by Diane Blake
The compassionate tone remained in his voice. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I just want to understand what got you so upset like that, thinking I wanted to harm you. Which is quite ironic since the reason I went to all that trouble to track you down was because I was worried about you."
"You were?" she asked with an unattractive sniffle which caused her to cringe internally when she realized it.
"Yes. I know we only had the one date-"
"And a well-timed rescue," Jasinda echoed Trudy's earlier point.
Craig nodded. "Yes, that too. Still, I didn't want to come off as being some possessive jerk because you have every right to get back to me when you're ready."
Jasinda wiped the last tear from her cheek. "I didn't know guys thought about stuff like that too," she admitted.
Craig whispered, "Shh! Don't tell anyone I told you that or I might have my insensitive male membership card revoked."
Jasinda laughed.
Craig held up her chin. "That's better. Your smile is so pretty. That's my girl. I mean, that's a girl. A lady. A woman. I think I better stop now..."
Jasinda laughed again. The thought of this hypermasculine football player tongue tied on her behalf caused her to smile.
Craig continued his original thought. "So anyway, after the robbery at the mall the other night, I was just really concerned when I didn't hear back from you. That's why I went overboard having my brother track your cell phone."
"Thank you, Craig. That was so thoughtful. Above and beyond the call of first date duty." She decided to seize on the same reasoning for her behavior as Craig had given for his. It was the quickest way to explain her outburst and suspicion of him – even if it was only the partial truth. "The robbery. That's what got me so freaked out too. I think it affected me more than I realized. When you said you tracked me down, I know it sounds silly, but my mind just went back to that moment when the thief pulled the gun out. I panicked and couldn't think straight."
"I'm so sorry I scared you. It's all my fault. I'm an impatient dope," Craig said. "Forgive me?" He reached out for her hand.
I could forgive you and those puppy dog eyes just about anything, Jasinda thought to herself, but wisely decided not to say aloud. Instead, she went with the much less revealing, "Uh-huh."
"Now that we've got all that out of the way, even before you found out I tracked you down, you seemed pretty upset when I got here. If you don't think I'm being too nosy, were you and Trudy having an argument?"
In all the excitement, Jasinda had temporarily forgotten why Craig had angered her in the first place. Kandi Chambers!
In her mind, she'd just decided she could forgive Craig Wilder practically anything. However, that didn't include using her to two-time a girlfriend. Jasinda did her best to keep her voice neutral, but she knew as the syllables came out that she wasn't entirely successful. "Kandi Chambers."
The name elicited no discernible reaction in the football player. "What about her?"
Jasinda folded her arms. She remembered her fourth grade teacher doing that whenever the woman wanted a no nonsense answer from one of the students. It seemed like a good time to emulate that behavior. So, with folded arms, Jasinda said, "You tell me."
"Um, I don't know. She's one of the Tigers cheerleaders." Craig appeared genuinely perplexed as to the point of the conversation.
Jasinda played it cool. "Do you know her?"
"Of course I know her. I know all the cheerleaders."
Jasinda's left eyebrow arched.
"I mean like co-workers. We all work together to entertain the fans, you know."
"Mmm-hmm."
"OK, Jasinda, where is this going? I feel like I'm missing the real point here."
"Fine, you're right. We've had an exhausting night. I'm just going to come out with it. I met the lovely and talented Kandi Chambers twice today. And by talented, I mean..." Jasinda jiggled her breast.
This time it was Craig's turn to arch an eyebrow. "Could you do that again?" he teased.
Jasinda narrowed her eyes which caused Craig to mumble, "Sorry. Go on."
"So both times I talked to Kandi today, she told me in no uncertain terms-" Jasinda paused dramatically waiting for her words to stir a look of recognition, fear, amusement, or some reaction which would cause her to yell, "Busted! Gotcha!"
No such reaction was forthcoming so Jasinda continued her explanation. "Kandi told me that she's your girlfriend."
Craig's eyes popped open. "What? I've never even been on a date with her."
"Oh, so it's more of a hook up thing when you're all worked up after a game?" Jasinda asked casually.
"I guess I can't win with you, can I?" Craig asked.
"I don't want to be anybody's second choice. Not that I could compete with someone who looks like Kandi anyway."
Craig slapped his knee in frustration. "I assume you're aware there was a game tonight. I've spent all my time since it ended getting all worked up over you. Kandi is nowhere in sight. Unless she's hiding in your kitchen." Craig called across the living room, "OK, Kandi, you can come out now. Jasinda knows about us."
Jasinda remembered and shared something else her fourth grade teacher used to say. "Sarcasm can be unbecoming."
