The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town (98 page)

Chapter 7

              “Sandra please will you do this for me?”  She listed to Jack beg her. 

              “I don’t want to see him again.  He’s an egotistical asshole.”  Sandra stated.  “I can’t believe you even asked me to see him again.  Harold Washington can stay in his rich mansion and burn for all I care.” 

She shook her head still shocked at this early morning conversation.  There was part of her that really wanted to meet him though.  She needed her job back; she had school loans that needed to be paid still.  But she be damned if she would ever beg him for his help.

              “Please Sandra.  I swear I’ll never ask you for another thing.”  He pleaded more.

              “Look I don’t to see him.  I won’t tell him I’m sorry, because I’m not.  So if he wants an apology tell him to call the man who fired me and get it.”  Sandra told Jack.

              “He said he doesn’t want an apology.  Told me to make sure I mentioned that to you.  I almost wondered if he knew you as well as I did at that point.”  Jack laughed a little.

              “Hmm, really he doesn’t want an apology?  I find that hard to believe.”  Sandra said.

              “That’s what he told me.  Come on Sandra just do it please?  If you don’t he might fire me.  You know we just had the twins.”  Jack said.

It pulled at her heart strings.  “Fine but I’m only doing it for the twins.  I’m not doing it for you, and I’m definitely not doing it for him.”  She finally agreed.

              “Oh thank you so much Sandra.  I love you; you’re the best sister a brother could ever have.  When can I set it up for?”  Jack asked.

              “I suddenly have all the time in the world on my hands.”  Sandra stated.

              “Okay great I’ll see what’s good for him and let you know.”  Jack hung up.

Sandra shook her head.  The last thing in the world she wanted was for Harold Washington to be in the same room again.  But here she had just agreed to meet him, on purpose. 

Chapter 8

              “Hello Jack do you have good news for me?”  Harold answered his cell phone when he saw Jack’s name come up.

              “She said yes, so what day is good for you?”  Jack asked him.

Harold smiled, this was a good thing.  “Set it up for today at any time.”  Harold said.

Jack looked up in the air.  “What was it with these two?  Can’t they pick a time between the two of them?”  Finally he said.  “How about two o’clock this afternoon?” 

              “Sure I’ll send a car to pick her up.  What’s her address?”  Harold asked.

              “Alright I’ll let her know.”  Jack responded.

              “Thank you Jack, I’ll remember this favor.”  Harold promised.

He hung up the phone happy and looking forward to seeing her again.  If only his little time with the maid would have satisfied him more his day might actually be going perfectly.

Harold figured he’d call his other connections and have them dig in a bit deeper to Sandra Sims past.  If they hurried he could have a full report of her life before he met her later.

He knew better than anyone that a gold digger could have many tools in her bad.  Maybe she had seen he was on to her so she switched her plan.  Instead she had pulled the “I don’t care” card on him.

Harold could imagine it happening.  His past life with Emily was easy to find out about.  A good gold digger might even research about him and learn that his wife had been poor.  In fact, he knew there was more than one interview where he had been quoting as saying.  “I fell in love with her when I found out she didn’t care about my money!’

So it was possible that Sandra could have read this somewhere.  When he had told her he knew what she was, he had given up his hand.  “Yep I need to get the boys on the job right away.” 

He picked up his phone and made a couple of calls.  “Yes a full background check.  Everything you can pull up.  Also I want details of the men she’s dated.  Yes you heard me right.  Alright I need it before 1 pm.”  Harold figured an hour to read up on her would be enough.

That gave his guy a few hours to come up with everything he could.  Harold looked forward to learning all he could about her.  For now he figured he would just take a quick nap. 

Chapter 9

She looked at the phone and saw it was Jack calling her back.  Sandra was tempted to let it go to voice mail.  “It would serve him right black mailing me to see this man.”  She said a loud.  But she finally picked it up.

              “Hello Jack.” 

              “He’ll send a car to pick you up around 12:30 or 1:00.”  Jack told her.

