“And, Nikkie, let me just tell you now that the Lucia you met at Cachet is not the same Lucia you’ll be lunching with next week.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m actually a pretty levelheaded and intelligent person. What you saw was my club persona; it seems to attract more attention, so I go with it. Actually, I’m a graduate from Sarah Lawrence, and I went there on an academic scholarship. I’m very, very serious about my acting career; so whatever you do, don’t play me for the fool you met, and we’ll get along just fine.”
I’ve got to call Rachel and thank her, Nikkie thought after Lucia hung up. She picked up the receiver again to dial out.
“So you feel like going spelunking this weekend?”
Nikkie looked up to see Hal sitting on the side of her desk, coffee mug in hand.
“Spelunking?” She wrinkled her brow.
“Cave exploring. A group of us are going to Clarksville this weekend,” Hal explained. “We try to get out there at least once or twice each summer.”
“Who else is in the group?”
“Just Yanna and her fiancé, Susan and whoever she’s dating that week, Sam Epson and his girl, and me.”
Nikkie leaned back in her chair. “You don’t bring your girlfriend?” she asked with a slow smile.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have one at the moment,” Hal answered nonchalantly. “But, anyway, there’s a lodge that we always stay at overnight. We leave early Saturday morning and then return Sunday evening. It’s about a two-hour ride. You in?”
“I’ve never been spelunking before.” Nor had she ever known anyone who had, though she saw no reason to reveal that bit of information. It didn’t make sense to her why people would leave the comforts of the city and drive two hours to go explore a cave—but, hey, if that’s what these people did, maybe there was something to it.
“Not a problem. I’ll teach you the ropes myself.” Hal stood up and stretched expansively. “So you in or out?”
“How are we going to get there?”
“I pick everyone up in my Hummer. Just e-mail me your address before you leave today, and be outside your apartment building at six a.m.”
Chapter Thirteen
White folks are crazy. Or maybe just stupid. Nikkie couldn’t decide. But there had to be something wrong with people who thought it was cool to spend hours exploring caves that hundreds of people had already explored. But Hal and the rest of the crew seemed to be having a ball, as did the other dozen or so people who had traveled from various parts of the country just to risk sprained ankles and broken arms to go into the cold dank grottos. It’s a white thing, she supposed, blacks aren’t wired to understand. Perhaps that’s why she was the only black person up at the lodge. She herself had tried to keep an open mind, but after an hour or so, it had all seemed too ridiculous. When one of the explorers from another group said she was heading back to the lodge because she wasn’t feeling well, she hurriedly offered to escort the woman to make sure she was okay. When Hal offered to accompany them, she waved him off, saying she didn’t want to infringe on his fun and that they’d be okay. If Hal and the others had thought she’d return to the cave after the woman was safely inside the lodge, they were sorely mistaken. When they returned to the lodge the following afternoon, they found Nikkie in the common area watching television.
“I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy yourself,” Hal said as they pulled up to her apartment building early Sunday evening.
Nikkie shrugged. “I’m just kind of cranky today. Maybe I’ll have more fun next time.” Ha! Like there’s going to be a next time. They can’t pay me enough to waste my time like that again.
Hal nodded. “It’s cool,” he said as his Hummer silently idled. “Different strokes for different folks, as they say. I’m still glad you came with us, though.”
He stared at her expectantly, and Nikkie wondered what it was that he expected her to say or do next. Get out of the car? That’s what she wanted to do, but that wasn’t the vibe she was getting. Certainly, he didn’t expect her to invite him up, did he?
Hal cleared his throat. “Well, I know we have to go to work tomorrow, but I’m not really ready to call it a night. How about we go get something to eat? You hungry?”