"So can jealousy," Craig shot back as he stood up. "You know what, we're done here. I was worried about you and you're obviously OK. That's what matters. Good night, Jasinda."
"You're just walking away because you got caught. Typical man who can't be trusted."
"I don't mind working for a hard goal - I managed to become a pro football player for God's sake. What I won't do is waste my time working for an impossible one. Apparently, convincing you that I didn't do something – even when I actually didn't do it – is one of those things."
Craig walked out the door.
Jasinda stared at the empty space his body had previously occupied. She kept expecting him to walk back in, to try again. Still, he didn't reappear. Had she already pushed him over the edge and out of her life?
From the way she had been acting, it seemed like that's what she wanted to happen. In a way, that was her plan. She had to keep pushing him and pushing him – like a test. Every time he made the effort, it reassured her that he was interested in her. That should have been enough.
Each time, it was enough, but only for a little while. Then the nagging doubts would creep into her thoughts again. She'd test him again and the cycle would continue.
It irked her to think their budding relationship would end like this. She thought: Why should he get to be the one to walk out on me like that? With that righteous indignation? I want to make him admit to me what he did!
She had to get to the truth about the Kandi situation. Jasinda charged out the door.
Chapter 18
Jasinda barely got five feet into the hallway when she smacked into Craig coming around the corner.
"I thought you left," she said with a haughty tone.
"I did, but I turned around. I got downstairs and decided if you want to be mad at me for something I did, that's one thing. But damn it, I'm not going to walk away over something I didn't do."
Jasinda sighed. They were right back in the same conversation spot as when he'd left. "It would be one thing if I just made up some paranoid situation in my mind, but it's quite another when someone marches up to you and says and I quote, 'Craig Wilder - is my boyfriend!'"
They returned inside Jasinda's apartment where she then related every detail of both of her conversations with cheerleader Kandi Chambers.
Craig listened carefully. His assessment at the end: "Kandi's gone off the deep end. None of that is even remotely true."
"You can see why I'm confused and questioning what to think, right?"
Craig didn't like it, but he had to concede he would be suspicious and investigating if someone showed up claiming to be Jasinda's boyfriend at that point in their nascent relationship. "There's only one way to get to the bottom of this. Let's call her right now and get her ove
r here. The three of us will sit down face to face and get to the truth."
"At this time?"
"Yep." Craig whipped out his phone and pressed a contact.
Jasinda reacted. "You have Kandi's number in your phone?"
"Nope. I'm calling the 24 hour player hotline. They'll give it to me."
"What's that?"
Craig held up his index finger to ask for a second. He put the phone on speaker. A woman with the breathy voice of a phone sex operator answered. "Hello, Mr. Wilder. This is Sienna. What can I do for you?"
Craig obtained the number he needed and thanked the woman who concluded, "Of course, Mr Wilder. If you need anything else, you know we're always here for you."
Craig disconnected the call.
"Sienna. Wow," Jasinda commented. "It wasn't what she said, but how she said it..."
Craig laughed uncomfortably. "There are certain perks associated with men in my position."
"Position. Interesting choice of words. I bet Sienna knows lots of positions."
Craig looked at Jasinda very seriously. "Look, because of who I am and what I do for a living, there will always be women throwing themselves at me. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I haven't enjoyed that and indulged myself from time to time."
"That's surprisingly honest," Jasinda admitted.
"Even if you believe only half of what you can read about me online, you know I'm not a saint. All I can tell you to focus on is thinking not about who's looking at me, but who I'm looking at. Right now, I'm sitting on your couch. Looking directly at you. If that's not enough and you can't do that, I understand, but you should tell me now. It's not fair to you or me if every 'Sienna' who crosses my path upsets you."
Craig picked up her hand in his. Jasinda looked down and felt the warmth of his touch. She had always hated her hands. She thought they were just too big. Yet, in Craig's masculine grasp that gripped those big footballs, her hands appeared normal to her.
Craig looked into her eyes. "Are you ready to accept that I'm right where I want to be? With the woman I want to be with?"
Jasinda smiled. She shook her head yes.
"Good. Then we'll find out where this is going...together," he said. Craig picked up the phone again with his free hand. "The first step is to call and confront Kandi. I want to know why she lied to you like that." Craig made the call. It rang a couple times and went to voice mail. He left his number and a message telling Kandi to call him back immediately.
Jasinda left the room to get them some water. When she came back, she said, "While I was in the kitchen, I was thinking, since we've known each other, we've spent more time arguing than anything else."
Craig said, "Same as my parents."
"That must have been a short marriage."
"Still going strong thirty-three years later," Craig reported.
