I Heard A Rumor

by Hodges, Cheris

  “The week isn’t over yet,” he said with a wink.

  Chante sighed as she thought about the reason she ran to Charleston in the first place. “Being here has given me so much clarity. I have to thank you for that.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded. “My ex was making my life a living hell. Rochelle was right about him; he cheated on me with a hooker. At the time he was running for state senate, and when it came out, I was beyond embarrassed. My best friend tried to warn me, but I was blinded by the very thing I claimed I didn’t want.”

  “Which was?” he asked.

  “The status of being married and having my mother’s approval.” The admission shook her to the core. She hadn’t even told Liza how she really felt about Robert and why she’d accepted his marriage proposal so quickly.

  “But I thought you didn’t care what your mother thought and the plan was to live your life for you.”

  She stroked his cheek. “That was the liquor talking. As much as we try to act like we don’t care what our mothers think, we do. Part of me will always want my mother to be proud of me.”

  Zach kissed her cheek. “If she can’t be proud of the woman that you are, then there comes a time when you stop turning yourself inside out to make her feel good about your life. I’m sure law school wasn’t easy. I’m sure finding a job at a huge law firm in the South, as a woman, was a struggle.”

  Chante nodded. Everything he said was true, and if her mother didn’t see that, would Chante ever gain her mother’s approval? “Why don’t we take a shower and go get some ice cream, bourbon, and brownies?”

  Zach looked up and down her naked body and let out a low whistle. “How do you eat all of that and still look like this?” He ran his hand across her sculptured abs.

  “That’s why I don’t come to Charleston often. And I’ve been running a lot lately to counteract my wine drinking.”

  “Whoa, you have been going through hell,” he said.

  She gripped his arm. “I’m suspended from that law firm that I worked so hard to be a part of because Robert’s sins were my fault and I became a distraction.”

  “Damn.”

  Slipping out of his arms, Chante rose from the bed. “So about that shower?”

  Zach was up on his feet in a flash. “Let’s do it.”

  Robert glared at Nic after he finished reading the latest polls for the mayor’s race. He was way behind, and the election was about two months away. “I thought you said you had this handled,” Robert demanded as he tossed the papers in Nic’s face. “This is not what we planned.”

  “Is it my fault that you couldn’t charm Chante into standing by your side or that you paid a woman for sex? That’s all people think about when they see you, and the fact that we have one former mayor in prison . . .”

  “I was never charged! My record is clear. You’re supposed to be the man who can get results! I haven’t seen any.”

  “You selfish bastard. I’ve been working my ass off to get you elected, and what have you done? You’ve been sleeping with staffers and pissing them off. Your girl, Gabby, told me about what’s going on with the two of you and how you said she wasn’t good enough to meet your parents or go to a political party. Have you forgotten that your mother was a crackhead, and God knows who your father is?”

  Robert launched out of his seat and punched Nic in the face, knocking him to the floor. “Don’t you ever mention my mother again!”

  Holding his jaw, Nic slowly rose to his feet. “You’re on your own. Good luck trying to win this seat now!”

  “Fuck you, Nic. Now get the hell out of here!”

  As Nic slammed out of the office, Robert knew he was on his own, and if he was going to be mayor of Charlotte, he had to step up his game. First on the agenda was finding Chante.

  Then a light bulb went off in his head. Chante used to talk about her grandmother a lot, and her grandmother lived in Charleston. If he could find where she lived, he’d probably find Chante there playing the victim. Victim! He was the true victim because of her and that bitch Liza. If Liza had kept her damn mouth shut, he and Chante would be married and he’d be the one in the General Assembly. It was his seat and Liza stole it from him. He was going to take back what was his, the route to power. Picking up his phone, he dialed Liza’s number.

  “Liza Franklin.”

  “Where is Chante? And you’ve given up your identity for a man?” Robert laughed.

  “Why do you keep calling me, you pompous jackass?”

  “Because you owe me, and you should’ve kept your promise to me.”

  “Oh please, I’m sick and tired of this and you. Don’t call me again, or I will file a report for harassment.”

  “I don’t understand why you turned your back on me,” he said.

  “Why I turned my back on you? This is so funny to me. You and Nic tried to destroy my reputation and spread the rumor that I was a call girl. Is it my fault that people saw what a fraud you were before Election Day? I don’t think so! Stop calling me, and leave Chante alone.”

  When the dial tone sounded in his ear, Robert seethed with anger. All those years she claimed to have his back, and she lied! Typical woman. Just like his mother. Just like any tramp who’d ever claimed to give a damn about him. That’s why Chante was going to pay what she owed. She was going to give one interview that would put him in the mayor’s seat. If the public believed she had forgiven him, then they would as well.

  And if she was in Charleston, he’d find her and have a camera crew in tow. Maybe after he explained to her how his being mayor of Charlotte would help her get back on a good footing with her law firm, she’d go along with what he needed.

  Typing her grandmother’s name into the Google search bar, Robert knew it was time to head south.

  Zach would’ve paid money to watch Chante eat her ice cream cone. The way her tongue moved around the cold cream made his crotch swell with memories of how she had licked and sucked him to climax. Her lips were simply amazing.

