Got to Be Love

by Vanessa Miller

  They sat down at the table. David said, “Don’t you attend Christ Life withe Toya and Jarrod?”

  “Yes, sir, I certainly do. And we have the best pastors in the world, who also happen to be Toya’s mother and Jarrod’s father.”

  “Weird how that happened, huh?” Before waiting for her response, he asked, “Don’t they teach forgiveness over at Christ Life?”

  “Hey,” she protested. “I’m a forgiving person. I just don’t like people messing with me.”

  “Isn’t that the point of forgiving... the person messed with you in some way, and instead of hating on them, you do what the Bible instructs.”

  Gina avoided eye contact with David and started eating her food because she didn’t have an answer to his question. In truth, someone had in fact, messed with her, and even though she truly loved God, she still hadn’t been able to forgive. So, what did that say about her? “Mmmh, my God, this is good. Have you always been able to cook like this?”

  “Since I was a boy in my grandmother’s kitchen. Nana taught me well. After football, I went to culinary school and learned a few other techniques.”

  “I didn’t get that cooking gene from my grandmother nor my mother. I mostly just sat in the kitchen for moral support.”

  “What? You can’t cook? How do you feed yourself?”

  “Takeout. And I hope you’re going to let me take some of this food home with me.”

  “That depends on how our meeting goes?” David joked.

  But his comment brought Gina back to reality. She was here for a purpose, so she needed to get down to business. But the mac and cheese on her plate was calling for her. She took a few more bites then put down her fork. “First, I want to thank you for giving me this assignment. I have been praying and sending out proposals in order to get new clients, and I’m just grateful for this opportunity.”

  “But...”

  “But, I’m concerned about what Katie told me.”

  David slid his chair back; his body went stiff. “What concerns you?”

  His body language told her that he wasn’t happy to be talking about this at all. But she had to make sure she wasn’t working for a monster. “The thing is, the details of what happened to your accuser are awful. And to be honest with you, I don’t think I could respect nor work with a man who could do something like that to a woman. So, I really need to know the truth about the situation.”

  “And the reason it concerned you is that you think I’m the kind of guy who would do something like that, right?”

  “No, actually, I have always thought of you as the pretend-to-love-‘em and then leave-‘em kind of guy. I would have never pegged you as an abuser. I want to believe you didn’t do it, but then I’m reminded of that Panthers football player who had his girlfriend killed because she was pregnant, and he didn’t want to pay child support. So, it does happen.”

  David pounded the table with his fist. “It doesn’t happen with me. That’s not who I am!”

  “Then why is this woman blackmailing you? Why would she accuse you of such a thing with no reason?”

  “I wish I knew.” David jerked away from the table as he stood up. He paced the floor like a grizzly marking his territory. “I only went out with her a couple of times. I thought things were going good. I actually thought we hit it off, I had even been thinking about taking our relationship to the next level. The next thing I knew she showed up at my office in Dallas and told Katie that I beat her.”

  “Wait... wait. You just skipped over something very important. When did you find out about the baby?”

  David shook his head and his hands at the same time. “She never told me anything about a baby. But the hospital records she gave to Katie showed that she had indeed lost a baby. But it wasn’t mine.”

  “How can you be so sure. I mean, you were dating her, correct?” If Gina knew anything about David Pittman is was that he was fond of the ladies and made his move quick. And then, of course, he forgot he ever knew them.

  “And my dating her means I obviously must have slept with her, right?”

  “Well yeah.” He sounded so angry. But Gina didn’t understand his anger, that had been his MO. Not just in college, because she also remembered reading about his exploits while playing professional ball.

  “I have been celibate for the past two years.” He sat back down at the table, slumped in his seat and stared at her.

  Gina was taking a sip of her tea. She almost choked on it and had to spit it out. “I’m sorry.” She took a napkin and tipped her mouth and the table. “Excuse me? What did you just say?”

  “You heard me.”

  “But did I hear you right? Did you really just tell me that you gave up sex two years ago?” Her mouth hung open as she waited for a response.

  He just nodded.

  “And you’re not lying?” She just couldn’t believe this.

  “I gave up lying and drinking too,” he told her matter-of-factly.

  She could hardly believe what she was hearing. The only people she knew who willingly gave up sex, lying and drinking were Christians. “Wait... are you saved?”

  David doubled over laughing. As he laughed, he pointed at her and laughed some more.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Wait... wait... wait.” He tried to stop laughing, as he said, “You should have seen your face. Like you couldn’t believe that God would want to ‘save’ me.” He lifted his hands and shook his fingers as if giving praise to God when he said the word ‘save’.

  “I never said that.”

  “Oh, but it was implied.” David tsk-tsked at her, then said, “Growing up, I never fully understood what the church folk meant when they said that this person or that person was saved. I always wanted to know, saved from what? I can’t tell you how many times I asked my grandmother about that.” Looking off as if thinking about a distant memory, one that made him smile, “She would say, ‘saved from the world. Now, go somewhere and play, boy’.”

  “You grew up in church?”

