A Special Relationship (34 page)

 
He, in fact, couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
 
He swallowed hard.
 
“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

 
“Mom would kill me if she knew I came here.”

 
“Then why did you?”
 
Robert’s heart was in his shoe, as the memories, the painful memories of that day two years ago,
came
flooding back.

 
Ashley looked from Robert to Carrie and then she looked at Robert again.
 
“Mom’s not doing well and she expects me to help her.
 
But I can’t help her.
 
She needs you.
 
She needs your help.”

 
“Paul’s the doctor.
 
Why isn’t he helping her?”
 
Robert still remembered how much in love Paul and Gloria were, how much Gloria loved rubbing it in his face.

 
“He’s . . . they aren’t together.
 
After the divorce, mom expected Paul to divorce his wife, too, so they could be married.
 
But he never did.”

 
“He what?”
 
Robert was floored.

 
“He never did.
 
They only stayed together a few months after you divorced Mom.”

 
After
she
divorced me, Robert wanted to correct her.
 
But he didn’t.
 
He exhaled.
 
“Come and sit down,” he said to the young woman he once thought was his daughter.

 
Ashley walked tentatively toward the patio.
 
Carrie, realizing that privacy was what they needed, immediately stood up to leave.
 

 
“You can have this chair,” she said and Ashley took it.
 

 
“I’ll be inside, Robert,” Carrie said as she attempted to briskly move away, but Robert caught her by the arm, stopping her progression.
 

 
“I want you to stay,” he said and, before she could object, he plopped her down on his lap.
 

 
Carrie felt uncomfortable, sitting this intimately in front of Robert’s daughter, but Robert wrapped his arm around her waist and kept her there.
 

 
“Did you come alone?” he asked Ashley.
 
But Ashley was too busy staring at Carrie.

 
“Who’s she?” she asked with contempt in her voice.

 
“This is Carrie Banks,” Robert said, tightening his grip on her, “she’s my lady.
 
Carrie, this is Ashley.”

 
Carrie swallowed hard.
 
“Hello, Ashley,” she said with a forced smile.
 

 
Ashley smiled too, but Carrie could tell it wasn’t a friendly one.
 
She even ignored Carrie and looked at Robert.
 
“I see you’ve gone from classy to native,” she said.
     
      
  
         

 
Robert cut Ashley a hateful look. “This lady is my woman,” he said firmly, “and don’t you forget that.”
 

 
Ashley appeared surprised by Robert’s response, but not as surprised as Carrie was.
 
“You’re right.
 
Sorry,” Ashley said begrudgingly.
 

 
“Did you come here alone?” he asked her again.

 
She nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
I caught a flight out this afternoon.
 
Mom will kill me if she finds out I came here.”

 
“I’m sure she will,” Robert said with a tinge of bitterness.
 
“What’s wrong with her?”

 
“She’s just been so bitchy, so crazy after Paul left and then she just got even crazier after the accident.”

 
Robert stared at the young woman he still mailed a monthly allowance check to, although she never even bothered to return his phone calls.
 
But when he realized what she had just said, he frowned.
 
“After what accident?
 
Gloria was in an accident?”

 
“Not a car accident, no,” Ashley said and then she frowned.
 
“About four months after Paul left, Mom fell down the stairs of this house we were living in and badly injured
herself
.
 
She stayed in the hospital for months.”

 
“Is she all right?” Carrie found herself asking, concern in her voice.
 
Robert placed his hand on her stomach and began rubbing her.
 
He loved her even more for caring enough to ask.

 
Ashley looked at her, at the way Robert pulled her closer against him, at the way he was touching her, and she rolled her eyes.
 
Then she looked at Robert.
 
“That’s why I’m here,” she said.
 
“She started getting depressed after the accident and started blaming me for Paul leaving and for everything wrong in her life.
 
Then she started talking about you, Daddy, and how good her life was when she was with you and I just, I don’t know.
 
I just thought that I’d come here and see if you could do it.”

 
“Do what?”
 
Robert asked her.

 
“Come to Silver Springs.
 
And see about Mom.”

