by Tiana Cole
“You believe me?”
“Oh, yes. Hell, girl, even if I didn't, paternity is simple enough to prove these days so there’d be little point in you making a claim that could be refuted so easily. The price of a quick medical test and the truth is known,” Myeisha said with a snap of her fingers. “Common sense dictated that talking to you would be worth my time. And now that I've met you,” she paused and raised her wine glass, “I think I understand a number of things. More happened in Brazil than you could possibly know, or than I ever knew.”
“What does Mr. Steele say?”
“Nothing,” Myeisha shook her head. “I didn't want to tell him until I’d met you and had an inkling of what you were like, what sort of trouble you intended to make for him.”
“Trouble?” Audra asked, shaking her head. “I don’t really have any intentions at all beyond letting him know he has a kid on the way and finding out if he cares one way or the other. Some men want to run away… my father did that. Others might want to help out. Maybe even take some responsibility or interest. Part of my job as a parent is to find out which route Kenneth Steele will take.”
“You seem awfully pragmatic.”
“It’s a curse,” Audra sighed. “On the other hand, one day not that long ago I decided to take a break from being the pragmatic, sensible woman I've tried to be and let myself walk on the wild side. And what better time and place than Carnival in Ipanema?” She stopped and touched her belly again. “And what more logical outcome from that can there be than this? I managed to mess up all my careful plans and several years of hard work in one night.” She grinned and added, “It was a great night, but… well, I can’t honestly say I messed things up. I derailed my intentions is all. Now I have to regroup.”
Myeisha put down her menu. “Okay, the big question. What if Kenneth won’t lift a finger to help?”
“I'll have the escargot and a salad,” Audra chuckled. “Whether or not he wants to help, the escargot will be a treat. Beyond that, I'll likely have to make some major changes in my life. I'll have to quit work and go on welfare—I’m at the point where I earn too much to get assistance and not enough to cover the bills. I’d probably take my big brother up on his offer to move in with him, although that isn't fair to him.” She spread her hands open and continued on after a moment of deliberation. “The truth is, I have no plan and I'll have to make it up as I go along. Maybe I'll stay here, work, and try to get through this semester at school,” she shrugged. “Quien sabe? That’s how they say ‘who knows’ in Spanish and I never learned it in Portuguese—although I probably should have.”
“I see.”
“Now you talk,” Audra smiled, gesturing to Myeisha.
“Talk?”
“Yeah. What’s your best guess as to how he’ll react and, because you intrigued me, tell me about this larger scenario that my little adventure is only a part of. You owe me that after such a tease. I mean, I can tell it has to do with our… similarity, but come on, share with your sister,” Audra smirked.
“I like you, Audra, so I'll be honest and say I have no earthly idea how that man will react. He isn't bipolar or anything, but he’s definitely unpredictable, especially when it comes to women. Any guess I could make wouldn’t have more than maybe a ten percent chance of having anything to do with reality. All I can say for sure is that he’ll meet with you, and I can promise you that because I run his schedule,” Myeisha smiled. “Never underestimate the power of a powerful person’s personal assistant.”
“I'll remember that and I like the alliteration,” Audra laughed.
“As for the second question, that one takes a bit of explaining. Did you bring your mask?”
Audra been waiting for this, wanting to know what her mask had to do with anything. She bent down to get her purse and a glimmer of understanding tickled her brain. She carefully pulled out the mask and pushed it across the table. “You,” she began, “you wore one just like it that night, didn't you?”
Myeisha reached for the mask and ran her fingers over it for a moment. Finally she looked up and let out a long sigh.
“Yes, I did. And seeing it explains a lot. Kenneth has been a playboy, a skirt chaser, since the day I started working for him. He kept his distance with me for the first year or so, but then he started hitting on me. Now he’s a good looking man and all, but not the kind of person I could see spending my life with. I don’t fool around and I have a boyfriend I love very much, so I kept putting Kenneth off. The man was nuts about the idea of Carnival. I had no intention of leaving the ship, but he showed up with a mask—this same mask. He’d bought it for me and asked me to join the party. He was all excited, like a kid, and seeing it seemed to mean so much to him that I agreed to go out with him. I warned him that nothing would happen, but I guess he thought I’d get caught up in the sensual atmosphere and he could sweep me off my feet. My night didn't last long. He tried to kiss me—well, he did kiss me—and I was furious. I told him off and went back to the yacht.”
“That was fairly early?”
“In Carnival terms, yes.”
“He stayed, wandering, and he found me dancing,” Audra pieced together.
“At an outdoor bar…” Myeisha nodded.
“As similar as we look, wearing the same mask—he thought it was you.”
“Exactly,” Myeisha agreed, finally understanding what had really happened that night. “He must’ve thought I’d finally gotten infected with Carnival. Had second thoughts and stayed.”
“He thought you were waiting for him. It all makes sense now. He wasn't just deliriously charming and excited, he seemed surprised and almost euphoric. He said something that sounded like he thought he knew me, but I was also too delirious with excitement to pay it much attention.”
“He thought that after for two years he would finally have me as his conquest.” Myeisha bit her lips and Audra knew she picturing the scene. “Yes, I have no doubt it would have gone that way.”
