Jaden slowly removed it from his lips.
“Then I brought her mother to stay with us until the baby comes.”
“Sounds like you need more than this cigarette.” Jaden laughed at Leonard’s scowl. “You did good by bringing her mother. She’ll calm her better than you can. Doesn’t sound fair but it’s the law of nature.”
“What do you know? You don’t have a woman nor a child.”
“But I have a mother. And trust me, sometimes that’s the only person who can bring peace.”
Leonard nodded. “They’ll induce in six weeks.” He reached into his pocket.
“Here, chew on this.” Jaden handed him a stick of gum. “Sometimes I envy you.”
“I’ll tell Susan you said that, so she can kick your butt.”
They laughed.
“Do you think these guys know what they’re doing?” Leonard nudged his head toward the landscapers. “Why are they digging up that side of the yard?”
Jaden turned to see what he referred to. “No!” He didn’t bother to run down the steps that led to the yard. Instead he hopped over the rail and raced to the men destroying the yard. Behind him, he heard the faint sound of Leonard’s laugh.
“Whoo-hoo, one more day of work left.” Asia raised her glass in the air, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.
“You all are a bunch of lushes,” Denise accused, raising her glass. “I’m drinking a cola, in case any of you try to insult me.”
“What’s come over you?” Asia prodded. “We haven’t heard from you. You missed last month’s chapter meeting. You know we have the highway cleanup next Saturday.”
“All you do is nag. I took a little break. Didn’t know that I had to ask for permission.”
“Has anyone heard from Sara or Naomi?” Athena rejoined them after flirting with a man at the bar. She shared very few physical attributes with her twin. Her healthy proportions drew too much male attention, a source of contention between them.
“Naomi is on the road. Sara should be here.” Denise looked at her watch. She looked at her sorority sisters and opted to keep her latest preoccupation to herself. Asia, on the other hand, might spill the news.
“What do you have planned for the weekend?” Asia asked. “I want to go to a club. Care to join me?”
“I’m tired of the club scene.” Denise had slowed down on their group treks to the popular nightclub scenes. The girls out and about seemed younger and wore less clothing. So the guys expected all women to act like freaks because of the overly aggressive sexpots who descended on the night scene. They could all have it. Now a good evening was going to a movie, having dinner or a surprise picnic.
They had made pacts to stay together and be a force to be reckoned with after college. But their tastes were developing, along with other interests that didn’t include each other. While this reality seemed inevitable, the thought of it scared Denise.
Athena threw her arm around her shoulders. “Sweetie, why the long face? You are dragging us all down. I for one have a lot to celebrate.”
“What’s up?” her twin asked.
“I’ve decided to go on a sabbatical. I want to discover and live in other regions of the world.”
“You’re supposed to be a responsible adult. You can’t go backpacking across the U.S.” Denise had to set down her glass for this conversation. At no time did she recall Athena entertaining the idea of traveling the world.
“I’m not talking about the U.S.” Athena glared at her. “I haven’t decided on the place. I haven’t decided the date, either. But the timing seems right.”
“What about your job?”
“I’m middle management, Asia. I work in corporate banking and there’s nowhere for me to go until someone leaves. I’m at the level that gets laid off when times are rough.”
“Exactly! That’s why you need to hold on to that job for as long as possible.” Denise wished that Sara and Naomi were there to help talk some sense into Athena’s head. Her sorority sister was always the bohemian of the group. She should have been born a couple of decades earlier and lived her life as a hippie.
“Look, why are you all sweating me? I didn’t ask for your guidance. I was simply stating a fact.” Athena leaned her head back, ending further discussion.
The conversation meandered through the next hour on lighter topics. The waitress brought refills but they stayed untouched. Again, Denise felt the group disintegrating. She hated the spiraling out-of-control feeling.
“Why don’t you come to my parents’ fund-raiser tomorrow?” Denise invited. “Come on, ladies. Let’s try to be there. We’ll have fun all night long.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’ll work on getting Sara there. Now that Jackson has finally moved in the area on a hunt for their house, we may never see her again. Naomi might be a no-show, too.” Asia, her concern still quite visible, looked at her sister.
“Don’t think that you’ll gang up on me on Friday.” Athena crossed her arms. “I know how you women operate. I was the ringleader in many of our plans. I’m wasting my talents in this dead-end job. I want to do this. Some country needs what I can offer.”
“And what is that?” Denise didn’t mean to sound incredulous.
“I can teach English. Dance.”
Denise nodded, but she didn’t want to listen. Athena’s plan was logical, but roughing it in the United States and roughing it in a poor country were vastly different. This conversation would go nowhere. Athena had that stubborn mask. Denise grabbed her pocketbook. “I have to get a good night’s sleep.”
“Did you suddenly turn into an old woman?” Asia complained. “Since when have you been the first person to leave? I’m feeling insulted.”
“Don’t take it personallly.” Denise kissed her lightly on the cheek. “I’ve had a crazy week and it’s catching up to me. If I’m going to be up to it tomorrow, I’d better get a good night’s sleep.”
“Well, this was a sorry happy hour.” Asia drained her glass before getting her pocketbook.