  “I wouldn’t say I grew up in church because my mom and dad were more like Christmas and Easter churchgoers until about ten years ago. But I spent weekends with my grandmother a couple times a month, that’s when I went to church. Grandma Patty taught me a lot about the Bible. I could even recite all sixty-six books of the Bible by the time I was fifteen.”

  “Wow! That’s quite an accomplishment. I wouldn’t be able to recite all those books if someone offered to pay me. Shame.”

  “Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, Deuteronomy...”

  “Okay, okay, you don’t have to be a showoff,” Gina interrupted him. “We will just make a note that you are good at everything. A true renaissance man.”

  “Well, you know, what can I say.” He flexed his muscles, showing off biceps and triceps.

  The man certainly hadn’t gone to flab after hanging up his cleats, that’s for sure. Gina was actually enjoying her time with David, and from the exchange they had at the wedding, she really didn’t think it would be possible to enjoy spending time with a man like David. But maybe, she needed to readjust the way she thought of David because clearly, he was not the same immature guy she met back in college. “So, what changed?”

  With a raised eyebrow, David said, “I’m not sure what you mean?”

  “Well, you were obviously a grandmama’s boy, in the kitchen cooking with her, going to church and learning the books of the Bible for her. But you didn’t seem anything like that in college.”

  Lifting a finger to correct her, he said, “I was still a grandmama’s boy until the day Grandma Patty went home to be with the Lord, and I do sometimes feel her presence when I’m in the kitchen whipping up a new creation. But to be honest with you, I did lose a piece of myself and it started in college.

  “I had my first drink during my freshmen year, and it was downhill from there. I would have blackouts and do outrageous things while drinking.” He turned and looked directly into Gina’s eyes. “Do yo
u want to know why it was so important that I attend Jarrod’s wedding even though this messy situation had just reared its ugly head?”

  “Yes, I think I would like to know.” Gina was seeing another side of David. A side that she was really beginning to enjoy hanging out with.

  “Since I was this big-time football superstar,” lifting his hands, he put ‘superstar’ in air quotation marks “I got away with a lot of bad behavior. But the moment I wasn’t running down the field with that football and scoring the winning touchdown for my team, my behavior was no longer acceptable. But, I didn’t know how to stop being who I had become. I’d get drunk and get into fights, get thrown out of bars. I’d wake up with some woman I didn’t remember, that was awkward.

  “Then, each time I tried to re-enter this world I thought I knew I kept getting rejected. It was no to a coaching job, no to a TV analysis job, it was painful, but I took the blows and kept drinking. Until one day, I found myself at my grandmother’s funeral so drunk that my mother had the ushers throw me out of the church. I sat on the church steps crying like a baby. Because I wanted to change but I didn’t know how.”

  Gina couldn’t believe what she was hearing. People think the rich have it made, but David truly struggled to find his way. She didn’t tell him any of her thoughts because she didn’t want to interrupt the story.

  He continued, “While on those steps, the door of the church opened. Jarrod walked out and came to sit next to me. I hadn’t seen him in years. The only thing I’d ever done was send him free tickets to games when we were playing anywhere close to Michigan, and he never asked for anything more.”

  “Jarrod’s a good guy,” Gina said.

  “He’s one of the best,” David agreed. “I don’t know how he found out about my grandmother’s death, but he came to see about me because he knew what that woman meant to me. That’s the day that life began to make sense to me. He told me that he’d been praying for me. I don’t remember all his words that day because I was wasted. But I remember us praying together and I remembering calling on Jesus and asking Him to be my savior. So, yes, Gina, I am saved. I’m blood bought. I was even baptized again. All thanks to Jarrod, so I wasn’t about to miss his wedding.”

  When he finished speaking, Gina nodded. “I believe you. But now we need to figure out why this woman would lie on you before she stirs up more trouble and costs you this cooking show.”

  “She’s already stirring up more trouble.” David showed Gina a text message on his phone. “She’s threatening to go to the media.”

  9

  THE TEXT MESSAGE READ: “I guess you think I’m playing with yo’ black behind. But I will put you on blast. CNN and our local news station are just a phone call away.”

  “She doesn’t mention anything about money in that text. Nor does she say anything about what she wants. Are you just supposed to guess?” Gina asked.

  “She already told Katie that she wanted two million. I don’t think she wants to put that in writing for fear that I might show it to the police.”

  “And the sad thing about it is if she really had been hurt the way she claimed, you’d think she would have gone to the police rather than trying to get money out of you.” As she said those words, she was reminded of the day she had gone to the ER because she’d been beaten. She hadn’t reported Marvel to the police either, but that was because she was terrified of the man. As she endured the pain from her broken arm, she plotted how she could escape to a place where Marvel wouldn’t find her.

  “The thing that gets me is I was finally a gentleman with a woman. I didn’t try to kiss her, to get her in bed, none of that. I took her out on a few dates and really tried to get to know who she was and the things she enjoyed. Then boom, she wants my money for something I didn’t do.”

  Tapping a finger to her chin, Gina tried to think this through until her head hurt. She reached in her purse for the Advil. “We don’t need to figure that woman’s deal out right now. But we do need to get started on your campaign for The Grind.”

