Wives and Champions (18 page)

“
So, you’re good with
this?” Desmond asked, eyebrows raised. He thought for sure Dante
was going to kill the name change idea before he and Kurt could
pitch it.

“
I am. To grow as a
company, we have to make these kinds of changes. That’s what life’s
all about, right? Changing, evolving.”

“
So, we’re actually going
to do this?” Desmond asked.

“
Yes, we are. I’ll come up
with a timeline for the transition while I’m out of
town.”

“
All right,” Kurt said,
closing a folder while feeling a sense of
accomplishment.

“
Didn’t think it would be
this easy, huh, Kurt?” Dante asked.

“
No. I did not.”

“
Me either,” Dimitrius
said, “But I’m glad it was because I have to get out of here early
today.”

“
Think I will, too,”
Desmond said. “Need to make sure Sherita’s okay.”

“
Well, looks like we’re
done for now, gentlemen,” Dante said. “I’m sure they’ll be plenty
more meetings to come on this.”

“
No doubt,” Desmond
said.

“
Kurt, Desmond, good job as
always,” Dante told them.

Kurt stood up. “Thanks,
man.”

Desmond stood up, too. “All right,
gentlemen. I have to get back on the grind.”

“
All right,
Des.”

Desmond followed Kurt out of Dante’s
office.

Dante focused his attention on
Dimitrius who was still sitting at the conference table. “You
good?”

“
Yeah. I’m
good.”

“
Still thinking about
Melanie?”

“
I am.”

“
Let’s face it–our wives
are beautiful women. You know they get looks and catcalls wherever
they go.”

“
That’s different, though.
She was in a relationship with Scott, which means, at some point in
time, she used to love him.”

“
Used
to. Now, she’s moved on. Think about all the women you were
involved with.”

“
Women I’ve cut off all
ties with. I’m certainly not texting any of them.”

“
Well, according to what
you told me, the only reason Melanie texted him was to tell him to
stop texting her. Is that right?”

“
Yeah. That’s
right.”

“
Then, to me, it looks like
your problem is with Scott–not Melanie.”

Dimitrius nodded. Dante was
right. His problem
was
with Scott, and such being the case, it was time for Scott to
be put in his place. And he was just the man for the
job.

Chapter
Twenty

Melanie jogged down the stairs when
she heard the doorbell, trying to get there before it went off
again. She didn’t want the noise to wake Grace.

She lifted the peephole flap and saw
Gino standing there in a black apron. He came ready to cook, but
there was no need to cook today. It’s not like Dimitrius was coming
home. She opened the door to tell him this. “Hi, Gino.”

“
Hello, Mrs. Melanie,” Gino
said, stepping inside walking swiftly to the kitchen. He came ready
to cook.

Melanie followed him to the kitchen,
watching him stand at the sink, turn on the faucet and rub his
hands together under the running water. He pumped soap in his hands
and repeated the scrub. Then he snatched a paper towel and dried
them thoroughly.

“
Haven’t cooked steak for
Dimitrius in quite a while. Must be a special night.”

“
Um, Gino…there’s no need
to cook dinner tonight.”

“
Sure there is, Melanie.
You have to eat don’t you.”

“
Yes, but Dimitrius isn’t
here and I doubt if he will be here this evening.”
I know he won’t be here this evening.

“
Sure he will,” Gino said
in his usual upbeat tone.

“
I don’t think so, Gino, so
don’t bother cooking. Okay.”

“
I’m confused.”

Ugh.
She hated to tell Gino her personal business, but how else
could she get the man to stop cooking. “Dimitrius and I got into an
argument this morning and I don’t think he’s coming home after
work.”

“
Then why did he call me
and tell me to cook this particular meal. Steak, potatoes, broccoli
with cheese. He even had me pick up an expensive bottle of red wine
to go along with this deliciousness.”

Melanie frowned. “Are you
sure?”

“
I’m positive, Mrs.” Gino
smiled.

“
Oh.”

Gino chuckled. “I still remember how
Dimitrius’ face lit up whenever he talked about you. I’m referring
to before you were married, but I still see it now. It was just odd
back then, you know, because he was a bachelor. A pure bachelor.
But the man only knew you for a week and told me he was going to
marry you. Just like that. I was floored…thought he was out of his
mind.”

Melanie grinned. “I can’t believe he
used to talk to you about me?”

“
Of course he did. Whenever
I would come over here to cook for him, he would talk about you.
Told me how he avoided you for nearly a year before he decided to
take the straightforward approach. And my goodness…now you two have
this beautiful little daughter. She’s an angel, I tell you. A
sweet, little angel.”

“
Thank you, Gino,” Melanie
said, still clueless about what was actually going on. So Dimitrius
was coming home? After the argument they had this morning that was
pretty much over nothing? She’d even took measures to make sure
Scott didn’t call her again.

After Grace was up from her
morning nap, Melanie ventured to an electronics store, got a new
phone and number. Scott couldn’t text her now. She hated to change
her number because that meant informing everyone that she did so.
And then people would want to know why. Still, she went through
with it because apparently, just telling Dimitrius she loved him
and
only
him
wasn’t good enough. Her word wasn’t good enough. Her husband seemed
to be struggling with some trust issues and she tried to be
understanding of him, but his temper flared every time his eyes met
hers.

“
Gino, how long have you
been married?”

“
Sixteen years now,” he
said, rubbing a mixture of seasoning on the steak.

Melanie smiled. “Sixteen years. Wow.
When I see couples who’ve been together for a long time, I wonder
how many fights they had to endure. How many arguments came with
those years? Then I think about how the good must’ve outweighed the
bad. Otherwise, they wouldn’t still be together, right?”

