Some Came Desperate

by Katherine Cachitorie

  Simone sat in total amazement. She remembered the phone call. They had made love, had laid in bed talking, and was about to talk about their life to come. About marriage. He had already told her that he couldn’t live without her. He had already made clear that she would be a part of his life for the rest of his life. It was all just formality from there, as far as she was concerned. Then that blasted phone of his had rung. And he answered it. She assumed it was from the office, he was always getting calls from Mark Grier or somebody else at his office, so she went to the bathroom. She remembered the panic in his voice when he yelled for her. He had to go, he’d said, and he was already dressed and ready. She remembered how he held her at shoulder’s length and seemed unsure when she said she understood that he had to leave. “Do you?” she remembered he had asked her, and she thought even then how strange a comment that was. Of course she understood. He was an important attorney handling important cases and sometimes he had to go. Only it wasn’t about a case, but about Delia. His Delia. The woman he had been with for so many years. That was why he came to her that very next morning and announced his marriage to this mystery woman. She nearly died in that car wreck and he knew he wasn’t about to leave her. It was Delia. Delia all along.

  Nick returned long after the sound of coughing had disappeared behind closed doors and both Ethan and Simone had been sitting in silence, both with their own thoughts.

  Ethan stood up on his arrival. “Is everything all right, Mr. Perry?”

  “Yes,” Nick said, looking shaken, his shirt sleeves rolled up, “it’s fine. She’s fine. Just another one of her. . . unfortunate episodes. But sit down, please.” He sat down, too. “I’ve been informed that dinner will be served very shortly.”

  “Oh, Mr. Perry, you don’t have to go through with that. We completely understand. You don’t have to–” “Don’t be ridiculous,” Nick said quickly. “I invited you for dinner and that’s what we’re going to have. My wife is sick, and she gets sick, and it is what it is. If I stopped every time she became ill, then I would get nothing done. She’ll be all right. We have a wonderful team of nurses working with her, and doctors on the ready. She’s fine. But thank you for your concern. Now,” he said, rubbing those hands together again, trying to become that gregarious person he never was again, “you mentioned a partnership?”

  Ethan again moved to the edge of the sofa, yet Simone could feel Nick’s eyes now trained on her. And her heart wanted to cry out to him. He didn’t leave her all those years ago because he was the cold-hearted player she had taken him for. But he had to leave her because he couldn’t leave Delia. Not like this. Not after he’d been with her for so very long in good health. What good man would leave her in bad?

  But then Simone thought about Delia, and how Nick was wrong not to tell her that he had another woman on the horizon to begin with, before they went from friends to lovers. And that, in and of itself, kept her from breaking down and singing Kumbaya with him just yet.

  “I was thinking,” Ethan began, “that a partnership would definitely be the salient point here.”

  “Aha.”

  “Would take it over the top for me.”

  “I thought we discussed this already.”

  “We did. But I’m a little concerned that if we don’t get it agreed to now, who knows, it might not happen.”

  Nick crossed his leg, his drink resting in his hand. “What might not happen?” he said as he finally turned his full attention to Ethan.

  Ethan swallowed hard. “The partnership.”

  Nick stared at Ethan before speaking, as if he was sizing him up. “Did I not tell you that if you worked hard and proved your mettle that you could very well be in line for a partnership?”

  “Yes, sir, but—”

  “Then why wouldn’t it happen? Do you not plan to work hard?”

  “Yes, sir, but what I mean—”

  “Do you not plan to prove your mettle?”

  “Of course I do. I was just. . .”

  Nick exhaled. “You were just listening to my wife.”

  Ethan nearly melted in shame, Simone could feel it. Then he tried to smile it off. “Well, yes, sir. She seemed to think that I should hold out for a better deal.”

  Nick smiled, but it was a smile laced with bitterness. “Understood.”

  Ethan exhaled. “Thanks. And listen, I wasn’t trying to offend you, I was, I guess I was just. . .”

