DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (33 page)

“There ya’ go,” she kept saying.
 
“There ya’ go.
 
Now you got it.
 
Now you got it.
 
That’s how it’s done.
 
Don’t think about it, just move.
 
Just move, Luke.
 
There ya’ go.”
 
And Nikki, before she knew it, was actually
enjoying herself.

They danced and danced, through the all the
latest tunes.
 
And Nikki didn’t mind at
all.
 
She just danced.
 
She lost herself in herself and had a ball
dancing and laughing as Luke tried and tried but never quite got the
rhythm.
 

Finally, when they were both already too
tired, Luke stumbled.
 
Nikki
laughed.
 
But he stumbled into her,
causing her to tumble to the floor with him.
 
Nikki hit down first, and Luke conveniently landed on top of her.
 

She was still laughing.
 
Not just at the fall, but at the fact that
Luke had landed, of all places, right on top of her.
 
No man had ever been on top of her, except
Daniel.
 
It was a strange position to be
in.
 
Now Luke was right there.
 
Looking good, smelling good, making her
laugh.
 
But when he stared at her, and
his look was no longer playful and gay, but serious, she turned serious
too.
 
And the feelings she began to feel,
as Luke laid there, forced her to realize the true position he had put her in.

“We’d better get up,” she said weakly.
 
But Luke shook his head.

“Why, Nikki?
 
I’m free.
 
And whether you know it
or not, so are you.
 
Don’t you understand
that?
 
You don’t owe Crane a damn
thing.
 
Not even respect.
 
Because Nikki, you may not want to admit
this, but that man doesn’t respect you.
 
He does everything to push your buttons, haven’t you figured that out
yet?
 
You’re not his woman, you’re his
convenience.
 
You’re there when he needs
you.
 
But when somebody else is
available, he forgets you.
 
You.
 
The best of the best.
 
Still not good enough for him.
 
Well forget him, Nikki.
 
Who the hell is he?
 
Stop believing lies, man.
 
That’s not what you’re about.
 
That’s not the Nikki I love.
 
That’s the good little doll he wants you to
be.
 
But that ain’t you. Stop being what
you’re not.”

Nikki stared at him.

“I love you, Nikki.
 
You know I do.
 
And I want to be your Prince.
 
I want to wait on you hand and foot.
 
I want to look at you day and night, just
stare at your beautiful eyes and your little button nose and your luscious, oh
they are so luscious lips.
 
And I promise
you this: I won’t break your heart.
 
I
won’t play you like love is some game and your heart doesn’t matter.
 
And you know I won’t.
 
Me and you are the same kind of people,
babe.
 
We’re passionate and we believe in
things.
 
And believe this if you don’t
believe anything else I’ve said, you’re good enough, Nikki.
 
Don’t ever think that you aren’t.
 
You’re more than enough woman for me.”

He didn’t understand, Nikki thought.
 
She once figured him to be a kindred spirit,
but he didn’t understand at all.
 
“Let me
up,” she said.

Luke felt that he had made a point, but not
enough to move the needle.
 
He stood up
and helped her to her feet.
 

“You need to leave,” she said to him.

“Melanie Chandler is with him,” Luke
said.
 
It was his trump card, but he felt
he had to play it now.

And it worked.
 
By the look on Nikki’s face, she didn’t know.

“He didn’t tell you, did he?” Luke
asked.
 
“But I have my little birds, and
they told me that she went with him to New York.”

“She’s his assistant,” Nikki said, although a
part of her was disappointed.
 
“Sometimes
I’m sure she has to go on business with him.”
 

“But he promised to show her the town.
 
It’s her birthday or something.
 
And he promised to give her a good time,
Nikki.
 
While you’re here all alone,
watching some Greek wedding, he’s having a ball with Melanie Chandler.
 
A very beautiful woman, from the internet
pictures I’ve seen of her.”

Nikki felt so lost.

“Why does he keep doing this to you,
Nikki?
 
If some woman isn’t calling,
they’re sending him nude photos of themselves.
 
Now he’s taking a beauty of a woman to the New York with him.
 
He could have taken you.
 
He could have been showing you the town.
 
But he didn’t.
 
He treats you like crap, Nikki.
 
Admit it.
 
Finally do yourself a favor, and admit it.”

