By Ace’s calculations, if Talise was pregnant, she would be plus or minus three months. As much as he tried not to think about her, he couldn’t escape it. Not with Eva’s “in your face” pregnancy.
It was his designated day to babysit Kidd’s pregnant wife, who remained on bed rest. Eva looked fine to Ace. Why his brother even asked him to be on standby was a mystery. Kidd came home for lunch, phoned Eva throughout the day, and texted her constantly. Exactly, how much rest could she get with all those interruptions? Besides her bouts of nausea, Eva rested and didn’t ask for much.
Ace leaned back in the desk chair. As his mind drifted, he glanced outside the window in his bedroom, where he had set up his home office. Kidd’s backyard deck summoned him.
But St. Louis’s late morning humidity was stifling and he chose to stay cool inside. Ace missed the East Coast beaches. Actually, he missed Talise—her voice, her smile, and her bright eyes. If the woman was pregnant, how ironic would it be for two brothers to be expectant fathers at the same time?
Ignoring the work that was outlined on his spreadsheet, Ace entertained memories of Talise. He smirked. Whenever one of them missed the other, nothing seemed to deter them from seeing each other. When they were dating, Ace couldn’t get enough of her, and Talise felt the same way. Whether it was a late night dinner or taking an early lunch, they wouldn’t be denied. Not even with Talise’s Saturday schedule at the salon.
A few times, she had juggled her client load so they could enjoy a weekend getaway to New York, Connecticut, or even Rhode Island. He closed his eyes and rubbed his wavy hair. One Friday evening in particular, Ace was waiting outside her apartment when she got home from work. Already packed, she changed into comfortable clothes. Ace grabbed her bags and before they knew it, they were on I-95, headed toward the Big Apple.
“We don’t have to race back. I took a vacation day on Sunday.” Talise had surprised him.
It was those little sacrifices she made that caused Ace to believe she could have been the one. He thought he felt the clarity of her affections. Was she only catering to his desires as part of her scheme to trap him down the line? Ace frowned. A bird in flight caught his attention.
He preferred to reminisce on fond memories. Ace thrived off Talise’s complexities. Once they had gotten settled in their hotel suite, their first destination was to the Empire State Building. The time was early spring and the weather was still chilly in New York. Her boots, skinny jeans, and sweater top with the matching cap caught every man’s eye. Ace snickered and shook his head. Talise was his possession and he kept her close.
As she snuggled in his arms at the top of the monument, Talise whispered, “I’ve got a secret.”
“Which is?”
“I’m scared of heights.”
Not his fearless woman. He had playfully pinched her. “Right, like a sailor who can’t swim? You work for an airline, baby,” Ace teased, as he hugged her tighter. Giving him the warmest smile, she had rested her head on his chest.
“I know. But in a plane, I feel protected and safe. Out here in the open, more than a thousand feet above street level, it’s scary.”
“I gotcha, babe. Trust me, I gotcha.”
Closing his eyes, Ace remembered kissing her cold lips. He missed that. Reluctantly, he flipped to the next slide in his mind. Ace smirked when he recalled them standing in a long line in Times Square for bargain tickets to see Sister Act. Even at a discount, the tickets were still pricey. Talise had protested, saying it was too much money.
Her complaint had fallen on deaf ears, and they remained in line for him to buy anyway. She had offered him a sip from her cup of hot chocolate. “I kind of like standing in the crowd with you. We can keep each other warm by holding hands,” she’d told him.
His response had been some naughty, off-handed comment, but she laughed and scrunched her nose. The intimacy they shared in the moment told him that she was different.
“Ha!” Ace shook his head in major disappointment. Shifting in his chair, he needed to pay attention to the work in front of him. But his stubborn mind craved more memories.
They went shopping at Macys while waiting for show time. Instead of bargain hunting for herself, Talise had been on a scavenger hunt for him. Hours later, they were huddled together in their seats at the Broadway Theatre. It didn’t take long for Ace to lose interest in the play that had Talise enthralled. The merriment, passion, and distress all shone through her facial expressions. To him, she was more interesting and he chose to watch her instead.
