“No,” Kari said, shaking her hand. “I’d rather do it with you. It’ll matter more to me if we do it together.”
Alex smiled. That was what he wanted too. “Good,” he said. “Then it’s a date.”
Kari continued to stand there. She was so overwhelmed with emotions that she didn’t know what to say. Or to do. Or even how to act! Tears were still brightening her eyes.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Alex asked. Afraid she was having second thoughts already, he became concerned. “What’s the matter, babe?”
Kari shook her head, and then looked at Alex. “It’s just that it’s never happened before,” she said.
“What’s never happened before?” Alex asked.
“No man has ever asked me to marry him. And for a man like you, a wonderful, caring, honest man like you to be the one to ask me is . . . it’s everything, Alex. It’s everything! I’ve struggled so much. I’ve never fitted in no matter where I go. I can handle all of the criticisms and upturned noses and the way people look down on me. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It hurts. A lot. And for a girl like me to get a gift like you is just so beyond what I thought could ever happen that I just can’t believe it!”
But Alex was shaking his head. “No, Karena, no. I’m the one in disbelief. I’m the one who’s getting the gift. You only want me. Not what I can do for you. Not who I am and what power I wield. You just want me. That concept is so foreign to me, darling, that I couldn’t even comprehend it before I met you. I’d rather be poor and have you, than rich and have a thousand women. So don’t you dare think you’re the winner. You got the bargain. I got the prize.”
Kari smiled the most wonderful smile to Alex, and then she fell into his arms again. “Oh, Jordan!” she suddenly remembered. “Can we Face Time him? Can we tell him the news while we’re together?”
“Of course we can!” Alex said. “Set it up.”
And she did. They had to go through Faye and Benny since Jordan was staying with them while Kari was out of the country, and Faye and Benny had to wake Jordan up. They handed him the phone, and then left him alone, for privacy, in their guest bedroom.
“Look at him,” Alex said with a grin when Jordan’s handsome face came on the line. He wore pajamas and was still half-asleep.
“Hey, Ma,” he said. “Hey, Mr. Drakos. Everything okay?”
“Everything’s great, Jordan,” Kari said. “We’ve got some news.”
Jordan had almost fallen back asleep. “What news?” he asked sleepily.
Kari smiled. And then she became teary-eyed again. Her son was going to have a father! She could hardly contain her joy.
“Let me tell him,” Alex said.
Now Jordan, although still not fully awake, was getting concerned. “Tell me what?” he asked.
“Jordan, I asked your mother to marry me.”
Before Alex could add, and she said yes, Jordan woke up then. He jumped up from his bed and began bouncing up and down like a pogo stick. “You asked her!” he cried as Alex and Kari laughed. “You asked her! You asked her! You asked her! I told them you loved her. I told them! I told them!”
Faye and Benny, who had left the bedroom to give their godson some privacy, came running back into his room. “What’s wrong?” Benny asked. He and Faye thought Jordan had just received some horrible news!
But then they saw that smile on his face.
“He asked her!” Jordan said to his godparents. “Mr. Drakos asked my mom to marry him!”
And now Faye and Benny were jumping up and down like pogo sticks, too.
Alex and Kari were laughing unlike they had ever laughed before. To see his future stepson this happy to have him in his life brought joy to Alex’s heart, the kind of joy that almost had him teary-eyed too. He couldn’t recall when he’d been this happy.
And when it was all said and done, and Faye and Benny and Jordan especially congratulated them over and over, they said their goodbyes.
And then the newly engaged couple looked at each other. And they kissed. For the first time they kissed, not just as Alexio and Karena, but as future husband and wife.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Faye couldn’t hold water when it came to news like this, and as soon as Kari hit town and picked up Jordan, Faye and Benny invited themselves over for dinner, and brought Lucinda with them! To say that her friends, not to mention her son, were overjoyed, would be an understatement. They were over the moon!
“So, when’s the date?” Lucinda asked.