  “What?” she asked as she caught his eye.

  “I’d tell you, but if someone heard me, they would be scandalized,” he said, then kissed her on the tip of her nose. “I just know how magical those lips and tongue are, and I’m jealous of that cone right now.”

  “If you play your cards right, maybe I’ll treat you like this.” She slowly licked the cream. “Later.”

  “Your wish is my command, darling,” he said with a mock bow. Zach turned to his banana split and wondered how open Chante would be to him drizzling chocolate all over her body and licking it off.

  “How’s your banana split?” she asked.

  “Pretty good,” he said. “I see why Charleston is a foodie’s dream. We haven’t been to a bad restaurant yet.”

  “What brought you to Charleston? You don’t seem like a foodie, and I’ve been taking up a lot of your time, so I don’t know what kind of business you’ve been doing.”

  Zach offered a smile. She’d been honest about his ex, maybe it was time for him to tell her the truth about his.

  “Well,” he said, “I’m probably going to start looking into some real estate opportunities soon, but I needed a break first. My ex has been in the news because of some illegal activities. A lot of people in New York are trying to link me to her misdeeds.”

  “What did she do?” Chante asked as she lowered her waffle cone.

  Zach shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He wanted to tell her everything, wanted to be open with her. But he was still having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that he had been married to a pimp.

  “Fraud, tax evasion,” he said, then stopped speaking. “It’s pretty complicated.”

  “Wow. So how is that affecting your business?”

  “Badly.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Zach touched her hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll bounce back.”

  She smiled. “I don’t doubt that one bit.” Chante leaned in and kissed him
on the cheek. Neither of them noticed the long lens pointed at them.

  Chapter 13

  “Who is that woman?” the photographer asked.

  “We’ll run her face through Google photo search,” the ambitious director replied. “I can’t believe Harrington is in a new relationship so quickly. He must be trying to revamp his image.”

  “Ever think he’s fallen in love?” the photographer asked as he snapped images.

  “I don’t care. I just want to get a newsworthy story that will get me back in front of the CNN editors. This travel-video shit is for the birds. We’re going to be the first people to get Zachary Harrington on camera!”

  The photographer kept shooting the kissing couple. This would be a coup and make both him and the director famous.

  Chante pulled back from Zach and looked into his eyes with a smile on her lips. “You taste so good. I wonder if we can take some of this chocolate with us.”

  Zach grinned. “You read my mind.”

  Leaning in closer, she whispered, “I know where I want to cover you with chocolate and lick it off.”

  Zach raised his eyebrow and smirked, “Your sweet tooth is that big, huh?”

  Smacking him on the shoulder, she couldn’t help but laugh. The truth was the truth, though.

  He looked down at his half-eaten banana split. “Give me one second,” he said as he rose to his feet and headed to the counter. Chante held back her laughter as she watched him get his tray filled with chocolate sauce.

  When he returned to the table, he showed her the container. “I say, let’s get out of here before this thing springs a leak.”

  As they headed out the door, Chante just happened to look over her shoulder, and she spotted the photographer. “What in the . . . Why is that man taking pictures of us?”

  Zach looked at the photographer. “I don’t know, why don’t we just . . .”

  Before he could say get out of there, the two men rushed over to them. “Mr. Harrington!” the director called out as Zach ushered Chante into the car.

  “Mr. Harrington, are you in Charleston to avoid being connected to the ‘Harlem Madame’?”

  “Stay away from me,” Zach growled as he hopped into the car. He sped out of the parking lot and drove faster than Chante ever had.

  “What was that all about?” she asked as she gripped her seat belt.

  “Nothing.”

  “The ‘Harlem Madame’? That’s your ex?”

  Slowing the speed of the car, he nodded. “I had no idea what she was doing, but no one seems to care about that.”

  Chante let out a frustrated sigh. “So you lied to me.”

  “I didn’t lie . . .”

  “Don’t give me that shit. I’m so sick of men lying! You made it seem as if she was facing financial charges when you knew good and damned well that your ex is a pimp.”

  “Which has nothing to do with me!”

  Chante dropped her head in her hands. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t going to deal with this. “I’m just supposed to believe your wife ran a call-girl ring and you were clueless? Zach, you’re smarter than that.”

  “So you knew your fiancé was buying sex on the side?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop the car!”

  “Chante, I’m sorry.”

  “Stop. The. Damn. Car.”

  “I . . .”

  “If you’re trying to hurt me to cover your guilt, it’s not working. I poured my heart out to you, and you sat there silent. Don’t sit here and try . . . You know what. Let me out of this car or I’m going to jump out.”

  “I’m not stopping this car, and I’m not going to sit here and justify why I didn’t want to tell you my ex was selling sex. And you’re not going to jump out of this car because I’ll drive a hundred miles an hour to stop you.”

  Chante rolled her eyes. “Fine, but when we get back to the resort, I don’t want to see you again. I’m done with men and their sex scandals.”

