Business of Love

by Hodges, Cheris

  “Either you’re one of DVA’s best employees or your boss doesn’t like the Falcons.”

  Jill smiled nervously. “He’s not a big football fan. He’s into the Braves.”

  “I can’t get with baseball. The games are too long and the beer is too high,” he said with a hardy laugh.

  “Well,” she said as they reached Spring Street, “I guess we should head back. Unfortunately, I have some reports to go over before Monday morning. The holidays are truly over.”

  “Yeah, but meeting you was definitely a belated Christmas present,” he said, and then kissed her hand.

  Jill’s face flushed. “Yes, it was for me too.”

  Once they made it back to their cars, Darren invited her out for lunch on Friday since he would be downtown. Jill accepted, but she knew she there was no way he could enter DVA’s building. For the first time since she started the company, she regretted placing a huge portrait of herself in the lobby. There would be no way to explain that away. It was coming down first thing Monday morning.

  “Why don’t I meet you at the restaurant? The Three Dollar Café has a wonderful lunch menu.”

  “That works for me, but is there a reason you don’t want me to come by your office?” he asked. “Your man works there, doesn’t he?”

  “Uh, I’m a very private person and the last thing I want is to be fodder for office gossip. That’s all,” she said. “And I think I already told you that I wasn’t seeing anyone.”

  Darren’s words about lies were ringing in her ears. This was her lie to cover the initial one. Pretty soon things were going to snowball, but she was having so much fun with Darren that she didn’t want things to change just yet. Maybe they won’t, she hoped.

  If I tell him the truth now things shouldn’t be that bad. I just don’t want to mess this up before we even have a chance to get started.

  During the drive home, Jill fought with herself about telling Darren the truth.

  Chapter Five

  The next day, Darren headed to the fire station where he would spend the next four days. He hoped for peace and quiet, but he didn’t dare say that out loud. The fireman’s credo was to hope for the best but expect the worse.

  As he pulled a breakfast pizza from the microwave, Cleveland walked into the kitchenette area.

  “Smells like breakfast is done,” he said as he swiped a piece of his brother’s pie.

  “Help yourself,” Darren said sarcastically.

  “So, how did your date go? And don’t think I didn’t see y’all kissing like teenagers. I ought to call Ma and tell her you were acting like you didn’t have any home training.”

  “I like Jill. She’s a nice woman. And leave Ma out of this.”

  “But what do you really know about Jill, other than the fact that you like to kiss her?”

  “We just met and I haven’t proposed yet. I’m going to get to know everything about her.”

  Cleveland took a big bite of the pizza slice. “I know I’m the little brother, but I don’t want you to be hurt.”

  “Didn’t Momma tell you not to talk with your mouth full?”

  Cleveland swallowed. “I said, I don’t want to see you hurt again. If Rita wasn’t a cop I would have…Never mind. She screwed with your mind and I don’t want to see that happen again.”

  “It won’t. Marrying her was a mistake, but I’m not going to let what happened in the past continue to wreck my future. I’m finally ready to let someone in again. And Jill and I are having fun together, not trying to rush off to the justice of the peace like I did with Rita.”

  “Jill better be on the up and up,” Cleveland said as he snatched another slice of Darren’s pizza.

  “Touch my food again and…” Before he could finish his threat, the alarm sounded. The dispatcher’s voice sounded through the PA system, alerting them of a three alarm house fire on Lenox Road. Cleveland and Darren hopped into action, forgetting their argument about the pizza.

  Dressing with lighting speed in their turnout clothes, they dashed to the truck. Since they were shorthanded on the morning shift, Darren rode on the truck rather than in his battalion chief car. Riding with his men also gave him a chance to connect with them and view how city budget cuts were affecting them. When he sent his report to the fire chief, he prayed the city council and mayor would do something about it.

  The house was fully engulfed when they arrived. Orange flames reached for the heavens and black smoke unfurled from the roof. Two companies were already on the scene, dousing the burning house with water.

