“He took care of things for me. That man has got some skills.” Surry was sounding dreamy and she knew it, but she couldn’t stop feelings that she’d kept bottled up for so long from filling her heart. She could trust Ian. He was a man of his word.
“It sounds like somebody is a wee bit infatuated with a certain campaign manager who shall remain nameless.”
“Girl, go on and name him. And tell me what kind of spell this man has cast on me while you’re at it. Because I can’t stop thinking about him,” Surry confessed.
“And just think, you didn’t even want to give the man the time of day a couple of weeks ago.”
“I’ve just been so busy trying to get my business off the ground that I didn’t have time for a relationship.”
“And now you do?”
Danetta had just asked the million-dollar question, and Surry didn’t even have a two-dollar answer for her. Ian had said that having love and success was the best of both worlds. At the time, Surry had thought that Ian was just being naive. But now she was beginning to believe that love and success probably was the best of both worlds for men, because they didn’t have to give up anything. In most family units, the woman had to rush home to cook, and the woman gave birth and stayed home with the children.
Men continued on with their lives while women made all the sacrifices. Her mother had sacrificed her career to help her father with every failed dream he ever had. She had thought being with the one she loved would make her happy, but in the end she ended up bitter and unsatisfied.
But her friends had found men who were successful and motivated. Neither Ryla nor Danetta had to give up her career just because she fell in love. Both of them were now pregnant, and she hadn’t heard either of them talk about leaving the workforce. So, where did that leave her when she was so focused on building her dreams? After thinking all that over, Surry finally opened her mouth and answered Danetta’s question. “I don’t know, but I think I’m ready to find out.”
“Surry, you and I have been best friends for a long time. I know just about everything there is to know about you. But I’ve never understood why you’re so afraid to let yourself go and just fall in love.”
“I would love it if I had time for the kind of love you and Ryla gush about. But I’m too busy trying to build my career. You were a partner in the advertising firm that you and Marshall own when the two of you hooked up, so your career had already been built,” she reminded Danetta.
“Ryla had just started her event planning business when Noel came back into her life. She didn’t push him away and tell him to come back when she was rich and successful,” Danetta countered.
Surry got off the couch and went over to look out the window. Her room had a view of the front of the hotel. She was hoping to catch a glimpse of Ian driving back. “Yeah, but Ryla and Noel had a seven-year-old child. They owed it to Jaylen to go on and get married, especially since they still loved each other.”
“I don’t know, Surry. I just want you to be happy. And from everything you and Ryla have said about Ian, he seems like the man for you.”
Surry closed her eyes for a moment and exhaled. “We have so much in common, Danetta.”
“I know, I know...he’s a student of black history, too. Two nights ago you told me about his Haiti trip.”
“It’s not just that,” Surry began. “Ian and I are alike on so many levels.” She didn’t want to blast him out, so she didn’t tell Danetta about the obvious rift between Ian and his dad. But Surry had been thinking about it all afternoon, because it pretty much paralleled the rift she had with her own father. Oh, Surry in no way deceived herself into believing that Ian was upset with his father because he had been a terrible provider as Surry’s dad had been. The parallel came in the fact that they both had issues with their father. Maybe they could go to therapy together.
Before they hung up, Danetta implored her friend, “Do me a favor, Surry. Give yourself a chance with Ian. I think he might be the one.”
After she hung up the phone with Danetta, Surry paced the floor, trying to get her mind right. Here she was in her hotel room preparing to wait an hour for Ian to pick her up and take her to dinner. She’d never waited so much as fifteen minutes on a man in her entire life. But this was Ian, and he was perfect. But did she have time for a man in her life, even one as perfect as Ian?
As she was pondering this issue, her cell rang again. This time it was her mother. Surry was drained with thoughts of Ian and really didn’t want to go through another episode of “Your Dad’s a Loser” at this moment. But she hadn’t returned her mother’s call from a couple of nights ago, so there was no way she could ignore this one. She picked up. “Hey, Mom, how are you doing?”
“Not so good, honey. Your dad is on another one of his harebrained schemes, and I’m about to lose my mind.”
Here it comes. Now she was expected to ask, “What’s he working on now?”
“This maniac wants to expand his clothing store. Never mind that the current one is already sucking us dry.... We wouldn’t be able to pay our bills if you didn’t send us money every month. But please don’t mention that to your father. I handle the books for his stores, so he doesn’t know how much money we aren’t making.” Sylvia McDaniel released a frustrated sigh.
“Why don’t you tell him, Mom? Maybe he’d stop making all these rash decisions.”
“Are you joking?” Sylvia let out a bitter laugh. “Your father has jumped from one poorly executed business to the next. He doesn’t care if we don’t have the money. Willy believes that the fairies will sprinkle their magic dust and the money will just appear.”
Surry had her issues with her father also, but her mom was being a bit harsh. “Mom, I remember seeing some of the business plans he came up with when I was a kid.”
