TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART (13 page)

Sal
exhaled, seeing his brother’s pain.
 
“We,
the Gabrini men, mess things up, Tommy.
 
When it comes to females that’s our stock and trade.
 
Don’t mess it up, all right?”

Tommy
nodded. “That’s the plan.”

“Are
you going to take her to meet Pop?”

Tommy
crossed his legs.
 
Sal could tell it was
an uncomfortable question.
 
“I don’t want
her tainted by him.”

“He’d
love to see you again, you know that.
 
Unlike his feelings for me, he really loves you.”

Tommy
dismissed such talk.
 
“He doesn’t know
what love is.”

“Just
don’t rule it out, all right?”
 
Sal
said.
 
“That’s all I ask.
 
Don’t rule it out.”

Shannon
opened the door again.
 
Sal threw his hands
in the air.
 
“Does this look like a fast
food restaurant to you?”

“I’m
sorry to disturb y’all again but a woman’s here to see Tommy, I mean Mr.
Gabrini.”

“A
woman?” Sal asked.
 
“What woman?”

“She
says she’s his girlfriend.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“You mean Grace?”

“No.
 
I know Miss McKinsey.
 
This woman went to Tommy’s, to Mr. Gabrini’s
office first, but his secretary told her that he was in your office.
 
So she’s here now.
 
I told her you were in a meeting, Mr.
Gabrini,” she said to Tommy, “but she didn’t care.
 
She said she wants to see you and she wants to
see you now.”
 

Sal
looked at him.
 
“What girlfriend?” he
asked as Tommy stood up.

“I’ll
handle it,” Tommy said as he headed for the exit.

“And
now that they know about that engagement,” Sal said as Tommy headed out, “the
shit hits the fan.”

When
Tommy saw that this so-called girlfriend of his was Kelli Montiscue, he all but
dragged her out of Sal’s suite of offices and upstairs to his suite.
 
To the shock of his assistants in the outer
sanctum, Tommy swung open his office door and slung Kelli inside by the catch
of her small arm.
 
He slammed the door
behind them.
 
When the door slammed shut,
his assistants couldn’t suppress their amused looks.
 
Dapper
Tom and his women
, was the prevailing thought.

But
inside was a different thought.
 
Tommy
wasn’t having it.
 
Kelli almost fell when
he slung her away from him when the door closed, but she was a runway model.
 
She maintained her balance.
 

“What
do you think you’re doing?” he asked her, his face a mask of anguish.
 
“This is my place of business.
 
You don’t bring that shit here!”

“What
was I supposed to do, Tommy?
 
You won’t
return my phone calls, or text or anything.
 
You haven’t returned a single one of my calls!”

“I
don’t return your calls because there’s nothing to talk about.
 
I told you that!
 
What’s wrong with you?”

She
walked around the office, sitting her purse on his desk, and then turned
around, leaning against it.
 
If Tommy
didn’t know any better he’d think she was on some sort of drugs.
 
She was certainly thinner, and looked as if
she’d been living recklessly in some respect.
 
But he knew her better than that.
 
She sniffled and wiped her already red nose with an already overused
tissue.
 
“I’m supposed to be next in
line,” she said.

Tommy
walked up to her, shaking his head.
  
She
was still harping on that.
 
“Next in what
line, Kell?” he asked her.
 
“There is no
line, Kell.”

“When
Shanks died, I was supposed to be next in line.
 
Me!” she yelled as her finger stabbed her chest.
 
“Not somebody you just met.
 
Me!
 
You said I was your favorite girl.
 
You always said that.”

Tommy
ran his hand through his hair.
 
He
probably said that line to every woman he ever fucked.
 
“You take things too seriously, Kell.
 
I told you that.”

“Oh,
so, what is that supposed to mean?
 
Are
you saying you were lying?
 
Is that what
you’re saying, Tommy?
 
Are you saying
that I wasn’t your favorite?”

It
seemed like they’d had this conversation before.
 
It seemed as if his firmness all those weeks
ago wasn’t firm enough.
 
He hated going
there, but he knew, just like before, he had to go there.
 
“Yes,” he said clearly.
 
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.
 
I was lying my ass off.
 
You were only my favorite because you were
underneath me.
 
And the next one who was
underneath me was my favorite too.
 
And
the next one after that.”

Kelli
slapped Tommy hard across the face, his hair slinging wildly from the impact of
her hard hit.
 
“You bastard!” she
yelled.
 
“How dare you talk to me like that!”
 
Tears stained her pretty eyes again.
 
“How dare you!”

Tommy
felt the sting of the slap, but he needed her to understand him.
 
“It’s over,” he said plainly.
 
“I have tried to let you down easy, I have
tried to keep this rational and unemotional, but you won’t allow it.
 
You somehow think that coming here,
disturbing me at work, will change my mind.
 
It won’t.
 
It is over, do you
understand me now?
 
We weren’t in a
committed relationship to begin with, and now we aren’t in a relationship at
all.
 
It’s over, Kell.
 
It is over.
 
So you need to get your shit, get out of my building, and leave me the
hell alone.
 
