A Special Relationship (5 page)

 
He wasn’t always so aloof and
stand
offish.
 
Marva could remember a time when her boss was the kindest human being she’d ever known, a man who would move heaven and earth for her and anybody else he cared about.
 
But his experience with that Gloria Kincaid had changed him.
 
Now he would just as soon be left alone.
 
Now he didn’t give out any affection and didn’t want any in return.
 
But that still didn’t stop Marva Cox from trying.

 
“Have you had your dinner yet, Robert?” she asked him as she moved further into his office and sat a folder on his desk.
 
He ignored her, which she’d come to expect too.
 
“I can run over to Polly’s and pick something up for you.”

 
“No thanks,” he said without turning around.

 
“It’s no trouble at all.”

 
“Marva,” he said in an even but firm voice, a voice she knew was his early warning to knock it off.
 

 
“Okay, okay,” she said.
 
“Forgive me for caring.”

 
“Did you get that projections report?” he asked her.

 
She shook her head.
 
The man was all work all the time.
 
“Yes, I went downstairs and got it myself.
 
I just put it on your desk.”

 
Robert moved away from the window with such
a reluctance
that it appeared as if he was being forced to do so.
 
Marva watched her boss as he walked slowly to his desk, his tall, elegant frame still imposing and self-assured despite the air of somberness that nowadays surrounded him.
 
Although he stood behind his desk and began looking through the pages in the folder rather than at Marva, he could apparently feel her stares.
 
“Why are you still here?” he asked without looking up.

 
“Because you are.”

 
“I told you about that.”

 
“I know.”

 
“You need to get a life.”

 
“I have a life.”

 
“Yeah, you and me both.”

 
“Oh, stop complaining,” Marva said.
 
“You wouldn’t last a day without me and you know it.”

 
Robert’s entire demeanor changed into a kind of stricken stupor.
 
He hated being attached to anyone.
 
But Marva, with her motherly affection for him, with her loyalty and devotion, was the closest he would probably ever get to a soul mate.
 
“A day,” he said, his eyes still focused on the papers before him rather than his pushy secretary.
 
“I wouldn’t last an hour.”

 
Marva wanted to smile at those rare kind words, but Robert glanced up at her, as if he was daring her to smile, so she didn’t.
 
“Ross said they could change the bottom line projections if the board wants the numbers more high-end,” she decided to say.
 
“But he’ll stick with them, he said
,
if you can.”

 
Robert hesitated, seemingly reading one page in particular.
 
“I can,” he said.

 
Marva stared at Robert, and then she exhaled.
 
“Robert?” she said and she refused to say another word until he looked at her.
 
He did.

 
“Yes, Marva?”

 
“Why don’t you take a vacation?”

 
“A vacation?
 
In the middle of an acquisition?
 
Come on.”

 
“Just for a few days.
 
It’ll do you good.”

 
Robert tried to show his appreciation for her concern, to curl his beautiful mouth into something that could resemble a smile, but it was Marva and she knew better.
 
He couldn’t pull it off.
 
He looked back down at his papers instead.
 
“I’m fine,” he said.

 
“You’re not fine, Robert, even on an ordinary day.
 
And we both know this is no ordinary day.”

 
Robert almost looked up at his secretary again.
 
He almost acknowledged what she was saying.
 
But he didn’t remove his eyes from the page before him.
 
He’d never forget that triumphant look on Gloria’s face when she told him she wanted a divorce.
 
And not just to divorce him, which was bad enough, but so that she could marry Paul Hathaway of all people, one of their oldest friends.
 
But when she told him about Ashley.
 
When she told him that the daughter that shared his last name and, he thought, his expressive gray eyes, was not his, a part of him died right where he stood.
 
He even insisted on another DNA test, just to see it for himself, and it was all true.
 
Ashley Kincaid, his daughter, was no kin to him at all.
 

 
“Why don’t you come with me tonight?” Marva said, as if she could read his thoughts.
 
“After the board meeting.”
 
It was ludicrous, the idea of Robert Kincaid running around town with her, and she knew it, but she couldn’t help wondering if maybe he could use some company tonight.
 

 
And it did get his attention.
 