Daniel and Melanie arrived back at the hotel
late, and Daniel unlocked the door of Melanie’s hotel room.
 
He then handed her the keycard.
 
She smiled and invited him in for a
nightcap.
 
He declined.

“If you don’t come in,” she warned, “all of
your efforts at cheering me up will have failed miserably.”

Daniel smiled.
 
“Oh yeah?”

“Oh, yes.
 
Please Daniel.
 
Just one drink.”

“You’re a tough broad, Mel, you know that?”

She grinned.
 
“Absolutely,” she said and allowed him passage in.

While he walked around, taking peeps at the
view, she hurried for the wet bar.
 
By
the time she returned to him with a glass of wine, he was sitting on the
sofa.
 

She knew she had to get this right.
 

“Here you are,” she said to him and he stood
to receive the drink.
 
But just as he
stood up, Melanie leaned toward him.
 
The
glass bumped against her and spilled just slightly onto her expensive evening
dress.
   
         

“Oh, no,” she said.
 
“I am such a klutz.”

“I’m sorry about that, Mel,” Daniel said.

“No, it’s me.
 
This happens all the time.”

“I probably should not have stood so
quickly.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.
 
It’s me.
 
I’m always having these crazy accidents.
 
But here,” Melanie said, handing Daniel the remaining glass of wine,
“you hold this before I do more damage.
 
And will you please excuse me for just a moment?”

“Of course.”

“You won’t go anywhere?”

Daniel smiled.
 
“No, Mel,” he said.
 
“I’ll be here.”

Melanie smiled and moved slowly, as if in
total control, toward the bedroom.
 
When
she arrived in the bedroom, she changed quickly, taking everything off and
putting nothing on but a red silk blouse that just barely covered her.
 
She looked at herself in the mirror, put on
her best got-it-together smile, and hurried back into the living area.
 

When she returned and walked over to the sofa
where Daniel sat flipping through a magazine, he stood up and then looked down,
at the blouse that covered her, at her sizable, attractive thighs nearly
completely uncovered.
 

“I hope you aren’t offended but I didn’t
bring many clothes,” she said as she sat down.

“We need to get that dress dry cleaned,”
Daniel replied, sitting down too, “if you expect to get that wine stain out.”

“It’ll be all right.
 
I wasn’t all that excited about it anyway.”

Daniel smiled.
 
“So you just toss it aside?
 
An Armani?”

“That’s right.
 
I’ve had more than my share of good times in
that dress, thank-you.
 
Like tonight.”

Daniel looked at her.

“It was wonderful, Daniel.
 
Thank-you so much for taking me out.
 
It did me a lot of good.”

Daniel nodded.
 
Melanie crossed her leg, almost revealing way
too much.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to see Arthur
Chandler,” she said.
 
“That would have
topped it all.”

“I talked with the manager of the club.
 
He said Art Chandler has become even more of
a recluse.
 
He doesn’t know if he’s even
performing anymore.”

“Now that’s a shame.
 
Because I say older is better.”

Daniel smiled.
 
Melanie sighed, and leaned her head back
against the sofa.
 
“I think of you as my
best friend, Daniel.
 
As the only person
in this world who seems to give a damn about me.”

Daniel stared at her.
 
Melanie suddenly covered her face and began
sobbing.

Daniel, however, remained where he sat.
 
“Mel, what’s wrong?” he asked her.

“I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I just can’t help it.
 
I try, but it’s so hard.”

She looked up, into his eyes.
 
“It just gets so lonely sometimes.
 
I feel so lonely.
 
I’m forty years old now, and I’m all alone.”

“You’re not alone, Mel.
 
You have me and you have everybody at Dreeson
completely in your corner.
 
Don’t you
forget that.”

Melanie smiled through her tears.
 
“I know you’re with me,” she said.
 
“You’re the only human being who’s never hurt
me.
 
Can you believe that?
 
You’re it.
 
And you’ll never hurt me, will you, Daniel?”

Daniel hesitated.
 
This was the kind of conversation he would
have with Nikki, with his lady, but not with his assistant.
 
He moved to stand up.
 
“I’d better go,” he said.
 
But Melanie began crying again and threw
herself onto him.
 

