Lovely Shades of Me

Tailgating

chapter 4 - Tailgating

I gripped the steering wheel tight.

"I'm sorry Ryan-Alexander for the confusion, but I won't be needing your assistance getting to the airport." I formally and confidently stated to myself. 

I was practicing how to gently let down this incredible woman who kindly offered to drive me to the airport. 

But what if she comes up with another excuse... I thought to myself. 

No! 

"No is a complete sentence." I remembered how my mother would tell my father this often.

Usually as he was walking out to go to another meeting or leaving to go on another business trip. He would always claim that there was no way for him to get out of work, and my mother would always tell him the exact same thing. 

It didn't matter if it was Christmas Eve... my graduation from Harvard...my mother's funeral.. if work called, he had to answer. He was one of the most powerful men I had ever met, but he didn't know how to say "No." At least not to anyone but his family. 

My mother did very little to hide her disappointment. In fact she didn't try to hide it at all, she much preferred to drown it in scotch. I wondered if my mother always knew about the secrets my father was hiding. Secrets that led me here to this uncivilized hell-hole. 

I needed to get out of here NOW. The owner of this car told me to leave the keys in the church mailbox and to message him when I was done. To me, that seemed like a perfect way for this beautiful car to get stolen. But who was I to judge?

I started to remove my personal belongings from the vehicle. I had already sent the majority of my things with this week's intern, Meredith....or was it Miranda? It was so hard for me to remember from one week to the next. They were usually gone before I had a chance to learn their names anyways.

Today's meeting was not supposed to take long and it was the last item on the agenda for Georgia. The only things I had left were my briefcase and my phone charger. I would have sent along my briefcase with the intern, but I wanted to have my laptop easily accessible. I stuffed the phone charger in my briefcase and exited the vehicle. 

As I walked to the mailbox of the church, I noticed I didn't see Ryan-Alexander's truck anywhere in sight. Maybe she had changed her mind? 

Hmmm.

If could get an uber here quick enough, I could leave without an explanation at all. I could send her an email once I was on the plane... Yeah that sounded perfect. 

Quickly, I pulled uber up on my phone. I was astonished to find that the closest driver was thirty-five miles away?!? This couldn't be right. I tried to refresh the app. No change. 

Well maybe I could call a cab... or a driver...at this point I would even settle for a hot air balloon. 

As I was looking up the number for a cab company, I heard the thunder of Ryan-Alexander's truck. 

She hopped out of the truck with a notepad in one hand and the basket of food in the other hand. Her teeth were tightly gripping a pencil and she was struggling to hold the phone up to her ear using her shoulder. 

Oh perfect. She seemed busy. Maybe I won't have to let her down gently. She might already regret the offer and rescind it. I watched as she seamlessly shifted the items to free up a hand. She let down her tailgate and hopped onto it in one graceful leap.

She started to scribble on the notepad while saying into the phone, 

"Yes, I understand."

There was a small pause before she continued on. 

"I know. I know." Another pause, as she started digging into the basket.

"I promise I WILL handle this." She wrote something else down on the pad.

"Yes ma'am. I am writin' this all down." 

I was in awe at her multi-tasking skills. She waved me over. 

She had finished her conversation before I arrived at her truck. 

"I'm sorry 'bout all that. I made the mistake of turnin' my phone on before comin' on over here. Ya see, it had a bit of an accident earlier and I wanted to make sure it still worked all'right."

She started to explain, continuing her mission in the basket beside her. 

"Before I knew it, that darn thing was ringin' off the hook!" She laughed and flipped her braid to rest on her breast. Little bits of loose stands stuck out from under her hat and fly-aways protruded out at every twist and turn. 

I tried not to let my eyes linger as I followed the braid to her large chest. The tops of her cleavage glistened with sweat. I felt an urge growing inside me. I wanted to pull her down and wrap every inch of her around me. I wanted to bury my face in her sweaty bosom. 

This animalistic behavior was not like me. These dirty thoughts that clouded my mind was unbecoming of a gentleman of my stature. I was trained not to let the seductive nature of a woman distract me from the task at hand. But everything about this woman just captivated me. 

I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind. I was disciplined enough to control myself, even around a woman as alluring as Ryan-Alexander. 

"Have you eatin'?"She asked. 

Deep breaths. Don't go there. I thought to myself. 

Luckily her phone rang interrupting my erotic thoughts. Phew. 

"This is Ray." She answered the phone and hopped down off the back of her truck. 

She repositioned the phone between her ear and shoulder and started removing items from the basket. 