He looked up at her.
 
“Come with you?”

 
“Yes.”

 
Robert smiled this time, a strained, forced one, but a smile nonetheless.
 
“What, Marva, don’t tell me you’re still out there partying.”

 
“Very funny.
 
We’re in revival at my church all this week.”

 
“A revival?”

 
“Yes, Robert, you remember those, don’t you?”

 
“I remember.”

 
“Then you’ll come?”

 
“No.”

 
“Some of the best preaching you’d ever wanna hear.”

 
“Nope.”

 
“Oh, why not, Robert?
 
You used to love to go to revival meetings.
 
That’s what everybody around here admired about you.
 
Your devotion to your faith and your God.
 
The senior vice president of Dyson was also a God-fearing, born again Christian man.
 
It was refreshing.
 
But now you’re—”

 
“Now I’m what?
 
No longer admired by the masses?
 
Well I could have told them a long time ago that they were wasting their time.”

 
“I still admire you, Robert Kincaid.”

 
“Then you’re a fool, Marva Cox.
 
Now go home.
 
Get dressed, go to church,
enjoy
yourself.
 
Good night.”

 
“I leave when you leave.”

 
Robert shook his head.
 
“What am I going to do with you, lady?”

 
“You’re gonna accept my invitation to go to church, for starters.
 
Then you’re going to get back on the good foot with God so He can send you a woman who can prove to you, once and for all, that we aren’t all like Gloria.”

 
Robert looked at his secretary.
 
“I’m going to have to take a rain check on church if you don’t mind,” he said.
 
“And as for this miracle woman, I’ll rain check her too.”

 
“You need a woman, Robert.”

 
“I have more than enough, thank-you.”

 
“Those are just sex kittens.”

 
Robert smiled greatly this time.
  
Then he laughed.
 
“What?”

 
“You know what I mean.
 
Those females don’t mean a thing to you.
 
They’re just something to keep you warm in bed.
 
I’m talking about a real woman.
 
Somebody who’ll rock your world.”

 
Robert shook his head with a firm shake.
 
“No, thanks.
 
Been there, done that, remember?”
 
He frowned.
 
“I will never do it again.”

 
“All right now.
 
Don’t say never
.
 
God send you somebody you ain’t gonna have no choice.”

 
“Good night, Marva.”

 
“It’s the truth.
 
God don’t make
no
mistakes.”

 
“Good night, Marva.”

 
“Okay, okay.
 
I’m going.
 
But I’m gonna be praying for you tonight, Robert Kincaid.
 
Praying hard because you need it bad.
 
And before you know it you’re gonna be your old self again.
 
Grumpy, bossy, controlling.
 
But in love!”

 
Marva Cox left.
 
And Robert, though hardly feeling in any way jovial, still couldn’t help but smile.

FOUR

It wasn’t quite the land of promise she had envisioned when the cab stopped in front of a rundown walk-up that stood like a monument to poverty sandwiched between a pool hall and bar.
 
This was Jacksonville, Florida’s northeast side of town, in what had to be one of the roughest neighborhoods in the entire town, and Carrie Banks was as much stunned by her new surroundings as she was disappointed.

 
She looked up at the monstrosity of an apartment building, and at the young, shirtless men who sat out on the stoop listening to rap music and gambling with dangerously ferocious excitement, and she immediately asked the cab driver if he was certain they were indeed at 1921 Dresel Street.

 
“Positive,” he said as he hurried out of the cab and grabbed her old suitcase from his trunk.
 
It was nearing nighttime now and the last place he wanted to be after dark was on Dresel Street.
 
Even Carrie could sense his distress, as she stepped out of the cab unable to stop staring at this big city environment she never dreamed would be so
busy
, from the prostitutes and drug dealers on one corner, to the hustlers peddling CDs and T-shirts on the other.
 
It all seemed like a mass of confusion to her.
 
That was probably why the cab driver, who had every reason in the world to hand her her luggage, accept his fare, and get out of Dodge with the quickness, stood there momentarily with pity in his eyes.
 
She looked so young, he thought, in her jeans and Georgia Bulldogs sweat shirt.
 
So naive.
 
      
This place would eat her alive.