“Just because she leaves doesn’t mean that you have to leave, too,” Athena pleaded.
“Okay, I’ll stick around,” her sister replied.
Denise slid out of the booth. She did need to head for bed. Slowly she made her way through the growing throng of young professionals that made their daily pilgrimage to the bar. A few men tried to make conversation, but she had no desire to play along.
On the way home, she stopped for a pint of ice cream. Nothing like adding on a few pounds before bedtime. Maybe she’d feel inspired to box up the last of her personal items. The movers were scheduled to arrive early on Saturday to move her into her new house. Thinking about the house reminded her that she hadn’t called her father, a daily ritual that she did when she got to work.
“Hello?” She expected to hear her father’s voice. Instead, her mother had answered. “Where’s Dad?”
“He’s away on business. Anything wrong?”
“No.” Denise’s finger hovered over the off button. “I’ll call him on his cell phone.”
“Wait, Denise. I haven’t heard from you recently. Is everything fine?”
“Yes.”
“You’re all set for tomorrow? You should show up an hour or so early to run through your lines.”
“I told your people not to have me read a dissertation.” Denise admired her parents’ vision to have a foundation but, with everything else, the responsibilities were sometimes too much. Her sister, Thea, made the foundation her life. However, Denise needed her day job as a reprieve to have her own life.
“They’ve listened. I got to see the script. It’s fantastic.”
Denise bit her lip, trying to remain civil to her mother. The more her mother spoke, the less she felt inclined to cooperate. “Mom, I’ve got to run.”
“Good to hear from you. Looking forward to hanging out with you tomorrow.”
“Dad isn’t coming tomorrow?”
“No, honey. He’s in London on business. He�
�s gone for two weeks.”
Denise hated not being able to talk to her father. “Could you let him know that I called?”
“Sure. By the way, have you gone to the house recently?”
“Yes.” Denise turned into her apartment parking lot. She adjusted her earpiece and grabbed her laptop.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes, Mom. I’ve told you that I like it.”
“Okay, dear. I wish you would come over for dinner one of these days. It’s a bit lonely without you.”
Her mother’s not-so-subtle pressure was duly noted but didn’t sway her. She had no desire to visit. Her father would have to be in attendance to be a buffer. Sometimes he tried to defuse their mini-explosions as mediator. But how could he mediate a situation that he didn’t understand?
“I love you, sweetie.”
“Me, too. Got to go.” She clicked off the phone, not wanting to drag the conversation until there was no longer any life in it.
She entered her apartment and dropped her briefcase near the door. Her clothes outlined a path as she stripped. The day had been interminable with more drama than she could handle. She hopped into the shower and let the hot water do its work.
By the time for the mayor’s reception had arrived, Denise wished that she could go home, or anywhere else for that matter. A day filled with meetings, visiting job sites and hearing the news about a mishap in her new backyard hadn’t put her in the right frame of mind.
The biggest reason for her foul temper had to do with a sexy man who was missing in action. Jaden hadn’t called. He hadn’t promised to do so but she still expected that he would call. That’s what couples did in that first blissful stage.
But she wasn’t sure what stage they were in. And by the time he returned, she might not care.
Denise completed dressing in her office. After she’d finished the higher priority items on her desk, she only had forty minutes to get the reception. Once again she earned the honor of being the last person to head out of the office. She greeted the office cleaning crew, as she was already on a first name basis with a few of them.
While she was driving to the mayor’s event, her cell phone rang. She eagerly reached for it in her pocketbook. “Hello?”
“Wanted to let you know that we’ll be late to the charity event,” Asia said.
“Whenever you can make it is fine.” Denise ended the call.
She pulled up in front of the hotel and handed the keys to the valet. Other business colleagues had arrived and she hurried to catch up with them.
“Denise, you’re looking quite the supermodel tonight.”
“Don’t even start, Chuck. I have another function to attend after this reception.”
“You know, maybe I should be hanging out with you.”
Denise offered a watered-down smile. Chuck had made the rounds through many of the women. Thank goodness she’d never gotten to that desperate point. Mutual attraction never occurred between them. If Chuck were honest, and that would be a stretch, he’d have to admit that he wasn’t attracted to her. Denise suspected that it was her family’s wealth that drew him to her.
As soon as they had checked in at the registration table and received their name tags, Denise excused herself and entered the crowd.
She opted for water as her beverage of choice, considering her role as hostess. Besides, committing social gaffes in this predatory environment could ruin her career faster than she could blink.
Councilman Higgins approached. His sharp eyes bored into her. “How’s that big project in front of the hospital?”
“We’ve brought in a brand-new contractor. His specialty is relining the pipes and he can stay within our budgeted framework.”
“Good to hear. I’ll want a full report at the next council meeting.”
Denise nodded, although the councilman had already turned his back. Now that the project had been forced into the forefront of her thoughts, she decided to text a message to the supervisor assigned to the case.
“You look like an addict.”
“Hey, girl, Higgins was just on the trail.” Denise barely glanced up at Patricia, her coworker buddy.
“Been there with him and that’s why I decided I’d go into the private sector.”
