Two Months Later

 

Life continued on in Apple Valley.  Attempts to connect Courtney Tyson to any group, mob, or any other person of any kind kept turning up blanks, and no scenario was adding up.  She attempted to take out Kari.  That much wasn’t in dispute.  But it seemed almost spur of the moment when she drove that car through that diner.  And if she wanted Kari to stay away from Alex, as she’d told Kari, and if she viewed Kari as an obstacle to being with Alex herself, then why would she hire Fleck and Brown to try to take Alex’s local business interests down?  How would that help her?

There were too many unanswered questions for Alex to totally relax.  But as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and no answers were forthcoming, he moved on too.  But he also kept investigators on the ground.

Construction at his hotel and casino was quickly going overbudget, but construction was still on time.  Lucinda’s diner finally reopened, with the damages paid for by Alex, and customers were returning in force.

Kari was still hard at work, and although her cleaning service wasn’t thriving, it was holding steady, while Jordan made the honor roll as he had every year he’d been in school.

And Alex, true-to-form, was back on the road, handling his corporate responsibilities while overseeing construction from afar.  He hated being away from Kari and Jordan so much, but he assured them that once construction was near its end and he had to oversee the day-to-day of, not just a construction site, but an actual large-scale operation, his traveling would eventually slow down.

It looked doubtful, however, on a balmy Monday two months after Courtney Tyson died.  Alex had been in New York on business for most of the prior week, and he had just returned to town.  His plan was to meet Kari for lunch that Monday afternoon with the hopes that he would be able to stay in town for weeks to come.

That was his hope and plan, anyway, until he got that phone call.

After that phone call, he decided to keep the lunch date with Kari.  But he knew it wasn’t going to go well.

He arrived early and stood at the entrance to the swanky restaurant in downtown Apple Valley.  He couldn’t wait to see her again.  But leaned against the side wall, with his legs crossed at the ankles, with his hands in the pockets of his Italian-silk suit, he felt like a man at a crossroad.  Go or stay.  Fulfill obligations or follow his heart.  While the other customers beneath the portico were waiting for valets to retrieve their automobiles so they could take their leave, Alex was waiting for Kari to arrive.  Alex was waiting, in essence he felt, to break her heart again.

After a frantic phone call from his team in Munich, he’d just made a tough decision.  The negotiations had stalled over the weekend and were in danger of complete collapse.  His presence, his team believed, was the only thing that could turn it all around.  But time was critical.  He had to be in Munich by eight am tomorrow, Munich-time, when talks were scheduled to resume.  That meant he needed to board his plane within the next half-hour.  One half-hour was all he had.  A half-hour to break the news to Kari.

And when her Toyota Tercel pulled up under the portico, and as she waited her turn to pull up to the valet station, his heart swelled with emotion.  Leaving her to go on extended business trips were becoming harder and harder for him to do.  But ironically, it was all he did lately.  He’d only just gotten back in town that morning, now he had to tell her he was leaving again?  Business had always been his mistress.  It had always been the only reason he got out of bed.  But now he had Kari and Jordan.  Now he had obligations that went beyond bottom lines.  And he was beginning to wonder if he could ever balance the two.

But one thing he knew for certain:  he was missing Kari already, and he hadn’t even left yet!

“Look at that rust bucket that just drove up,” he heard one of the valets say.  That valet and another one, the only two supposedly on break and not assisting customers, were looking at Kari’s Tercel and had no idea Alex was leaned against the wall behind them.

“What kind of car is that anyway?” asked the second valet.

“A Toyota.”

“I don’t mean the brand, dumbass!  What kind of Toyota is what I mean.”

“I don’t know what kind.  How should I know?  And I don’t care what kind.  All I know is having a car like that anywhere near this establishment demeans us.  It brings down the value of the place.  And look, look.  Look at that.  A Negro’s behind the wheel.  More devaluation.”

“Oh, but wait,” said the second valet.  “That’s that girl!”

The first, mouthy valet frowned.  “What girl?”

“You know that man, that Greek guy that’s building the new hotel and casino in town?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“That’s his girlfriend.”

“Get the shit out of here!”

“I’m telling you the truth!”

“Her?”

“Yes, her!”

The first valet looked harder at Kari through the window of her Tercel.  “That’s his girlfriend?  That?  I don’t believe you.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“Why she ain’t even all that pretty,” he said.

Always feeling concerned for Kari’s safety whenever he heard negative comments float her way, Alex pushed his body away from the wall so that he could go and retrieve her from her car.

“And that’s his girlfriend?” The first valet was still ragging on her.  “What could he possibly see in her?”

“Everything he doesn’t see in you,” Alex said as he shouldered his way between the two valets.  “Narrow-minded pieces of shit,” he added as he pushed past them, and said it loud enough for them, and everybody else under that portico, to hear.

“What was that about?” the first valet asked when Alex left their side and made his way toward the Tercel.

