Strangers in the Night (24 page)

“In full detail,” a member of the audience shouted out. Samantha laughed, “Right, in full detail.”

“What we want to know is, when you think about Julia Hamilton what comes to mind?” Tess clarified with what
seemed
like an encouraging tone.

Jake sighed, thinking, knowing he didn’t have all day. Okay, he’d give it a shot: what did come to mind when he thought of Julia? He cleared his throat. “Details,” he said, clearing his throat again. He lifted his head and looked Tess in the eye. “Julia is sweet and shy and someone I truly value. We trust each other. And there’s never been anything remotely romantic between us,” Jake answered truthfully, thinking this whole thing wouldn’t be too hard.

“How does it make you feel when the media says she’s waiting on the sidelines for you to sow your wild oats?” Tess then asked. And there it was; that
feel
word.

“Some reporters don’t care for the truth.” Jake both sat back and held back; he couldn’t exactly make an enemy out of reporters.

“No, no, no, no. She didn’t ask what you
thought
about it, she asked how it made you
feel
.” Samantha leaned forward.

Jesus, how
did
it make him feel
?
Jake swallowed. Truthfully, like pounding a few of the so-called journalists, but he couldn’t say that. He looked up. Everyone was waiting expectantly.

“Uh, Jake? This is live television, the cameras are all zeroing in on you, and people at home are going to think their screen has frozen,” Gretel commented and a few people chuckled.

“Listen, I just don’t see how the way I feel about ridiculous lies relates to how I’ll run the city.” Jake knew people just wanted to get to know him; he got that now. So he tried his best to look as sincere as he felt.

“Well, to be blunt, nobody likes a jerk. No matter how smart or resourceful the jerk is. Most people vote for competence and likability, it’s just the way it is. When people think you’ve got a woman just waiting for you while you do as you please, it makes you look like a jerk,” Gretel shot back.

“When it seems like you buy a property just to hide the women you fool around with from the voting public, it makes you look like a jerk,” Samantha, no longer so friendly, chimed in.

“When regular everyday Chicagoans see that someone who already seems to have it all now wants their city, too, yet he’s too high and mighty to really talk to the people he wants to lead, it makes you look like a jerk,” Tess threw in.

Stunned, Jake sat back, feeling every word spoken to him like the lash of a whip. They stung.

“Guilty,” Jake finally said.

“Guilty?” Gretel repeated.

He closed his eyes briefly before opening them. “When Julia’s name is dragged into this, it makes me feel guilty. She’s a very private person, and she didn’t sign up to be heralded as this, I don’t know, martyr for me when that’s not who she is at all. To be honest, I don’t understand how people can be so quick to judge others yet at the same time completely ignore their own behavior, like how easily they believe a lie about someone they shouldn’t even be focusing on,” Jake finished, not having meant to sound so forceful.

When he looked up to meet Tess’s eyes he saw she’d gotten what she’d wanted from him: emotion. He looked out at the audience and they were quiet now. Scanning their faces, he saw they were interested in hearing more. More about how he
felt
.

“Now that you mention it,” Gretel, continued without pause. “Julia didn’t sign up for this, but you did, Jake. The public already knows what you want to do if you are elected, but our viewer’s want to know why,
exactly
, you decided to run for mayor.”

Headlines about him being another wealthy man on a power-trip flashed in his mind. The last person to actually ask him this question instead of guessing at his motivations was Keila. Jake folded his hands between his legs, wondering if he was letting his anxiety show.

“I want to be mayor because … ” he paused, because only canned words seemed to come to mind. Looking up, this time at Gretel, he decided to do what he did with Keila. Open up. “I don’t have a personal agenda. I know it’s hard for people to believe, but it’s not about some power-trip. It’s about how I’ve always felt about this city … as if it somehow helped raise the best part of who I am. Both the grit and glitter are a part of me. Yes, I was born wealthy, I can’t help that, but I spend my time in places here that, frankly, most people avoid. I care about neighborhoods that many have given up on. And I’m not trying to make others feel responsible because I know everyone has their own lives to worry about and that’s fine. That’s good. People should be productive. I’m just trying to let you know that I do want to take it all on. All of it. From the Gold Coast to the South Side, there are problems and opportunities and they are more interwoven than people think. I just want a chance to take them on.” Jake sat on the edge of his seat, looking at the audience, with a sinking feeling that he’d just bared his guts to people who thought it was just a speech.

