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Authors: Rhonda Bowen

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BOOK: One Way or Another
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Chapter 33
“I
'm here to see Silver Maxwell,” Toni said, walking up to the reception desk, ignoring the two other persons sitting in the lobby. One of them, a heavyset caramel-colored woman with pretty eyes and a mean scowl, glared at Toni.
“Relax, I'll only be a minute,” Toni said with a smile.
“Excuse me,” the receptionist said, the attitude apparent in her voice and in the movement of her neck. “Do you have an appointment?”
“No,” Toni said. “But I think he'll want to see me.”
“Miss, if you don't have an appointment then you can't—”
Toni cut her off. “Tell him it's about the Platinum Foundation.”
“Ma'am, you can tell him yourself when you make an appointment.”
Toni sighed and tried not to roll her eyes. “Look,” she said, lowering her voice and trying a smile. “Just pick up the phone and tell him Toni Shields is standing in the lobby asking about the Platinum Foundation. If he doesn't want to see me, I promise you I'll leave.”
“Ma'am ...”
“Uh, Michelle,” Toni said, glancing down at the nameplate on the desk, ”it's just one call. Please?”
Toni tried a bigger smile, and it seemed to work. The receptionist glared at her for a moment longer, before reluctantly picking up the phone and punching several numbers.
“Mr. Maxwell, I have a Toni Shields in the lobby? She is here from the Platinum Foundation? I told her to make an appointment but ... Oh.”
Toni smiled as the woman looked up at her curiously.
“Okay, I'll let her know,” the receptionist said, her voice dropping. “Thank you, sir. No problem, sir.”
Michelle hung up the phone and cleared her throat, shuffling a few papers around on her desk. After she had made Toni wait long enough, she looked up again. “Mr. Maxwell will see you now,” she said in a clipped tone.
“Thank you.” Toni resisted the urge to gloat.
When she got to Silver's office he was already waiting for her. “Hello again, Ms. Shields,” he said with a small smile from behind his desk. “It seems I underestimated you.”
“Most people do,” Toni said with a smile.
Silver laughed. “I can only imagine how well that works for you. Please, have a seat.”
“That's okay. I'll stand,” Toni said. “I know you have other visitors waiting, so I won't stay that long. I just wanted to come by and say thank you.”
Silver leaned back in his leather monstrosity and clasped his fingers together in front of him, but said nothing.
Toni continued. “I had to go down a lot of rabbit holes, but I know what you did. I know you're the Platinum Foundation, and that you're the one who made that big donation to Jacob's House.”
Silver continued to smile at Toni, but said nothing. She had suspected that he wouldn't admit to anything. He had gone to great lengths to detach himself from the charity organization, which was nothing but a name registered in city documents. But once she discovered the truth, she knew she would have to see him personally.
“I also know that you were the one responsible for Jerome's case getting dropped.” She lowered her voice as she stepped closer to the desk and leaned forward. “You have no idea how many people you made happy,” she said sincerely, hoping he understood the full depth of her gratitude. “Thank you very much. I really really appreciate it.”
“I'm sorry, Ms. Shields, I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about,” Silver said quietly, in a tone that told her the exact opposite. In his eyes she saw the “you're welcome” that would never reach his lips.
Toni nodded. “Okay. I haven't mentioned it to anyone and I'll keep it that way, if that's what you want.”
Silver nodded and Toni knew that they had somehow reached an agreement.
“Thanks for your time, and for ... everything.” She turned to leave.
She was halfway to the door before she gave in to the urge to say her last words. “I don't understand you, Silver.” She shook her head. “Any other politician would have gotten a camera crew and called up every major media house to be there when they handed over a check like that. But you—you don't even want the people you helped to know.”
Silver looked down at his desk for a long moment before he spoke, then said, “Tell your brother thanks for taking me up. I really appreciated it.”
Toni smiled as she headed toward the door once more. “It was great seeing you again, Silver.”
“Always a pleasure, Toni.”
Toni nodded at Michelle as she headed out of the office. As soon as she got to the parking lot she pulled out her cell phone.
“Hey, it's me. Okay, you can go ahead and run it, and leave Silver out. Like we suspected, he doesn't want any recognition.”
Toni ended the call and got into Adam's car, a feeling of satisfaction suffusing her. It was almost over.
Chapter 34
“Y
o, I know this ain't none of my business, but I gotta ask. Why you holdin' out on Bayne?”
Toni looked across the shirt rack at Jerome and put her hands on her hips. “You're right,” she said, “it isn't. Didn't your momma ever teach you not to stick your nose in grown folks' business?”
Jerome's face darkened as he turned away from Toni and headed to another rack of shirts. “Nah,” he threw behind him. “She was too busy workin' for all of that.”
Toni bit her lip, wishing instantly that she could have taken back her words. They were in Sean John trying to find a suit for Jerome to wear to Immanuel's summer banquet. The annual youth event, which ended the summer, was the biggest thing next to the prom. Their shopping day had been going well so far until Toni mentioned Jerome's mother.