              “Oh thrill, and where per say is this car taking me?  That is if I get in it!”  Sandra stated.

              “Sandra please don’t mess with me.”  Jack said. 

              “Fine Jack I’ll go, but I want you to know I am not happy about this at all.”  She said firmly.

              “You’ve already made that clear earlier.”  Jack stated.

              “What am I supposed to wear to this meeting?  What am I supposed to say?  Jack this is a nearly impossible situation for me to be in.”  Sandra said.

              “Just don’t be rude.” 

              “That’s a lot of help.  You tell me to the guy who I told off last night.  I think it’s a little late to tell me to not be rude.”  Sandra stated.

She heard Jack sigh.  “Yes it’s a little late.  But please don’t add to it.” 

              “I’ll try, that’s all I can promise.” 

They hung up and Sandra began to wonder what she should wear to meet a man she hated.  Maybe hate was a big word, but he was part of a crowd that one times too many had made her feel inferior.

Looking through her closet she finally picked a nice black dress.  It hung on her perfectly.  She’d gotten many compliments in the past about this dress.  “Why am I even worried about what I look like when I meet him?  I should go in my jeans and t-shirt!” 

That was it she decided that was exactly how she was going to go too.  She knew if she dressed up he would think she was trying to impress him.  As far as she was concerned she didn’t need to impress him.  “He’d do good trying to impress me.” 

She didn’t know where this hatred of the ultra-rich came from for sure.  In college she had met plenty of rich people.  She had been friends with a few of them even, but only the ones who were normal like her.  They had been the people who you often had no clue they had money. 

Her first boyfriend had been one of them.  She thought back to Jason Jones.  He was something else.  He had dated her and offered to show her the world.  However, in the long run his wondering eye had cost them a lot. 

              “No it wasn’t his eye wondering at all.  If it had just been that we might still be together.”  She said out loud. 

He had gotten another girl pregnant while Sandra and he had been engaged.  She had come to Sandra and informed her that she was having a baby and it was Jason’s.

              “I don’t believe you, he wouldn’t cheat on me.”  Sandra had told the girl.

Why she had trusted him she didn’t know.  The girl had produced pictures of the two of them together.  Clearly they weren’t sleeping in the bed either.  She also shared some rather explicit live videos of Jason and her.

Sandra had left, hadn’t even asked him about it.  She had been devastated that he had done that to her.  It had made her self- conscious for years too.  The girl Jason had slept with was a cheerleader on the campus.  Sandra was a bigger girl even then.

She had confronted him about it later on that day.  “Why did you sleep with her?”  Sandra had asked him.

              “Because she wanted it and I could.”  He had answered her.  He hadn’t felt guilty about it one bit. 

              “You act like your proud of it.”  She had stated.

              “I’m not ashamed of it if that’s what you’re saying.  I could have any girl on this campus right now.  But the fact was for a bit you were my flavor of the month.  I got tired of you and moved on; you just didn’t take the hints.”  Jason had said to her.

Sandra had run out of the apartment.  Ever since that day she couldn’t stand anyone who was rich.  It was kind of funny when she got into charity even planning.  Her main job was to woe money out of people’s hands.  When she dealt with the rich, she would often try to make them feel guilty about not donating more.

She went and sat on her couch.  Sandra was wearing her favorite shirt and jeans.  They were well worn and comfortable.  She waited for his car and driver to show up, wondering what she would end up saying to Mr. Harold Washington today.

Chapter 10

Harold woke up and went to his study.  Sitting on the fax machine were papers from his man.  He picked them up to learn all he could about Sandra Sims.

              “Well this is interesting.”  He said while he read the report.

Sandra Sims, never married, attended Harvard University on student loans.  “She still has a huge pay off on those loans too.”  He noted.  “Never married?”  He went back to the other interesting point of the report.  “How did no one ever tie her down?”  He asked.

Looking through the sheets he finally found the one he was looking for.  “Here it is:  past and current boyfriends.”  He looked through a surprisingly short list. 

