Down On My Knees (18 page)

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Authors: Victor McGlothin

BOOK: Down On My Knees
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Linda agreed. “Wow, if not, I got next on this one.”
Grace let out a lengthy sigh as if she was already bored with the event's selection. “Oh, him,” she said matter of factly. “That's the guy I was telling y'all about the other night. He's the
schoolteacher
.”
“Him?” Shelia whispered as he drew closer. “Oh-oh, Grace, he's still coming this way. You got to get with that. He's what you call grown-man sexy. If they were making teachers like that when I was coming up, I'd still be in the twelfth grade trying to push up on some private after-hours tutoring.”
“What about all of that he-must-be-gay stuff you were popping off at the house?” Grace challenged through clenched teeth.
“She could make a living at being wrong about men,” Linda said to Grace as she grabbed Shelia by the arm to haul her away.
“All I'm saying is, I've been thinking about taking some extra classes,” Shelia was overheard saying just as Wallace finally reached his destination. “Can't I hang around long enough to ask the man what time school lets out? What? Like you don't wanna know too.”
19
Sleight of Hand
“
H
ey Grace, I thought that was you,” Wallace sang when he approached her. “Ouch, nice dress,” he complimented, surveying her outfit. “Understated but nice,” he added with a slight smile.
“Thank you, Wallace, but I specifically went out of my way so I wouldn't have strange men in my face talking about how nicely understated my dress is.” Grace was playinghard to get, and harder to figure out.
“Ahhh, so I've been cast into the strange-men category?”
“Well, I hardly know you, and you are in my face. Furthermore,what are you going to do about your flock?” Grace tossed a quick glance at the bevy of beauties he'd left awaitinghis return at the blackjack table. “I'd hate to keep you from your adoring entourage. They look heartbroken and so . . . adoring.” She almost giggled when she couldn't think of another word to use, but it seemed to fit most appropriately. “Look at them, staring over here with big puppy-dog eyes, salivating. Perhaps you should have fed them before you left.”
Wallace slid both hands inside the pockets of his black tuxedo slacks. He lowered his head for a moment, then raised it again. Gazing into Grace's eyes, he attempted to see what she was working so hard at concealing. “If I need a statusreport, Grace, I'll get one from my stand-in when I relievehim. What I'd like to know is what you're so afraid of.” Grace snatched a class of Chardonnay off a passing tray, similar to the way Shelia had earlier.
“Those little girls over there must have you confused.” She took a healthy sip, noticing that their standoff in the middle of the walkway had attracted several sets of roving eyes, from both men and women. “There is very little that frightens me, and a smooth card dealer with his own fan club isn't one of them.”
Wallace relaxed his stance before debating with her. “I beg to differ. Actually, there is something very different about you, very different from the first time I saw you comingout of the rain at André's basketball game. I can't call it, but it's there.”
“Good different, I hope.” Grace said nervously as she began to feel the strain of carrying on a conversation with so many others watching her every move.
“Noticeably different,” Wallace answered, with a smooth step toward her. “Yes, you look almost vulnerable. It's extremelybecoming. A woman who has it all figured out can't fully appreciate what a man has to offer.”
Somewhat at a lost for words, Grace avoided eye contact. “Humph, you think you know me? I'm not like those young, fall down, slip and bump my head with my legs wide opened worship-the-ground-a-fine-man-walks-on types, if that's what you think.”
“Not at all,” Wallace stated in a low, controlled tone that forced Grace to lean closer in order to hear him. “But I'm beginning to gather what you think about me.” He saw that Linda and Shelia were standing nearby, posted up and pretendingthey weren't taking turns scoping out his and Grace's encounter. “We're not finished with this discussion, you and I,” he whispered, standing dangerously close to Grace. “By the way, your perfume is delightful. I like that most of all.” Without so much as a good-bye, he turned slowly and walked away.
Grace held the glass of wine up to her face as if to inspect it. “Ooh, I'ma need another one of these.”
