Saving All My Lovin'

She exhaled a soft sigh of relief. “So you think you can help me?”

“I can try, but only if you make me a promise.”

“What kind of promise?”

“That this won’t be the last time I see you and, when I do, it won’t be business related.”

Ann Marie bit back a grin. “I think I can help you with that.”

He raised his half-empty glass of iced tea. “To more…”

She raised hers as well as her brows. “To more what?” she asked softly, leaning forward.

“To more of getting to know each other.”

She touched her glass to his. “To more,” she said.

When Ann Marie arrived at the spa the following afternoon it was with a new attitude. She’d had a wonderful time with Sterling. He was fun, intelligent, handsome and an absolute gentleman. What endeared him the most to her was that he was not turned off by her situation. To her that said a lot about the kind of man that he was. And maybe she was finally growing up, too. It was the first time in years that she’d actually been totally honest with a man about her past. Hopefully, it was the start of something new.

“Hey everybody,” she greeted as she sauntered in, her hundred-watt smile in place.

Barbara looked over Ann Marie’s shoulder. “Anybody see a weepy, fresh-mouth woman about five feet two inches tall?”

Ann Marie gave her a playful shove on the shoulder. “Oh stop. It wasn’t that bad.”

“Oh yes it was,” Stephanie said. “Scared me.” She grinned.

“Feeling better I see,” Elizabeth said, walking up to join the impromptu gathering. “A handsome man wouldn’t have anything to do with it would it?” She winked.

“Maybe,” Ann Marie said, playing coy.

Barbara sat down on the stool by the check-in counter. “Look, Ann, I’m really glad you’re feeling better. But I’m going to say this in front of everyone so that there is no misunderstanding.” She drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “We need to be really careful about taking up with clients.” She looked Ann Marie in the eye. “We don’t want this place to get the wrong reputation.”

Ann Marie cocked her hip to the side and the words flew out of her mouth so hard and fast it was difficult to understand anything other than she was pissed off. “What you saying? You t’ink me messing ‘round wit the clients? That me pickin’ dem up like some street walker?”

Barbara held up her palm. “Ann,” she said in a tone one uses with an excitable child. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Well what are ya saying then?”

“Be careful and mindful that’s all.”

“Listen hon,” Elizabeth said, “We’re happy if you’re happy.” She turned her gaze on Barbara. “You didn’t meet him here anyway. Not exactly. So it’s not the same thing.”

Ann Marie huffed and folded her arms.

“That’s all I’m saying,” Barbara added. She stepped up to Ann Marie and put her arm around her tense shoulders. “I hear he’s a lawyer.”

Ann Marie looked up at her. “How did you know that?”

“We looked him up?” Elizabeth beamed.

“Maybe he could help you with your Terrance problem,” Stephanie said.

“You all have this figured out, huh?”

“We thought it would be a good idea. I mean you can always ask him hypothetically, ’cause we know how you are about your personal life,” Barbara said.

“Well for your information, me did tell him. Told him everything.”

“You did?” they echoed in disbelief. First the tears and then true confessions. What next?

Ann Marie nodded.

Barbara had to sit down. “Well, what did he say?”

“Him say he loves a challenge. And…he wants to see me again.” Her smile lit up the room.

“Truth is good for the soul,” Elizabeth said preaching to the choir.

Ann Marie took a seat next to Barbara. “It was scary, you know.” She looked from one face to the next. “It’s easy to keep folks at a distance, not let them get too close.” She lowered her gaze and focused on her Jimmy Choos. “Been that way all my life.” She drew in a breath then looked up. “But something hit me last night. I realized that all the secrets, all the keeping folks at bay had hurt me more than helped. And me tired of hurting all the time,” she added in a whisper.

“It’s gonna be fine, girl,” Stephanie said. “Just wait and see.”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth agreed. “Just wait and see.”

Barbara uh-huhed her response but silently wondered just how fine it would all turn out.

Chapter 7

Wil Hutchinson pulled himself up the steps to his third floor walk-up apartment favoring his left hip. It had been a long day. His mail delivery route took him up and down the rolling hills of upper Manhattan. He sure wasn’t as young and spry as he used to be, he thought ruefully to himself. He’d been a mail carrier for almost thirty years and had watched Harlem change from an oasis for black culture replete with supper clubs, soul-food restaurants, men who sported real hats and women who wore gloves on Sundays—to high-end department stores, super food chains instead of the mom and pop corner store and a steady influx of wealthy white yuppies who saw gold in the historic brownstones.

That was then, he mused, turning his key in the lock. Time changes everything, especially the body. He passed his reflection in the hallway mirror and immediately sucked in his stomach and straightened his back.

He wasn’t a bad looking man. Most women thought him to be handsome. But he’d put on the pounds and, years without a real woman to please, he’d let himself go. His days consisted of work and his evenings of keeping an eye on his teenaged son, Chauncey. Wil had big plans for his son. Next year he would be in college. He’d saved most of his life to ensure that he’d had the funds available to pay for Chauncey’s education. But he’d also taught his son about the value of hard work and that making one’s way in the world was how he would get to be a real man.

Wil set down his backpack on the kitchen table and looked up at the clock above the fridge. His son should be walking through the door any minute from his job at the Schomburg. He’d been working at the historic library since he was old enough to get working papers. The pay wasn’t great but it helped and Wil made sure that Chauncey saved more than he spent.

He was just about to get an iced cold beer when he heard the front door open.

“Dad, you home?” Chauncey yelled out.

Wil shook his head and laughed. They’d been roommates for the past ten years since his mother walked out on them and never a day passed that Chauncey didn’t yell the same question. It was almost as if he was afraid that one day he’d come home and his dad would be gone, too.

“In here, son.”

Chauncey came bounding in the kitchen, all six-foot-two-inches of him. Every time Wil looked at his son he was amazed that he’d been part of creating such a good looking boy. Chauncey had never been plagued with adolescent acne. His skin was still smooth and clear with red undertones highlighting his bronze complexion, a throwback to his American Indian ancestry. But it was his eyes that captured the attention of everyone who met him, they were a light brown, the color of sweet tea and when the mood hit them, they turned a deep green.

“How was your day?” Wil asked, taking the beer and twisting of the top. He’d taken two long swallows before Chauncey could respond.