Wives and Champions (10 page)

“
You opened it to give
people what you didn’t have when Anita died. I get it. The retreat
gives people time to heal, reflect and retain balance after the
death of a spouse and while that’s noble of you for opening this
facility, we are spending a lot of money keeping that place
operating.”

“
But we’re not in the red,
Dimitrius. We make a small profit from the resort.”

Dimitrius nodded. “Even still, opening
up GHC to the general population would help offset the money we
lose in the fall and winter months.”

Dante sighed inwardly. His brothers
didn’t have the same attachment to GHC as he had, so they didn’t
understand how important this place was to him.

“
Now, I took the liberty of
having I.T. copy the GHC program we use for booking reservations in
which they’ve created a test environment so we could play with
different scenarios. Now, let’s say a random vacationer wanted to
stay at GHC because they love the fact that it’s a five-star resort
and has every amenity you could think of. In the test environment,
we’ve added a field that automatically populates with a non-member
premium at the time of booking.”

“
How would the system know
to charge this random person an additional,
non-member
fee versus someone who
uses the resort today?”

“
Simple. The people who’ve
stayed at the GHC resort also have accounts on GHC’s website. With
I.T.’s help, I linked the two systems so that, when a random
vacationer keys in his or her name and books a room, the system
does a sweep through the GHC database for that name. If the system
doesn’t find the name, then the premium is automatically added at
the time of booking.”

“
Okay. Got it.”

“
The fee is dependent upon
which room they book. Also, we give them additional options to
choose from in a dropdown menu. They can add spa services, room
service, therapy sessions, restaurant passes and etcetera to their
bill, all with pre-populated prices.”

“
Okay, so let’s say a
non-member couple calls up GHC and wants to spend the weekend
there. How much are we charging them per night?”

“
Two hundred, ninety-five
dollars, and that’s not including the aforementioned options, nor
the non-member premium.”

“
How much is the non-member
premium?”

Dimitrius lifted a shoulder. “All of
this is just preliminary. I don’t have an exact figure for the
non-member premium. We would have to discuss it with Des and Kurt,
but if it was up to me, I’d set the price at an even hundred
bucks.”

Dante shook his head.

“
What?” Dimitrius asked.
“Too high? Low?”

“
No. I just don’t see how
this is going to work. How is Desmond going to spin the marketing
with this? The way I see it, GHC is either a grief retreat or a
recreational vacation resort. I don’t see how it can be
both.”

“
Well, Des is the marketing
expert. We’ll let him rack his brain trying to figure out that part
of it. I need to know where you’re at on this to determine if it’s
even something worth pursuing.”

Dante exhaled loudly. “All right…if
Desmond can come up with something reasonable that makes sense and
will not destroy the integrity of GHC, then I may consider
it.”

“
Now we’re talking,”
Dimitrius said.

“
Hey, while you have this
fresh on your mind, why don’t you shoot Des an email? He said he’d
be checking his emails later, and I highly doubt GHC is on his
radar. I know he was still looking into that Blackstone
deal.”

“
Oh, yeah. What’s up with
that?”

“
Not sure. Last I heard,
the CEO over there–think his name was Barringer Blackstone–wasn’t
interested, but then again, Desmond said the man seemed a little
blindsided by his offer. Maybe after the shock wears off, Mr.
Blackstone will be willing to negotiate.”

“
Maybe,” Dimitrius said
standing. “Well, I’ll send Desmond an email.”

“
And copy Kurt on the
email, too. He may have some ideas.”

“
All right. I’m on
it.”

* * *

After a slower than usual morning,
Dante left the office, heading straight to Emily’s boutique. She
normally took her lunch break around noon and it was a few minutes
after. Maybe he would get there and surprise her before she left.
It had been a while since they went on a lunch date.

When he stepped into her boutique, he
instantly saw Carly, Emily’s assistant, standing behind the
glass-encased counter.

“
Hi, Carly.”

“
Hey, Dante. Um, Emily
stepped out for a minute.”

Disguising a frown, he asked, “Oh, did
she?”

“
Yep…‘bout thirty minutes
ago. She didn’t say where she was going though.”

“
Okay. I’ll call her on her
cell.”

“
Alrighty. I’ll tell her
you stopped by.”

“
Thanks.” Dante slid his
hands into his pockets and looked around the store. He remembered
he’d once purchased Emily’s entire collection of necklaces before
they’d married just to buy some extra time with her. To get under
her skin. He grinned. He looked at Carly again and asked, “So how
are things going here?”

“
Pretty good. Sometimes
it’s a little overwhelming with the volume of people inside the
store. The only thing is, you never know when it’s going to happen.
One minute there’s not a soul in here and the next, there’s a flood
of people. But, that’s the nature of retail, I guess.”

“
Yeah, it is.” Dante turned
to look at the door when he heard the bell chime. A group of women
walked in. “Looks like the busy time has arrived. I’ll see you
later, Carly.”

Dante left the boutique, walking a few
doors down to The Caribbean Hut, a restaurant in the same building
as Emily’s Boutique. He didn’t frequent the place like Dimitrius
did, but now was a good time to grab a quick lunch while he waited
for Emily to return to the boutique.

After the waiter took his order, he
sat there at the booth, gazing out of the window, thinking about
her. He fought hard to get Emily, made a fake online profile and
all just to get to know her. And after all that, even when the
relationship didn’t look too promising, he purchased this very
building that housed her boutique when she thought she would lose
it to the greedy landlord who owned it at the time – all to ensure
her happiness. He loved her that much.