First she pulled out a yellow table cloth. I quickly looked around and didn't see any picnic tables, so I wasn't exactly sure what her plans were for it. But if she pulled a table out of that tiny basket I was without a doubt not sticking around. 

She unfolded it. Silently, she handed me one end and motioned for me to stand on the other side of the tailgate. What was going on? Surely she wasn't going to just lay this on the ground. 

When I stood there confused, her eyes got big. So big, in fact, I thought they were going to bulge out of her head. She huffed and puffed, and I swear she might have even stomped her foot (of course I couldn't see the foot stomping since her truck was shielding her tiny little legs). This woman was bossy even when she wasn't saying a word.

She covered the phone with the bottom of her hand and whispered,

"Help me spread this thang out." 

She tossed her end onto the tailgate. Together we spread the cloth out on the back of her truck. When the tablecloth was as smooth as a freshly made bed, she jumped back onto the truck and the look on her face told me I should follow suit. 

She continued exchanging pleasantries with whomever was on phone. This person apparently had a lot to say. Ray rolled her eyes and sighed. I muffled a laugh. She shot me a painful look. 

"I understand, and if you don't mind.." it seemed like she was interrupted. 

She rapidly opened and closed her hand as if she was operating a puppet. I didn't dare laugh again. Finally, she took a deep breath and firmly shouted, 

"Mrs. Foremon!" 

In the sweetest tone she could muster she continued,

"I sure do hate to be rude, but I have a meetin' and I can NOT continue this conversation. If you would PLEASE just leave a message at the office I will call you back as soon as I can."

The way she went back and forth from intimidating to sweet in under a second was dazzling...and hot as f**k. This woman was...something else...without a doubt not like anyone you could find in New York. 

After a few more pleasantries and around six "goodbyes," she finally hung up the phone. 

I started to say something but she held up one finger silencing me before I could even make a sound. 

"You just gotta give me one sec so I can forward all these darn calls to the office." 

She sat the phone face down beside her. Then she gave me that warm smile and I just melted. My mind went blank. I had completely forgotten how to form a sentence. 

"Do you prefer chicken salad or 'mino cheese?" She asked me. 

"Wait. What kind of cheese? mino? Like the fish?" I was confused. I had never heard of fish cheese. 

"No. PUH-MIN-o. You know the lil' red piece of an olive??" Somehow her explanation was still not making much sense.

She pulled out the sandwiches. 

"Oh.. Pimento!" 

"Yeah, that's what I said." 

"I've had these at the Masters Tournament," I informed her. 

"Oh you like golf?" She asked. "Of course you do," 

I'm not sure what was supposed to mean, I thought to myself.  But I explained. 

"Well my father did. It was the only full week he took off a year. If I was lucky, I was allowed to fly down for the end of the tournament. Before now, it was the only time I have been to Georgia."

"Really now?" It sounded like a question, but I think she was just being polite. 

She handed me a cream colored cloth napkin and a mason jar of lemonade. I noticed "FBC" was stitched in the corner.

"Who is FBC?" I asked pointing to the monogram

She laughed and swallowed a bite of her food.

"You're lookin' at it." She gestured all around us. 

"Oh. First Baptist Church." I felt like a fool. 

I took a bite of my sandwich. It was delicious. Maybe because it didn't have the bitter aftertaste of my father's disdain...maybe it was the present company..or maybe the fact that it was past noon and I hadn't had a bite to eat all day, but it was absolutely the best thing I had consumed in a long time. 

"Good, aint it?" She asked. 

"Ryan-Alexander. This is wonderful. I need to order about 100 of these to take back to New York." 

"Ya know, you really can call me Ray." 

"Okay. Ray. I will try to remember. How did you get the nickname?" I asked. 

"Well..." She scrunched up half of her face, while she thought for a moment. "I believe it was Josh that came up with it, after I officially made Ryan-Alexander my first name." 

Now I was confused. 

"You CHOSE the name Ryan-Alexander?" I asked. I was trying not to be offensive. 

"Not exactly," She continued, "It was my Daddy that picked out the names before I was born."

She used the napkin to wipe her mouth and took a sip of her lemonade. It seemed like she was preparing for a long story. 

"You see, my mama was absolutely positively sure she wasn' havin' anymore babies after me. So she let my daddy choose a gender neutral name. Mama swears that the doctor must have given' her way too much dilaudid after I was born, cause otherwise she would have made him change it." 

I laughed. I am glad that her mother was too drugged up to change her name. It was as unique as the woman sitting cross legged before me. 

