Pecking Order, page 2
Emilio laughed it all off. He said, “Hey, Ivan, you know we have a big party down here tonight. You guys should come hang out with us. Big Deke is throwing it. So we’re gonna grab something to eat on Fifth Ave., then I can get you guys in VIP as my guests.”
Catherine listened as she sipped from her mug of beer. She immediately shook her head before Ivan could respond to him.
Ivan caught her response to the invitation and agreed to turn it down.
“Maybe another night, man. We’re just old friends over here catching up. But thanks for inviting us.”
“Oh, no problem. Anytime,” Emilio told him.
“Make sure you give me and my girls a few autographs before you leave,” Claudia commented to the rookie.
Emilio looked confused. “Ahhh…okay.”
His date said nothing the whole time, but her face said everything. She was just getting to know Emilio and had no idea how to respond to anything around them yet.
“Hey, rookie! What are you doing in here?” someone yelled from the doorway. The place was so bright that anyone could look straight through the glass windows and see everyone inside, just as Emilio had done to spot Ivan.
Ivan looked up again and recognized “Butch” Clayborne, a third baseman in his fifth year with the Padres. Butch had just signed a new multimillion-dollar contract earlier that year. He was a big, strong black man with two women: one white and one black. They were both proud to be his giddy companions for the night. And once the waitresses spotted Clayborne yelling through the doorway, several of them lost their cool.
“Oh, my God! Butch, are you coming in? Are you coming in?” they asked him with the double-talk of excitement.
He waved them off. “Nah, we don’t have time for that. Maybe another time.”
His two dates were already on their way in before he grabbed them back out.
“Hey, come on, let’s go,” he told them. Then he yelled back at Emilio, “Let’s go, rookie!”
The two women stumbled back out to join him awkwardly.
“Damn, my heel,” the black companion complained at the door.
The white companion laughed at her. In a flash, they were out of the doorway and headed up the street for Fifth Avenue.
Emilio looked back at Ivan and shook his head with a grin. “You see what I mean? I’m just a rookie this year. I got a long way to go to get to where he’s at. I’m just lucky he’s taking me under his wing.”
When Emilio left with his date, the Hooters establishment returned to its normal chatter. The surprise visit from the Padres’ baseball players had added a spark of insanity to the place. But as quickly as they had entered, they were gone.
“So, how do you know Emilio?” Claudia asked Ivan at the table. She had yet to receive an order from him. And she could see that the Padres rookie had a lot of respect for him. He had made it his personal mission to walk inside and say hi. He even invited Ivan and his date to a Padres party.
Ivan was still confused by all of it. “Ahh…”
Was it any of her business how he knew Emilio? How was he to respond to that?
Catherine was still shaking her head across the table with her beer. Things were getting a bit out of hand, from what she could see. Everyone was losing their focus.
She asked the waitress, “Are my french fries on the way out?”
Claudia caught her cold drift and got back to business.
“Oh, yeah, let me go get those for you.”
When the waitress left them alone again, Catherine said, “Now, that was just crazy. Did you see how they started to act in here? They act as if they never saw a baseball player before.”
Ivan smiled it off. “Yeah, but Butch Clayborne is more than just a regular player. He’s one of their bona fide stars now.”
The hype was no big deal to Ivan. He had been around plenty of wealthy and famous people. It was part of his job to go out and find new clients who had money. And they were all human. But what he didn’t understand was why Catherine wanted to meet him at Hooters in the first place. They would never have any privacy there.
“You wanna go somewhere else?” he asked her.
Catherine’s dress code surely didn’t fit Hooters. Her lime-green dress was more than casual.
She took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. She asked him, “How do you think my body compares to theirs?”
Ivan stared across the table to make sure that he had heard her right.
“What?”
“You heard me. How does my body compare to theirs?”
She bobbed her head to the left in reference to the Hooters waitresses, who were scampering around the tables, filling orders, and cleaning up.
Ivan couldn’t believe it. He shook his head and smiled. He said, “So that’s why you wanted to meet me here, to do a body check against Hooters waitresses? Are you kidding me?” He was halfway laughing. He said, “If you really wanna do a body check, then let’s go to this Padres party and do it for real. I mean, come on, none of these girls wanna wear the stuff they have to wear in here. It’s just a job.”
Catherine grinned back at him. She said, “I have my reasons.”
Ivan blew it off. “Anyway…next question.”
It was no competition in his book. He was embarrassed to even look at the waitresses. And Catherine was pleased to know it.
“Thank you,” she told him. A nod of confidence meant the world to a woman.
BY THE TIME they had left the place, it was well after ten o’clock, and Catherine was good and tipsy. It became obvious that Ivan would need to help her walk to wherever they were off to next.
“So, what hotel they got you up in?” he asked her.
Catherine was secure in his arms as they walked down Fourth Avenue.
“We’re almost there,” she told him. “And it’s a surprise.”
As they walked, a white stretch Hummer passed them by in the street and turned left down Fifth Avenue.