“Oh, you mean like the plan he constructed for the hair salon and supply store combo that went bust after only two years? Or what about the time he allowed a man he’d known for a week to con him into becoming the proud owner of a grocery store that was about to be foreclosed on? Or what about the time—”
“Okay, Mom, I get your point. Your husband is a bad businessman.” Could this conversation just be over? Surry ran her hands over her face and began massaging her temples as a headache emerged.
“It’s not that your dad is so bad with business. But he won’t stick to anything. It’s like, this week he’ll want to be an astronaut, but next week he’ll decide that he really needs to be president of the United States...and he hasn’t bothered to gain the skills he’ll need for either job, you know what I mean?”
Yeah, Surry got it. Her dad was a bum and irresponsible in the way he dragged his family from one dysfunctional dream to the next. “Do you need me to send some more money, Mom?”
“Oh, no, dear, you hold on to your money. I want you to have enough to save for your future. What you send now is plenty enough for us.”
“Okay, well, just let me know if you need anything.”
“I will, but that wasn’t the reason I called,” Sylvia said. “We got to talking about your father so quick that I forgot to tell you that I saw that evil old John Michael on television.”
“I just saw him, too.”
“He looked like a little skunk. Did you see that white-and-black jacket he had on? The man has no style. I kept wondering why in the world you would steal his designs. They have to be the most god-awful things on planet Earth.”
“He’s a liar, Mom. As I told you before, I didn’t steal any designs from him, nor would I ever.”
“I’m just glad he’s finally told the truth. I would die of embarrassment if everyone thought my daughter was a thief.”
Surry wanted to laugh. She truly loved her mother, but the woman had just as little faith in her as she had in her father. Surry felt as if she’d spent a lifetime trying to make up f
or her father’s failings. But nothing was ever good enough. Sylvia picked on everything she did. But the things she said to Surry were nothing compared with the way she talked about the men Surry dated. She spoke loud and clear about everything she hated about her dates. But most important, men trying to find themselves were not good enough for her daughter and needed to keep on searching elsewhere.
When Surry had been in her early twenties, she’d tried to explain to her mother that it was natural for men of that age to not know what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. Her mother had said, “That’s what college is for. If he hasn’t a clue what he wants to do now, then he wasted his parents’ money. And mark my words, Surry, he will make a waste of his life.”
She’d stopped mentioning her dates to her mother, and as the years progressed Surry had found herself dating less and less. But now Ian was in her life, and she wanted her mother’s approval of this man so desperately that she said, “Ian helped me out with that little crisis. I doubt John Michael will be lying on me ever again.”
“Who is Ian?”
“A man I met.” A wonderful man, actually.
“Is he at least a gentleman? Successful?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well, just make sure he has his head screwed on right and isn’t out there still trying to find himself.”
“Maybe I’ll bring him by so you can meet him. Then you’ll see for yourself that Ian is the real deal.” Surry hung up the phone, confident that she had finally found a man whom she’d have no trouble introducing to her demanding mother.
Chapter 10
Ian stormed into the Ritz-Carlton and made his way to his father’s room with anger in his heart. The warm hues and rich wood tones in the lobby did nothing to soothe Ian’s mood. Twelve years ago his father threw him off a senatorial campaign he’d been helping out with while in college.
He and a few coworkers from the campaign had accepted a lunch invitation from the media. Ian got cozy with a beautiful woman reporter who’d shown interest in him. Before he knew it, he’d inadvertently let the senator’s whereabouts slip out. That reporter then went to said location and found the very married senator soliciting sex from a male prostitute inside a men’s bathroom.
Ian had profusely apologized to his dad for ruining the campaign, even though it was the senator’s bathroom sex that was to blame. Ian never found out how she managed to sneak in the men’s bathroom. But it didn’t matter, he’d still blown it big time.
His father had been livid. He’d called Ian incompetent and a few other choice words. Ian had been distraught over his father’s anger, but the thing that had ruined their relationship from that day forward was what Walter Duncan had said next.
“You are a total screwup, Ian. I hope you know that you’ve cost us this election.”
“I think that Senator Rance cost us this election when he decided to have bathroom sex with someone who wasn’t his wife.” Ian put up a finger as he added, “Oh, and lest I forget, who also happened to be a man.”
His father wouldn’t let up on him. “You had no business giving that reporter any information about the senator’s whereabouts.”
Ian sat down and covered his head with shame. “I know that, Dad, and I have apologized profusely for my mistake. But I can’t take it back. We just have to move forward and worry about damage control and the next campaign right now.”
Walter shook his head. “Allowing you to continue playing this game of following in my footsteps will ruin me. You obviously don’t have what it takes to be in this business if you can’t even keep your mouth shut when you’re talking with reporters.”
“But I’m not just following in your footsteps, Dad. I love this business just as much as you do.” Ian had tried to plead his case.
But Walter wasn’t hearing it. He shook his head. “This was a mistake. You’re fired, son. Don’t bother coming back to the office. Oh, and I’d change your major from political science to business or something, because you’ll never get a job on another campaign.”