Is that clear enough for
you?”

Kelli
looked at Tommy with a mixture of hatred, regret, and pain in her eyes.
 
Tommy hated going there with her, because he
did care for her, but he wasn’t about to lead her on or pretend she stood any
chance whatsoever with him now that Grace was his woman.
 

And
although she lingered, although she stared at him until staring at him was
pointless too, she eventually left.
 
She
gathered up her purse, straightened her well-appointed pantsuit, and walked out
of Tommy’s door.
 

But
as Tommy stood there, remembering that look in her eyes, remembering what Sal
had warned him about, he knew he had to make a move.
 
He walked behind his desk, picked up his desk
phone, and requested a meeting with his Security Chief.
 
It was high time, it seemed to him, that he
placed Grace under some protection.
 
Not
forever, but at least until, as Sal so amply put it, the shit stops hitting the
fan.

“Have
a seat,” Grace said to Nayla and Jared as they entered her office.
 
She was seated behind her desk, preparing for
her staff meeting, but asked the two of them to see her first.

“What’s
this about, Grace?” Nayla asked.
 
She was
already upset.
 
Not just because of the
short notice of this meeting, but because she and Jared had planned a
rendezvous away from the office, on the pretense of a business luncheon they
needed to attend, and she was cutting into their
fun
time.
 
Nayla was
therefore more than ready to express her displeasure with Grace.
 
She had tried earlier, but Grace was tied up
in conference calls and couldn’t give her so much as a minute of her precious
time.
 
Nayla, however, didn’t buy any of
it.
 
Grace could have seen her if she wanted
to.

“I’ll
be brief,” Grace said, but Nayla interrupted her.

“First
of all,” Nayla said, “I don’t see why we weren’t given adequate notice.
 
Jillian never had a meeting without letting
us know well in advance so that we could adjust our schedules.
 
At least she respected us that much.
 
But you jump up calling us all willy-nilly
whenever you want to call us, and I don’t think that’s right, Grace.
 
You could have given us at least twenty-four
hour notice.
 
You could have at least
done that.”

Although
Jared privately agreed with Nayla, he wasn’t about to speak it in front of
Grace.

It
didn’t matter to Grace.
 
She ignored
Nayla’s inappropriate outburst anyway.
 
“When I met with staff several weeks ago,” Grace said, “I informed both
of you, along with all of my other managers, that there would be changes
made.
 
I informed you that those who were
doing an excellent job might get promoted, and those who were not might get
demoted or worse.
 
I told you then that
my decisions will not be based on anything other than your work product and if
you’re doing the job you’re being paid to do.
 
If you aren’t doing your job, I consider you a liability to this company
and I won’t tolerate it.”

What
had been annoyance in the room because of the short notice, was now undeniable
fear.
 
At least on Jared’s part.
 
Nayla didn’t give a damn.
 

“Effective
immediately,” Grace continued, “Penny Shavers, Head of Marketing, has been
dismissed.”
 
As soon as Grace spoke those
words, Nayla’s expression changed.
 
She and
Jared both knew Penny wasn’t doing a damn thing, and many times were falsifying
what she was doing, but they still never dreamed Grace would have the nerve to
fire her.
 
Not Grace!
 
But, to Nayla’s shock, she had.

“Also
effective immediately,” Grace went on, “Jared, you will continue to work in the
Sales Department, but you will no longer run that department.
 
Carrie, your assistant, will run it for
now.
 
And Nayla, you will continue to
work in Logistics, but you’ll no longer run Logistics.”

 
Nayla leaped from her seat as if she had been
sitting on pins and needles.
 
Jared was
too stunned to speak.
 
But Nayla
wasn’t.
 
“What are you talking about?”
she blared.
 
“That’s
 
my department!”

“Not
anymore it’s not.
 
Your department is one
of the worse run in this company.
 
The
only reason I’m not firing you outright is because I believe, unlike Penny, you
stand a chance at improvement.
 
But if
you don’t improve, if you don’t stop leaving the office for hours on end with
nothing to show for it, then you will be dismissed.
 
And dismissed summarily.”

Nayla
couldn’t believe it.
 
She stared at Grace
as if she was staring at a stranger.
 
And
that was what Grace felt like to her: a stranger.
 
But she thought about Penny, and thought
about her rent, and held her fire.

It
wasn’t until she and Jared were alone in her office, later that day, did the
blades come out.

“Can
you believe that bitch?” she blared.
 
“Gonna demote me?
 
Me
!”

“Calm
down, Nay,” Jared said.
 
“I got demoted
too!”

“Calm
down my ass!
 
Give her a little power and
she thinks she’s running something!”

“That’s
the part that just riles me.”
 
Then he
shook his head.
 
“And she’s supposed to
be your best friend.
 
Some best friend,”
he added.

But
Nayla was shaking her head.
 
“She was
never any best friend of mine!
 
Not
mine!
 
The only reason I befriended her
ass at all was because she was so pitiful.
 
Now she thinks she’s going to lord it over me?
 
Oh, no.
 
She messed up now.
 
That bitch
messed up now!”