“You do that, Kimmy girl. You do that.”
Kim hung up the phone wondering why fate seemed determined to mix her life with Reggie’s.
Chapter 7
“Have you seen the paper?”
Reggie stared at a wide awake and fully dressed Nate standing in his front doorway. He’d heard the incessant bams on the door and had dragged himself out of bed to find the fire. And here Nate was talking about some article. “Man, you must be crazy.” Reggie turned to walk back to his bedroom and to his bed. “See yourself out.”
He heard the front door close. “You’ve got to see this, Reggie,” Nate said, following him down the short hallway leading to the bedrooms.
“What’s all the racket about?” Luther called, sticking his head out his bedroom doorway.
“You’ve got to see the paper, Luther.”
“Man,” Luther said, walking past Reggie and toward Nate.
“I’ll see you guys after I wake up.” Reggie wasn’t at all interested in whatever the paper had to say.
Luther laughed. “Good picture, Reggie.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. His picture in the paper was no longer a big deal. Since his article, his face had become as common in the newspaper as the masthead.
“Yeah,” Luther said. “But what about this one of Kimberla Washington? You two look good together.”
Reggie stopped short and turned around, his sleepiness gone. “What are you talking about?”
Nate took the paper from Luther and turned it around so Reggie could see it. “This time somebody else made the headlines,” Nate said with a chuckle.
Reggie snatched the paper out of his friend’s hand. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. Good Guy Not So Good After All, the title read. Under the title was a photo of Ms. Washington and one of him. “What the . . .” He skimmed the article quickly, taking note of Ms. Washington’s many comments. Most of them negative. And about him. “Who does she think she is?”
Nate snatched the paper back. “If you’re the voice of reason for men, I’d say she’s the voice of reason for women.” He chuckled again. “How do you like the part where she says you only wrote your article because you’d been dropped more times than the ball atop Times Square?”
Reggie didn’t like it one bit. “What’s on this woman’s mind? What did I ever do to her?”
Nate clapped him on the back. “Guess that interview you had didn’t go too well.”
Reggie shrugged off his friend’s hand. “But . . . this. How could she say these things? They’re not true.”
“Looks to me like she’s dumped you before she even went out with you,” Luther teased. “That must he a record, even for you.”
“This isn’t funny, guys. This is my name and my picture in the paper.”
“It’s her picture, too,” Nate said with what Reggie considered a bit too much interest. “If you got hundreds of letters from women, I’ll bet this sister gets thousands from brothers. I may drop her a line myself.”
“Be sure you get somebody else to write it,” Luther quipped.
That began a back-and-forth insulting match between Luther and Nate that didn’t interest Reggie in the least. He was still thinking about Ms. Kimberla Washington. He slipped the newspaper out of Nate’s hand, left his friends arguing in the hallway and went into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.
“Men kill me,” the article quoted Kim as saying, “They talk about wanting a nice woman, but what they usually mean is they want some fashion model look-alike who’s going to worship them as if they’re a god or something.”
He kept reading and the article got progressively worse, at least from his perspective. “In this day and age,” the article quoted Kim as saying, “it’s hard for a woman to tell a good guy from a bad one. The mode of today seems to be the wolf in sheep’s clothing. The bad guy has the good guy role down to a science. Women have to go out with lie detectors. We never know what kind of line we’re going to get.” Reggie skimmed some more, but he didn’t have to skim long to realize Ms. Washington hadn’t said a single positive word about him.
Reggie stared at her picture. Even though she’d cast aspersions on him, he still found her appealing and saw something special in her eyes. What was it about this woman that drew him? he wondered with a sigh. What was it about him that repelled her?
Man, this was a first for him. He’d never had a woman turn on him so quickly. He was being rejected out of hand based on a single meeting and he didn’t consider that fair treatment. As a man he couldn’t allow Ms. Washington to go unchallenged.
No, he thought, she’d entered into the fray and he was honor bound to defend himself. He got up from the bed and headed for the bathroom. His schedule suddenly had a very important meeting on it. Ms. Kimberla Washington had attacked his honor and his manhood. He couldn’t let her or her words go unchecked.
~ ~ ~
Reggie’s phone rang just as he was about to step into the shower. He swore, then reached for the green body towel on the rack next to the shower and headed for the phone. A part of him hoped it was Ms. Washington calling to apologize. Unfortunately for her, an apology wasn’t going to suffice.
“Hello,” he said when he picked up the ringing phone.
“You’re definitely having problems with the women, brother.” Reggie recognized his middle brother’s voice immediately. “What are you doing down there in Atlanta? First, you’ re writing articles complaining about women and next they’re writing ones complaining about you.”
“Don’t start with me this morning, Greg,” he said. “I’m definitely not up for it.” Actually Reggie had been expecting Greg’s call since he’d gotten the one from William. His brothers routinely called to razz him about one thing or another. “How do you know about the article already? What time is it out there anyway?”
Greg chuckled. “We’re an hour behind you as usual. And don’t worry about how I found out. Just know you’re a celebrity here in OKC and we know everything you do.”
