~ Chapter Thirteen ~
Carter
“Negative.”
I turned from my locker to look over my shoulder at my captain.
“Drug test came back negative. Just thought you’d want to know.” He nodded and turned to go back into his office. Captain was often a man of few words, which I appreciated.
I’d taken that damn drug test more than two weeks ago and had forgotten all about it. I knew it’d be negative so I hadn’t been too worried about it. And since telling Michelle about my prior troubles I’d felt a little lighter, more at peace. Her telling me about her mother brought us even closer together. We talked daily and went out as frequently as she would allow, not wanting to spend too many week nights away from her son. I did my best to be understanding. We were moving in the right direction, albeit too slow for my liking.
I closed my locker and sealed it with the lock before heading down to the kitchen where everyone was. It was early morning and I was hungry for breakfast.
“You making your world-famous French toast?” Don’s loud voice pierced my ears when he came up behind me at the refrigerator.
“You wish. You bozos don’t even have cinnamon or nutmeg. The hell type of firehouse is this?” I stood, slamming the fridge shut. “Hey, rookie, why don’t you make a breakfast run?” I yelled at the rookie who was just sitting down to a plate full of eggs and pancakes. I couldn’t remember his name and didn’t give a shit to even try to. Rookies didn’t get called by their name until their probation was up.
“But I just sat down to eat.”
I frowned. “Is he back talking me?” My eyes were pinned on the dark-haired rookie but my question was directed at Don.
“Sure the hell sounds like it,” Don responded.
“Rookie,” I stated firmly, “there’s no fucking cinnamon. No nutmeg. And one lonely ass un-ripened banana in the bowl.” I gestured to the fruit bowl that sat on the counter. “Don, here, wants some fucking banana French toast. You know what I need to make it? Cinnamon, nutmeg, and more than one goddamn un-ripened banana. Get your lazy ass up from the table, take the money out of the food budget, and get your ass to the store!” I glowered at the rookie just waiting for him to say no. But, he must’ve sensed now was not the time to fuck around because within seconds his fork was hitting his plate and he rose, grumbling to himself. I’d let him grumble as long as he got what the fuck I told him to get. Don and I both watched as he grabbed a couple of bills from the jar we kept the money for food and headed out the door.
“And for that back talk earlier, you’re on shit duty for the rest of the week!” I called behind him, relishing when his shoulders slumped.
Just as the rookie left out, Eric walked in the kitchen, glancing at the rookie and then back to us. His eyes squinted in humor. “You’re giving out shit duty now?”
“Figured I’d take doling out that particular assignment off your hands this week.” Shit duty is what we referred to as cleaning up after the Dalmatian Rescue Four had recently acquired. We’d named the dog, Gary, after our fallen brother. Stations didn’t have a need for dogs during fires, but they were symbolic now and the guys enjoyed playing with him. And the students from neighborhood schools that visited the station got a kick out of it.
“Hey,” Don called, drawing both our attentions, along with Corey’s who’d just walked in.
“You all heard more about that apartment fire from a few weeks back?”
We each shook our heads in response to Don’s question. He knew we hadn’t as the investigators down at the department had taken over the investigation. And they’d only inform our captain, and possibly Don on a need to know basis.
“The department heads tell you anymore about it?”
Don nodded his response to me. “I’ve been looking at the pictures in my phone. They wouldn’t let me see the official images they took. I even went down to the department to speak with the lead investigator. He’s a lazy son of a bitch. Says the fucking fire was probably started by nothing more than carelessness. I showed him the newspaper ashes we found up the stairs. He said it was probably one of us who tracked it through the house.”
“That’s bullshit,” I snarled.
“Exactly. I had to ask one of the ladies in forensics their take on it.”
“Personal friend of yours?” Corey questioned, smirking.
Don responded with a cocky grin of his own, letting that be his answer.
“What she tell you?” Corey asked.
“Said her guess was that we were correct.” He looked over at me. “She thinks someone placed newspaper in front of the fireplace and removed the gate. The husband said whenever his wife set the fireplace she always made sure to put the gate up to prevent sparks from escaping.”
