When Love Calls (11 page)

“See you later, Dad,” she said, shaking her head at his remark as she left. Yeah, she had to agree that police protection was more visible in affluent parts of town, leaving the bulk of lower-income D.C. to fend, oftentimes unsuccessfully and violently, for itself.

Her father’s bar, Wingate Lounge, was in such a southeast neighborhood. It originally belonged to his grandfather, and like his father before him, he refused to be moved no matter what the challenges were, proudly living above the establishment in one of the small apartments. The bar had outlasted fires, hurricanes, riots and robberies, mostly unscathed but always successfully.

But that would all end soon. Her father talked about retiring, and knowing that she wasn’t interested in keeping the Wingate Lounge open, his only option was to sell. She wasn’t particularly heartbroken. It was the bar that had pried apart his marriage and made him give her up so long ago.

Just after her mother died, he withdrew into his work, leaving her, at four years old, to fend for herself. He was completely distraught and inconsolable. All he saw left in his life was the bar, so he clung to it, leaving no room for her.

For a long time, she hated him for leaving her. But then, with her grandmother and grandfather’s help, she learned to understand his pain without losing her own. They, her father and grandmother, were unlikely allies who set aside their differences to raise her. She lived with her grandmother in her big house in a beautiful old and stately neighborhood, then hung out at her father’s place on weekends. She was never allowed to go into the bar by either of them.

Alyssa got into her car and drove to meet her friend.

It was Sunday morning, five minutes before nine, and Randolph was already seated at a window seat in a small café in Georgetown. Dressed casually, he blended in perfectly with his surroundings. No one recognized him. He was just another guy sitting in a hotel café, flipping through the Sunday-morning newspaper.

A baseball cap dipped low over his eyes, he checked out those entering and leaving. A typical crowd, he assumed. They greeted each other or nodded while they busily filled their cups.

The hotel lobby was connected to the café, but most of the patrons appeared to be coming from the street entrance on the other side. There were several couples seated near him, chatting quietly, but to the side, there was a double table of six women sipping frothy beverages and eating puffed-up pastries. They glanced at him sitting there alone several times, but he made it a point to look away in the other direction.

As the café got crowded, people constantly coming in waves, he seemingly focused his attention on the newspaper until it emptied out again. Then, by chance, the paper flipped to the local-news section, he saw an article with his photo. It was taken with a local politician and the caption read
Senator Randolph Kingsley and Ombudsman Clark Jefferson Chat at a Local Fund-raiser.
He vaguely remembered the photo. He didn’t read the article, but for some reason, it made him uneasy. He made a mental note to read it later.

“Hi, remember me?”

Randolph looked up, expecting to see Alyssa. He didn’t. “No, I’m afraid I don’t,” he said.

“That’s okay,” she said, sitting down across from him. “I was at the fund-raiser last Thursday with my girlfriend. She and I…”

Randolph smiled and nodded. “Yes, I do remember you now, Ms. Hall. Nina, right?”

Nina’s eyes brightened as she nodded. She had no idea that he would remember her name. “Yes. That’s me.”

“How are you this morning?”

“Great. I can’t believe you actually remembered my name,” she said in wonder as she slid down in the seat across from him.

“It was only a few days ago,” he assured her.

“Yeah, but still, you meet, like, millions of people every day. I could never remember them all.”

“I have a very good memory and believe it or not, I don’t really meet that many people.”

“Well, anyway, I need to confess, it was me who asked you to come here this morning.”

“Really?” Randolph said, hoping he didn’t sound as disappointed as he felt. “And why is that?”

“I know it was kind of a lousy ruse and all and I know your time is precious and it was terrible of me to do. But I really wanted to talk to you.” Nina talked fast because from her seat she saw Alyssa approach by way of the hotel entrance.

“It was indeed. With you having said that, what can I do for you, Ms. Hall?”

“Nina, please.”

“What can I do for you, Nina?”

“Actually, I can’t stay, but I see my girlfriend coming and she’s so much better at doing this than I am.”