As soon as Wallace disappeared into the horde of party-goers,Linda skirted past Grace. She shot her a follow-me-so-I-don't-have-to-pump-you-for-information-in-front-of-all- these-nosey-people glare. Grace chuckled, managed to get her hands on another glass of Chardonnay, then headed for the powder room behind Linda. Shelia had gone off in anotherdirection when she'd recognized someone from her past, a man who didn't mind using his charge card liberally at Appliance World. That was her kind of man.
Grace recalled her conversation with Wallace while struggling to make sense of it. Linda apprised her of how it appeared from the vantage point she had. They went back and forth, neither of them aware of Wallace's scheme to get Grace's undivided attention again before the night was over.
He'd stepped outside, noted the time on his classic Movado watch, then casually headed for the valet stand. After interrogatingthe attendants, he located the one who'd parked Grace's car. “Listen, because this is very important,” he told the attentiveyoung man about to be debriefed. “The woman drivingthat Volvo SUV is very dear to me and I'd hate for anything to happen to her. She's had too much to drink and will undoubtedly demand her car keys. Now, this is where you come in. No matter what she says, I'll need you to act as if you're searching for them, but you will not be able to locatethem. Do you understand me?”
“Yes sir, I'll pretend to search for the keys, but I won't be able to find them.” Suddenly, a wave of concern came over the young man. “What if she sees them in the key box and takes them from me?”
“That'll be impossible because I'll have them,” Wallace explained.
The attendant squinted his eyes as he deliberated. “You'll have them? But what if I get into trouble?”
“Mitchie!” Wallace summoned.
The gruff veteran valet supervisor dashed over in a hurry. “Yes, sir, Mr. Peters?”
“Please clarify to this young man, how important it is that we get all of our guests home safely. Insurance premiums tend to go sky high after a terrible accident regarding an inebriateddriver.”
The older attendant caught on quickly. He nodded, confirmingthat he fully comprehended the importance of Wallace'sdemands. “Don't worry, Mr. Peters. I'll see to it that she doesn't get into her car alone. Oh, and sir, might I add that she's quite the looker. I can understand why you're takingsuch precautions to get her home without a scratch.” He held his hand out to be compensated for his part in Wallace's ruse. After two one-hundred-dollar bills landed in his greasy palm, the scheme was under way. It was Wallace's responsibilityto hire the valet company for the event, so he had an inside track. Taking the time to get to know Grace motivated this charade over lost car keys. He needed an opportunity to catch her with her guard down, even if he had to manufactureone himself. Grace was worth it, he reasoned, she was well worth it.
“Good,” Wallace said to Mitchie and his young associate. “We'll only have one shot at this, so I'm counting on you two to get it right the first time.”
Mitchie shoved the money into his pants pocket. “Considerit done,” he announced, grinning big and hard. “She must be really something.”
“I'm betting that she is, Mitchie. This one is a keeper. She's worth the trouble to catch and the trouble to keep. You know what they say about thoroughbreds?”
“What, that every man wants to ride one?” Mitchie joked heartily.
“Most of them have no idea that a man comes along every now and then who's willing to bet everything he owns hoping she'll pay off,” Wallace explained. “This is the one I'm betting on to win. Wish me luck.”
Back inside the ballroom, Linda and Grace located Shelia. She was fake-giggling for some man who couldn't keep his eyes off her breasts. Linda had seen this many times—Shelia laughing at every stale joke and lame story to shake the credit card right out of a man's wallet. If he had known that most women decided within the first five minutes of meeting a man whether they were interested in getting undressed, he would have saved the small talk for the morning after. Shelia had already zeroed in and made mental notes to keep somethingin his mouth later on that night, so she wouldn't have to listen to more of his boring self-aggrandizing fables once they were horizontal. “Excuse me, I'll be right back,” Shelia said convincingly while lightly stroking the back of the man's neck with her outstretched fingernails. “Don't you move an inch unless I'm here to watch,” she added so that he'd think twice before drifting on to the next overly aggressivewoman in a borrowed gown. When the gentleman licked his lips as she brushed her chest against his, Shelia knew he'd be in that exact same spot if it took her three days to come back.
“Can't y'all see I'm working over there?” she jeered at her partners in crime. “I got a live one. He's about three months from getting his freedom papers.”
