Not that Lucinda would believe it if she’d seen it. She wouldn’t. She, and many other women in Apple Valley, always saw Kari as less than, as beneath them, as the woman always least likely to succeed because of her struggles, and lack of breeding, and because of the fact that her business involved maids.
“Let me just say,” Lucinda said to Alex, “that it is a great honor to meet a man like you. You’ve had the kind of career that I aspire to have, and you’re still blazing trails. That’s what I love about you. You don’t just sit on your money; you put your money to work. And I want you to know that I intend to vote yes on that referendum, not just as a favor to you, although that is a major part of my decision. But also, because I believe in what you’re doing. And I also plan to tell all of my friends and associates to vote yes as well.”
“I appreciate that,” Alex said. “Thank you.”
But then he returned his attention to Kari. “What’s the name of your service, Kari?” he asked her.
Faye secretly elbowed Benny when Alex all but dismissed Lucinda and asked Kari that question, but Benny had already saw the attraction. He’d already seen Drakos’s eyes constantly on Kari, even when Lucinda and Faye were in their little tit-for-tat over names. And even when Alex asked Kari about her business, Benny saw his eyes float down, toward Kari’s breasts, which bothered Benny. He always thought of Kari as his kid sister. She was way out of Drakos’s league in every way, and he knew it. He was going to warn her off of that hit-and-run player first chance he got.
But Kari didn’t need any warnings. She already knew what time it was. A man that good looking, with the kind of coins he commanded, wasn’t about to be the good ol’ settling down type. Not that she was looking to settle down, either. She tried that shit with Vito, and it blew up in her face. But if she ever tried to go down that road to matrimony again, it would not be with a man like Alex.
“It’s called Maid for Mom Premium Cleaning Service,” Kari said in answer to Alex’s question.
“It’s a play on words,” Lucinda felt a need to point out. “You know, as in this broom was made for mom? Only she substituted M-A-D-E for M-A-I-D.”
“I got it, yes,” Alex said.
“Maid for Mom,” Lucinda said, shaking her head. “That’s what she calls it. But I say this: what about dad?” Lucinda said this and laughed. Faye laughed too. When they weren’t fighting over foolishness, which was often, they were two peas in a pod.
Alex looked at Kari. Was she the sensitive type? Would she be offended by Lucinda’s comment, or view it for what it was: a silly joke? It would say a lot about her, and not in a good way, he thought, if she was offended.
But Kari wasn’t offended at all. Because she smiled too. And he really was digging her smile. It reminded him of another woman he once had the hots for, a woman by the name of Katrina Gabrini. She was the wife of casino mogul Reno Gabrini, a man he planned to seek advice from should his foray into the casino business take off. But before he and Reno had any type of relationship, he was attracted to Trina’s smile, too. It was the kind of smile that could charm birds. But Kari’s warm, arresting, and inviting smile, he believed, topped that.
“Have you been in the cleaning business long?” Alex asked.
“Not long, no,” Kari said.
“She got fired from a consulting firm,” Faye said, “and decided to go into business for herself.”
“I wasn’t fired,” Kari corrected Faye. Why she always felt a need to speak up for herself was probably because nobody else ever had. “I quit,” she continued. “I wasn’t fired. Big difference.”
“And I stand corrected,” Faye said. “But what did I tell you at the time? I told her,” Faye said to Alex, “that it was the smartest move she could have ever made. Going in business for herself was the way to go. Wouldn’t you agree, Alex?”
“It depends,” Alex responded. “If the business if flourishing, then yes, it was a smart move. If it’s not, then no. It wasn’t smart.”
Lucinda smiled. “Well then, I hate to tell you, little girl,” she said to Kari, “but the big man here just put you in your place.”
“Oh, Lou,” Faye said, “what a stupid thing to say!”
“Stupid? What’s stupid about it?”
And off they went. But Alex detected a sign of trouble in Kari’s eyes when he made his statement. Her business was not doing well, and it appeared to be a critical situation. He became even more convinced when she decided to separate herself from the group.
“Listen, I’m going to say goodbye to a few people,” she said, “and then I’m heading home.”
“Oh, Kari, it’s early!” Benny said. They were all used to Kari’s early nights.
“Yeah, it is,” Kari agreed, “but I need to get home to Jordan.”
“That boy is fine,” Faye said.
“I’ll see you guys later.” She looked at Alex. “Nice meeting you, Mr. Drakos.” And then she was off again.
“Don’t mind her rudeness,” Lucinda said. “She’s that way with everybody.”
“She wasn’t rude,” Faye said, “and she’s not that way with anybody. Unlike Lucinda and myself and Benny, she has a child to get home to. We don’t have that. We don’t understand what it’s like to be a single parent. Or parents at all,” she added, and Alex detected sadness there, too.
“I’d better keep it moving myself,” he said, and headed for another group.
“See what Crazy Kari just did,” Lucinda said. “She ran him off!”
“How did she run him off, Lou?” Faye wanted to know.
“She always does. Just when he and I were making a connection. We could have made beautiful music together, if I had half a chance.”
“Save it, Lou,” Benny said. “The only female in this room that man wants to make beautiful music with is Kari. And she’s not having it.”