“I know he must miss you. You kept him on the ball. His new chief of staff isn’t the sharpest tool.” Denise shared a disgusted look with Patricia. She really did miss having her around for the occasional rants.
“He wanted to act like I was an indentured servant or something. Now I’m happy, get paid well and I don’t have to beg for time off.” Patricia held out her left hand and cleared her throat.
Denise looked down at her manicured hand. Her gaze went from the bracelet that looked like tiny ice chips glittering under the lights to the pebble-size diamond on her finger. “Get out of here. You’re engaged?”
“Yes!” Patricia threw her arms around her.
Denise hugged Patricia, stepped back to take in her giddy excitement, before hugging her again. When Patricia had left the government to work in the private sector, she had just met a guy and fallen headlong into love.
Patricia’s delighted giggles drew attention. The other women who couldn’t resist the pull on their curiosity drifted over.
In short time, Patricia had a reception line as if she were visiting royalty. Denise stepped away, truly happy for her friend. Now she was the last one left in the single lane. Their quest to be career-minded women heading to the top of the ladder had been diluted with romance.
Falling in love might be involuntary, but Denise didn’t believe that the emotional state was automatic. She liked to have her fun, like her impulses and sexual fantasies with Jaden. But to step into a commitment, opening herself to a risky outcome, had the power to make her shiver.
She looked at her phone to divert her attention from the minicelebration behind her. Maybe Jaden had called. Instead, the only unread message was from her supervisor, and there certainly were no calls that had come in. Disappointment crept in, much to her annoyance, setting her defenses on alert. So what if he didn’t call. Jaden Bond was a physical distraction, nothing more.
By the time the mayor began his speech, Denise had a steady e-mail stream about the project. The contractor had dug in the area and punctured a cable line. The hospital had lost some power but thankfully their generators had kicked in. Now the basement had a small leak as the pipe was backed up.
Denise felt the knot in her stomach get tighter. She tried to look among the crowd to see if Councilman Higgins was getting any advance news about the latest crisis. She finally spied him toward the front, where he stood enthralled with the mayor’s speech. Right now the mayor was paying him a compliment. Higgins chest puffed up from the public accolades for his involvement in the mayor’s pet project.
Perfect time to ease out of the crowd. She stood on the side of the room for a few more minutes, then slipped out a side door. She had to hurry.
Denise stepped through the doorway of the Grant-Hudson Ballroom, out of breath.
As she walked through the room, she barely touched cheeks with acquaintances and shook hands with those who wanted the opportunity to sell the finer qualities of their charity fund-raising projects. A glance around the room let her know that her sorors hadn’t shown up as yet.
“Denise, I’m glad you finally made it.” Her younger sister, Thea, approached, looking like a drill sergeant.
With her black, double-breasted pantsuit, gelled hair in an unforgiving ponytail and stylish black pumps, Denise thought Thea looked like a dominatrix. A term she’d called her sister many times over the years in order to start a fight.
“It would look that way.” Denise took a couple of steps back; Thea had a habit of standing toe to toe. Her sister took great pains to challenge Denise’s authority. Thea used her height, towering at least four inches above Denise, to make her point. At one time, hair tugging or arms moving like windmills to deliver slaps and punches were their after-
school activities. Their childhood physical spats had matured over the years into intellectual challenges, because Thea loved to debate. Denise would’ve rather just kicked her butt.
“Do you have the script?”
“Yes,” Denise answered with confidence, but still patted her pockets for security.
“Well, there is a major change. The president of the abuse center is here and we want him to be recognized.”
Denise pulled out her index cards.
“What the heck are those?” Thea snatched the cards from her. “These are handwritten.”
“I know. I rewrote them so I can read them in a certain way.”
“This isn’t a comedy routine.” Thea read the card out loud. “I know this wasn’t written in this slang. What are you thinking? Look at the people around you. These are not people from the ’hood.”
“What the heck would you know about the ’hood? And exactly what is ’hood language? You’ve grown up with more than a silver spoon.”
“Keep it down, both of you.” Their mother stepped between them. She pushed Thea back and then turned her angry attention to Denise. “You need to be in position. We’ll begin in five minutes.” She kissed her cheek. “Good to see you.” Perfectly accessorized and fashionably dressed, her mother epitomized perfection.
Thea, a visual copy of their mother, merely huffed and walked away.
“What’s her problem?” Denise was quite ready to drop the issue. Her sister’s snobbery irritated her. The seven-year gap in their ages felt as wide as the Grand Canyon. They’d grown up in different times. She had experienced life before the family had prospered, when her parents were married. Meanwhile, since her mother remarried to their father, Thea and her brother had always enjoyed an upper-crust lifestyle. But Denise had no hang-ups over her stepfather. When her own father had disappeared from her life, her stepdad remained constant. His love extended to her with no reservations. Her mother warned him of spoiling all the kids, especially her, but he never listened.
“Your sister is very serious about all of this.”
“Oh, I get it. Because I have a job with the great unwashed, I’m not dedicated. I’m not a true empty-headed socialite.”
Gamble on Love Page 7