“He’s sure?” Eric spoke up.
Don nodded. “Yeah. When they were first married, she made that mistake once and nearly caught their couch on fire. Ever since she was adamant about using a gate, especially since they had children. She didn’t start that fire due to a careless accident.”
A solemn feeling fell into the pit of my stomach. Nothing was sitting right about this situation. Nothing at all, and I wasn’t liking any of the conclusions coming up in my mind. The only good thing to come out of all of this was that the family was doing okay. The mother and children had suffered some smoke inhalation and had to remain in the hospital for a few days, but had been discharged and were on their way back to being one hundred percent.
“Keep us updated on all this. Unofficially,” Eric stressed.
“I plan to.” There was a heaviness in Don’s voice. As if the worst of this was yet to come. I’d heard the same tension and stress in my commanding officer’s voice right before a tough mission. Something big was coming and chances were high that it was about to land right in Rescue Four’s lap. The first image that sprang to mind was Michelle’s. A calmness settled over me because I had that sense that as long as she was okay, I was okay.
****
Michelle
“What now?” I asked, exasperated, as I glanced down at my cell phone in my hand. It was the last person I wanted to speak to.
“Gabriel, why do you keep calling me?”
“I’m a paying client. This is the service your company provides to your clients? Maybe I should speak with Nancy about my poor treatment by one of her top event planners at Save the Date.”
I pushed out a breath through my mouth and pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes. I abhorred the arrogant tone in his voice. It had turned me on at one point in time but now it only served to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“That’s not necessary, Gabriel. How can I help you?” My voice was much more patient that time around, but still filled with contempt. I hated him and he knew it.
“That’s more like it. I’m calling to see how the planning is coming for the firm’s banquet.”
I rolled my eyes. He’d been calling every day this week with the same question. Sometimes calling up to three times a day. And always on my cell phone, never on my office line.
“It’s going well,” I answered as calmly as I could. “I’ve finalized the location.”
“Great, I’d like to see it.”
My eyes popped wide. “We discussed the location would be the hotel. You said that was fine.”
“Yes, and now I’m saying I want to see it.”
I pushed out another deep breath. “When would you like to see it, Gabriel?” I wasn’t going to argue with him about this. I’d come to realize that with Gabriel just giving him what he wanted was the quickest way to get rid of him.
“So formal all of a sudden.”
I bit my tongue to keep from lashing out.
“I want to see it today. I have some free time right now.”
“Now?”
“Yes, is that a problem?”
I slow blinked, mentally rearranging my schedule to fit his impromptu appointment. “No, right now is fine. I can meet you at the hotel in thirty minutes.” I didn’t even wait for his response. I pulled the phone from my ear, pressing the button to end the call as I moved around my desk.
“Natoi,” I called, startling my assistant who sat at her desk. “I just had to arrange a last minute appointment for the Williams & Brodsky event. Can you call my two o’clock appointment and try to get it pushed back to later today or later this week?”
“Sure, girl. Everything alright?” She gave me a worried look.
“Yeah, everything’s good. I’ll just be happy when this job is over.”
Natoi laughed. “Pushy one, huh? Well, you’re good with working with the pushy clients. It’s why Nancy assigns you to ’em.” She laughed a little more, turning back to her computer screen.
You have no idea, I thought as I grabbed my purse from the drawer I tucked it in, along with the dark, navy blue blazer I’d worn that day.
“I’ll be back in an hour and a half,” I told Natoi as I moved past her desk. I heard her say something but I pushed through the glass doors, letting it swing shut behind me. I wanted to get this meeting with Gabriel over as soon as possible.
I made it down to the hotel in just under the thirty minutes I’d given him over the phone. Yet, in true Gabriel fashion he kept me waiting another twenty minutes before his arrival. He came strolling through the door held open by the concierge, hand tucked into his dark, tailored suit while his other hand fiddled with the toothpick in his mouth. He pulled it free from his mouth and greeted me with a smile that was meant to be endearing. My stomach roiled at how I could’ve ever thought I loved this man. My mind instantly began comparing him to Carter. Gabriel fell short in every way.
“I am glad to see you made it.”
