Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life (21 page)

For once I
have something I know won’t desert me

I’m not alone
anymore!

For once I
can say this is mine, you can’t take it

As long as I
know I have love, I can make it

For once in
my life, I have someone who needs me!

Mick held
Roz even closer as Stevie Wonder played his harmonica to the wonderfully
romantic beat.
 
He’d never been in love
before in his life.
 
He wouldn’t begin to
know the feeling.
 
He assumed he wasn’t
there yet.
 
How could he be?
 
He couldn’t possibly declare his love for her
this soon.
 
But if love was anything like
the feeling he felt for her at this very moment, if it was half as gratifying,
then he was on his way.
 
If she didn’t
give up on him, if she didn’t leave him, if she stayed in his corner, he was
well on his way.

Roz smiled
when she entered the gourmet kitchen of the especially quiet home, and saw Mick
standing at the center island.
 
He was
skimming through a newspaper.
 
She
smiled.
 
“I didn’t know they still made
those things,” she said.

Mick smiled
too and turned another page. “Only for dinosaurs like me.
 
I find it distasteful to read the news on my
phone.”

“I find it
convenient,” Roz said as she sat on a stool beside him.

He looked at
her.
 
She wore a sear sucker white short
set with heels, her hair in a beautiful ponytail, and very light makeup.
 
He kissed her on the lips.
 
“You look very beautiful,” he said.

“You, on the
other hand, are dressed for work,” she responded, looking down at the
double-breasted dark brown suit he wore.
 
“I thought you were going to take some time off when I came to visit.”

“I am.
 
I have.”
 
Then he frowned.
 
“But something’s
come up.
 
Business I have to deal with.
 
It won’t take all day.”
 
Then he smiled.

“What?” she
asked.

“I tell
other women that they look beautiful and they gush with delight.
 
I tell you that you look beautiful, and you
ignore me.”

Roz
grinned.
 
“Thank you for the
compliment.
 
I didn’t mean to be
rude.
 
But I Googled you, remember? I saw
photographs of those supermodels and rich ladies you’ve dated, all glammed-up
in their furs and fancy extensions, and I’m sitting here in shorts and a
ponytail.
 
And I’m the beautiful one?”

Her response
touched Mick deeply.
 
He looked dead into
her eyes.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“You’re the very beautiful one.
 
Because your beauty isn’t just external, but
it is just as pronounced internally.
 
You
will never know how beautiful you look to me at this very moment.”

Roz felt the
heat as he stared at her.
 
And she felt
something else.
 
Something deeper.
 
“Thank you,” she said.
 
“You’re very beautiful inside and out
too.
 
Even with that sleepy eye of yours,
and that cleft in your chin, other than those issues, no man has ever looked
better.”

Mick
laughed, leaned over, and they kissed.

When they
finished, Mick went back to reading his newspaper, and Roz looked around.
 
Was she expected to cook?
 
Then she thought about something.
 
“Where’s everybody?” she asked.

“Everybody?”

“Your
gigantic household staff.
 
Your maids and
butlers and Carolyn.”

“They
haven’t arrived yet.
 
They give me my
morning space.
 
They don’t live-in.”

“Not even
Carolyn?” Roz asked.

Mick looked
at her.
 
“Especially not Carolyn,” he
said.
 
“She manages my household
staff.
 
That is the beginning and end of
it.”

Roz wasn’t
the jealous type, but she was pleased to hear that.
 
“So what do you want for breakfast?
 
I can throw something together.”

“Thank you,
love, but that won’t be necessary.
 
The
chef is preparing our breakfast as we speak.”

Roz looked
around.
 
“The chef?
 
What chef?
 
Where is he?”

“He’s downstairs,
in the chef’s kitchen.”

The chef’s
kitchen, Roz thought.
 
The chef had his
own kitchen?
 
Rich people.
 
“He doesn’t live in either?” she asked.

“No.
 
He comes in as needed.
 
He prepares breakfast for me when I’m in town
and bother to eat it.
 
Dinner when I
request it.
 
He should be serving us
momentarily.”
   

Roz
smiled.
 
She’d never seen Mick’s kind of
wealth before.
 
It was a tad
daunting.
 
But then she thought of
something wonderful, if it was true.
 
“Carolyn said I’m the first guest you allowed to stay in your main
house.”
 
She looked at him.
 
“That true?”
 

Mick
hesitated, and then turned the page.
 
It
said something about him, he knew, that he wasn’t sure he wanted exposed.
 
But he wasn’t going to lie to her.
 
“It’s true,” he said.
 
Then he looked at Roz.

Roz
considered him.
 
“Why me?” she
asked.
 
“Why make me the first?”

Mick decided
to be blunt with her.
 
“My previous
female guests were here for their entertainment value,” he said.
 
“They stayed in one of the guest houses and I
visited them there.
 
You’re here for your
value.
 
You stay with me.”

He treated
her better than any other man ever had.
 
This so-called bad man.
 
“Thank
you,” she said.

Mick leaned
over and kissed her again.
 
He could get
addicted to her taste.

And after
breakfast, a very hearty breakfast for both of them, Mick walked Roz out of his
front door, across the sidewalk, and into his warehouse-size garage.
 
They entered from a side door, and he closed
the door behind them.

“Wow,” Roz
couldn’t help but say.

The garage
was filled with six different cars.
 
