Kiss Me Twice

“You ain’t goin’ anywhere,” Solly predicted with certainty. “You’ve got too much invested here.”

“All I’ve got here is trouble,” Bastien muttered.

“I told you, I think I know the lady who can get you out of it. Burke-Carters are local philanthropists,” Solly went on.

“This doesn’t seem like the right solution for me.” Bastien had heard enough and stood up as if to leave.

Solly reached out and grabbed Bastien’s forearm. “I want you to ratchet down your pride for just a minute and listen to me, Bastien. I’m trying to tell you what the Burke-Carters are all about. Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

“Now sit your yellow butt down and keep on listening. Their great-grandfather made his first million before he was twenty. Everything they put their hands on turns to gold. They pass it on through their genes and through the generations.”

“How can the Burke-Carters help me?”

“She’s a well sought after health, safety and environmental consultant. Her specialty is the oil and gas industry. Rig safety. Refineries. Stuff like that. But I think she can help you, too.”

“Is she expensive?”

“I suppose so,” Solly said honestly. “She’s in pretty high demand. She can charge a premium for her services if she wants to.”

“I don’t think Remy would authorize spending for that.”

Solly felt badly about the pressure Bastien was under. Solly knew about the sacrifices Bastien had made in his personal life. He left his lady behind in New Orleans to chase after the job that G-Paw Thibeadaux offered him. It wasn’t a topic that was open to discussion. Gabrielle wouldn’t leave her family, couldn’t pick up everything to move to Houston with him. Even if she had followed Bastien to Texas, he wouldn’t have been able to give her the attention she needed. Not with Remy setting crazy hours for him. Tough job. Crazy boss. No social life. No wonder he was stressed out.

“Find out if this Burke-Carter woman would be willing to take on a pro bono client,” Bastien suggested. “I can just see Remy blowing a gasket if I tell him that I want him to authorize spending out of my division.”

Solly reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He withdrew a business card and held it, just out of Bastien’s reach.

“Find out for yourself. I’m sure once you talk to her you’ll have a lot more questions. Questions that I won’t be able to answer for you. But don’t take it if you’re not serious, Bastien.”

“I’m not convinced that I need to talk to her at all. I don’t like spreading my business in the streets, Solly.”

“Call the woman, Bastien. She won’t spread your business around. She knows how to keep a confidence.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“How come you aren’t?”

“Why should I be? I’ve never heard of this woman before today.”

Solly pinned Bastien with a hard stare. “Phaedra went to school with us, Bastien. You sure you don’t remember her. Wound up at a couple of our frat parties. She would have been hard to miss. Big brown eyes. Thick black hair. Crazy thick. When she wore it down, it used to fly all around her head just like Diana Ross. She used to wear it in a long french braid. Five foot seven. Legs all the way up to her neck. Remember when she came to the homecoming Halloween party our senior year wearing only a leopard print bodysuit?”

“No, I don’t remember that. How’d you happen to have this Phaedra Burke-Carter’s card in your wallet?”

“I ran into her a couple weeks ago. Forgot I had the card until I listened to your boys talking tonight. So now I’m passing it on to you. You either use it or you don’t. You ready to get yourself out of trouble?”

Solly extended his arm, holding the business card between his index and middle fingers.

Bastien hesitated for a moment “Give me the damn card,” Bastien said before he snatched it out of Solly’s hand.

“Now, is that any way to act toward someone who’s planning your surprise birthday party?” Solly grinned at Bastien. He raised his beer to his lips, drained the last of it and set the bottle down on the table with a thump and a restrained belch.

Bastien ignored Solly, staring down at the business card as if a magic answer to his workplace problems would appear before him.

“Samuel told me about your surprise three weeks ago,” Bastien said. “What time am I supposed to show up and try to look surprised?”

“Party starts at six on Saturday. You show up at seven and work on your surprise face and your attitude.”

“What’s wrong with my attitude?” Bastien asked, pretending to sound offended.

“What’s right with it?” Solly countered. “Face it, Bastien. You tend to run roughshod over people when things are going too slow for you. You’re more like that G-Paw Thibeadaux than you think you are. Don’t go looking all surprised. You know it’s true. So, when you call Phaedra, just remember to keep a civil tongue in your head. Don’t you go talking crazy to her, Bastien. Remember, you need her help. She doesn’t need you.”

Bastien ran his finger along the business card’s edges, thinking about what Solly had just said.

I need her. I need her?

Those three simple words galled him. How they ate at his gut. I need her. He didn’t need anybody. He could handle his own problems. That was the CT Inspectorate motto. It was more than just a saying on a plaque. If you couldn’t live up to it, you had no business there.

His impulse was to rip the card into pieces and throw it back into Solly’s face, but Bastien didn’t do that. He kept staring at it, waiting for it to magically solve all of his workplace woes. But it was just a standard business card. Strong block with raised print letters giving the woman’s name, phone number and email, Web site and office addresses.

Plain. Simplistic. But elegant in its simplicity. The no-nonsense effect of the business card contrasted with the image Solly painted in his head of the party girl from back in the day.

“So, you gonna do it or what?” Solly asked. “You gonna call her?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have your stuff together if you do. I got the impression that she’s pretty tough.”

“I can handle her,” Bastien said confidently.

“So, you think you’re going to call.”

Bastien shoved the card into his jumper pocket. “I guess it doesn’t cost anything to give the lady a call.”

Chapter 3

“T hat’ll be four seventy-nine.”

The young man standing behind the register looked to Phaedra as if he could use a dose of his own product. Bleary-eyed and slow to move, he yawned as he accepted her money and squinted at the cash register, trying to find the button that would ring up the coffee purchase.

“Iced mocha. Iced…iced…iced…mocha latte. Iced mocha…” he repeated the order as if he were trying not to let himself forget.

“On the left.”

When the clerk failed to locate the proper register key, Phaedra looked up from the PDA that she was scanning to review her next appointment and raised an eyebrow at him. She didn’t have to say a word. The lift of her eyebrow told him everything. It spoke of impatience and intolerance with the lack of service that she’d gotten. Where was Dana, the usual morning clerk? Phaedra wondered. Dana knew what Phaedra liked without her even having to order. That’s what Phaedra liked about coming here. The usual impeccable service.

“The left?” he echoed, shifting his entire body to the right as if the wires in his brain were misfiring.