“Look at that, people, Jake Kelly isn’t a robot,” Samantha sang out. The audience laughed and someone began to sing the lyrics to Foreigner’s “Hot-Blooded.” People started to clap along and then, even Jake had to chuckle. A little. Something flew in the air and hit the stage again. Gretel picked it up with a pencil and twirled it a few times. It was a bra.

“He’s sexy when he’s all worked up!” A female voice shouted from the back of the audience. “Hear that, Jake? You’re sexy when you’re all worked up,” Samantha teased.

“I am not all worked up,” Jake smiled and sat back again.

“We’re on to you, Jake. We’re going to a commercial break now, but when we come back, we’ve got a few questions guaranteed to let us know just how hot-blooded Jake can get,” Tess turned to camera one and, to Jake’s mind, promised viewers to barbecue him. Live.

He looked at his watch. He thought he was doing pretty well, but damn it, only fifteen minutes had passed, and he had fifteen to go. He muttered something unintelligible under his breath, but Tess caught it and laughed. As music played just before they transitioned to the break, she hollered, “Hear that? Jake
feels
we’re messin’ with his mind!”

• • •

Keila, phone in one hand, her other hand to her mouth, watched as Jake began to let go. She smiled when he smiled and was so caught up in him that she didn’t hear when Tess’s personal assistant came back on the line.

“Hello … Keila? Are you still there? Please still be there.”

“Yes!”

“I’m sorry about that, but I had to call Pete and confirm you really are who you say you are, and that he’d given you this number.”

“It’s okay, I understand. Um, what happens now?”

“I need you to stay on the line, okay? Stay on the line! I need to talk to Tess before the commercial break is over, and then, my best guess is that she’ll want you to wait until the perfect moment to patch you through to the speaker they have on stage. I’ll let you know soon. Stay on the line!”

Silence again. Speaker? Crap! What was she doing? But as soon as she looked down at the newspaper again, she knew.

• • •

Jake watched as Tess quickly sat down again. She’d been called away and had left looking a little annoyed about it, but she came back with a new spring to her step and a nearly blinding gleam in her eye. The
She Said, She Said
theme song came on and the murmuring crowd shifted their attention back to them.

“Where were we?” Tess asked.

“You promised you’d make Jake’s blood boil!” Samantha answered.

“Right. A squadron of questions awaits. Who wants to fire first this time?” Tess asked the audience. A slew of hands went up. It took all of Jake’s will power not to wipe his brow. Looking toward Tyrone, he saw his friend’s expression was strained.

An older woman from the audience stood up. “Was the interior decorator you spent the weekend with just a fling, or did she mean more to you?” She started to sit down, but got up again. “Oh! And are you into older women?” she wiggled her hips.

Clearing his throat, Jake again just coached himself to answer honestly. “I hired the decorator a while back to take a look at the house, to give me some ideas. We didn’t see eye to eye and I never saw her again. I don’t think she spent more than twenty minutes in the house — ”

“Twenty minutes is plenty of time!” someone from the audience shouted.

“Sure it is,” Jake smiled again. “But nothing happened. No intimacy, not even a personal conversation.”

“Well, we’ve heard your side before; your camp already denied this, so it really is just a matter of people deciding who they’ll believe, a case of ‘he said, she said,’ if you will,” Gretel stated.

“Maybe not. Maybe new information has come up … but I’ll just save that for later,” Tess responded mysteriously. Samantha and Gretel quickly turned to her, eyes inquisitive.

“Ooooooh,” the audience duly sang in unison.

What the hell? Jake’s head snapped to Tyrone, who shrugged in an exaggerated manner.

“You haven’t answered what you think about older women,” Tess reminded him, as if she hadn’t just dropped a bomb.

Jake figured it was time to kiss up to the audience. Big time. Just in case. “There are many older women who I think are beautiful, sexy, and just incredibly smart and wise,” he said, serving up his best smile. And then, to add the icing, he truthfully added, “Starting with my mother.”

