Page 3

In the Manhattan restaurant, Brax finished a phone call he had with his office, tossed his phone aside, sipped his drink, and then looked at his watch. Again. It was just like Roni to be late, so that didn’t surprise him. But it did annoy him.

It wasn’t as if he lived around the corner. Their hometown of Victorville in upstate New York, where he helmed his massive corporation that employed tens of thousands of workers, was over six hours away by car. Flying in only took an hour, but it still took time away from his extremely hectic schedule.

Not that he was complaining. After her mother died and fearing she would ghost him forever, it was his idea to constantly fly to New York City to see her. To look deep into her expressive eyes and see for himself that she was okay. Almost every other week he was in town since her mother’s death four years ago. Truth was, he’d come more often if he could swing it. But this was the best he could do. He’d come to town, they would have dinner together, and then he would fly back home.

Sometimes he wondered if he was a burden to her by coming at all.

But she always seemed pleased to see him and he always had an excuse. There were ten subsidiary companies that he personally owned in New York City proper, and he would meet with all of his CEOs as a group whenever he came to town. Although a necessary function, even his CEOs knew those meetings were excessive. Even they knew their business concerns were secondary. His main purpose for being anywhere near New York City was always Roni Ross.

“Nice watch.”

Brax hadn’t realized he had glanced at his watch again. He looked up. A woman, a beautiful brunette, was standing at his table. “Thanks.”

“Here alone?”

“At the moment.”

“So you’re waiting for someone?”

“I am, yes.”

She stared at him as if she knew a player when she saw one. And he was an irresistible one. “When you’re whomever you’re waiting for,” she said, “why don’t you come to my place.”

Brax stared at her. He was nothing for him to find a woman anything he came to the Big Apple. It wasn’t fair to them: he would pretend it was Roni lying beneath him every time he did them. But they signed up for the same one-night-stand he signed up for.

“Let’s say I went to your place later tonight,” he said. “What would be in it for me?”

“A mind-blowing experience,” she said without hesitation.

He smiled. “Such a sweet little humble girl I see.”

“Interested?”

He continued to stare at her. Oftentimes just seeing Roni again was enough. But other times seeing her again reminded him of what he’d never have and he needed somebody to scratch that itch Roni caused. “I might be,” he said.

“Then let’s do it.”

“You’re an anxious one.”

“Anxious? No. Well-experienced? Yes. I know a man who knows his way around a bedroom when I see one. And I think, Mister, you’re the cream of the crop.”

Brax smiled. Then he pulled up his contact screen and handed his phone to her.

“My name is Jessica Hampton by the way,” she said as she inputted her name and address. “And you are?”

“Brax.”

“That’s all?”

He looked at her. “That’s enough, isn’t it?”

She smiled as his phone began ringing. “It most certainly is,” she said as she handed his phone back to him. “I put in my address as well. That’s where I’ll be. Unless you want me to wait around,” she added as he looked her body over. She was no Roni, that was for damn sure, he thought, but she had it going on too.

Then he looked at his Caller ID, saw that it was Roni on the phone, which made him smile, and he answered quickly. “Yes you’re late. As usual.”

But she gave no wisecrack the way she usually did. She didn’t say anything. “Hello?” he asked. “Are you there?”

Then he heard her sniffling.

“Roni, what’s wrong?”

“I can’t make it tonight.”

Brax frowned. She had never, not ever , cancelled their dinner dates. “What do you mean you can’t make it?”

When Jessica heard those words, she listened more attentively.

“Are you working late?” he asked Roni.

“No, I was . . . I’m not . .. I can’t make it tonight.”

“But why, Roni?” I came all this way , he wanted to add. “Why?”

“I just can’t make it, okay? I’m sorry, but I can’t. Goodnight.” And she ended the call.

Brax knew something was wrong. Something major. Roni always seemed as happy to see him as he was to see her. She even told him earlier that day when he phoned to check in on her that she was looking forward to their date. Now she couldn’t make it?

“Are you free sooner than you thought you’d be?” Jessica asked him with a smile in her eyes.

But Brax wasn’t thinking about her. Roni was on his mind. He stood up, dropped a fifty on the table for his drink, and began leaving.

“But you’re coming over later, right?” the woman asked him as he squeezed past her.

He stopped. Looked back at her. And suddenly his flirtations with her felt like a betrayal of Roni, which was ridiculous. He and Roni were just friends. And not friends with benefits either. He promised her mother, on her deathbed, that much. But a betrayal was how it felt. “No,” he said firmly to the woman, and then he hurried for the exit.

But then her smile was gone, and her kind look turned angry as she watched him leave. “Keep your cool, Jessie,” she said beneath her breath. “Keep your cool. It won’t be today like you had hoped, but his day will come. That’s a guarantee. His day will come.”

She kept watching him in his fancy, tailored-to-perfection suit the way he always had to have on, his Italian leather shoes that cost more than she could make in a year, his purposely messy hair the way he knew the ladies liked it, as he all but ran out of that restaurant to fall into the arms of another unsuspecting woman. But she kept watching him. She kept watching until he disappeared out of that swanky restaurant and out of her life one more time again.