Are You Threatening Me?
Ted made it to the end of the week by sheer will. It was late Friday afternoon and he'd just left the airport, headed over to see Victoria. She'd called him the day of her traumatic break-up with Parker. When he learned of the betrayal, he was furious. He didn't want to see Victoria hurt in any way, and especially not at the hands of Parker Brightwood. “I can cancel my last two meetings and come back a day early. You shouldn't be alone,” Ted had told her.
“Please don't do that,” Victoria croaked, still hoarse from tears. “I'd feel even worse than I already do if my drama interfered with your priorities.”
“But you are my priority.”
She tried to bring a smile to her voice. “That's sweet, but I'll be okay, really. You need to take care of the problems in the Chicago office. Promise me you'll do that?” she asked. Finally, he agreed.
Ted stopped by La Madeleine, one of Victoria's favorite restaurants, then headed to her house. He rang the doorbell and waited a few minutes before she answered. She was dressed in a pair of shorts and a cutoff T-shirt. She raked her fingers through her hair, which looked as though it hadn't been combed. Looking at her sleep-deprived eyes, Ted knew she was in bad shape. He took the bags back to the kitchen, then returned to the den and sat beside her on the sofa.
Victoria was appreciative that Ted hadn't commented on her appearance. She knew she looked rough, and that was putting it mildly. She'd hoped to have herself together by now, certainly before he came over. But her mood had been gloomy all week. “I just don't feel like doing anything,” she'd told Tyler when he'd come by earlier that day.
She looked at Ted. “I know I look awful. I've been lying around the house trying to get my head together. I guess I'm not there yet,” she said.
“You always look beautiful to me.” He stood and reached for Victoria's hand, bringing her to her feet. “Why don't you go upstairs and relax with a nice hot bath while I take care of dinner.”
Victoria soaked in a soothing bath of lavender and jasmine sea salts, washed her hair in herbal shampoo, and slipped into a delicate cotton sundress. She returned downstairs feeling more refreshed than she had in days. “What're you cooking in my kitchen?” she teased playfully. “Something smells
delish
.”
“What am I heating up in your microwave is more the question.” Ted had removed his coat and tie. His crisp white shirt was unbuttoned at the neck and his sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. “You look lovely,” he smiled as she entered the room.
Victoria looked down at her blue cotton sundress and bare feet. “I clean up okay,” she winked.
Just then the phone rang. She looked at the caller ID, studying it before answering. She'd been screening Parker's calls all week. “What's up?” she said to the person on the other end. “Yes, I'm much better. Um . . . Ted's here.”
At the mention of his name, Ted listened carefully.
“Uh-huh . . .
Noooooooo
,” Victoria giggled, then lowered her voice. “We're getting ready to eat dinner now, just drop by later.”
When she hung up the phone, Ted was looking at her with questioning eyes. “That was Tyler,” she said. “He came by earlier to go over the hotel contract for this year's YFI Christmas fundraiser, which I can't believe is coming up in six months. Anyway, he left it over here so I told him he could stop by and pick it up later tonight.”
They sat down to a dinner of Victoria's favorite selections. After their meal they made their way back to the couch in the den. She put on Wynton Marsalis'
Blue Note
CD, then settled into Ted's arms. “The meal was fantastic. Thanks for this evening. It's nice to know you care,” she said.
“V, I don't just care about you, I love you.”
Victoria looked at the handsome man who had come into her life and made her love him despite her misgivings and hang-ups. She thought back on all the times he'd given her small signals about his true feelings and how she'd intentionally ignored them because she didn't want to entertain the thought of a white man loving her, or beyond that, her loving a white man. The complications were too great.
She thought about her college days when she and her girlfriends stood firm against dating white men, saying they had small penises and didn't know how to please a woman in bed. Even though none of them had any first-hand experience to either prove or disprove the myth, they talked about the subject with great authority. Now she was lying on her couch in the arms of a white man. A white man she loved. And as she snuggled next to him, feeling his erection poking into her side, she couldn't believe how amazingly normal it felt to be in this situation, in this moment, with this man.
This was the third time Victoria had felt Ted's erection, and just as before, she couldn't quite determine his size. Parker was “blessed” in that regard, and had given her pleasure that was close to paradise. She wondered about Ted.
But they say that size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it,
Victoria reminded herself. Then she remembered what Gigi had said about the size theory. “It's complete bullshit, and can't possibly be true,” she'd scoffed. “If a woman says that size doesn't matter it's because she's got a man with a little dick, and you better believe she's got somethin' on the side to pick up the slack.”
As she snuggled even deeper into Ted's arms, Victoria wondered how he was in bed. How did he kiss? How did he move his pelvis in the throes of passion? Could he work it? And then she thought about her own sexual prowess. She prided herself on being a good lover. She knew how to please a man, how to make him moan until she had him calling out her name. But she wondered how Ted would receive her.
Will he expect me to be an exotic fuck? To perform like a member of Cirque du Soliel?
“V,” Ted whispered, “what's wrong? You have a strange look on your face.”
“I'm fine. Just thinking,” she smiled.
He pulled her onto his chest and brought her face closer to his. She could feel his mouth inching closer toward her own. She prepared herself for his kiss . . . their first, but the sound of the doorbell drew her away. Ted wanted to ignore it, but Victoria was already on her feet. She grabbed the hotel contract from the coffee table. “That's Tyler; I'll be right back. And hold that pose,” she winked.
Out of habit, Victoria looked through the peephole, and what she saw almost made her heart stop. Parker was standing on the other side of the door.
