Chapter 9
chapter nine
camilo
“Hola, Camilo.” Tom’s voice was like a caress in my ear, and I had to squeeze my eyes to focus and not do something ludicrous like sigh or whimper.
This was a professional call. This man was not my lover.
“Hi, Tom. So, I hate to do this so last minute, but could we move our meeting tomorrow to 4:00 p.m.? I have something I can’t get out of and need time to get back to Harlem.”
He made a rumbling sound, and it was like thunder crackling through my nerves. It’d been a week since our first meeting, and I really wanted to see him again.
“Sure, no problem.” His voice was lower when he spoke again. “I thought you were going to have to cancel. Like I said before, my schedule is fairly flexible. Do you need more time? I can meet later than that.”
The way Tom spoke to me, like he cared about my needs, or like making things easier for me was a priority to him, was intoxicating.
It was most likely because he was a decent person and didn’t act like a diva because he had money, but deep down in a little corner of my heart where no one else was invited, I imagined this was only for me.
“No, 4:00 p.m. should work, I just need to drop my mom off—”
I stopped talking, horrified that I’d shared information about a personal appointment with Tom. My lack of professional boundaries were going to get me in a serious bind before this renovation even got off the ground.
I sighed internally and tried again. “I need to get back to Harlem from the Bronx. I shouldn’t need more than an hour.”
The silence on Tom’s end was making me squirm. I felt exposed and weirded out by the possibility that he’d ask what I was doing.
“Camilo.” The way he said my name, in that perfect inflection, like it was supposed to sound, got me every time. “If you need to take care of your mom, we can reschedule. Your family is the priority.”
I hesitated before I spoke, but soon I was saying more than I probably should.
“It’s fine. I’m just going with her to an appointment.
” To do an intake for a domestic violence support group, which she’s finally agreed to do after years of trying to convince her and I don’t want to miss the chance to get her there.
“The place is right by Fordham Plaza. We should be done by three. I can take the Metro-North from there; it won’t even take thirty minutes.
I just want to give myself enough time, so you don’t have to end up waiting for me if I get delayed. ”
Again his response took some time and when he spoke, he was the hesitant one.
“Why don’t I meet you up there?” I actually had to suppress a gasp at the question. “We can have our meeting at the botanical garden.” His voice suddenly rose with excitement. “I’ve been wanting to see the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit, and it’s supposed to be beautiful out tomorrow.”
There went my pulse again, threatening to jump out of my chest. This was not a good idea. This was the opposite of sensible. The botanical garden was not a place for business meetings; it was a place for dates. I could not date Thomas Hughes.
I opened my mouth to put a brake on this course of action, but when I spoke I heard my stupid mouth say, “I’ve been wanting to see that, too.”
This time there was no pause and I got a firsthand glimpse of the tenacious businessman Tom was rumored to be. “Excellent. I’ll meet you at the conservatory. I’ll leave a ticket for you at the front.”
“Tom, you don’t have to do that,” I protested, feeling already like this was getting closer and closer to a date by the second.
“Of course I do, I keep changing meeting locations and it’s the least I could do given how easygoing you’ve been.
” I wasn’t even sure what he was talking about.
I was the one who’d changed the time of the appointment, and he had come up with the gardens because I was going to be in the Bronx.
Somehow Tom had made me feel like I was making his day easier by changing our entire plan for the meeting.
I wanted to be contrary, to tell him that he was changing the rules and making it harder for me to keep myself at bay, but I also wanted to see him. I wanted to see the exhibit with him. I wanted.
Tom.
I heard the sound of his throat clearing and I wondered if he was as fucked up about the pull between us as I was, but when I spoke, I could do nothing to mask the anticipation in my voice. “All right. I’ll see you then.”
“Until tomorrow, Camilo.”
I ended the call and sat there wondering if there was any chance I could realistically stick to my “stay off Tom’s dick” plan for much longer, until Ayako’s voice mercifully yanked me out of my fretting.
“Yoooooo… Is all that frowning about Mr. BDE?”
Ayako thought she was fucking hilarious.
“I’m not frowning, and calling a major donor ‘Mr. Big Dick Energy’ is super unprofessional,” I said primly.