“Have you spoken to her lately?” Toni asked as casually as she could. She kept flipping through shirts so that it didn't seem like such a big deal.
“Not much,” Jerome mumbled, wandering over to another rack. “I called her the other day to tell her about my grades from last semester and about the case.”
Toni glanced over at him. “What did she say?”
Jerome shrugged. “She said that it was about time I started doing well at something.”
Toni gritted her teeth and tried not to let the annoyance show on her face. “Have you thought about going to see her?” she asked.
Jerome waited a long time before he answered. So long that Toni almost thought he hadn't heard the question. “I don't think she wants to see me,” he said quietly after a moment, avoiding Toni's eyes.
“Did she tell you that?”
“No.”
“Then why do you think that?” Toni asked, coming over to stand near him.
Jerome braved a look at her and Toni's heart almost broke with the sadness she saw in his eyes. She would have given anything to take that away.
“She's never asked to come see me, or asked me to come visit,” Jerome said. “If she wanted to see me, she would have said something.”
Toni sighed and pulled Jerome down on one of the cushioned seats in the store. “Sometimes, people who have been angry for a long time have a hard time knowing how not to be angry,” Toni said slowly. “They care, but they're so used to not using their emotions, that they don't really know how to tell someone that they care about them.”
“You mean like you and Bayne?” Jerome asked.
Toni rolled her eyes. “I mean like you and your mom. She probably doesn't know how to tell you she misses you since she hasn't seen you in such a long time. She might feel like you're doing so well here, that you don't need her anymore.”
“That's dumb,” Jerome said with an air of annoyance. “She's my mother. Of course I need her. I'll always want her around.”
“Yeah, well, things that are clear to you might not always be so clear to another person, you know?”
Jerome nodded and looked down at his hands. “You think I should ask her if I can come visit?” he asked nervously after a long moment.
Toni shrugged. “It's up to you. There's a chance that she might say no. But there's also a chance she might say yes.”
Jerome bit his lip thoughtfully. “Okay,” he said with a nod, looking up at Toni earnestly. “I'll tell her I'd like to come visit, if you tell Bayne that you're feeling him.”
“Boy! Go try on these shirts before I knock you upside the head,” Toni said in mock annoyance as she pushed two shirts into Jerome's hands. “The nerve!”
“Is that a yes?” Jerome threw behind him as he headed toward the changing rooms.
“Don't make me get up off this seat!” Toni threatened. She shook her head as she watched him scramble into the dressing room.
Crazy kids.
 
Toni had barely parked the car in front of Jacob's House two hours later before Jerome jumped out, suit in hand. In a couple strides he was up the steps and at the front door. Only then did he seem to remember Toni.
“Hey, Toni, hurry up,” he called, his hands on the door. “I gotta show Bayne this. He's gonna flip.”
“I'm coming!” Toni said, laughing at the boy's enthusiasm. She had never seen Jerome act so excited. He seemed to have forgotten how uncool it was to get worked up about anything. Grabbing her bags and locking the doors, she barely made it up the steps before Jerome darted inside.
“So what do you think?” he asked, walking backward in front of her. “Think I should wear the pink tie, or the purple one?”
“It doesn't matter,” Toni said, stepping up her own pace just to keep up with him. “You'll look good either way. Just make sure your shoes match your belt.”
“You're gonna come over and check me out before I leave, right?” Jerome asked. “You always look like a million dollars. So if you say I look good, then I'll know I'm on point....
“Why you stopping?” Jerome asked when he realized Toni had paused at the bottom of the stairs.
Toni bit her lip. “I can't go up there. That's where you guys live.”
Jerome rolled his eyes. “It's not that big a deal. You can come up,” he said. “I'll just holler and let everyone know we have a visitor.”
Toni still hesitated. “I don't know, Jerome. Doesn't Adam have a rule on that or something? I don't want to overstep, you know?”
Jerome pounded the banister impatiently. “The rule is no females upstairs after six p.m. and without a chaperone.”
“See ...”
“I'll be your chaperone,” Jerome said. “Quit arguing and come on.”
Toni sighed. “Okay, I'm coming. No need to bust a blood vessel.”
“Don't know what you worried about, anyway,” Jerome murmured as he continued up the stairs. “It's not like the two of you gonna do nothing.”
“Hey, I heard that!” Toni called after him.
Somehow the dorm area was cleaner than Toni expected. Most of the boys had their doors open and from what she saw, everything looked pretty neat. Well, as neat as could be expected from teenage boys. It seemed like most of the guys were out of the house. But those who were in their rooms merely nodded to Toni as she passed by. Others barely gave her a second look.
Adam's apartment was at the end of the hall on the second floor. The door was half open when they got to it. Without hesitation Jerome barged in.
“Yo, Bayne, guess who's gonna be rockin' the latest Sean John style next weekend?” Jerome yelled, disappearing inside the apartment.
“Jerome! Don't you know how to knock?” Toni scolded from the doorway.
Jerome poked his head out. “Don't worry. Bayne doesn't mind. You can come in.”
