Rude Boy USA (13 page)

Celia walked out of the office with the coat on and a smile on her face. Ben saw her and smiled back. “Good morning. That’s a nice coat. Did you just buy it?” he asked her.

“Well, no, I didn’t buy it,” she answered. John came around the corner and saw Celia in the jacket. She was clearly enjoying it.

“You look beautiful in it. Happy birthday,” John said. He walked up in front of Ben and kissed Celia on the cheek. “We are getting ready so you can blow out your candles. Jerome is lighting them up now,” he said.

Ben knew when her birthday was, but because he had been so busy, he had forgotten that today was the day. “Happy birthday. I have something for you later,” he told her. Celia looked at both men.

“You guys, thank you. Thank you for this. I don’t know what else to say,” she said.

“Enjoy it. Bernie also left something for you,” John told her.

“Well, I don’t want to stand over a candle with this on. I may start a fire. I will be back,” Celia said. She went back into her office for a moment. John and Ben stood there.

“A fucking fur coat? You have some nerve. What happened to a card, like normal people?” Ben said as he pushed John’s shoulder.

“Don’t push me. The fuck is your problem? I gave her a card too,” John said as he pushed him back.

“My problem is you. You do not know when to quit. She is not yours. Get over it!” Ben said.

“And what, you own her now? She’s yours now? I met her first. We’re friends. I can buy my friends whatever the hell I want,” John responded.

“You don’t buy a friend a four-thousand-dollar fucking coat. You are not even supposed to be looking at her now,” Ben said.

“What? Are you mad? Are you mad because yours isn’t good enough, or did you forget like you always conveniently forget shit?” John demanded. Celia walked back in, and both men immediately quieted down. They escorted her to Bernie’s office, where other junior associates were waiting for her.

“We are here to celebrate our lady,” John toasted. Celia blew out her candles. The tension between John and Ben was so thick that you could cut it. Jerome noticed it. He did not know what was going on, but he attempted to lighten up the mood by turning on some music and handing Celia a knife to cut the cake.

John, Jerome, and Celia went to the New York Knicks NBA Finals championship game seven at Madison Square Garden. Bernie managed to score everyone floor tickets because he was a good friend of head coach Red Holzman. Celia had never been to a live NBA game before. John and Jerome were regulars. Ben did not attend the game because he could not be located. As they sat there, Celia looked at John and said to him, “You could be one of those guys. You are tall enough.”

John looked at her and smiled. “You think so?” he asked.

“Why not? Do you know how to play?” she answered.

“I play a bit on my off time,” he said.

“Are you any good?” she asked.

He looked at her again. “I’m pretty damn good.”

Celia returned the smile. “I bet you are. You can teach me.”

“I didn’t know you were a fan like that. That would be interesting to see. I’ll show you as soon as you teach me how to play the piano like you promised,” John responded.

Celia laughed and continued to make small talk. “Thank you again for the coat. It is beautiful,” she said.

“It fits you. You should be out here in style, in nice things. Not the subway, but nice dinners, good stuff. You deserve the best. It brings out your skin tone,” he said. “Chimera’s first lady should look like a regal woman.”

“You guys see me that way?” she asked.

“I see you that way. That is all I’m concerned with. I wish circumstances were different,” John said. He resisted the urge to put his hand on her thigh.

“Nothing wrong with the way things are right now. We are all happy right now. Look where we are, with all of this excitement. We are living the American dream,” she told him.

“I’m almost there. If you really knew what I dream about at night…” he replied.

“You’re dirty. I know where your head is all the time,” Celia responded, and they both laughed. Celia put her arm
around his shoulder and gave him a quick hug and a peck on the head. The Knicks won that game and the NBA championship over the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Wanna meet Walt Frazier?” John asked her.

“Um, yeah. My father would love an autograph.”

Celia was making waves with the group. In Bernie’s absence, she had progressed at her job so well in such a short time that Bernie felt that she should be rewarded with a small monetary gift. He wanted to thank her for her support of him and the group. He would reward the people he felt were doing a great job for him. Bernie and Celia became close, and he looked at her as a daughter, much as he viewed the guys as his sons. She had gained his respect, which was what she wanted the most. She knew that being the lone female in a male-dominated group was a challenge, and she was determined to prove herself. Celia initiated into the group via ceremony like the men, although her duties were to remain separate from mob activities as per Bernie’s orders. He did this so she remained protected. He considered her high-level support staff.

Ben spent less and less time at the office, which led Celia to start looking at the accounting on her own. She wanted to make sure funds were in order just in case of a surprise audit. It took her weeks and long hours at the office to organize the piles of records stored in binders. The results of the
findings she would give to Bernie once she completed them. She felt that the reports were overdue, as Ben only did this sparingly.

