He shook his head. “I don’t think so. The only way you’re going to know for sure how I feel about women, how I treat women, is to be the woman in my life. For a short while anyway.”
“Reggie, this isn’t making sense. I don’t have time for dating.”
“I’m not asking for a lifetime commitment, Ms. Washington. Just a couple of weeks.”
She shouldn’t even consider this crazy idea. She knew she shouldn’t. Then why was she? “My article is due in a few weeks. I don’t have time for this.”
Reggie ignored her excuse and took the last bite of his prime rib. This was the best meal he’d had in a long time. He couldn’t wait to order dessert.
Chapter 9
“I don’t know, Kim,” Leslie said from her perch on the couch. She and Tam had been in the suite when Kim had returned from her disastrous dinner with Reggie and, as usual, they wanted details of the ill-fated event. She’d been able to put them off until she’d showered and changed into her pajamas, but now all her excuses were gone and she had to talk.
“Me either,” Tam added. “What’s so bad about going out with him?”
Leslie popped a frozen strawberry in her mouth. “You don’t have to marry the guy. Just go out with him. Who knows, he may have a couple of friends for me and Tam.”
“Speak for yourself, Leslie,” Tam said. “Every conversation is not about you finding a man.”
“This one ought to be,” Leslie said. “I’m the one who’s going to be living in Atlanta. I think it would be great to meet some eligible men. The way I see it, if this Reggie turns out to be a good guy, or—” she added with a smile—“half as good as he looks, he could introduce me to some decent men. That way I don’t have to waste time filtering through the dross.”
“Something must be wrong with me tonight, Kim, but I think Leslie has a point. Besides, Reggie sure seemed like a nice guy to me.”
Kim rolled her eyes. “You only met him for five or ten minutes, Tam. Even a serial killer could fake it for that short a time.”
“Yeah,” Tam said, reaching for a strawberry from Leslie’s bowl. “But I don’t think he’s a serial killer. Kim, he can’t be all bad. Maybe you two got off on the wrong foot. I say give the guy another chance. What do you have to lose?”
Kim had a feeling she had a lot to lose. There was something about Reggie Stevens. That something she’d felt when she’d first seen his picture. That something she’d felt when she’d first shaken hands with him and looked into his dark eyes. That something she’d felt over dinner tonight when he’d made his outrageous proposal. Reggie Stevens could get under her skin if she allowed him. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if she was sure of him, but she refused to waste her time or her emotions on a player.
Leslie slapped her on her knee. “Come on, Kim. Go out with the guy. If you want a chaperone, Tam and I will chaperone for you. Just tell Reggie to find us a couple of dates.”
“Good idea, Leslie,” Tam said. “What do you say, Kim? We’ll be right there with you and we might all have some fun? Come on, say you’ll go out with the guy. Just one time. Please?”
Kim knew she’d end up giving in to the cajoling of her friends, but not without some token resistance. The triple-dating idea did have merit though. How much could Reggie get under her skin with two of her friends and two of his around? And if Luther turned out to be one of the friends, she was sure he’d keep all the attention focused on himself. Maybe, she reasoned, this wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“I don’t have time to get to know Reggie in the way he wants. I have a job to do.”
“Aw, come on, Kim,” Tam said. “You know Jim will love the idea of you and Reggie dating. He’ll start seeing increased circulation numbers in his head.”
“You’re right,” Kim said slowly. “That’s why Jim can’t know about Reggie’s proposal.” Jim would try to turn this getting to know you dating into a news story and she definitely didn’t want that. She was the reporter, not the subject. Her role had gotten mixed up in the Good Guy article, but she’d make sure it didn’t get mixed up again. No way was she going to have Jim turn a few dates with Reggie into a feature story. She shook her head. “I can’t do it, guys. You’re right about Jim. He’d want to use the situation to the magazine’s advantage and I won’t be a party to it.”
“Spoilsport,” Leslie accused. “We just want to have a little fun. We won’t tell Jim if you don’t.”