That garnered more than a few “ahhs,” and one loud “bull!”

“Well, I think that’s great,” Samantha clasped her hands as Gretel laughed, pointed to the audience, and said, “He’s putting the moves on you, people. He senses danger ahead.” Then, abruptly, she ordered. “Next question!” Jake sat up.

Hands went up, and a young woman was chosen this time. “You’ve denied affairs with the decorator and Julia Hamilton, but what about the mystery woman?”

Jake instantly shut down. “I’m sorry, but I won’t discuss her.”

“You don’t have to give her name up, we understand that, but how do you explain her? You’re carrying her in one picture and kissing her in another. This was obviously more than a friend or someone you happened to hire,” Samantha nudged.

“We’re not ninnies, Jake. You’re a single man and in my opinion, perfectly within your rights to pursue as many women as you’d like, but even I have to wonder if any of them have ever meant anything to you and if not, how much of a heart you have. I want my mayor to have a heart, dammit!” Gretel slapped her thigh and both Tess and Samantha chuckled.

Jake stared at Gretel. Of course he had a heart, and right now, it was full of protectiveness for Keila. He was not offering her up to the public; he’d rather lose the campaign. “I know how it looks, but I’m not protecting myself; I swear it,” he finally said, again just going for heartfelt truth.

“You’re protecting the woman in the picture. I think most people can respect that. What we want to know is what does she mean to you, Jake?” Tess prodded, gently.

Jake sat back, his hand rubbing his temple, a headache beginning to thud there. What was he supposed to answer to that? What if Keila was watching?

“Just say the truth,” Samantha prompted.

“Or we can move on to the next question. For now,” Tess shrugged.

“Move on? We’ve really got him squirming — ” Samantha began to protest before being interrupted by an upset Gretel who asked, “Hey! When was the show renamed
Tess Says
? I didn’t get that memo.”

Jake was grateful the bickering women had taken the attention off of him. Until Tess said, “I’m sorry, but something came up a few minutes ago. Just trust me and look at the screen behind us.” She gave someone offstage a signal and seconds later, the images of Jake and Keila dancing at Chicago SummerDance came on. A few exclamations from the audience that Keila might be the mystery woman after all reached him.

As he sat there, his thoughts whirling, anxiety churning in his stomach, a comforting scent that immediately made him think of Filip surrounded him. A split-second later he realized what the smell was. He took a whiff. It was Vicks VapoRub and Bengay. They were messing with his mind in more ways than one, showing him pictures of Keila, making the set smell like Filip …

“Which one of you is using Vicks and Bengay?” Jake turned to the women. They all stared back as if he’d gone mad.

Many in the audience laughed and Gretel gave him a cutting look. “Now that is one lame distraction. Surely a politician can come up with something better than that.” She turned to Tess. “Why are we showing pictures of the violinist? Is she the mystery woman? I thought she had an alibi.”

“Who’s hiding the Vicks and Bengay?” Jake tried again, not amused by the prank. Jake turned to Tyrone, who was sniffing around, too. Tyrone shrugged, signaling he couldn’t smell anything.

He next wondered whether he was losing his mind or if Filip was somehow trying to reach out to him in his hour of desperation. He quickly decided he was losing his mind.

Samantha looked into Jake’s eyes and apparently saw something there because, much to the audience’s amusement, she got up to smell both Tess and Gretel and look around the scant stage furnishings before settling down again and saying. “Absolutely nothing smells like Vicks and Bengay, Jake,” she chided. “Now, why are we showing the hot pictures of Keila Diaz and Jake again? To ask Jake about her? We’re only going to get another denial out of him.” Samantha turned to Tess.

“Keila Diaz called my private line a little while ago. We’ve confirmed it’s her, and she has something she’d like to share with the people of Chicago,” Tess explained.

Jake finally gave up. He didn’t know what was happening, why the set smelled like Filip, why Keila was calling in, or how it was all going to end, but things had spun out of his control.

“Hello?” he heard Keila’s voice on the line. He swallowed hard.