CHAPTER 7
IT TOOK HIM ONLY TWO DAYS of wrangling with his pride to dial her number.
But it wouldn’t connect. It was a prepaid cell number so it wasn’t searchable.
Swallowing his pride, he finally went to see Tommy who’d been calling him all week. Calls that he all ignored.
The Shooter bar was full that night. He immediately felt suffocated. The carefree female laughter, the scent of smoke, the atmosphere of total relaxation made him jumpy, as if it was a deception, a decoy, and any moment the entire place will blow up.
Fuck, he needed to see his shrink. He knew what it was. Usually, after a tour, he would meet with one of the shrinks assigned to Air Force combat pilots and de-clog his mind of desert filth. He’d skipped that this time, even if it was mandatory. He’d broken a lot of rules in his profession.
No amount of expensive psychiatry can erase all that he’d done and seen, anyway. Too horrible to put in words. Only time. Maybe. Or maybe he was stuck with it till the end.
“Man, where the fuck have you been? Been calling you!”
Tommy gave him a bear hug. They did the usual brotherly fist bump and shoulder-clapping.
“I’m so fuck happy you showed up, bro! You’ve been missing a lot of action! C’mon, let’s go to the bar.” Tommy was in his element, the king of the Miami club circuit.
They made their way to the bar amid bodies wrapped in skin-tight sorry excuse for dresses they might as well be naked. Some deliberately rubbed their saline-bloated assets on him. He avoided looking anybody in the eye to acknowledge their blatant flirting. His cock was not interested. Strange. And not good.
Tommy went inside the bar counter to personally serve him his usual drink, Jameson on the rocks. “Place’s packed tonight. Seen anybody you like?”
He shook his head. “Not here for that.”
Tommy leaned closer and peered at his face. “Man, you okay? You injured or something?”
“No. No. Just not up to it tonight…But I’m looking for Andi.”
“Andi?”
“Yeah, the one you sent me last week.”
Tommy had this blank look on his face. “I didn’t send anyone. The chicks I was meaning to send over to you place both came down with a bug. I was calling you but you weren’t answering.”
That whole week, he didn’t want any disturbance. He didn’t take any calls except from Bella. Thank fuck none of his superiors bothered him.
“But you know Andi? Andrea?”
Tommy shook his head. “Nope. I don’t know anybody named Andi.”
“Then who…?”
“Wait, somebody named Andi came to your apartment? Did you bone her?”
He gave Tommy a sharp look. He didn’t like him talking about Andi like she was his usual lay. That girl was a virgin. But he didn’t need to tell Tommy that. Obviously, Andi hadn’t passed through Tommy’s dick, for which he was strangely grateful. He’d probably not like the comparison. Or just the thought of another man doing the things he did to Andi made him think of raining tons of ordnance. Yeah, that girl made him think of violence not related to his job.
“You really don’t know her? Hasn’t she been in any of your clubs?”
“Nope. You’re hankering for an encore with her, Walker. She must be a knock-out. I would definitely remember someone you can’t forget, man.”
He could feel his pulse picking up, his heart pounding in rising anger. The bitch. She gave him a wrong number.
She really didn’t want to see him again.
He didn’t want to acknowledge it but… Shit, that hurt. His ego, yeah. How could she not want to see him again when every fiber in his being was missing her like hell so soon? It wasn’t fair that he was left in this fucking misery alone.
He indulged in a few more drinks with Tommy. His friend talked about the usual stuff, his investments, his exotic cars, his women.
His mind was elsewhere.
He left the bar early despite the bevy of new faces Tommy called to their table to entertain them. He could see the desire in their eyes, their fascination of him when Tommy mentioned he was a combat pilot. Yeah, women would always flip for that. He would only mention Iraq and they’d all want to take care of him like he was some poor, wounded soldier in need of babying and a lot of sex to cure his loneliness from the tour. He would have obliged their curiosity of his dick if not for that little goddess he’d consumed last week which left him sexually hung over so bad he wanted to break something.