“I don't think so,” Toni said, taking a step back. There was something very personal about entering Adam's living space. Almost intimate.
Only moments later Adam appeared at the doorway, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and socks. “He's right, it's no big deal. Come on in.”
Toni took a couple delicate steps into the apartment, directly into what appeared to be a common area. It was larger than she expected it to be. Just opposite her, a huge window took up most of the wall, running almost from floor to ceiling. It was covered with light white curtains and darker orange drapes, with the drapes pulled back to let lots of natural light into the room.
A large, soft neutral couch sat along the back wall, with orange cushions scattered on it that matched the curtains. Opposite the couch was an entertainment center with a modest television, a less modest sound system, and an insane amount of CDs that Toni immediately wanted to riffle through. A brown rug with scattered patterns in cream lay in the space between the couch and the entertainment system, along with two medium-sized ottomans that matched the couch.
A huge picture of a Baltimore cityscape hung on the wall behind the sofa. She nodded as her eyes quickly took it all in. She felt like she had seen a part of Adam that she had not known before. She liked it.
“So what's the verdict?” Adam asked.
She realized he had caught her doing her visual inspection. She grinned. “Very impressive. Who knew a guy from the projects could set up a room?”
Adam laughed. “What? I can't have taste?”
“Yeah, you can,” Toni said with a smirk. “But since Trey can't even put together an outfit without help, I have pretty low expectations of men when it comes to visual arts.”
“Well, I have to be honest.” His eyes sparkled as he stared at her. “This isn't all me. When I just got here Esther visited and decided to set this place up for me. I only picked out the couch and the picture. She did everything else.”
“Really,” Toni said, folding her arms knowingly. “You didn't pick out that top-of-the-line five-CD-changer sound system I'm looking at?”
Adam bit back a grin. “Well, maybe I had a hand in that too. But that's my one indulgence. The music has to be right. Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me sane around here.”
Toni nodded, her eyes lingering on him. There was something about him today. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, though.
“What?” he asked, looking down, then behind him, then back at Toni. “Do I have something on my shirt? My face?”
Toni shook her head. “No,” she said with a puzzled smile. “There's just something about you, that's all. Something different. Like you're more relaxed. Did you do something?”
Adam smiled. “I caught the midday news on Fox with Tasha Carr. She had quite a story.”
Toni smiled. She had seen Tasha's broadcast herself while having lunch at a deli near work. It had been a follow-up report to the Jacob's House exposé. Tasha had talked to a number of the men in Atlanta who had gone through the center. All of them had nothing but positive things to say about Jacob's House and gave their support about keeping it open. A few of them even had a few positive things to say about Adam.
“How did you manage to pull that off?” he asked.
Toni shrugged. “Tasha and I went to college together back in the day before she turned big time. When I pitched the idea to her she was all over it. I think they're going to rerun it as a special feature on the nightly news.”
“Thank you,” he said. The appreciation in his eyes warmed her all the way through.
“I brought the mess to your door,” she said. “The least I could do is try to leave a positive impression of this place at the end of things.”
“You are full of surprises, aren't you?” Adam said, chuckling as he walked over to where she was standing.
“You have no idea,” Toni said with intended mischief.
Her flirting wasn't wasted on Adam. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth to respond, but Toni never heard it as Jerome came out of what she assumed was Adam's bedroom that very instant. Before Toni had even gotten inside, Jerome had disappeared into the bedroom to change into the suit she had just bought him.
“Okay, check this out,” he said, striking a pose. “What do you think?” he asked, striking a new pose. “Am I killing it or what?”
Adam raised an eyebrow. “Pink tie?” he asked from beside Toni.
Toni whacked him playfully on his chest with the back of her hand. “What's wrong with a pink tie?”
“Isn't that a bit girly?”
“It is not,” Toni said, rolling her eyes. “It looks great.”
“I don't know,” Adam said. “Next thing you know we'll be getting you a pink flower to go in the pocket of your—”
Toni slapped her hand over Adam's mouth and felt him laugh against her fingers.
“Don't listen to him,” Toni said, trying to reassure a worried-looking Jerome. “You look hot. The girls will be falling all over you, especially Keisha.”
Jerome looked down at his tie skeptically. “I'm gonna go try on the other one.” He disappeared into the bedroom again.
Toni turned to Adam, a disapproving glare on her face. “See what you did,” she chided softly. Adam opened his mouth and bit Toni's fingers gently. She felt a flutter in her stomach at the sensation of his warm lips against her fingers. She pulled her hand away quickly.
“Something wrong, Miss Shields?” The amusement in his eyes told her he had caught the nervousness in hers.
“Nothing.” Toni's voice came out more high pitched than she intended.
“Are you sure?” He stepped closer and Toni was surrounded by his scent. Adam was so not playing fair.
“Sure.” She cleared her throat.
They stared each other down a long time, the space between them so charged that Toni was sure that the tiny pricks she felt on her heated skin were from it. Toni stepped back and found enough air to breathe.
BOOK: One Way or Another
7.25Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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