Fallen Woman

by Stephie Walls

  Mingling has never been my thing, but somehow, on the arm of a man I didn’t care about going home with, it seemed effortless. I was able to talk and move with the crowd. I was able to hold conversations, and at one point, Drake leaned down and said, “Where the hell did you go to school?”

  I tipped my head to his ear and whispered, “Dartmouth.” I was proud. It was a moment like none I’d ever experienced. I hadn’t been recognized for my intelligence in years, and I loved blowing the mind of a wealthy man who thought he’d had me pegged.

  “Does Jase know that?” he quirked his mouth in a grin, thinking he had a secret no one else was privy to.

  “Yes, Drake. He knows.”

  “Remind me how you ended up where you are?” The interest was amusement, which irritated me a tad, but I reminded myself every bit of this and my life were foreign concepts to Drake.

  “That’s a conversation for another time.” I winked at him so he’d know I wasn’t upset, but I sure wasn’t discussing the downfalls of Ryan LeBron in this company.

  The remainder of the evening went smoothly and dinner was superb. I’d always been amazed by kitchens that impeccably execute enormous meals for hundreds of people, and they’d done it here. The wine was good, as was the company, and when Drake asked me to dance, I almost turned him down.

  In a traditional ballroom form, he twirled me around the room. We laughed and talked as we moved. It was fun and flawless—everyone around us lost in their own worlds, too. I noted how many people were here solo and could count them on one hand. I realized how hard it would be for any of these guys to come alone, because while the number of men here stag was almost nil, the number of women was astounding. Drake was right…they all seemed to be on the prowl.

  The feel of his hand on my back, the way the lights danced on the floor around us, the hum of the people talking in the background…it all made for a fairytale evening, but Drake was a perfect gentleman. He treated me with respect, and I appreciated him for it. If this was how all these evenings would play out, I could love this part-time job.

  As the night wound down—the silent auction concluded and donations made—the total raised was just short of a million dollars. All in one night. That seemed like an enormous amount of money to me, and I was ecstatic to have been a part of it, even if I hadn’t had any money to contribute.

  When we got to my door, Drake kissed my cheek and gave me a slight hug. I turned to go in the apartment, and he awkwardly placed a wad of money in my hand. I didn’t bother looking at it. “Thank you again for a lovely evening, Drake. I had a fantastic time.”

  “I did too. Hopefully, we can do it again sometime soon.”

  “That would be nice.”

  With a meager wave from his side, he turned and walked away. I left the money and my shoes in the kitchen and went to Miss Pearl’s to get the kids. She refused me at the door and told me to go home and get some sleep, and she’d send them home in the morning. I made a tiny protest before I gave in and retreated to my own place.

  The wad of money called out from the counter and curiosity finally got the best of me. I walked over to it, hesitant to pick it up—somehow, it seemed dirty. As I counted out the hundreds, I held my breath until I reached five.

  Five hundred dollars.

  Five one hundred-dollar bills.

