The Nicest Guy in America

by Angela Benson

  She heard the pride in his voice as he spoke of his family and automatically her eyes scanned the room for family photographs. She wasn’t disappointed. The glass-topped end table behind him and next to the sofa was cluttered with photos. An only child who’d always wanted siblings, she envied the closeness she suspected he shared with his rather large family. Unfortunately, her parents had been much too old to consider other children after they’d had her. She inclined her head toward the pictures on the end table. “Those are family photos?”

  His broad smile charmed her as he reached for a gold and wood frame holding a photo of an older man and woman whom she guessed were his parents. “My parents. Now these people knew and still know about relationships. They’ve been married forty-one years.”

  Kim’s parents had been married twenty years longer and she told him so.

  His eyes widened. “And I thought my parents had been married a long time. Do you come from a big family?”

  She shook her head. “It was just me and my parents. They were in their late forties when I was born.”

  “Well, at least they did it right the first time,” he said and she felt the kindness in his words.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, then remembered she was doing the interview, not him. “Looks like you have a fairly large clan.”

  He gave a wry grin. “My parents weren’t as smart as yours. Even though they had a perfect first child, they kept at it. As you can guess, perfection only strikes a family once.”

  She chuckled. “I guess that means you’re the oldest.”

  “Smart woman.” He replaced the picture of his parents and picked up a group shot. “Here’s the Stevens clan.” He pointed to his Mom and Dad. “Those two you know.” He pointed to a shorter, bulkier version of himself. This guy looked like a weightlifter. “This one here is my youngest brother, William. And this is his wife. And these are his two children.”

  “How do you like being an uncle?” she asked, hoping someday she’d get to be an aunt and a mother.

  “I love it,” he said with a grin. “But I didn’t realize how much until this little lady came along.” He pointed to a baby, no more than a few months old, in the arms of another man who shared his features.

  “Another brother?”

  “You got it. That’s Greg. He’s the middle son and that cute lady there is his wife. I’ll never know what she sees in him. I keep telling her she picked the wrong brother.”

  Kim felt the love and respect that Reggie had for his brothers and their families, despite his words. “And I bet they love every minute of it.”

  “Maybe not every minute. But they tolerate me.”

  “Now you’ve got me curious,” she said. “What are you doing in Atlanta when all your family is in Oklahoma City?”

  He chuckled. “Now you sound like my mother. I’m here because of my business. Atlanta is a progressive town and I’m a progressive kind of guy.”

  “What kind of business are you in?”

  “I do some computer consulting,” he said with a shrug.

  Kim sensed there was more to it than what Reggie said and made a note to follow-up on it later. “How long have you been here?”

  “Not long,” he said. “About eighteen months.”

  “That explains it,” she said, more to herself than to him.

  “Explains what?”

  She looked up and met his eyes. Big mistake. They seemed to penetrate her mind. “The nominations. You received nominations from Atlanta, Boston and Oklahoma City. Have you ever lived in Boston?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I have a friend who lives there.”

  Kim sensed the subject made him sad. Maybe he hadn’t gotten over his friend from Boston. She flipped the page on her pad. What was her name again? “Christina Duncan?”

  “That’s her,” he said in a faraway voice. “The one who got away.”

  “You sound as though you really cared about her.”

  He nodded absently. “Christina was the best. Too bad she was in love with another guy. I never really had a chance. Not really.”

  His honesty disarmed her. Was he still in love with this Christina or had he gotten over her? Kim couldn’t tell. “She had wonderful things to say about you.”

  He smiled. “I’m sure Christina did. That’s the kind of woman she is. Definitely one of a kind.”

  Kim felt a sprinkle of jealousy. Christina Duncan still had a place in Reggie’s heart. She was sure of it. “In her nomination letter, Christina mentioned that you’d offered to make a grave sacrifice for her, but she didn’t say what it was.”

  “I’m not surprised,” he said. The look on his face said that he was enjoying his memories of his lost-love. “But it wasn’t really a sacrifice. I just asked her to marry me.”

  His words hit Kim hard. She hadn’t been unrealistic enough to assume he hadn’t been in love before, but to know that he’d already found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with cut deeply. “Did you ask any of the others to marry you?” she asked, trying to keep her professional demeanor.

  He shook his head and his eyes seemed to focus again on her. “None of the others got that serious.”

  She glanced down at her notes again. “That’s strange.”

  “What?”

  She looked up at him, not realizing she’d spoken aloud. “Christina, the one you asked to marry you, is the only one of the six who doesn’t seem to regret letting you get away. The others gave the impression that they very much wish they had handled your relationship differently.”

  “It’s strange to me, too,” he said. “Why is it women don’t realize how good you are when they have you?”

  Kim knew his question was a sincere one, but she didn’t have a good answer for him. She chose instead to play it light. “You know what they say. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”

  “That’s no answer. Come on. I answered your questions. Now tell me what you think.”

  Kim didn’t want to turn this session into an interview of her so she deftly turned the question back on him. “I read your article, Reggie. I think you already have your answers. Do you really believe everything you wrote?”

