
Amanda had rested her hand on the side of her face as she listened intently. She was still speechless and numb. Was this really Tracey he was talking about? It didn’t sound like her.
“Anyway, Cal went back on the air, hoping—and I mean praying— that he would come up with something since I’d left him swimming in the deepest part of the ocean without a life jacket. I heard him say ‘Yo! Listen up everybody, Rickey’s gotta handle his business right now, but we gon’ get him back here after he’s straightened it out.’ He looked me dead in the eyes. ‘Right, man?’ I was so weak; all I could say was ‘Yeah.’ His assistant had offered to give me some privacy in their reading area. I had to get out of there. I just asked for the number that Cal had written down on a piece of paper and then told her to tell Cal that I would holla at him later. I cursed your name all the way home that night,” he said, looking at her with resentment for the first time that evening.
“Cursed me, why?”
“Cause I felt like you never told her about me. She hated me. She thought I was the reason why she never knew me.”
“Rickey, have you forgotten? You are the reason.”
“No, I’m not! I keep trying to tell you that, but you won’t listen to me.”
Amanda looked at him hopelessly. He had really convinced himself that he was not at fault. She relented for the moment as she carefully posed her next question. “So, did you end up calling her that evening?”
“Naw, you kiddin’ me? I had to wait about a week before I could get up the nerve to call her.” He paused again and took another sip of his drink. “When I finally did get up the nerve to call her, she answered the phone and my stomach just felt like it had just gone down a roller coaster slope. I told her that calling her up on the phone was a little awkward.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Amanda interrupted.
“I even told her that I wasn’t sure if she was who she said she was.”
“Oh, I’ll bet she had something to say about that.”
Rickey shook his head. “Man, that girl is somethin’ else. You know what she said to me?” Amanda shook her head. She found herself hanging onto every word. “She said, ‘Oh, I can show you all of Mama’s bank receipts with your electronic transfers on it for my child support if you need proof that I’m really your daughter!’”
“And that’s when you knew?” Amanda asked, still having a hard time believing that this was her daughter that they were talking about.
“I knew even before then. She sounds just like you, Amanda. And then she mentioned the little picture that you still keep hidden in your wallet of us at senior prom and asked if I would like her to bring that to me as well. Is that true? Do you still carry it around with you?” Amanda’s silence answered his question. “May I see it?”
Amanda shook her head, her hands trembling around her glass. “Please, Amanda. I would love to see it. May I?”
Amanda couldn’t believe that he knew her secret. She had always kept it in her wallet. It reminded her of the good times she used to have with him. Reluctantly, she reached for her purse and pulled out the picture.
“You had it laminated?” Rickey said surprised that she’d preserved it.
“Yeah, I guess I did,” she said, feeling embarrassed. She had looked at it so often that it had become worn and tattered.
“Tracey really knows you, doesn’t she?”
Amanda smiled. “Too well, I suppose. I’ve really underestimated her.” She put the picture back in her wallet. She was afraid to ask her next question, but knew she had to. “So did you two start seeing each other shortly after that?”
Rickey nodded. “That same evening. And just about every evening after that when I was in Atlanta.” He paused reflectively. “I was even in town the night of her graduation party.”
Rickey looked up at Amanda and saw
that tears were streaming down her cheeks. “Amanda, here, take this,” he said, giving her his napkin. He raised his arm and called the waitress over. The waitress came over and gave them a strange look. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes, we’re fine. May I just have the bill, please?”
“No dessert?” she said, handing him the check.
He handed her two hundred dollars. “No, we’re leaving. Please keep the change.”
“Gee, thanks,” she said marveling at her 60 percent tip.
“No problem. Thanks for putting up with us.” He looked over at Amanda, who was still wiping tears from her face. He took her by the hand, “C’mon, let me get you out of here.”
“No, wait. I’ll be okay.”
“Listen, you’re not okay. Just look at you. I was just as shocked as you were when Tracey contacted me.”
Amanda cried again, and this time Rickey put his arm around her and escorted her out of the restaurant.
With their hands clasped together, they ran across 14th Street like two runaway kids darting between oncoming cars.
“Where are you taking me?”
“My suite at the Four Seasons,” he said as the doorman opened the lobby door.
“No, Rickey.”
“I just want us to talk in a more private setting,” he pleaded.
Amanda looked at him suspiciously. Rickey did a scouts honor symbol and then pushed the elevator button. It opened immediately. “After you,” he said, letting her get into the elevator first.
As they rode the elevator to the 40th floor, Amanda’s ears popped a little. Rickey could sense her uneasiness as she kept her attention focused on the numbers lighting up at the top of the door. “We’re here,” he said as the doors pulled open as if in command of his voice.
They walked to his room and slid the key card into the doorway. Amanda felt her body heat rise again as she caught herself staring at his physique. She watched his smooth hands push the door open and walk in first, signaling for her to follow him after he turned on the light.
“Rickey this is really nice,” Amanda said walking over to the black baby grand piano. She ran her fingers across the keys. It sat perched directly in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. Across from it was a fifteen-foot sectional suede couch spread across the back of the wall. Across from that was a double fireplace that offered a sneak preview of the master bedroom.
“Thanks, I used to spend a lot of evenings here back when I played ball. C’mon, let me show you the rest of it.”
Rickey took Amanda by the hand and led her on the tour of the two-bedroom suite, which ended with the most elegant bedroom she had ever seen. Imported tapestries hung from the walls, and a large chandelier was the focal point in the ceiling, bathing the room in a romantic glow. The bed sat high above the floor, accentuated with four ornate posts that looked to be at least two feet wide.
“This sure is a lot of hotel for one person.”
“Well, I wasn’t always single, Amanda.”