“And all this time I believed that it was my charms that attracted this dashing man. Instead it was you,” Audra grinned. “You won’t deny he’s sexy?”
“No, not at all.”
“Now it turns out he wanted you. I suppose I should be crushed.”
“Not really,” Myeisha shrugged. “It was you that he made love to. You that inspired him.”
“He left me early thinking he’d see me again.”
“And when he saw me, my reaction drove him nuts,” Myeisha reflected. “Instead of me acting differently toward him, maybe telling him I was madly in love with him, I was still angry about his attempted kiss. Of course, I had no idea what had happened, and I had to be rather forceful with him. Now I can see how he felt like I’d whiplashed him, let him make love to me one night and then acted like nothing had happened the next.”
“He didn't say what happened?”
“He couldn't bring himself to spell it out. Of course he thought I knew. What was there to explain?”
“Nothing, when you look at it that way. And now? Are you jealous?” Audra prodded.
“Not at all. One reason I've never been charmed enough to consider having sex with that man is that I felt he was attracted to me for the wrong reasons. I didn't think he ever really knew me. In a sense, perhaps you were really what he thought I was.”
Audra wasn't sure how to take that. “A slut?”
“That’s not what I meant at all. Believe me. I meant that he saw me as someone I wasn't. He thought I would love him, and truly believed that, under the right circumstances, I’d respond to him,” Myeisha explained. “I want, and have, a different kind of man. One who is more down to earth and loves who I am.” She held up a gold cross that hung around her neck. “When he went to war, he gave me this to remember him by. Kenneth is rich and, in my mind, very frivolous. You didn't see him that way, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s simply that I didn't see him as a life partner, and I’m not interested in having an affair with a man who isn't potentially M
r. Right.”
“So you think that your look, your style, excited him, and my attraction to him was the missing piece of the puzzle?”
“In a way, that sounds right. He’d never gotten to know me beyond our working relationship, so whatever he thought about me at Carnival was his own fantasy. So you were his fantasy woman, apparently, not me.”
That made a certain amount of sense to Audra. “There is a lot there to come to grips with,” she said.
“For me too.”
“Well, since you believe my story, what’s the next step? Or is there one? Is this the point where the loyal, if sexually harassed assistant, closes ranks with the boss and tells the slut to take her pregnant belly away and get lost?”
“I’d rather that we order dinner, and as we eat you tell me more about you,” Myeisha replied with a chuckle. “After that, I can figure out the best way for us to break the news to Kenneth Steele that he’s about to be a father.” She reached over and took Audra’s hand, adding with a warm smile, “I’m on your side, to the extent that a situation like this has sides. I'll get you the audience, then we’ll see what you need to do or can do.”
“That, I imagine, will depend on him and what attitude he takes about the baby,” Audra sighed.
Myeisha raised her eyebrows. “Very perceptive, and it certainly will. If he gets defensive, goes into denial, it can get adversarial. Of course, a paternity test will quickly end any debate. I assume you wouldn't hesitate to take one?”
“I won’t do it before our dinner. I've been looking forward to this meal since you called,” Audra joked.
By the time they finished eating, which was the best food Audra had eaten in a long time, she found her head was buzzing. She’d learned so much, and some of it was painful. The man she’d had her passionate affair with had thought she was someone else. That stung. He hadn't been drawn so powerfully to her, but to the woman he thought she was—the woman sitting across the table from her now. At least she was an elegant and even beautiful woman, so that was flattering.
Of course what he thought changed nothing. She was who she was, they’d had the affair, and now she was pregnant. What he’d thought, whether he’d been attracted to Audra or the idea of screwing Myeisha, only mattered if she was willing to risk believing that something might develop between her and Kenneth Steele once he knew the truth. She hadn't given up the feeble hope that when he heard the truth, he might even want to get to know her as well as his child.
The fact that he’d thought she was Myeisha made more sense the longer she thought about it. It would explain why he’d left that morning while she slept. He’d put his mask on the pillow to tell her, the woman he thought she was, that the costumed adventure was over. He’d thought that he’d have plenty of time to make love with her back on his yacht.
She laughed. Even the idea that she’d made love with a man who traveled on his own crewed yacht was a lot to take in, and that he was her baby’s father was even stranger. That she knew little more about him than that, stranger still.
Whatever the future held, it wouldn't be dull.
Chapter Five
It was a shock to see him. Ken Steele looked just as gorgeous as she remembered him. That pleased her. You couldn't really tell much from the media, and it was easy to romanticize someone after an intimate encounter—as easy as it would be to make them a villain. She remembered him accurately, however, and it made her feel better that, even in the whirlwind that was Carnival, she’d picked well.
It also pleased her to see the stunned look on his face when Myeisha led her into his office. He looked at them in turn, trying to sort out what he was seeing. When he took her hand, he stared into her eyes with a slight look of bewilderment. Seeing those green eyes of his again, Audra thought she would melt. All the memories of that night in Brazil came flooding back, almost overwhelming her.
“Is this a sister of yours that I know nothing about?” he asked Myeisha finally.