Lucinda was floored. “Kari? You can’t be serious! Faye and I yes, surely he’d be interested in women who look like us. We’re on the gorgeous scale. But Kari Grant? Kari’s not even on the beautiful scale! Why, she’s on no scale at all!”
“I know what I saw tonight,” Benny said despite Lucinda’s protestations, “and I saw a man infatuated with a woman. I’m telling you what I saw.”
“Well I didn’t see any such thing,” Lucinda said. “You need glasses anyway, Benny.”
Faye laughed.
What Lucinda and Faye didn’t understand, Benny thought, was that men were attracted to Kari for more than just beauty reasons. No, she wasn’t as glamourous as Faye and Lucinda, but she had that specialness, that authentic uniqueness, that made her far more attractive in the eyes of men than either one of them, especially those men who could see beyond the superficial. Benny loved his wife, but had Kari been on the scene when he first met Faye, he would have wanted Kari as badly then as Alex seemed to want her now.
And although Faye laughed at Lucinda’s little joke, and would never admit it to Lucinda, she saw what Benny saw too.
What she didn’t see, however, was when Alex walked over to one of his numerous bodyguards in the room, and leaned toward his ear.
“Yes, sir?” the guard asked.
“You see that young lady over there? The one in the jeans?”
It took the guard a moment, but he saw Kari. “Yes, sir.”
“Follow her when she leaves this building. Stay out of her line of vision, but see that she makes it safely home.”
“Yes, sir,” the bodyguard said. “Will do, sir.”
And then Alex moved it right along, and continued to hobnob for votes.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Her car wouldn’t start. That wasn’t unusual for Kari. Her Tercel was old and it had issues, and the accident didn’t help. But usually when she waited and tried to crank it again, it would crank right up.
Not this time.
She popped the hood and got out of her car. She wasn’t exactly mechanically inclined, but she knew how to make sure her battery cables were tight and that ther
e were no hoses leaking. But what she didn’t know was that two of Alex’s bodyguards were sitting in their car, in the same parking lot, ready to follow her. But then she got out and popped her hood.
But after nearly fifteen minutes of Kari working on her car, and getting nowhere, and then finally making a phone call, the bodyguard whose ear Alex had whispered in, figured he needed to do something too. He couldn’t blow his cover by going over and offering to assist her, especially since her car was damn-near ancient compared to the brand-new cars he was accustomed to. He wouldn’t know where to begin with a car that old. But also, because he wasn’t ordered to repair her ride. He was ordered to stay in the shadows and follow her. Alex Drakos expected his men to follow his orders to the letter.
“What should we do?” the bodyguard asked the colleague who sat on his passenger seat. Alex always made them travel in pairs. Never alone. And even in little Apple Valley they obeyed that rule.
“What do you mean what should we do?” the second bodyguard asked. “Call him.”
“Call him and tell him what?”
“Tell him her car broke down. How should I know?”
“I don’t know if it’s important enough.”
“Think about it, man. When was the last time Boss told you to make sure some female made it home safely?”
The driver had to think about it. “Never,” he admitted.
“That’s what I’m saying. Never! But yet he gets in this town to nowhere and suddenly he wants us to make sure this black chick gets home safely? Come on now. This ain’t no frivolous shit. She must mean something to him if he’s asking us to see her home. All those women who left his side before and he never gave a damn if they made it home or not. But her? You’d better call him.”
The driver was reluctant, but he knew he had to do it. He called Alex. It took him more than a few seconds to answer, but Alex answered.
“Yes?”
“Sorry to call you like this, sir, but her car broke down.”
Both bodyguards expected him to ask whose car broke down but, to their surprise, he didn’t.
“I’m coming out,” he said, and ended the call.
The driver, shocked, looked at his partner.
“He’s coming out?” his partner asked.
“That’s what the man said.”
“Damn,” the other bodyguard said. “That’s some deep shit.”
And sure enough, as they sat in their car to remain undetected by Kari, their boss came out of the hosting room, out of city hall, and made his way to the parking lot. Kari had gotten a rag from her trunk and was wiping off her battery cables, because she did see a little corrosion, when he walked up. She had already called the tow truck.
She, like his men, were surprised to see him, too. Kari was pleasantly surprised. “Oh. Hey,” she said.
“Car trouble?” he asked as he approached.
“A little,” she said as she went back into her car, left the door open, and tried to crank it again. Still nothing. And then again. And then again.
“Stop or you’ll flood the engine,” Alex said.
Kari stopped, and got back out of the car. But this time she came with a wrench in her hand. She was about to hit it against the battery post, but Alex grabbed her hand and stopped her. “What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I was going to give it a spark.”
“More likely it was going to give you one,” he said, and took the wrench from her.
Kari was no longer accustomed to a man taking charge of any aspect of her life, and she found it odd now. But she knew how to extricate herself if need be.
“I’ll call a service,” Alex said.
“No need,” said Kari. “I already called the tow yard. They’re on their way. I was just hoping I could figure something out and cancel the call.”
Alex looked at Kari. “I’ll take you home then.”