So how was he supposed to find her now?
And who was she that she had access to his apartment? She was sleeping in his bedroom like he owned the place when he found her.
Then it dawned on him.
Shit!
——*****——
“What do you mean you haven’t heard of her? She was in my apartment, Bella.”
He was talking to his sister on the phone.
“What?! Who could that be? I don’t know any Andi. The one I hired to clean your apartment was a middle-aged Filipino lady named Frida. She owns the cleaning business I’ve contracted to clean your apartment twice a month since early this year. Is everything okay? Did they mess up anything in your apartment? Was anything stolen?”
“No, nothing like that. Okay, just give me Frida’s number. Maybe she knows Andi.”
“Craig, why are you looking for this girl? Is there something you need to tell me? Hmm?”
As he was jotting down Frida’s number, he could almost see his sister’s nosy face sniffing at him like a bomb-detecting dog. She’d been matchmaking for him for years. He’d fucked all the ladies she’d introduced to him of course, so as not to waste their time trying to impress him, and then he went back to the desert without a backward glance, to Bella’s disappointment.
“Nothing. Okay, I’ll call you Bee—”
“Wait, when are you coming to visit us? The twins miss you.”
He smiled at the mention of his identical twin nieces.
“I’ll drop by in a few days.”
“Hun, where are you going next?”
“Most probably still in the UAE. Unless they move my squadron elsewhere.” The USAF had been using an air base in the United Arab Emirates as a launching pad for Eagles, Vipers and Raptors.
“But you fly over Syria?”
“Yes.”
“I heard it’s really bad out there. I watch the news.”
“Not as bad as it was in Iraq in the past years, Bee. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
“Promise? Promise you’d always come back to us.”
“You know I can’t promise that.”
He heard her deep sigh. “Come by soon, okay? I miss you.”
“Yeah. I gotta go. I’ll call you.”
——*****——
Andi jumped, awakened by the shrill ringing of the phone beside her. She’d been manning the line at her aunt’s little office right beside Frida’s house because Greta, the secretary and also her BFF was on vacay. She didn’t know she’d dozed off at the table. She barely had a wink last night. Why she couldn’t sleep the past three days was due to the fact that her head was full of flashbacks of her recent walk on the wild side.
“Oh god, leave me alone. Enough of the freaking hotness hangover already. I got better things to do, like answer the damn phone,” she grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
She picked up the phone. “Frida’s Cleaning Service,” she uttered in a sleepy voice.
There was a pause on the other line. Then came the voice that she’d hoped to forget but just couldn’t. Not so soon. “Andi?”
She went cold all over. Then hot. She covered her mouth as her breathing escalated till she felt she was going to faint. How did he find her?!
“Andi, is that you?”
Thinking quickly, she used her acting talent. Yup, she used to have aspirations of becoming an actress when things became hard for them in the Philippines. That was a quick ticket for most Amerisian (Half-American/half Asian) young women like her, get discovered for TV or movies. She’d even joined beauty contests and talent shows for kids to augment her mother’s meager income as a hair dresser.
Mimicking Greta’s heavy Puerto Rican accent and her tone of voice, she replied, “I’m sorry but you may be calling the wrong number. There’s no Andi working here.” She dragged the Rs exaggeratedly.
“Ah…No, I think I have the right number. May I speak with Frida Alonzo instead?”
Oh shit! Trouble. She could lie, but that would be putting her aunt’s business in a bad light. A client was calling, for pete’s sake! “Uhm, she’s not here right now. She’ll be back later. Do you want to leave a message?”
“I really wanna talk to her. Does she have a cellphone?”
“Sorry, mister, I can’t give you her private number.”
“I understand. Okay, please tell her Craig Walker called. This is my number. Jot this down.”
“Okay…” She pretended to have a pen and paper in hand. “Your number?”
He dictated to her his phone number.
“Listen, it’s important that I talk to Frida. Will you tell her to call me back within the day?”