  I couldn’t breathe. This was too much.

  ~~~

  I struggled to find the damn cell phone Jase had given me. I was in total shock and thought there had to have been a mistake. Drake couldn’t have meant to give me this kind of money. I thought he’d pay for the babysitter, and there might be a few bucks extra—this was just…unfathomable. Stuck between the couch cushions, still attached to the charger, I found the phone and lit the screen with my finger. I hunted Drake’s number, but it went straight to voicemail.

  “Hey, Drake, this is Gianna LeBron.” God, I was such an idiot. What other Gianna would be calling him five minutes after he left. “Well, Gianna. You know who it is. Anyway, I think you gave me more than you should have. Please call me as soon as you can so I can get this back to you.” I hung up and stared at the wall in front of me.

  Sitting in the dark, my mind wouldn’t stop racing. My finger hovered over Jase’s name when I glanced at the clock. It was almost one in the morning, but I chanced it anyway.

  “Hello.” His voice seemed deeper than normal, and I hoped I hadn’t woken him.

  “Jase?”

  “Yeah, babe. What’s up?” Dang it. It was sleepiness I’d heard in his tone.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have woken you up. Can you call me tomorrow?”

  “Gia. I wasn’t asleep. I’m just lying in bed reading. I was hoping you’d call.” I was thrown completely off kilter by the handful of cash lying on my kitchen counter, but Jase Lane telling me he had hoped I’d call sent me into utter stupidity. “Gia? Are you there?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m here.”

  “What’s wrong? You sound upset. Did you not have a good night?” There was an edge of protectiveness to his tone that made me swoon.

  “No, it’s not that. I had a lovely evening. Drake was a great date. But I tried to call him after he left. I think he made a mistake, and I don’t want him to think I stole from him or something crazy.”

  He laughed heartily at me. “What are you talking about? Drake would never think you stole from him. Besides, what could you possibly steal?”

  “It’s not funny, Jase. When he left, he handed me cash for tonight. I thought it was money to pay the babysitter and didn’t want to be rude counting it in front of him, so I waited. But after he left, and I went inside…” I paused, unsure of how Jase would react. These guys were so paranoid about women taking advantage of them I couldn’t stand the thought of Drake believing I took something that didn’t belong to me.

  “What is it, Gia?”

  “Jase, he gave me five hundred dollars.”

  Silence.

  Crap.

  “Jase? Say something,” I pleaded with him.

  “I’m waiting for you to tell me what has you in a tizzy.”

  “Five hundred dollars, Jase. He made a mistake, and I need to get the money back to him.”

  “It wasn’t a mistake.” His voice was matter-of-fact, and I was totally confused.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that’s the amount we agreed we’d give you per night. Is there a problem?”

  Horrified, I screamed into the phone, “I can’t take five hundred dollars for hanging out with a man for a few hours on a Friday night, especially not one who bought me a dress for said evening!”

  He couldn’t hear anything I was ranting about over the laughing on his end.

  “This isn’t funny, Jase. That’s an obscene amount of money for a couple hours of my time.”

  “It’s a drop in the bucket, and trust me, they all see it as an investment in their financial portfolio. Being seen with someone makes them more valuable in the public eye, and selfishly, it keeps more money in their pockets. Don’t worry about it. Take the money and do something nice for yourself.”

  Dumbfounded. One hundred percent. Even when Ryan and I had been well off, I’d never had that kind of cash handed to me for doing nothing. Five hundred dollars was five hundred bucks no matter who it was from, and that was stupid cash to give someone for doing them a favor. “I can’t take the money. I’m not a charity case.”

  “It’s not charity, babe. I promise you. They wanted to give you more, so be glad I talked them down from that ledge. If you’d let them, they’d take you out of your situation just because they like you and they can.”

  I didn’t get it. “I don’t understand. They all worry continuously about women marrying them for money, but you’re telling me they want to throw it at me. And if I’d let myself be their charity case, they’d take me out of the projects and eliminate my financial worries?”

  “They’re good guys, but they want to give on their terms. You don’t as
k for anything, don’t expect anything, so yeah, they want to do stuff for you. They all loved hanging out with you that night at the Literacy event. They welcomed you into the fold because you didn’t ask to be in it.”

  “That’s insane. You know that right?” Nothing he said made any sense.

  “It may be, but it is what it is, and he’s not going to take the money back. And you can expect that’s what you’ll be looking at for each night you spend with one of us.”

