But part of her response was understandable, she told herself. Preparation was key with Gannon. She absolutely couldn’t fly by the seat of her pants with that man.
Erika rubbed her knees and paused for a breath after ten games of one-on-one. She’d had her lunch handed to her during the last six games. Looking at the fourteen-year-old responsible for pounding the living daylights out of her via a basketball, Erika shook her head. “You could show a little pity for the elderly.”
Tia Rogers, the pretty but lanky girl with chocolate-brown eyes who Erika was mentoring, shrugged as she walked to the side of the basketball court Erika had reserved for their use. Since she’d been promoted, she got dibs on the EPH gym.
“You ain’t old. You just sit on your butt too much in that fancy high-rise office.”
“Aren’t old,” Erika automatically corrected, though at the moment thirty-two seemed over the hill. “Getting paid to sit on your butt isn’t all that bad. And I don’t just sit on my butt,” Erika said. “By the way, how’s algebra?”
Tia made a face. “I don’t like it.”
“What’d you get on your last test?”
“B minus,” Tia said.
“It’s going up. That’s the right direction.” Erika patted the girl on the shoulder and scooped up both their coats from the bleachers. A group of men immediately took their place on the basketball court. Erika led the way to the elevator. Tia was quiet on the ride down.
“I need an A,” Tia finally said in a glum voice. “I need all As if I’m going to get a scholarship to college.”
“You’ll get a scholarship,” Erika said, waving at the security guard before the two of them stepped out into the cold night.
Tia swore and spit as she stepped outside. “How do you know?”
Erika swallowed a wince. She was supposed to inspire Tia and help polish her mentee’s rough edges. Tia, who lived with her aunt because her mother was in prison for repeated drug violations, had been chosen for the mentor program because she worked on the school newspaper. “Ditch the spitting and swearing.”
“Everyone else swears and spits,” Tia said in a challenging voice.
“Everyone else isn’t you. You’re different. You have talent, brains, common sense and, most importantly, you have drive.”
Tia met her gaze with wide brown eyes filled with hope but tempered with skepticism. It was Erika’s job to help give the hope and drive she glimpsed in the young teen a bigger edge in the battle.
“Is that what got you your fancy job in the office you showed me a couple weeks ago? I hear you always need a connection.”
Erika exhaled and her breath created a visible vapor trail. “I’m working for a company where most of the executives are related and I’m not part of the family.”
Tia smiled. “So you’ve had to kick some butt, too.”
“Metaphorically speaking,” she said as an image of Gannon’s backside slithered across Erika’s brain. She’d had a tough time totally banishing him from her mind since his surprise visit yesterday. She still didn’t know what she was going to do about Pulse. She lifted her hand to hail a taxi.
“My aunt keeps asking me why you don’t have no man.”
“Why I don’t have a man,” Erika corrected.
“S’what I said,” Tia said and climbed into the taxi that stopped by the curb.
Erika climbed in beside her and gave the taxi Tia’s address. “I don’t have a man because—” She broke off. Why didn’t she have a man? Because Gannon had ruined her for other men. “Because I fell for someone and he dumped me.”
“Wow,” Tia said. “Why’d he do that? You’re pretty for an older lady. You got it going on.”
Erika groaned at the reference to age. “Thanks, I think. Why’d he dump me? I guess he didn’t think I was the right woman for him.”
Tia swore again. “You should teach him a lesson. Go get you another man. A better man.”
“Yeah,” Erika said, thinking she’d been trying to do that for a year now.
An hour later Erika walked into the Park Slope brownstone she owned and immediately stepped out of her shoes and into her bunny slippers. She looked down at the pink furry footwear and smiled. They always made her smile.
Making a mental promise to wash the clothes in her gym bag, she left the bag in the hallway and headed for the kitchen as she glanced through her mail. Bills, bills … She paused at the postcard that featured a Caribbean cruise and felt a longing for hot weather, sunshine, an icy margarita and the sound of steel-drum music.
Sighing, she dismissed the mini fantasy and used her remote to turn on the sound of Alicia Keys while she poured herself a glass of red wine. She picked up her phone and listened to her messages.
The first was from one of her best friends, inviting her to visit a trendy new bar. The second was her mother checking on her. Erika bit her lip in response to that. Her mother had called her at a weak moment and Erika had told her too much about the results of her doctor’s visit. The third message was from Doug. Doug the dud, she added. A nice enough guy. He was just so boring.
The call-waiting beeped as she listened to his message and she automatically picked up. “Hello?”
“Erika, I wondered when I would hear your live voice again. How are you, sweetheart?”
Her mother. Erika winced. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve been very busy at work and I took on a mentoring project with an inner-city teenager. How are you? How’s bridge?”
“Your father and I came in second last night. We host tomorrow night. What is this about mentoring an inner-city teenager? Darling, you don’t really think that will take the place of having your own child, do you?”
Erika’s chest twisted. “No, but it’s a good use of my energy right now.”
“Honey, if you would just make a little effort and be more open-minded, I know you could find a man in no time. Then you could have both the husband and the baby you want.”
Erika squeezed her forehead. “I’ll make a deal with you, Mom. I’ll go out with two men next week if you stop asking me about this for the next week.”
“I’m just thinking of your well-being. You’ve always wanted children.”
“I know.”
“You just kept putting it off,” her mother added.
“Mom,” she said, and Erika couldn’t keep the warning note from seeping into her voice.
Her mother sighed. “Okay. Two dates, two men next week. I’ll say a prayer and make a wish on a star.”
Erika felt her heart soften. Her mother did love her. She just felt the need to interfere sometimes. “I love you. Have fun tomorrow night.”
Clicking off the phone, she set it down and smiled, picturing her parents and the house in Indiana she’d left behind when she moved to attend college in the East.
The town of her childhood had often felt sleepy to her, the pace hadn’t been fast enough. She’d wanted more excitement, more action, more challenge.
She remembered the smell of the cholesterol-laden, but delicious home-cooked meals that had greeted her every time she returned home, and the scent of chocolate chip cookies every time she left again.
She remembered making crafts with her mother on rainy days and the countless times her mother had sat with Erika while she’d done her homework. Her father had