  “Holding out for a better deal.”

  Ethan grinned. “Right. But I won’t keep you guessing any longer, Mr. Perry. I feel like a striptease over here.” Nick laughed. “So, the answer is yes, sir, if you still want me with P & A, then I’ll be happy to join up.”

  “Even with no guaranteed partnership?”

  “Even with that, yes, sir.”

  “Wonderful. My lawyers will get with your lawyers and we’ll get the deal done.”

  Ethan laughed. “Okay.” Then his cell phone began ringing. He looked at his caller ID. “Ah, I need to take this.”

  “The study is through that door,” Nick said, gesturing toward the back, and Ethan, answering the phone, hurried for that study. Nick leaned back, staring at Simone.

  Simone’s nervousness caused her to began talking. “He’s excited,” she said.

  “Is he?”

  “Very. I think it’s what he wanted all along.”

  “Good. I’ll be glad to have him onboard. He appears to be a very devoted young man.”

  “He is. To his clients. Just like you used to—.” Simone said this before she realized what she was saying. She looked at Nick.

  “Simone,” he said, a frown creasing his face, as he sat his glass on the low table and went and sat beside her on the sofa. Her entire being felt overwhelmed by his mere presence, his smell, his very aura. She tried to compose herself, although she was undeniably shaken by this sudden move, and it took her a moment to even look at him. When she did, her heart hammered against her chest.

  “Thank-you for coming,” he said, looking down at her chest and then back into her eyes. That sensual act alone caused her to blink. “I didn’t expect to see you.”

  “Didn’t expect to be seen. Not here.” She frowned. “Not like this.”

  He looked into her eyes. “My wife?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded, as a sadness seemed to overtake him, and he looked forward. “I didn’t expect to see you.”

  “You said that already.”

  “But when I saw you last night, with Graham, I knew I had to try.” He looked back at her. “Are you dating him now?”

  She stared at him. What a thing to ask, she thought. “Excuse me?”

  “I’m not trying to. . . , I was just. . . concerned.”

  Now Simone was confused. “Concerned about what?”

  “You. As always. I don’t want to see you hurt.”

  Her mouth nearly gaped opened. He didn’t want to see her hurt? Him? The one who had hurt her?

  “Don’t look so stunned, Simone. You know how much I cared about you.”

  “I know how much you hurt me. I know that real well. As for the caring part? That’s certainly debatable.”

  Nick looked away from her. He’d feel the same way, too, if he was in her position. Then he looked at her again, at her shapely legs, her well-remembered cleavage, and then into her face. “Ethan mentioned you were heading back to Atlanta soon.”

  Simone hesitated, to regain her composure. “Yes. As soon as those charges against Shay are dropped.”

  “Same old’ Shay.”

  “Yeah. You can always count on Shay being Shay, which is more than I can say for some people.”

  “Look, Simone, I know you’re bitter—”

  “That phone call that night. That was about the accident, wasn’t it?”

  Nick stopped cold. Stunned now himself. “Yes,” he finally. “Delia had found out that I was seeing you—”

  “How?”

  “Someone had phoned her and she found out and she w
as coming there to confront us both. That’s when she had the accident.”

  “And you decided to marry her, not because you loved her. . ., but because of what had happened?”

  “She gave me the best years of her life, Simone. When she was young and beautiful and every man wanted her, she stood by me. When I saw her that night, so badly injured, fighting for her life, I knew I couldn’t leave her. I knew I could never leave her.”

  Tears began to appear in Simone’s eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” she asked him. “Why did you make me think that you had never loved me; that you just wanted to get me in bed and once you did that, once you got what you wanted, you was through with me? For all those years I thought . . . I thought. . . Did you once consider how I was feeling, Nick? Did you once?”

  That was all he considered early on, and it devastated him. But he had to be there for Delia, and he couldn’t allow anything else to matter. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked again.

  “Would it have hurt less?” he asked her.