  Darren pointed his men in the direction of hot spots.

  “There’s somebody in there!” an elderly woman across the street exclaimed.

  Pressing the button on his radio, Darren alerted the firefighters that someone might be inside. He pushed his oxygen apparatus in his mouth and rushed down to the scene.

  Before he made it to the house, the air was shattered with the thudding of an explosion from the rear of the house. Lugging his oxygen tank and screaming into the radio, Darren ran to the spot where he heard the explosion.

  “Is everyone all right? What was that?”

  “Captain, Alexander is down,” the firefighter relayed.

  Darren ran like a gazelle to his brother’s side. He spit his apparatus out of his mouth. “What happened?”

  “The pressure inside the house caused an explosion and he was hit with some flying debris,” one of the firefighters said.

  Darren watched as the EMTs removed Cleveland’s helmet. Fear flowed through his veins like blood. He couldn’t lose his brother. Darren was taken back to the day his father died. It was the one time he’d let him and Cleveland ride along. An old plant near downtown had caught fire and no one knew that there were combustible chemicals left inside. As soon as Walter Alexander walked into the building, it exploded, the force blowing out the windows. No one survived. Seeing his father’s lifeless body was an image Darren had never forgotten.

  Looking at his motionless brother brought back those memories. Moisture pooled in his eyes. Cleveland couldn’t die, not in front of him like this, not when they’d been arguing just minutes earlier. This wasn’t right. Cleveland was too young. Darren kneeled over his brother.

  “Captain,” one of the firefighters said. “You all right?”

  “How is he?” Darren asked once he found his voice.

  Cleveland began to cough and try to get up, but the EMT forced him to lie still.

  “Cleveland, be still.” Darren turned to the technician. “Is he all right?”

  “We’re going to have to get him to the hospital and make sure there was no damage to his spine.”

  Darren nodded. “I’m going to ride with him.” Before helping the EMTs load his brother on the ambulance, Darren turned control of the scene over to his second in command. As the technicians stabilized Cleveland, Darren held and squeezed his hand. He was relieved that he didn’t have to call his mother and tell her that she’d lost another Alexander man to fire service. It was her worst nightmare.

  When they got to the hospital, Cleveland was rushed into the emergency room and Darren had to wait. He hated hospital waiting rooms. The smell of sickness hung in the air and death seemed to be waiting around every corner.

  Exhaling loudly, Darren sat down and waited for news. Dear God, please don’t let my brother die.

  Two hours later, a doctor walked in the waiting room. “Is anyone from the Alexander family here?”

  Darren stood up. “Yeah, that’s me.”

  “Cleveland is going to be fine. There was some swelling to his spine, but that should go down with medication and time.”

  “So where is he now?”

  “We’re going to move him to the intensive care unit on the fourth floor. You can see him in a little bit.”

  Darren reached out and shook the doctor’s hand. “Thank you, thank you so much.”

  “He’s a fighter. He didn’t want to go.”

  Darren smiled. He knew his father h
ad had a hand in that. Heaven wasn’t ready for two Alexanders.

  * * *

  Across town, Jill sat in her office doing something no one had ever seen her do. She was staring out of her wide window overlooking the city. Her mind wasn’t on selling computer systems or investments in smaller companies that would increase her profit margins tenfold. Darren filled her thoughts. She licked her lips, hoping to taste him again even though their kiss was twenty-four hours old.

  “Jill, Malik said he has an appointment with you,” her assistant, Madison, said over her phone system.

  “All right, send him in.” Jill straightened her jacket and sat up in the chair.

  Malik bounded through the door and placed a thick file on her desk. “Here are the new marketing plans for every department. Thank you for the tickets yesterday, too. I still can’t understand why you did it.”

  Jill smiled. “Because.”

  Malik shrugged his shoulders. “You women kill me.”

  “Meaning what? I met a guy that I like, and we had a great time. I didn’t want to come off as a being all high and mighty, trying to show him my entire hand at one time.”