“You’re late.”
His lips formed into a pout. “I was having lunch at Le Grenouille. You know their foie gras is amazing.”
I rolled my eyes. He had me waiting while he dined at a restaurant that was less than two blocks from here.
“You remember the first time I took you to Le Grenouille? You were scared to order anything off the menu.” He chuckled.
I was not about to take this trip down memory lane. “The hotel manager says we have thirty minutes to check out the space. They have an event tonight they need to set up for.” I abruptly turned, peering over my shoulder to see if Gabriel would trail me. I saw his eyes scan my entire backside before he began moving. Turning my head, I swallowed the disgust I felt seeing his gesture.
“Thank you for agreeing to this last minute meeting, Ariel,” I said to the hotel’s manager who’d come down to show us the banquet space for the event along with a few of the design themes we were thinking of going with.
“It’s not a problem at all. I have to be down here for the next few hours anyway. Let me show you inside.” She waved us farther down the hall into the large banquet room.
“This event needs to be top of the line. We’re celebrating Williams & Brodsky’s fiftieth anniversary,” Gabriel’s voice boomed with pride from behind me.
The floors of the room were white and grey marble, and shiny. They looked clean enough to eat off of. The walls were white with columns throughout the space. There was a small dance floor toward the front and a space that could be set up as a stage with a podium. It was a great space for an event and my mind began swirling with ideas to decorate and set up.
“This room can hold up to seven hundred occupants.” Ariel waved her hand around. “How many people are you expecting for the event?”
“No more than five hundred. The firm has one hundred attorneys, most of whom will bring a guest. There are ten partners, including myself,” Gabriel said with pride, his chest puffed out.
I bit the inside of my cheek but my smile still dipped a little as I focused on Ariel.
“We each have spouses.”
That one made me nauseous. The fact that he’d take that moment to throw his wife in my face was distasteful to say the least. What he failed to understand was that I was far from jealous. I actually pitied his wife, and if it weren’t for my son, I’d tell Gabriel he could fall off the planet for all I cared.
“We will definitely be able to accommodate your guest list,” Ariel responded once Gabriel quit talking. “Will you two excuse me for a moment?” She asked, pulling her walkie-talkie from her hip.
I watched as she walked away, longing for her to come back. She provided a buffer between Gabriel and I.
“What do you think of the place?” I finally questioned.
He looked around, eyes scanning the ceiling and walls before looking back at me. “It’s a little small but I guess it’ll do.”
“Small? It can accommodate well over the projected five hundred guests you’re expecting.”
He shrugged. “The walls are bare.” He frowned.
“Ariel has some themes that she would like to show us. If you don’t like any of those, I can come up with a few more that my company has done in the past.”
“We don’t want any recycled themes. Williams & Brodsky is a highly respected law firm in this city, and as such we pride ourselves on doing everything top of the line. We will not be copying anyone’s theme.”
“It won’t be a recycled theme, Gabriel. We will come up with a concept solely for Williams & Brodsky,” I assured him.
“Great,” he stated, unbuttoning his suit blazer.
I looked around the room, trying to think of some ways we could dress up the room in case he didn’t like what Ariel and the hotel had come up with. It got eerily quiet and though my back was turned to him, I could feel his eyes on me. I swallowed deeply when I felt him approach me from behind.
“You know,” his voice had dropped an octave, “we could have some fun planning this event together.” His forefinger trailed along my shoulder and started it’s way down my bare arm, but just as he touched my skin I jumped and moved away as if I’d been burned.
“Please keep your hands to yourself,” I hissed. “The only fun we’ll be having is my overtime check for working this event. That’s it.” I took three steps back.
Thankfully, when it looked like Gabriel was going to approach me, Ariel re-entered the room.