She viewed personnel records, lease agreements, year-end payroll reports, paid bills, and the general ledger. Celia combed through five years of paperwork and noticed some inconsistencies with the balances that had been noted in the books and the information available in the public accounts. If they were to be audited today, Chimera would be in trouble, she thought. She did not want the company to suffer any difficulties. She checked and double-checked with her calculator and looked at the printed receipts repeatedly. She knew that she was decent with math, but this did not make any sense to her. Celia was concerned as to why the statements were so different. She wanted to ask Ben about the discrepancies, but he was too busy out in the field to have any time to sit down with her. She did not feel right about going over his head, but in order to complete the job, she needed some questions answered. She waited until Bernie returned from his break to discuss the situation.

When Bernie returned to full duty, Celia made sure to sit down with him to chat about her results. Happy to go back to familiar territory, he set aside an afternoon for lunch with her so he could get the updates. She handed him a binder that contained a typed, completed report of her findings, something that Ben had never provided. She informed him about numbers not matching and possibly missing funds that
did not have an explanation for their whereabouts. She’d found extra withdrawals from the company’s main bank account that were not present in the reports. When she’d acquired receipts from the bank, she’d noticed that Ben had made all the withdrawals. She told Bernie the personnel records were out of order, and she could not account for some of the people who were listed. There were no start dates or any way to track them. Ben’s paperwork only listed their names, their jobs, and the amounts they were supposed to be paid. There was no personal information about the people listed, and she was not sure if they even existed.

Bernie was dumbfounded at the findings, but he did not show any emotion to Celia. He did not want to alarm her. Bernie was good at coming up with quick solutions. He told her that most of these issues were fixable, as he knew who worked there and whom the workers hired as subcontractors. He could get that information simply by asking them. As far as the money was concerned, he told Celia that he knew about it, although that was not true. He assured her that he would provide proper documentation and told her not to worry her pretty little head. He would help fix it. He also told her that she need not confront Ben about it. He would talk to Ben.

After their lunch, Bernie retired home for the evening. It thundered outside with heavy downpours. The forecast called for flash flooding in the city that night. Bernie loved rainstorms, as the sounds and fresh breezes that accompanied them relaxed him. He often opened the windows to experience the full effect. Doing so helped him sleep peacefully.
The stench of the destroyed building a block away still lingered in the air, months later. He had taken his break to leave the chaos of news trucks, FBI investigators, onlookers, coroners, firetrucks, and police officers that lingered in the area in the aftermath of the blast.

He poured himself a drink, looked at the report Celia had given him and sat down. The paperwork showed that an extra $450,000 had been withdrawn from the company account without his knowledge. All the signatures belonged to Benjamin, and the withdrawals were listed as petty cash. His mind was going a thousand miles a minute in disbelief, as the thought of one of his sons stealing from him was hard to process. He knew that other families handled betrayals within the ranks with hits, but he did not want to respond in that manner. He did not want to believe it, but the paperwork presented to him told the story. He was not ready for confrontation, as he was still emotionally tired from dealing with the loss of Gina and he knew that his body could not handle the stress. Bernie sat there thinking of possible explanations for this. Why wouldn’t Ben come to him if he needed help? Why hide? He thought. The only logical reason that Bernie could think of was that Ben had fallen off the wagon despite his close watch. Bernie knew on the inside that what he thought he had in his circle, the notion of total trust and loyalty turned out not to be. Out of habit, Bernie picked up the phone to call Gina. She had been his ear in time of need. Then he remembered that he could no longer do that. She was gone forever. He slammed the receiver.

Bernie became tired and put the papers aside to lie down. He could not stay still, so he got back up and started pacing the room. He looked down while he was walking and noticed that his left ankle was swollen, and he had minor pain in his arm. This had happened to him before while in the presence of Gina. He figured that his body was experiencing stress and took an aspirin. When he was able to calm himself down, he lay back down on the couch to elevate his leg. He thought to himself,
I will speak to Ben about it in the morning, and everything will be resolved
.

A couple of days went by before Celia finally got a chance to catch up with Ben. She told him things were going well and that she would have the books and paperwork in order with the help of Bernie. Bernie had not been in, but she attributed that to him needing more time to take care of himself. Bernie had assured her that he would return after their meeting.

Ben was pleased to hear that things were progressing well. Feeling good, he decided to take the plunge and finally ask Celia out on an official date. He had become incredibly attracted to her. She knew that dating him would make it a bit uncomfortable in the office. She was reluctant at first, but she changed her mind. This place was different from the club, and the rules were not the same. She had spent the entire time while she was working at Chimera concerned
about how John would feel and what he and Jerome would think. Ben did not care what the other two thought of him at this point. He had a plan with Celia, and he would not let them mess this up for him. She realized that she was limiting herself to a married man and selling herself short in the process. Ben could be something good for her. He was certainly different, as she had never dated interracially before. She agreed to a date, and they began making plans for later in the evening.