Amanda knew he had gotten married. It had been in all of the papers and on television. Nurse Leaves the Medical Field And Enters the Major League. “Yes, I know. Whatever happened to you and your wife?’
“You mean my ex-wife, Delores,” Rickey said sternly.
“Okay, I stand corrected. Your ex-wife.”
Rickey was silent for a few moments and then started to move toward her and stopped. “It was a big mistake. You know, I didn’t even see it coming.”
“So, Delores gave you a shot of your own medicine, huh?”
Rickey laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Man, it seems like a lifetime ago. Women are just so forward now.”
“You mean some women, don’t you?”
“Oh, no offense to you, Amanda. But, nowadays, whew,” he said as he took off his suit jacket and draped it across the sofa in the sitting area of the bedroom. Amanda saw his muscles through his onion-thin cotton shirt. He was still in great shape, she thought, catching herself again staring at his chiseled body.
Rickey sat down and rested his head on the back of the sofa, keeping his eye on Amanda who was still standing. “Sometimes every day was like Christmas for me. There was a time when I looked at women as beautifully wrapped packages and could open one up each day of the week.”
“Hmm, so I heard.” What an asshole!
“Hey, I didn’t mean to offend you, really.”
“No offense taken, Rickey. After all, I would only be lying to myself if I didn’t say I was curious as to what you’ve been doing all of these years.”
Rickey took off his tie and opened the top two buttons on his shirt. Amanda got a quick preview of the smooth skin. She quickly turned her head around, embarrassed that he’d caught her staring at him.
“When we lost contact—”
“You mean when you never made contact with me!”
“Amanda, I still stand firm on what I said. I mean, damn it. I loved you and even though a baby wasn’t in my plans—”
“You wanted me to have an abortion!”
“Yes, at first I did, but I knew that wasn’t what you wanted, so we agreed that you would have the baby.”
“So, how come I never heard from you, huh? You accepted a scholarship to Notre Dame and then you were gone. I never heard from you again. The next thing I know, you’re the number one draft pick and then you’re off playing pro football.”
“I tried to make contact with you, I swear.”
“Here you go again with that lame excuse.”
“Amanda, I did, I swear. It’s just that Mama wouldn’t—”
“Your mother wouldn’t what?”
Rickey got up from the sofa and walked in the opposite direction of Amanda.
“Rickey, your mother wouldn’t what?”
Rickey turned slowly toward her and looked at her with turned down eyes. He inhaled and then released his breath. “I think Mama is responsible for me not getting your letters and for you not getting mine.”
“But why would she do that? I was about to enter my freshman year in college. I was having your baby and her grandbaby!”
“Amanda, you’ve got to understand. When my father died, she had to be responsible for my younger brother and me. Daddy had a good pension, but she still had to work to provide for Kyle and me. She didn’t want anything or anyone to stand in the way of us being successful. When I told her you were pregnant, she told me that she would handle it.”
“Well, she handled it, all right.”
Rickey nodded. “She did. And I would write letters to you and leave them for Mama to mail.”
“And she never did…”Amanda’s voice trailed off. “So, weeks turned into months, and months turned into several years, and all the while your mother was tampering with the mail. She was the one writing return to sender on all of my letters! She ruined our whole lives! She should be behind bars! Things could have been so different between us!”
“I know, Amanda. I just didn’t realize it back then, you know?”
“I know,” Amanda said sarcastically. “You were just too tied up with football.”
Rickey dropped his head, humiliated as Amanda continued to chastise him. “But why didn’t you just try and call me, Rickey? You could have at least called my parents.”
“I did! Twice. I spoke with your father both times.”
“He never told me.”
“Well, he told me that you didn’t want anything to do with me. And he talked about how disappointed he was with me and how I hurt you. He thought that it was in everyone’s best interest that I leave you and the baby alone. Shoot, he even threatened me.”
“Daddy?”
“Told me that if he ever saw my face, I wouldn’t be capable of ever playing for another team again. He’d make sure of it! Shoot, that was enough for me tryin’ to get in contact with you!”
Amanda’s body shook, overcome with grief and pain. Rickey placed his arms around her as she felt herself dissolve into tears as Rickey spoke.
“That’s when I decided to move on. I ran the women for a long time and then I got injured playing football.”
“I remember reading about it,” Amanda managed to say through her sniffles, feeling Rickey’s fingers gently brushing her tears away.
“Delores was my nurse while I was in the hospital. We dated for a few months and, like a dummy, I thought she was in love with me. I found out she was in love with my money.”
“That’s too bad, Rickey.”
“Yeah, for her it was. Fortunately for me, Mama was adamant about me getting a pre-nup. She hated Delores.” Rickey laughed. “Old girl went out of the marriage with what she came in with. Nothing.”
“Good ‘ol Mama, huh?” Amanda said under her breath.
“Well, she was then. She’s gotten old, feeble, and forgetful now,” Rickey said sadly. “I had to place her in a nursing home when she started being a danger to herself. But she’s in great hands.”
Amanda felt her barriers wash away with her tears as Rickey spoke. He walked over to her and lifted her face, then kissed her on the mouth. “I’ve never stopped loving you, Amanda, and I never will.”
Amanda could not think logically. She was so full of emotion that she allowed her passion to override her common sense. As she welcomed his kiss with an open mouth and a slip of her tongue, she suddenly felt her feet leave the ground. Amanda couldn’t believe his strength. He lifted her up almost effortlessly, despite her weight, and laid her on the bed, stroking her long hair and caressing her breasts as he moved his fingers gingerly down the front of her dress and back up her thighs. Maneuvering his way to her backside, he gripped it and spread it open like ripe cantaloupe, hardly able to contain himself. He lifted her up with ease again, and removed her panty hose as his tongue found her sweet spot. She moved further down the bed, giving him permission for his fingers and his tongue to delve deeper.
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