Finally, Talise had elbowed him, breaking his trance and indicating there was an intermission. “Stop looking at me,” she demanded with a laugh. “We stood in line for more than an hour for these expensive seats. At least, you’re supposed to pretend you’re enjoying this.”
“No, babe. My money was well spent because I’m enjoying you.”
Talise had rewarded him with an engaging smile that never left his memory.
The next day on that Sunday morning in April, the only place to be was in Central Park. The moment had been unhurried, as they wrapped their arms around each other. Later he insisted on visiting Ground Zero before heading back to Boston.
As they stood and scanned the thousands of names of those who had perished that fateful day, Ace recalled sniffling. It was a moving experience, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried. It had to be in grade school after his mother tore his behind up for some infraction at school.
Since fourth grade, he had developed leather skin on his bottom. Ace was determined his mother wasn’t going to get another tear out of him. She didn’t. Yet he stood there while Talise used a tissue to dab his eyes that day, and he let her.
“This is why my sister is stationed in the Persian Gulf right now. Yet we can never bring these people back,” Talise had whispered.
“Or turn back the hands of time,” Ace added.
That statement snapped him out of his reveries. Despite Talise’s underlining deceit, he would turn back the hands of time in a heartbeat to be with her again. Maybe if he had confessed his feelings up front, she wouldn’t have felt the need to trick him.
When Ace’s stomach growled, he signed off the laptop that he wasn’t using anyway. Standing, he stretched. “Why do all good things have to come to an end?” He asked himself. Opening his bedroom door, Ace strolled out into the hall. He was on his way to the kitchen and was about to tap on Eva’s door to see if she was hungry. Although he had shut down his mind from recalling more memories with Talise, his ears began to play tricks on him.
Standing by her bedroom door, was that Talise’s name he heard Eva mentioning? No way. The two didn’t even know each other. Leaning closer, he heard Eva giggle. She was definitely on the phone. As he strained to hear the conversation, he was abruptly shoved out of the way.
“What are you doing?” Kidd roared from behind him. Dressed in a suit and tie, his brother didn’t look any less intimidating.
Recovering from being slammed up against the wall, Ace scowled. “Well, I was eavesdropping, but you put an end to that with your he-man heroics.”
“Not on my wife, she’d better not find out. So what are you trying to hear? Is something wrong? Has she stopped breathing?” Kidd was poised to barge into his bedroom.
“Believe me, she’s alive and well.”
“She’d better be. You’re on duty when I’m not here.” Aggravated, Kidd cracked open the door to make sure Eva was all right. He waved at his wife and then motioned Ace toward the kitchen.
“What’s up with you, dude?” Kidd asked.
“I thought I heard Eva mention Talise’s name.”
“Oh.” Kidd shrugged as if it was no big deal and then opened the refrigerator. Grabbing some bread, lettuce, deli meat, and condiments, he offered, “You want one?”
With an agitated frown, Ace stared at his brother. “Didn’t you hear what I just said? Why would she mention her name? Can you ask your wife what’s going on, please?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t care who my wife talks to, unless it’s another man trying to hit on her.” He paused to slap mayonnaise on both slices of bread. “And because you don’t care anyway.”
“I don’t.”
“If you don’t stop lying to yourself soon, you just might start believing it.” Kidd piled slices of turkey and ham on one piece of bread and then topped it off with the other piece. After slicing an apple and pouring a glass of milk, he balanced the dishes on a tray. Kidd then dismissed Ace and headed toward his bedroom to feed his wife.
The next morning in his office, Ace stood from behind his massive mahogany desk and strolled to the window From the twentieth floor of the Peabody Coal Building, he could overlook downtown St. Louis.