Myeisha sat in a plush leather chair and invited Audra to do the same. Kenneth reluctantly released her hand and Audra sat and waited. Since Myeisha knew Kenneth Steele better, they’d decided that she would take the lead.
“This is Audra Dawn and, no, she isn't related to me,” Myeisha answered.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Myeisha held up a hand. “Funny you should mention ‘pleasure.’ The truth is that you owe this meeting to your pursuit of it.”
He sat on the edge of his desk and folded his arms. “Okay, ladies, what’s the gag?”
“No gag,” Myeisha said, “just an interesting story.”
He sat back and folded his hands. “Do tell.”
She smiled and crossed her shapely brown legs, and Audra saw how Steele’s eyes were drawn to them. Myeisha winked at her, so Audra did the same, much to Steele’s obviously delight. Then, as they’d agreed, Myeisha began the tale.
“Once upon a time in a land called South America, a rich man was trying to hustle his personal assistant. He wanted her in the sack, even though he knew she was in love with another man.”
“Did he now?” Steele leaned back slightly, enjoying himself.
“But because of her love, and because the rich man was a skirt chaser, she rebuffed him. When he insisted she go to Carnival with him, she had resisted, but knew she’d get no peace unless she gave it a try. Together they headed into the streets and joined the crazed throng. She didn't enjoy it, however, and when the rich man gave her an unwanted kiss, she returned to the ship they had arrived on, leaving him on his own.” She folded her hands and gestured to Audra. “Now Ms. Dawn will continue the story.”
Audra smiled at Steele. “I’d be delighted. The rich man with green eyes came to an outdoor bar where people were dancing and he joined in. He wanted to have a good time. He was disappointed that his lovely personal assistant had resisted his charms, but unwilling to forgo a night of pleasure. At this bar, he went onto the dance floor, and… there she was dancing in front of him. She wore different clothes, but he recognized her body. She wore the same mask and was now dancing wildly. Thinking she’d had a change of heart, he eagerly sought her company and danced with her. As they danced, he decided that she was playing some sort of game. He imagined that she preferred to have them meet this way, as masked strangers, rather than simply a man and his assistant in costume. The game excited him, and he was attentive to her, trying to arouse her.”
“Did he succeed?” Kenneth smirked.
“He did. And himself as well.”
“Naturally.”
“So much so that after a time, they moved into the doorway of a shop that was closed. He fondled her, removed the scarf that was her top, and he made love to her standing right there in the doorway.”
Steele seemed a bit uneasy now. With such detail he understood that it hadn't been Myeisha at all, but this other woman, and perhaps hearing this erotic tale with Myeisha sitting there was the source of his discomfort.
“That’s… quite a story,” he muttered.
“And it isn't over. When he returned the scarf she’d worn over her breasts, she led him to a small hotel room she’d taken for Carnival, right around the corner. There they made love several times. They said almost nothing, and kept their masks on. He enjoyed that part of the game. Then, sometime close to morning, he took off his mask, placed in on his pillow, and quietly left.”
“Why would he do that?” Kenneth asked nervously.
“Ah, perhaps because he thought that his personal assistant was now his. He’d had her, and he was eager to get back to the ship. When she returned, he would set the basis for a new relationship.” Audra sighed and added, “He was doomed to be disappointed, as I think Myeisha can now explain.”
Myeisha nodded and picked up the thread of the story. “The rich man was shocked to find his assistant was still stewing over his unwanted advances, as if nothing had happened after that. As if they hadn't spent the night together having wild sex. Confused, he withdrew, and
found that she kept her distance as well. The relationship continued on a somewhat frosty, although civilized level. Then, shortly after they returned to the US, she told him she’d gotten engaged. ‘Aha,’ he said.”
“Aha?”
“Aha,” Myeisha nodded. “Now he understood. Clearly the woman had felt guilty about the affair and had serious angst about betraying her boyfriend. That was his understanding, at least. And how could he possibly have imagined that he’d actually spent the night with another woman entirely?”
Steele looked from one woman to the other. “Did you two cook this up? What a story,” he chuckled, rolling his eyes.
Myeisha smiled. “How could he know what happened? That is, until one day this second woman showed up in his office with his assistant and he saw how similar the two looked.”
“But of course he thought this was a game,” Audra chimed in, “until the second woman explained that she was carrying his child.”
Both women sat back and let the words sink in.
“What the fuck?” Kenneth blurted after a moment of shock.
“An appropriate comment, given the circumstances,” Audra said.
“Are you telling me…”
Myeisha nodded. “As far as we can tell, comparing notes, that’s what happened. Naturally, you didn't know who Audra was—you assumed it was me. And Audra had no idea who were at all until she happened to see your picture in a magazine. Then, thinking you might like to know you were going to be a father, she got the address and contacted me. I asked her to tell me her story, added it to what I knew—that you’d been with someone, and it wasn't me, but you seemed to think it was.”
“I… I don’t believe it,” he stammered.
“Which part?” Audra asked. “We were both at Carnival, we danced, you came back to my room with me. Are you going to deny you fucked me?”
She’d chosen her words carefully and they’d clearly struck home.