It sounded great to Kari. Let Alex take her home. Let her invite him in. Let one thing lead to another thing. Let him, the billionaire with more women than he could probably count, ignore her the next day.
“No, I’m good,” she said. Better to keep it on the friendship tip. “I’ll ride in the tow truck.”
Alex hated the idea of her riding in any musky tow truck, but he didn’t argue with her. “Suit yourself,” he said, handing her back her wrench, “but keep your hands from beneath that hood.”
Kari smiled. “I will,” she said.
He glanced down the length of her again, seemingly regretting that he would not be rolling in the hay with her tonight. At least that was Kari’s interpretation of his assessing look. Then he said goodnight to her, and headed back toward the entrance. But not before he glanced over, to make sure his bodyguards were still on the job.
Alex’s assistant Priska was also outside, unbeknownst to Kari. She was perched on the side of the building smoking her beloved cigarettes with a gaggle of other smokers. She had been watching the entire exchange between Alex and Kari, and when her boss made his way back into the building, she didn’t hesitate. She dropped her cigarette, smashed it underfoot, and then made her way over to Kari. Kari was putting down the hood of her car when Priska walked over.
“Hi,” she said with a smile.
Kari looked at her. She remembered her from the house. “Hey.”
Priska extended her hand. “I’m Priska Rahm. Alex’s assistant.”
Kari was about to shake her hand, but then realized her own hand was dirty, and pulled it back. “Nice to meet you. I’m Kari Grant.”
“Just one word, Miss Grant, and I’ll leave you alone.” Priska moved closer. She was an aging white woman, but her beauty was still there.
“Yes?” Kari asked, dying to know what that word might be.
“Be careful,” Priska said.
Kari didn’t understand. “Excuse me?”
“If he likes you, he’s going to ask you to spend some time with him again. And we both know what time he means.”
Kari knew. Sexual time. But what was that this woman’s business?
“You’re fortunate,” Priska went on. “I saw the way he looked at you tonight. He seems to prefer you over anybody else that was in that room. But please understand, if you turn him down the next time he asks, he will never ask you ever again. I know, from experience, precisely what I am talking about. Think very hard before you turn him down the next time. There won’t be a third time.”
Priska and Kari made eye contact, and then Priska said good evening, and headed back into the building.
Kari was floored. She didn’t know how to take any of that. She did like Alex. She thought he was a nice man, and certainly a nice-looking man. But it wasn’t as if she thought there could ever be anything between them. Unless only sex was considered a thing. Priska was talking as if sex was all it was ever going to be with him.
And what did she mean about how she knew, from experience, what she was talking about? Did she mean experience based on other women and Alex, or based on herself and Alex?
It was all too sordid for Kari. She didn’t need that kind of drama in her life, not with Vito, Mister Drama himself, getting out next week. She sat inside of her car, and waited for the tow truck.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“Are we going out of business?”
Kari stopped putting cleaning supplies in the basket and looked at Nancy Cooper, one of her best maids. They were in the back room of Kari’s storefront office, and it wasn’t even noontime yet. But the rumor mill was already in full churn. “Who told you something like that?” Kari asked her.
“It’s just talk. People are talking. They said we lost Malvington, so that got them going big time. You know how people are around here.”
Kari knew very well. She continued to fill Nancy’s basket so that Nancy could get the supplies to the crew in the field. But she didn’t answer the question.
“I really need this job,” Nancy said. “I�
��ll lose my house if I lose this job.”
Kari nodded. “I know, Nan. This economy is whipping all our behinds.”
“So, it’s true? You’re going to close down?”
“No,” Kari said. “I hope and pray I don’t have to close down. But some changes are going to have to be made, yes, they are.”
“Changes like what?”
Kari placed the last of the cleaning solution in the basket and looked at Nancy. “I’ll let you know when I’ve made a decision.”
“Is my job safe? That’s what I need to know.”
Nancy was Kari’s best cleaner, hands down, although last night she dropped the ball. “Just get to work, Nan, and let me worry about this end.”
“But is my job safe, Kari?”
Kari snapped. “Not if you pull that shit y’all pulled last night, it’s not.” Then Kari settled back down. “Get back over to Whimble. Get that job completed. And then you and your crew head over to Underwood’s. As of right now, yes, your job is safe. You’re my best cleaner, and you know it. But no short cuts.”
Nancy smiled. She knew Kari would never lie to her. In Apple Valley, Kari Grant’s word was good as gold. “Thanks, Kare,” she said happily, grabbed the basket of supplies, and headed out of the back-storage room.
Kari put her Tracy Chapman CD in the boombox they kept in the storage room, grabbed the clipboard off of the wall to log in what supplies were given and who they were given to. She wore her Dean-style reading glasses, had her ponytail in disarray, and wore a pair of jeans and a white blazer. It was her typical busy morning.
She was glad she was able to make somebody smile, already, but she also knew keeping that promise was going to be a herculean task. Already today they’d lost two more contracts, with a third putting her on alert that they, too, might have to terminate early. Early termination was generally a breach of contract, but there was that clause the city council forced every business in town to add last year: except where economic hardship prevented execution. Those simple words were turning Kari’s world upside down.
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