Catherine watched it and grunted. “Hmmph, I bet you think that’s more of your baseball players, don’t you? But if the Chargers were throwing a party, that would be a real party. I would have been interested in going to that.”
She added, “But it’s only, like, four or five black players on the whole Padres team. And I don’t count the Spanish guys. They’re not really down with us. But on the Chargers, more than half the team is black.”
Ivan only listened to her, amused by it all. He was slightly embarrassed by their night so far. What was her purpose for the evening; to get drunk while comparing her body to Hooters girls? That didn’t make any sense.
The next thing he knew, Catherine had him walking her along Harbor Drive.
Ivan said, “I could have gotten my car if I would have known we were walking this far.”
“It’s not far,” she told him. “All we have to do is cross the street and we’re almost there.”
Ivan looked across the street in the direction where they were headed and spotted the twin towers of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel. The towers were set on prime real estate, right off the San Diego Bay. It was an immaculate hotel from the outside alone. Ivan had no idea what it looked like on the inside. He had never had any reason to stay there. But he could imagine it.
“Oh, shit, don’t tell me they got you staying here,” he responded.
Catherine giggled and said, “Yup. I told you I can get what I want when I want it. I couldn’t wait to show you this. But…”
She stopped herself momentarily before she mumbled, “You really wanna know why I took you through that whole Hooters thing?”
Ivan didn’t care. It was all trivial in his opinion. He decided to hear her out anyway.
“Yeah, what was up with that?” he asked as he continued to help her walk.
She said, “Okay. When I was back home in Sacramento, I found out that my ex was crazy about a girl who worked there. And he actually left me for her. And I was like…why?”
Ivan started to chuckle and couldn’t help himself. Women! Their insecurities were amazing.
Catherine promptly stopped them from walking. “I don’t see why that’s so funny, Ivan. My feelings were very hurt by that. Very hurt,” she told him.
“I’m college educated. He’s college educated. I’m a professional. He’s a professional. I’m good looking. He’s good looking. And still, he picked a Hooters girl over me? Why?”
Ivan said, “Trust me, Catherine, it’s not about the restaurant, it’s all about the girl.”
She said, “But why do guys like to see young women dressed so…provocatively? I mean, it’s so tasteless.”
Ivan didn’t feel like dealing with any of that. It was all meaningless. He thought more about seeing what the inside of the hotel looked like. So he ignored her question.
As they neared the front entrance, Catherine made sure to straighten herself up to walk in on her own. She didn’t want the hotel staff and guests to consider her tasteless.
“Good to have you back this evening,” the uniformed valet greeted Catherine from the hotel drive-through.
“Thank you,” Catherine told him.
Ivan only nodded to him. They then nodded to the uniformed bellman as they entered the grand lobby.
For Ivan, a modest penny-pincher from South Central L.A., the Manchester Grand Hyatt was immaculate. Top-of-the-line hotels allowed the imagination to run wild, with marble floors, rich carpet, giant chandeliers, crown molding, artwork, candles, exotic wood, interior plants, soft music, and tall ceilings. It was all there. The difference between a five-star hotel and an off-the-road inn was like the difference between heaven and hell.
“They actually put you in here just for an interview?” Ivan asked as they wandered through the lobby. “Which building are you in?”
“The Seaport.” She grabbed him by the hand to lead him in the right direction. She said, “It has the better view. And it’s the newer building.”
As they strolled toward the Seaport building elevators, Ivan looked more like an amazed gawker than a guest.
Catherine read his wide, colorful eyes taking it all in. She yanked his arm for a dose of reality. “Come on, you know they’re getting corporate rates. They’re not paying what we would have to pay for this. They never do. So I told myself, ‘Take advantage of it from the company now. Because I may not get another chance to.’”
Ivan nodded and agreed with her. “You’re right. This is another tax write-off.”
When they stepped into the elevator, another display of first-grade hotel quality, Ivan was inspired enough to go for broke.
He said, “Hell, why not just stay up in here for a night or two like it’s a vacation? You only live once, right? I got a thousand dollars in the bank for a vacation, don’t you?”
Catherine looked at her old college man as if she no longer recognized him.
“What, and this coming from the cheapest man I knew on San Diego State’s campus?” She said, “I remember you used to sneak out of line with your food at the cafeteria to save six dollars.”
Ivan laughed hard. He said, “That’s when I was holding down the fort. I had to do what I had to do. I was working a full-time job, going to school, and still sending money back home to my mom. But…like she said…I can live now.”
Ivan felt guilty even saying it. He could hardly get the words out of his mouth. But he did. The reality of the hotel had smacked him in the face with a cold hard hand of what he had been missing all of his life, an opportunity for luxury.
DINNNGGG!
The elevator doors opened to the hallway on the fourteenth floor.
“Here we are.” Catherine spoke up with a chuckle. “Wait till you see the view I have from the room.”
Ivan said, “We should have had our dinner date over here. They got restaurants downstairs, don’t they?”
Catherine looked at him, amused. “And you would have paid the prices for the restaurants in this hotel? And then turned around and tipped the waiters? Because this is not fries and chicken and burgers over here.”
