IF YOU WANTED THE MOON (17 page)

“I’l bet it was,” Macy said.

“It was, Mace.”

“Any
who
,” Sheila started, but Macy interrupted her. “If you say that word again, which, Miss Big Time Doctor, ain’t even a word, I wil personaly
anywho
you. Okay?”

“Any,” Sheila was about to start but changed course. “Anyway, what happened next, Tori?”

Tori leaned forward. “Fred Morton came to town.”

Macy frowned. “Who’s Fred Morton?”

“He works for CDI also. In senior management. He helps with the scouting missions, among other things. But he shows up and he and I hit it off realy wel and he invites me to dinner.”

Macy shook her head. “You and these men,” she said. “And I’l bet this Fred Morton’s good looking too.”

“Yeah, he’s nice looking,” Tori said.

“Better looking than Bobby Rogers?” Macy asked.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Tori replied and al three laughed.

“Any
who
,” Sheila said and then looked quickly at Macy. “That is, what happened next?”

“When I got back Ethan was so angry. He had told me to be in his house by eleven—”

“He gave you a curfew?” Both Sheila and Macy asked simultaneously. “I don’t believe it,” Macy added.

“Wel, it’s true.”

“And you abided by it, didn’t you, girl?”

“Absolutely not,” Tori said. “I’m no child.”

“I know that’s right. A curfew! Who does he think he is?”

“Her boss,” Sheila said. “But go on.”

“So he’s upset that I didn’t get in by eleven and we argue about it. Then I go upstairs and he leaves the house. The next day, he treats me as if I’m poison to him. Just the day before he wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t seem to hate me. We even went shopping for groceries. But then there was that near-accident.”

“With the little boy?” Macy asked.

“Right. I was talking to you, Mace, when that happened. But after that, after he saved my life realy, he went back into his moodiness. And next thing I know, after my date with Freddy, we’re leaving Cedar Key.”

Both Sheila and Macy leaned back. Neither seemed to know what to make of that.

“Ethan Chandler is one weird dude,” Macy said.

“He’s not a dude,” Sheila said. “He’s a rich white man. And rich white men feel a sense of entitlement, they have to. Maybe he felt that if Tori didn’t respond to him and him alone, he didn’t want her anymore.”

“That’s stupid.”

“That’s entitlement. My cel phone’s vibrating,” Sheila added. She puled her phone from her shoulder bag and looked at it. “It’s the hospital.”

“It’s always that hospital,” Macy said.

Sheila grabbed her cel phone and her shoulder bag and stood, heading for Tori’s bedroom. “I need some privacy,” she said as she walked, pressing numbers into her phone as she went. Then she

closed the bedroom door behind her.

Macy shook her head. “This happens almost every time we’re with that girl. You notice that? She always got to get back to the hospital. It’s like why does she bother to come?”

“Not always, Mace.”

“Always. Every time. I mean, doctors might make the big bucks, but you couldn’t pay me to be one. They ain’t got no life.”

“I’m sayin’,” Tori said.

“So,” Macy said, looking at her friend, “what are you gonna do?”

“What can I do? Go to work tomorrow and pray he doesn’t fire me.”

“Fire you? Why would he fire you?”

Especialy since he kissed her goodnight. But he did that, Tori had concluded, in spite of himself. “It’s just, I don’t know. Maybe I failed some test. That’s what Arthur Coughlin said it was about.

Being worthy enough to be on his management team. Maybe he’s decided I’m not worthy.”

“Why wouldn’t you be worthy? Because other men are interested in you? Child please. If Ethan Chandler’s that insecure, he don’t need to be running nobody’s company.”

“You would think,” Tori agreed. “But I don’t know, Mace. It’s just a feeling I have.”

Macy hesitated, then said it. “Does the fact that you’re a black woman have something to do with this feeling of yours?”

Tori looked at her friend. Macy always found out. Somehow. “Why would you say that?” she asked her.

“Because you are a black woman and he’s a rich white man who has to deal with a lot of rich white folks. Some of whom, not al, mind you, but some of whom might not care for the fact that their star, their best in show, is dating across ethnic lines. Now don’t tel me that hasn’t at least occurred to you.”