  Malik sat down in the chair across from Jill’s mahogany desk. “Ready for some real irony? I’m about to give you some love advice. You have to be honest with this brother. If you like him and want this thing to go somewhere, then you can’t hide this from him. You are CEO of one of Atlanta’s most successful companies. Your face has been on the cover of national magazines. How are you going to explain that away?”

  “I have a twin sister?”

  “Be serious,” Malik said. “Jill, you beat me over the head about being honest. I really can’t believe you’re doing this.”

  “When the time is right, I’m going to tell him. Malik, you don’t have a clue how hard it is to meet someone and connect with them. Men see me in two ways, either as a meal ticket or a business opportunity. But when Darren looks at me, he sees a woman.”

  Malik stroked Jill’s hand as a brother would a sister. “Welcome to my life. I know you thought I was a dog for no reason, but the women I dated before Shari thought I was their one way ticket to Easy Street. That’s one of the things that turned me on about my wife. She didn’t want anything but my love. She didn’t ask me how much money I had in the bank or what my credit score was.”

  Jill stood up and leaned against the window. “But my salary and net worth are printed in all of those magazines. Even if it only lasts for a few weeks, I want Darren to keep looking at me like a woman meant to be desired and loved.”

  “I hear what you’re saying, but if I learned one thing from Greta DeVine, it’s that it doesn’t pay to lie.”

  Jill pursed her lips as if she had sipped rancid milk. “Please don’t compare me to that psychopath. I’m not trying to ruin…” The chirp of her cell phone interrupted their conversation.

  “This is Jill,” she said.

  “I’m sorry to bother you in the middle of the day,” Darren said. “I just wanted to tell you that my brother is in the hospital.”

  “Oh my God, what happened?” Jill asked.

  “We were on a fire, and there was an explosion. They’re getting him set up in a room.”

  “What hospital is he in? Do you want me to come over and sit with you?”

  “No, no, you’re at work and I can’t ask you to do that. I need to call my mother and let her know what’s going on but I just can’t talk to her right now. I don’t want to ruin your day with my problems, but I felt like if I told someone what happened it would make it easier to tell my mom.”

  “No, it’s okay. I’m glad you called. How can I help?”

  “Talking to me right now is enough. Did I tell you I hate hospitals? You can just feel death waiting for people.”

  Jill leaned back in her seat, tears forming in her eyes as she listened to Darren talk.

  “My mother really tried to talk us out of going into the fire department, but we felt like it was the best way to honor our father.”

  “Did the doctors say how Cleveland is doing?” Jill asked.

  “He has some swelling on his spinal cord, but the doctors said with time and medication, he’ll be fine.”

  “That’s a blessing,” she said. “I will definitely keep your brother in my prayers.”

  “Thank you and thanks for listening to me. You’d better get back to work.”

  “Darren, if you need to talk, call me.”

  “Thanks. I’ll probably be at Piedmont all night or at least until my mom gets here. Then I have to go back to the station house.”

  “Have you eaten? I can bring you something to eat. You’re not that far from me. You’re going to need your strength for your brother and your mother.”

  “You’re starting to sound too good to be true,” he said.

  Her desk phone buzzed. “Jill, Mr. Covington is on line one.”

  Jill gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to hang up on Darren, but she had been waiting on this call all day. “I-I have to go,” she said. “But I’ll call you later.”

  “All right,” he said. “Thanks for listening.”

  Jill hated hanging up on Darren. She was glad he thought enough of her to call but it was definitely making lying to him harder.

  She reached down and picked up the phone. “This is Jill.”

  She half-heartedly listened to Mr. Covington talk to her about what a great investment DVA would be making if she bought 45 percent of his company’s stock. He droned on and on about Bluetooth technology and hand-held computers changing the way Americans work. Jill sighed. His company would be a big risk, but if DVA didn’t get in on the ground floor of this new trend, who knew what would happen in the future?

