Charles had just parked his car in front of his storefront office in downtown Jericho, when Jenay’s Mercedes drove up.  It parked beside Charles’s Jag, and the passenger window was pressed down.  Charles leaned inside.  When he saw that it was Donald behind the wheel, he bristled.  “Jenay know you’re driving her car?”

Donald smiled.  “Why are you worrying about her car?”

“Because I paid for it,” Charles shot back.  “Answer my question.”

“Of course she knows, Dad,” Donald said.  “Unlike you, she does let me drive it to take care of hotel business.”

“What business are you taking care of?  Other than flipping birds with your mouth.”

Donald laughed.  “I have a meeting with vendors, thank you very much.  A meeting I’m already late for.”

“You’re late?  Then what are you doing here if you’re late?”

That was when Donald’s cheeriness left.  And reality hit.  “I needed to tell you something, Daddy,” he said.

Charles waited for him to tell him.  It could be something major.  Or it could be a load of nonsense.  You could never tell with Donald.  But when he didn’t immediately get on with it, Charles stared at him.  He could see real concern on his son’s narrow face.  “What is it?” he asked him.

“It’s Ma,” Donald said.

Charles heart began to tighten.  “What about her?”

“She’s over at the Inn with some dude.”

Charles frowned.  “What do you mean with some dude?  What’s that supposed to mean?”

“She’s at the Inn with some great-looking, tall black dude like I said,” Donald said.  Then he added the crucial point: “She was crying, and they were holding hands.”

When Charles heard that she was crying, his heart dropped.  When he heard that some other man was comforting her, his anger flared.  And without asking Donald another question, he got back into his Jag, backed up, and sped off.

Donald watched his father leave.  He watched him wondering if he would ever feel for a woman as strongly as his father felt for Jenay.

But he didn’t wonder long.  He had a meeting to attend.  He took off too.

 

By the time Charles arrived at the Inn, he had tried to call Jenay five times.  Each time, her phone went to Voice Mail.  On his last try, he tossed his phone on the passenger seat in frustration.   He picked it up again when he pulled in under the portico at the Inn, got out, and casually made his way inside.

He wore sunglasses, and purposely kept them on to shield the concern in his eyes, as he made his way through the lobby.  He forgot to ask Donald where he’d seen them, but assumed it was probably around the lobby area.  But he didn’t see Jenay, nor anyone matching the description of the guy.  He made his way to the front desk.

Becky Hamlisch was already blushing as soon as she saw him get out of his car.  She was a desk clerk with a monster crush on Charles.  Donald often teased her about it, and even Jenay knew about it.  But she couldn’t help it.  Her boss’s husband was her idea of an ideal man.

But even though people might have suspected she had a crush on Charles, she did everything in her power to hide her interest, to deny it, and to deflect it.  She wasn’t stupid.  If Mrs. Sinatra felt she was getting a little too familiar with her man, she’d be out on her rear.  Her strategy, instead, was simple.  Smile, be nice, and pay attention.  She’d done it before in her life, and it worked.  She was counting on it working again.

“Hello, Mr. Sinatra,” Becky said with a big smile.  “Welcome to the Inn.  How are you doing this fine day?”

Charles, however, had little patience for gold-diggers, and that was how he absolutely saw that little vixen.  “I’m okay,” he said without displaying it.  “Is my wife in her office?”

“No, sir.”

“Well do you know where she is?”

“No, sir.  But I’m sure she’s around here somewhere.  I saw Donald, I mean, Mr. Sinatra, take her car to go to a meeting.”  Donald was Becky’s supervisor.  She’d been warned, repeatedly, about calling him by his first name.

But what that woman called his son was the last thing on Charles’s mind.  Jenay was on his mind, and where in the world she was.  If she’d been crying, he wanted to know why.  He removed his shades.

Becky, seeing what appeared to her to be distress in his eyes, decided to give it a gentle nudge.  “I can check and see if she has her walkie talkie with her,” she said, although she knew Jenay didn’t have it with her.

“You do that,” Charles said, and watched as Becky grabbed her walkie talkie and pressed Jenay’s number.

“Mrs. Sinatra?  Mrs. Sinatra?”  Nothing.  “Mrs. Sinatra, this is the front desk.  Do you copy?”  Still nothing.

And Becky decided to go for it.  “If you would like, sir,” she said, “we could go up on the floors and do a room-to-room search.  I’m sure she’s in one of them.”

Charles looked angrily at Becky.   He was already frustrated enough that Jenay wasn’t where he could get his hands on her, and now this chick was bugging him too?  “What the fuck I need you to take me into hotel rooms for?” he asked, a frown on his face.  “You do your job,” he added, “and taking me in some room ain’t it.”  Then he left the lobby, and headed into the adjacent restaurant.

When he looked around, only a handful of customers were having their meals.  But no sign of Jenay.  No sign of some great-looking, tall black dude, as Donald described him, either.  And only one restaurant employee was languishing around, a girl named Bev, but she was another chick he tended to steer clear of.  He, instead, walked into the kitchen where he knew Jenay’s top chef, and best friend, was working.

Norm saw him coming as he stirred his big pot of pasta.  His sous chefs were busy, too, but all of them took the time to greet Charles.  Although Jenay was technically the boss around the Inn, they all knew Charles was the owner.  Jenay was the owner, too, thanks to Charles, but none of the employees, most of whom were there before Jenay was there, saw it that way.

