The Brute & The Blogger (2 page)

I
t could never be said that Tino Boehner never met a woman he didn’t like
.
That was until he began to read some of the blog posts by Ebony Miller. The woman painted him as a greedy capitalist that would put a for sale sign on his mother’s love and move it to a better neighborhood. He wasn’t that kind of guy.  It bothered him more than it should that this woman could form such a harsh opinion of him and had never met him.  Further, it chapped his cheeks to think that so many jumped on her bandwagon and labeled him as a 21st Century robber baron taking so much from the poor to prop up the rich.  Moreover, it concerned him that he cared about what she thought.  Until now, she had been a dark voice in a back room on a computer spewing venom.  Tonight she was vulnerable and needed his help.  This would be a great chance to turn things around with her.

Her words were powerful and on the inside looking out, she had caused him some damage.  Several investors had pulled out of his latest project while others were refusing to take his phone calls. This slip of a woman had hurt him with her words. Instead of him pouncing on her in a time of defenselessness, he instead would be her champion.

In every instance there is an opportunity.  He was not going to miss this one. He drove her to her apartment building and punched in the access code she gave him to the gate as he drove around to the building she lived in.  He was familiar with the builder of this apartment community and detested the man for using shoddy materials and throwing up the buildings with for hire workers, versus using skilled laborers. He would never do that.  He used his skills to his advantage and he was good with people.  He needed to be better with her.

Tino escorted her door. “Thank you, I can take it from here.” She told him as she reached for her door keys.
My car.  The man
. “No...no....no...” she began to chant again, but her escort reached into his pocket, pulled out the door key, and let her into her apartment.

Surprise was all over her face. “You thought to get the keys...”

“How else were you going to get in?” He told her as he pushed open the door and followed her inside. Tino took in her surroundings.  In his mind, Ms. Miller lived in a dark cave surrounded by flying monkeys that smeared his name on the cave walls of the dwelling with their poo. This, he had to admit was nicer than what he had thought.

The furniture was conservative.  The walls were covered in art and paintings.  The counter held a large bowl of fruit.  Fresh flowers sat on her table and once she turned on a light, the apartment was warm and cozy. He watched her walk in the uneven shoes like a bad sketch from a comedy scene gone awry.  She leaned over to remove the imbalance on her feet and instead lost her own.  Tino moved quickly to catch her from hitting the floor.

In the strength of his arms, she felt the gravity of what had just occurred and began to shake uncontrollably. “It’s okay.  You are safe now,” he told her as he rubbed the sides of her arms and her back.  Ebony gathered his shirt in her hands, balling up the material as she clung to his body for additional support. Her head rested on his shoulder as she gave in to the comfort he provided.
I was attacked by a crazed man.

Tino ushered her to the couch where she took a seat and he removed the broken shoe followed by the removal of the other. Careful not to allow his hands to linger on her perfectly shaped calves, he encouraged her to get cleaned up.  “The police will be here soon to take your statement.  Get a hot shower, and I will make you a cup of tea.”

Ebony was frowning at him, “how do you know I drink tea?”

He looked around the apartment.  The art was rough, probably done by local artist.  The fruit had no labels, which meant she probably got it at the farmer’s market. “Do gooders who love to save the planet always drink tea,” he told her as he lifted her to her feet with one tug of his hand.

“Careful, are you trying to dislocate my arm?”

“Sorry, I guess I don’t know my own strength,” he said as he gently pushed her towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, careful you brute...”

He watched her for a second without saying anything, allowing the silence between them to fill up the room. He spoke first, “Even when you are down, you have no kind words do you?”

“I have lots of kind words.  I...this...this is just too weird having you here,” she said in a lowered tone.

“Imagine how I am feeling. I am waiting for someone to come out the bedroom carrying your third eye, cackling about cutting off my genitals and boiling them for your evening tea,” he told her.  He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“You really think of me like that?”

“Well, I know what you think of me...” he said as he moved towards the compact kitchen.  “Maybe this is destiny telling us it is time for some changes or something.  Now go change, shower...remove a layer of scales or whatever it is you do before the police arrive...”

Her eyebrows went up, “A layer of scales?”

Tino continued to piddle around the kitchen until he located the coffee mugs, muttering under his breath, “or milk your venom glands...”

“I heard that!”  She said as she made her way to her bedroom.  Instinctually, she locked the door to the bedroom and also the door to her bathroom as she started the shower.

E
bony stepped from her shower feeling almost human again, but she was definitely going to be sore from the two times she hit the sidewalk. In the back of her mind, she thought for a second that Tino Boehner had set it all up to make himself look like a hero and that he had come to save her.  However, when she saw her crashed car and no media showed up, she dismissed the idea. Not even HE, could be that manipulative.

She dressed quickly when she heard voices in her living room and came out to find two police officers sitting at her kitchen table having coffee. Tino was sitting at the head of her table like it was something he did every day.  It only got weirder as he went into the kitchen, pour her a cup of tea and placed in on the table.  He did all of this while giving his accounting of what he had witnessed.