“Sometimes I want to kill myself, Daniel,”
she said and straddled him.
 
She lifted
her shirt and slung it off, revealing a completely naked body, and then she
attempted to run her hands through his hair and kiss him.

But if she thought this was Daniel’s weakest
moment, she was wrong.
 
“Stop it!” he
yelled at her and flung her hands away from him.
 
“Get off now!” he ordered.
 
Nikki had straddled him just that way
hundreds of times.
 
But she was not
Nikki, and there would be no pretending with him.

Melanie was mortified by his reaction.
 
She was certain, while they were dancing,
that she had him exactly where she needed him to be.
 
All it would take was the act itself.
 
All she needed was his DNA!
 
She could scream.
 
At this very moment, she could do it.
 
But it would be her word against his, and he
used to be a criminal court judge.
 
She
wouldn’t stand a chance!
 
She had to make
this right!

“Oh, no,” she said, looking devastated as she
hurried off of him.
 
“I tried to kiss
you, didn’t I?
 
And my clothes.” She
quickly grabbed her blouse and began putting it back on.
 
“What in the world got into me?”

Daniel stood up, and buttoned his suit coat.

“I am so sorry, Daniel,” Melanie said,
looking as if it was straight from the heart.
 
“I let my loneliness get the best of me.
 
I am so sorry!”

“Good night, Mel,” Daniel said and began
moving toward the door.

Melanie’s heart was pounding.
 
“But you accept my apology, Daniel, don’t
you?” she asked him.

“Yes, I accept your apology,” he said.
 
“I also accept your resignation.
 
Effective today.
 
Good night.”

Daniel walked out of the door, and closed it,
without looking back.

The song now playing was old school:
If I
Were Your Woman
by Gladys Knight, and Nikki was lying on her sofa, a glass
of wine in her hand, listening.
 
Luke had
insisted that it was so simple.
 
Just
dump that zero and get herself a hero.
 
As easy as a cliché.
 
Dump Daniel,
he said.
 
And pick up him.
 
Forget about the love she had for
Daniel.
 
Forget about all those years she
committed to Daniel.
 
Just dump him, he
said.
 
Just do it.

If
you had the strength, to walk out that door, my heart would overrule my sense,
and I’d call you back for more.
 
If I
were your woman,
” Gladys continued to sing.
 

She was Daniel’s woman, that was the part of
the equation that Luke couldn’t work out.
 
He was as bad as Daniel’s friends, who couldn’t understand why.
 
Why was she his woman?
 
To Luke, she would have some young stud like
him, who would make her the center of his life. But he could make her the
center of the universe, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
 
Because he wasn’t Daniel.
 
And that, she knew, was the point.

Her phone rang.
 
She grabbed it and looked at the Caller
ID.
 
She hesitated, and answered.

“Hey,” she said.

“How are you?”

“I’m okay.
 
How are you?”

“I didn’t mean to phone you so late.
 
I didn’t plan to call you at all, there was
no reason to disturb you.
 
But. . . But I
miss you.”

Nikki didn’t respond.
 
Just like with the music on her DVD player,
she listened.
 

“What were you doing?” he asked her.

“Listening to music.”

“Who?”’

“Gladys Knight.”

“Midnight Train to Georgia, right?”

“If I Were Your Woman,” Nikki said.

There was a long hesitation from Daniel.

“Where’s Melanie?” Nikki asked.

More hesitation from Daniel.
 
“Melanie?”

“Yes.
 
She’s with you on that trip.
 
Isn’t she?”

“Nikki---”

“Is Melanie Chandler on that trip with you,
Daniel?”

Daniel exhaled.
 
“Yes.”

“And I know, nothing’s going on, right?
 
She’s your assistant and you needed her to be
there with you.
 
And you didn’t bother to
mention it to me because it’s not my business anyway.
 
Is that the drill?
 
Is that the line?
 
I know it by heart now.”

“She resigned, Nikki.
 
Effective immediately.”

But that news only made it worse.
 
It only meant that something did indeed
happen in New York.
 
“Why did she have to
resign?” Nikki asked.
 
“Because she
wouldn’t give it up to you?”

There was a decided pause this time, and then
a click.
 
Daniel had hung up the phone.
Nikki looked at the phone, tears now in her eyes, and then hung up too.