“Oh, alright.” Tamron sat down beside Roz. “Let me rest a minute before I move on.”
Roz smiled. “Been shopping and almost dropping?”
“You know it. Oh! Heard about J.J.?”
Roz looked at Tamron. Tamron knew J.J. Crane when they were all working in New York. But what was there to hear about her? “What about her?”
“She’s dead!” Tamron said with dramatic effect. “Apparently she had some kind of car accident in Belize. Or some such place. But yeah, girl, she’s gone. A friend of mine text me the news report.”
Roz thought about Mick, and how he never left loose ends. She also knew he would never admit or deny any involvement. “Sorry to hear that,” she said.
“Probably got what she deserved if you ask me,” Tamron said. “Always sleeping with somebody’s boyfriend. I never did like that chick.”
Roz didn’t know what to say to that. So she didn’t say anything.
“I hardly ever see you anymore,” Joey Sinatra said as Gloria sat up on the countertop. They were inside the mailroom at S.I. where Joey worked as supervisor. “We used to hang out. At least we were starting to. But now you’re always too busy.”
“I know,” Gloria said. “And we’ll hang out again, Joey. Promise. But it’s been hectic lately.”
Joey continued to sort mail. “Because of Fonz?” He said this and glanced at her.
Gloria became defensive. “Fonz has nothing to do with it. I don’t know why you guys always want to blame him.”
“Maybe because, after you got back together with him, you stopped hanging out with us. Maybe that’s the reason.”
“Whatever,” Gloria said. “But it’s not true.”
The phone rang and Joey, refusing to get into it with Gloria over her own personal life, answered it. “Mailroom,” he said. Then he looked at his half-sister. “Yeah, she’s here.” He handed her the phone.
Gloria was surprised. She came to the mailroom when she wanted to hideout for a few. “What?” she asked.
“For you,” he said.
Gloria mouthed the word Blair, as in Blair Conyers, her supervisor. But Joey shook his head.
Gloria took the phone and answered. “This is Gloria.”
She was surprised that it wasn’t Blair tracking her down, but she was even more surprised that it was the upstairs receptionist tracking her down. “Your father has been looking for you,” she said. “You aren’t answering your cell phone.”
She left her cell phone at her desk. “What does he want?” she asked.
“He wants to meet with you.”
Gloria was surprised. Her father almost never asked to meet with her at work. “When?” she asked.
“I’ll call you back when he’s ready,” the receptionist said, and then ended the call.
“Dad wants you?” Joey asked, with envy in his eyes.
“Yeah. That’s what Carmen said.”
“What for?”
“How should I know, Joey? I just got the call.”
Joey shook his head. “He favors you and Teddy. He always has.”
Gloria looked at him. “He favors me? How does he favor me? I’m one of dozens of staff assistants that he pretty much ignores all day long. How is that favoritism?”
“At least you’re on his staff,” Joey said. “At least you get to see him all day. I’m stuck down here in this dungeon all day. And he almost never comes to see about me.”
Gloria considered her half-brother. Joey was the youngest, and seemed to crave their father’s attention the most. He also was the one who believed most fervently that their father, by virtue of his absence in their lives growing up, owed him. Gloria slid down off of the countertop. “He’s never going to baby us, Joey,” she reminded him. “That’s just how it is. He’s never going to be some doting father concerned about our every move. He blew that chance when we were kids. Maybe he’ll make it up with the twins. Maybe they’ll get the new and improved Mick Sinatra. We’ve got Dad. That ship has already passed for us.”
They shared a momentary glance that was almost as bitter as it was sad. Because they both knew a profound truth: their father, for all of his changes by bringing them into his business and attempting to be a part of their lives, was still, on an emotional level, failing them miserably.
“I’d better get to my desk and await his call,” Gloria said, squeezed her kid brother’s shoulder, and left.