“He's getting a divorce?” Grace asked, spying at him over Shelia's shoulder.
“I didn't ask if he was married,” Shelia said, smirking as if she couldn't have cared less about that. “He's only got three more months of child-support payments. Wanna guess who's gonna be getting herself a new refrigerator?”
Grace smirked at her unscrupulous girlfriend. “You need Jesus.”
“I
need
a new refrigerator, and Jesus isn't at the end of an eighteen-year, six-hundred-dollar-a-month commitment.”
“Grace, you should know by now that Shelia is going to do what she's got to, with Jesus' help or not.”
Before Grace had the chance to argue, her cell phone began vibrating at the bottom of her purse. She fished it out and walked to the corner of the room. She didn't recognize the number, but took the call anyway. “Yes, this is Grace. I can hardly hear you. Dré? You're where? Where's that? No, I'm not mad. I'll be there to get you and Skyler in fifteen minutes. Don't accept any rides from strangers. I'll be right there.” She flipped the phone shut and marched back to Sheliaand Linda's idea of a promising night out on the town. “Listen, I have to go. André and his friend were on their way home after the game and their ride broke down. I have to pick them up. Shelia, if you can't be good, at least be careful. Make him wrap it up, if you're bent on serving it up. Linda, try to talk some sense into her.”
“I've got better things to do with my time,” Linda declined.“You just be careful out there looking for the boys.”
Grace beat a trail to the exit doors. When someone called her name, she stopped on a dime. It was like hearing a voice from a ghost. As far as she was concerned, that particular ghost had died a long time ago. “Grace Hilliard!” he called out again. She closed her eyes, hoping that it wasn't real, but it was, and happening to her when she least expected it. Grace opened her eyes to find that relentless ghost standing in front of her. He'd aged gracefully. His mustache was much thicker than she remembered it being thirteen years ago. His skin, once the shade of fresh apricots, was darker by comparison, and he'd put on a few pounds in all the right places, but nothing else about him seemed out of place. He was still unavoidably debonair as ever.
“Edward Swenson,” she said as if he were an old colleagueinstead of her son's estranged father. “Imagine meetingyou here. I didn't know you were back in the city.”
Walk with me Lord. Hold my hand and please don't let go.
“It's good to see you too,” he replied, with a hint of sarcasm.“Actually, I moved my family back three years ago. I've been meaning to look you up.”
Did he just admit to being around for years,
she thought,
and he didn't have the common courtesy to let me know?
Edwardand Grace had discussed getting married after college, when she discovered they were going to be parents, although he'd never got around to asking her. Then Edward decided without telling her that he'd rather attend an out-of-state law school instead of going through with the marriage. Afterwards,Grace carried André to term and delivered him alone. All of those thoughts floated through her mind as she looked him over. “Figures,” she said eventually. “Some things never change. I would say that it's good seeing you again, but I don't like to lie.”
“Gracie, Grace,” Edward uttered, grinning charmingly. “Still the hardened Hilliard, just like your mother.”
“You don't have any business talking about my mother, or anything else pertaining to me!” she spat, louder than she had intended. When her outburst drew the attention of others loitering nearby, she hushed her voice. “Don't even think you can come around after all this time and act like you've been the consummate friend to me and the quintessential fatherto
my
son.” She was huffing mad and upset with herself because she couldn't fight it. Proving that he could still rattle her was just what he wanted, and she was giving it to him.
“Don't you mean
our
son, Grace? As I recall, I was there when the miracle happened.”
“And as I recall, you haven't been there since. I'm the one who taught him how to tie his shoes, read and write, ride a bike, and wipe his behind. So unless you want all these people to hear what I really think about your sorry excuse for being there, then you'd want to back up out of my face and crawl back under your rock.”
Edward grinned like he had a viable answer for that one. “Good for you. Now, I'm gonna teach him how to be a man!” he boasted.
“As soon as somebody teaches you how to be one, hurry up and get back to me. Maybe then you can work on making up for lost time since you abandoned us.”
“Abandoned? Is that what you call sending money every month without fail? Huh, I've done the best I could under the circumstances.”

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