Tori had to nod. “It has. And maybe that’s why I feel so vulnerable. I believe he was developing real feelings for me, Mace. Feelings he may have decided just can’t be. He may not want me around him anymore.”

“And if that happens you sue his pants off for sexual harassment.”

“And how am I gonna prove something like that? He didn’t harass me. I was faling for him, too.”

“But if he fires you for no other reason than because of his feelings toward you—”

“He’l be completely justified.”

Macy is shocked. “How can you say that? What would justify him firing you?”

“I’m stil on probation. Company policy is that I can be terminated anytime during my probationary period, and terminated summarily.”

“Summarily?” Macy asked. “What that mean?”

“I can be fired without explanation.”

“For real?”

“For real. So, you see, Mace, tomorrow is a big day for me.”

“A big day? If you put it that way and that man can fire you just because he likes you too much, tomorrow may be one of the biggest days of your life.”

Tori looked at her friend. And her heart began to ache. “Amen,” she said.

When that Monday morning came, Tori wasn’t a half hour in her office before Mildred, her secretary, came in with the big news. “Staff meeting at ten,” she said.

“A staff meeting? That wasn’t on the manifest.”

“I know that. But bam, there it is.”

Tori’s heart began to speed up. “Did Mr. Chandler’s secretary mention what this staff meeting concerns?”

“Not a word. Just that one has been caled. So straighten up your act and be on time,” Mildred said as she was about to leave. But Tori stopped her.

“Mildred,” she said, trying her best to keep her voice even and not excitable.

“Yes, boss?”

“Don’t cal me boss. You’ve been around here a long time.”

“Fourteen years.”

“They don’t usualy . . . fire anybody at a staff meeting. Do they?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“Just answer it, please.”

“Wel,” Mildred said, thinking. “They do it al kinds of ways. But yeah, I’ve remembered a few people that would go into a staff meeting and come out fired. Yeah, I’ve seen it before. Now, again, why do you ask?”

Tori exhaled. “Just curious,” she said and looked back down at her work. When Mildred was gone, she closed her eyes and prayed.

The board room was festive when Tori walked in, with Herb from Accounting and Delia from Human Resources teling jokes about an otherwise briliant applicant who didn’t know how to tie his shoes.

Tori didn’t know the punch line and didn’t care, she was just glad that nobody else seemed bothered by this unexpected get together. She took her usual seat near the front, although, when Ethan walked in, she wished she had reconsidered. As soon as he walked into the room his eyes seemed to rivet straight to her, as if he couldn’t wait to see her again. Which meant, Tori felt, that he either missed her terribly or couldn’t wait to kick her out of his company on her rear.

To her relief, however, when the meeting was caled to order he spent much of the time talking about normal business affairs, including a new bid for a multiplex project. The projected bid would be 3.2

milion, he stated, with cost overruns built in. Tori as usual would be in charge of making sure that the material costs reflect the overages. Tori gladly agreed to that, took her necessary notes in her projections notebook, and the meeting was adjourned. Just like that. No lecture on unworthiness, no pink slip, no sly remarks. Chandler was business and al business. A trait, Tori was beginning to believe, that she liked in him. Especialy since it appeared that her job was not in jeopardy.

After the staff meeting, it appeared to her that Ethan was lingering. He was stuffing papers into his briefcase, but he’d stop anytime anybody spoke to him, or held a conversation with him. Tori was lingering, too, although she didn’t quite understand why. She was getting herself a fresh cup of coffee in the back of the room, and a Danish. And she was holding a conversation about little of nothing with Herb from Accounting. When he was gone, and everybody else (except Ethan) was gone, she decided to leave. Ethan, however, met her near the door.

“How are you, Tori?” he asked her. She tried to smile grandly, as if she was having the time of her life. She failed to pul it off.

“Okay,” she said honestly. “I’m doing okay.”

“I didn’t bore you I hope.”

“The meeting wasn’t long enough for me to get bored.”

“In Cedar Key, I mean. I hope the trip didn’t bore you.”

“Bore me?” she blurted out before she realized it. “I had the time of . . .” She almost blurted out the truth. She did have the time of her life. When Ethan was acting right, that is. “No,” she said instead.

“Didn’t bore me at al.”

