DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (30 page)

“So it worked out then?”

Daniel frowned.
 
“What worked out?”

“I’m sorry. I assumed there was trouble in
paradise. I hadn’t seen Nikki coming by the office to see you the way she used
to.”

Daniel said nothing.

“So it worked out then, whatever
it
is?” Melanie asked again.

“Yes.
 
It worked out,” Daniel said half-heartedly.

Melanie smiled.
 
“You don’t sound too certain of that.”

“Do I?
 
I mean, don’t I?”

Melanie couldn’t believe his lack of confidence.
 
“Daniel?
 
Are you okay?”

He exhaled and placed his hands on his
hips.
 
“I’m okay, Mel, thanks.”

“Is it Nikki?”

Daniel hesitated.
 
He didn’t discuss his problems with anyone,
not ever, but tonight he was tempted.
 
“She’s had an epiphany,” he said.

Melanie smiled.
 
“That sounds like Nikki.
 
And what great discovery has she made?”

Daniel hesitated.
 
“She loves me too much,” he said.

“She
what
?”

“She’s concluded that she loves me too
much.
 
So she wanted a little breathing
room.
 
I gave it to her.”

“So what you’re saying is that you and Nikki
are no more?
 
That you and Nikki are no
longer a couple?”

“Of course that’s not what I’m saying.”
 
Daniel said this with irritation in his
voice.
 
It was tough enough.
 
“We’re still together,” he made clear.
 
“We’ll always be together.
 
She just wanted some space.”

Melanie inwardly smiled.
 
They were on the rocks and about to tip
over.
 
Hooray!

“Knock knock,” Phillip Grayson’s voice was
suddenly heard from outside the office, and Melanie, still stunned by Daniel’s
revelation, turned quickly.
 
Phillip
walked on in.
 
“Hey, Daniel.
 
Hello, Mel.”

Daniel spoke back.
 
Melanie was still reeling.
 
If what Daniel said was true, and Nikki was
trying to wean herself off of him, her work just got a lot easier.
 
She knew she had to capitalize on the
situation.
 
And so did Luke.
 
But she also had to be careful.
 
If she read too much into what Daniel was telling
her, if Nikki’s so-called epiphany was more like a bump in the road than a
life-altering event, then her actions could backfire.
 

But just the thought that Nikki was finally
weighing her options raised the stakes.
 
And Melanie was more than ready to move her planning into elevated gear.

“You might wanna sit down, bud,” Phillip said
to Daniel.

Daniel frowned.
 
“What are you talking about, Phillip?”

“Brace yourself.”

“I’m braced.
 
Now what is it?”

Phillip smiled.
 
“Word on the Street - as in Wall Street - is
that Daniel Crane is among one of two finalists for CEO of Dreeson.”

Melanie smiled.
 
Then looked at Daniel.

“One of two?” Daniel asked.

“One of two, my friend.
 
Congratulations.”

“You’re certain of this?”

“Of course I am.
 
Have I ever brought you wrong intel
before?
 
You’ll be getting a call before
the night is through.”

“Who’s the other guy?”

“Fastower.
 
Michael Alexander Fastower.”

“Him.”

“Yep, him.”

“I thought you said there was a problem with
Fastower?”

“There was.
 
But nobody’s saying what.
 
Apparently it wasn’t worth revealing because I couldn’t get anything
after the initial buzz.”

“Who’s Fastower anyway?”
 
Melanie asked.

“Big name.
 
A one-time whiz kid at Halliburton.
 
He’s a heavy-hitter, no doubt about it.
 
Smart.
 
Harvard-educated.
 
Ambitious.
 
Unlike Daniel, he’s been dreaming his whole life for this opportunity.”

“He sounds like a shoo-in,” Melanie said.

“He would be.
 
But the big boys don’t like Fastower.
 
And that’s your saving grace, Daniel.”
 
Phillip said this and looked at Daniel.
 
“Michael Fast-talker is what they call him behind his back.
 
He’s a little too ambitious, too smart and smooth
for them.
 
You, on the other hand, is
well known because you’re already here, well liked because you know how to keep
a low profile, and you have zero credibility issues.
 
Word on the Street is that you’re the
shoo-in.”

Daniel remained even-keeled.
 
Melanie smiled greatly.
 
“Wow,” was the only word she could think to
say.
 
You’re
the last person on earth who deserves it
, she wanted to add.

“I told you I was gonna do it for you boy!”
Phillip said with a sudden burst of energy as he pumped his fist in the
air.
 

“I am so happy for you, Daniel,” Melanie
said.

“If it’s true it’s incredible,” Daniel
admitted.

“Yes, it is,” Melanie agreed.
 
“It’s wonderful.”

“As soon as I got off of the phone with my
contacts I came to you,” Phillip said.
 
“I ran up ten flights.”

“That’s what I’ve never understood about the
corporate world,” Melanie said.
 
“Why
would Phillip’s contacts know before you, Daniel, that you’re one of two
finalists?”

“That’s just the nature of the business,
Mel,” Phillip said.
 
“The board notifies
a middle guy so that he can start dripping the word out and Wall Street can
begin to adjust before an official announcement, so it won’t be a shock to
their system, and then you let the middle guy get the word to the principals.
 
That way it appears that the board’s
allegiance is with the bigger picture, with Wall Street, and not with just one
or two men.”

Daniel smiled.
 
“And it’s also a cover should they change
their minds and neither man will do.
 
After all they never said it themselves.”

“They won’t change their minds,” Melanie
said.
 
“Not if it’s you.”

“Tell him, Melanie,” Phillip said.
 
