Rivals in Paradise (14 page)

He turned from the bar area and smiled. He saw just the man who would allow him to land another position and thus clear the way for him to right his wrongs with Cicely. This fellow businessman owned one of the top import/export businesses in Miami, if not the entire country. He'd been trying to get Chase to come into the large Bahamian-based company for years. He'd also been trying to get Chase to meet his sister-in-law for years. Chase wasn't interested in the sister-in-law, but he was interested in the job.

Chase held out his hand in greeting and the two men shook.

“How's it going, Harrington?” Chase said as he shook hands with Carlton Harrington III.

“Things would be going a whole lot better if I could entice you to Harrington Enterprise, Yearwood,” Carlton hedged.

“Let's talk,” Chase said as they walked away to find a nice corner to negotiate in.

 

After having secured another job and given his notice to the higher-ups at Mainstay, there
was only one thing left for Chase to do…get his woman back.

That Friday morning at Mainstay started like any other morning, with an end-of-the-week meeting in which all of the division heads met with the president of the company to discuss the week's events and plan for the following Monday's all-company meeting.

Being in the same room with Leonard was a chore, but at least he wouldn't have to suffer the fool much longer.

“I have one more thing I'd like to bring up and I hate to bring it up right before the holidays. But something has to be done with Cicely Stevens. She just isn't cutting it in finance.” Leonard spoke like it pained him to be throwing Cicely under the bus, but Chase knew differently.

Chase narrowed his eyes at Leonard in warning.

Ron Samuels, the president of the company, cleared his throat. “I know that you've had some concerns about Cicely in the past, Stone, but you haven't said anything in a while, and she was a stellar employee before you came here.”

“I know what her record was before I came here, and that's why I have kept her on this long—”

“I think Cicely Stevens needs a more challenging position.” Chase cut Leonard off. “Since my position will be open again now that I'll be leaving Mainstay
in the New Year, I would think that Cicely should be considered for it.”

Ron Samuels nodded. “I wanted Stevens for the promotion, since we usually try to promote from within. But once we found out that we would be able to get a shark like you in the tank, well…” Samuels laughed. “Sorry there just wasn't enough excitement here to keep you motivated, Yearwood. If there was a VP slot open, I might be able to compete with your offer and come up with a counteroffer… But enough of that. I value your opinion, Yearwood. You're a good man. Stevens is definitely my pick for division leader in Mergers and Acquisitions. And since I'm the president, my pick holds weight.”

“But, sir, surely—”

This time Samuels cut Leonard off. “There's no need to argue, Stone. You wanted to do something about Stevens, and come the New Year, she'll be out of your division and out of your hair. This meeting is adjourned.”

Chase walked out of Samuels's office feeling just two inches shy of vindicated. He clearly needed to have one more conversation with Leonard about Cicely.

But when he walked up on Cicely blasting Leonard off, he began to rethink his original line of thought. Cicely didn't need him to save her. She could very well take care of herself.

 

Cicely had known the pencil-wielding maniac was going to break free sooner or later. She tried to coax her back into the cage, but it was too much fun being up in Leonard's face pointing her pencil at him.

He had come back from the division leaders' meeting even more evil than his typically evil self. She had almost thought he was going to stop being such a bear, because he had been somewhat civil the past few days. But no…he was at it again.

So there she stood in front of him, waving her pencil and waging holy hell.

“And another thing,” she sneered, “I am not incompetent. You are just impossible to please, and you wouldn't know competent and professional behavior if it smacked you in the face. I am good at my job, and you had better start treating me with some respect or I will file a grievance and I will keep filing grievances until I have your job. Are we clear?”

Leonard didn't say anything. He just glared at her.

She noticed that he was looking behind her, and she hoped that it wasn't another company higher-up. She had tried to keep herself tamed, but the crazy lady inside had had enough.

She turned to find Chase standing there.

Oh, good,
the crazy woman with the pencil thought,
the other one
.

She turned to have it out with Chase. She hadn't wanted to do this in the workplace, but since he didn't seem to want to come see her at home as she'd asked him to in the note she left for him days ago, oh, well….

As she walked over to him, he walked around her and over to Leonard.

“Hey!”
What the hell!

Cicely spun around and followed Chase.

