by Cheryl Faye
“They do this often?”
“Well, this particular party is a yearly thing. You might even meet a couple of celebrities.”
“Really? Who is he?”
“Just a very gifted businessman with a lot of powerful connections. This party is actually an excellent place to network so you should bring some of your business cards.”
“It’s like that?”
“Yeah. It can get pretty outrageous sometimes, too, but it’s always fun, so make sure you ask Myra if she’d like to come.”
“All right, I will. What time will you be home tonight?”
“Around eightish.”
“Okay, I’ll call you then and let you know.”
“Good enough.”
“Let me get back to this mountain of work I have in front of me. Thanks for calling, Stefàn. It was nice hearing from you,” she said softly.
“It was nice hearing your voice,” he said in like tones.
Not as nice as it is to hear yours, Charisse thought.
STEFÀN’S DISAPPOINTMENT AT NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE CHARISSE that evening lingered for the remainder of the day. He had been looking forward to sitting across from her and gazing into those deep jewels that were her eyes and being captivated by her infectious laugh and witty conversation.
Julian had called not long after he had spoken to Charisse and told him a few of the fellas were going to be meeting at the gym later that evening to work out. Stefàn briefly thought about hooking up with them. He always enjoyed working out with the guys, but for some reason, he knew tonight would be a waste of time for him if he went. His mind wasn’t there.
He was at the office until six-thirty that evening but had gotten little done since his earlier conversation with Charisse. He couldn’t get her off his mind. When he left, he got into his car and headed straight to New York City instead of going home like he had earlier decided. He was a gambling man, so he decided to roll the dice and see if they turned up lucky seven.
CHARISSE HAD JUST FINALIZED THE FINANCIAL REPORT her boss had been waiting for when her telephone rang. She glanced at the clock on the wall to her left before she answered. Seven-thirty. She sighed and reached for the receiver. Her stomach growled with hunger as she announced, “Charisse Ellison.”
“Are you hungry yet?”
“Stefàn?”
“The one and only.”
My God, he sounds so good on the phone. “Hi.” She smiled and leaned back in her chair as, once again, pulses of electricity seemed to run through her body as she listened to his gentle, yet self-assured tone.
“Are you hungry?” he asked again.
“I’m starving. My stomach growled at the same time I answered the phone.”
“Do you like Chinese food?” he asked.
“Yes, I do.”
“I’ve got dinner for you, then. Do you want to come downstairs and get it? I don’t believe these good gentlemen down here are going to let me up.”
Quickly sitting up in her chair, she asked, “You’re in the lobby?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
A broad smile appeared on Charisse’s face as she told him, “I’ll be right down,” then hung up the phone. How thoughtful of him. How sweet and what perfect timing.
When she reached the lobby, she immediately noticed Stefàn standing near the building’s entrance with a shopping bag at his feet. Wearing a tailored gray suit, a white collarless shirt opened at the neck, and black shoes polished to a high gloss, he looked fantastic.
“Hi,” she called as she approached.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said with a big smile.
“C’mon. Let me sign you in,” Charisse said as she reached for his hand.
He took her hand, but as she led him over to the information desk, he asked, “It’s okay for me to come up with you?”
“Sure.” She stopped suddenly and turned back to him. “Unless you don’t want to.”
“Of course I want to.”
“Good.” Turning back to the guards at the desk, “Hey guys, this is my friend. Could I get a pass for him, please?” she asked as she signed the guest log on the desk.
“I don’t know, Charisse,” one of the men said. “It doesn’t look like there’s enough food in there for us.”
“Oh, I left yours in the car. Let me take this up and I’ll be right back down to get it,” Stefàn said, playing along with the man.
Everyone laughed as the ringleader said, “Yeah, right.”
A few seconds later, Charisse and Stefàn were on the elevator going back up to her office.
“I can’t believe you did this. You must have been reading my mind or something; I was just about to order dinner.”
“See, I knew you’d be hungry about now. That’s why I timed it this way,” Stefàn joked.
“Well, your timing is impeccable. I really appreciate this.”
“I wanted to see you tonight,” he said tenderly.
“You did say you were relentless.”
“I promised I wouldn’t lie,” he said with a grin.
Charisse laughed.
When they reached her office, she led Stefàn inside and closed the door. “Come on in and sit down. Let me clear some of this stuff off my desk.” She started moving papers from her desk to the credenza behind it in an attempt to clear enough space for them to eat. “You brought enough food for yourself, right?” she asked him suddenly.
“No doubt.” Removing his jacket, he added, “I figured you’d probably not want to eat alone.”
She grinned at him. “How insightful of you.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said in a smug fashion. “You like lobster, don’t you?”
“I love it.”
“Good. There’s lobster Cantonese, General Tso’s Chicken with extra broccoli, a couple of egg rolls and brown rice. I hope you like brown rice. It’s healthier for you, you know?”
“I know, and I do like brown rice. As a matter of fact, you’ve managed to order all of my favorites.”
“See, women aren’t the only ones who have intuition.”
“Would you like to bless the food or should I?” Charisse asked as he placed the containers on her desk.