“Can I be your wedding planner?” asked Faye.
“No date yet,” Kari said to Lucinda. “Girl no,” she said to Faye. “You’ve never planned a wedding in your life, except your own.”
“And we eloped,” said Benny, and they all laughed.
It remained that festive for the entire dinner. Until Kari, tired of so many questions she couldn’t answer about the wedding itself when she didn’t even have the ring yet, changed the subject. “I’m buying a car, guys,” she said as they all sat around the dinner table.
“A car?” Lucinda asked.
“It’s about time,” Faye said.
“That’s what I’m saying,” said Jordan. “She acts as if she’ll be committing a sin if she bought a new car.”
Benny and Faye laughed.
“That is so not true,” Kari said, smiling. “And you know it, boy,” she added, to her son. “The only reason I haven’t bought another car is because I couldn’t afford to buy another car. Let’s just put that out there.”
“Or let’s not,” said Lucinda as she chopped down on the delicious spaghetti dinner Kari had prepared.
Kari looked at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Come on, Kare,” Faye said. “You know what Lou means. Let’s just keep it one-hundred. You know good and well if you wanted a new car, all you have to do is ask.”
“The Lord will provide,” Kari said. “I know that.”
“She’s not talking about the Lord,” Lucinda said. “Although that’s true too.”
“She’s talking about Mr. Drakos,” said Jordan. “All you have to do is ask him to buy you a new car, and you know he will.”
But Kari was already shaking her head and rolling spaghetti on her fork. “Nope,” she said.
“But why not, Kare?” asked Faye.
“Because she’s got sense enough to know,” Benny said, “that you don’t get indebted to a man who’s not your husband yet.”
Kari smiled. “Thank you, Benjamin!”
“But he’s asked her to marry him. That’s as good as being married.”
“No, it’s not,” said Kari. “He could change his mind, or she could change hers. No. Kari knows what she’s doing.”
Faye felt a twinge of jealousy. She’d heard those rumors about her husband having a thing for Kari, although most of her friends found such rumors outrageous. Faye was considered one of the most beautiful women in the town bar none. But she knew Kari. And Kari had something that certain men, from a Greek billionaire venture capitalist like Alex Drakos, to a local African-American attorney like Benny Church, found irresistible. She had true grit, as John Wayne might call it, Faye inwardly thought. Something, she also knew, she didn’t have.
“I’m not asking her to become his whore,” Faye said bluntly to her husband, “so I don’t feel you needed to even go there.”
Benny smiled. “Go where?”
“All that talk about how Kari’s got all of this good sense as if I don’t have any to my name.”
Benny frowned. “Who said anything like that?” he asked. “I didn’t say any such thing. Did I mention anything about Faye not having any sense, Lou? Kari?” he asked.
But Kari had enough sense to stay out of a husband-and-wife squabble. “My name is Bennett,” Kari said, repeating an age-old saying. “I ain’t in it!”
“My name is Cher,” said Lucinda. “I don’t care!”
“The point I was trying to make,” Faye said, “is that Kari
has choices now. She doesn’t have to struggle alone. Alex is ready, willing, and able to help her. That’s all I was trying to say.”
“And I know you’re right,” Kari said. “But I don’t need his help like that.”
“You just said you would have gotten another car a long time ago if you could have afforded it.”
“Yes,” Kari said. “If I could have afforded it. Not if Alex could have afforded it.”
Faye sat her fork down and looked at her best friend. “Why are you so against letting him help you?”
“Because what if it doesn’t work out with him, Faye? Ever thought about that?”
“You mean other than the hundred times when you aren’t telling me about that?” Faye asked with a smile. Jordan grinned.
“If it doesn’t work out,” Kari continued, “I don’t want to owe him anything. I went down that road with Vito. I’m not ever going down that road again. I know I say it over and over, but you and Jordan act like I’m not serious. And I am.”
“Okay, Ma, we get it,” Jordan said. “You’re serious. But what I want to know is what kind.”