  “Oh, so I passed your inquisition? You’re going to continue working with me?”

  “No need to rub it in. I shouldn’t have pre-judged you; I apologize for that.” She took her Advil and then held out a hand to him. “Truce?”

  He shook her hand. “Truce.”

  Getting down to business, she pulled out her notepad and pen. “Tell me why you picked Alzheimer as the charity you want to represent?”

  “Oh, that’s easy. My dad. He always seemed so strong to me. Best man I ever met. When Alzheimer hit, it broke my heart. I’d give anything to find a cure for this disease.”

  “Oooh, that was good.” Gina jotted down a few notes. “Say it just like that when the judges ask you about it.”

  He gave her the hand on that comment. “Are you suggesting that I use my father’s illness to advance my career?”

  Looking a little sheepish, she told him, “It sounds bad when you put it that way. But you’re the one who picked Alzheimer's because it’s something you’re passionate about. And the charity you highlight on The Grind should be something you’re passionate about. They will ask you why you picked that charity, so you need to be comfortable talking about your father and relate him to this illness.”

  “I haven’t been comfortable with this thing called Alzheimer since it zapped the life my father used to know right out of his head.”

  “Keep in mind that half of that fifty thousand dollars prize will go to the winner’s charity. That money could do a lot of good. It may not help your father, but think of other families that might not have to deal with what you all have if more research could be done or more marketing to at-risk families.”

  “I hear you. Basically, I’m just being selfish.”

  “I wouldn’t call you selfish. This issue hits hard. But you’ve hired me to help build your brand nationally. And I am giving you my professional opinion, which is, if Alzheimer is your charity then you have to talk about your father. I even think we should get some live shots with you and your father and have them aired on the show. You want to win, then this is what we have to do. Or you can pick a different charity.”

  Leaning back in his seat again, David stared at Gina for a long moment. “You don’t believe in sugar-coating it for a brother, do you?”

  Scrunching her nose, she shook her head. “I’ve always been a straight shooter. I have to tell it like it is, in as few words as possible. Can you work with someone like me?”

  “As long as you have my best interest and my family's best interest in mind, then I can work with you.”

  “Trust me, David. I would never do anything that would hurt you or your father. If you allow us to highlight him for The Grind, I promise it will be done in the most tasteful manner that allows him to hold onto his dignity. Because I know how hard it is when parents get ill and can’t help themselves anymore. I’m selling my car so I can pay my father’s hospital bills and keep them in my childhood home. So, I get it.”

  He looked at her as if he finally saw her. “You do get it, don’t you?”

  DAVID WAS MESMERIZED by Gina. She handled her business and still managed to think of others. In his world, the type of women he ran into wanted him to buy them a luxury car, they weren’t selling their car to help their parents with hospital bills.

  His friends only ran into gold-digging women too. But he guessed that was the nature of the beast. When women saw athletes, they saw dollar signs, they saw an instant monthly check for eighteen years. David was only thankful that he’d never been trapped into that baby mama drama. But his friend Bill hadn’t been so lucky. He was paying child support for five kids by three different baby mamas and they were constantly going back and forth to court trying to up his support even though he was paying about two thousand a month for each kid.

  “I love my kids, but these women.” Bill shook his head. “They trying to drain me.”

  David was at his restaurant in Ann Arbor again with Bill. He hadn’t seen his
buddy in a few months and was happy to catch up with him, but he didn’t have much sympathy for the situation. “You should have kept them pants on and you wouldn’t be shelling out money like you Bank of America or something. Them women don’t even care that you ain’t bringing in bank like that no more.”

  “Tell me about it. My youngest child’s mama asked the judge to make me go back to football. Like I wouldn’t still be playing if I hadn’t broken both my knees and my right foot. I’m walking around with so many replacement parts that I get pulled aside at the airport on the regular.”

  They both laughed at that. Then David said, “That’s what you get. Yo’ three hundred pound self was always putting your full weight on people. That’s why them knees kept hitting the ground.”

  “That was my job, and I did it well. But I don’t deserve what these women are doing to me. My ex-wife is trying to get her hands on my pension, so once I’m done paying her child support and I’m finally able to collect my pension, she’ll be getting part of that.”

  “Word? I didn’t know these women could get hold of the pension. I thought she still had to be married to you.”

  Bill rolled his eyes, “My dumb self stayed married to the Wicked-One,” his term of endearment for his ex and the mother of his first two children, “for ten years, which apparently might be all she needs to lay her grubby hands on my pension.”

  “See, stuff like that makes me glad I’m celibate.”

  “Celi-what?”

  “You heard me, I’m celibate and have been for the past two years.”

  Bill turned, looking around the restaurant. Then he turned back to David with a look of astonishment on his face. “How come I’m just now hearing about this?”

  “It’s not something that I shout to the world. But I take my faith seriously and have decided to honor God by waiting until I find a woman to marry before I have sex again. Besides, I’ve been there, done that, and have had enough sex for three lifetimes already. I can wait and do things right this time.”