  “Of course, I believe it,” he said. “And it’s the truth.”

  “Your truth, maybe,” she challenged.

  “You’re right about that,” he agreed. “I’m the nice guy women say they want. I have a good job, own a house, understand and appreciate monogamy and feel that women should be treated with kindness and respect. I also understand the difference between sex and making love and am well-acquainted with foreplay.”

  “On the physical front, I’ve been told that I have a handsome face, and not just by my mother, and a fit body. I’m not bragging here. I’m only stating fact. I’m sure most of the ladies out there would tell you they’re looking for a guy like me. Well, these women are lying. And I have the walking papers to prove it.”

  “For example?” she queried, somewhat disappointed in his monologue. He sounded like Derrick and some of the other brothers she knew.

  “The woman who recently broke up with me. If you stopped this woman on the street, she’d probably tell you she wanted a nice guy. A man she could love and build a life with. A man she could count on to be there for her when she needed him. A man who would love her and cherish her and whom she could love and cherish in return. Mind you, this is the same woman who just went back to a man who deserted her after stealing her stereo system and raiding her bank account. I don’t know about you, but I think there’s something wrong with this woman’s logic. And I don’t think she’s alone. Given a choice, most of the women who say they want a nice guy will choose the opposite every time.”

  “Some might think that your observation is a case of sour grapes. That you’re complaining because you’re the one who always gets dumped.”

  Reggie stared at her for a couple of seconds before responding. “Well, some might think that, but they’d be wrong. The article was not about my eg
o.”

  “What was it about, then?”

  “I thought it was obvious. It’s one man’s exasperation and total bewilderment with the female population.” He leaned closer to her. “My mother raised me to be a gentleman. To treat women with respect. To cherish them. But women don’t seem to want that.”

  He was so close that Kim could smell the light, masculine scent of his cologne. “So you take your experience with a few women and extrapolate it to mean that all women are the same?”

  “Of course not all women are the same. My sisters-in-law are different, my mother is different, Christina is different. A lot of women are. But the majority of you are exactly as I described in the article.”

  “Have you ever considered that it’s you and not the women?” she asked, feeling as though he’d included her in his blanket indictment of the female population.

  “Sure, I thought about it. For a second or two.” He lifted his shoulders slightly. “But, and I’m not being immodest here, I know the kind of man I am. My only fault is being nice to women.”

  “Yeah, right.” Kim heard Derrick’s melody from Reggie’s lips and she didn’t like the sound.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “Look, Mr. Stevens,” she said slowly, wanting to keep her irritation in check. Why did he have to sound so much like Derrick? “You’re not the first guy to complain about women not appreciating a nice guy. It’s been my experience that these guys contribute to their situations.”

  “Can you be a little bit more specific?” he challenged, forcing her to go from the general to the specific as she’d done with him earlier.

  She could be very specific. “First,” she said, “The guys who call themselves nice guys usually say they’re looking for nice women.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re looking for. A woman who’ll treat us with the same kindness and respect with which we treat them.”

  “I know that’s what you say,” Kim said, “but it’s been my experience that it’s not what you mean.”

  Reggie leaned back against the sofa, his dark skin a brilliant contrast to the tan coloring of the upholstery. “So what do we mean?”

  Kim rested her pad and pen on her lap and primly folded her hands across them. He’d asked for it, so she was going to give him both barrels. “What do you mean when you say nice, Reggie? Tell me about a nice woman.”

  “I told you. She treats men with kindness and respect.”

  “Are you sure there’s nothing else?” She knew there was, so she waited for him to dig his own grave. Then she planned to calmly push him into it.

  “I don’t know what you’re looking for.”

  Okay, she’d give him a nudge. “It’s been my experience that brothers who say they’re looking for a nice woman usually consider a nice woman a Vanessa Williams clone with long hair and very light skin.”

  His chuckle surprised her. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Not at all,” she said. “And if you’re honest with yourself you’ll admit I’m right.”

  He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. “You really think that’s what men want? What I want?”

  She nodded. “Are you suggesting I’m wrong?” A part of her wanted him to offer some explanation to prove she was wrong. About him, at least.

  “I’m not suggesting anything at this point,” he said, giving her a curious look. “I’m just listening.”

  “It’s been my experience,” she explained, “that men who toot their own horns and always complain about a lack of acceptable women are usually pretty shallow.”

  His flinch told her he knew she included him in that group. “Oh, no you don’t,” he said. “You can’t lump all men together that way.”

  “Why not? You lumped all women together in your article. What’s the difference?”

  His silence told her that she had him there. She wasn’t surprised though since most men had the decency to shut up when they realized how ridiculous they sounded. Maybe one day she’d meet a man who was different. Unfortunately, Reggie Stevens wasn’t that man. She looked down at her pad. “Maybe we should get back to the interview now. Tell me some more about your job.”