Joey just stood there, cold and alone and suddenly miserable. He tossed the stack of mail aside, and left his station. “I’m going on break,” he said to his staff. His staff, five men much older than he was, didn’t bat an eye. The boss’s kid did whatever the hell he wanted, as far as they were concerned.
It would be another hour before Mick could see Gloria, and even then he was preparing to leave for another meeting across town. But he had a question for her.
He stood behind his desk, putting on his suit coat, when she walked in. “You wanted to see me, sir?” she asked him.
Mick looked at her as he pulled down his shirtsleeve beneath his coat sleeve. A part of him hurt deeply whenever his children were in his presence. Because he could see their continued uncomfortableness around him. And the fear in their eyes. “Sit down,” he said to her.
She sat in front of his desk. “Have I done something wrong?” she asked.
But her father, being her father, rarely answered their questions. But fully expected them to answer his. “What was that about last night?” he asked her.
She wanted to ask him to clarify, but she knew that would only anger him. She knew what he meant. “I asked your wife to put in a word for Fonz. He’s an actor trying to break through and he really wanted that part. I was under the impression she had put in a word for him. But she hadn’t. It was disappointing, that’s all.”
“You threatened to tell,” Mick said. “To tell what?”
Gloria didn’t want to go there because she knew how it would end: he would take his wife’s word over hers all day long.
“What were you threatening to tell, Gloria?” he asked again.
“That Roz is no angel,” she said before she realized she was saying it. She knew her father didn’t particularly like his children referring to Roz by her first name. He preferred they call her Ma or something equivalent. And sometimes they did, and sometimes they didn’t. She wasn’t about to after last night. “That’s what I threatened to tell. That she’s not as perfect and angelic as you think.”
Mick stared at her. “Explain what you mean,” he ordered her.
“She’s not angelic, that’s what I mean.” Then she hesitated. “We saw her.”
“Who are we,” Mick asked, “and what did you see?”
“Fonz and I saw her at this restaurant,” Gloria said. “With this man,” she added and then looked her father in the eyes. “They were super friendly. And I mean super friendly, Dad. Like touching and kissing.”
Mick stared at his daughter. “Touching and kissing?”
“Yes! I saw it with my own two eyes.”
Mick continued to study his child. Why was she lying on Rosalind? Just because she didn’t recommend her sorry excuse of a boyfriend for a part in some stupid play? He expected more out of Gloria. “Why would you suggest that my wife is having an affair?”
Gloria smiled and shook her head. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell you,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I showed you a video.” She stood up. “Is there anything else you want, Dad?”
“I want you to answer my question. Why are you implying that your stepmother is having an affair?”
Gloria became angry. And like all of his children’s anger, it had more to do with him than the subject at hand. “Because she is, alright? I saw what I saw. You can believe me or not, which I’m sure you won’t, but I don’t care. But I saw her kissing and hugging another man. I saw it with my own two eyes.” Tears were about to appear in Gloria’s own big eyes. “Now may I leave?” she asked. “I have work to do.”
Mick felt an odd sense of burden when he saw that she was near tears. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to comfort her. But she had just made a harsh accusation about his wife. He wasn’t ever going to reward that. “You may leave,” he said.
Gloria stared at Mick. “I’m not lying, Dad,” she said firmly, before she left.
Later that night, Deuce McCurry drove Roz through the gates of the Sinatra compound, and parked, as he always did, at the foot of the steps that led to the front door.
“Have a good evening, Deuce,” Roz said as the house valet walked down the steps and opened the car door for her.
“You do the same, ma’am,” Deuce responded.
His job was to tabulate his hours for that day in the limo’s computer, and then drive it to the garage. But while he was tabulating, and to his total surprise, the front door of the limousine opened, and Mick got in beside him.
Deuce was surprised. “Boss,” he said. “Where to?” He knew Mick didn’t want to go anywhere because he was sitting in the front seat, something he never did. But it was Deuce’s job to ask.
“Anything you need to tell me?” Mick asked him.