Walter Duncan had left his son bruised and wounded that day. But Ian hadn’t changed his major. He figured that if his father was right and no one would ever hire him to work on a campaign, he could teach in college or write books about politics. He would have done just about anything to remain in this game he loved.
But the one thing Ian would not do was accept charity from a man who didn’t believe in him from the start. Ian had been making his way in politics. He would have eventually gotten the golden goose without his father’s help. But Ian knew exactly why Walter had decided to butt in where he wasn’t wanted. He knocked on the door and prepared to unload.
Walter opened the door, looking as dapper as ever in his double-breasted navy blue suit with a silver silk tie, holding a wineglass in his hand. He held it up to Ian and said, “Congratulations, son, I’ve been hearing such good things about you.”
Ian closed the door behind him and sat down on one of the comfortable chairs in the sitting area. He opened his mouth and told Mr. Johnny-Come-Lately, “I have made a successful career in politics without your help. So, I’m trying to figure why in the world you thought it was okay to interfere in my life at this stage in the game.”
Walter walked over to the seating area with a confused look on his face. “I’m not interfering in your life. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ian wasn’t going to let his father get away with playing dumb. He pointed at his father and said, “You got me Monroe. I know it and you know it.”
Walter sat down in the chair opposite Ian’s. He put his wineglass down. “Son, I wasn’t trying to interfere in your life. I saw an opportunity for you and simply floated your name. That’s it.”
“Isn’t it funny how ‘son’ just rolls off your lips, as if you cared anything about your family.”
“Look, son, I may have made some mistakes, but I’ve never stopped loving you. Nor will I ever stop being your father.” He picked up his wineglass and took a gulp.
Ian wanted to pitch a fit in this room, to just start yelling and screaming in his dad’s face. But the truth was, his father wasn’t worth the anger. So he turned to the man, looked him square in the eyes and said, “I haven’t needed charity from you since I was nineteen years old. I’m dropping Monroe as a client. You can take him if you think he’s so great.”
“Don’t do this, Ian. You’ve got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here.”
Ian stood. “You worked on presidential campaigns three times in your lifetime. Another one will come around for me.”
Ian started for the door.
Walter followed. “You’re good at what you do, Ian. Don’t squander your gift just because you’re still mad at me after all these years.”
Ian swung around, fire in his eyes. “Oh, now, that’s rich coming from you. A man who stomped on his own son’s dreams. I don’t have what it takes to be in the business. Remember that, Dad?”
Pain etched across Walter’s face as he admitted, “I was wrong, son. Can you please forgive me?”
“I wish I could forgive you. And I’m not buying this performance you’re putting on.” Ian swung open the door and then turned back to his father. “This is all about ego building. The only reason you want to help me is because you know I’ll eventually get the kingmaker campaign on my own. But you can’t stand the thought of that, can you?
“Oh, no, not the great Walter Duncan. You’re not satisfied with being known as a kingmaker. Now you want to interfere in my life so you can puff out your chest and tell the whole world that you’re also the maker of kingmakers. Well, not this time, Dad.
“You fired me when I was nineteen. Well, now I’m telling you to take this job and give it to another puppet, because I don’t want it.” With that, Ian left the building.
Ian had a din
ner date with Surry at six. But he wasn’t ready to go back to his room and get dressed. He needed to clear his head and relieve some tension before he picked up Surry.
* * *
Soaking in the garden tub, with vanilla-scented candles providing a shimmering light in the bathroom, Surry picked up her e-reader and began reading a romance novel that she had started last week but hadn’t been able to finish with so much going on. If Danetta and Ryla knew that she filled her e-reader with romance novels, they’d probably laugh and call her a hypocrite.
But Surry wasn’t a hypocrite. She believed in love. She just didn’t know if there was a forever kind of love out there for her. So, she read her romance novels and lived vicariously through other women who resolved their issues and found a way to make love work. She didn’t read steamy romances. Some of the stuff in those books was TMI as far as Surry was concerned. She preferred the sweeter romances...boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy. Boy holds girl’s hand, kind of like the way Ian held her hand the other day as they walked back to the hotel from the basketball game.
Holding hands with Ian wasn’t electrifying or mind-blowing as described in novels, but it nonetheless felt good and right. Her hand fit just right inside his. Surry also enjoyed when the hero and heroine shared their first kiss. In the novels she read, that first kiss was always like magic, or like Christmas morning.
A grin spread across Surry’s face as she admitted to herself that her first kiss with Ian had been more like the Fourth of July, with fireworks and combustible energy. Kissing Ian made her feel the way she had the first time she’d ever kissed a boy, without all the which-way-do-I-turn-my-face, nose-bumping awkwardness.
Surry managed to make it to the end of the chapter, even though her mind had been on Ian the entire time. She turned off her e-reader, figuring she had soaked long enough, especially since she had a dinner to get ready for. She soaped up and then drizzled warm water over her back to get the suds off. She then immersed the rest of her body in the warmth of the water to remove the remaining suds.
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