“I suggest you heed her warning, Leonard. Because if I have to tell you again not to mess with the woman I love, it won't be pretty. Cicely can clearly take care of herself. But just in case I didn't make myself clear enough the other day, my woman is off limits. You harm her or try to harm the woman I love again in any way and I will kick your ass. I might not be working here at Mainstay after the New Year, but trust and believe I will know if you do anything to her. And be clear, I don't make idle threats.” Chase spoke his words in an eerily calm voice.

Cicely's eyes were wide with shock. She certainly hadn't seen that coming. Even the crazy, pencil-wielding lady inside of her was quelled. Cicely backed up as Chase turned and started walking away.

“Hey!” She followed behind him.

“You said you don't want to talk about our
relationship at work, so we'll talk later, Cicely. And just so you know, I'm taking another position at another company, so all your little no-fraternizing rules will be null and void.” Chase dropped his declarations and kept right on stepping.

She kept right on following. “But I left you a note days ago asking you to come and see me at my condo, and you never showed.”

Chase stopped then and stared at her. He seemed to calm down just a little.

“I never got your note,” he said. He reached out and touched her face. “We'll talk soon.”

And he left.

Cicely stood there dumbstruck until Leonard walked up behind her.

“I took the note you left for him, tore it up and put it in the trash. You may have used his idiotic feelings for you to screw your way into the Mergers and Acquisitions division leader position once he leaves, but you're still a pathetic, sorry little… Ouuuuch! You. Bitch!” Leonard grabbed his thigh in the spot where her pencil had jabbed him.

She looked down at her hand and waited for the moment of regret to come. When it didn't, she just smiled. “It was just a poke in the meatiest part of your thigh. Man up!”

T
he entire next week at work she felt like she was moving in slow motion. Chase still hadn't come to see her so that they could talk. And she was beginning to think that she had blown it big-time with him. The pencil to the thigh must have done its job—that and Chase's threats, no doubt—because Leonard had stopped being a jerk for the most part. So that was one saving grace.

Another saving grace was that her brother-in-law, Carlton, had put the fear of God into Isaac when Isaac had shown up at her condo more than a little tipsy begging her to take him back. Latonya, Carlton and the kids had come over to help her decorate her
Christmas tree. They had all decorated Gran's tree the week before, and next they were going to have a big tree-trimming party at Carlton and Latonya's mansion on Millionaires Row in Coconut Grove.

When they were all at her condo, Isaac had shown up and Carlton took a little walk with him. She normally would have felt sorry for Isaac and told Carlton to go easy on him. But she didn't have it in her that day. Her next step was a restraining order. When Carlton came back and told her that Isaac wouldn't be bothering her again, her only response was, “You didn't kill him or anything, right?” When Carlton gave her a funny look and said no, she was cool with whatever he had done and didn't need any more explanation.

Her family's all-consuming holiday preparations kicked into high gear with Christmas right around the corner. Latonya and Gran were making more demands on her time. And even though she was feeling more than a little antisocial, she relished having something to focus on besides the fact that Chase had professed his love for her when he threatened Leonard, and then didn't talk to her about it at all.

So, she took the Christmas shopping trips and the Christmas baking that the two women demanded of her in stride. At least if she kept busy, she thought, she wouldn't have a spare moment to think about Chase.

Business didn't seem to do the trick of making Cicely forget about Chase, though. She told herself that she was a Stevens girl and she was tough enough to handle it. But what did she make of the fact that Chase was leaving Mainstay in the New Year and the job that she wanted, the job that she thought he had stolen, was going to be hers, after all?

She'd believed she had everything under control, but there was the little problem of not being able to sleep because she missed Chase so much.

Miserable and wanting to wallow in it, Cicely was the last person folks should have wanted at any holiday tree-trimming party. She wasn't in the mood to party. But she couldn't very well take another island trip the way she had done the week of Thanksgiving. And somehow the idea of an island getaway without Chase by her side held very little appeal.

She was committed to drinking eggnog and trying to have fun in spite of not having heard from Chase yet. Feeling like a confused Mrs. Scrooge, she gathered the Christmas spirit to go on.

She knew an evening with her niece and nephews would ground her at least for the evening, but what was she going to do with Chase's declaration of love, especially since she hadn't heard from him since then? Could she trust in it and risk her heart for more than a fling? Could she take the chance that what she and Chase had was the real thing?

