by Mike Faricy
“Relax, AJ, you don’t have to have any if you don’t want to. On the other hand, if you want to try some you can help yourself. Fair enough?”
“No, not really. See I…”
“Hey AJ, look, I’m sorry I was working…”
“In a closet.”
“Well, yeah, but in my business sometimes it’s gets kind of weird. I’m sorry I was late. I’d like to make it up to you, somehow. It’s just that I don’t want to see you unhappy for the rest of the night. If you’d feel better just going home and not being here for dinner I wouldn’t like it, but you can just head home and not have to put up with me. Especially if I’m upsetting you. No pressure, I’m not yelling, I just don’t want to upset you.”
“You’re not upsetting me, Dev. It’s just, oh, I don’t know, it just seems like there’s some ulterior force that keeps screwing things up between us. It’s almost like it’s written in the stars that we aren’t supposed to be together or something.”
“Really? Written in the stars? You’re kidding me?” I laughed.
Fortunately, AJ laughed, too. “Well you have to admit, it’s been more than a little crazy.”
“Well yeah, but so far it’s all been my fault.”
“You just keep thinking like that, it’s always your fault, and there might still be a chance for us,” she said, then raised her glass and we toasted the fact that it would always be my fault.
“Your appetizer, sir.” the waitress said then set a small plate in front of me with three skewers of chicken bits and the peanut sauce that I love.
“You sure you won’t try one?” I asked AJ.
“No, no thanks,” her voice seemed to raise an octave and she sort of pushed back in her chair getting as far away as possible from the plate. I figured she must have had an incident with a chicken as a kid.
“Are you ready to order?”
AJ seemed to relax and ordered something in French I couldn’t pronounce. I ordered a steak, rare.
We seemed to reach a happy medium once the food arrived. AJ stopped giving me the third degree on why I’d been late which allowed me to stop making up stories and then try to remember what I’d told her ten minutes earlier. She took little bites of her creme brûlée dessert after tapping the melted sugar top with her spoon. I graciously shared my ice cream with the caramel sauce. The night seemed to have finally landed on the right foot, and she was smiling and laughing when applause erupted from the far side of the dining room.
Someone shouted “Bravo” and a couple of women seem to sigh. I had to turn around in my chair to look across the room, and although the guy with the spiked hair looked familiar, I was having trouble placing him. The woman sat with her back to me, dark hair with sort of crazy blonde highlights. She turned round, smiled and said something to the table behind her. She placed a hand on her upper chest and gave half a shrug. Heidi.
“Dev. Dev, hello.”
“What? Oh sorry, it’s just that I think I know that couple and…”
“The one that just got that necklace. I was watching, he just gave her the thing, it must have been a surprise. Oh, that’s so romantic.”
“He gave her a necklace?”
“Yeah,” AJ said scrapping the last bit of creme brûlée out of the little dish. “That’s why everyone was clapping. God, I bet it’s diamonds, lucky lady. You know them?”
“Yeah, I should probably go over and say congratulations. Do you want another dessert?”
“No, you go on. I’ll just wait, but don’t stay too long.”
I headed over to their table, as the surrounding area returned to normal. Heidi’s back was toward me so she didn’t see me approach. Austin Hackett gave me a dismissive glance, then paid a lot more attention once I stepped around the table next to them and stopped.
“Just wanted to say that was pretty classy, congratulations,” I smiled and held out my hand.
“Thanks, but I’m the lucky one.”
Heidi looked up at the sound of my voice. “Dev?” she said then put her hand up to what looked like a dazzling diamond necklace.
“Heidi, oh my God. So you’re the lucky lady. Well then, you must be Austin Hackett. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Hopefully all good,” Hackett said and forced a laugh.
“Dev, what the hell are you doing here?”
“Same thing as you, having dinner. My date is just over there.” All three of us turned just as AJ set her wine glass down and gave a little wave.
“Oh, my, very pretty,” Heidi said. I knew her well enough to realize she meant anything but, the tone of her voice had morphed from happy to a razor sharp edge in a matter of one short sentence.
“And you are?” Hackett said, breaking off the stare between Heidi and myself.
“Oh, sorry. Haskell, Dev Haskell. Heidi and I have known one another for a long time. Hey, I’ll let you two get back to your evening. Congratulations, really nice gift. You’d better get that appraised and insured Heidi. You never know now-a-days.”
“Already taken care of,” Hackett said. “Nice meeting you, Hanson.”
“Enjoy the night,” I said, then hurried back to AJ.
“Wow, what did you say? He’s looking over here and doesn’t appear too happy.”
“Oh, that guy, he’s just some shyster lawyer I ran into a while back. Rumor has it he may be doing some time in the near future.”
“Really?” AJ said then stared across the room at Hackett.
“You ready to head out?”
“What? Well, yeah, I suppose, I mean if you want to. Would you like to maybe come over to my place for a nightcap or something?” she asked.
