Page 19 of Phoenix Fire

Carlton interrupted again. “Jenny, I told you of my bluntness and candor. Perhaps I'm even brazen, but I like you. I would very much like to see you again, socially. But you need to be aware that Jason is using you to fulfill what he sees as an obligatory gesture to grandmother. I would not be surprised to see him even try to go all the way with you. I mean, marriage, and all.”

“Carlton, I really must get back to my office.” Jenny stood to go. “This conversation is quite frankly baffling to me. You hardly know me, yet you relate something so personal as this. This is simply too off the wall. I'm sorry, but I must go.”

Carlton stood as well, his chair positioned to block her way. “Jenny, remember what I said. I'm bolder and more aggressive than most men. That may be uncomfortable for you, but what I'm saying is the truth. I want to see you again. May I call you?”

“No, Carlton, I'd rather you did not. I'm very busy with my work and I don't go out that much. Your brother is important to me, and it bothers me that you would talk about him this way. Now, will you allow me to pass?”

“Jenny, just think about it.” He moved his chair, leaving her access to pass. “I'm aggressive but I'm not an animal. I just wanted you to know my feelings up front. Guess I thought you could get that.”

“I must get back to work, Carlton. Goodbye.” She moved by him, unable to avoid brushing against him.

“Think about it, Jenny,” he whispered too closely to her ear.

Then she was gone, and he stood looking after her, a wry smile playing on his lips. What a nice sway she gave to her hips. He had to know her better. Much better. Intimately, much better. Carlton was actually pleased with the way his 'chance' encounter with Jenny had gone. Like most women, she wanted to play the game. That was fine with him. He was a great game player.

*****

The sunlight dazzled her for a moment as she stepped from the cafeteria and walked toward her building. It was her mind, however, that dazzled her more.

She was incredulous and irritated. What had just happened? It was scary. Carlton Prince just by chance comes upon her in the cafeteria? He proceeds to tell her an elaborate story about Jason's motives for seeing her and about Grandma Myrena's weird fixation on getting Jason married before her death? If it were not all so bizarre she might attach some humor to Carlton's rambling. But, in fact, the episode had alarmed her.

There was something strangely provocative about Carlton Prince. Jenny could not be sure exactly what made her dwell on the lunch encounter and what it was about the man that made her wary and also intrigued. The intrigue was part and parcel to his fallacious story and who he was … this was the brother of the man with whom she had already fallen in love.

Carlton had a commanding presence about him. He was tall and rather handsome. His eyes were toffy colored and they gave off a devilish sparkle when he talked, an almost mesmerizing quality. His lips were the tradeoff with the eyes. If she had only watched his eyes while he talked, she might have been more beguiled, but his lips had a hard sardonic twist to them, like he was sneering at the world around him. His lips had protected her from his eyes. This musing assessment, she told herself, was not suggesting that she could be attracted to Carlton. That could never happen. She was merely giving the devil his due.

Carlton's spiel was such a ludicrous kind of disclosure. Why in the world would a grandmother hold such a manic preoccupation? It was simply not realistic. It was in no way believable. Jenny had met Grandma Myrena and she was most certainly not the misguided matriarch with a crazed and unyielding obsession that Carlton had portrayed. No, Carlton was totally off track. More likely, he was trying to stir up a negative situation, trying to cause a rift between her and Jason. There were people like that in the world. It saddened her that Carlton would stoop to such a contemptible level of deceit.

Still, Jenny found it hard to believe that one would have the audacity to weave such a yarn. Why would he make up such an outlandish scenario? To get her to date him? And, if he thought such a story would woo her, he was a certified loony tune and colossal ass. Did he think her a bimbo? My God! Even were such a story within the realm of possibility, why would he rush into telling her? It was insulting and insufferable. It was all too weird to contemplate. She would stand by her earlier thought. Carlton was a troublemaker. He had to be. There was no way his story had any validity and, even if it did have some truth, she would still be in love with Jason Prince. What had passed between them to this point was too real to be relegated to such rubbish.