She laughed at my very weak attempt at outrage and planted her ass on my desk. “I have sources who can confirm that the dick is indeed big.” She widened her eyes and put a finger over her lips, then aimed it at me.
The smile threatening to break out of my face was very hard to hold back. “I’m sorry. I can’t confirm or deny any knowledge concerning Mr. Hughes’s dick, or any other body parts.”
She twisted her bright red lips to the side as she rolled her eyes. “Uh huh, so what’s the deal, why are you sitting here looking spooked? Did he cancel on you?”
I sighed as I tried to extract what was appropriate to say about everything I was feeling at the moment. “No, I just called to let him know that I needed to push back the meeting an hour.”
A spark of cautious optimism warmed my chest as I thought of the reason for the time change.
“I finally convinced my mom to do the intake for that support group for Spanish speakers the DV center from the Bronx is doing.” Ayako’s face lit up at that.
She was well aware how much I’d struggled to get my mom to do anything related to her trauma history.
“I’m so happy to hear that. It’ll be so good for her to talk to other women.” She sounded genuinely excited. Ayako knew how long I’d been trying to cajole my mom to do a group.
I nodded, still not wanting to call this development with my mom a victory. “I’m a little bit worried that she seemed to say yes too easily. Maybe she’s doing worse than she’s letting on.”
Ayako leaned and smiled in that way she did when I was getting “too pessimistic.”
“Maybe she’s just ready. We talk about meeting people where they’re at until our tongues fall out around here. If it’s good enough for our clients, it should be good enough for us.”
I exhaled, conceding her point. “You’re right. I just worry.”
“Take this as a win, friend. This a good step toward Dinorah starting to believe that what happened to her isn’t who she is. I’ve heard really great things about that program; they use a good model.”
I dipped my head in agreement. “I will take it as a win, and yes, I’ve only heard positive things.
” I glanced at my office door, checking for eavesdroppers.
“I ended up blabbing to Tom about it and by the time we were done talking, we’d arranged to meet at the botanical garden tomorrow.
” Ayako widened her eyes at this development.
“These meetings sound more and more like dates, and I’m pretty sure I do not have the self-control it takes to resist Tom Hughes if he even hints at a repeat from the night at the gala. ”
I stared up at Ayako, hoping she would give me the talking to I needed. Instead, she got up and walked over to the door, shut it, and walked back to my desk.
“I’m not going to tell you to have a torrid affair with a donor, because that would be terrible advice.”
Awesome, I was about to get another, “just go with the flow” pep talk. I needed a fucking reckoning, before I ruined my career and this project, not one more person telling me this was not a terrible idea.
“Don’t think I don’t know you’re internally rolling your eyes at me.
” She leaned over to smack my shoulder playfully.
“Camilo, I know that despite your insistence that you have terrible judgement and can’t be trusted to be sensible when you have feelings for someone,” she leaned in close, so she was looking straight at me.
“You are an excellent judge of character —” she held up her finger and waved it in the air, “—and you have very good self-preservation instincts. I also know that your mother has always been sacred ground for you. If your gut is telling you this guy is trustworthy, then fucking go with it, babe. I’ve seen shit go down in flames between you and some of the clueless assholes you’ve dated.
” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder as she talked. “But that was on them, not you.”
After a moment of me just staring at her, she threw her arms up as if recalling a particularly compelling piece of evidence.
“Fuck, I don’t think you ever even told that dickbag Paul Dinorah’s name, and you dated for almost two years. Yet from one meeting Tom already knows how she came to the States. It took you three years to tell me, motherfucker!”
I broke as soon as dickbag came out of her mouth. “Fine” I said, too amused by her to keep arguing. “But if I end up getting fired for this shit, I’m moving in with you.”
She laughed and got up from the spot on my desk where she’d perched. “I would not mind splitting Astoria rent prices, but I don’t think you’re going anywhere. Just chill out and go on your meeting/date with the Dominican billionaire with the BDE.”
“Stop,” I pleaded as she back walked out of my office with a huge grin on her face.
Why did I think I could go to Ayako for sensible advice?
I was completely sure that doing this with Tom was the road to perdition, but it seemed like I’d at least have some friends with me when I got there.
Tom
I sensed him before I saw him coming up the path to the conservatory.