Ivan smiled broadly, knowing better. He said, “You would have paid for it. Corporate rates. They got you in here, right? And you gotta eat.”
“Yeah, and I’m sure they’re looking to see exactly how expensive I can be, too,” she commented. “I don’t have this job yet, and I’m not a fool like that. So if we need to bring Chinese takeout back to this hotel, then that’s what we’ll do.”
They shared a laugh as they reached the room. As soon as they walked into the king-sized suite, Ivan walked straight over to the window view of the bay and just stood there. He could see clear across to Coronado Island to his left, or view the boats, piers, smaller islands, and seafood restaurants to his right.
“They call this the corner room,” Catherine told him.
Ivan looked out at a lone boat in the middle of the bay and wondered if it was the yacht of a rich man out on a private date. What a life that would be. He stood there stunned by the infinite possibilities of real wealth.
Catherine joined him at the window. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The windows even open up so you can smell the air.”
She unlatched the large window and pushed it open for him to see. But Ivan remained speechless. The calculations were all running through his mind again as he idled there at the window. How could he afford to remain there at the hotel? How could he afford his own boat, property, leisure, travel, and custom designs?
Catherine moved to wrap herself within Ivan’s arms, as if they were still an on-fire college couple.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked him.
Ivan heard her question in his mind and ran with it. Problem was, he was thinking about too many things at once. So he settled on the most recent idea as his mind slowed down and came to a rest to answer her.
“I’m thinking about that Padres party.” He wondered what it was like and who all would be there to link up with. Maybe Emilio would introduce him to more of the major players on the team.
Catherine broke away, irritated by his answer. How could he still be thinking about a party when he had her all alone in a five-star hotel bedroom, with a dynamite view, wearing a dynamite dress, and horny to boot with alcohol in her system? What the hell was wrong with him?
“You really wanna go to that party that much, Ivan?” she snapped at him.
Ivan was surprised by her outburst. He hadn’t been paying her physical attractions much attention. He’d had a lot on his mind, with the thoughts of his mother passing away, before they had even met up that night. Now he had even more on his mind concerning how he planned to live out the rest of his life.
“I mean, I don’t have to go to this party, but…”
He stopped and thought about his dilemma. How exactly could he tell Catherine that she was old news, and that the party seemed more interesting to him at the moment? He wanted to get up close and personal with the people who could really afford to live. And he had been invited to do so.
Catherine looked into Ivan’s eyes, flickering in the moonlight from the window, and she decided to do something desperate to pique his interest. She wanted him to sleep over that night and give her his full attention without any distractions. So she massaged his crotch, kicked off her heels, and sank to her knees in front of him at the window.
She looked up and asked him, “Would this be your fantasy?”
Ivan could not deny that her spontaneous exuberance excited him. His manhood would surely respond to a blow job. But then he thought about their past. Catherine was a credit card woman. Whatever you spent with her, you would be forced to pay back later, and with interest. So Ivan shook his head and backed away from the purchase.
He told her, “Nah, I’m not really…”
He stopped and looked into Catherine’s determined face. Ivan knew who she was, and there were no surprises to her.
“I just know how you are,” he concluded. “And I’m not trying to go there.”
She ignored him and reached to unzip his pants zipper anyway.
Ivan stepped farther away and continued to deny her. He even put his hands in front of his pants to protect himself. “Yo—”
Catherine was incensed. “Just let me do what I want to do, Ivan. It may be my fantasy. And I promise not to hold you to anything.”
She was saying this from her knees, and the irony did not pass Ivan by. So he continued to shake his head.
“Look at this, Cat,” he commented, referring to her college nickname. “This ain’t a good picture,” he told her. “I mean, just look at you.”
Catherine heard him out, took a deep breath, and climbed back to her feet. Then she couldn’t even face him.
She sat on the edge of the king-sized bed and mumbled with her head down, “You’re still the same old Ivan…won’t break for nobody.”
Ivan didn’t respond. But she was right. He was a man who stuck by his principles.
She added, “I was hoping that you had changed a little bit.”
He didn’t have a response to that, either. The truth was, he hadn’t changed. He was still as strong willed as ever.
After another minute, the silence of the room increased the awkwardness for both of them.
Catherine finally decided to let the fish off the hook and send him back into the water.
“Well…if you wanna go to that party so much…”
Ivan jumped at his chance to leave with no shame. “Are you still gonna be up?” He knew he had to at least make his exit sound good.
Catherine looked at him and asked, “What, after the party? No.” She didn’t care about a consolation prize. She had lost him.
“I mean, just to call you up and make sure everything is all right,” he told her.
“Ivan, I’m a grown fucking woman, okay?” she snapped at him. “So you go do what you need to do and don’t worry about me.”
Ouch! He should have quit while he was ahead. Now he felt awkward again. Instead of saying anything else, he nodded and headed for the door.
“I’ll call you,” he said on the way out.
When the door closed behind him, Catherine took another deep breath and dropped her head even lower. All of her plans were out the window, falling fourteen stories down.