But how much did she love him? She
still hadn’t told him about the baby. Would she get rid of the life
they created from love? A baby? His baby? The thought made him
nauseous.

Years ago, long before Melanie, his
brother, Dimitrius, was dating a woman whom he thought cared for
him. Loved him. Dante had caught the woman coming out of an
abortion clinic after she’d done the unthinkable behind Dimitrius
back. Dimitrius took it hard. He didn’t show it, rarely ever talked
about it, but it took him a long time to get over that incident.
Eventually, he had learned to love again.

“
Mr. Champion, how goes
it?”

Dante looked up at the owner of the
restaurant. Since purchasing the building, Dante personally
renegotiated all the lease contracts for the tenants, lowering
their leases to reasonable rates – more reasonable than the last
owner. The tenants appreciated his generosity and thus, whenever he
visited the shops, they would always offer him something for free –
like his meal.

“
Hey, Shabari. How are
you?”

“
Doing well, my brudda,”
Shabari said in his island accent. “You know dis meals is on us. As
always.”

“
I appreciate it, man, but
that’s really not necessary.”

“
No, no, no. I insist.” He
placed his hand on his chest then said, “It’s the least I can do
for your generosity. Now, how’s that other brudda of
yours?”

“
Who?
Dimitrius?”

“
Yes! Haven’t seen him by
here in a while.”

“
Oh. He’s good…at the
office right now, actually. I’m sure he’ll be here at some point
this week. He practically lives off of this place.”

Shabari chuckled.

The waiter came by with Dante’s food –
curry chicken and white rice with a side of collard
greens.

“
Well, I’ll let you enjoy
your lunch,” Shabari said. “Good seeing you.”

“
You as well, Shabari. Have
a good one, man.”

Later, when he was nearing the end of
his meal, Dante picked up a glass of water and took a sip while
looking out of the window when his eyes caught sight of Emily
crossing the street, heading to her boutique. He quickly finished
the water, left a twenty-dollar bill on the table then headed
out.

Walking into the moderately busy
boutique, he continued straight for the back where Emily’s office
was located and stepped inside while her back was turned. He
watched as she placed her purse in a file drawer and adjusted the
blinds.

“
I stopped by earlier,”
Dante said.

Emily felt her heart rate quicken at
the sound of his voice. She swung her head around and looked at
him. “Jeez. You scared me, Dante,” she said, placing a hand over
her thumping heart.

“
Sorry. Didn’t mean to
scare you.”

Still frazzled, Emily asked, “Wh-what
are you doing here?”

Dante thought her question was odd.
What are you doing here? Usually, she’d run up to him and greet him
with a hug. Now, she was acting like he caught her in the act of
something, but what? “I came by to take you out to
lunch.”

“
Oh. Why didn’t you call
me?”

Dante shrugged. “Figured I didn’t have
to, especially since you rarely leave the boutique to go to lunch.
So where did you end up going?”

“
For lunch?” she asked as
she took a seat.

“
Yes. I’m assuming that’s
where you’re coming from.”

“
Oh, ah…” Emily paused. She
didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want Dante to know about the
baby just yet either. “I had an appointment.”

“
You had an appointment?”
Dante asked as he stepped into her office, taking a seat in the
chair next to her desk.

“
Yes.”

“
What kind of
appointment?”

Emily looked at him. “Dante, why are
you asking me all of these questions?”

“
Because I want to know
where you were,” he said, holding her gaze.

“
I went to the doctor, then
grabbed a sandwich on my back here.”

“
What doctor?”

Emily narrowed her eyes at him.
“Dante—”

“
What doctor,
Emily?”

She looked heavenward. Sighed. “Dr.
Harrell.”

“
Your OBGYN
doctor?”

“
Yes, Dante,” she said,
looking at him again.

“
And why would you be
seeing Dr. Harrell?”

“
Female stuff,” she said.
“Why are you so concerned all of a sudden? I’m fine. Why don’t you
tell me about your day? How was your morning?”

Dante stared at her, held her gaze for
a long time. He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed to know about
the baby, and he needed to hear her say it. “Emily, do you have
something to tell me?”

“
Something like what?” she
asked, breaking their gaze to log into her workstation.

Dante stood up, took a few steps until
he was standing directly in front of her then took her hands into
his.

“
What are you doing?” she
asked.

“
Stand up.”

“
Dante…”

“
Stand up,
Emily.”

She shuddered when she looked up into
his eyes. At his request, she stood while he held her
hands.

Dante released her hands to frame her
face before he said, “You know I love you, don’t you?”

Emily nodded.

“
You know I would give you
the world, don’t you?”

“
Yes, Dante. I
know.”

“
Then when something
happens within our family, I want to know about it. When my wife
goes to see a doctor, I want to know about it. That’s not me being
controlling. That’s being a man who loves you. A head of household.
I want to protect my family. You and Ezra mean the world to
me.”

“
I know.”

“
Why did you go to see Dr.
Harrell today?” he asked staring longingly into her eyes. He
yearned for her to tell him the truth. If she didn’t tell him now,
he wouldn’t know what to think about what she was up to.

“
Because I…um…”

“
What is it,
Emily?”

“
I needed to take an
official pregnancy test.”

“
A pregnancy
test?”

Emily nodded. Eyes watered.

“
And what were the
results?”

Emily closed her eyes and shook her
head. A tear traveled the length of her face.