“You promise?” He practically sounded like a child.
“Yes, I promise.”
“I’m gonna prove to you we need to be together, Alicia,” he said as the door shut behind her.
Alicia held Michael’s hand tightly as they walked down the hall to their apartment. She felt an incredible sense of relief as she reached her door and realized they were both safe. What she thought was going to end up as a physical confrontation turned out to be a sincere offer of reconciliation from Trevor. It was one that she probably would never accept, but it made her feel that she and Trevor might possibly be friends one day. That would be the best thing for their son.
“Alicia,” she heard her next-door neighbor call.
“What’s up, Cathy?” Alicia turned toward her neighbor’s door. Cathy, a woman in her early thirties, strolled out of her apartment wearing a housecoat and slippers. Her hair was wrapped up in a scarf, and Alicia knew it hadn’t been done in days.
“The florist delivered something for you again today.” She walked back in her apartment and returned with a vase filled with two dozen roses. “Damn, girl, this is the third time he sent you flowers this week.”
“I know,” Alicia said without emotion. “He was just outside with more flowers a minute ago, but they didn’t look anything like these.” Alicia touched one of the flowers and then opened her door. Michael ran inside with his video game and disappeared behind his bedroom door.
“Girl, if you don’t want that man, let me have ’im. That nigga’s cute, and he got a nice car too.” Cathy’s tone was serious as she followed Alicia inside.
“Cathy, how many times I gotta tell you? Trevor is abusive.”
“If a man don’t smack you, he don’t love you. That’s what my mama use ta say.”
“Yeah, mine too,” Alicia said quietly. “But I’m not like my mom. I don’t like getting hit, and I swear, ain’t no man gonna hit me again.”
“Uh-huh, sure.” Cathy rolled her eyes. “You still sweating that fine-ass gym teacher, that’s your problem. But he ain’t perfect. Didn’t you say he had a girlfriend the whole time y‘all was goin’ together?”
“Yeah, that’s what she said, but I’m not sure I believe Kevin would do that.”
“Why not, he’s a man, ain’t he?” Cathy sucked her teeth.
“You don’t know him, Cathy, so please don’t talk about him.” Alicia handed the flowers to Cathy. “Here, you can have these. I don’t want any more flowers,.”
“Look, don’t no woman answer no man’s phone unless she with that man. Now, you better stop worryin’ about somebody else’s man and love the one you with.” Cathy pulled the card from the flowers and handed it to Alicia.
Alicia read the inscription on the card.
Dear Alicia,
I can’t explain how much I miss and need you. Please give our love another chance.
I love you,
Trevor
She dropped the card on the coffee table, where it landed next to a vase of lilies that had been delivered the day before. Trevor had delivered his message loud and clear; now only time would tell if he really meant it.
28
DENISE, KEVIN, AND ALICIA
Denise sat in her Park Avenue office, entrenched in a pile of law books. She had been working eighteen-hour days on her present case. In that time she had seen Kevin only once, and that was for a quickie in her office at two in the morning. Setting the book facedown on her desk, she leaned back in her leather chair and closed her tired eyes. Things were going pretty well between her and Kevin, she thought, except for the occasional nasty comment or bold look a racist gave them. Both she and Kevin. were learning to expect comments from time to time from both blacks and whites and handled it by ignoring them. The only thing that worried her was Kevin’s habit of talking in his sleep. Often the things he said were about Alicia, and it made Denise nervous that this woman was still on his mind Lately she had become obsessed with doing everything in her power to make him forget about his ex.
Picking up the phone, she dialed his number.
“Hey, Chocolate Star, this is Snow White. I hope you haven’t forgotten about me. Listen, I really need to see you. I have this terrible itch that needs to be scratched, and you’re the only man for the job. So I’m coming over tonight and I’ll do some work while you watch the game. Try not to eat, because I’m going to stop by BBQ’s on the way over. See you about eight Love you.”
She hated answering machines. Picking up a pen, she scribbled
Buy Kevin a cellular phone
on her to-do list.
“Denise.” Her secretary’s voice startled her.
“Yes?”
“Mr. Nunn and Mrs. Jones are here to see you.”
“Good. Could you send them in, please, Ruth?”
Ruth left to direct the visitors to Denise’s office. Dominic Nunn was a tall, well-built Italian man, and his partner, Lisa Jones, was a tall, thin black woman who looked as if she could be Whitney Houston’s sister. Both ex-cops, they now worked as private detectives, usually for very wealthy clients. They were known for their discretion. Denise stood and smiled as the detectives entered her office.
“Well, how are my two favorite private detectives?”
“Good, Ms. Shwartz,” Dominic answered as he helped his pregnant partner sit down.
“How about you, Lisa? You’re not going to have that baby anytime soon, are you?”
“No, Ms. Shwartz, I’m only seven months, but I am going on maternity leave right after we get paid.” She patted her large stomach contentedly.
“Good for you.” Denise settled herself behind her desk. “So, what have you got for me?”
Lisa opened her bag and handed Denise a small file.
“Ms. Shwartz, it looks like your boyfriend is squeaky clean. In the last two weeks I’ve had four very beautiful African American women approach him. He was polite but nonresponsive to all of their advances.”
“Yeah, that’s him, polite. Where did they try to come on to him at?”
“Grocery store, subway, Benny’s Bar, and one of the girls even pretended to be a parent of a student. He just wasn’t interested.”
“Did he accept any of their phone numbers?”