  “This isn’t my sex scandal!” Zach banged his hand on the steering wheel. “Okay, I’m tired of being held responsible for someone else’s bad choices. Natalie did what she did because she wanted to. I was in the dark, and I’m not going to keep apologizing for her bad acts.”

  “How were you in the dark? She was your wife.”

  “In name only. Our marriage had been over for years, and I’d been too blind to see that I needed to file the divorce papers.”

  “Because you loved her?” Chante asked.

  “No. Because I didn’t want the bad press. At one time, Natalie and I had been the face of my company, which is why so many people think I had some knowledge or involvement in her call-girl ring.”

  Chante could see where he was coming from. She had no idea about all the things Robert had been involved with. Still, she’d been honest with him about Robert, and he’d kept the most scandalous part of his ex-wife’s drama under wraps. She teetered between understanding and anger.

  When she finally decided to speak, she asked, “What are you going to do? Obviously you wanted to keep a low profile, but you have people on your tail now.”

  “I’m done running,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t do anything wrong, but I’m acting as if I did. Sure, I wanted to come to Charleston and try to do some business with people who knew nothing of what was happening with my ex’s case. This just showed me that in the age of twenty-four-hour news cycles, there is nowhere to run.”

  She glanced at him and sighed. How long would she be able to stay hidden from her own drama?

  “Maybe we shouldn’t go back to the resort,” she suggested.

  “I said I’m . . .”

  “We’re not running, but there is no need to walk into a media circus right this minute. We can go to my grandmother’s place. It might be under construction, but I’m sure we can find a room to hide out in for a day or so. Then maybe people will think you’ve gone back to New York and you can finish your vacation—alone.”

  “Alone?”

  “I’ve got my own issues to deal with, and I don’t want to add your baggage to my luggage rack. Thanks for the fun times, but when this is over, we’re going to go our separate ways. Take a right at this intersection,” she said, then stared out the window.

  Chante directed him to her grandmother’s house, and she didn’t say anything as he pulled up the winding driveway. “So it’s the silent treatment now?” he asked as they exited the car.

  “I just don’t have anything to say right now.” She pointed to a small cottage in the backyard. “Let’s hope she hasn’t decided to renovate this too.”

  “A little dollhouse?”

  “Hush,” she said. “This was our dream house. We’d do arts and crafts out here. I would’ve stayed here, but my grammy set up reservations at the resort.”

  “Then I guess if I ever get the chance to meet her, I should thank her.”

  “That’s not going to happen. I meant what I said, when this dies down, you go your way and I’m going to go mine,” she said as she reached underneath the welcome mat and grabbed the spare key.

  When she opened the door, Chante was happy to see the cottage hadn’t changed—much. The yellow walls were a bit faded but still bright. The white French provincial furniture was just as elegant as it had been when she’d seen it with her young eyes, especially the baby-blue settee in the right corner. She marched over to the chair and sat down with a smile on her face.

  “I’ve always loved this chair,” she said.

  “What’s so special about it?” Zach crossed over to her and waited to be offered a seat. After a beat, she nodded for him to sit down. “It is soft.”

  Chante turned and faced him. “When did you find out what your ex was doing?

  Zach tossed his head back and sighed. He hated thinking about those moments when the FBI burst into his office. Looking at the questions in Chante’s eyes, he realized that he owed her the truth. “I was in my office, about to close a deal with a Japanese company.
It was going to be a multi-million-dollar contract that would have put my company over the top. This would’ve led to more business from them because they were buying up a lot of property in Manhattan. FBI agents, with guns drawn, bursting into my office killed that deal. It cost me a lot of money, and to make matters worse, they took my computers, files, and everything. So I was basically shut down for nearly a month before they figured out that I had nothing to do with Natalie’s business. Between the media and all the stories that were swirling around New York about her and our marriage, I couldn’t escape the rumors.”

  “Wow,” Chante said, realizing that her incident on Charlotte Today paled in comparison to Zach’s experience.

  She couldn’t imagine how she would’ve reacted if she’d been implicated in a crime Robert committed. She’d probably be in jail, not hiding in Charleston. “Why were you a suspect in the first place?”

  Shrugging, he stroked his forehead. “At the end of the day, Natalie blames me for everything that went wrong in our marriage and her life. Business has always been important to me, and she knew that. Did I neglect her? Yes, but I was always faithful to her. She couldn’t say the same.”

  “And I guess she wasn’t a woman who decided to take responsibility for her own actions, huh?” she said with a snort. “Sounds a lot like Robert.”

  “Both of us fell for the wrong people, and we’re still suffering from it,” he said, then drew her into his arms. Chante wanted to push away from him. She didn’t need another sex scandal in her life.

  “Zach, I know this may not be your fault, but I’ve had my fill of sex scandals. Look at us, hiding out in a cottage because of someone else’s bull.”

  “Then let’s stop hiding.”

  She was about to say yes, but the thought of her mother seeing them on the news wasn’t something she wanted to deal with. Then she looked into Zach’s eyes. He was right: they had done nothing wrong—other than fall for the wrong people.

  “You know what, why don’t we go to Savannah for the rest of the day? We can have dinner at Alligator Soul and make a fire on the beach.”