“Doing what exactly?” Randolph asked, hoping that this wasn’t some kind of scam to embarrass him or his office.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Alyssa said, breathless. “I had to almost park in Virginia. I swear, parking around here is impossible.” She sat, looked at Nina and then finally at the man seated across from her. Her jaw dropped. “What are you doing here?” she asked, stunned to see him.

“That would be me,” Nina said, raising her hand slightly to confess.

“Nina?” Alyssa said.

“Good morning, Ms. Nomalanga, nice of you to join us.”

“Ms. Nomalanga—oh, right, about that…”

Nina stood up quickly. “You know, I really have to be someplace else now. I’m sorry about all this but Alyssa can fill you in.”

“Nina, you better not…” Alyssa said in warning.

“See you later. Nice to see you again, sir,” Nina said quickly as she turned, shuffled through the ever-growing crowd in the café, then dashed outside and disappeared down the street.

Alyssa closed her eyes and moaned inwardly. If she could disappear, this was the perfect time to do it.

“Ms. Nomalanga, or should I call you Ms. Wingate? Which is it today?”

“Alyssa, Alyssa Wingate.” She peeked over at him. His smiling eyes beamed at her intensely. She felt her heart thunder and her stomach flutter as she wondered, at what point did making a total fool of yourself constitute jail time?

“Are you sure, Ms. Wingate?”

“Yes, I’m sure, my name is Alyssa Wingate.” She stuck out her hand to shake. He grasped her hand gently and they both knew that they were way past this part. “Sorry about that. Sorry about this. I didn’t know Nina was going to do this, I mean, invite you here like this. She did invite you, didn’t she?” Randolph nodded and half smiled again. “You don’t have to stay.”

“Actually I’d like to stay, if that’s okay with you, that is.”

“But why? You were obviously tricked into coming here. I don’t know how, but I assure you, it won’t go unpunished.”

“I’ll stay. Call it curiosity.”

“Okay, umm, why don’t I send flowers or write a check to your campaign, or donate to your favorite charity or something so you can forget about this whole thing? Or you can even call it a speaking engagement and I’ll just pay you for your time.”

“I usually get well over ten thousand dollars to speak, more if the occasion calls for it.”

“You get what? That’s ridiculous. Who would pay…” she began, raising her voice slightly, then looked around and continued in a whisper. “Who would pay that much to listen to you speak?”

“That’s the going rate. Of course, that’s the initial fee. The price goes up considerably.”

“Figures, how much?” She sighed regretfully while reaching into her purse for her checkbook, knowing she didn’t have that kind of money but figuring she could get the rest from her father or her grandmother if necessary.

“Tell you what, why don’t I buy us a coffee and we’ll discuss it?”

“I don’t drink coffee,” she said.

“Tea. Even better, decaffeinated, I presume,” he said, and walked away before she had a chance to respond.

Alyssa sat there, still surprised by the turn of events. She and Nina met for bagels and tea from time to time, so when she got her message to meet her this morning she thought nothing of it. But to her surprise…

“Hey, isn’t that that senator from California?”

“What senator, who, where?”

“Over there standing in line, see?”

“Senator or not, he is gorgeous.”

“It looks like him but that doesn’t mean anything. What would a senator be doing here?”

“I don’t know, hanging out. He’s single, isn’t he?”

“Faye, you should give him your phone number. You’d be a great senator’s wife. You even look the part.”

“You think so. Hmm, well, then maybe I will.”

The conversations that once piqued her interest now irritated her. The four women at the next table began giggling and whispering like teenagers. Why would they think that just because he was a senator he wanted a woman like that? So what if she had long flowing hair, perfect skin and was a size four? Beauty was supposed to be in the eye of the beholder, right?

Alyssa glanced around, seeing the couple seated at the next table also looking toward the counter. They obviously overheard and recognized Randolph, as well. Thankfully the line at the counter was short and he was back in just a few minutes.

“Here you go,” Randolph said, placing a paper cup with two dangling tea bags in front of her, then sat down beside her.

“Umm, Senator, do you mind if we go someplace else?”