“Okay, I will. Thanks. Is there anything else?”
“No. Thanks. Bye.”
She dropped the phone and sagged weakly on the swivel chair.
Panic followed.
Why was he calling? Why was he looking for her Aunt Frida? Oh God, did something go wrong at his apartment? She was always careful, had always double-checked the power and gas switches, always made sure all the faucets were turned off. What could it be? But she had been with him the whole week and everything seemed fine.
She had to talk to her aunt. If he called the office again and someone else answered, they would lead him directly to Frida, especially if he introduced himself as one of their valued clients who happened to give huge tips. Well, at least, Bella did.
And you got a fat thirty grand for your sexual services.
She cringed. If he ever got ahold of her aunt and mentioned that tidbit to her…
She covered her face and groaned.
——*****——
“You did what?!”
Andi winced, keeping her head bowed. She knew a tongue-lashing was coming. Her Aunt Frida was her second mother, well, first actually as her biological mother loved her lovers more than her children. Whereas Flora, her mother, was the quintessential dreamer, no, fool (to dream of lovers coming back to marry you, pining for them, looking for their presence in other men, that’s pure lunacy, period), Frida was the polar opposite of her older sister.
Frida had worked as a domestic helper in Singapore first, then was able to get an employer in Canada. From Canada, Frida immigrated to the USA when she married a Puerto Rican US migrant. Her aunt had more common sense than her mother can ever hope to have.
“You slept with Craig Walker?!”
She bit her tongue from saying “As if you could say no if you were not married and he came on to you.”
“Por Dios, Andrea! I thought you were different from you mother!”
That stung. She WAS different from her mother. She will not pine for her first lover. In fact, if he hadn’t called, she won’t even give him a thought.
Yeah, right.
“I thought you were saving yourself for marriage? Where did your morals suddenly go?”
She couldn’t recall uttering those cheesy shit. Saving herself for her husband! How sweet! How foolish, too! Before she’d get married, she intended to be experienced in the sack so her husband, IF she’d ever marry at all, will not have any reason to seek sexual solace from other women.
“Haven’t I told you often enough? Take care of yourself! Your virginity is the most precious thing you can give your husband!”
You would think her aunt had spent most of her adult life in the Victorian Era, not in modern day America. Seriously, her lost V-card was the least of her concerns right now. But she dared not make any side comments.
“And why did it have to be one of our high-paying clients from Miami Beach?! You knew my business is still building a reputation over there!”
“Don’t worry, Auntie, he doesn’t know we’re related. And it’s better if you don’t mention it to him if he calls. Even better if you don’t tell him you know someone named Andi.”
“And now you’re asking me to lie to a valued client!”
She shrugged. “Well, Craig Walker hated the housekeeper Andi.”
“And why’s that? What did you do?”
“I moved some of his stuff. He didn’t like that. He’s kind of an OC or something.”
Frida groaned in further dismay. “But if he asks who was that girl who cleaned his house, what will I tell him? I can’t lie to him. He entrusted his property to my company. I could be liable if he has complaints.”
“Just tell him a different name and that she moved to another city, or whatever. Nothing’s happened to his apartment, I swear.”
“How can you be so sure?”
She sighed. Her aunt was being too reactive about it and she hated to be discussing the matter further. “He’s just calling to probably have an encore with me,” she said bluntly.
Frida looked at her blankly, then turned pink when comprehension sank. “Andi, what has happened to you? We were okay, right? Was there something you weren’t telling me about? Is something bothering you? Tell me. This is not you, hija.”
“Everything’s fine. I’m fine. Really.”
“But why did you do it? Please, tell me he’s your boyfriend, at least?”
She could hardly tell Frida how her one-week affair with Craig Walker started. Her aunt would be horrified and might do rash decisions like telling her Uncle Reno who was quite protective of her and Craig Walker will be in trouble. That, she didn’t want to happen. It was consensual sex. Not in the beginning, but in the middle all through the end, it was.