Chapter 19
The party at The End Zone came to a conclusion. Kandi had snuck away to a quiet area in the vestibule of a closed restaurant a few doors down the block. She looked around to make sure nobody could hear her.
Kandi plunged her hand into her pocketbook right past her regular cell phone. She pulled out the other one, a prepaid phone she'd never used. People on TV always called those phones "burners." That's the kind of phone designed for one-time use – the kind nobody can trace.
She followed the directions that the creepy man had given her. Kandi turned the phone on. She pressed and held one. The phone automatically dialed a number already programmed into it. Kandi noticed that the number didn't appear on the screen.
The phone rang a few times. The call connected. Nobody said anything on the other end.
Kandi detected quiet breathing. "Hello?" she queried.
"You were instructed not to use this phone unless it was an emergency," the voice told her in what she understood as an eerie combination of a robotic monotone and a sneer.
"It is," she replied in a flustered manner. She shuddered. She couldn't believe how disconcerting a disembodied voice could sound. Kandi quickly added, "At least based on what you told me would constitute an emergency."
After a period of silence, the voice commanded, "Go on."
"Jasinda showed up again. Questioning what I told her the first time." Kandi thought she detected a sigh, but maybe it was only her imagination wanting to get some kind of reaction. She'd prefer anything to the silence which she found on the verge of intolerable.
Finally, the man on the other end of the phone conversation said, "Another complication."
"What do you mean another one?"
"Never mind. How did you leave things with her?"
"I made sure she got the message," Kandi said.
"How did she take it?"
"Very upset."
"Good," he replied. Kandi would have sworn under oath that she could hear the evil smile in his voice.
"I'll send a car for you."
"Why? Are you going to pay me more money?" Kandi loved money as much as the next gal, but she'd rather not have any direct dealings with him again. In fact, she already regretted making the call to report her repeat interaction with Jasinda.
"If all it took to solve everything life lays at our feet was more money, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."
In no mood for a cryptic philosophy lesson, Kandi responded, "Look, forget it. I don't need anymore cash. You were more than generous the first time. Let's call it even and move on with our lives, OK?"
He ignored her suggestion. "Give me your exact location and then stay put until the car arrives. Don't talk to anyone else."
"I understand."
"Also, don't use your regular phone before the driver arrives. That includes not making outgoing calls or accepting any incoming calls. Don't even check your voice mail or texts."
"Whatever, but just tell him to hurry. It's been a long day and I have an early rehearsal tomorrow morning. I just want to meet the driver, get this over with and get home to a relaxing bath."
"Your current location..." he said in a tone that indicated he didn't like to have to ask for the same information more than once.
She provided the requested info and then asked, "How will I know which car to look for? Will it be the same as last time?"
"You'll know," he replied simply. "This concludes our business. Hold onto the phone until the car gets there and give it to the driver."
Kandi hated having to keep asking questions. "Will he give me another phone? How will I reach you again if there's another emergency?"
The silence on the other end of the phone went on too long. Kandi looked at the display screen and realized that the call had been disconnected.
Her regular phone rang in her pocketbook with the Tigers theme song ring tone. She fished the phone out and looked at the screen. She recognized the area code and first three digits on the caller ID as a match to those found on all the Tigers team-issued phones like her own.
Kandi almost answered out of habit. With her finger hovering over the screen, she remembered "the voice's" instructions. She didn't even press the reject button. She just let it ring through until the voice mail picked up.
In doing so, little did Kandi know that she had sealed her own fate.
Chapter 20
"OMG! You spent the night with Craig Wilder!" Trudy screamed across the diner where she met Jasinda for breakfast. Her arms banged the table causing the glass sugar dispenser to clang against the metal napkin holder.
"A little louder, Trudy. I don't think they quite heard you at the TV station downtown."
Trudy made no effort to modulate her voice. "Girl, I want to hear it all. Except for the gross parts. Well, maybe those too. Start talking!"
"There's nothing to tell," Jasinda responded.
"Nothing to tell! You slept with the man that made three different magazines' hottest guys on the planet list last year. And you've got nothing to tell?"
"Trudy, I think you misunderstood."
Trudy waved her hand dismissively
. "You look into each other's eyes. He removes your blouse. You take off his pants. He ravishes you with the passion of a sex-starved sailor coming off six months of submarine duty. What's to misunderstand?"
"If only you'd been there to choreograph things..." Jasinda laughed. "What I meant when I said we spent the night and slept together-"
Trudy leaned forward. "Yeah? Go on..."
"Was just that...we actually slept. On the couch. Fully clothed. In each other's arms."