Since the previous day, his mind had worked overtime trying not to think about Talise. How could Talise be pregnant—by him? They both protected themselves. In any case, he thought he did, especially after lessons learned from his past relationships with long-legged gold diggers. Now he was more than a thousand miles away, and Ace still couldn’t shake his ex. He didn’t believe in good or bad ghosts, but the woman was definitely haunting him.
Refocusing, Ace watched the sea of red moving on the streets below. The St. Louis Cardinals were playing a day game and fans were headed to Busch Stadium. Everything was red, including the water in a fountain at Keiner Plaza.
Ace loved baseball and missed the excitement at Fenway Park. He couldn’t possibly switch his allegiance to the Cardinals. That kind of defection would be long in coming. Besides, when the coast was clear, he could hopefully return to Boston. When that time came, he prayed that he would never run into Ms. Rogers again.
Ironically, the thought saddened him. Turning around, Ace stuffed his hands in his pockets and perused the large, nicely furnished office. “Not bad for a boy from a single-parent home in a Boston ghetto,” he noted.
When his workload was pretty much finished for the morning, Ace wanted to escape. He could go sightseeing or maybe to the game and pretend that he was rooting for the Red Sox. Unfortunately, he had to hang around for an afternoon meeting with new clients.
Instead, Ace took a moment and weighed whether he wanted to stay in and order a couple of sub sandwiches or test the humidity and run across the street to Imo’s. The unique taste of their pizza already had his mouth watering.
There was one more option, which involved a member of the opposite sex. Ace couldn’t explain why he hadn’t accepted the sexual overtures from several of his coworkers. Simply put, his heart wasn’t into the office “cat and mouse game” people play at work.
When his cell phone rang, Ace smiled at his mother’s number and welcomed the distraction. Their conversations since the disagreement about Talise had been civil, but strained. In spite of that, every now and then, Sandra would prompt him to discuss his relationship with his ex. She wasn’t about to let him off the hook.
“Hey, Mom, what’s up?”
“You have good taste, but poor judgment.” Sandra’s insult was pleasant.
Flattening his tie, Ace settled behind his desk and then frowned. “Huh?”
Just then, there was a light knock and his office door opened. Shala, a woman with a pretty face and enticing body, popped her head in and mouthed, “Lunch?”
Although his stomach said yes, his mind was focused on what his mother had to say. He declined and Shala backed out, pouting. She had been after him since day one. The Jamieson charm. Ace loved it. If Talise didn’t still have her handprints on his heart, he definitely would have explored that opportunity.
“Mom, am I supposed to know what you mean?”
“Talise.”
Ouch! Just the sound of her name made his heart scream out from the prick. Holding his breath, he attempted to sound casual. “What about her?”
“We had lunch.”
Ace gripped the edge of his desk to keep from falling out of his chair. Fully alert, his body stiffened. His nostrils flared at his ex’s nerve. She was more aggressive than he had given her sweet self credit for.
“Oh, really? First, she runs to Cameron with her sad story, and now she’s after my mother.” Ace was livid.
“Let’s revisit that conversation we had not too long ago. Talise is the one who is having your baby, isn’t she?”
“You saw her. Does she look pregnant?” Pressing his ear closer to the phone, Ace listened intently.
“I couldn’t tell. She’s probably not far enough along yet for it to be so obvious. Plus, you can’t always go by looks. One time, I made the mistake of asking a woman when her baby was due. She wasn’t pregnant, but overweight. Believe me, it was an embarrassing moment.”
Ace pinched his nose, impatient by his mother’s idle rambling when he needed a straight answer. “Mom, what about Talise?”
“Very pretty, but she’s divorcing herself from the Jamiesons. You’ve hurt her badly, and she doesn’t want to ever see you again. Aaron, please, if that woman is having your baby, it’s time for you to take responsibility. I’m asking you to reconsider your stubbornness and avoid another generation of single parenting in this family.”
It’s time to do damage control, Ace thought, tuning his mother out. He was going to contact Talise and make sure she put an end to her vicious lies.