ROMANCING MO RYAN (25 page)

“An internship?
 
You mean like college?
 
Shit nall!” she said with that grin again.
 
“I was working on my GED and they had the classes at the junior college, but that was about it.
 
Judge Ryan was advertising on the job board for somebody to sit with his wife.
 
I went by his office at the courthouse, he took one look at me, and I was hired.”
 
She smiled.
 
“It was the easiest interview I ever went on.”
 
She bit into her burger again.
 
“I didn’t know shit about sittin’ with no sick people, but hey, he seemed to think I had what it took.
 
So I took the job.
 
His wife was a trip, though, but she was sweet you know?
 
She just had problems in the head, man, that’s all, and nobody didn’t seem to understand her.”

“I guess you’re going to tell me he mistreated his wife too?”

“I’m not telling you nothing like that.
 
He loved his wife.
 
He treated her like she was his kid.
 
You know, special.
 
But she was so twisted in the mind that she just couldn’t give it up to him.
 
At least not like he liked it.
 
And there I was, day in and day out.
 
And guess who he decided to fill the void? I turned him down all the time, but he kept coming back.”

Nikki’s heart skipped a beat.
 
Another neat story.
 
Another nail in Mo’s coffin.
 
“You said you turned him down repeatedly.
 
What made you give in?”

“He threatened to fire me, that’s what!
 
And I needed that job, you know?
 
So I gave it up to him.
 
I mean, who wouldn’t?
 
He was extremely good looking and polite, you know, like he knew how to treat a girl.
 
And he was so different than any boy I’d ever met.
 
And he flattered me a lot, said I was so pretty and all of that.
 
So I gave it up.”

For the first time, Nikki could see feelings within those wild eyes of Marlene’s.
 
A kind of sadness there too.
 

“He seemed real excited that he was gonna be my first sexual experience,” Marlene went on.
 
“So I got excited too.
 
That’s how silly I was back then.
 
But he seemed like such a good guy, you know?
 
He was different.
 
But guess what?
 
After all the whoopee, after I actually enjoyed myself and thought he might care for me, he fired me on the spot.
 
That same night.”

She hesitated.
 
Took another bite out of her sandwich.
 
“I was on the right track, you know?
 
I was a good kid.
 
Was gonna get my GED, maybe go on to college or a trade school, I hadn’t decided.
 
But unlike all the rest of my family I was gonna do something with my life.”
 
Then she looked at Nikki.
 
“But he taught me well, lady.
 
Real good.
 
He may have been my first real man, but he sure as hell wasn’t my last.
 
Now, five kids later, never married, no prospects, look at me.
 
I’m thirty-two years old and working at the Thunderbird is the best job I’ve ever had.
 
A waitress is my best shot yet.”
 

Nikki’s heart was hammering.
 
“Is Judge Ryan the father of any of those five children?” she asked cautiously.

“Hell, nall!
 
I had them after he fired me.
 
But the point is, he taught me well.”

Nikki was coming out of her numbness and was suddenly conscious of a taste in her mouth, a nasty, bitter, horrible taste.
 
Mo had supposedly turned this woman out, had ruined her life, had taken the budding talents of another up and coming young lady and stunted her growth.
 
If it was true, it was devastating.
 

That was why it couldn’t be true.
 

“So Ryan is the cause of all of your problems?” Nikki asked her.

“Let’s put it this way,” Marlene said, dropping her sandwich on the wax paper beneath it.
 
“He surely didn’t help.”

Nikki leaned back.
 
It felt true, it sounded true, it even looked true.
 
But how could it be true?
 

“Why are you coming forward now?” she asked her.
 
“Because of his nomination?”

She was smiling.
 
Nikki was dying.
 
“When the governor said he was gonna put him on the Supreme Court, I said damn, I used to work for that asshole.
 
But I didn’t think nothing else of it.
 
Until one of my friend girl’s called and said some investigator was asking about me. He was interviewing everybody who worked for Mo Ryan.
 
