A Special Relationship (10 page)

 
“I think I can round you up a glass of water, young lady,” Robert finally said.
 
“Come with me.”

 
Carrie exhaled, and followed him.

SEVEN

Carrie quickly followed Robert away from the elevator, refusing to even look back at that trifling Willie Charles, her every instinct telling her that she was far safer with this tall stranger than with the man she thought, just yesterday, was the answer to her prayers.
 
That was why she followed closely behind Robert as he walked down the long hall, through a suite of smaller offices, and then into his own big office.
 
He motioned for her to have a seat on the sofa, which she promptly did.
 
He walked behind the spacious, full-fledged bar and began preparing her a glass of water.
 
She stared at him, at this white stranger in such a beautiful blue suit, at this big man with such a lovely spirit about him, until he returned her gaze.
 
She quickly looked away.
 

 
“Sure you don’t want anything stronger?” he asked her.

 
“Positive,” she said with a nervous smile.
 
“I don’t drink alcoholic beverages.”

 
Figures, he thought, as he walked over to the sofa and handed her the water.
 
She drank heartily, holding the glass with both hands as she drank the entire contents, and then she looked up at her now staring host.
 

 
His breath caught when those big green eyes looked up at him, and he suddenly felt an odd sense of concern for Carrie.
 
What had Willie Charles done to this young woman, he wondered, that had her literally shaking in terror when she ran into his arms?
 
Had he come on to her? Had he threatened her?
 
Had he
touched
her?
 
Robert’s jaws tightened at the thought.
 
He actually believed, during this one moment in time, that he could have harmed Willie Charles if he’d touched her.

 
“I was thirsty,” Carrie said as she handed the now-empty glass back to Robert.
 
“Sorry about that.”

 
“Nothing to be sorry about,” Robert said as he sat the glass on the cocktail table.
 
“Anything else I can get for you?”

 
“Oh, no,” Carrie said, quickly rising to her feet.
 
“You’ve been most kind as it is, and I’m sure you’re very busy.”

 
“I’m okay,” Robert said as he unbuttoned his suit coat.
 
“Sit down.
 
Please.”

 
“I don’t want to trouble you any longer—”

 
“What’s your name?”

 
“
My.
. . name?
 
Carrie.
 
My name’s Carrie.”

 
“You’re not troubling me at all, Carrie.
 
All right?
 
Now sit.”

 
Robert smiled when he said this as if to help relax his nervous guest, but given what Carrie had just been through with Willie Charles, she was too suspicious of any man’s generosity to even think about relaxing.
 
Although, she had to admit, his face seemed to glow with warmth, and his soft gray eyes had a knowing look about them that made her feel as if he completely understood her.
 

 
“I don’t mind if you sit down too,” she said, patting the seat beside hers and smiling greatly, a gesture that almost made Robert smile.
 
She was offering him a seat in his own office.
 
Now that took nerve, he thought.
 

 
But he sat down beside her anyway.

 
Carrie felt a sudden jolt of excitement when Robert’s large body sat beside her.
 
She began talking, rambling even, anything to keep her sense of awkwardness from becoming too apparent. Why this man was affecting her this way was a mystery to her, but it was undeniable.
 
“That water tasted great,” she said.
 
“It’s not from the tap, is it?
 
It’s like that spring
water, that
bottled water you can buy at the Pigly Wigly?”

 
Robert almost smiled.
 
“I’m not sure, but I believe so,” he said.

 
Carrie looked back at him.
 
She was sitting on the edge of her seat, but he had leaned back in a slouched position, his legs crossed,
his
eyes seeming to stare right through her.
 
“You aren’t sure?” she asked him.
 
“You mean to tell me you don’t know where your own water comes from?”

 
“It’s always here is what I mean,” he said.
 
Carrie, however, still stared at him.
 
Not because, as Robert thought, she didn’t understand him, but because she couldn’t take her eyes off of him.
 
“I don’t go out and buy it,” he added.
 
That still didn’t stop Carrie’s stare.
 
“You’ll have to ask my secretary.
 
I’m not in charge of the water.”
 
He finally said this when it was obvious to him that nothing he said was going to satisfy that curious look on her face.