“Sorry about that. That was regarding tonight’s event. Please, let me show you the few ways we can set up for your event.” She pulled out an iPad and brought up a few visuals of each layout. I pulled out my phone to take some notes and requested Ariel email those designs to my work email. Gabriel eventually took over the conversation, speaking to Ariel in the manner he did anyone he felt was beneath him. He’d done that with everyone ― waitstaff, concierge, drivers, junior attorneys at his firm, etc. When I was young, I took pleasure in seeing that I was one of the few who escaped such treatment. Only later, did I realize that once I stopped giving him what he wanted, would he take the same type of attitude toward me. However, unlike a waiter or driver, they only had to deal with his behavior temporarily. I had to endure it for years longer, until my son was of age. And even then, chances of me being completely free of Gabriel were slim to none.
“Hey,” I greeted, answering my phone on the way back to the office. After nearly forty-five minutes of Gabriel’s incessant questioning and condescension, we left. I was just walking through the doors of Save the Date when Carter called.
“Hey yourself, sugar. You sound stressed.”
I shook my head, wondering how he could always pinpoint my moods. “I’m just making it back to the office.” I paused, taking the message note Natoi handed me over the counter of her desk. I peered at the message, noticing the meeting I’d had for two o’clock that day had been pushed back to four-thirty.
I looked up at Natoi, who shrugged and whispered, “She insisted the meeting be today.”
My shoulders slumped and I headed to my desk.
“Late lunch?” Carter asked.
“I wish,” I stated, plopping my back against my office chair. “Last minute meeting with a client that ran later than I’d hoped. Which caused another meeting to be pushed back and I likely won’t get to leave the office until five thirty or later.” I pushed out a regretful sigh.
“Sorry to hear that. I know you were looking forward to spending time with Diego tonight.”
I smiled that he’d cared enough to remember. Wednesdays were my and Diego’s movie nights. Since I often had to work on Friday nights at events, I would get off work an hour or two early on Wednesdays, pick him up for school, and we’d rent movies or go to an actual theater.
“Yeah, it’s a bummer. I have to call my mama to see if she can pick him up from school. He really wanted to see that latest Disney movie.”
“Why don’t you make it up to him this weekend?”
“You don’t mind canceling?” We had plans to go out that Saturday.
“We can change our plans. We can take the little guy on Saturday?”
I sat up in my chair. “We?”
There was a pause on the other end of the phone.
“Yes, we. Your son is your world, why wouldn’t I want to be a part of that?”
I sighed. I was unsure of letting Carter get close to Diego. Not because I didn’t trust him, but because I did trust him. I knew this was serious to Carter and involving my son was a way to show me that. But I still didn’t know how far this thing could go. Not with my outside drama.
“Shit!” I heard Carter shout as a loud alarm sounded in the background. “We got a call. I gotta go. Call you later!”
“Be safe,” I mumbled as I hung up the phone. I lowered my face into my hands, so confused on where to go from here. Before I could get too wrapped up in my pity party, my phone buzzed.
“Yes, Natoi.”
“Mrs. Green is on the line. She has a few things she wants to go over with you before you two meet today.”
I rolled my eyes for what had to be the eightieth time that day and picked up the phone for Mrs. Green. At least she would be a distraction from my messed up personal life.
****
“Hi, Mama!” Diego’s excited voice rang out as soon as I stepped through the door.
I smiled, tossing my blazer over the arm of the chair and setting down my bag to open my arms wide for him. He ran into my arms, giving me a big hug. He wore his favorite firefighter pajamas. It was just about seven-thirty when I arrived home that evening. Diego had already had his dinner and a bath, thanks to my mother.
“Just in time to read before bed.” My mother smiled as she emerged from the kitchen.
“Thanks so much for staying late, Ma. How was he?” I asked, standing.
“My grandson was perfect as always.”
“Grandma said you had to work late so you’d take me to the movies another time. It’s okay.” He shrugged, looking up at me with those saucer-sized eyes of his and grinning. My heart almost stopped beating at the huge hole in his mouth left by his three missing teeth. He was growing up so fast.
“I’ll make it up to you, baby.” I squatted to get eye level with him. “Say goodnight to your grandmother and then go pick out the book you want to read tonight and I’ll be right in.” I stood and watched as he ran to hug my mother. She planted a warm kiss on his cheek, promising to see him the next day. She was the one who picked him up from school and kept him until I got in from work. My mother and I definitely had come a long way. I now trusted her with my most prized possession.