Deuce knew the only reason Mick was asking was because he knew what was going on, and he wasn’t about to feign ignorance. “She’s been meeting with a guy,” he said.
Mick’s heart dropped. It was one thing to hear it from Gloria, who had a dog in the fight. Deuce had no such bias. “Who?” he asked.
Deuce shook his head. “Don’t know him.”
“You’ve seen him?”
Deuce nod. “Yes, sir. Several times. Tall, good looking guy. Her type.”
Mick didn’t like to think she had a type outside of him. But he knew she had. “Where did they meet?”
“Restaurants usually. But always in some out of the way place. None of her regular places.”
“Do you know his name?”
“She calls him William.”
Mick’s jaw tightened, but he just sat there. For a long time. Deuce wondered if he was contemplating his own pain, or the pain he was going to inflict on Roz. Because Deuce knew she was going to be punished.
“You told me not to spy on her, boss,” Deuce volunteered. “That’s why I didn’t tell you. Although I knew you had a right to know. But you told me it was not my job to spy on her.”
“I know what I told you,” Mick said dryly, his mind still in deep contemplation, his face a mask of deep concern. And he continued to just sit there, thinking. Sizing things up.
Then, after several minutes, he exhaled. “Have a good evening, Deuce,” he said to his longtime employee, got out of the limo, and went into the house.
Deuce let out a strong sigh of relief. Mick didn’t kill him for not telling him sooner. He felt as if he had dodged a bullet. Now he could only hope and pray that Mick, who could not abide disloyalty of any kind he didn’t care who was the offending party, extend that same reprieve to Roz.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Mick was lying naked in bed, on top of the covers, by the time Roz got out of the tub. She had been soaking for nearly an hour, after spending most of her evening with the twins, and was now looking forward to relaxation with Mick.
But Mick was still unsettled. He was still in a state of agitation. He still didn’t know what to make of what he’d learned. It was one thing to hear it from Gloria. She had a bone to pick with his wife. Rosalind didn’t recommend her friend, and suddenly she had the goods on Rosalind. It seemed too convenient to him. But when Deuce admitted the same thing; when Deuce said Roz had been meeting up with some man in some restaurant, it changed everything. He didn’t know what to make of it now.
Roz was naked too by the time she walked into the bedroom. But despite Mick’s misgivings, she was still a wonderful sight to behold to him. He was already rubbing his dick, but when she walked in, he didn’t have to. It began to react all on its own. Roz smiled as he grew larger and larger before her very eyes. It still seemed magical to her.
She stood at the side of the bed and looked at him. At his sculptured body first, and then into his eyes. But what she saw in his eyes concerned her. Was he that exhausted? “You okay?” she asked him.
He took her small hand and placed his fingers between her fingers. “What about you? You okay?”
The stress was all over his face. Even in his voice. Something had happened at work, she assumed, that still had him reeling. But Mick never launched into his problems like that. He probably was never going to tell her. Her job, as she saw it, wasn’t to add to his stress by asking him a lot of questions, but to soothe him when he was in distress.
She soothed him. She sat on the edge of the bed, leaned down, and put his penis in her mouth.
Mick moaned when first she touched him, and then began to suck and lick him. He rubbed her back as she went down on him in that loving way he adored. She knew exactly what he needed: relief. Sweet relief.
But as she did him so expertly, he couldn’t stop thinking about this William person and if she had ever had her beautiful mouth on his disgusting penis. And then he caught himself. Roz would never do that to him. Never! But Roz could feel his sudden pullback. She looked up.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him, confused. Usually her oral did as it was intended. Usually, her oral did even more than that.
But not this time.
She was especially concerned when, instead of telling her to continue, he sat up on the edge of the bed beside her. “What is it, Mick?” she asked him.
Mick sat there momentarily, then looked at her. He wanted to touch her beautiful face. He wanted to blindly keep going and pretend he had not heard what he had heard. But he did not have a blind bone in his body. “Who is William?” he asked.