  “No,” she said firmly. “But it would have hurt differently. I would have at least understood. I would have at least blamed you more than I blamed myself.”

  This threw Nick. “Blamed yourself? Simone! How could you blame yourself?”

  “How could I not blame myself? That was shocking to me, Nick, the way you just ended it all. I tried to. . . harm myself,” she said point blank and stared coldly at Nick. This floored Nick. He stared back at her.

  “You tried ... you attempted suicide? Is that what you’re telling me, Simone? You’re telling me that you attempted to kill yourself when I broke it off with you?”

  The fear in his voice unhinged Simone, but the truth was the truth. “Yes,” she said lowly, barely able to formulate the word. “Yes.”

  Nick fell back on the sofa. He closed his eyes in anguish and ran his hands over his face. “Good Lord,” he said in such despair that Simone immediately regretted admitting it. But again, she thought, the truth was the truth.

  Nick opened his eyes and shook his head. “How could you do that, Simone? Over me? I’m not worthy to be in the same room with you, and you were blaming yourself?”

  “Yes,” she said, this time more assuredly. “I blamed myself.”

  “You blamed yourself for what?” Ethan’s voice suddenly sounded and Nick and Simone turned quickly toward the study. Simone rose and began vigorously wiping the tears from her eyes, determined to hide them from Ethan.

  “What were you blaming yourself for, Simone?” he asked again, but Simone kept her back to him, in no condition to respond.

  “We were just talking,” Nick said, rising, his anxiety masked the way he was trained to mask it. “A problem on a case, I’d bet.”

  “What?”

  “That phone call.”

  “Oh,” Ethan said, looking at Simone. “Yeah. I’ve got to run, actually. Simone, are you all right?”

  Simone turned, trying to smile. Nick’s heart dropped at the sadness in her eyes. “I’m fine,” she said.

  “You don’t look so fine,” Ethan said. “What happened here?” He began looking from Simone to Nick.

  “Nothing’s happened,” Simone responded with a tinge of irritation. “You said you need to leave?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got to meet the DA. A plea on a case.”

  “But you can take me home first, right?” Simone asked, moving toward the sofa to retrieve her purse.

  “I’ll take her home,” Nick said and both Simone and Ethan looked at him.

  “You?” Ethan said, genuinely confused now.

  “That won’t be necessary, Mr. Perry,” Simone said but Nick wasn’t about to back down.

  “Go and take care of your client, Ethan. I’ll see that Miss Rivers gets home.”

  Ethan looked at Simone. He was nobody’s fool. What was going on here? But Simone just stood there, unable to speak, unable to make the only decision that could possibly make any sense. Because she knew, right here, right now she knew, that if seven years of hurt and pain didn’t do it; if seven years of bitter memories didn’t cut it; then it was as obvious to her as it was illogical to Ethan: that she was through. That there was no getting over this big man who stood like an imprisoned wall before her, anxious to imprison her again.

  TWENTY-TWO

  It was a teen party for the wealthy, Shay thought, as she stepped out of her Corvette and made her way up to the festivities. They were outdoors, in the massive backyard, laughing and playing tennis, ping-pong, and basketball. Having the time of their lives. Grown-ups were there, too, laughing and talking and drinking. But no Hamilton Lucas. Shay looked for him, but he wasn’t outside. Which, she decided, was just as well. She’d butter up the daughter first. Then she’d get his attention.

  But as soon as Shay hit the scene, every teen male, not to mention their fathers, were paying all of their attention to her, by gawking at her. She looked gorgeous and she knew it. And she played it to her advantage.

  “Where’s the birthday girl?” she asked with a grand smile, removing her shades, and Hamilton Lucas’ daughter, a plain Jane in bottle glasses, gladly went up to Shay. It wasn’t everyday such a glamorous woman called her out of a crowd.

  “I’m a friend of your father’s,” Shay said when the thin teen approached her. “Thought I’d stop by and wish you a happy sweet sixteen.”