 
Carrie’s heart tightened, especially when Robert didn’t immediately turn her down.
 
There was so much she didn’t know about this man.
 
There was so much she didn’t know.
 
And when he finally said okay, that he’d go and see about his ex-wife, Carrie felt suddenly queasy.
 

 
But as soon as Ashley had gone, and Robert sat there holding Carrie without bothering to say a word, Carrie couldn’t hold back any longer.
 

 
“I didn’t know you had a daughter,” she said to him.

 
“She’s not my daughter,” he said without explanation.
 
Then he tapped her on the hip.
 
“Let me up,” he said and Carrie quickly got off of his lap.
 
“We need to get packed.”

 
“We?”
Carrie asked, shocked.

 
Robert nodded.
 
“You’re coming with me.”

 
“Robert, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

 
“I do.
 
Go get packed.”

 
He said it as if it was not debatable.
 
And Carrie, confused, filled with more questions than answers, but somehow feeling that maybe Robert needed her now for a change, did not debate it.
 
She went and got packed.

TWENTY-TWO

The apartment was in a less desirable neighborhood in Silver Springs, Maryland.
 
The rental car stopped at the curb and Robert and Carrie, seated in the front seat, looked out at the surroundings.
 
Ashley, who was well familiar with the area, stepped out of the car.
 

 
“Your ex-wife lives here?” Carrie asked Robert.

 
“Guess so,” Robert said, amazed
himself
, as he got out of the car, walked around, and opened the door for Carrie.

 
Ashley let them into the small apartment and then began calling for her mother.
 
“Excuse me,” she said, and then went down the hall into what appeared to be a bedroom.
 
Carrie looked at Robert.
 
He opened his suit coat, placed his hands into his pants pockets, and began walking around the apartment as if he could not believe it.
 
His former wife living like this?
 
It seemed to disturb him mightily.
 
And when Ashley came back up front, with a woman in a wheelchair, he stopped in his tracks.
 

 
The woman was about Robert’s age, Carrie observed, and it was easy to tell that she used to be very attractive.
 
But now, call it hard times, call it hard living, she looked rough.

 
“Robert?” she said, a stunned look on her face.
 
Robert stared at her, as if paralyzed himself, and then he exhaled.
 

 
“Hello, Gloria.”

 
“I didn’t expect you,” she said, trying to fluff up her thinning blonde hair.
“ I
would have fixed myself up if I knew you were coming.”
 
Then she looked at him.
 
“It’s so good to see you again, Robert.
 
You look so well.”

 
Robert didn’t return the compliment.
 
Because she looked like hell.
 
Or, at least, like she’d been through it.
 

 
“When Ash told me you were here, that she went all the way to Florida and asked you to come visit me, I didn’t believe it.
 
I still don’t believe it.”

 
“Y’all want something to drink?” Ashley asked Robert and Carrie but Carrie quickly shook her head.

 
“No, thank-you.”

 
Robert couldn’t stop staring at his ex-wife.
 
“You’re in a wheelchair,” he said and Gloria looked down at the chair and then back up at him.
 
She looked almost embarrassed.

 
“Yes.
 
I am.
 
I’ve had such a run of bad luck, Robert, you just wouldn’t believe.”

 
That night, when she left him, he told her she would.
 
He told her she couldn’t turn her back on God and expect no retribution.
 
But he never dreamed it would be this explicit.

 
“Sit down, please,” Gloria said.
 
“You and . . . your assistant.
 
Please.”

 
Carrie was a little off-put when Robert didn’t correct his ex-wife, but given the circumstances, given that he seemed too stunned to say anything, she let it slide.
 
And sat down beside him on the small sofa.
 
Gloria pushed her wheelchair near them and also offered them something to drink.
 
Again they declined.
 
Or, at least Carrie did.
 
Robert remained mute.

 
“I was going to call you,” Gloria said.
 
“You don’t know how many times I picked up that phone.
 
But I . . . never did.”
 
When Robert didn’t respond, Gloria looked at Carrie.

 
“I’m Gloria Kincaid,” she said, extending her hand.
 
Carrie reached over Robert and shook it.