 
“What are you in charge of?” she willed herself to ask.
 

 
Robert smiled.
 
“Too much,” he said.

 
“Is this your office?”

 
“Yup.”

 
Carrie looked around.
 
“It’s very nice.
 
It’s certainly a lot for one person.”

 
“Agreed.
 
But in my line of work you have to impress or you may not seal the deal.
 
It’s the art of the deal, that’s all.”

 
“That’s stupid.”

 
Robert smiled.
 
“Is it?”

 
“Of course it is.
 
If I want to make a deal with somebody I wouldn’t give a flip nickel what their office looked like.
 
I would be more concerned about their competence and what all they could do for me.
 
Know what I’m saying?”
 
She asked this and looked back at him.
 
Those eyes of hers seemed to stun him again and he blinked.

 
“I know exactly what you’re saying,” he said.
 
“And I agree with you.”

 
“But you keep up appearances anyway?”

 
“That’s right.”

 
“Why?
 
You aren’t the boss?”

 
“Yes, I’m the boss.”

 
“Just not the boss of yourself?”

 
Robert smiled.
 
Sometimes he wondered.
 
“I think I am,” he said.
 

 
Carrie shook her head aggressively.
 
“That’s the difference between you and me,” she said.
 
“I know I am.
 
I used to give my mama fits about it too.
 
She said I was more stubborn than a Peeping Tom in a
girls
locker room.”
 
Robert laughed.
 
“But I didn’t care what she or anybody else said about that.
 
You have to know what you believe in and stick to it, no matter what.”

 
“Yeah, well, Carrie, you keep on living.
 
Life has a way of tossing all kinds of twists and turns into that straight line of beliefs you talk about.”

 
“I’m sure it does.
 
But God will see you through.”

 
Robert didn’t respond.
 
He used to believe that too, believed it with every fiber of his being.
 
Now he didn’t know what he believed.
 
“What was that all about with Willie Charles?” he asked her.

 
“Willie Charles?”

 
Robert didn’t respond.

 
“Nothing really.
 
He just. . . He just got on
my nerves, that’s
all.
 
It was nothing.”
 
She knew Willie Charles’ behavior deserved to be uncovered, but there was something about telling a black man’s faults to a white man that didn’t sit right with her.
 
She just couldn’t do it.
 

 
“Why were you so terrified if nothing had happened?” he asked her.

 
“Terrified?
 
Me?”

 
Robert nodded.
 
“Okay,” he said, deciding right then and there to forget about it.
 
She wasn’t about to rat out Willie Charles and he was going to respect that.

 
“You like working here?” she asked him, to change the subject.

 
Robert thought about it, although he didn’t know why.
 
“Sure.
 
I love working here.”

 
“What do you do?”

 
“Everything.”

 
Carrie smiled.
 
“That’s no answer.”

 
“It’s not?”

 
“No.
 
An answer is supposed to be specific to the question.
 
What’s your job title in this big place?”

 
Robert paused.
 
He wondered if she’d clam up, become intimidated, when she found out who he really was.
 
“Was senior vice president for many
years.
 
Now I’m the recently appointed CEO,” he said.
 
Then he looked at Carrie to gauge her reaction.

 
Carrie, however, didn’t show any reaction.
 
“Chief Executive Officer,” she said.
 
“Are you ‘chief’ because of your age or because of your experience?”

 
Robert laughed, he couldn’t help it. And as for Carrie clamming up, he should be so lucky, he thought.
 
“Probably both,” he said.

 
Carrie smiled.
 
Then nodded her head.
 
“CEO.
 
Now that’s a title.
 
I remember when I got to be head cashier at this diner back home and how great it felt.
 
I felt like I had really done something with my life, you know?
 
But of course my mama, everybody calls her Honey, didn’t think so at all.
 
She thought I was wasting my life rather than doing something productive with it.
 
She wanted me to marry Dale Mosley, you see, not because she thought he would be this wonderful husband for me, but because he promised to give her the house she’s staying in.
 
His family owns a whole lot of rental properties around town.
 
Nothing big like what you do, but it’s a big deal in little Attapulgus.
 
That’s my hometown.
 
Attapulgus, Georgia.
 
You ever hear tell of Attapulgus before?”