Reggie interpreted that to mean that one of Greg’s friends had called and told him about the article. He didn’t even want to piece together the pipeline of gossips that had transmitted the news from Atlanta to Oklahoma City in such a short time.
His brother laughed again. “What did you do to this woman anyway? William told me he thought you were interested in her.”
Reggie sighed. At times like this, he felt like the youngest brother instead of the oldest. Why was it that his younger siblings thought their marital status made them his keeper? “Have you ever known William to know what he was talking about?”
“Don’t try to change the subject. What did you do to this Washington woman? The way you’re alienating women you’re never going to get married.”
Here it goes, Reggie thought. His marital status. “Don’t worry, brother. There are a few women who still talk to me.”
“Must not be many though. Think of all the candidates you’ve lost because of this article.”
“If you just called to razz me,” Reggie said, standing up. “I think I’ll hang up.”
“You can run, Reggie, but with this article you definitely can’t hide. Wait until Mom sees it.”
Reggie didn’t want to think about his mother seeing that article. If his brothers had forgotten his elder status, his mother had forgotten that he’d graduated high school. He knew she worried about him much more than she worried about his brothers and he knew his single status was the cause. Did she think a wife would actually make his life safer? “I’ll handle Mom,” he said. And he would. He had enough experience. “Now get a life and leave mine alone.”
“Anything you say, brother. Now be careful. That Kim Washington seems to be out for you.”
“Good bye, Greg,” Reggie said. He hung up the phone without responding to his brother’s wisecrack and stomped back to the shower. Greg had it wrong, he thought as he stepped into the shower. Kim wasn’t out for him. No, she’d already gotten him. Now he w
as out for her.
~ ~ ~
“Girl, you know you told the truth,” Leslie said, reading the paper over breakfast in one of the hotel’s dining rooms. “And you just started the story.”
“That’s right,” Tam added. “What about thirty-five and forty-year old brothers talking about they don’t want a woman who already has children? Of course, they can have five or six of the little crumb snatchers running around and think nothing of it.”
“But I didn’t say half that stuff,” Kim complained. “And I definitely didn’t say it to Glenda. I knew the woman was eager, but I never thought she’d make stuff up.”
Tam placed her juice glass back on the table. “Maybe she didn’t make it up.”
Kim stared at her friend. “Come on, Tam. You know I’d never say something like this to a reporter. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were stupid. I said that you might have said some of those things. You were pretty upset after your interview with Reggie.”
“Yes, I was upset, but I think I’d remember if I’d given an interview. Maybe you guys are the ones who’ve been talking to reporters.”
“Please,” Leslie said. “If I had talked to a reporter, you can bet my picture and my name would be in the paper, not yours. You ought to know how I operate by now.”
Kim did, so she turned her attention to Tam. “What about you? Who have you been talking to?”
“I haven’t been talking to anybody. Not about this, anyway. Come on, Kim, you know better. I’m telling you. Some of this does sound like some of the things you were saying at The Garden Restaurant. Don’t you remember?”
Kim shook her head. She remembered being disappointed, and maybe a little upset with Reggie and not really wanting to talk about her interview with him. But she’d acquiesced and done so because of her friends’ interest.
“Tam may have a point, Kim,” Leslie said. “Do you think Glenda could have eavesdropped on our conversation? Do you remember seeing her in the restaurant?”
Kim hated the possibility that Leslie’s supposition could be right. “No, I didn’t see her. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t there.”
“But do you think she’d really do something like that? Tam asked. “How did she seem when you spoke with her outside Reggie’s place?”
Eager. Hungry. Common traits for good reporters so Kim couldn’t hold them against Glenda. When it came right down to it, she couldn’t blame her for eavesdropping on her conversation, if, in fact, she’d done so. As a reporter, Kim had done much the same herself. But what she hadn’t done was write an article without contacting the source. That’s where Glenda had broken the rules. Professional courtesy should have made her give Kim a chance to clarify her words.
But, Kim knew, it was the rawness of the quotes that made Glenda’s article believable, real. Had the reporter spoken with her, she would have explained away a lot of what made the article appealing to readers.
“Don’t worry about it, girl,” Tam said. “You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. If the brothers out there are honest with themselves, they’ll agree you were dead right in everything you said.”
“She’s right, Kim,” Leslie said. “You told the truth and I, for one, am glad you did. The only thing I hate is that my picture didn’t get in the paper. What do you want to bet that you start getting letters from men all over the country?”
“Can’t you think about anything other than attracting men?” Tam complained to Leslie. “I swear you have a one-track mind.”
“Don’t worry about my mind,” Leslie returned. “My mind and my body are in perfect control.”
“Too bad your mouth isn’t,” Tam volleyed. “You always have to go too far. You’re like a kid. You always have to go too far.”
Kim blocked out her friends’ exchange. She wondered what Reggie thought about the article. Though she wanted to take satisfaction in telling him off in the media, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that maybe she’d done him a wrong. What if she was wrong about him? What if he was the good guy that she’d originally thought him to he?
Come off it, Kim, she told herself. You’ve met the guy. He sounds too much like Derrick to be the real thing.
“What about you, Kim?”