What I didn’t know at the time was that some other woman had made some allegation and they were trying to find other women who might know something about it, too.
 
I didn’t know nothing about that other woman, though.
 
I just knew what happened to me.”

“You don’t know Tonya Wright?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Never heard of her?”

“Never.”

Nikki sighed.
 
She had to think of something to rile this female, to get her to break down and admit it wasn’t true.
 
“He had sex with you and then fired you, is that your story?”

“That’s it.”

“He fired you for no other reason?”

“None.
 
He got what he wanted and then kicked me to the curb.”

“You said yourself, Miss Wingate, that you didn’t know anything about home health care.
 
Perhaps it was your lack of skill, not your relationship with Ryan, that sealed your fate.”

Marlene became defensive.
 
“Two minutes after he slept with me he fired me, lady.
 
Maybe it was my lack of skill, all right.
 
Maybe I wasn’t skilled enough in bed.
 
And even if you’re right, even if he knew my work wasn’t worth a damn, why did he sleep with me before he fired me?
 
That don’t make him look good, either.”

Of course she was right.
 
None of it made him look good.
 
No matter what scenario, none of it was looking good.
 

“Which political party are you affiliated with, Marlene?” Nikki asked her in a voice as faint as her heart.

Marlene smiled at this.
 
“Which one you think?
 
The Democrats.
 
They look out for the poor.”

“How do you feel about Ryan becoming a member of the Supreme Court?”

“That’s what that other guy asked me, that newspaper investigator.
 
But like I told him, I don’t know.
 
That’s not something I think about.
 
But I wouldn’t hire him, if that’s what you mean.”

Nikki looked at her.
 
That was exactly what she meant.
 
Before she fell in love with Mo, she probably would not have hired him either.
 
But that was the problem.
 
She was in love with Mo!
 
And this Marlene Wingate, this thirty-two year old, promiscuous waitress, who had to have been turned out by a pro to be so seductive now, could turn out to be his downfall.
 
This once insignificant single white female trailer park mother of five never married walking statistic, could hold the dagger that would not only spell the end of Mo’s date with destiny, but Nikki’s life with him.
 

If this woman was some political operative trying to bring a brother down, Nikki couldn’t help but admit that she was good.
 
Good, hell.
 
Good was an understatement.
 
She couldn’t imagine anybody better.

She ended up in Neptune Beach.
 
Mo wasn’t home so she waited on his front porch.
 
She waited for nearly an hour, which didn’t help at all.
 
But he eventually found his way home.
 
His Mercedes turned into the driveway, with its’ lights blinding her as they swung past, and their eyes met momentarily.
 

And Nikki again felt so wary of him.
 
He should have been home hours ago, there was no court in session this time of night, but his behavior only crystalized the truth for her.
 
She was in love with a man who had a lot of qualities, a lot of great, endearing qualities, but faithfulness may just not be one of them.

He took his pretty time getting out of his car, as if he could just sense what was up, and when he did get out he walked slowly toward the porch.
 
He wore a black suit and tie, looking his usual dapper self, and didn’t take his eyes off of her as he walked.
 
He hesitated when he stepped onto the porch, however, and then he sat down beside her.

“Hey, babe,” he said as he kissed her on the lips.
 
She tasted so good to him that he pulled her against him and kissed her again.
 

She looked up into his eyes.
 
A sadness was in hers.
 
“Where were you?” she asked him.

He could see her pain, and he knew something was up, and he was suddenly filled with apprehension.
 
“Dinner,” he said.

“Dinner?
 
With who Mo?”

“A friend of mine.”

“A woman?”

He paused.
 
“No.”

“Then who?
 
Jake Braswell?
 
Because that’s the only male friend you’ve ever mentioned to me.
 
All of your friends seem to be women.”
 
He did not respond, which she expected.
 
“What time did you go?”

He frowned, which she also expected.
 
“What?”

“What time did you meet this friend for dinner?”

“What business is that of yours, Nikki?”