Kim shook her head again. “No way. Sometimes I think Jim has eyes and ears everywhere.” She thought about the way he always seemed to appear at her desk when she got an interesting phone call. She hoped he didn’t have the phones bugged as she’d teasingly accused. “I can’t risk it. I know he’ll find out and then my picture will be on the cover of Urban Style.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing, girl,” Leslie said. Her eyes widened. “Look, I have an idea. Why don’t I stand in for you with Reggie?”
“Stand in for me?” Kim asked, an uneasy feeling bubbling in her belly. She still remembered Leslie’s not-so-subtle flirting with Reggie in the lobby.
“Sure,” Leslie said. “Reggie wants a woman to get to know him, right?”
“Right,” Kim said, not liking the direction of the conversation. She should have known Leslie would somehow work this situation to her advantage.
“Well, what if I’m the woman? I’ll go out with him and then you can interview me about the kind of guy he is. What do you think?”
“It’s a dumb idea, Leslie,” Tam said. “I think Reggie’s interest in Kim goes beyond the magazine. What they don’t need is you jumping in the middle.”
“But if Kim doesn’t want him—”
“She never said she didn’t want him,” Tam interrupted. “Can’t you see she’s nervous about it?” Tam turned to Kim. “Come on, Kim. Aren’t you a little bit interested in him?”
Kim didn’t answer because she didn’t want to give voice to her conflicting emotions. She could be interested in Reggie, if she allowed herself. But something told her that, regardless of the good feelings she sometimes had about him, in the end, he’d disappoint her.
~ ~ ~
Groggy with sleep the next morning, Kim reached for the phone. “When do you sleep, Jim?” she asked before she heard his voice.
“Kimmy, girl,” he said. “How’d you know it was me?”
“It’s five o’clock in the morning. Everybody but you is asleep. Now what do you want?”
“You sure are a grouch in the morning, Kimmy. You’d better work on that before you get married. I’m telling you no man wants to wake up to a grouchy wife.”
“I’m not going to respond to that chauvinist comment, Jim. Tell me what you want so I can go back to sleep.”
Jim chuckled. “Oh, no, Kimmy, there’ll be no going back to sleep for you. You’ve a busy day ahead of you.”
A feeling of dread surrounded Kim. What had Jim done now? “And how do you know what my schedule is?” she asked cautiously.
“Hey, I’m the boss. I know everything.”
“Jim—”
“Guess who called me last night, Kimmy girl. You’ll never guess. Not in a million years.”
Kim rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. Sometimes Jim was nothing but a big kid. She could handle that side of him on most days, but not at five o’clock in the morning. “Since you know I’m not going to guess, why don’t you just tell me?”
“But that wouldn’t be any fun, Kimmy. Come on, one guess.”
Understanding that Jim wasn’t going to tell her his news until she guessed, Kim asked, “Is this about a new story?”
“That’s not a guess. That’s a question. I want a guess.”
“Okay,” Kim said, sinking back down in the bed in preparation for a long conversation. If she was lucky, she’d be able to get in a nap or two while Jim babbled on. “LeBron finally returned your call and we’re going to get to interview him.”
Jim sighed. “Don’t I wish? You know I’m beginni
ng to think he has something against Urban Style.”
Kim didn’t think so. She guessed LeBron was tired of talking about his leaving Cleveland and losing in the NBA finals. She’d tried to tell Jim that the break up was the wrong angle to take with the basketball genius, but he hadn’t heeded her advice. “Okay, so it wasn’t LeBron. I’ve guessed. Now tell me what’s on your mind at five o’clock in the morning.”
“I’m gonna tell you even though you didn’t try to guess. Reggie Stevens called me.”
Kim sat up straight in the bed, her sense of foreboding at its highest point. “Reggie Stevens? Why did Reggie Stevens call you?” Since their ill-fated dinner last Thursday, she’d had no luck in convincing Mr. Stevens to allow the planned photo shoot. She was running out of time.
“Calm down, Kimmy. The man called because he wanted to talk to me. It seems you’ve been doing a good job down there.”