Norm assumed somebody had ran and told Charles all about Jenay’s visitor today.  And if he had to lay bets on whom, his money would be on Donald.  He’d never seen a group of men who were more daddy’s boys than those Sinatras.

“Hello, Norm,” Charles said as he approached.

“Hello, Charles.”  He was the only member of the staff allowed to have liberties with his bosses.  “What are you doing here?” Although Norm knew full well.

“I’m looking for Jenay.  You’ve seen her?”

Norm nodded.  “Yes, I did. Earlier.”

“Where was she?”

“In the restaurant.  We were talking and drinking coffee during my break.”

“Just the two of you?”

Norm knew what he was asking.  “Initially, yes,” he said.  “But you needn’t worry, Charles.  She’s not in trouble, or anything like that.”

“I was told she was crying, and some guy was there.”

“Black guy?” Norm asked.  “Good looking?”

Charles nodded.  “You know him?”

Norm hesitated.  He really did not want to get up in Jenay’s business.  But Charles deserved an explanation.  “Luis?” he yelled to one of his sous chefs.

Luis hurried over.  “Yes, sir?”

“Manage these pots until I get back.”

“Yes, sir.”

Norm removed his apron and, with Charles, walked out of a side door that led into the back side of the Inn.  He pulled out a cigarette.

“What is it?” Charles impatiently asked him.

“The guy’s name is Percy,” Norm said, pulling out a liter.  “Percy Diallo.  She left with him.”

Charles frowned.  “Left to go where?”

“That I don’t know,” Norm said as he lit his cigarette.  “But I know Percy.”

“Jenay knows him?”

Norm nodded.  “She knows him, yes.  He used to be her fiancé.”

This shocked the shit out of Charles, and Norm immediately realized it.  Jenay had obviously not told him.

“Her fiancé?” Charles asked.

Norm nodded as he took a long drag on his cigarette.  “They were really in love.  At least that’s what we all thought.  But then he took a trip to his home country, to Botswana, to visit his family.  And everything just stopped.”

“What do you mean everything stopped?”

“He disappeared.  No phone calls.  No letters.  Jenay tried to contact his folks in Africa.  She even contacted the American embassy to see what they could do to find him.  But they said he wasn’t on any missing persons list or anything tangible that they could go by.  Maybe he just went home.  Maybe he doesn’t want to be located.  Maybe he had no interest in returning to the U.S., or to her.”

Charles could see the sadness in Norm’s eyes, as if he was reliving that time in his memory.  “Whatever the reason he stayed away, the point is, he stayed away.  And it broke Jenay’s heart.”

Charles’s own heart dropped.  “She loved the guy that much?”

“She loved him very much.  They were going to be married, of course she loved him.  Jenay didn’t play with people’s emotions.”  Then a look of anger crossed his face.  “But they sure as hell played with hers.”

Charles could take that many ways.  But he knew Norm.  He took the way it was intended: not to include Charles.  “And she left with the guy?” Charles asked.  “The guy that broke her heart?”

Norm nodded again.  “He just showed up out of the blue, so yeah, I assume so.  I guess she wants answers, and they needed somewhere private to talk other than at her place of employment.  She wanted to know what the fuck happened.  Wouldn’t you?”

Charles couldn’t begin to answer a question like that.  A joker left him dangling, he would have moved the hell on.  “They left in his car?”

“I don’t know whose car they left in or anything like that,” Norm said.  “I was back in the kitchen by then.  Bev told me they left.  But Percy won’t hurt her or anything like that.  He’s some very respectable guy in the African diplomatic corp.  He’s no bum off the street.”  Then Norm was blunt.  “In terms of her safety, she’s in good hands.”

If that was supposed to alleviate Charles’s fears, it didn’t work.  The only hands he wanted his wife in were his.  But he thanked Norm anyway and made his way around the backside of the Inn toward the portico.  His face looked grim and he put back on his shades in an attempt to conceal just how grim he felt.  He was in a mood that even he couldn’t describe.  That sense of urgency was still there.  Regardless of Jenay’s history with the guy, he didn’t like her going off with anybody he didn’t personally know.

But there was also a sense of fear.  Of the unknown.  Jenay never mentioned this guy.  Never once.  She, in fact, gave him the impression that after her devastating divorce from her ex, she wasn’t interested in any deep relationship.  Now he just found out that she not only was in a deep relationship, but had accepted a proposal of marriage?  Of marriage?  Charles was floored.

He got in his car, and was about to call Brent to tell him to put out a BOLO on Jenay, when his phone rang.  When he looked at the Caller ID, and saw who was calling him, he answered quickly.  “Where are you?” he asked.

“I’m in the executive breakroom,” she said.  “Where are you?”

“Out front.  At the Inn.  Norm thought you had left the premises.”

“I thought you would still be asleep.”

He should have been.  But he couldn’t sleep much pass nine.  He had been away for three days, and had to hit the road again by the weekend.  He had too much to do.

“Can you come up?” she asked him.

For some reason Charles’s heart squeezed with fear.  He could hear the emotion in her voice.  And he couldn’t even bring himself to ask her why.  “Yes,” he said, got out of the car, and headed upstairs.