“You do it this time. I’ll take care of it the next time,” he replied with a smile.
“Okay.”
As Charisse prayed over their dinner, Stefàn studied her adoringly. When he echoed her “Amen,” it signaled a different type of thanks for him.
He stayed with her until approximately eight-forty-five. As they ate, they talked about their jobs—Stefàn gave her the low down on a couple of recent sales transactions he had initiated and commissions he was working on, and Charisse talked about the promotion she was striving for. They talked about their families with Stefàn sharing a funny story about his first karate tournament where he got beat up by a girl.
Charisse thoroughly enjoyed sharing dinner and conversation with Stefàn. She found that despite his cool demeanor and laid back persona, he was quite entertaining. Aside from the activities he seemed to involve himself in during his free time, that is, the various sports he played, as well as the dating scene, he was also a very hardworking man. She learned that in addition to his real estate sales job, he also owned a six-unit apartment building in Queens.
When they finished eating and Stefàn looked at his watch, he said, “Wow, I’ve been taking up all your time and you could have been busy working so you could get out of here before tomorrow.”
She laughed. “That’s okay. I needed this break. I’m really happy you came by. It’s been good seeing you.”
“It’s been my pleasure, Charisse. I decided to take a chance to see if I could convince you to make a little time for me.”
“Well, as you can see, I wouldn’t have been able to leave, but I am glad you came. Dinner was excellent.”
“The company was excellent, too.”
When she blushed and looked away from him, he asked, “Did you get a chance to speak to Myra about Saturday?
”
“Oh yeah; she said she’d love to come.”
“Great! Tell her there will be plenty of single men in attendance, in case she’s interested.”
Laughing lightly, Charisse replied, “I’ll let her know that.”
Stefàn took the emptied food containers and placed them back in the shopping bag. “I’ll take this down with me.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. We can dump them in the pantry. C’mon, I’ll show you where it is on the way out.”
After discarding their trash, Charisse walked him back to the reception area. Since there was so little activity in the building due to the late hour, the elevator arrived only seconds after they rang for it. “You know, it never comes that quick when I want to leave,” Charisse noticed.
“Well, it’s obviously trying to tell me that my time is up,” Stefàn joked.
“Ya’ know.” She smiled up at him, then grabbed his arm as she tiptoed to kiss his cheek. “Thanks for coming by, Stefàn, and for dinner. I really enjoyed your company.”
“You’re more than welcome, Charisse. I’ve enjoyed you as well,” he said with a warm smile. “Good luck tomorrow.”
“Thank you. Ooh, I can’t wait,” she suddenly screeched.
Stefàn let out a laugh. “I can’t wait to see you in it, either.”
“Yeah, I’m going to tear up those streets now.”
“Uh, oh, let me know when and where you’ll be, and I’ll make sure I’m nowhere around,” he teased.
“That’s all right. See, I was going to take you for a ride in my new car; now I’ll have to reconsider,” she said.
“Well, don’t reconsider too hard. You’re going to need someone daring like me to keep up with you.” He winked at her after stepping onto the elevator. “Get home safe, sweet face.”
“You, too,” she said demurely.
Introspective smiles covered each of their faces as they stood in each other’s sights until the elevator doors closed.
When the doors opened on the ground floor, Stefàn was still smiling.
CHAPTER 8
A PERSONAL INVITATION
Charisse left her office at four-thirty Thursday afternoon, and headed directly to the car dealership. It was close to six-thirty by the time all of her paperwork had been completed and she was handed the keys to her brand new Corvette. When she got into the car and started it up, tears of joy began to flow from her eyes. “Thank You, Father. Thank You.”
Aside from her townhouse, which she had purchased three years ago with funds she’d saved from two consecutive Christmas bonuses and her 401k, this was the biggest purchase she had ever made. In addition to a significant down-payment—which she saved exclusively for this purchase—she used her Camry as a trade-in. That being the case, she was sure she’d have no problem making the monthly five hundred-dollar note.
She sat in the car for almost twenty minutes, checking out all of the instrumentation on the dashboard. For the ride home she had brought a Donnie McClurkin CD, which she popped in the multi-disc system. Activating the convertible top controls, she lowered the roof, shifted into reverse and eased her Corvette out of the lot. Since it was still rush hour, she was unable to do anything but creep along the highway toward Englewood. She really wanted to open it up on a vast stretch of roadway and put her new toy to the test.
When she finally got to her house, instead of pulling into the garage, Charisse parked in her driveway. Retrieving her mail from the box as she rushed inside, she took no time to scan it; even briefly. Instead, she dropped her pocketbook and keys on one of her living room end tables and headed up to her bedroom. Quickly removing her office attire and carelessly tossing it on her bed, she grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet and hurriedly pulled them on. She took a polo shirt from her dresser, and ignoring the creases in it, put it on, but put a lightweight jacket on over it. She slipped her feet into a pair of brown leather thongs, then darted out of her bedroom and back downstairs. She grabbed two more CDs from the rack, snatched her keys, cell phone and purse and raced back out the door.