Kim wondered what Reggie had said to Jim. Not being able to accomplish a simple photo shoot in a week’s time was not her idea of doing a good job. “Of course, I am. What do you expect?”
“Hey, I was just passing on a compliment. No need to get huffy.”
“So that’s it? Reggie Stevens called to tell you I was doing a good job?” Kim knew there had to be more to Reggie’s call. A simple compliment wouldn’t have resulted in a five o’clock call from Jim.
“We talked for a while about the article, the contest, you know. By the way, the photographer will be there this afternoon. You have to be at Reggie’s house at three.”
“You scheduled the photo shoot? I thought that was my job.” So what if she’d been having a hard time getting it done.
“It’s nothing to get upset about, Kimmy. I know it’s your story and I’m keeping my nose out of it, for the most part. It’s just that it came up when Reggie and I were talking, so we scheduled it.”
“Uh huh. Come on, Jim, what else came up when you were talking to Reggie?”
“Well, we did toss around a few ideas. And I must say Mr. Stevens has a good head on his shoulders.”
Kim sank slowly back down in the bed. No, please God, no, she prayed silently.
“Aren’t you going to tell me, Kimmy?”
“Tell you what?”
“Reggie said you wanted to keep this under wraps, but I wouldn’t think you’d keep it from me. How were you going to explain your extended stay in Atlanta?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Jim,” she said, hoping that what she thought he knew wasn’t what he knew.
“There’s no need to keep it a secret. Reggie told me all about it and I think it’s a great idea. I couldn’t have thought of a better one myself. As a matter of fact, I’m ashamed I didn’t come up with it.”
Kim knew there was only a slim chance Jim wasn’t talking about what she was thinking about. “Why don’t you just tell me what Reggie told you?”
“If you’re going to be that way, I guess I’ll have to.” Jim sighed. “Reggie told me his idea that the two of you get to know each other better.”
She’d known it. She’d known it. But she still couldn’t believe it. Reggie had actually gone behind her back and over her head to talk to her boss. He had some nerve. “That’s a stupid idea, Jim, and I told Reggie so.”
“What are you talking about, Kimmy? This is a great idea, a great way for Urban Style to capitalize on the contest, Reggie’s article about male-female relationships and your article about Reggie.”
“I haven’t written an article about Reggie,” she clarified.
“You know what I mean, Kimmy girl. That article that quoted you from A to Z. The idea of you and Reggie dating is a good one. It’ll give you more to work with in your column.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t want to date Reggie.” She paused because the words sounded false on her lips. “And I think we should forget the column idea. I want to finish the interview and companion article on Reggie and get back home. I still have two other finalists to interview. Or have you forgotten them?”
“Hold on, now, Kimmy,” Jim said. “I haven’t forgotten the other finalists, but let’s be reasonable about this. Reggie thinks you didn’t give him a fair shake in that newspaper article and he wants a chance to show you the real him. I don’t see anything wrong with his request. If anything, I’d say the magazine owes the man. You’ve—I mean we’ve—probably ruined his reputation.”
Kim could see that Reggie had done a good job on Jim. Not that it would have taken much. She guessed that the mere idea of their joint column spiced with tidbits from their dating relationship had Jim salivating. “We have not ruined that man’s reputation and we don’t owe him anything.”
“I can’t believe you’re saying that, Kimmy. You’re the one who’s always doing everything above board. Do you honestly think that newspaper article was done fairly?”
She didn’t and that’s where he had her. She was going to be forced to go along with Reggie’s idea unless she could come up with another one, a better one. “Hey, Jim, I think I have an even better idea. You remember my friend, Leslie, don’t you?”
“Sure. Cute little thing.”
“Yeah. Well, what if I do a story on her having a relationship with Reggie. That way I could write it from the angle of the unbiased third party.”
Jim didn’t speak immediately and she assumed he was considering her suggestion. She crossed her fingers and her toes for good luck.