  “Mr. Covington, I’m not saying yes and I’m not saying no. I need a comprehensive study on the growth of the technology and independent verification that checks out. I want more than 45 percent, too. If this is the next wave of computer technology, I want it to be a part of DVA.”

  “Jill, that sounds like a takeover to me,” he said.

  “No, not at all. It’s more of a branding thing. DVA is known globally. You’re not. I’m willing to brand your product and still let you have creative control. The only difference will be your marketing muscle, distribution capabilities and production qualities. Tell me, how many people can you reach now?”

  “Well, uh, maybe a few thousand, but a capital invest…”

  “Would be very risky. Look, I haven’t even agreed to invest, but if I do, those are my terms. Take it or leave it.”

  Silence greeted her. Jill continued. “If we move forward, you’d be a subsidiary of DVA. And if it makes you feel better, you can keep your CEO title.”

  “I’ll get the company statements to you in the morning.”

  When Jill hung up, she buzzed Madison, informing her that she’d be taking the rest of the day off. Something inside her told her she should go to Darren.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes,” Jill said. She was sure it was shocking for her employees to see her leave early. Usually the last person to leave the office, she didn’t just burn the midnight oil; she drank it like nectar.

  Her first stop was a florist shop on Peachtree Street, where she picked up a get well basket filled with daisies, sunflowers and tulips, along with two Mylar balloons, one with a fire truck and a Dalmatian on it and a silver one that read Get Well Soon. Next she stopped by Twist Restaurant, a new spot in downtown that featured soul food and vegetarian cuisine, where she ordered fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese and a slice of red velvet cake. She hoped Darren was hungry.

  Instead of driving to the hospital, which was about a mile or so up the road from her office, Jill opted to take a cab. As the driver fought though lunch hour traffic, she reached into her purse and pulled out a pair of Jackie O type sunglasses and put them on. The last thing she need was to be spotted by a reporter walking into the hospital. She hated the media with a passion. Reporters seeme
d to relish publishing rumors and innuendo rather than searching for the truth. DVA matters could make a year long series for a serious journalist, but these days the big story seemed to be Jill’s lack of a love life. Was she gay? Married in secret? Having an affair with one of her employees, particularly Malik Greene? Jill hadn’t granted an interview since the Essence story that Shari had written and planned to do no more unless Shari was the interviewer.

  Jill paid the driver and hopped out of the cab when it stopped in front of the hospital. As she strode inside, she felt nervous. This wasn’t like walking into a business meeting. What if Darren didn’t want her there? What if his brother had taken a turn for the worse? What if she were intruding? She’d only known him a few days.

  Calm down, Jill, she chided silently as she approached the information desk.

  She placed her hand on the edge of the desk, then told the attendant that she was looking for Cleveland Alexander’s room.

  “He’s on the fourth floor in 423,” the clerk said after typing his name in the computer.

  Jill smiled and clutched her basket a little tighter as she went to the elevator. She closed her eyes as she boarded with a group of visitors. Everyone was carrying flowers, food or something else to make their loved one’s stay in the hospital better.

  The doors slid open when she reached the fourth floor. In the waiting room she spotted Darren sprawled out in a chair underneath an overhead TV. Slowly, with hesitant steps, she walked over to him. She hoped she would be welcomed.

  When he heard the tap-tap of her heels, Darren sat up and smiled at her. “Jill, what are you doing here?” Rising to his feet, he took the basket from her hands.

  “I didn’t like the sound of your voice on the phone,” she said. “So, I decided to see if you were all right.”

  Darren set the basket on an empty chair near him, and then turned to Jill. She held out the bag from Twist.

  “The basket is for Cleveland but the food is for you. How is he?” she asked as she sat down.

  “I just saw him a little while ago. Still heavily medicated, going in and out of consciousness.” Darren opened the bag of food. “This is on time, Jill. I had already made the decision not to eat in the hospital cafeteria.”