Kari looked at him.
“What kind of car are you getting to replace your Tercel?” Jordan asked.
“Oh,” Kari said. Then she smiled. “I saw this car at Walt’s Auto Sales that he says he’ll let me have for fifteen-hundred dollars cash. And I had my mechanic check it out too. He says it’s an excellent car in excellent shape. An old lady used to drive it, according to Walt.”
Faye laughed. “That’s what those used car salesmen always says!”
“I know,” said Kari. “But my mechanic says in this case, given how well-preserved the car is, Walt might be telling the truth.”
“What kind of car is it?” Jordan asked.
“It’s a 2003 Mercury Mystique,” said Kari.
Jordan, amazed, hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. Lucinda, Faye, and Benny laughed.
“What?” Kari asked, surprised by their reactions.
“A 2003 Mercury Mystique, Ma?” Jordan asked. “That’s the special new car you’re buying?”
“But I’m paying cash for my car,” Kari said. “How many people can say they paid cash for their car?”
“People who buys a 2003 Mercury Mystique!” Jordan said. “That’s who!”
Faye and Benny couldn’t stop laughing. “Never change, Kari,” Benny said. “You are truly one of a kind.”
“But I don’t see what’s wrong with what I’m doing,” Kari said. “It’s a good car.”
“But it’s old and ugly, Ma!” Jordan said.
“The exterior might not be beautiful, but the innerworkings of that car are excellent.”
“But it’s the exterior people see,” said Jordan.
“You mean like those same people at your school, who only see my exterior?” Kari asked.
And Jordan went still. His mother, just like that, had just exposed his own bias. And it was the same bias those boys in his school had about his own mother! On the inside she might be smart and have a good heart and all of that, one of them even said, but on the outside, she’s just okay.
Jordan had prejudged his mother’s car just like those boys were prejudging his mother. “You’re right, Ma,” he said seriously, which caused, not just Kari, but Benny, Faye, and Lucinda also, to look at him.
“I’m right?” Kari asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” said Jordan. “I shouldn’t judge the car based on how pretty it is on the outside. Pretty cars break down on the road all the time.”
“Ugly ones do too,” Faye said.
“Not if their innerworkings are good,” Jordan said, echoing his mother.
Kari’s heart swelled with pride. She hadn’t done a lot right in her life. Having a baby at fifteen for one. Fooling around with a lowdown dirty dog like Vito for another one. But she was raising Jordan right.
“Wow,” Benny said, impressed with his godson. “Out of the mouth of babes. You got it right, J. You got it right! It’s the inside that counts.”
Jordan smiled. He’d never admit it, but he just loved their positive reinforcements.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
After dinner, Jordan kissed his godparents and Miss Lucinda goodbye and left to shoot hoops with his friends at the park. Kari walked her friends to their automobiles. Lucinda, driving her brand-new Infiniti, drove off immediately. She had a hot date.
“With who?” Faye asked with a smile. “Wolfman Jack?”
“Don’t hate,” Lucinda said with a grin, and sped away.
But Kari and Faye placed their arms around each other’s waist as they trailed Benny toward their car. Despite the little jealousy episode, they were still best friends.
“How are you handling things, Kari? About what happened to Alex in Germany, and what happened to you at Lucinda’s? They’re still talking about that little episode.”
“What are they saying?” Kari asked.
“They said you ran out of the diner to chase down some woman. They said you two got into some heated argument over Alex, and y’all came to blows. She tried to get away from you, they said, but you beat her down.”
“That is such a lie!” Kari said. “These people and their over-exaggerations! It didn’t happen.”
Benny looked at her doubtfully. He knew something happened!
“I mean, yes, I had a conversation with some woman, but it wasn’t heated, and I didn’t run her down. I went out to talk to her further. She was the one who took it to that crazy level, not me.”
“But what was it about?” Faye asked. “Alex?”