Ethan was crestfalen. Because he had the time of his life too, before he realized she was his number one suspect. He tried to smile, to disguise his pain, but he couldn’t pul it off, either. “Good,” was al he could manage to say. And then he left. Tori, confused, left too.

That Monday night at home, Tori sat on her bed reviewing the bid and going over some of the cost projections she was able to generate earlier that day. She stil had a long way to go, and was getting a headache trying, but she was determined to do her best job yet. Until the doorbel rang.

She looked at the clock on the night stand. It was only eight eighteen. In her pjs, she got out of bed and answered the door. It was Sheila and Macy.

“Not enough information,” Macy said as they entered.

“It’s the hospital again,” Sheila said as she entered, flashing her cel phone to Tori as if Tori would understand what she meant. She did.

“We know, we know,” Tori said. “You need privacy.”

Sheila smiled. “Thanks, Tore,” she said and headed for the bedroom.

Macy, however, wasn’t so affable. “Al you told us,” she said as she headed for the sofa, “was that there was some kind of emergency staff meeting—”

“It wasn’t an emergency meeting,” Tori corrected as she folowed her.

“Whatever kind of meeting, it was a meeting. But al you said was that he gave y’al a new bid project and the meeting was adjourned.”

“That’s true,” Tori said, sitting in the flanking chair as Macy sat on the sofa. “More or less.”

“He didn’t say a word to you?”

“We discussed the cost projections, given that my department—”

“After the meeting, Tori, you know what I mean.”

“Yes, okay, he did say hey to me. Asked how I was doing.”

Macy smiled. “That’s promising. Go on.”

“He said he hoped he didn’t bore me in Cedar Key, and that was it.”

“Didn’t bore you? What kind of thing is that to say?”

“That’s what he said.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said no, he didn’t bore me. Wel, first I said I had the time of my life, at least I almost said it.”

Macy laughed. “No, you didn’t.”

“I almost. But I was able to catch myself.”

“Good. The last thing a man needs to know is that you enjoyed yourself. Especialy a man like Ethan Chandler who’s dissing you just because of the color of your skin.”

“We don’t know that, Mace. It’s just conjecture on our parts.”

“Conjecture my foot! Why else wouldn’t he want you? You’re beautiful, inteligent, got it going on in every department!”

“I don’t know about al of that. But Ethan just doesn’t strike me as a racist.”

“He ain’t got to be no racist. He’s an opportunist. He needs to stay in good standing with the blue bloods of Chicago, Ilinois and wil do whatever it takes to make that happen. Including dissing the sister.”

“He could have fired me if he wanted to diss me, Mace. But he didn’t. So I don’t know what to make of it.” Tori said this as if she was as confused as she’d ever been.

Two weeks later, Tori pushed through the revolving doors of Chandler Development, Inc. ready for whatever the day would bring. But as soon as she entered the building, Marc Grier, the man she knew

as head of security, walked up to her.

“Good morning, Miss Douglas.”

“Helo, Mr. Grier,” Tori said, not breaking her stride.

“Miss Douglas,” Grier said to her, causing her to turn toward him. “Wil you come with me, please.”

Tori’s heart dropped. If she were a criminal, she thought, she’d look suspicious as hel. “Come with you?”

“Please,” he said, motioning for her to come his way.

Tori hesitated stil, but then she folowed Marc Grier onto the back elevator, the one that was used exclusively by Ethan Chandler. When they reached the top floor, they walked along the corridor and then into the office of the president, an office she had never donned in al of her time with CDI. Her heart began ramming against her chest. As expected, Ethan was in the office. Only he wasn’t sitting behind his desk. He was standing at the window looking out. Looking, Tori thought, as if he was meditating. And when he turned around and looked at her, he looked as if he was about to be sick.

“Are you okay, Mr. Chandler,” Tori couldn’t help asking. Ethan looked away from her and walked toward his big desk. When he sat down, Grier asked Tori to sit down, too.

“What’s this al about?” Tori asked Grier but Grier again motioned toward the chair.

“Have a seat, please,” he repeated himself.

Tori didn’t want to sit down, she was too nervous to sit, but she saw the stern look on Grier’s face, and the devastated look on Ethan’s face, and she knew she would be wel served to get off of her