“I-I’m afraid of heights, Rebecca. I’m so sorry, but I think maybe I should be getting home. I do go in early tomorrow. I have to set up my—”
Then I thought about the interview. I had neglected to ask her any questions. I had nothing to go work on. I could do background, but I’d already done some of that previously researching Marco.
“Can I ask you some quick questions for the interview? I’d really rather talk about something else, if you don’t mind. This was supposed to be all about you and the project. And if I stand out there on the balcony, I’ll unload all my dinner over the good people out there.” I gave a sickly whinny.
She was the one being morose and very, very odd. She looked down. “Lovers. There are only lovers out tonight, walking around the pathways, stealing kisses amongst the large palm fronds, watching the koi and listening to the cicadas.”
“Sounds beautiful, but I’m still staying put right here. If you don’t want to do it tonight, how about you come into the station tomorrow? It’s only a half hour drive. Would you agree to that?”
“I can do that,” she said as she closed the glass door, locked it and floated over to sit at a forty-five-degree angle to me. She studied me. “Ask some of your questions now so I know the approach you’ll take and I’ll be prepared.”
I fumbled for my cell phone, where I’d stored several questions. There was a call I’d missed from Boston, since I’d turned off my ringer. I scrolled to my notepad.
“Um, we already know you like to dance and sing. Tell me about the project and why this is so important to you?”
“Because Navy SEALs deserve a home. They fight. They leave their whole lives out there on the battlefield. Sometimes, they come back empty. They lose their families often, everyone but their brothers. So many of them die lonely, and without the support of those who loved them or could help them. They prefer the company of their teammates. And it’s hard for a family to understand how lonely they are.”
“That’s so wonderful that you do. Having been through it, of course,” I added, thinking it was a safe comment.
But her eyes morphed into slits. “You don’t know anything about my relationship. It was completely different. But that’s another interview for another day.”
“Of course. So tell me how the idea came to you, and how do you imagine it going forward?”
“It didn’t come to me. It was Marco—that’s my husband—my ex-husband, I should say—it was Marco’s idea from the get-go. I actually fought him on it. But after I saw what a mess he was making of his businesses, I decided to resurrect his mission, since he didn’t have the money or the time.”
“How good of you.” I gulped down more water, taking some of my bile with it.
“I admit, at first I did it to make him mad, but you won’t put that in the interview, will you?”
“Of course not.”
“That’s a good girl,” she said with a strong dose of condescension. I was starting to hate her now. Again, I thought it might be the alcohol talking/feeling/confusing me.
She began again. “I thought it might be a good idea to hang around some of those hunky silver foxes. SEALs are an odd lot. Strong, yet so weak in the relationship cajones, if you know what I mean. They fall for women easily and then don’t know what to do with them once they’ve gotten them.”
I blushed. She noticed.
“Shannon, you’re holding out on me…” She was smiling but I still felt under her thumb.
“Your comment, well, I was thinking about—what I’d heard—about SEALs. I mean, they’re supposed to be great lovers, and all.” I quickly added, “Not speaking from experience, of course.”
She chuckled. “My husband was an expert at everything. He qualified expert in his diving, firearms, demolition, languages. He was the fastest runner on his team, even the day he retired. And he could make me wet just by looking at me. He could make me wet with his little finger, with his tongue…”
I was stepping on my own tongue and quickly closed my mouth. My blush was obvious.
“It turns you on just to hear me talk about it, doesn’t it, Shannon?”
“Well, I’ve never had this kind of conversation, and this certainly won’t go into the interview.”
“Oh, I know it won’t. Because it will reflect badly on you. But come to the interview tomorrow with those thoughts in mind, and then we’ll have a real girl chat, on camera. Let’s not tape it. Let’s go live and bare.”
I was dumfounded, sure my Program Manager would never approve of this. I was thinking about how I was going to tell him. It was on impulse that I answered her, with more guts than brains, “Okay, Rebecca, let’s do it. Don’t know if it will get approved, but I’ll try to make that happen. Let’s fly off into the history books—together, like real sisters.”
She threw her head back and laughed so hard I thought she and the chair would flip over backwards.
Then my phone rang. I really should have checked who had called me. I knew better. But I didn’t. I was so worried about what I was going to do tomorrow, and how I’d pull this off without ruining the station’s or my reputation, it didn’t occur to me that things were about to heat up even hotter.
“Hello, Shannon.”
It. Was. Marco.
“Oh, hello.” I sounded and felt like I was twelve. “It-it’s kinda late. Could I call you back?” I whispered.
“Are you with someone I have to come over and strangle? Want me to?”
“Well, you’re not here—”
“I’m getting ready to fly to Tampa as we speak. I thought perhaps we could have breakfast when I arrive and then I could book you for dinner at sunset, if you’d be agreeable.”
I was so agreeable, I was nearly wetting my pants. And then I saw the smirk of the woman across the coffee table from me. She had a Cheshire cat grin.
“That would be nice. But can I call you back?”
“You are with someone.”
“It’s not what you think, M—Mike.”
“Mike? You’re a nasty little girl, Shannon. I want to know more. I want to hear you whisper it to me when I pump you full of everything I’ve got.”
My face, my chest, my boobs were fiery red. And my panties were so wet I could even smell them.
Rebecca was trying to listen, her eyebrows raised. I made sure to press the phone to my ear and wished I’d brought my earpiece.
“Listen, call me when you get here, please. I’m with a girlfriend and your comments, well, they’re embarrassing me.”
“But are you looking forward to my visit? Just tell me because I won’t come if you have to rearrange your whole schedule…”
Marco, you could rearrange my whole life! My brain was shouting, my inner angel was beating up the lonely witch inside me.
“Of course I am. Very much so. A pleasant surprise. Tomorrow, then?”
“I can’t wait.”
“Neither can I,” I said, staring right into the eyes of his ex-wife.
I don’t remember how I got home, but I did. I don’t know how she believed that my boyfriend was coming to Tampa for a visit. If she only knew.