Four
of the cars were classic cars and looked as if they had never been driven a day
in their existence.
 
The other two cars,
a white Bentley and a black car that looked like a bat mobile to Roz, were not
only modern, but looked brand spanking new.
 
“What’s that?” she asked as she stared at the bat mobile.

“The full
title?”

“Please.”

“That is a
Lamborghini Veneno Roadster.
 
A V12.
 
220 mph.
 
A beauty.”

“It is
that,” Roz agreed.
 
“So you’re a car
enthusiast, Mick?”

“On a mild scale,
yes.
 
I don’t have time to be
all-in.
 
Not right now.”

Roz
smiled.
 
“A car enthusiast who never
drives a car.”

Mick
laughed.
 
“I drive.”

“Every time
I see you,” Roz pointed out, “Deuce or some other chauffeur is driving you
around.”

“Only when
I’m working.
 
When I am at leisure, I
drive myself.”

“In the
Lamborghini?”

“Sometimes,”
he said, and handed her a key fob.

“Now, wait a
minute, Mick.
 
I’m no expert driver like
that.
 
That car is probably way too fast
for me.”

“It’s not
for the Lamb,” Mick said with a smile.
 
“It’s for the Bentley.”

“Oh, the
Bentley!”
 
Roz shook her head.
 
“I should have known you weren’t crazy enough
to entrust your million dollar car in my inexperienced hands.
 
I live in Brooklyn.
 
When do I get to drive?
 
I am so embarrassed.”

Mick laughed
and put his arm around her waist.
 
“Don’t
be,” he said.
 
“The Bentley, I assure
you, is no slouch either.”

“I’ll handle
it with care, don’t worry.”

“I’m sure
you will.
 
While I’m at work, I want you
to go.
 
See the city.
 
Visit your friends.”

Roz
frowned.
 
“How did you know I had friends
in town?”

“You Googled
me.
 
I Googled you.”

Roz
smiled.
 
“Very funny.
 
But Google wouldn’t know. . . Wait a
minute.
 
Did you?
 
You investigated me, didn’t you?”

He paused
before responding, unsure how she would react.
 
“Yes,” he said.

“Why?
 
What was the concern?
 
That I was FBI?”

Although Roz
was joking, Mick wasn’t.
 
“Yes,” he said.

And just
like that Roz remembered who she was dealing with.
 
He was no run-of-the-mill boyfriend.
 
There was no telling what he could be
involved in.
 
“Just tell me this,” she
said.
 
“You aren’t into drugs, are you?”

Mick was
pleased to respond.
 
“No.”

“Have you
ever been into drugs?”

“When I was
a young thug, I was into everything.”

“Including
drugs?”

“Everything,”
Mick said.

“But you’re
legitimate now.
 
Right?”

Mick stared
at her.
 
She knew better.
 
He could see in her eyes that she knew he was
not and probably would never be one hundred percent legit.
 
“Yes and no,” he said truthfully.

Roz
exhaled.
 
“It’s like I’m living in a fairytale
right now,” she said.
 
“But there’s a
part of it that’s kind of nightmarish still.”
 
She looked at him.
 
“It’ll take
some getting used to.”

Mick’s jaw
tightened.
 
This wonderful lady was a
prize to him.
 
Because she hit the nail
on the head.
 
It was fairytale-like for
him too.
 
Only the nightmare part wasn’t
on her, but him.
 
He hugged her again.

“But that’s
what I’ll do,” she said.
 
“I’ll take your
fine car right here and visit my friends.
 
I also want to visit Independence Hall and see some of the sights.
  
And don’t worry, you can work.
 
I know you’re a workaholic.
 
We’ll get together after work.
 
I’ll be fine.”

That was
what perhaps Mick enjoyed most about her.
 
She could handle herself.
 
He
didn’t have to worry sick about her when business needed his undivided
attention.
 
He reached in his pocket,
pulled out a thick wad of cash, and attempted to hand it to her.

But she
refused to take the money.
 
“Thanks, but
I’m good,” she said.

“This town
can be an expensive place.
 
Take
it.”
 
He continued to hang the money out
for her to accept.

But she
shook her head again.
 
“Thanks, but I’m
fine, Mick.
 
You don’t have to give me
money.”

He continued
to hold it out there.

“Mick!” she
said, trying her best to reason with him.
 
But she could see he was not going to bulge.
 
She took the cash.
 
“I’m not going to spend it,” she said.

“You’d
better,” he said, and he didn’t say it jokingly.
 
“Pick up your friends.
 
Enjoy yourself.
 
I’ve programmed my office address into the
car’s GPS.
 
Pick me up around two.”

“Will do.”

“Think you
can maneuver around town?”

“Oh,
yeah.
 
I’ve been to Philly several times.
I know my way around.”

“Good.
 
Now let me get you familiar enough to know
your way around my Bentley,” he said as he opened the door and showed her the
basic functions of his Bentley, including his GPS system.

Roz watched
and listened and couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.
 
This could actually work, she thought, as she
watched Mick demonstrate all of the sophisticated gadgets in his sophisticated
car.
 
And she wasn’t thinking that way
because he gave her money or was allowing her to drive his fancy car.
 
It was all in the way he treated her.
 
It was all in the fact that he was such a
man’s man when she had become accustomed to man-
boys
or, in a few of her more embarrassing relationships, man-
babies
.