“Mom, are you sure you should be telling me all this? I’m starting to get the willies from you now too.”
She laughed out loud on the other end of the phone and that made me laugh, too.
“I’m sorry. You kids forget that your mother had a life before I met your father.”
I sat quietly on the end of the phone.
“Are you alright?” she asked me in that mom tone that almost brought tears to my eyes.
“Yeah. I’ll be okay.” I said. “It just sucks is all. Here we are grown women and this guy is playing this game that throws us back into high school he said she said mode. How dare he!”
“Well, I’m afraid it’s going to be a hard lesson for Natasha to learn. Be thankful he showed his true colors to you right off the bat. Now you know and you won’t be fooled. He can’t hurt you at all.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s right. Thanks for listening, mom. I better get going.”
“Sure, honey. And just remember, you’ve got your daddy’s money and your mama’s good looks. It may not be as much as Mr. Whats-his-name but it is something and people will always be a little jealous of it.”
“Natasha never was.”
“Well, if she knows you and feels about you the way you feel about her, this guy doesn’t stand a chance. He won’t win.”
“I hope you’re right, mom. I really do.”
“So what are you going to do now?”
“I need to take a shower. I feel the grossness of being around that guy all over me.”
“Do that. Take a nice hot shower and…what? I’m talking to Diamond. What? Oh, please will you…”
I knew immediately what was happening. My father was trying to talk to my mother while she was on the phone with me. Something about if I was coming home for the weekend, which he knew I wasn’t. He did this every time I called. Old dog and new tricks applied here.
“Tell Dad I’ll come home next weekend.” I said feeling the change in scenery would do me good.
“Yes. She heard you. Alright. She said she’ll be home next weekend. Okay. Can I finish talking to her please? Oh, that man. Sometimes…”
“Yeah, I’ll come home next weekend. Maybe there will be something new to report.”
“Oh, I hope so, honey. I do.”
After hanging up with my mom I started the water running in the shower. I know all etiquette books and girlfriend protocol dictated I should say nothing but I didn’t think I could do that.
Sooner or later Nat was going to ask w
hy I wasn’t calling or why we hadn’t seen each other in so long and I would just have to spill the beans. Even if that was what he wanted. I had to tell her what he said. But if he had this whole scene orchestrated to play out a certain way, I could sure throw a wrench into that. Just a little planning was all that would take.
MARTY
“You’ve got to start checking your calendar before you leave, Marty. This new system makes it too easy to miss something.” Denise said to me as I stared out the window.
“Yeah.” I replied. “I’ll try and start getting into that habit. Do I have the documents for the merger in Shanghai and the properties in… where are those new properties again?”
“Do you mean to tell me that you’ve forgotten the whereabouts of a forty-five million dollar purchase? It’s in Montreal, Canada. Remember? And yes, I told you I had put them both on your desk this morning.”
“What would I do without you, Denise?”
“Lose forty-five million dollars for starters.”
I laughed out loud.