“Actually Auntie, I’ll be honest. It was more out of practicality than old-fashioned sentiments. He paid me thirty thousand dollars to sleep with him.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely how it happened, but it was close. She had to edit her story to minimize the drama.
Frida looked horrified. “He…he paid you?! What…My God, Andrea! This is insane! I did not raise you to be a…a…”
“Please, don’t say it. It was just one-time.”
Her aunt clenched her jaw to hold her emotions in but lost it. Now, she was crying, mourning her virginity like it was her own. “Oh god, where did I go wrong? I thought I raised you well! I’m a failure as a mother! This is my fault!”
“It had nothing to do with you, Auntie. I need the money. It would cover my entire year at uni and I won’t have to work part-time next year. I can concentrate on my exams and I’d have extra to send back home. Abby is entering college soon too and I want her to go to a good one.”
“You sold your dignity for tuition?!”
“Why not? I was gonna give it for free to some guy anytime soon who’d then forget about it the moment he’d meet his real dream girl. I’m sorry. I wasn’t planning on saving it for marriage.”
Frida sat on the sofa and didn’t speak for a full minute. She knew her aunt. When she was furious with her Uncle Reno, she would clam up and not speak to him for a week, which was hell. She didn’t want the cold treatment.
“Auntie, please, I’m sorry.”
Frida shook her head. “I still don’t understand why you did it. I do not buy that “he paid you” bullshit. Is he good-looking?”
Her cheeks heated up. “Yes.”
Frida speared her with a penetrating look. “So you like him.” It was a statement.
She didn’t know how to reply to that. She didn’t want to lie. She just bowed her head and nodded.
Silence.
When her aunt spoke again, her tone was soft.
“I see. I understand now. And I’ll agree with you now, too. It’s best that you’ll not see him again.”
Andi swallowed, relieved. But her aunt’s next words hit her where it really hurt.
“I know you’re not like your mother. But just in case you forget-- because I saw Craig Walker’s picture in her sister’s house which I also clean and he’s very handsome-- don’t be like your mother. Aspire realistically. Craig Walker is very rich. You saw his place. I met his sister, Bella Stimson. They’re high society. Her husband owns one of the biggest vineyards in Fort Lauderdale, and more importantly, they’re white.”
She nodded. Her aunt’s words hurt more than she probably realized, but Frida spoke the truth. It was reverse racial discrimination in the twenty-first century which a lot of people from this country would find offensive or laughable, but it still rang true among Asian minorities here in the US.
Aspire realistically. Translation: Associate with your own kind, with your own level. “I know my place. That was it. The end.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I get it, auntie. Craig Walker will not take the likes of me seriously, because one, though I have Caucasian blood, I was born and raised in a third world country. Craig Walker, who’s clearly highly educated and an Air Force pilot at that, will never even contemplate dating an Asian who’s a product of a liaison between an American GI and a Filipina a quarter shy of being called a whore. He’ll only call me for one reason, to use my body. I’m beneath the likes of Craig Walker.”
Frida was looking at her with pity and she hated it. She hated the glaring truth of reality, that Frida was right, not that she had ever entertained any idea of her and Craig being more than a one-week stand. This was the modern world and the internet age, but she had seen enough heartbreak between interracial relationships. She had a very good example of it. Her own mother. No, she will not repeat history.
“Hija…I didn’t mean…” Frida’s voice trailed off. She did mean it that way.
She tried to smile. “It’s okay, auntie. I wouldn’t want to date him, too. He’s with the Air Force. I’ll never date a man in uniform.”
Frida hugged her then. “I just want the best for you, Andrea. I want you to finish college, so you’ll have a better chance in this world. I want you to be successful one day.”
“I know. I’m sorry. It was a….a one-time hormonal rampage. It won’t happen again, I swear.”
She was glad her aunt no longer looked distresses. “But he’s handsome, no? You had a great time, at least? He was a good lover, I hope?”
She smiled. “Yes, he was. I had a really great time.”