Practically running back to the Corvette, Charisse hopped behind the wheel, started the car up and took off. Eager to head for the hills so she could drive somewhere where there would be a minimal amount of traffic and she could really open the car up, she realized, however, that she didn’t want to take this ride alone.
Stefàn had just stepped out of the shower. A towel was wrapped around his waist as he headed for the kitchen to grab a beer. As he reached the refrigerator, his telephone rang.
He grabbed the cordless extension off the wall. “Hello.”
“Hey, you busy?”
“Charisse?”
“Yeah.”
“No, I just got out of the shower. I was about to grab myself a beer and chill. What’s up? Did you pick up your car?”
“I certainly d-id,” she sang.
He laughed at the tone of her voice.
“Wanna go for a ride?” she quickly asked.
Stefàn was taken aback by her invitation, but he smiled as he answered, “Sure, I’d love to. How long will it take you to get here?”
“I’m outside,” she sheepishly answered.
“You’re outside right now?” Stefàn walked into the living room and pulled aside one of the slats of his blinds to look out.
Charisse waved.
“You’re outside,” he said softly. His heart fluttered and his stomach turned over with nervous excitement.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be right out.”
Stefàn hurried up to his bedroom, taking the stairs two at a time, removing the towel from around his waist as he went. Throwing it on his bed, he grabbed a pair of boxers from the drawer. Stepping into them as he hopped over to the closet and opened it, he quickly took a pair of jeans and a print short-sleeved shirt down, hastily donning both. He started to grab a pair of socks from his drawer but decided that would take him too long. She came to get me to ride with her in her new ’Vette. Thrilled that she had thought of him, he knew she couldn’t have been home for too long, especially if she had just picked it up this afternoon. She probably hasn’t even ridden anyone else in it yet. That thought caused a trembling in his gut. Hurriedly slipping his bare feet into a pair of loafers, he grabbed his wallet and keys off his dresser, clipped his cell phone to his belt and headed back downstairs.
When Stefàn stepped out of his house and started toward Charisse in her shiny black Corvette, he was smiling from ear to ear, as was she as she sat behind the wheel.
“Wait a minute,” he called, stopping in his tracks. “I’ll be right back.” He disappeared back inside and quickly returned, this time with his face hidden behind a digital camera. “There she is. Pose for me, baby,” he called to her.
More than happy to oblige, Charisse threw her arms wide and smiled glowingly for the camera. She opened the car door and stepped out, then went through a number of exaggerated poses as Stefàn clicked away.
“Damn, girl, that’s a fly ride you’ve got there,” he said as he stepped up to the car and reverently touched the exterior.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Charisse said with a cheesy grin.
He turned to her and a warmth suddenly filled his heart as he witnessed the unadulterated joy pouring from her. Yes, you are beautiful. He reached out to hug her. Charisse grabbed him and held him tight. “Congratulations,” he softly said.
“Thank you, Stefàn. I’m just so… Oh my goodness, I can’t even tell you how happy I am. C’mon, hop in. Let’s take her for a spin.”
It took every ounce of strength in Stefàn’s long, lean, two hundred and five pound body to sit beside Charisse as she sped confidently along, and not gawk at her like some silly, inexperienced, love-struck little boy. My God, how she thrills me! Everything about her made his nerve endings tingle. And she’s even more beautiful than normal when she’s happily excited about something. What is she doing to me?
They rode for almost forty-five minutes in
relative silence, but there was nothing awkward about it. Stefàn thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of sitting beside her as she drove through the night in her awesome vehicle. The evening was warm and they welcomed the breeze that fanned them from the open top. The car stereo was blasting Yolanda Adams’ latest song and although he didn’t regularly listen to gospel music, he enjoyed the sounds coming from the stereo.
Stefàn was happy to see that Charisse had a sense of adventure. A woman after his own heart, she liked excitement, but was by no means reckless; she was self-assured without being conceited; and she was independent, but confident enough to know that it’s okay to need someone else. He knew she drew her strength from her spiritual beliefs. Having made that clear from the start, he realized he could take lessons from her. In concert with her spirituality, she was vibrant, fun-loving, intelligent and extremely sensual. He was in awe of her. Is this what loving someone feels like?
Over the years, Stefàn had known women with whom he had become smitten for one reason or another, but never so quickly or intensely. I haven’t even kissed her, he kept telling himself. Charisse was probably the most unpretentious person he had ever met, too. He didn’t think she had a phony bone in her body. Her personality hit you head on and never faltered, but there was nothing calculated about her. That was just the way she lived. She seemed to have a zest for life and it showed in everything she did. Her positive attitude was infectious and quite endearing.
Suddenly, her sweet voice broke into his reverie. “Are you hungry?”
“A little.”
They had been zooming up I-87, a part of the New York State Thruway system that had a normal speed limit of sixty-five miles per hour but Charisse, like most of the drivers on this stretch of road, had surpassed the limit.
“We passed a cute little Italian restaurant a while back on 17. Can I buy you dinner?”
That surprised him, and it obviously showed on his face because she asked, “What? Haven’t you ever had a woman offer to buy you dinner before?”
“Yeah, sure, but….”
“What?”
“I just wasn’t expecting you to, that’s all.”
“Well, do you mind?”