Chapter 4

When we got inside my sister's place, I told her I needed to make a phone call.

"Stacy and I had a date tonight. I don't want her to think I blew her off," I explained.

"You can't tell her what happened," she said, "I don't want anyone to know. Especially not Stacy, she'll freak out."

"Okay, but what do I tell her?"

"Anything but the truth." Pollyanna still looked shaken as she started making coffee. I took my cell out of my jacket pocket and hit Stacy's button on the speed-dial.

As it rang, I walked over to the sofa and sat down. After four rings, Stacy answered.

"Hello, Stace? Yea, I know, Honey. It doesn't look like I can make it. I'm really sorry..." I was cut off by a tirade of Italian curses.

Anyone who thinks there's no difference between Italian and Spanish doesn't know what they're talking about. I couldn't understand anything she was saying.

"Stacy!" I shouted into the phone, "If you're going to cuss me out, at least do it in English or Spanish!" I paused for a bit while she calmed down. Then she started to whine about how we don't get to spend time together anymore.

"Look, Stace, I invited you to the christening, but you had a photo shoot. Neither of us can help our busy schedules. I know it's been awhile, Sweetie, but I've got things to do tonight." I paused and let her ask her question. Then I put my hand on the receiver and whispered to my sister.

"Polly, she wants to know why I can't see her. I can't think of anything to say!"

Pollyanna was frantically wiping down an already immaculate countertop. I guess she needed to keep busy to take her mind off of what happened. She stopped what she was doing and held out her hand.

"Give me the phone, I'll talk to her," she said. I walked over and handed it to her.

"Hello, Stacy?" she said in an odd mix of sweetness and irritability.

"No, Howie's telling you the truth, hon. He's gotta help me fix something in my place. Well, you know that he owns this building, so who else is going to fix it, right? heh heh. Well, I have no idea how long it'll take. It's something with the plumbing. It may take all night. He'll call you in the morning, okay?"

"She wants to talk to you again," Pollyanna said, rolling her eyes and handing the phone back to me.

"Hi Baby, what do you need to tell me? I promise I'll call you first thing in the morning, Precious. I'm a man of my word, mi amor, you know that. Family comes first, Honey, you know that..." Before I could say goodnight, she hung up on me. I let out a big sigh, hung up the phone and set it on the end table next to the sofa.

"You're in deep shit with her, aren't you?" my sister asked with slight amusement. She was leaning on the counter with her elbows.

"I'll make it up to her tomorrow. As far as I know, I don't have any other plans," I said.

"I told you it was a mistake to starting dating her. You only did it because..."

"Don't say it!"

"...Maggie shot you down again." I glared at her. She stood there with a self satisfied smirk.

She's right, though. Maggie came back into my life about a year ago and declared that I was the father of her son. After it was proven in court that I was Danny's father, the old feelings I had for her came alive again. Actually, they had never died, they were just buried.

Over the past year, I had proposed to her twice. The first time she turned me down, she doubted my intentions. She said I only proposed because of Danny. The second time she turned me down, she insisted that we didn't need to be married to take care of our son.

Meanwhile, I'm sending her child support checks each month, which she deposits in a trust fund for Danny. I get visitation any time I can get out to Chicago or arrange for Danny to come down to Orlando with his mom.

I hooked up with Stacy six months ago believing she would be the next best thing. After all, she's Maggie's best friend. But Stacy isn't Maggie and I'm not really happy with this relationship.

Stacy's beautiful. She reminds me of Salma Hayek, only taller. She can be very sweet, most of the time. But she's an only child, the center of her mommy and daddy's universe. Sometimes she forgets she's not the center of everyone else's.

"I'm hungry, what do you have to eat?" I asked, gladly changing the subject.

"Nada. I was planning to go grocery shopping tonight, but it looks like that ain't gonna happen."

"You know, I really don't think anything's gonna happen to you," I told her.

"I'm not scared, just freaked. I don't want him to know where I live," she said.

"We lost him on the freeway, remember?"

"Only by one car."

"He'd be here by now if it weren't for that one car," I reasoned. My sister wasn't afraid of anything and here she was acting like Jaime was the boogey man out to get her.

"Besides, all he did was be a nuisance. It's not like he threatened us or anything," I added.

"Then why were you praying at the wheel when you drove well over the speed limit?" she challenged.

"I didn't want him on my tail, but he's also not worth getting speeding ticket for, either," I said.

"But Howie, don't you think it's strange that he happened to be sitting across the street from the church at the very moment we were coming out?"

I thought about what she said and she had a point. Man, I hate it when she's right!

"Yea, how did he even know that we would be there. I mean, he'd have to know about the christening. And none of us has spoken to him since he got the ax," I deducted.

"Which was about four years ago," Pollyanna added.

"Remember when he said he could no longer get work as a dancer ever since?" I asked.

"Of course I remember," she said, "now do you think I'm crazy for wanting you to stay?"

"No," I concluded. Actually, I didn't mind staying with my sister tonight. I didn't feeling like groveling for Stacy. I can always do that tomorrow.

"I'm hungry too," she said, "Chinese?"

"You read my mind," I laughed. She walked over to the phone, which was mounted on the kitchen wall, and pressed the speed-dial button for Double Happiness Restaurant.