Hmm . . . that wasn’t what she expected. She paused, wondering how she should respond. She knew he found her attractive. Women can sense these things, but she’d never thought he’d actually make a move. Or was this a move? Maybe he really didn’t want to call it a night and figured eating with a coworker was better than simply eating by himself. Just a harmless dinner. But, heck, she wasn’t hungry, and all she wanted to do was get in her apartment and soak in a tub of bubble bath and Epsom salts. Even that little bit of hiking she’d done had her aching. She turned to him. “Well—”
“Nikkie, I guess you know I’m attracted to you,” he said, cutting her off, “and I thought we’d have more of an opportunity to get to know each other this weekend, but, well”—he paused—“it just didn’t work out quite the way I hoped.”
So it wasn’t just about having dinner with a coworker in order not to eat alone, Nikkie happily realized. It’s all about me. Suddenly, her bones didn’t ache quite so much. Not that she was really attracted to Hal. While she could admire their good looks, white men just didn’t turn her on. But she’d been in New York for about a month now, and this was the most intimate discussion she’d had with a man. Good to know I’ve still got it.
“I’m usually not this direct with a woman, not that I’m a beat-around-the-bush kind of guy, but I’m usually pretty good with figuring out if a woman is interested in me or not, but I haven’t been able to figure you out,” Hal was saying. “So how about you let me take you to dinner so I can have more time to try and get a peg on you?” He flashed her his brilliant smile.
“And what if you find out I’m not interested in you?” Nikkie asked in a flirtatious voice.
“Well, then, so be it,” Hal said in his usual confident voice. “It would probably be the best thing, anyway, because if you were interested in me, and I was interested in you, well, then we’d be in danger of having an office romance. And you know those things don’t ever work out.” Nikkie gave him a puzzled look, causing him to laugh. “I’m just kidding. Do you like Mexican? Or would you rather Chinese?”
“Um, can I run upstairs, take a shower, and change first?” She actually couldn’t believe herself as she heard her own words. Why was she consenting? She didn’t really like him. Not like that. Maybe not at all after that “nigger” crack in the conference room a few days before. Still, it was nice to know that one of the most attractive guys at the firm—the company’s golden child, in fact—was interested in her. And there was no danger that anything would actually come of it, because, after all, she wasn’t into white guys. But it might be fun just to see what it would be like. Yeah, she decided, that’s why she was agreeing.
“Sure. In fact,” he asked, pausing, “how long do you think you’ll be?”
“Not more than forty-five minutes.”
“Good, that will give me enough time to drive home and change myself and grab a cab back over here. I hate driving in the city.”
This is a first, Nikkie thought while drying off after a quick shower. Going out with a white guy. Me. Going out with a white guy. A wave of guilt swept over her. Joseph would have a fit if he ever found out. For that matter, so would everyone else in the family. But then again, it wasn’t like it was really going to be anything between her and Hal. She wasn’t interested in Hal Richardson. Not like that. She’d never like a white guy like that. She knew who she was, even if no one else in New York did, and there were some lines she’d never cross, and one was going out with white guys. Well, she was going out with Hal, but she didn’t really like him, so that didn’t count, she reasoned. She was just going out for the fun of it. Just a lark.
The questions that she hadn’t been able to answer for Mrs. Randolph a few weeks before suddenly came back to he
r. How long was she planning on passing? And to what extent?
“You’re kidding, right? You’ve actually gone bungee jumping?”
Hal nodded his head.
Nikkie looked at him in amazement. “I don’t get it. Why the hell would you want to do something like that? Don’t you know people die doing it?”
Hal shrugged his shoulders. “The percentage of people who die in bungee-jumping accidents is really minute. I’m sure it’s less than one percent.”
Nikkie suddenly wondered what percentage of bungee jumpers were black, certain that this was pretty much another white phenomenon—which led her back to her belief that white folks do the stupidest things. “But can you explain why you would take the chance at all? I mean, what do you get out of it?”
“The rush,” Hal answered. “There’s a rush you get knowing that you’re doing something that goes against the laws of nature. Something that every instinct in your body tells you is dangerous. Being able to ignore that instinct, to overcome your fear, it makes you feel . . . I don’t know. It makes you feel like a superior being.”
