The View from Suite 2100 (7 page)

She hadn’t gotten ten words out before I just started to bawl like an eight year old, sobbing out the horrible events of the day.

It was a mistake. I heard mother yelling for my father to call the airport right then on his cell phone and make reservations because they were leaving immediately for D.C.

“Please Mama, don’t. I just need you to listen. I don’t want to make you and daddy travel all the way here. I’m okay, just hurt right now.”

“Please nothing, Rowena Justina! Please nothing! I’m coming and when I finish getting that woman straight.”

I could hear the deep breathing and could almost see the fire dancing from my mother’s eyes. I remembered an incident a long, long time ago, when a new family had moved into town and we’d gone over to greet them, as was our custom. Turns out it wasn’t such a good idea. A big, burly woman had angrily answered the door, apparently feeling we were imposing. I happened to be the first thing her eyes landed on and she grabbed me roughly by one of my little arms and shoved me from the door. I’d fallen onto the sidewalk in a heap.

I had been too stunned and surprised to cry, but my mother, in that instant, had totally lost it. The burly woman had to slam her door and lock it to keep my mother from tearing her apart. That was the only time I ever saw the mother tiger in her truly rise up to that extreme, but I knew it was what she also was feeling right then.

“Mama,” I tried again, knowing I needed to try to talk her down. She was no longer a spring chicken. “You and daddy just stay there, okay. I might need to come home for a little while. You know, just to get away. I promise you, if things get too uncomfortable I’ll come straight home. Promise.”

Working to calm mama helped me to get myself together too. I hung up finally and went to check my messages. There weren’t any. I thought about calling Melayne or Alexia or Becca, but decided not to. I needed some Rowena time.

I got up and started towards the computer. It was habit. Suddenly I realized that I was about to turn it on and go straight to Sevens Plus Casino.

Not a chance, I whispered! Not a chance!

I turned the other direction and headed up the stairs to my bedroom. Once there I went into my bathroom, started to fill the Jaccui with the special blend of Japanese Mint bath salts I had Becca order special for me from her contact at Magic Hands Spa and turned on the water. Time out, I needed some serious time out. I stepped in and turned the jets on full blast.

Chapter Twelve

I didn’t feel like getting out of bed when I woke up.

“No! I’m not going to let myself fall into this kind of blue funk,” I said and kicked the covers off. No matter how I felt, I was not about to lay there in bed feeling sorry for myself.

I paddled to the shower and stayed there seemingly forever, pretending the water running off my back was the pain I felt being washed down the drain. It worked for a little while, but the truth was my world was in a tailspin.

I got out finally and dressed in a soft blue pant suit. I did need to go into the office if only for a few minutes. There were a few papers on my desk I needed to sign but after that, I decided, I was just going to get away from business and everything else for the balance of the day. I hadn’t taken a day off in months. I was in desperate need of a break.

I considered a drive out to Maryland to explore a few antique shops which was always relaxing to me, or maybe though I might even take a train ride up to New York for the day. Heck, maybe even two days. I hadn’t spent time outside of D.C. by myself in a long time either. The few weekend trips I’d taken the last couple of years were all with Drew. The thought of Drew made me look at the ring again. I twisted it around my finger a couple of times, tempted to take it off, but I didn’t.

So what are you going to do, Miss E? I wondered.

I couldn’t come up with a definite answer. All I knew was I really needed to put some time and space between me and everything that was currently my life. No matter what my life looked like on the outside, it simply was not working for me, and it was time I admitted it.

The fact Carolyn was more than capable of handling things at both Suite 2100 and 2-of-A Kind, Inc. for a day or two should I decided to take an extend stay out of the office gave me a sense of peace. I was sure that even now she was probably stepping up to the plate and taking care of business as I drove towards the office. I was over an hour late and hadn’t called to let her know why, but after yesterday she must sense things between Drew and me weren’t that great.

Sure enough, when I walked into Suite 2100 she was on the telephone, her head buried in her hand, deep in conversation. I could tell by her expression whatever she was taking care of was very heavy! I was hoping none of the trade deals we were currently trying to piece together had sprung a leak, but at this juncture I felt if they had they just had. I’d have to try to patch them back together another day.

Carolyn looked up, acknowledged me with a nod, but didn’t smile as I slipped past her desk into my office. I glanced back to make sure she was alright, but she’d already lowered her head again and was once more deeply engrossed in the conversation.

I’m not staying here today a minute longer than I have to
, I thought! I decided not to even sit down. Since I was only going to be there but a minute, I would just pull the letters from my in box that I needed to sign and sign them at Carolyn’s desk. I would put them in her out box and be on my way. I would call her back from the car once I thought she was off the phone and let her know what I was going to do.

Carolyn was replacing the receiver on the cradle when I reached her desk. I was about to speak, but the look on her face as she looked up at me left me speechless.

My plans to get away from the office flew out the window instantly. The old saying about ‘if it ain’t one thing it’s another’ entered my mind, but I didn’t panic. It was a mistake. It had to be. I was financially as solvent as a rock. There was no reason whatsoever for the bank to want to call my loan. That’s what I told Carolyn.

“It’s a mistake, Carolyn, don’t get upset. Let me call Delmar Cade. He’ll know what’s going on. Let’s let him get to the bottom of this.” Delmar was my personal banker.

Carolyn gave me a pained look. “That was Annette, Delmar’s secretary I just hung up from,” she said. “It was Delmar who had her call. They want it paid in full by close of business Friday.”