Kari didn’t even want to mention it. Alex had a woman problem. She expected to have many encounters with is exes. “Yes,” Kari said. “It was about Alex.”
“What about him?” Benny asked.
“She didn’t say. She just told me to leave him alone.”
“Or what?” Faye said.
“She didn’t say,” said Kari.
Faye shook her head. “These people need to get a life. What’s up with that? When I used to quit a man, it was over. I didn’t care who he dated!”
“I’m saying,” agreed Kari.
“Just be careful,” Benny said as they arrived at his car. “Some of these females can be very difficult.”
Kari nodded. “I know they can, Benny. And thanks. But I’m good.”
“I’m sure Alex is making sure you are,” said Faye. “He wouldn’t leave the country and leave you unprotected.”
Kari and Jordan were instructed to never speak about their security. Not to anyone. He didn’t care who. Kari followed that order to the letter.
Faye hugged Kari as Benny opened the passenger door for her. “You take care of yourself,” she said to Kari.
“I will. You know me!”
“And don’t let those heifers give you heartburn. They’re just jealous.”
“May I offer a contrary opinion?” Benny asked.
“Here we go,” Faye said. “Uncle Ben has to have his moment of wisdom.”
Faye and Kari laughed. “You may offer your opinion, Benny,” Kari said.
“I know it’s your instinct to ignore it,” he said. “But don’t. I’m an attorney. I know what some of these jealous ladies can be capable of. Just be careful.”
“I will, Benny, thanks,” she said.
“Anyway, got to run, girl,” Faye said, and she and Kari hugged. Then Benny helped his wife onto the passenger seat, he got in under the wheel, and they took off.
After they drove off, Kari walked around to the side of her house and pulled a few weeds that stood out in her rock garden. She tossed them aside until trash day later in the week, and then made her way back inside through the back door.
When she saw the dirty dishes on the dining room table, she exhaled. “Ugh,” she said out loud. “Now comes the un-fun part!”
She scrapped the leftover food from all of the plates onto one plate, stacked the plates onto each other, and then headed for the kitchen. On he
r way she pressed the Play button on the CD player built into the center island, and Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car filled the room. She had it programmed to always come on first, because she liked the rhythm of it, and the words, as she went to the sink to prepare the dishes for the dishwasher.
“You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we’ll make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Anyplace is better
Starting from zero, got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
Me, myself I got nothing to prove.”
It was their song, she thought as she scrapped the one plate of food into the garbage disposal, although she doubted seriously if Alex ever paid that song any attention. But it had entered Kari’s mind the night Alex, on their very first date, didn’t drive her to a local restaurant for dinner as she assumed he would, but, instead, flew her on his private plane for dinner in New York! She knew for certain at that time the kind of man she was dealing with. And no lie, she thought, she was scared to death. Not so much of Alex, but of Alex’s world and way of life and jet-setting, high-flying lifestyle. She felt as if she was so out of her league! But she took the plunge anyway because that was who she was. Life never was a bed of roses for her, and any good results she’d ever had was because she stood up and fought for those results. Alex was a hell of a risk when they first met, but she took the chance anyway. And now, one day, she might just become his wife!
“You got a fast car
Is if fast enough so we can fly away?
We got to make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way!”
“Not a great way to treat your guest.”
Kari went still. What the hell? Did she just hear a . . . voice?
“You heard me.”
It was a voice alright. An unfamiliar voice. In her house! Her heart began to hammer.
“Is this how you treat your guests?”
Although Kari was terrified, she wasn’t so thrown that she couldn’t slyly grab a knife from out of the knife block on her drainboard, and then, the knife concealed, quickly turn around. When she saw that it was Linda Drakos, Alex’s ex-wife, complete with plastic surgery that made her thin lips appear duck-like, and that almost completely concealed the facial scar Alex had given her. Kari’s heart-hammering eased, but her anger heightened. “How did you get in my house?” she asked her.
Alex Drakos 3_What They Did For Love Page 11