  It dawned on me he included himself in that we. “You know I’ll never take money from you, don’t you?”

  “Why not? My money spends just as well as theirs does.” Hurt laced his voice, as well as something similar to disappointment.

  “Because you’re my friend.” I would not budge on this point. Ever. “I agreed to the dress because I needed it in order to go with you that night, and I might let you pay Miss Pearl, but that’s where it ends, Jase. I’m not taking money from you.”

  He scoffed into the phone. “We’ll see.”

  This man could be infuriating. I knew he’d try to find a way to get what he wanted, but I’d fight like crazy to keep it at bay. The moment I took money from him, I became one of them. One of the women he hated. I never wanted him to question whether I cared for him or the lifestyle he could afford me.

  “We can cross that bridge when we get there, Gia.”

  “Why do you call me Gia?” It was random, but he’d done it practically since the day we’d met.

  “Gianna is too formal. Gia is intimate. I haven’t heard anyone else use it with you, so I like being the only one. Does it bother you?”

  “No. I just haven’t heard it in a very long time. It has a familiar ring to it.”

  “I’m sorry. I can stop using it if you’d like.” The sadness in his voice made my heart hurt.

  “I don’t want you to call me Gianna. The way Gia sounds coming out of your mouth makes me warm inside.” I clapped my hand over my mouth.

  He snickered and sucked at trying to hide it. “Did you have anything to drink tonight?”

  “Hush!” I had, and the fact he could tell by my loose lips meant it was time to get off the phone. No matter how much I wanted to listen to his velvety smooth voice roll words into my ear, I’d had too much, and there was no telling what I might accidentally say.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  I swear I could’ve just sat here and listened to him breathe. I would’ve loved nothing more than to be lulled to sleep by that sound on a nightly basis instead of kids talking in their sleep and feet in my back. I dreamed of a night wrapped in his arms.

  “Goodnight, Gia.”

  “Night, Jase.”

  Chapter Five

  When I heard from Holland, his approach was much different than Drake’s. Drake hadn’t wanted to connect on a personal level prior to our night out, but Holland was the opposite. He asked me to go to lunch with him and Jase so we could get to know each other better. The three of us met at the same deli Jase and I ate at frequently, the one where we’d had our first lunch.

  Holland was definitely the quiet one in the group. He seemed much more reserved and almost painfully shy. I found myself begging him for information and wondering how I’d ever get through a night alone with him. Lunch would have been brutal had it been the two of us, but somehow, when he met me at the same store I’d brought my previous outfits, there was something subtly confident about him. The awkwardness seemed to be gone, and I wondered if he was intimidated by Jase.

  The same lady waited on me again when we got to the boutique. I didn’t want to imagine what she must’ve thought of me. On our third meeting, she finally introduced herself as Jenae. I liked her—she was amazing at her job. Holland told her we were going to a company party to celebrate them going public, and she knew just what to pull for me to try on. Unlike with Jase, I had no problem showing Holland what I’d be wearing. Everything with his friends was different—I saw them as jobs, whereas Jase didn’t come close to falling into that category. If I had the money, I’d pay him to hang out with me.

  The green dress she gave me to try on first was beautiful, but I knew it wasn’t what Holland had in mind. He came up behind me and whispered in my ear that I was stunning, but the dress was too much. “You don’t need that much emphasis in fabric. Your beauty stands on its own. I don’t want it hidden by a loud dress.” I stared at myself in the mirror as he talked and wondered what he saw that I didn’t.

  My hair was thick and long, but it wasn’t anything to write home about—it was just a deep brown, with a random highlight from the sun here and there. I had an olive complexion thanks to my Italian roots and maintained a faded tan year-round, but my green eyes were just plain old green. There was nothing spectacular in any of it. My nose was just a nose. I’d put on a few pounds since starting at Faston, but nothing that did anything other than give me a little flow instead of harsh edges. My best assets were my killer boobs. They’d been perfect since age fifteen—even after three kids—and my pouty lips could be found attractive.

  He settled on a blue dress he found on a rack. It was understated but elegant, flowing and simple. He chose a scarf large enough to be a shawl to go with it, pearl earrings, and a matching necklace. With silver strappy sandals, he was satisfied with the ensemble and kissed my cheek as we left the store. I had planned to take the bus back home, but he thought it would be rude not to drop me off. Before I agreed, I confirmed he was not, and would not be showing up in a limo.