Shit! What's he doing here?
He'd been calling her several times a day leaving messages, pleading for her to pick up the phone and talk to him. He'd sent her ten dozen roses two days ago, which she promptly donated to a local nursing home. And just yesterday he'd managed to get Gayle to call, to help persuade Victoria to talk to him. She agreed to speak to him, but once they were on the phone she told him not to call her or come near her ever again.
Victoria could see that he was about to ring the bell again, so she sat Tyler's documents on the console and quickly opened the door.
“What the hell is that mothafucker doing here?” were the first words out of Parker's mouth as he looked back over his shoulder at Ted's car.
Victoria spoke low, through clenched teeth. “No, the question is what the hell are
you
doing here? I told you to stay away from me.”
“How're we supposed to work things out if we don't communicate? We need to talk.”
“You should've thought about that before you started spreading your dick around.”
“Baby, we can work this out. I made a stupid mistake, but you can't deny that we love each other. We have since the first night we met.”
Victoria nodded her head. “It's interesting you bring that up. I've been thinking about that night, and you know what? I realized that you were an inconsiderate asshole, even back then. You had one woman on your arm while you openly gawked at another. How I ever found that charming or even remotely flattering makes me sick to my stomach. Why don't you go back to Sheila, or better yet, go to the city pound where they keep the rest of your kind.”
“You can hurl all the insults you want. I deserve it. But I don't want Sheila or anyone else.”
Victoria gave him a cynical smirk.
“Victoria, I'm not giving up on us.” Parker paused, looking at her with frightening sincerity. “Do you really think I'm going to just walk away from what we have? You know me better than that.”
“You walked away from what we had when you cheated on me. Just leave.”
“I'm not leaving, especially not as long as that mothafucker's in your house. Where is he?”
Just then Victoria looked past Parker and saw Ms. Swanson and Caroline walking by. They were finishing up their regular evening stroll.
“Leave,”
Victoria repeated, trying to keep her voice low because she knew her nosy neighbor was watching. At the same time she saw Parker's eyes narrow in concentration on something over her left shoulder. She didn't have to turn around to know that Ted was coming up behind her. She backed a few steps away from the door, trying to slow his approach.
“She doesn't want to see you or talk to you. I suggest you leave now,” Ted belted out.
“Fuck you and your suggestions!” Parker barked back. “If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be going through this shit!”
Ms. Swanson heard the yelling and came to an abrupt stop on the sidewalk in front of Victoria's house.
Ted moved away from Victoria, planting himself closer to where Parker stood. “Don't blame me because you couldn't keep your dick in your pants!” he glared.
“Mothafucker, do you know who you're talkin' to? I'll kick your ass.”
“Let's go!” Ted growled, making a quick movement toward the door.
Parker came forward at the same time, but Victoria reacted quicker than both men by jumping in between them. “Stop it!” she yelled. She glanced over and saw Ms. Swanson frantically reaching into her fanny pack.
“Can't you both see that you're hurting me?” she pleaded from one man's eyes to the other. Both Parker and Ted relaxed their stance and backed away from Victoria's outstretched arms. She looked up again and saw Ms. Swanson rushing up through the yard. She hurried in between the two parked vehicles and up toward the portico, carrying Caroline under one arm and a small canister of pepper spray in her free hand. Parker turned around quickly to face the woman coming up behind him.
“It's okay, Ms. Swanson,” Victoria called out, stopping the old woman before she began to spray. “Everything's fine . . . really. They were just about to leave,” she scrambled nervously, trying to convince her neighbor.
Ms. Swanson looked at the three of them. “Are you sure? I can call 911,” she said, still waving her pepper spray in the air.
“That won't be necessary. We had a little disagreement, but everything's fine now. You can put the pepper spray away,” Victoria coaxed.
Reluctantly, the old woman put the spray back into her fanny pack as she tried to calm Caroline. The pooch's pink hair bows were standing on edge. “I'll call you later to make sure everything is okay,” Ms. Swanson offered.
“Thank you,” Victoria sighed as she watched her neighbor walk away. The old lady glanced back, shaking her head, mumbling something every few feet until she was out of sight.
The muggy Atlanta heat loomed like Victoria's anger. She could feel the sweat beading up between her breasts, trickling down to her stomach, which felt like it was in knots. “I can't believe you two,” she raged through clenched teeth. “Look at you; an internationally respected surgeon and the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, standing in my front door acting like schoolyard bullies. You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”
“He needs to stay the fuck away from you,” Parker said. “He shouldn't be here in the first place.” He stared with anger in Ted's direction. “You couldn't wait, could you? You wanted her all along. I saw through your bullshit from the start.”
Ted clenched his fists at his side. “You better leave now, while you still can.”
“Are you threatening me?” Parker's tone turned eerily calm, sending panic through Victoria's body. “I'm not one of those punks at ViaTech that you can order around. You don't know who the fuck you're dealin' with.”
Ted glared back at him. “You sonofabitch, I know exactly who you are. Now get the fuck outta here or there's gonna be trouble. I'm not asking you again,” he threatened.
Victoria stomped her foot. “Damnit. Shut the hell up! Both of you!” she nearly screamed, pushing Parker farther out the door. “You've got to go. I told you not to come here.”
Parker was incredulous. “You're putting me out? And letting him stay?”
“You're lucky you weren't doused with pepper spray, or worse. Ms. Swanson could've called the police, and you could've been arrested. Parker, you know better than this.”