He could see Roz’s entire look change. And it floored him. “Why would you ask that?” she asked him.
He stared at her. She knew he was not going to answer her, but he absolutely expected her to answer him. That was Mick’s way. But she had her own way too. “Why are you concerned about William?”
“Who is he?”
“Why?”
Mick’s patience was gone. His anger rose. “Who the fuck is he, Roz?” he blared. “Answer me before I kick your ass!”
“Don’t talk to me like that!”
“Who is he?”
“He’s a friend of mine, alright?”
“A boyfriend?”
Roz frowned. “How dare you ask me a question like that? Of course he’s not my boyfriend, Mick, you go to hell!”
She moved to get up, but Mick pulled her back down, her breasts bouncing like jugs of water from the pulldown. “What are these meetings about?”
“What meetings?”
“You haven’t been meeting with him?”
“I’ve had lunch with him a few times, if that’s what you mean.”
“You kissed him during these lunches? You hugged him?”
“We hug and kiss when we meet, like friends do. Yes, we did. So what?”
“So why the fuck have I never heard of him? Why the fuck did you never mention him to me, if he’s such a friend?”
“Since when do I have to mention every friend I have to you? Is this a marriage or an imprisonment, Mick?”
Mick frowned. “Imprisonment?” He was so angry by her characterization, and by the idea that she was kissing and hugging on some man, that he grabbed her, pulled her over his knee, and began wailing on her behind. “You want punishment?” he angrily asked as he spanked her. “I’ll give your ass punishment!”
“Mick, stop!” she kept yelling as he spanked her. “Mick, stop!”
She managed to pull away from him, and stand on her own two feet, forcing him to stop. And her anger was equally high. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked him. “I told you he was just a friend! He’s not even straight!”
Mick stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She didn’t want to go there, she didn’t feel she should have had to betray a frien
d’s confidence, but Mick was taking this too far! “William is a director who also happens to be a friend of mine. And in answer to your question, he’s gay undercover. That’s what it means. Alright? His parents came up from Arkansas, his very conservative, very religious parents, and he needed me to be his beard at a few lunch dates. That’s it. And yes, we were affectionate. He would have killed himself if his parents found out the truth, and I mean killed himself. He’s like that. So yes, I helped him out. Once or twice his parents wanted us to show affection, and William accommodated them. But it was an act. It was nothing.”
It sounded far-fetched to Mick, but all of those showbiz types were oddballs to him. But that still didn’t negate the fact that this William was a man, gay his ass, and Roz was kissing on him. Mick stood too. “You don’t kiss on any man but me,” he made himself clear. “You hear me? I don’t give a fuck who he is!”
“He was just a friend!”
“I don’t care, Rosalind! I don’t care! Because I know men. Pretending to be gay is an act for many of them too. You see it as some innocent friendship. He sees it totally differently. Nobody is coming between us!”
“He’s not trying to, Mick! He’s just a friend. Stop turning it into something it’s not!”
Mick was torn. Because he realized he had to do something he would never dream of doing, given what he knew, with any other human being. He had to believe her. He couldn’t leave her, and he couldn’t stay if he knew she was unfaithful. So he had to believe her. For the first time in his life, somebody else had control over what he did.
He went up to Roz. He expected her to wince, given what he did to her before, but she didn’t. She held her ground. And he knew even more what a prize he had. And he knew even stronger how she was a prize he was going to have to work overtime to keep.
He placed his hands on her arms and looked into her eyes. “I apologize for not trusting you,” he said. “I guess I was a little afraid. No, that’s not true. I know I was afraid. Of losing you, Rosalind.”
Roz was touched by his apology. She was touched by his sincerity. But she was still upset. “Why would you think I would be cheating on you just because I had lunch with a man? How could you go there, Mick? If I saw you having lunch with a woman I wouldn’t automatically assume an affair. Why wouldn’t you give me that benefit of the doubt?”
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