  ~ ~ ~

  She’d dismissed him as shallow. She’d done everything but come right out and say it. He could even feel the change in the air around them. When the interview had started, he’d felt a warmth from her, a connection. Now he felt a chill. And all because of some ridiculous notion she held that men were stupid creatures looking for trophy women.

  Not that Ms. Kimberla Washington wouldn’t make a perfect trophy woman. She was beautiful. From her short-cropped hair to her long, lean fingers to long, full legs that plainly told of her soft and feminine virtues. On top of that, Kim Washington had a quick mind and an aggressive spirit that he found enticing. He knew, though he’d only just met her, that she was a woman who knew what she wanted and who refused to take anything less. He bet she didn’t give a brother a second chance. One misstep and he was out the door. He guessed her experiences had caused her to develop the thick outer shell that he now wanted desperately to penetrate.

  “Look, you’re trying to make me out to be the bad guy here and I’m not.”

  “Of course, you’re not,” she said with a fake, sugary sweet smile. “You’re a nice guy, looking for a nice woman. Maybe we should get back to the interview now.” She picked up her pen and pad and asked the next question, hoping she’d finish the interview before she threw up. “Tell me some more about your job as a computer specialist.”

  Reggie opened his mouth to tell her that she’d read him all wrong, but the tightness of her lips and the rigidity in her stare told him there was no use trying to change her mind now. So he let her lead him through a series of questions about his work as a computer security specialist. Her questions were succinct and his answers matched.

  “Well, that’s it,” she said after about an hour. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to bring my photographer over to get some shots of you here and in your office.”

  “Sure,” he said, looking for some way to make amends. “Just let me know when.”

  Kim stood. “Fine. Thank you, Mr. Stevens,” she said, extending her hand. “It’s been an interesting interview.”

  Reggie took her hand. It felt so soft and smooth in his that he didn’t want to let it go. For some reason, it was very important to him that Kim not think badly of him. “Look, Kim,” he said. “I think we’ve suffered from some miscommunication this afternoon and I’d really like to show you that I’m not as shallow as you seem to think. How about having dinner with me tonight so we can get to know each other?”

  Kim removed her hand from his. “I’m sorry,” she said, “But I already have plans. Thanks again, Mr. Stevens.”

  Reggie knew she was lying about her plans for the evening, but he saw no alternative but to escort her to the door. After he opened it, he turned to her, “I’m feeling pretty bad about how things went today. Won’t you let me make it up to you?”

  Again, she shook her head. “You’ve done enough. I appreciate the interview. Thanks again.”

  She stepped outside and didn’t look back. She never would have guessed she’d be so disappointed in Reggie Stevens. She’d thought he was different. But he wasn’t. He was just another man looking for a good-looking woman to squire about on his arm. Why couldn’t he have had more depth?

  Why was the sky blue? That’s just the way it was. With that brilliant conclusion, she decided to push Reggie Stevens out of her mind.

  Feeling eyes on her, she looked up and saw all the other reporters looking at her. It was only then that she realized she’d exited the house via the front door. Bad move.

  “How’d you get in?”

  “What’d he say?”

  “I’m glad somebody got in to see him.”

  Kim tried to ignore the questions of her colleagues and she was almost successful.

  “Hey,” Glenda said, tugging her away
from the others. “Good work. You know we all hate your guts.”

  “It figures.”

  “It’s jealousy.” Glenda waved her hand, dismissing the notion. “What’s your angle on this guy, anyway? Are you following up on his article like the rest of us or are you working on something else?”

  Kim’s antenna went up. “Something else like what?”

  Glenda shrugged. “Wouldn’t it be something if one of the finalists in your magazine’s Nice Guy contest was the man who wrote “Doubled-Minded Women and their Two-Timing Men?”

  Kim smiled. So Glenda had read about the contest. Well, she wasn’t going to get any information from Kim.

  “You can’t blame a girl for trying,” Glenda said when she realized Kim wasn’t going to respond.

  Kim smiled again. This time a real smile. She really couldn’t blame Glenda. Were she in her shoes, she’d be doing the same thing.

  “So what did you think of Reggie Stevens? Was he at all what you expected?”

  Disappointed summed up her feelings, but she couldn’t very well say that about the man who was going to grace the cover of her magazine. “Interesting,” was all she’d say.

  “Is that interesting good, interesting bad or interesting weird?”

  Kim laughed. “You’re good, too, you know. But I’m not going to answer that one.” She looked at her watch. “Excuse me, I have to call my girlfriend to come pick me up.”

  She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and dialed the hotel number. She was grateful when Tam answered after only two rings.

  “I’m ready,” Kim said.

  “I was about to get worried. I called your cell phone, but of course, you had it shut off. Did you get to talk with him?”

  “Sure did,” Kim said. “How long will it take you to get here?”

  “Tell me,” Tam said enthusiastically. “How’d it go? What’s he like in person?”

  Kim didn’t want to get into it then, and said so.

  “All right, then,” Tam said. “Be that way.”

  “How long before you get here?” Kim asked again.

  “I’m walking out of the door as soon as I hang up.”