CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
They ate heartily, in bathrobes in bed, as they watched the eleven o’clock news replay a significant portion of that press conference. Grant could see what Marti meant.
“Damn. I look like I could barely sit up there,” he said.
“They kept asking the same questions over and over. I would have been exhausted too.” Then she looked at him. “What’s to become of the cop that shot the suspect? You nor the mayor really answered that question. All you guys would say is that you can’t discuss active investigations.”
“Because we can’t. He’s on desk duty for now, pending an investigation.”
“But that entire press conference was about an active investigation: those two mass shootings. That’s my point.”
Grant nodded his head. “And your point is well taken. But that’s politics. The mass shootings are a problem, and they want the public to know everything.”
“You view yourself as a politician?” she asked him as his phone rang.
“No way. I hate politics,” he said as he motioned for her to hand him his phone since he inadvertently placed it on the night stand that was next to her side of the bed. “But that’s the game I have to play.”
But as Marti was handing Grant his phone, she could see the name Ingrid on the Caller ID. She handed it to him and watched closely as he looked at the Caller ID and then swiped it so that it would shut off. Then he sat it on his nightstand.
But as they continued to eat, that phone call was weighing heavily on Marti. And she decided now was as good a time as any to bring it up. “Who was that?” she asked him.
“Pardon?”
“That phone call. Who was that?”
“Somebody I know.”
“Named Ingrid?”
“Yes.”
“Somebody you’ve dated before?”
He glanced at her as he chewed his steak. Was she one of those insecure, jealous kind of females? He didn’t see her as that type, but he could be wrong. “Yes,” he said.
Marti knew it made her seem petty, but she needed to know what she was getting herself into. “What is she to you?” she asked as casually as she could. “Your girlfriend?”
Grant looked at her. “Would you have slept with me, and be sitting in this bed with me, had you known I had a girlfriend?”
“Of course not.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said to her. Other than the one sitting beside me right now , he wanted to add, but decided it was too soon.
Marti would have liked for him to add that disclaimer, but she knew it was early days too.
“She’s a friend of mine,” Grant said to put a period on it.
But that only led to another question. “A friend with benefits?”
He hesitated.“Yes.”
He could see a look of concern wash over Marti’s face. And he sought to clarify. “I haven’t been celibate, Markita,” he said to her. “Not in the least. But what I whispered to you in that shower last night is still true. I haven’t had unprotected sex in years. Many years. Except with you.”
But he could tell she needed more from him. Something he’d never been willing to give to any woman ever. Except now. “And I have no intentions of sleeping with anybody else but you,” he added.
It was a monumental admission from a man like him, and he could tell she appreciated that it was.
She leaned over and kissed him. Then she smiled. “You taste like steak.”
“When we finish eating,” he said playfully, “I’m going to find out what you taste like. And it better not be steak.”
She laughed. And they finished eating.
Grant got out of bed and placed their trays on the room service cart. Then he rolled it out into the hall. When he came back in and closed the door behind him, he went to the bathroom to pee one of his after eating longwinded pees.
Marti removed her robe, revealing her naked body, and got under the covers. But when his phone rang again while he was peeing and she was able to lift up slightly to see the Caller ID from his nightstand, she saw the name of another woman. This one named Allison. Which gave her pause. She almost put back on her robe and got out of bed. Was he a cheater like all those other men she’d been with? Was she about to make yet another mistake in a lifetime of mistakes with men? She always fell for the wrong one.
But Grant came back into the bedroom almost as soon as she had contemplated ending whatever this was. He looked at the Caller ID of his still-ringing phone, ended the call without answering the phone, but this time he turned his phone face down on his nightstand. Marti noticed that too. But then he removed his robe, revealing his nakedness, and got in bed beside her.
They laid on their sides face to face.
Marti placed her hand on the side of his most attractive face. It wasn’t lost on her that he had shaved that morning after they first slept together, and that his suit wasn’t wrinkled the way it usually was, and his eyes were clear as crystal, not their usual redness, although they looked tired and drained in that moment. But she could see that he was taking better care of himself already, which pleased her. “Did the mayor threaten to fire you again?”