"When I was born, Ryan was my first name and Alexander was my middle name. I was about..." she scrunched up her face again, this time wiggling her cute little button nose.

"I don' no...maybe ten or eleven when I decided I HATED the name Ryan. Kids were teasin' me every day. I hadn't quite developed yet and people were callin' me a hermaphrodite. Boys would say that if I showed them my parts they would stop... which was a LIE. They never stopped. So I decided to go bye Alex instead."

"Alex doesn't seem any more feminine," I pointed out. 

"Don't question my ten year old logic!" She scolded and scowled. I am sure she thought she looked super intimidating, but it was actually flat out adorable. 

"Yes ma'am!" I playfully imitated the colloquialism with my best southern accent.

She cut her eyes sharply at me, and this time I was actually a bit afraid. 

Note to self, do NOT EVER make fun of her accent again.

She continued. 

"I guess I was hopin' that maybe someone would start callin' me Lexie, or somethin' cute and sweet like that."

"Sexy Lexie, I like it," I commented and she shot me another look. 

Man if I don't stop interrupting her, I am going to be walking to the airport. 

"Well Lexie never took. By that point the whole town knew me as Ryan. So it was kinda hard to get them to change their ways. The best I could do was gettin' people to call my by both names."

She took another bite of her sandwich. Looked up towards the sky. Then began talking again. 

"So when I turned 16 and got my drivers license I officially made Ryan-Alexander my legal first name."

"So what did you choose as a middle name?" I questioned. 

"I didn't," She shrugged her shoulders. "My mama had to sign a form allowing me to legally change my name but she was more than happy to do it. In her eyes, this meant my maiden name would become my middle name when I got married. And since her and daddy didn' have anymore kids, our family name would live on. What she don't know is that I prolly' wouldv'e kept my maiden name anyways, but we aint gotta tell her all that," she winked.

I felt safe to ask another question.

"So what is your married name?" I asked. I was dying for her response.

"Oh!" She blushed, "I ain't married."

Interesting. 

"But, the guy earlier... he's your..." 

"FRIEND!" She hastily answered. 

Very interesting.

Before taking another bite of my sandwich, I had to ask her just one more question. I needed to know how she was connected to my father. Remembering how distressed she was at hearing about his death, there had to be a connection. This meeting was not just about investing in another project. 

"Ray," I gently started, just barely above a whisper. "How did you know my father? 

I braced myself, prepared for literally any response. 

"Well. I didn't really." 

Except that one. 

"But... earlier...when I told you he had died. You seemed so.." I was so shocked I stumbled on my words. "Are you sure you didn't know him at all?" 

"Well you see, here. I had talked to your daddy. But just the one time. My company had been trying to get him to invest in one particular project for months and Josh had me call him personally and seal the deal. " 

"So it was just business?" I asked knowing there had to be more to this story. 

"Well..." She drawed out. She seemed a bit nervous to continue. "not exactly. I could find any rich old guy to invest in this project. No offense." 

"So it wasn't just about the money?" I completely ignored her ruthlessness. I wasn't offended. I was intrigued. I needed to know the whole story.

"No. It wasn't just about the money. This project." She paused again. 

WHY DOES SHE KEEP STOPPING.

I couldn't get her to stop talking earlier, but now she wouldn't just spit it out. 

On with it woman! I thought to myself. 

"This project is very important to me. This property is important. I can remodel the structures that are already out there. I can design and build a new buildin' if that's necessary, but that is not nearly as important as what comes after." 

I shook my head in agreement urging her to continue. 

"I have a vision for this property. More than that. I just know something BIG needs to happen there. I have this immense feeling - not only am I supposed to build somethin' grand, but I have to make sure that the company that is established there - that whatever happens after- whoever takes over after I am finished is worthy."

"But why my father? What made him so worthy?" I had to know. My father was a lot of things, but worthy is the last word I would use to describe him. 

"Like I said, I didn' know your daddy that well, but after our conversation, I just knew he shared the same vision as me. I was hopin' today that he would see the property and we could just figure out all the details. If you had seen the property, if you knew the history of it, you would understand." 

She finished speaking and took another drink of her lemonade. The sorrowful look on her face was about to break me in two. 

"I guess we need to pack up and proceed to the next phase of this meeting." 

Ray's face lit up like the magnificent Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. 

As professional as I tried to sound, I couldn't help but feel my heart skip a beat. The sight of seeing her so pleased made me giddy. Despite how anxious I was to get back to New York, I couldn't help but smile. Her happiness was contagious. And who knows, maybe I will find a bit of inspiration at this mysterious property.