  “Thank-you,” the girl said, and her male party mates immediately hurried up beside her, to meet this glamour girl too. The boys weren’t bad, Shay thought, but Ham’s daughter, goodness. And when she smiled, Shay noticed that she also wore braces, poor thing.

  “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Mina?” one of the young guys said and Mina Lucas didn’t quite know what to do since she’d never laid eyes on Shay either.

  “I’m Shay-Shay,” Shay said to the young boys delight. “I’m a friend of Mr. Lucas.”

  They all ate that up, as if a stiff banker like Hamilton Lucas could be anything but a stiff banker. But it was no sweat for Shay. She even allowed the young people to escort her into the thick of the party, introducing her to everybody.

  It was nearly an hour later when Hamilton Lucas drove up. He assumed the fancy Corvette belonged to one of Mina’s friends, and pulled in behind it. His passenger, a beautiful dark-skinned woman in a business suit, looked toward the backyard and smiled.

  “And you were worried that nobody would show up,” she said as Ham walked around to the passenger side and helped her out of her car.

  “I know,” Ham said, smiling. “I had to bribe nearly all of their parents to get them here.”

  The woman laughed and she and Ham walked arm in arm toward the backyard. It was Ham, however, who saw Shay first. She was, by now, sitting by the pool with a drink in her hand and a group of gawking teenage boys surrounding her. And that mouth of hers, that foul mouth of hers, Ham decided, was going a mile a minute. He patted his escort on the arm.

  “Excuse me for a moment,” he said to her politely and then walked with all deliberate speed toward Shay. When Shay saw him, she grinned.

  “I thought you’d never get here,” she said.

  But Ham wasn’t going along. He wasn’t even pretending to be understandable. He grabbed up Shay by her thin arm and began escorting her out of his backyard so fast that she was barely able to keep pace. The boys that had surrounded her stood up stunned, and even Mina and Ham’s date were horrified.

  But Ham didn’t care. Shay had gone too far.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Shay was saying as he hurried her toward her Corvette. “Ham, what’s wrong with you?”

  Ham slung her around beside her car. “Are you out of your mind?” he said to her with such venom that she could hardly believe he was the same man who had made love to her in that cheap motel nearly every day for the past week.

  “What have I done? I just came to a party.”

  “You didn’t know anything about this party. Who told you about this party?”

  “I r
ead it in the papers, what’s the big damn deal?”

  “This is my daughter’s sixteenth birthday,” he said, “and I’ll not have the likes of you ruining it for her!”

  “Ruining it? How in hell was I ruining it?”

  “By showing up! By bringing your ghetto-fabulous nonsense to our respectable neighborhood.”

  “Oh, and I’m not respectable, is that what you’re saying?”

  “Just get in your car and get out of here,” Ham said, attempting to open Shay’s car door. But Shay knocked his hand away.

  “You don’t tell me what to do,” she said angrily.

  “Hamilton,” a female’s voice said behind them. Both Ham and Shay looked back to see that it was the woman Ham had arrived with. “Is everything okay?” the woman asked him.

  “Who the hell are you?” Shay asked.

  “She’s my fiancée and watch your mouth,” Ham warned Shay.

  Shay looked at the woman, the very sophisticated, “respectable” looking woman, and her heart dropped. She looked at Ham.

  “You dog,” she said bitterly. But he only opened her car door.

  “That’s right, I’m a dog. And I bite so get out of my sight.” He said this and walked away, taking the woman by the arm as he walked with her back toward the party.

  Shay just stood there, stunned. She couldn’t believe it. He had been playing her all along. For the sex. And here she was thinking that giving it up to him would give her the inside track to his heart. When Condoleezza Rice over there probably wasn’t giving up anything. But she gets the ring. The man. The house. The whole nine. Shay exhaled, tears beginning to stain her eyes, and got into her car. She could have fought it. She could have told Hamilton Lucas about his natural self. But what would that have done?