Nikkie shrugged. “If you say so.”
“How about you come with me the next time I go skydiving? Then you’ll see what I mean.”
Nikkie snorted. “I know you’re crazy if you think I’m jumping out of a plane.”
Hal laughed. “But enough about me, tell me more about you, Miss Jensen.”
“There’s not much to tell. I’m from Detroit, and since I was a little girl, I dreamt about doing PR, and now here I am.”
Hal laughed. “When you say there’s not much to tell, you weren’t kidding, huh? Care to expand just a little more? For instance, tell me about your family.”
Nikkie’s heart quickened and she tried to keep her voice steady. No one had yet asked about her family, so this was the first time she was going to use the rehearsed story she’d come up with. “My parents and my older brother still live in Detroit. We kinda, you know, fell out, so I’m not really too much in touch with them.” She managed to get through it.
Hal put his hand over hers. “Would it be too personal a question to ask what you fell out over?”
“Well,” Nikkie said with a sigh, “it’s not really something I like talking about. I hope you understand.”
Hal nodded. “No problem. Maybe when we get to know each other better, you’ll feel comfortable talking about it.”
Maybe by the time I get to know you better, I’ll have come up with the rest of the story.
“Well, I hope they know how well you’re doing at the job. The way you’re going, you’ll be getting a promotion pretty soon. You shocked everyone with the Lucia Silver account. I mean, she’s not a big star now, but the girl has talent, so she might go far. And then getting the firm’s name mentioned in that photo with her and Cindy Statler”—he whistled—“that’s good stuff.”
Nikkie grinned. “Thanks. But come on, you know when it comes to getting accounts, no one can touch you.”
“Well,” Hal said modestly, “I’ve been at it longer.”
“I heard you made senior account executive faster than anyone in the history of the firm. And the word in the office is that they’re thinking about making you partner,” Nikkie said carefully.
“Hah! Don’t believe everything you hear.”
“Really? I mean, wouldn’t you like to be a partner?”
“Sure, but when it comes, it comes. I’m in no hurry,” he said too casually. Yeah, Nikkie thought, this is a man with huge ambition. Nothing wrong with that.
“So what are your future plans? Are you going to eventually open your own firm?”
Hal sighed. “Probably, but not anytime soon. I’m going to stick around Paxon and Green for a while longer, then take some time off, and then maybe hang out my shingle.”
“What are you going to do during that time off?” Nikkie asked, not really caring.
“I want to go on a couple of missions.”
“Missions?”
Hal nodded. “I’m a Mormon, a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints. We’re required to go on at least one mission. I did one right after my senior year at high school before I went off to college. I worked at a hospital in Somalia. It really changed my life.”
Nikkie’s eyes widened. “You went on a mission to Somalia? Get outta here!”
Hal chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t usually talk about it much. But like I said, that mission changed my life.” His tone turned somber. “It’s something to work with those people. Many of them were starving, all of them lived in poverty and squalor, but they had such pride about themselves. Do you know that even though they didn’t have any money, and the medical care was free, they insisted on giving some kind of payment? Sometimes it was a chicken, sometimes it was just a basket of eggs, or even just one egg. But they always tried to give something. And the ones that didn’t have anything else to give gave their time—volunteering at the hospital.” Hal shook his head. “It made me feel lousy, the way we take things for granted here in the States.”
“Wow.”
Hal grinned. “Hey, did I tell you I have two kids?”
Nikkie jerked her head back. “Really?”
“Yep.” Hal took his wallet out of his pocket and opened it to show Nikkie a picture of two young Somalian children—a boy and a girl who looked to be about eight or nine.
“That’s Abdul and Fatima. They’re brother and sister. He’s twelve and she’s eleven.”
Nikkie took another look at the picture. “They’re so small.”
Hal nodded. “They were malnourished, and actually this is the ‘after’ picture. The ‘before’ picture would make you cry. I started sponsoring them about two years ago.”