“She was giving him hell, but he got the keys and took off,” he told Officer McCarty, the bigger of the two cops.

The woman officer was eyeing him with more than a faint curiosity, “so, Ms. Miller is your girlfriend?”

Tino’s face contorted, “Oh hell no!  Me and Broomhilda in there can barely stomach each other.”

Officer McFriendly got all swoony and Ebony wanted to hit the woman. “Broomhilda is just fine officers, thanks to Mr. Rogers over there out riding through the neighborhood looking for a spot of land to pillage.”

Tino squinted his eyes at her.

Ebony squinted back.

The officers took her statement, told her when she could pick up the police report and gave her the final bit of bad news. The female officer was a bit too giddy as she delivered the update, “Yeah, Ma’am.  I’m sorry, your car is totaled.”  Then to add insult to Ebony’s injured backside, she handed Tino her card. “If I can be of any help, feel free to call me anytime.”

She just wanted them all gone. He grabbed his jacket, but before leaving the apartment, he reached inside the hall closet to grab a broom. “In case you need to get around this weekend,” he told her as he walked out of the door.

Her voice was just above a whisper when she responded, “in two seconds you just undid all of your good karma.  For a brief minute, you almost made me believe there was something redeeming in you.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she closed the door in his face.  It was Friday night, and she couldn’t get the report until Monday.  She needed the report to go with the insurance claim. More importantly, how was she going to do all of that without a car?

I
t was nasty.  It was spiteful. The article was a malicious attack on his character and he wanted to go over there and kick Ebony Miller in the neck. The blog post was so insidious that his attorney called to ask if he wanted to sue. “How can I sue Jack? She never mentions my name in the article, but you know it is about me.  I know it is about me.”

Tino eyed the screen.

How the Wolf Dressed as a Sheep to Decimate the Flock

That wasn’t the worst part of his day.  His mother called. She had read the article.  His father called, he too had read the article.  Cassie Boone, director of communications for Boehner Enterprises called and yelled into the phone, “Fix this crap right now!”

Somehow Ebony Miller had outfoxed him again. No matter what he did, she turned it against him, which often left him on the defensive. And to make it worse, all of these people, including his parents, were subscribed to her blog. It wasn’t as if this was something new –this anger between them.  It had been raging for almost five years now.

He admitted to his parents that he started the feud between them years ago. It was a jab on her part, when he took publicity shots delivering food to a local food bank, she wrote a blog post,
Tino Boehner Cleans out His Pantry for the Poor
. The article in itself was not bad.  What was bad was the aftermath.  The food did not come from his house, but an independent small neighborhood grocer that he purchased outside of Durham.  It never dawned on him or his team to check the expiration dates on the products. Almost all of it had expired.

It only got worse when Ebony was the one to look at the products, calling attention to the amount of dust on the cans. Tino knew he added accelerant to the simmering fire, when the manager of the food bank called him out, accusing him of attempting to poison the poor. This was done as a stunt to elicit more cash donations for the food bank.  Instead, Tino bought the food bank and the rest of the property on the entire road and tore it all down and sold the land to a developer. Where the food bank used to stand, now holds a discount super center. The independent food bank is now part of a corporate chain of nonprofits. Mainly, his.

He was 25 at the time and temperamental with too much money and a great deal of time to make enemies.  He just never thought her blog would pick up steam.  She often labeled him as a brute who rolled over the little man, crushing them in his wake to make more money.

His attorney’s threaten to sue her for defamation of character, but nothing she ever printed or wrote was untrue.  It was always her word choices that made it stealthy. He read the article again and she mentioned he handed her a broom to ride for transportation. The part about her 9 year old car being her only means of transportation being taken from her by a savage, crazed on drugs, didn’t help him out either. 

She mentioned the scales. The way she worded it left it open to interpretation that she was either too fat or smelled like fish
. Clever little wordsmith
.

There was even a reference to him calling her Broomhilda. This rehashing of his word choice implied that he found her to be unattractive.  She even mentioned someone in the back room holding her 3
^rd
eye.  “Arrrgggghhh!” he yelled into the air as he twirled around in his favorite chair.

An ad popped on the television screen of a car salesman that looked less than reputable.  Many of the cars on his lot seemed to be two steps from the demo heap and he was struck with a brilliant idea. He called Cassie, asked her to gather the press for Monday morning.

“What are you thinking of doing Tino?”

He was grinning from ear to ear, “I am about to turn this thing around and kill that witch with kindness. I just need a cowardly lion, a tin man and a scarecrow.”

He had it all worked out in his head.

Tino failed to factor in the rest of it.

The rest was Ebony Miller.

I
t was a really long weekend for Ebony as she tried to figure out how she would get from point A to Point B and get everything done.  She also had to let her boss know what happened and that she would be a bit late for work.  She called her brother Rodney, hoping to drop him off to work and keep his car for the day, but he had to be in very early and could not swing by to get her.