“No, of course not, if you’d like. Is there a problem?”

“Actually I think your popularity is becoming evident,” Alyssa said, nodding her head slightly.

Randolph glanced around for the first time. He hadn’t realized it because, since Alyssa walked in, he hadn’t taken his eyes from her. But now he noticed that there were several people smiling and staring at him. He returned their smile, nodded and even shook hands with the man seated at the next table. “Perhaps you’re right, shall we?” he said softly.

“Why don’t you leave first? I’ll follow in a few.”

“Why don’t we leave together?” he countered.

“But, the people—” she began.

“Will be just as curious of you sitting here alone,” he returned easily.

She nodded, seeing his point. He got up and reached over to help her with her chair. She stood and they walked out together with her taking one last glance at the six women at the table. They looked completely insulted. That was the first good thing that had happened all morning long.

Once outside, they started walking down the street, blending in with the early morning crowd. Alyssa kept looking around anxiously. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, either,” she said, suddenly feeling as if everyone were staring at them when they really weren’t.

“On the contrary, it was a great idea,” Randolph answered. “It’s a beautiful day. I have a lovely woman by my side. I can’t think of anything better to do this morning. And you went to a lot of trouble to get me here, so—”

“Actually I didn’t, Nina did.”

“True, fair enough. But you went to a lot of trouble to get my attention Thursday evening. I believe you mentioned at some point that you snuck in to meet me.”

“Yes, I guess I did,” she said, sipping the hot tea.

“So, tell me, Alyssa, what’s all this about?”

The idea of lobbying for the elderly on a beautiful Sunday morning while walking down the streets of Georgetown seemed almost inconsequential. But the importance of the cause made her press on. “I work for a lobbying firm called the Foundation for Senior Citizen Reform.”

“Yes, I remember very well. Nice office, very private.”

She knew immediately he was referring to their kiss, but she chose to ignore his reference. “And I wanted to talk to you about legislative reform for medical-insurance subsidies for specific mental-health conditions.”

“That’s already on the books.”

“For mental health, yes, but not specifically for seniors and not for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other debilitating mental illnesses. I don’t know if you already know this, but Alzheimer’s is a devastating condition marked by a progressive loss of mental capability resulting from degenerating brain cells,” she said, and then continued speaking rapidly, telling him just about everything she’d learned about the disease in the past two years.

She elaborated on the probable cause, genetic testing, stem-cell research, medical statistics, treatment and experimental drugs. By the time she finished, her voice had risen excitedly and animated.

“Yes, I’m well aware of the disease.”

“Good, then you must also be aware that it’s tearing families apart,” she said with unusually high passion.

“Yes, it is,” he responded calmly.

“Yes, of course you are, I’m sorry,” she said, trying to calm her excitement. “I tend to get a bit overzealous at times.”

He smiled and nodded. “Your passion is commendable. But the current law states that all mental diseases, including degenerative conditions, are covered.”

“Again, not specifically for seniors.”

“Question, how personal is this to you?” he asked.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” she said.

“I’m asking who is it, your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather?”

She paused, then swallowed hard. “My grandmother,” she said. He nodded. “Look, yes, this is a personal issue for me, but it’s a personal issue for a lot of people. This isn’t going away with some magic wand.”

“No, it’s not, on that we agree.”

“So we have to do something,” she said.

“We are doing something.”

“No, that’s not good enough,” she said firmly. He didn’t respond. “I’m sorry. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to get passionate at times.”

“That’s good to know,” he said, looking at her again.

She looked over at him. His eyes were piercing into her hers, and behind them, she felt something stronger, something she couldn’t put her finger on. But her body reacted, her stomach began fluttering and her heart pounded in her chest. “Okay, let’s just get this out in the open. We kissed, our bodies pressed together and we touched each other in very intimate places. The opportunity presented itself and we went for it. Okay, yes, it happened, but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen again. That was a fluke for me. I don’t normally just throw myself at men I don’t even know.”

“Again, that’s good to know.”

“I’m serious, Senator, I mean business.”