  Laughing, his face lit up with more animation than I’d ever seen from him. “Drake’s an ass like that. No limo.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean that. I just don’t live in the best part of town.” I was embarrassed.

  “I didn’t either growing up,” he admitted as he opened his SUV door for me.

  I had to wait for him to walk around the car and get in before I could ask any more questions. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I came from working-class poor. I took out student loans to go to college and grad school.” He talked as he backed out of the parking place and I pointed in the direction he needed to go.

  “I thought you grew up with Jase?”

  “I did. But not because I went to school with him. My mom cleaned his parents’ house for a living. She was a full-time maid, and I would go there after school to sit in the kitchen and do homework until she finished.” He continued to follow my silent instructions toward my tiny apartment. Enthralled by the information he shared, never in a million years would I have believed this coming from anyone else. “I wanted what they had, but more importantly, I didn’t want my mom and dad to have to be slaves to other people. My dad was a welder and came home filthy every day. I hated it for them. They were both bright but didn’t have the opportunities when they were younger. I wanted to give them something different.”

  “So how’d you do it?”

  “I got into college. UGA for undergrad and then Georgia Tech for grad school. I’m not ivy league like the other guys. And I mounted some serious debt along the way, but five years out of college, I had my own architectural firm, and ten years after that, my company was bought by a huge conglomerate and went public. Two years ago, I bought my parents a house, and I pay them to stay home and enjoy life.”

  “I had no idea.”

  “Of course not. Cinderella stories are only impressive for women.” He winked at me as he turned the corner into my complex.

  “So where does your heart lie?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Jase is literacy, Drake is hunger, what’s your passion?”

  “Affordable education. Our country is missing the boat. We have brilliant kids in the projects and lower income areas who don’t have the opportunity to become the next Bill Gates because they can’t afford an education. And regardless of how hard they work in high school, they don’t have the resources to get out of those areas. They stay to help family members, to care for siblings, to put food on the table. The rea
sons are countless, but the bottom line is, even if all those issues are eliminated, they have no way to get the money to pay tens of thousands of dollars to a state school much less private.”

  I nodded my understanding.

  “I think part of what draws me to you and is comfortable spending time with you, Gianna, is you made your dream happen, too. Jase didn’t tell me, but I know who you are. Hell, anyone who’s ever watched the news would know who Ryan LeBron is. Girls like you don’t go to Dartmouth. They don’t make it out of inner cities…but they should. And you’re going to make it back to where you belong, too. Let Jase help you. He sees what you have to offer.”

  I didn’t know what that meant and didn’t want to ask, so I just stared out the window as we stopped at my sidewalk. “You don’t need to walk me to the door.”

  “Jase would kick my ass if he found out I let you out on the street corner at dusk. But nice try.”

  He put the car in park and came around to open my door. He was a gentleman, just like his friends, but something about him—maybe it was his story being similar to my own—made me want to get to know him better. So we said goodbye and thus began our texting and daily phone calls. We still had another week before his company party, and he was going to ensure we were truly friends before he picked me up that Saturday night.

  Every night, Holland would call after the kids went to bed. I’d talk to him for fifteen or twenty minutes. He’d tell me about his day, share some funny tidbit, and give me just a little closer glimpse into his life. He was humorous and made me smile. There was some part of him that pushed for Jase and me, although he never came out and said it, but it seemed that he was constantly trying to sell me on his friend.

  “You know you don’t have to convince me Jase is a great guy, right?”

  “I just can’t figure out why you haven’t gone after him.” His comment was genuine. He wasn’t fishing for information.

  “I don’t know. I just don’t see him that way.” It was a lie and he knew it, but he didn’t call me on it. A girl can’t talk about a guy the way I do about Jase and his friends not know she’s totally smitten with him. But dating isn’t really a possibility for me—and Jase Lane isn’t even in the ballpark of the game I’d be playing.