“Wow” was all Nikkie could say. Suddenly, she felt guilty about all the times she’d switched channels when those commercials came on about sponsoring children in underdeveloped countries.
“I’m trying to work it out with an organization now to bring them to the States, where they can get a good education.”
Nikkie slowly shook her head. This was a side of Hal she never thought existed. Deep down inside, it seemed, he was really a warm and sensitive guy. Not so much a Master of the Universe as much as a Lover of Humankind. “I woulda never have thunk it of you. Hal Richardson, you are full of surprises.”
Hal grinned. “But still an idiot?”
Nikkie blushed. “I told you I was only playing around. I’m really sorry about that.”
Hal shrugged. “I guess I did sound like a jerk. Just upset about the whole Beverly Rich thing. I still can’t believe she’s dating that . . .” He paused to choose his words carefully. “I can’t believe she’s dating that jerk.”
“Oh, Hal. Yanna would be so proud.”
They both started laughing.
“But listen, I don’t want you to think I’m some kind of racist. I’m not. Some of my best friends are black—”
Nikkie groaned. “I can’t believe you actually said that!”
Hal sat back in his chair and laughed. “Okay, but you know what I mean. There are good black people in the world, and there are bad black people . . .”
“There are good white people and bad white people, too,” Nikkie hurried to point out.
“You didn’t let me finish, but I was just going to say the same thing.” Hal smiled. “But, anyway, jerks like Boss Dawgee, well, that’s someone I have no problem calling a ‘nigger.’ ”
Nikkie shifted in her seat. She could see where Hal was coming from, but still, it didn’t sit right with her, listening to a white person using the “N” word.
“To me, he’s a disgrace to his race, his community, and, hell, especially to his parents,” Hal said, oblivious to Nikkie’s discomfort. “He’s not someone I think anyone in their right mind would want to claim as their own. You know he just got arrested again, right? He brought some ten-year-old girl on stage at his last concert and simulated having anal sex with her. The bastard.”
“Yeah, he’
s an awful guy.” And you’re at least borderline racist, even if you don’t realize it.
“People like him just need to be eliminated. And I would say that just as fast if he were a white guy, believe me. It’s not a race thing; it’s a human being thing.”
Hal shook his head. “And what gets me is Beverly was with this really great guy, Bob Harris, who loved the ground she walked on, and she dumped him for this guy? I just don’t understand some women.”
“I hear you,” Nikkie said simply. “I hear you.”
“You didn’t have to escort me home. I’m used to taking the subway by myself,” Nikkie said as they stood in front of her building.
“I wouldn’t hear of it,” Hal said. He reached out and stroked her cheek. “Besides, I want you to think I’m a gentleman.”
“Is that right?” Nikkie smiled.
“Yes, that’s right,” Hal answered softly.
“And why is that?”
“Because I want to make sure you say yes when I ask if I can take you out tomorrow night.”
“Well,” Nikkie said coyly, “I might if you ask me nicely.”
Hal smiled and leaned in and gave Nikkie a small kiss on the lips. “Was that nice enough?”
“Maybe,” Nikkie whispered. Okay, that wasn’t so bad.
“How about this?” Hal put his arm around Nikkie’s waist and gently pulled her into him, then planted a tender and lingering kiss on her lips.
A shiver went down Nikkie’s spine, and not the good kind. “I’d love to go out with you tomorrow night,” Nikkie said quickly as she extricated herself from Hal’s embrace. She ran up the steps of the apartment building after he left, wiping her mouth as she did so. No, she decided. She definitely couldn’t have a relationship with a white guy. She couldn’t even stand kissing one.
Chapter Fourteen
Either this is the ugliest jelly I’ve ever seen, or this has got to be caviar. Nikkie looked skeptically at the brownish globby substance in a golden glass bowl nestled in the middle of a golden tray on the buffet table. I’ve got to try it.
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