“What’s with the long face?”
I blinked, and turned from Diego’s retreating back to glance at my mother. “What long face?”
“You’re looking a little off. You alright? Did you eat yet? There’s some baked chicken, potatoes, and string beans. I kept your plate warm in the oven.” She started opening the oven and pulling out an already prepared plate.
My stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten since I’d had a muffin that morning. My lunch had been interrupted by Gabriel and I’d been too agitated to even think about food afterwards.
“Thanks, Mama,” I said, standing at the entranceway to the kitchen. “I’ll eat after I put Diego to bed.” I worried my bottom lip. “I need your advice on something.”
My mother gave me a shocked look. I could hardly believe it either. Growing up the way I had, had drilled into me one thing which was to never depend on my mother. Even after all this time, I rarely asked her for advice.
“Sure. What’s going on?” She wiped her hands with a dish towel and tossed it on the counter then looked on at me, tension evident in her forehead crease.
“I’ve been seeing someone.”
“I know that already.”
I grinned. “He wants to take me out this weekend … with Diego.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. What do you think?”
“Hmm.” She paused, her eyes going to a corner of the kitchen while she thought about it. “You really like this man.”
It wasn’t a question but I nodded anyway. I obviously liked him a whole lot if I was even considering inviting him out with my son and I.
“And he’s already met Diego. Brought him toys. That boy sleeps with that firetruck every night.”
I laughed. Diego loved the firetruck Carter bought for him a few weeks back.
“But is it too soon? We’ve been seeing each other for a little over a month and a half. You don’t think that’s too fast?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, sweetie. Do you think it’s too fast? Could you see a future with this man?”
Yes. I didn’t need to think about that one. In a perfect world, I had no doubts about Carter and I. But we didn’t live in a perfect world. The only world I ever knew came with complications and drama.
“You’ve never been flippant about who you let into Diego’s life. Hell, you’ve never introduced him to any man from what I know of.”
“I never have.” I hadn’t dated much thanks to Diego’s egotistical father, but even if I had, I wasn’t going to introduce random men to my son. But Carter wasn’t just any man. He was my man and he’d made it pretty clear that I was his. But I didn’t come alone.
“I say, if you’re thinking this hard about it, then I don’t see the issue with spending a little time together with your son. Hell, better to find out early if they don’t get along.”
I knew that wouldn’t be the case. I don’t know how I knew, I just did. From the moment I’d met Carter he seemed to fit in my life like the missing piece to a jigsaw puzzle. Instinctively, I knew that connection would extend to my son. Truth be told, it already had. On more than one occasion, Diego had asked me about Mr. Carter.
“Thanks, Ma.” I nodded and went over to give her a kiss on the cheek. “For everything,” I added, staring down at her. Her eyes sparkled as she smiled. I noted, for probably the ten thousandth time, the difference in her eyes now and when I’d been growing up. She was a different person from the inside out.
“Let me get going. I’ve got an eight o’clock meeting.”
“That’s the meeting you started, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Two years going strong.”
“I’m proud of you, Mama.”
Her head dipped and she squeezed me tighter before saying, “Thank you.” Her voice was thick with emotion.
I followed her to the door, locking it after she exited, and then I rushed down the hall to go read to Diego. Once Diego was asleep, I retrieved my cell phone and headed into my bedroom. Tucking myself deep beneath the covers, I waited for the call I knew was coming.
“Hello?” I answered a few moments later.
“So, we’re on for Saturday?”
I smiled, adoring the deep rumble of Carter’s voice through the phone line.
“Yeah, we’re on for Saturday.”
He didn’t say anything at first but I swear I could hear his grin through the phone.
“I’ll pick you up at o-nine hundred, sharp.”
I giggled. “You and military time. I still don’t know if you’re saying nine o’clock in the morning or nine at night.”
“I told you, when I say ‘o’ anything, that’s referring to before noon …” He continued to explain military time for the umpteenth time to me. I let him explain. Didn’t bother telling him that I wasn’t going to remember any of it. I relished admiring the sound of his voice and the comfort it always brought, ever since the first moment we met while I was trapped inside my car.