“Besides, their window of opportunity is too
narrow.
 
They’ve got to make a decision
and an official announcement within the next month.”

“What’s going to be the strategy then?”
Melanie asked Phillip.
 
“I’m sure you
have one.”

Phillip walked further up to Daniel’s
desk.
 
“Okay,” he said, his eyes focused
exclusively on Daniel.
 
“You’ve got to
keep a low profile.
 
That’s key.
 
That’s what distinguishes you from
Fastower.
 
Word is he’s already planning
a publicity blitz through the Midwest to drum up support, as if those old
geezers on the board of directors are gonna listen to outsiders.
 
But that’s Fastower’s style.
 
And that’s exactly what the board hates about
him.
 
But the good news is that he
doesn’t know it.
 
So you keep a low
profile, keep doing what you’re doing, and you’ll be fine.
 
I guarantee it.”

Daniel looked at Phillip, and then looked
past him, at the numerous plaques on his wall. He honed in on one particular
plaque.
 
Man of The Year
, it said, and it was from a small, local recreation
center that he backed financially.
 
It
didn’t make a ripple in the corporate world.
 
No news media covered the ceremony.
 
Not even Nikki knew he had received it.
 
But it was, to Daniel, his greatest accomplishment.
 
Because he didn’t have to do anything but
write a check every month.
 
And that
little gesture meant the world to them.
 
If he was named CEO, he would have earned it through sweat and
blood.
 
And the thrill of the chase could
very well be more preferable than the capture.
 
Because the capture would not be an end, but a beginning of more.
 
More sweat.
 
More blood.
 
More.
 
And in the end it was not going to be an
accomplishment at all.
 
Because, in the
end, the more he gave, like former CEO Murdock found out, the more he would
have to give.

“I’d better go,” Melanie said, rising to her
feet.
 
Daniel stood too as she walked
around his desk smiling as she came.
 
“And I can’t express how happy I am for you, Daniel.
 
Congratulations.”
 
She said this and gave him a friendly
hug.
 
When they released, she kissed him
on the mouth.
 
Daniel felt a blush of
irritation, but also of arousal, as Melanie’s lips parted from his.
 

Phillip could not believe his eyes.

“Oh, my goodness,” Melanie said, as if
stunned by her own behavior.
 
“Did I do
that?
 
I did not mean to do that!
 
I’m sorry, Daniel.
 
I am so sorry.”

Daniel removed his hand from around her waist
and smiled too.
 
“It’s all right,” he
said.
 
Although he knew that it wasn’t.

“Hello?” Nikki said into the phone.
 
It was Val.

“Hey, girl,” Val said.

Nikki smiled and readjusted her laptop
computer on her lap.
 
She was in bed, in
her nightgown, conducting a series of searches on the internet.
 
“Hey yourself.
 
I haven’t heard from you in a minute.
 
How’s Detroit treating you?”

“Like a queen, my dear,” Val said and Nikki
laughed.
 
“What about you?
 
What are you doing?
 
No, no, let me guess.
 
You’re lying on that bed of yours pining away
because Daniel ain’t there.”

“He wish.
 
I’m working, for your information.
 
A source gave me some info that Oxidare may be involved in some illegal
dumping that’s making elementary kids sick.
 
I’m just doing some background, although I’m not getting very far.”

“And where’s Daniel?”

“I have no idea.”

“Wait a minute now.
 
Daniel ain’t there, and you don’t care?”

“I know you didn’t call me, boy, to talk
about Daniel.
 
What’s happened?”

“Nothing’s happened.”

“Liar.”

“I’m in love, okay?
 
Satisfied?”

“In love?”

“Yes, girl.
 
As in happy.”

“Who is it this time?
 
A liar, a thief, or a combination thereof?”

“Forget you.”

“Who is he?”

Val paused.
 
“Bruce.”

“Again?
 
The thief?
 
I thought you said it
was over, Val?”

“When I said it, it was.
 
But we worked out our differences.”

“You need to quit.
 
You didn’t used to be this hard-up.”

“I’m not hard-up.”

“Yes, you are.
 
Why would you keep going back to that
loser?
 
A man who stole from you and
tried to beat your ass?
 
Please.”

“He’s changed, Nikki, all right?
 
Why do you keep running back to Daniel?”

“Daniel doesn’t steal from me and he’s never
beat my ass.”

“He’s done something to that ass.
 
That’s why you keep running back to him.
 
Even after the naked photos.
 
Even after that phone call.
 
Y’all still together.
 
Well it’s the same way with Bruce.
 
I feel like he’s the one.”

“He’s the one all right.
 
The one in the next police line-up.”

“I don’t know why I even bother with
you.
 
I knew you wasn’t gonna be happy
for me.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you, Val, and pretend
it’s all right what you’re doing.
 
It’s
not all right.
 
Bruce ain’t shit.
 
He’s a player.
 
A user.
 
He bleed you dry then he move on to his next victim.
 
And then when he runs out of victims he
starts over.
 
You’re just a part of the
rotation.”

There was silence over the phone.
 
Nikki leaned her head back and lifted her
bang out of her face.
 
She had gone too
far.
 
“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.
 
You’re telling nothing but the truth as usual.”

“You’re a good looking, smart, successful
man, Val.
 
You shouldn’t have to take all
that crap over and over again.
 
You don’t
have to take that.”
 
Nikki could hear a
car pull up on her drive.
 
She got up,
with cordless phone in hand, and walked toward the window.
 
“And why?
 
Just because you don’t wanna be alone?
 
Please.
 
Peace of mind is worth
it, take it from me.”