“On camera, no. Off camera, about ten times.”
“But the BOBs won’t let him.”
Grant was surprised to hear her say that. “What do you know about the BOBs?”
“I know they’re the Belgrave Oversight Board . I know they’re the power brokers in this town and they want to keep you in power. But why is my question?”
“Because they’re rich.” Then he looked at her. “And so am I. I’m one of them.”
“Why did you look at me like that when you said that?”
“Like what?”
“Like the way you looked at me when you said you were rich.”
“I wanted to see your reaction. Money is what most of the women I’ve been with, no, not most, but all of the women I’ve been with, wanted from me.”
“I’m not after your money.”
Grant continued staring at her.
Marti smiled. “You actually believe I might be a gold-digger?”
“No,” he said confidently. Then he smiled. “At least not up to this point. But we’ll see,” he added, and they laughed.
Marti was laughing, but it was still a serious issue for her. “Every man I’ve ever been with were never satisfied with one woman. They were all cheats. They were all unfaithful to me. Every last one of them.” Then she stared at him. “Are you like that too?”
Grant hated to admit it, but he wasn’t going to lie to her. “Yes,” he said.
Marti’s heart dropped. Not another one! What was she thinking???
“Until I met you,” Grant added, rubbing the side of her face with the back of his large hand.
When he said those words, Marti stared at him. She studied him. She so wanted it to be true, but how could it be already? “How can you say that,” she asked him, “when you’ve just met me?”
Grant stared at her. He was studying her too. “Sometimes you just know. Sometimes your heart tells you so.”
Marti wanted to hear him say it. “And what is your heart telling you?” she asked him.
“My heart is telling me,” Grant said as he placed his hand on the side of her smooth, gorgeous face, “that you could be the one. That you are the one.”
Marti smiled that smile that melted his heart.
“What is your heart telling you?”
“ Girrl, get away from that joker and get away now !”
Grant was alarmed.
Then Marti burst into laughter. “I’m playing with you boy!” she said, and Grant laughed too, grabbed her, and began tickling her.
Then they looked into each other’s eyes. And the laughter turned into a look of serious affection. And they kissed. Until the fire between them almost consumed them, and they had to have more.
Grant entered her, and took her breath away.
They made slow and rhythmic love. They weren’t trying to rush it. For nearly an hour they rocked and they kissed and they shook and they slowed back down and they made the kind of love that made them know that they were on the right path.
And when they came, they came together. As if they were synchronized lovers. As if they were already together as one.
And for the second time in as many days, Grant slept like a baby all the way through the night. No nightmares. No terrors. No waking up at three a.m. And Marti didn’t even think about four years ago, nor did she cry herself to sleep.
When she woke up the next morning, and realized he had gone, she didn’t panic at all. He wouldn’t just leave her. Oddly enough, she was convinced of it. She turned over and looked for the note.
And she found it! On her nightstand. “ Eat breakfast ,” it read, although she had forgotten to ask him why he was so obsessed with her eating breakfast. Then it read: “ Your ass better not be late ,” which made her laugh. But when she saw that it was signed With Love , that was epic enough. He actually wrote the word love and directed it at her! But when she saw that he ended the note with, Your Boyfriend, G , her heart melted. It just melted. And her laughter turned to tears of joy.
She was so happy that she didn’t know how to handle that kind of elation. She hadn’t felt that way since she first fell in love with her ex-husband. And even that young love didn’t feel this deep. And they were just getting started. Tears dropped from her eyes like rain. She’d never met a man like Grant before. She’d never fallen so hard so fast for any man the way she was falling for Grant, and she still didn’t know why. He wasn’t even her type. She always went for guys her age or younger, not older men. And a white guy? She had never been into white guys before. But there it was. She was in love and, apparently, so was he! She could have laid there forever basking in this new thing they were trying to pull together.
Until she realized what time it was, and what he said she’d better not do, and she hopped out of that bed to pull her own self together.