“Yes, I’d like that a lot.” I paid the bill, gave a final glance at Heidi and Hackett, vowed I’d help put him away for a long time, then headed out the door with AJ. I walked her to her car, held the door for her, and then forcibly pulled her to me and gave her a big hard kiss. She seemed to struggle for a brief moment then wrapped her arms around me and kissed back, just like in the movies.
“Oh, wow, let me catch my breath. Hurry over if you’ve got more of that,” she said.
I closed the door, waved at her as she drove off, walked to my car, and followed just a minute or two behind her. I figured I would catch up to her, but I never did. I ended up waiting in front of her place. After three unanswered phone calls over the course of forty-five minutes, I drove home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My cellphone gave off the wolf whistle announcing AJ on the line just a little before six the following morning. I flew out of bed, not that I’d slept much during the previous night between worrying back and forth about AJ and Heidi. Morton stretched out just enough to take up virtually all the room on the bed and gave me a look that suggested, “Answer that damn thing.”
“AJ, you okay?”
“I am now. Actually, I’m in the hospital.”
“The hospital? What happened? Did you have an accident? I didn’t see anything on the road and I was literally just a minute or two behind you. Is the car okay? How are you? I…”
“Dev, Dev, it’s all right. calm down. I just had an allergic reaction is all.”
“Allergic reaction? To what, the wine?”
“No, it…”
“Don’t tell me it was the creme brûlée.”
“No, it was you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, kind of funny. You’re just the carrier, so to speak. I have a peanut allergy, a severe peanut allergy.”
“Peanuts?”
“Yes, I swell up, I mean right now I look like I went three rounds with Mike Tyson. My lips are huge, my eyes are almost swollen shut, my skin is all blotchy, but I’m in the recovery mode at this point. I felt it coming on about thirty seconds after you kissed me. I stopped to turn at the corner and just thought oh-oh. When you had that peanut sauce on your appetizer, I knew it was going to be trouble, but I just hoped, well, you know, as long as I didn’t actually eat any of it I was hoping I’d be okay. Now
everyone can see how well that worked.”
“Are you in any pain?”
“No, they gave me an epinephrine injection and kept me overnight for observation. I didn’t think I’d make it home in time to get to my meds. Now they’re just waiting for the swelling to go down and then I can get out of here. Hopefully they’ll release me this afternoon.”
“All because I kissed you?”
“Relax, I should have known better.”
That didn’t sound good. “What hospital are you in.”
“I don’t want you coming down here”
“Regions?”
“No.”
“United?”
“No.”
“Oh, so it’s St. Joseph’s.”
“I don’t want you seeing me like this. I’m an absolute mess.”
“And I’m the one who apparently did it to you.”
“Not to worry. I just didn’t want you thinking I stood you up or something because of that other woman.”
“Other woman? You mean, Heidi? I just have known her for a long time. The guy she’s with is a real creep and he’s liable to try and drain her bank accounts.”
“Drain her bank accounts? And you know this how, exactly? I mean he gave her diamonds last night, didn’t he?”
“They’re most likely fake and I know all this because I’ve spoken to a former wife of his, a couple of people he cheated in business, and two attorneys who fought the jerk in the courtroom.”
“But, it was so romantic, you know at the restaurant. I mean you heard everyone clapping.”
“It was all staged, AJ. Part of his deal is he has false insurance papers so she won’t get the diamonds appraised, because they’re always fake, just cubic zirconium and worth about twenty bucks.”
“You’re kidding. It sounds like you’re stalking or something. I…Oh hey, my doctor is just coming in. I gotta run. Bye, bye, bye,” she said then hung up the phone.
I made breakfast, let Morton out, showered, shaved and headed down to St. Joseph’s hospital. AJ was still there, up on the third floor and not all that happy to see me.
“I told you not to come,” she said then pulled the bed sheet up over her head.
“To tell you the truth I expected worse. You don’t look that bad.”
“Really?” she said, lowering the sheet to about her nose and peeking out with puffy eyes.
“Yeah, no kidding. Looks like the swelling is way down,” I lied.
“Way down?”
I forged ahead. “So, you’re getting out this afternoon?”
“Yeah, unless something changes, but it seems to be getting back to normal. They’ve got me scheduled for an afternoon release once they check me after the noon hour.”
“You ought to take a picture now, then maybe another tomorrow at the same time, post it online and tell everyone you‘ve been working out and lost a lot of weight.”
“Do you think I look fat?”
“No just the swelling, it…”
“Great, so I do look fat. God, I should probably wear a ski mask out of here so no one recognizes me.”
“Yeah, a ski mask, I’m sure that wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention. What about Lady Godiva? Is anyone taking care of her?”
“Wow, amazing. Maybe you do have a sweet gene. Thanks for asking, but my sister’s on it. She’s probably over there right now.”
“Okay, but if she’s not or can’t make it or whatever, you just give me a call and I’ll run over.”
“Sure, I appreciate that, really I do. Listen, thanks for coming down, and thanks for dinner last night, Dev. I mean it, but I’d kind of like to just quietly recover if it’s all the same.”
“Yeah, dinner worked out real well,” I said and indicated the hospital room we were in.