But the second valet already knew what it was about.  “That’s him,” he said, still stunned.

“That’s who?” asked the first one.

“That’s that builder.  The billionaire.  That’s him!”

The first valet was shocked beyond measure.  He looked at Alex’s retreating form as if he were looking at an apparition.  “Geez, we’re in trouble,” he said nervously.  “Geez!  You think he heard us?”

“He called us narrow-minded pieces of shit,” the second valet reminded the first.  “What do you think?”

 

But Alex wasn’t giving neither one of them a second thought when he made his way to Kari.  Unlike the first valet who didn’t know Alex by sight, most of the townspeople who stood under that portico did.  Which meant all eyes were on him as he walked around to the driver side door of the car they all had already declared unworthy to be in their company, and he opened the door for Kari.  When the head of the valets realized who it was that was opening the door of that Tercel, he dropped his walkie talkie on the booth stand, hurried from behind the booth, and made his way toward the car.

“Mr. Drakos,” he said as he approached.  But Alex was too busy greeting Kari to hear him.

Alex held Kari’s hand as she got out of the car.  She was dressed beautifully, he thought, in a white, form-fitting dress that popped against her dark skin; with healthy, bouncy hair that draped along her back in waves of thick curls; with that look of confidence and strength and reassurance that no manner of negativism could ever take away.

She didn’t normally dress this way when she was at work.  Which meant, he knew, that she made a special trip home to change for their lunch date.  His heart thumped with emotion just thinking about how good she was to him.  His heart raced with joy when her big, kind, smoky-brown eyes smiled at him.  People were always asking what he saw in Kari.  But whenever Alex was anywhere near her, he wanted to know why they didn’t see what he saw!  “Don’t you look beautiful,” he said as she stepped out.  “Gorgeous dress.”

“Ah shucks, this old thing?” Kari said it with a grin, causing him to laugh too.

Kari knew she was no beauty queen by any stretch of the imagination, but she also knew Alex liked whatever it was he saw in her.  And when he kissed her on the lips, in full sight of all of those gawking townspeople who always viewed her as not good enough, she didn’t give a damn either.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and lost herself in him too.  He’d been away for nearly a week.  She missed him!

When they finished kissing, Alex only then realized that the head of the valets were upon them.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Drakos!  Ma’am,” the head valet said with a respectful bow to Kari.  “Is everything alright, sir?”

Alex didn’t respond to that.  He was still too pissed.  He closed Kari’s car door, instead.

“I apologize for the delay,” the head valet said.  “It’s been an unusually hectic lunch hour.  But I’ll be happy to take your keys, ma’am, and personally attend to your car myself.”

Although it was only around Alex did she get this kind of special treatment, she didn’t point it out, or make any kind of noise about it.  She thanked him for his curtesy and handed him the keys.  She knew all eyes were on her.  She knew how to play the game when she had to.

The valet promptly gave her a ticket, and then she and Alex, arm in arm, made their way toward the entrance.

But when they arrived at the entrance, where the two valets still stood, Alex knew he couldn’t just let their comments stand.  If he did, whenever he was out of town, which was often, they would continue to disrespect Kari.  He removed her arm from his.  “Go inside and take a seat, babe,” he said. “I’ll be there.”

Kari glanced at the two valets, who looked terrified it seemed to her, but she never questioned Alex in public.  Those two had apparently been over-the-top offensive, or had done something rude, and Alex had to set them straight.  “Sure thing,” she said to Alex, gave those valets another look, and then went into the restaurant.

“Come with me,” Alex ordered the two valets as soon as Kari went inside, and he began heading toward the side of the building.

The two valets wanted to run.  They knew how powerful this man was!  But they needed their jobs.  And where were they going to run to in Apple Valley?  They followed Alex to the side of the building.

And Alex didn’t hesitate.  As soon as the first one, the mouthy one, made his way around the side, he grabbed him, slammed his slender body against the wall, and then kneed him so hard in his groin that the valet fell down to his knees.

But Alex wouldn’t let him remain down.  He lifted him back up by the catch of his shoulders, and he slammed him against that wall again.  “You listen to me, you little rat bastard,” he said with clenched teeth.  “If you ever, and I mean ever say another unkind word about my woman, I will fuck your punk-ass up so bad you’ll rue the day you were ever born!  Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir,” the first, big-talking valet said in a trembling, frightful voice.  “Yes, sir, you’re clear.  You’re crystal clear, sir! Yes, sir!”

Alex had only to look at the second valet for him to cower.  “Yes, sir,” he said quickly, too, his head bouncing up and down, his hands in the air as if Alex was the Police.  “It’s clear to me too, sir!  It’ll never happen again, sir.  On my mom’s life, it’ll never happen again, sir!”

Alex stared at both of the scum, and then released the first valet.  And he left them where they stood.

Their knees buckled with fright, and one of them, the big-mouth one, pissed in his pants as Alex walked away.