He looked at Dutch as they walked. “Did you know about it?” he asked him.
Dutch didn’t immediately answer. He just kept walking. “Would it make any difference?” he finally responded.
Crader exhaled and ran his hand through his hair. “No,” he said. “No, it wouldn’t. I mean, Christian, Dutch. Christian? She decides to cheat on me with that child?”
“He’s hardly a child, come on.”
“But he’s . . . But he’s . . .”
“Just spit it out, Cray. But he’s what?”
“But he’s not in our league, okay? There. I said it. He’s not in our gotdamn league! He’s some kid. Some aide. He’s a nobody! And she picks him?” Then he hesitated. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Christian is an excellent young man---”
“I know that, Dutch. I’m not saying that I’m above him or anything like that. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just calling it like I see it. And I don’t see it, Dutch. Not for a second do I see why La would have selected him of all people. Hell, it would have made more sense to me if she would have told me that you and she. . . ”
Crader and Dutch exchanged a glance, but kept on walking.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s not possible. Maybe we’re all kidding ourselves and it just can’t happen.”
Dutch frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about fidelity. I’m talking about a woman like La doing something like this.”
“Oh, leave it out, Crader! You already knew she had had a one-night affair with a man. You told me so yourself.”
“Yeah, with a man, yes, she admitted to me that she messed up one time. But with Christian? With a man I offered to hire as one of my assistants? That’s who she sleeps with? She’s worse than a whore for doing this to me!”
Dutch suddenly stopped walking. Crader, at first, continued, until he realized Dutch had stopped. He stopped, too, and looked back at Dutch.
“That’s how I feel, Dutch.”
“Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were.”
Crader frowned and walked back over to his best friend. “A fool? Why am I a fool? Because I hate the fact that my wife cheated on me?”
“Ah, cut the bullshit, Crader, who do you think you’re talking to? You cheated on that good lady more times than I can count, and you cheated before, during, and after your marriage! So don’t you dare stand up here as if you have no sins to atone, because you have plenty, my friend. And yes you’re a fool if you believe for a second that Loretta King is anything remotely resembling a whore. All the shit she’s put up with you and you’re calling her a whore? Call her that again,” Dutch warned.
Crader shook his head. “You’re so above it, aren’t you, Dutch? You’re so over your womanizing ways? Aren’t you, Dutch? All those beautiful assistants that used to travel with you to all of those summits and on all of those out-of-town junkets. All of those gorgeous ladies that you always have to have somewhere at your disposal. How many of them did you fuck? Hun, Dutch? Hun, Mr. Perfect? How many, gotdammit? Was that plump piece on the side you have in your house right now one of them?”
Dutch stared at Crader. Tears began to appear in Crader’s flustered eyes. And he shook his head again. “I can’t do it,” he said. “And I’m tired of pretending that I can. And if LaLa can’t even. . . Yeah, I know, I drove her to it, I know that’s what everybody’s going to say. My cheating ways caused her to cheat. But I say that’s bullshit, too! I say she cheated because she wanted to cheat, just like I wanted to!”
Crader settled back down. “That woman in there. That Lee Perry? I wanted to fuck her, Dutch. Just like that. Just sitting up there talking to her and I wanted to find an empty room and fuck the shit out of her right while my own wife was upstairs with yours! That’s why I can’t take it. That’s why the idea that Chris had his limp dick up my wife’s ass is too much, okay? It’s too damn much! I do it to her, yes, I do it to her, but I never dreamed she’d. . .”
He exhaled. “How would you feel,” he asked, “if it was Gina he fucked?”
Dutch gave Crader an icy gaze. “Don’t you dare put my wife in this.”
“But how would you feel, that’s all I’m asking? We fuck up all the time, but we don’t expect our wives to fuck up too! We married them because we knew they wouldn’t! But now that LaLa did, what’s the point of the marriage?”
Dutch frowned. “What’s the point of the marriage?” he asked with incredulity in his voice. “Are you serious? Are you saying unless she’s perfect and make no mistakes at all then she’s worthy to be your wife? But if she stumbles, as every human being will, she’s no longer worth it? Is that what you’re telling me, Crader?”
“I’m just . . . When it was a stranger, some man with no name and no face, it felt different to me. I didn’t have to deal with it right now. But now that I know the man, and I know the face, it’s too much. That’s what I’m telling you. And I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.”
Dutch continued to stare at Crader. He was one of the strongest men he’d ever met, but he was also one of the weakest when it came to matters of the heart. He didn’t know what he wanted. And at his age, a man in his forties, a man with two babies depending on him, that, to Dutch, was a shame.
“I love La, Dutch. You know I love her. But I don’t know how to love her! I don’t even know why this makes me so angry! Why am I so angry?”
“Hell if I know,” Dutch freely admitted. “Because if anybody should understand cheating it’s you and your cheating ass.”
Dutch said this so deadpan that Crader burst into laughter. Then the laughter died, and concern appeared on his face again. “I guess I’m wondering how do we go on from here?” He said this and looked at Dutch.