“Well, no offense, but I might just take a pass on a kiss until another day. I’ll give you this much, life’s certainly an adventure with you, Dev. A real adventure.”
“Yeah, stick with me. Who knows? Once in a while it might even turn out to be a little fun.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, mister.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“That’s what scares me, Dev.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
As soon as I left the hospital I drove home to pick up Morton then headed down to the office.”
“Banker’s hours for the two of you?” Louie said.
“God, you won’t believe it,” I said then proceeded to fill him in over a cup of really bad coffee.
“Could it get any worse?” he laughed.
“It did,” I said, and told him the part about Heidi.
“Well, now he knows you’re out there. He might just let it go, but my sense is he’ll try and mix things up for you, create some sort of problem just to keep you occupied. Then before you know it he’s whisked her off somewhere, they get married, and she wakes up in the not too distant future and finds herself without a penny to her name.”
“That’s sort of what Jack Griffith said about Hackett. He leaves all the women with two things, a broken heart and a hell of a lot of debt.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an exaggeration,” Louie said.
My cellphone rang; the incoming number came across as unknown.
“Haskell Investigations.”
“Dev?”
“Heidi, is that you?”
“Yes, I just wanted to chat with you for a moment. It was nice to see you last night. I’m sorry you couldn’t join us, but Austin gets so jealous whenever another man pays the least bit of attention to me. He really needs to know there’s no one else but him.”
“So, stopping by to congratulate the two of you, even when I’m with another woman, that’s too much attention?”
“You don’t have to be like that, Dev. That’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean, Heidi?”
“Dev, I just wanted to call and thank you for saying congratulations. To tell you the truth, when I saw you I didn’t know how you’d handle it, didn’t know what to expect from you. You’ve always been, well, you were always there for me picking up the pieces following one failed love affair after another. And I maybe never told you, but I always appreciated that.”
“It’s always been my pleasure, Heidi. You’ve always been important. I just don’t want to see you hurt. That’s my only concern.”
“Hurt? Dev, I finally have someone in my life who doesn’t look at me like I’m just the next roll in the hay.”
“I never looked at you like that”
“Oh, really? Who are you trying to kid? Besides it was mutual and I loved every minute of it, except for that New Year’s you had too much to drink and threw up. Then there was the time…”
“I get it, Heidi. You didn’t have to bring that New Year’s Eve up,” I said, but at least she was laughing.
“Well, just thanks for being there all those times and even last night. It was really sweet of you.”
Imagine that, me being called sweet twice in the same day. “I’m happy for you if you’re happy. It’s just that things seem to be moving awfully fast. I don’t know, Heidi… maybe you could sort of slow things down.”
“Slow things down, and that’s coming from you. How many times did we climb in the backseat of the car in some dark parking lot because you just couldn’t wait or…?”
“I don’t know that we need to be going into that sort of detail. What I meant was, well, just you know, check things out.”
“Check things out?”
“Yeah, like maybe does he have any previous marriages? What’s the status of his law practice? Some due diligence, you know, like you’d do if he was one of your prospective clients. You wouldn’t do business with a potential investor without a financial report.”
“An investor? Like I’m something that can just be bought and sold? Is that what you’re suggesting?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It would just seem to me that you would want to ma
ke sure he’s, you know, on the level. Check it out. I mean was he really a Navy Seal? Did he nurse his parents until they passed away? Was he ever married? What can it hurt?”
“Trust, Dev. In the end, that’s what it’s all about. Not everyone is like the sort of people you deal with. Not everyone is looking for the fast buck, the short cut, the easy way. I’ll have you know, Austin works extremely hard to ensure that handicapped individuals, that’s right, people not as fortunate as you or me, he works awfully damn hard to make sure they get a fair shake. And when he finds someone who’s screwing them, he gets aggressive, Dev. Because he doesn’t like to see the little guys, the folks without the resources get pushed around. So he stands up for them and makes people comply with the law. It’s the goddamn law, Dev.” She was shouting now.
“Do me a favor, Heidi. You know those diamonds you got last night. The gift from your fine upstanding lover. Take them in somewhere and get them appraised. See what they’re worth. Then call me back.”
“Oh,” she screamed and hung up.
“That didn’t sound like it went all that well,” Louie said.
“This jerk’s got her really buffaloed.”
“I could hear her yelling all the way over here.”
“I just wish she’d go and get those damn diamonds appraised. She’ll find out they’re fakes and we can start to get her thinking again. It’s like she won’t even listen to reason.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“I don’t want to kidnap her.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to suggest. However, if you nicely suggested getting together and then calmly talked to her, without making accusations, maybe things might turn out a little better.”
“You heard her screaming, defending that piece of shit. How am I supposed to deal with that?”
“I think you’re going to have to find a way if you want to get through to her. You’re the one who said time is running out. What did that ex-wife say? He strikes when the iron’s hot? I’d say it’s steaming right about now, pal. You’re going to have to suck it up and just do it.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” I said, although I had what seemed like a lot better idea just beginning to percolate.