“No, Kimmy,” Jim finally said. “Not that your idea doesn’t have merit. It does. It’s just that with the article and radio discussions, I think our strongest angle is you and Reggie.”
Kim didn’t want to acknowledge the irrational relief she felt when Jim rejected her idea. She really didn’t want to see Leslie and Reggie together. He wasn’t her friend’s type, anyway.
“And to top it all off,” Jim continued. “Reggie has agreed to give us an exclusive.”
“An exclusive on what?”
“Don’t be dense, Kimmy,” Jim admonished. “He’s giving us an exclusive on him. He’s only talking to us; no other magazines or radio shows will get him until after our article runs.”
Kim couldn’t deny she was impressed, but she wondered why Reggie was treating them so well. Her opinion of him couldn’t mean that much to him, could it?
“The way I’m thinking right now is that we’ll push back the deadline for the Nice Guy contest. The radio station in Atlanta and one here in D.C. want to hold their own contests. The way I figure it, we can have forty or fifty finalists, each representing a radio station or an area of the country. Something like that. What do you think?”
Kim could find no fault with the idea. Actually, she thought it was a good one and told Jim so.
“In the next few issues,” he explained, “we’ll have a list of participating stations with information on how to nominate candidates. That should keep interest in the magazine high. I think we’ve got a winner on our hands, Kim.”
“It looks that way,” she said, accepting the inevitable.
“But if we’re going to turn the contest over to the stations and push the date back, what will I be doing?”
Jim cleared his throat. “You’ll be in charge of the selection committee for the winner of the contest and you’ll continue to work with Reggie. I think we’ll run your first column in the issue that presents the contest finalists.”
“What do you mean by work with Reggie?”
“You know, Kimmy. You guys will do the dating thing and come up with ideas for your column. Your first column should discuss the status of your dating relationship. We want our readers to really get involved in your relationship.”
“But it’s not a relationship, Jim,” Kim reminded him. “We’re getting to know each other for the magazine.”
“I know that, Kimmy, but the readers don’t have to know it. At least, not in the first column. Trust me, this will work out beautifully.”
Kim didn’t trust him and more importantly, she didn’
t trust Reggie Stevens. If the man had gone behind her back with his outrageous idea, what could she expect from him in this dating they were supposed to do? There was no use trying to explain her concerns to Jim though. Her boss thought he was sitting on a gold mine. It would be up to her to protect herself from Reggie Stevens.
~ ~ ~
Kim and Marty, the photographer, arrived at Reggie’s house at exactly two-fifty that afternoon. She’d get the photos taken, and then have a nice long chat with Mr. Stevens. There were some things she needed to get off her chest.
She was pleased when Luther opened the door. Seeing Reggie a minute before it was necessary was not something she needed.
“Well, if it isn’t Ms. Washington from Urban Style,” Luther said. “Long time no see.”
Kim smiled, but before she could speak Reggie walked up behind Luther. “Hello, Ms. Washington,” he said with a teasing smile. “I was hoping it was you.”
“Our appointment was for three, wasn’t it?” She tried to keep her voice free of emotion, but she wasn’t sure she was doing a good job. “I’m on time for all my appointments. It’s part of being a professional.”
He laughed. He actually laughed. His laughter charmed her and aggravated her at the same time.
“That’s right, Kim. You’re a professional. That’s what I like about you. You’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
The teasing glint in his eyes told her that he was intentionally baiting her. He knew she’d talked to Jim and he knew the outcome of the conversation. He’d probably known even before he made the call to her boss.
“Well, should we get started?” she asked.
He nodded and she and Marty entered his house. They quickly decided to start the shoot in Reggie’s den since that’s where he spent most of his time. Then she got out of the way and let Marty do his job.
It was only natural that she study Reggie as he posed for the shots. He was a man who seemed comfortable in his own body. He didn’t try on smiles before choosing one for the camera. No, Reggie just smiled. And what a smile it was! It reached from his chin to his eyes. And Reggie’s smiling eyes should have been illegal.
The Nicest Guy in America Page 11