Dutch felt a pang of anguish for his friend. “You go,” he said. “That’s how. Just as you were going before you knew it was Christian, you keep going now. Because at the end of the day, you know you have a good woman who made an awful mistake. A mistake you forgave her for. Forgiveness, Crader, is still the word that needs to be remembered here. She forgave you, and you’ve got to forgive her. That’s how you go on from here.”
“Crader!” LaLa’s voice could be heard in the distance. “Cray!”
Crader looked toward the sound. “She’s heading this way,” he said. Then he frowned. “Dammit, what does she expect from me? She slept with Christian! That’s . . .”
Dutch could detect a sudden light of understanding in Crader’s eyes. “That’s what?” he asked him.
Crader looked at Dutch as LaLa approached. “That’s the same kind of shit I used to pull on her, and it’s now biting my ass. And it hurts like hell.”
As soon as LaLa made her way over the small plateau and was upon them, Dutch could see Crader relax more.
“Didn’t you hear me calling you?” she wanted to know.
“Yes, I heard you,” Crader responded. “What is it?”
“What do you think it is, Cray? What was that about? Why did you attack Christian like that?”
Why did I attack Christian? Crader almost asked. Why did you sleep with Christian?
But he didn’t go there. Because he knew, deep down, that her behavior was the monster that his behavior created. She wasn’t faultless in this drama, but he wasn’t pure in it, either.
“Let’s go home,” he said to her. “We need to talk.”
LaLa stared at him. She wished she could change what she did. But she couldn’t. And that was the tragedy of it. “Okay,” she said.
Dutch and Crader shook hands. “Thanks,” he said to his best friend as they shook.
Then LaLa approached him. “Tell Gina I’ll call her later,” she said as she hugged him. Only her hug lingered. She even found herself closing her eyes as tears began to appear. Dutch pulled her tighter in his arms. Crader looked away, with pain all over his face. If he would not have slept with Evelyn and produced a child that was almost the same age as his
child with LaLa, she would never have needed comfort from Christian. She would have never cheated on him, never, if he had not hurt her so. And he knew it. That was why the pain and guilt was so searing. What had he done to that good woman?
“I’ll be in the car,” he said and began walking away toward the vice presidential motorcade.
Dutch didn’t respond. He just held LaLa. He held her as long as she needed him to hold her. And when they stopped embracing, and she was looking down, he placed her chin in his hand and held her head up. When he saw the tears, his heart broke for her.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Loretta. You hear me?”
But she shook her head. He was asking the impossible. “How could I have done that to him? How could I have cheated on my husband at all, but also with a man he knew and worked around? What was I thinking, Dutch? What was I thinking?”
Dutch pulled her in his arms again. He rubbed her hair and held her tightly. He loved LaLa. In some ways he loved her just as intensely as he loved his son and his estranged daughter. He stopped embracing her and looked at her again.
“I wish you would have fallen in love with a wonderful man with no past indiscretions and with a blandness to him that bespoke steadiness. But you didn’t, dear heart. You fell in love with Crader.”
Dutch and LaLa both smiled at that. LaLa began wiping her tears away.
“The only thing I can promise you about Crader,” Dutch continued, “is that you’ll never be bored.” Then Dutch looked concerned. “And you will always have nights like this.”
LaLa looked at him. There was no man alive she respected more. And she nodded her understanding.
“I’d better go,” she said. “Tell Gina I’ll call her.”
And Dutch watched as a wonderful lady made her way to a man who was certain to bring her more drama and pain. And, to Dutch, it was all such a shame.
But he didn’t wallow in his feelings. He made his way back to the main house and entered in through the patio door. Gina and Christian were seated on the sofa, with Christian nursing an icepack on the side of his face, and Lenora was seated in the chair Dutch had vacated. Christian and Lenora moved to stand when he entered the room, but Dutch motioned them back down.
“Where’s LaLa?” Gina asked him.
“They’re heading back to DC,” he said as he approached the threesome. “She’ll call you later.”
He stood in front of Christian and turned his face to the side. Christian removed the icepack so that he could have a look.
It was a pretty nasty bruise. “You’ll live,” he said to the young man.
Christian smiled. “I didn’t see it coming, sir. Or I would have---”
“I know, I know,” Dutch said, smiling at Lenora as he sat down beside Gina. “You would have knocked him to the other side of the earth if you saw it coming.”
“I don’t know about that,” Christian said with a laugh, “but I would have been able to defend myself.”
Dutch took Gina’s hand and clasped it with his. Lenora noticed the move and crossed her legs.
Gina looked at Dutch. “La okay?” she asked him.
Dutch hesitated. “No,” he said.
“I don’t know what got into him, sir,” Christian said. “I never expected the Vice President of all people to come at me like that.”
“You didn’t expect it?” Lenora found herself asking. Gina, Christian, and Dutch looked at her. “I’m sorry to intrude like this,” she said, “but is that what you just said?”
“Yes,” Christian said. She’d already been introduced to him as the CFO of the president’s company, so he knew he had to show her respect. But that didn’t mean he liked her intrusion. “That’s what I said,” he said. “I didn’t expect him to behave like that.”