              “She’s a beautiful creature, how did she not date more men?”  He noticed that his guy did a bang up job on his research. 

              “Let’s just call good old Jason Jones here and see what happened between the two of them.”  Harold said as he dialed the number that was listed on the report.

              “Hello.”  He heard a deep voice answer the line.

              “Can I speak with Jason Jones please?”  Harold asked.  By his estimations Jones would be around 39 right now.  According to his guy he was a rich boy who didn’t do much of anything.  He simply was a play boy who moved around from city to city. 

              “This is him.  Who is this?” 

              “My name is Harold Washington.”

              “Of the California Washington’s?” 

              “Yes the one and only.” 

              “Sure what can I do for you?”

              “Do you remember a Sandra Sims from Harvard University?”  Harold asked.

              “Oh yeah Sandra, I remember her.  She was a feisty tiger, I miss fucking her.  I’ve read a lot about her in the past, but I’m not really sure what she’s doing now.  I’m a bit too busy.”  Jason answered.

Harold wanted to say.  “You’re a bit too busy doing what?”  But he didn’t.  “What happened between you two?”  Harold asked instead.

              “Oh well I’m not the type to settle down I slept around when I was dating her, ended up getting the other girl pregnant.  That was it she was out the door.  Sometimes I miss her though, never had one who could suck like that.   If you know what I mean!”  Jason laughed heartily on the line.

              “Hm you don’t say?  Well that’s all I really need to know.”  Harold said.

              “So what’s she up too?”  Jason asked.

              “She’s meeting me today.  You might want to read the headlines in the papers to find out more.  That is if you are really interested.”  Harold closed.

              “Not really, I have other things to do.”  Jason admitted.  “Tell her I said hi though.”  He hung up.

Harold whistled under his breath.  “Now I know why she had an attitude about rich men.  Shit he’s a real douche  bag.  But once she sees I’m nothing like him, I can have her!”  He smiled hoping it was as easy to convince her as he felt like it might be at the moment.             

Harold got dressed.  He was really looking forward to seeing this beautiful woman once more.  Now that he knew a bit more about her he also felt more comfortable with how he would proceed.  Throwing on a pair of jeans and a polo shirt he wanted to be completely relaxed when she showed up.

He looked at his watch, “It should be any minute now she gets here!”  He smiled.  Harold was a great negotiator it had helped him keep the majority of his money during hard times.  He’d seen plenty of the ultra-rich lose a fortune since he was in his mid-30.  But Harold had always been able to stay in the positive. 

Chapter 11

              “Sir there’s a Ms. Sims here for you.”  He answered the phone in his study.  Harold got up and went to her, instead of having her brought to him.  He figured that would show something on his part, maybe that he felt she was just as important as Harold.

              “Hello Ms. Sims.  First off I think I owe you a huge apology.  I’m very sorry for my unnecessary behavior last night.  I have a lot of females who approach me and have the smell of money in their sites.  I just really have to be careful.”  Harold said as he extended his hand to welcome him to his mansion.

He saw the look of confusion pass over her face.  Harold smiled he knew she hadn’t been expecting that at all. 

              “Please call me Sandra.  I guess I’ve never lived on your side of the fence and have never had to deal with that.  Perhaps I do owe you an apology as well.  My reaction was quite harsh.”  Sandra admitted. 

              “Really, I deserved every word that you said to me.  It let me know where I am.  In this world we are all humans.  No matter how much money someone has they still live and breathe the same as every other person here.”  Harold stated.  “I don’t expect you to understand my life, and I should assume to know about your life either.  But for some reason I thought differently of you, when I shouldn’t have.  Of that I am very sorry.  I would like to have another chance to now make a first impression.  If you don’t mind, can we act as if this is our first meeting?”  Harold asked, and looked at her inquiringly.

              “Well, I guess that’s fine.  I’d like that too, honestly.  I think I might have misjudged you as well Mr. Washington.  Yes I think I would like to start over with you too.”  Sandra smiled.