“What about what?” Kim said, looking at her friends, who were both now staring at her.
“Where were you, girl?” Leslie said. “Tam’s going with me to check out a couple of houses. I’ve decided to search out the South DeKalb area myself. This isn’t the first house I’ve bought. I can find a place on my own and save that seven percent commission. Why don’t you come with us?”
Kim thought about Jim and knew he’d have a fit if he knew she was out house hunting with her friends instead of hunting down Reggie Stevens. Well, she decided, she needed a break from Jim and from Reggie Stevens. She placed her white cloth napkin on the table. “It sounds like fun.” And she hoped it would be. She definitely needed to stop thinking about Reggie Stevens.
~ ~ ~
Kim saw Reggie as soon as she and her friends entered the hotel lobby after their house-hunting venture. “Oh, no,” she said, covering her mouth with her hand.
“What is it, Kim?” Leslie asked.
“He’s here.”
“Who’s here?” Tam asked.
“Reggie Stevens,” she said, inclining her head to a section of overstuffed chairs to their far left. His head was bowed as he looked at what she thought was a magazine.
Leslie craned her neck in that direction. “I don’t see him,” she said. “Where is he?”
Kim tugged on her friend’s hand. “Stop staring in his direction, Leslie. The man’s going to know I’m talking about him.”
“Oh, I see him,” said Tam. “Uh, oh, I think he sees us too.”
Kim dropped Leslie’s hand. What was she doing anyway? So what if Reggie Stevens was in her hotel? It was a free country and the man could go where he wanted. “Let’s go on up to the suite. He’s probably here to meet somebody.”
“Uh, oh,” Tam said. “Maybe that person is you. He’s heading in this direction.”
“He’d probably mind his business if you’d stop staring at him.”
“I don’t think so, Kim,” Tam said.
“Hello, Kim.” Reggie nodded his head to Kim, then to her friends. “Ladies.” The deep timbre of his voice tickled her senses.
“Hello, Reggie,” Tam and Leslie said at the same time.
“It’s good to meet you in person,” Leslie continued, offering her hand. “Your photograph doesn’t do you justice.”
Kim wished she could blink and make herself disappear. She couldn’t believe Leslie was flirting with the man.
Reggie took Leslie’s hand and massaged it with his, or so it seemed to Kim, before releasing it. “You ladies have me at a disadvantage,” he said. “You both know my name but I don’t have the pleasure of knowing yours.”
Leslie introduced herself, then Tam. Then all three of them turned and looked at Kim.
“Hello, Reggie,” she said. What else could she do?
His gaze met hers and held it. “Do you have a minute?” he asked. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day.”
“It’s my fault,” Leslie said with a short feminine—make that flirtatious—laugh. “Kim and Tam went out house-hunting with me.”
Reggie slowly released Kim’s gaze and looked at Leslie. “You’re moving to Atlanta? All three of you?”
Leslie giggled. She actually giggled. Kim wanted to go through the floor. “No, just me. My job is transferring me to Atlanta.”
Leave it to Reggie to ask questions about Leslie’s job. After what seemed like an hour but was probably only a few minutes, Leslie finished her long-winded answer.
“Well, I hope you like our city.” He reached in the back pocket of his well-fitting tan trousers, pulled out his wallet and handed her a card. “If you need any help getting settled, give me a call. I’ll be glad to help.”
Kim rolle
d her eyes at the smile that spread across Leslie’s face. She wanted to remind her flirting friend of her earlier comments about Reggie, but she knew it would do no good. Leslie had her radar set for Reggie and there was no backing off now.
“Kim.”
Her name on Reggie’s lips surprised her. She thought he’d been captured in Leslie’s snare and forgotten that she and Tam were even there.
“Yes,” she said, not quite meeting his gaze. She didn’t want to get trapped in those eyes again.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he began.
“Well, Reggie,” she interrupted. “How about tomorrow? We’ve had a busy day and were about to have an early dinner and head for bed.”
“Of course, you could join us,” Leslie added.
Kim opened her mouth to nix that idea, but Tam beat her to it. “You’re forgetting, Leslie. We have to meet your new real estate agent later tonight.”
“That’s right,” Kim said, silently thanking Tam for helping her out. It was apparent Reggie had charmed Leslie. She turned to Reggie and said, “So tonight’s really not a good time.”
“Yes, it is,” Tam jumped in. “I’ll go with Leslie to meet with the realtor. You and Reggie can talk over dinner here in the hotel. I really wanted to try this other restaurant I’ve heard about, but I knew you were tired and I didn’t want you to eat alone. But now you don’t have to.”
“Well . . .” Kim tried to think of an excuse, but Tam’s betrayal had caught her off guard. What was Tam doing anyway?
“That’s a perfect idea,” Leslie added, joining in Tam’s betrayal. “I wanted to try out that restaurant too.” She turned to Reggie. “You can talk to Kim over dinner, can’t you?”
Reggie turned to Kim with a sly smile on his face. “I’m a little hungry. Sure, Kim and I can talk over dinner. I should have thought of the idea.”
The Nicest Guy in America Page 9