“Where have you been living? In a convent?”
Gina gave Lenora one of her best check this chick out looks.
“I mean really,” Lenora continued. “You just admitted that you slept with his wife and you’re surprised by his reaction?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Christian started.
But Gina interrupted him. “You don’t have to explain yourself to her, Chris,” she admonished.
“I know, but . . . She doesn’t understand.”
“What’s there to understand?” Lenora asked. “You slept with the man’s wife. You admitted it. What’s there to understand?”
“Yes, I slept with her,” Christian admitted. “And I was wrong for doing that. I plan to apologize to the vice president---”
“Apologize?” Lenora said with a laugh, glancing at Dutch. “Are you kidding me? You expect an apology to do it? Especially when you don’t understand why he’s even angry?”
“Now just a minute,” Gina started.
“I know it’s none of my business---”
“That’s right,” Gina made clear. “It’s none of your business.”
“Gina,” Dutch warned his wife, squeezing her hand tighter.
“But,” Lenora said as she was now invested in making herself equally clear, “I think Christian here is being a little naïve if he thinks the vice president has no reason to complain.”
Gina frowned. “He never said that!”
“He said it by implication,” Lenora said, refusing to back down. “He made it seem as if the vice president was totally irrational for kicking his ass, excuse my French. But that was clearly the implication of his statement.”
Gina had had enough. “What the hell you’ve got to do with it?” she asked her. “We don’t even know you. You just show up at my house---”
“On Dutch’s invitation, that’s right.”
“And proceed to give advice no-one asked for nor was seeking,” Gina said, incredulity in her voice. “Who do you think you are?”
“I’m somebody who has an opinion and I will express my opinion.”
“To hell with your opinion,” Gina said testily and Dutch looked at her.
“That’s quite enough,” he said.
“No, now, Dutch, you check her out. Who is she to judge Christian? I’d bet if her skeletons were on display in this living room right now she wouldn’t be so quick to render all of these opinions then.”
“Speak for yourself,” Lenora said and in so saying she had crossed the line, in Gina’s view.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gina asked her. “Are you trying to imply something about my past?”
“Are you trying to imply something about mine?” Lenora responded.
“You know what,” Gina said, snatching her hand from Dutch and rising to her feet. Lenora rose too. “You can get your opinionated butt out of my house, that’s what you can do!”
Dutch stood up. “Okay, both of you knock it off!”
“Tell it to your wife,” Lenora suggested.
“You don’t tell me who to tell anything to,” Dutch fired back. “And especially where it concerns my wife.”
Lenora didn’t expect his heat to be directed at her. This surprised her.
Christian saw her surprise. He saw where she wasn’t so surefooted anymore. Why these good looking women thought they could so easily pit the president against the First Lady, and have the president side with them, was a mystery to him. But they constantly tried it. All around the White House he used to see it time and time again. As if they couldn’t understand why the president would ever want Gina over them. Christian saw it attempted more times than he’d ever admit.
“I’d better go,” Lenora finally said, gathering up her purse.
“I’ll see you out,” Dutch responded, heading for the door.
Lenora cut a look at Gina, as if to see if she was gloating because she’d won, but Gina wasn’t that kind of woman. This wasn’t any game to her. She felt as if Lenora was out of line and she called her on it. And she still felt that way.
Dutch helped Lenora into her coat in the foyer and then opened the door for her. They walked out onto the porch and down the steps. Lenora could see a visible presen
ce of Secret Service agents as soon as the president stepped outside.
“Should I head back to Boston tonight?” she asked him as they made their way to the bottom of the stairs. Their friendship had started off in the exact right direction earlier today, and she was pleased and hopeful. But now this.
“Go back home,” Dutch said. “And take care of yourself.”
“And you take care, too, Dutch. I mean it.” Dutch could tell that she did.
The limo drove up and he opened the door for her. “I’ll call you,” he said, and she got into the limousine, feeling as if she’d just blown it somehow, and looked straight ahead as the driver drove her away.
Inside the house, Gina and Christian were still smarting over her remarks. Especially Christian, who was already feeling guilty enough.
“I know what I did was wrong, and I know Crader should hate me for what I did. I couldn’t go to him and apologize because LaLa hadn’t told him that it was me. But that woman made it seem as if I didn’t realize what I’d done.”
“I know,” Gina said, rubbing Christian’s arm. “She was out of line.”
“Who is she, anyway? I mean, I know she works for the president at his company, but who is she to feel like she could be so . . . familiar?”
Gina knew what Christian was asking. It was a question she’d been asking herself ever since she first laid eyes on her tonight: had she and Dutch slept together before? Was that why she felt she could get all into their business and expect no blowback from Dutch?
“She’s the chief financial officer at Harber Industries,” was all Gina was willing to say about it.
And then she heard the front door open and then slam, and she braced herself.
“Gina!” she heard Dutch roar.
Christian jumped at the sound of his roar, but Gina rolled her eyes. She knew he wasn’t going to be pleased. “Yes?” she yelled back.
DUTCH AND GINA: WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE Page 7