“The only phone number he took was from the girl in the bar, but he handed it to his skinny friend when she left.”
“Okay, so what’s your professional opinion?”
“I suspect at this time the guy’s pretty happy with his life. As far as him cheating on you? I don’t think you have to worry about that right now.”
“Well, that’s good news, don’t you think?” Denise smiled, looking at the two of them. “What about you, Dominic, do you have any good news for me?”
“Actually, Ms. Shwartz, I do.” He reached into his briefcase and handed her a bill. “We sent Alicia Meyers over a thousand dollars worth of flowers, candy, and gifts in the last month under the name Trevor Hill. It was our hope that the gifts would help get the two of them back together.”
“Well, did it?” Denise asked as she perused the bill for all the gifts that had been sent to Alicia.
“At first I didn’t think it was going to work, because the guy showed up at her apartment only once and left pretty quickly. But lately things seem to be improving between them. He’s even spent the last few nights at her apartment.”
“That coincides with what I did,” Lisa added.
“What’s that?”
“Well, as per your instructions, Alicia received a visitor at her apartment. You said you wanted a black woman to approach Alicia, pretending to be you.”
“Yeah, so did you send someone?”
“Actually, I went myself, just to make sure the job was done right.”
“Oh, my God! What did she say when she saw that you were pregnant?”
Denise had a delighted expression on her face. These two were even better than she had expected.
“I think you should let her explain from the beginning,” Dominic added. “It’s really a pretty good story.” He turned to Lisa as she described their meeting.
“Well, I caught her just as she and her son were getting home one evening. I could tell she was tired, so I waited in the car a few minutes so that she could get herself settled. Then I went to her apartment and rang the bell with my arms full of gifts for her son.
“As soon as Alicia opened the door, I was as sweet as I could possibly be. I told her I was Kevin’s girlfriend and explained that he had spoken a great deal about Michael. I told her Kevin wished he could still be in the Big Brother program because he missed the boy. I think she was too flabbergasted even to speak. She finally just asked me directly what exactly I wanted from her.
“Just as she asked me, her son came running to the door. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw all the toys I was holding. He wanted to know what they were for, and I told him his uncle Kevin wanted him to have them for his birthday. Well, that kid grabbed those toys and took off faster than lightning.
“Once the packages were out of my arms, Alicia was able to see my stomach, and her jaw nearly hit the floor. She tried to play it cool, but all of a sudden she had a thousand questions for me. She even invited me in to sit down so she could hear all about me and Kevin.
“I sat with her in the living room for about half an hour and told her all about my ‘relationship’ with Kevin. I laid it on real thick too. I told her we’d been dating for two years, and I could see that hit her hard. But she held herself together and just kept digging for more information. I finally had to tell her I had an appointment at the obstetrician’s office and that Kevin would be worried if I was late. I didn’t think she was ever going to let me go.”
Denise interrupted Lisa’s story, impressed at what a thorough job the woman had done.
“I can’t believe you were able to do so much work in only half an hour. Alicia’s head must still be spinning.”
Denise let out a huge sigh, amazed at the job Lisa had done. “You guys seem to have covered every base, that’s for sure.”
“We sure did,” Dominic replied.
Lisa laughed. “The truth is, from what Dominic tells me, we should have put Trevor on the payroll.”
“I don’t understand.” Denise was puzzled.
“The day after I went to her apartment was when she went to the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with Trevor.”
“And?”
“You should have seen him crying and testifying in that meeting about how he lost his family to alcohol and he’d stopped drinking to get them back. Ms. Shwartz, the guy put on an Academy Award—winning performance. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Especially not Alicia’s. She was so moved by his words, she let him spend that very night at her apartment, and he’s been there ever since,” Dominic concluded.
“That’s great,” Denise said, then paused and remembered to be realistic. “But are these two going to stay together? I really don’t need this woman popping up to ruin my life.”
Even with the quality performance Lisa gave, Denise was concerned that something might destroy everything she had worked to build with Kevin. Their relationship still felt strangely fragile to her.
“Ms. Shwartz, we can’t be a hundred percent sure about anything as far as this couple’s concerned. The police records show constant domestic violence, but so far they are still together,” Dominic replied.
“In other words, as long as we keep her away from Kevin, these two will end up breaking up and getting back together until she’s dead or he’s locked up?”
There was a vicious tone to Denise’s question that alarmed both of them. They both nodded in unison, trying not to reveal their true feelings in their facial expression.
“Well, I guess we’re going to have to keep them together, then.” Denise smiled.
“Ms. Shwartz, there’s something I didn’t tell you,” Dominic said with concern.
“What’s that?” Denise looked worried.
“This guy, Trevor, he’s still drinking. Which means he could snap at any time.”
“That, Dominic, is none of your business.”
“Aren’t you the least bit concerned about what Trevor might do to her? He’s already broken her nose twice in the past!” Lisa couldn’t keep silent about her concern.
“No, as far as I’m concerned, this case is over. I might call you to do some follow-up work in the future, but for now we’re done. And I want both of you to forget the names Alicia and Trevor. Got it?”
Lisa gave her partner a strange look, but all he did was rub his two fingers together as if it were time to get paid.
“Got it, Lisa?” Denise repeated herself.
“Yeah, I got it,” Lisa replied.
The three of them stood up and shook hands. Denise reached into her desk and pulled out two thick stacks of neatly bound hundred dollar bills.
“I think this will take care of your fee. Five thousand dollars each, plus expenses. And I must say, you’ve earned every penny.”