I marched back into my own office and closed the door softly. I was sure Carolyn had misunderstood in some way, but I didn’t want her to overhear my conversation when I called the bank to prove that to myself. I didn’t want her to feel I thought she didn’t know what she was talking about.

The fact I don’t think she does in this instance is irrelevant
, I mumbled as I dialed.

Carolyn was surely right more often than wrong about most things, I valued her opinions, and I didn’t want to offend her. It was much easier to simply make this call behind a closed door.

“Good morning, Elsa,” I said when the bank’s receptionist answered. I knew just about everyone at Connect One Business Bank by first name and they always recognized my voice. Elsa, a petite young Hispanic girl, sat at the first desk just as you entered the bank, and she covered their switchboard. “May I speak to Delmar?”

“No, he’s unavailable.” Elsa responded a little too quickly, plus she didn’t acknowledge my greeting with one of her own. That was odd.

“Okay, then connect me to Annette, please?”

“She’s unavailable too.” Elsa sounded like she was talking to a stranger. There was no hint of familiarity in her voice, although she did sound uneasy.

Elsa didn’t respond at all. Her silence was distressing, but distress was quickly turning to anger. I felt like trying to reach into the phone and pull her through it by her neck. “Elsa?”

“Yes, I’m here, but that’s all I can tell you. They are not available.”

I heard the click of the phone on the other end and my mouth dropped open. Elsa had hung up on me. Elsa, the receptionist, who normally couldn’t stop giggling about her boyfriend Pedro on any other occasion, had hung up on me!

“What is going on with this?” I asked myself aloud.

I could feel my blood start to boil. I dialed back thinking that I’d ask for Arnold Bates, the bank’s President. I certainly was one of the bank’s best customers. Just last year the bank actually nominated me for a small business award. Both my banker Delmar Cade and Arnold Bates attended the awards banquet when I received the award. Surely Bates couldn’t be aware of this nonsense! Apparently Carolyn had gotten it right! Something really crazy was going on

I heard Elsa sigh. She lowered her voice, and I remembered that all conversations going into and out of a bank are recorded. “I don’t know nothin’ else. I just can’t.”

I nodded as if she could see me. “Thank you, Elsa,” I said, letting her off the hook. She was trying to let me know that whatever was afoot she couldn’t tell me.

I wasn’t one of D.C.’s billionaires by a long shot, but I sure run my own share of millions through Connect One Business Bank. Afri-Trade had already grossed nearly $7 million this year by itself, and the booking agency and realty company were not far behind. It didn’t make sense for them to be jeopardizing a good solid relationship like ours.

“
What kinda crap is this
?” I asked aloud again and slammed my fist down on my desk.

I must have flung my door open with great force when I bolted through it because Carolyn jumped and spun around. I’d slung my Prada handbag over one shoulder and my Fendi briefcase over the other.

“I’ve got to make a run to the bank,” I said, my voice a pitch too high. It reminded me of Carolyn’s.

She just looked at me and nodded. “Don’t let them push you around, Ms. Wilkes. I told you this was insane, but I know you can handle it.”

Connect One Business Bank was located close to 2-of-A Kind, Inc.’s offices. It was only a block further down on K Street. All during the drive through the Loop my mind raced from one thing to another trying to pinpoint some possible reason this confusion might have been triggered. Absolutely nothing came to mind.

I thought about the loan itself. It was a revolving line of credit and had fortunately been the only thing I’d needed as each of the companies had been self-sustaining almost from their inceptions. The line was for a million, six hundred thousand dollars, and its main purpose was to allow me to operate with a ready cash flow for things like receivable short falls, or being in a position to take advantage of new opportunities as they arose, as I’d done with 2-of-A Kind, Inc. just nine months ago.

I was required to retire the line once every 18 months, based on the terms of the loan, but that was only for one day and then it would rollover again. I always prepared for the rollover, making sure the line was at its lowest point, so that payoff wasn’t a hassle. I just did that two month ago, so this definitely had nothing to do with anything like that.

Keep calm! I whispered. It isn’t that you can’t pay off the stupid loan if you have to!

That was true enough, if I did have to pay off the loan I could, but wow, what an imposition and a strain that would be for a while. I didn’t keep $1.6 million dollars just lying around in a checking account or up under my mattress. I’d have to shift all sorts of things around, draw down financial instruments and take a major hit on early withdrawal fees, even need to turn some assets, maybe even refinance my house to pay the line off, but, that would take at least a couple of weeks. I chided myself for even considering that. That’s never going to happen, I vowed!

I was a nervous wreck when I reached the bank. Elsa saw me come through the door and leaped up, leaving her desk quickly. I saw her disappearing through a door that I knew led to the bank’s employee break room. For a moment, while I stood there, no one was aware of my presence. I glanced around at the open seating arrangement, something new the bank had recently adopted in order to appear more approachable to its customers; to be more ‘customer friendly’ is how it had been explained to me during an earlier visit. Well, you can wash that down the drain, I thought.

I noticed Annette, Delmar Bates’ secretary, who had called and talked to Carolyn, wasn’t at her desk, but I spied her a little further back, laughing and talking to an older woman who I knew was a bank officer. I wasn’t going to wait for anyone to give me permission to approach the two of them. I was just going to do what I had to do.

The older woman, I suddenly remembered her name was Evelyn, saw me coming. She cleared her throat loudly causing Annette to look around. Annette stepped back defensively as I came nearer and I thought, how ridiculous. What did she think I was going to do?