Ebony called her mother on Sunday night asking for a similar favor, but her mother had too many plans on Monday.  There was no way she was going to drive her Dad’s truck with all of his welding equipment on it.  She pulled a bus schedule.
What am I looking at
?

“Now would be one of those great times in life to have a bunch of girlfriends,” she said aloud hoping one would materialize from thin air.  Ebony was a loner.  Always had been and always would be.  Her ambition was to pen the great American novel, but she only had gotten as far as a blog that was followed by many.

Initially her thoughts had been focused on blogging about unknown resources in the community from social services and supportive aids to families. She had never been hungry as a child, but knew a few kids in school that really looked forward to the free lunch program.  It was the only meal that many received.  Her blog,
Community Bits
, began rather sluggishly among the tea drinking crowd until she stumbled upon Tino Boehner.  It was never her intention to embarrass the man, by pointing out the expired food, but when he opted to purchase the food bank and tear it down, she took personal offense.

The rest took on a mind of its own.  She wrote stories about his denigration of communities of color. In retaliation, he purchased all the property in the neighborhood where her grandmother lived. Her grandmother was displaced and had to move in with her parents.  It was heartbreaking to Nana to lose her independence and she is still not the same.

Tino wasn’t her only subject though.  She wrote about other business people doing good things in the community and not so good things.  Most of her stories were inadvertent; she just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. Over the past five years, she had exposed polluters, corruption and greed.  And there was so much greed, she was disheartened by her fellow man. Did anyone ever give back any more?

Her doorbell rang. 
Maybe it’s Mama
. She opened the door to find Tino Boehner standing on her stoop. Looking sexy as naked body builder holding a plate of walnut brownies.
Divert the sexy
.
Remain civil.  Remain civil
.  “Good morning Mr. Brutus. May I help you?”
I tried
.

He was grinning.  This scared Ebony.  “No, Ms. Miller.  I am here to help you.  I know you don’t have a car, so I thought I would lend you a hand.”

Her chin dropped, her eyes squinted, “Are you here to give me a ride?”

His grin got larger, “Oh, no...no....no...no.”  He said with an even bigger smirk.  Ebony wanted to run.  This is going to be really bad.

“Ms. Miller, I was rather unfair with my broomstick comment, so I thought, the least I could do was get you a little something to get around in until everything got settled with you finding another car and all.” He said it with a Southern drawl dripping of gentility. She felt like it was Black Friday and she was being led to the auction block to get purchased.

There it was again.  That creepy smile. “Consider this my gift to you,” he told her as he gently pulled her from the front door, down the stairs, where she was hit with a barrage of camera flashes and local news talking heads pelting her with questions.

She asked, “What in the world?”

“I don’t ever want anyone to think that I didn’t try to be amicable with you, so during this time while you are getting everything settled, I got you a car.  Keep it as long as you need to,” he told her with a grin.  The cameras were flashing so brightly she could barely see his gift.  When she did, she was furious.  He didn’t!  How could he!  He brought the media so she couldn’t refuse it or make it appear as if she was targeting him on purpose. The car was hideous.

Tino had gifted her with a lime green Gremlin that he placed car eyelashes on. “Well, shut the front door and look at that!” She said with a wry grin. “Thank you so much Mr. Boehner.”

“Oh the gifts don’t stop there.  I would like you to come and work with me for a month and see what I really do.  You know, give you the inside scoop,” he told her as he handed her the keys to the throwback eyesore she was to call her car.

“I can’t just leave my job, Mr. Boehner.  You know if there was any way, I could do it, I would consider it to be an honor,” she told him with the same fake smile he was giving her.

“I’m glad to hear you say that, Ms. Miller,” he told her.  The crowd parted and her boss stepped forward.

Ebony asked, “Mr. Greenblatt?  What are you doing here?”

Jeff Greenblatt was a big man. The circumference of his waist probably equaled her entire height. He had a big booming voice that probably would rattle the timbers of a small cabin. However, the man was a weak minded simpleton. He spoke up, addressing the small crowd, “I have worked with Tino Boehner here off and on for many years and I think it would be great exposure for you to spend a month working inside his operation, understanding what it is he does for the community Ebony.”

She was stuck.

Tino was grinning.

Jeff Greenblatt was posing for the camera.

And she was about to make the nightly news with a lime green Gremlin with giant eyelashes. She stared at Tino with fire in her eyes.  This meant war.  Based on the look he gave her, he was loading up his arsenal as well.

“A whole month?” She asked him.

“Working at my side, day and night,” he added with a bigger grin.

Ebony stuck her hand out for a shake as the cameras flashed, “I look forward to working with you Mr. Boehner.”

“Great!  See you at work in a half hour.  Don’t be late now,” he grinned at her as he answered questions from reporters all the way to his pick-up truck.

Yep. She was stuck like chuck.