“
You’re right,” Gino said.
“I’m not going to tell you it was easy for me and my wife. At one
point, we found ourselves arguing over the dumbest, most asinine
things you can think of.”

Melanie grinned. “Like
what?”

“
I would leave my shoes in
the wrong spot, or she would park a certain way in the driveway
that didn’t allow much room for my car. Silly nonsense like
that.”

Melanie nodded.

“
Listen…I’ve been working
for Dimitrius going on three years now. I know he’s a little
rough…comes across as stern…hard to take at times. But trust me
when I say this, little lady. He loves you. Marry people argue. So
what? You smooth it out and keep it movin’.”

Melanie smiled. “You’re so right.
Thanks, Gino.”

“
Not a problem, my dear.
And as a special treat for you and Grace, I’m making my infamous
strawberry cheesecake for dessert.”

“
Sounds delicious already.
Speaking of Grace, I’m going to head upstairs to check on her.
She’s probably up by now, and with the smell of food permeating the
house, I’m sure she’ll be ready for a snack.”

“
Of course.”

“
I’ll be right
back.”

“
Don’t you worry about me,
Mrs. I’ll be fine in here. This kitchen is my second
home.”

Melanie laughed and walked away,
heading up the stairs.

* * *

Dimitrius hated the fact that he had
to expend energy on Scott. Like a private detective on the prowl,
he found out everything he needed to know about Scott on the
Internet. Scott lived in a two-level white home with green shutters
on West Chapel Road. His wife was a bank teller. He was in
insurance sales – had his own office and all – which is where
Dimitrius found himself at five in the afternoon. He’d left the
office early to drive to Scott’s place of business and was sitting
in his car for the last few minutes debating on whether to go in or
wait until Scott came out.

Since patience wasn’t his virtue, he
pushed the door open and stood up tall after getting out of his
Maserati. He buttoned his suit jacket and walked to the front door
of the small trailer-like office building. He pulled the door open
and a bell chimed – not a digital bell, chirping sound from an
alarm system or some type of motion detector. There was, literally,
a silver bell hanging from the door. Old school style.

Dimitrius looked around, unimpressed.
The place smelled like old, wet carpet and the waiting room chairs
were visibly worn and ripped. He looked up at the middle-aged
brunette when he heard her say, “Good afternoon, Sir. Interested in
a policy today?”

“
No,” Dimitrius told her,
paying more attention to the gold chain attached to her
orange-framed glasses. She looked more like a librarian than a
receptionist.

“
Then how can I help you
today?”

“
I actually need to speak
with Scott.”

“
Oh. Okay. Can I get your
name?”

“
Dimitrius
Champion.”

“
Alrighty. Just a moment.
I’ll see if he’s available.”

While the receptionist moseyed down
the hallway, seeking her boss, Dimitrius continued checking out the
place. There was a candy dispenser that housed M&Ms and
Skittles near a bulletin board. On the receptionist’s desk was a
small glass dish of peppermints. It sat next to an antiquated
desktop computer – one of those beige numbers – something from the
1990s.

“
He said to come on
back.”

“
Thanks,” Dimitrius said,
taking steps down the hallway, listening while the floor creaked
underneath his feet. And then he came upon an opened office door,
seeing Scott sitting behind a steel desk that looked out of place
in a professional office environment. Well, actually, nothing about
this place was professional, so…

Scott stood up, reached for a
handshake while saying, “Mr. Champion…this is quite a
surprise.”

Dimitrius frowned. He didn’t make an
attempt to reach for Scott’s hand. Was the man for real? “Not here
to exchange handshakes with you, Scott. I think you know why I’m
here.”

Scott smirked, lowered his hand.
“Actually, I don’t.”

“
Well let me enlighten you.
Melanie is my wife. What you had with her is over. She’s moved on,
so I think it’s only fair of me to give you a legit warning – not
over the phone, in an email, or even in a text message. Right here,
in your face. Up close and personal. Do not call, text, look at,
blink, nod, wave to – anything you can possibly think of to do with
my wife – don’t do it because she’s
my
wife. Mine.” Dimitrius nostrils
flared. Fists balled at his side. He could charge at Scott right
now – had thought strongly about it – but there was no need to
catch a case. At least, not at the moment. He had to give fair
warning, first.

“
Okay, man. My bad,” Scott
said.

“
Do you understand what I’m
saying to you?”

“
I said, I got
it.”

“
You better
have
it, because trust
me, if I have to come to this office again, I won’t be doing any
talking.” Dimitrius turned around and calmly walked out of the
office.

In his car, he sat there. Didn’t start
the engine. Didn’t move. Couldn’t shift the car into gear. All he
could do was sit there until the pounding in his chest slowed.
Until his vision cleared of anger. Until his mind stopped replaying
pummeling Scott’s face.

He took out his phone, saw the family
picture of himself with Melanie and Grace as his background photo
and smiled. Instantly he felt a calmness settle over himself. He
let his emotions get the best of him this morning and now he could
see how unfair he was to Melanie. He felt even guiltier when he saw
the text from what he knew now to be Melanie’s new cell phone
number. She took the liberty of changing her number so Scott
couldn’t contact her.

Dimitrius started the car, shifting it
into gear. Gino should’ve been at his house already, preparing
dinner and he couldn’t wait to get home, see his daughter, and his
woman. He had a lot of making up to do.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Sherita sat on the floor, entertaining
Celeste and Nolan. Nolan had perfected the art of crawling. Celeste
moved a little slower than her brother, but she never gave up
trying.