Fallen Woman(20)

Laughing, his face lit up with more animation than I’d ever seen from him. “Drake’s an ass like that. No limo.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that. I just don’t live in the best part of town.” I was embarrassed.

“I didn’t either growing up,” he admitted as he opened his SUV door for me.

I had to wait for him to walk around the car and get in before I could ask any more questions. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I came from working-class poor. I took out student loans to go to college and grad school.” He talked as he backed out of the parking place and I pointed in the direction he needed to go.

“I thought you grew up with Jase?”

“I did. But not because I went to school with him. My mom cleaned his parents’ house for a living. She was a full-time maid, and I would go there after school to sit in the kitchen and do homework until she finished.” He continued to follow my silent instructions toward my tiny apartment. Enthralled by the information he shared, never in a million years would I have believed this coming from anyone else. “I wanted what they had, but more importantly, I didn’t want my mom and dad to have to be slaves to other people. My dad was a welder and came home filthy every day. I hated it for them. They were both bright but didn’t have the opportunities when they were younger. I wanted to give them something different.”

“So how’d you do it?”

“I got into college. UGA for undergrad and then Georgia Tech for grad school. I’m not ivy league like the other guys. And I mounted some serious debt along the way, but five years out of college, I had my own architectural firm, and ten years after that, my company was bought by a huge conglomerate and went public. Two years ago, I bought my parents a house, and I pay them to stay home and enjoy life.”

“I had no idea.”

“Of course not. Cinderella stories are only impressive for women.” He winked at me as he turned the corner into my complex.

“So where does your heart lie?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Jase is literacy, Drake is hunger, what’s your passion?”

“Affordable education. Our country is missing the boat. We have brilliant kids in the projects and lower income areas who don’t have the opportunity to become the next Bill Gates because they can’t afford an education. And regardless of how hard they work in high school, they don’t have the resources to get out of those areas. They stay to help family members, to care for siblings, to put food on the table. The reasons are countless, but the bottom line is, even if all those issues are eliminated, they have no way to get the money to pay tens of thousands of dollars to a state school much less private.”

I nodded my understanding.

“I think part of what draws me to you and is comfortable spending time with you, Gianna, is you made your dream happen, too. Jase didn’t tell me, but I know who you are. Hell, anyone who’s ever watched the news would know who Ryan LeBron is. Girls like you don’t go to Dartmouth. They don’t make it out of inner cities…but they should. And you’re going to make it back to where you belong, too. Let Jase help you. He sees what you have to offer.”

I didn’t know what that meant and didn’t want to ask, so I just stared out the window as we stopped at my sidewalk. “You don’t need to walk me to the door.”

“Jase would kick my ass if he found out I let you out on the street corner at dusk. But nice try.”

He put the car in park and came around to open my door. He was a gentleman, just like his friends, but something about him—maybe it was his story being similar to my own—made me want to get to know him better. So we said goodbye and thus began our texting and daily phone calls. We still had another week before his company party, and he was going to ensure we were truly friends before he picked me up that Saturday night.

Every night, Holland would call after the kids went to bed. I’d talk to him for fifteen or twenty minutes. He’d tell me about his day, share some funny tidbit, and give me just a little closer glimpse into his life. He was humorous and made me smile. There was some part of him that pushed for Jase and me, although he never came out and said it, but it seemed that he was constantly trying to sell me on his friend.

“You know you don’t have to convince me Jase is a great guy, right?”

“I just can’t figure out why you haven’t gone after him.” His comment was genuine. He wasn’t fishing for information.

“I don’t know. I just don’t see him that way.” It was a lie and he knew it, but he didn’t call me on it. A girl can’t talk about a guy the way I do about Jase and his friends not know she’s totally smitten with him. But dating isn’t really a possibility for me—and Jase Lane isn’t even in the ballpark of the game I’d be playing.

We chatted for a bit longer and set plans for him to pick me up on Saturday, although I knew I’d talk to him again before then. When I hung up, I made my final nightly call to Jase. Something about his voice… I loved him being the last person I talked to each night. I slept soundly the nights I was able to say goodnight, and those I wasn’t, I tossed and turned and might as well have stayed awake.

“Hey, babe,” he chimed into the phone. “How’s Holland?”

“How’d you know I’d been talking to him?”