No, Jason was honorable and pure in his intentions from the magical and bizarre moment they met. Their eyes had conveyed their mutual feelings accurately. Jason could never be the kind of man to use a woman for any deceitful purpose. And, who could fault him even if he wanted to satisfy a wish of an aging Grandmother?

Jenny was rather bemused with herself for giving Carlton's words so much thought time. It was absurd, silly, and not worthy of her protracted attention. Be done with it, she thought.

As she entered her office building she knew with some certainty that Carlton Prince had not come to the downtown area for a business meeting. Oh, it was remotely possible, but she would not buy it. She had the distinct feeling she was the 'business meeting' that led to the 'chance' encounter.

Suddenly she felt angry and used by Carlton Prince and, unaccountably, the anger passed on to Jason and Grandma Myrena. It was irrational but it was there. There was an odd sense that she was used and somehow violated by the entire family.

Then she was angry with herself for being angry. For heaven's sake, she thought, it was just a stupid lunch, interrupted by some guy wanting to beat his brother's time. Maybe she should be feeling flattered by the attention. Maybe. But it was all so dumb, so terribly unproductive. Maybe she would start brown bagging for lunch.

As she entered the Ad Agency she was happy when her boss handed her a new project with which to get acquainted. She was happy to have other things on her mind. She threw herself into the new ad project.

Chapter Thirteen

Like all good doctors, Dr. Paige could not and would not divulge patient information, could not and would not disclose the nature and scope of his Grandma Wimsley's health. Given the fact that the doctor had known Jason most of his life, the formal nature of their phone visit only agitated him more.

Jason had vented some of his irritation. “For Christ's sake, Nelson, I've known you a lifetime, and I overheard Grandma Myrena discussing the cancer with you over the phone on Thursday night. So come off your Hippocratic high horse and talk to me. How long does she have and what can I do to make her life that's left more comfortable?”

“Jason, you must allow your grandmother some time to come to grips with her mortality. She's a strong lady and it won't take her any time at all. I may be her doctor but I love that woman and I will honor her wishes not to discuss her health with you or Carlton or anyone for that matter, unless it is another physician. Now, she will tell you in her own time and way, just what she wants you to know. She loves you more than life itself, Jason, so just give her the love you've always given her. Just don't make a big fuss that you know something. It will only make it tougher for her.”

That was the gist of the conversation with Dr. Nelson Paige. The good doctor and friend had in his own way confirmed what Jason already knew to be true. His Grandma Wimsley was in the terminal stages of her cancer. What was not known was the time she had left.

The conversation had only deepened Jason's sadness. He found it difficult to concentrate on the business laid out before him: some newly resubmitted cost estimates from contractors on 'Apple Brown Betty' and a new, lengthy report on the petitioning citizens group.

He suddenly felt the need to talk to Carlton. He could not rationalize the urge but he trusted it.

They were blood and family. As children they had shared some good moments and some bad. The image came to Jason now of Carlton as a child and he could see the little boy crying. Tears came in great heaves of bereavement as he unconsciously tugged at a button on his shirt until it snapped and went flying off into space. In his own no less urgent tears, Jason had reached out to Carlton, had tried to hug him, had tried to share the immutable sadness of the moment. Their loving parents had died and it seemed that their own lives were now close to some sort of terminus or an awful new beginning. Jason was more quietly, yet no less devastatingly, in grief, and he somehow sought the assurance of his older brother's love. Jason had wanted to hold Carlton, to blend their sorrows and find a way to go on. But Jason was pushed roughly away by his brother and he found new depths of grief and loneliness. Grandma Myrena had pulled him from those depths and had given him needed nourishment with her love and tenderness.

Jason loved his brother and was sorry that the bond between them was not as close as it once was. Now, the need was there to call Carlton, to share the sadness he was feeling, to try again for a closer sibling bond. He needed for his brother to share in his misery, to know the awful news of Grandma Myrena's terminal cancer.

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