She rang the doorbell to her sister and brother-in-law's mansion fully expecting their long-time maid, Jillian, to answer the door. But instead, Chase answered the door.

Surprised and also a little giddy, she took a small step back. “Chase? What are you doing at my sister's house?”

Chase grinned his sexy little grin and looked up. She followed his gaze and noticed the mistletoe above the door. He pulled her into his arms and gently coaxed her lips open. He kissed her with a pent-up desire that amazed her.

He pulled his mouth away and inhaled her scent as if he were taking everything into memory. Finally, he took her hand and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

He led her to the downstairs sitting room and kneeled in front of her when she sat down on the antique Queen Anne sofa. He took her hand in his and she felt her heart stop and then start again.

Chase stared at her intently. His gaze had purpose. She held her breath and then let it go nervously about three times before he opened his mouth to speak.

“As it turns out, Cicely, a friend of mine from the 100 Black Businessmen of Miami group that I belong to has been trying to get me to come and work for his family-owned import-export company for years. But I could never give up the thrill of corporate raiding
to work importing and exporting petroleum from the Bahamas. When I finally left corporate raiding for a kinder, gentler job, he came at me again wanting me to join his company. This time I took him seriously. And given your no-fraternizing rules…” He slanted his eye at her playfully. “We have to do something about all your rules, by the way…”

She giggled softly and let out the breath she'd been holding, only to start holding it again. If Chase was going where she thought he was going… She exhaled again and then inhaled deeply, holding it until she couldn't any longer, and started the process again and again. It seemed to help a little with her nerves.

“Anyway, given your rules about dating in the workplace, I knew I had to find another job. So I finally told this friend of mine that I would join his company. And he was very happy. But then he started going on and on about this sister-in-law of his that he wanted to try and arrange for me to casually meet so she wouldn't think he was trying to set her up. He had been trying to get me to meet this elusive sister-in-law of his ever since I'd met him years ago, and since I had had no desire to settle down and valued my friendship with this man, I had always respectfully declined. But this time he went on and on about this sister-in-law who was sweet but had some odd obsession with nerds and whose latest loser boyfriend had the nerve to cheat on her. And her story
sounded so familiar that I had to ask him what his sister-in-law's name was.”

Cicely exhaled then. Her heart burst with so much love and joy it made her stomach ache. She clutched her free hand over her mouth.

“I'd never asked before, and now I'm sorry, because as it turns out his sister-in-law is the woman of my dreams.” Chase pulled a ring box out of his pocket.

“Say yes, Aunt Cee Cee, say yes!” Her little niece, Evie, was jumping up and down with glee.

“Shhhh.” Latonya placed her finger in front of her mouth to quiet her rambunctious daughter.

Surprised, Cicely looked up. She was shocked to see Carlton and Latonya standing in the sitting room with the little terror Evie and their sons Carlton IV and Terrence. Her grandmother and Jillian were also standing there waiting.

She turned her gaze back to Chase and she let herself believe what she was almost too scared to believe.

Chase opened the ring box and the most beautiful diamond ring she had ever seen was inside. It was a princess-cut diamond with small round diamonds around the band.

She opened her mouth and closed it again. She couldn't speak. She didn't know what to say. She felt a tear coming down her cheek, and Chase wiped it away.

“Now keep in mind, if you say yes, we are going to have to reenact this entire thing for my mom and all the patrons of Margie's Rum Shack.”

She nodded and Chase laughed.

“And also keep in mind that if you say yes, you are forever barred from coming up with any rules or ground rules meant to limit my time with you. You'll be stuck with me forever, Cicely.”

Cicely closed her eyes and nodded as her heart melted with pure and unmitigated relief and belief.

He said
forever,
and
forever
meant happily ever after….

“Cicely Stevens, I love you. Will you marry me?”

“Yes, Chase. I love you more than words could ever say. I want to be your wife. I'm
sooo
ready to be your wife.”

Chase kissed her then, sweetly and completely.

They then trimmed the tree and took advantage of all the mistletoe hanging in the mansion—that is, whenever Carlton and Latonya weren't taking advantage of it.

And Cicely knew without a doubt that sometimes rivals made the best lovers, and she'd found her paradise in her rival's arms.