"Ms. Hardy," said Brian, a tall, devastatingly handsome man with thick and glossy wavy black hair, steel blue eyes, and powerful physique. He was so arrestingly charming, not at all as hardboiled as Kevin claimed. In fact, she had a feeling there was some tension between the two. Carson could tell her so much, but surely Kevin supposedly hates Brian so much that he'd deliberately sabotage...
Shoving all negative thoughts from her mind, she graciously replied, "Mr. Dale...Oh please, call me Amanda."
"And please call me Brian."
There, the ice had been broken, and now was time to meet her potential supporters and present that most unusual project. While Amanda enthralled her audience with her proposal for a most unusual theatrical production, while they feasted on the best gourmet dinner purchased by Brian and prepared by his personal French chef, someone else decided to short-circuit Amanda's dream.
******
Kevin kicked off his shoes as he snuggled down in the comfortable leather couch. With a double whiskey and soda in hand, he mused over what Amanda said to him prior to departing for her meeting with that man. Brian Dale... The name stuck in Kevin's mind like flypaper. No matter how much he tried, he could not shake Dale's image or name from his memory. The man was that much a thorn in Kevin's side. To be fair, the supposed animosity between Brian and Kevin had been a figment of imagination in the latter man's mind. The truth, and those facts were, if not wholly, revealed to Amanda via Carson Grant, was that...
Well, it was all Kevin's fault, although he harbored much ill will towards Brian as though the up and coming Mr. Dale was completely to blame. So what happened to cause Kevin to be so bitter towards a man who truly had no reason to dislike Kevin? Kevin Williams and Brian Dale had the distinction of sharing several classes together; they both pledged to the same fraternity during their freshman year. Because the pair shared some similar interests and were business majors, it was natural that the men spent much time together. They shared study sessions, indulged in the usual "frat boy" silliness but never went overboard. However, they never became close friends, just casual acquaintances and classmates.
There were glaring differences in the pair: Brian Dale was the son of Calvin Dale, CEO of Dale Industries, Inc. He had the advantage of wealth, power, privilege. Brian, a product of posh private prep schools, was not the
athletic sort, preferring more intellectual and aesthetic pursuits of music,
art, theater, and debate. Kevin was the son of Betty Williams, a single, unwed mother who made her living in a series of low-paying service jobs. Naturally, Kevin, a straight-A graduate of the college prep magnet program at the local high school, won several scholarships. But that money came with stringent strings attached. That is, Kevin had to "keep his nose clean," as his mother so often stressed. There were a few minor disciplinary problems: a five-day suspension from middle school for fighting; several in-school suspensions in high school for various offenses ranging from tardiness to smoking on school property. With no one to pull strings for his college funding, Kevin managed to cover his tracks by forging false documentation.
How did this happen? As an effort to make the boy turn around his negative behavior,
Betty talked the principal into giving her son a job within the school. Nothing too demanding but something that would give him some responsibility and keep him out of trouble. As a result, Kevin spent his third period in the registrar's office – a big mistake – doing odd tasks: filing, answering the phone, running errands, copying memos. Being in the office meant access to the computer, and Kevin took advantage of a receptionist's momentary absence...
Ah, the right moment and place. Well, the computer was on, and the receptionist, in her haste, forgot to logout. All Kevin needed was to enter his student ID number and – VOILA! – He managed to slightly alter a few pertinent information. A suspension here, a reprimand there. He even edited his own attendance record. So what if the records had been falsified. It's not as if those people handing out the money would follow up. Besides, in a school of 3200+ students, who is going to have time to scrutinize each and every transcript? At least his prank was convincing enough to win him that scholarship. At least no one examined more closely his high school transcript. Gee, thought Kevin at the time, it's so easy to fake your way through life. Just wait for the right time, person, and opportunity. That was the way is was for Kevin, and he took every advantage in order to get out of "hard work".
Once at college, he cut class, paid unsuspecting student assistants to "steal" copies of exams, swiped another's work and turned it in as his own. No one suspected a thing until that fateful day during his senior year. He was working as an assistant to in the school of business: help grade papers, copy lesson materials, monitor classes during exams. He had his hands full, what with working and taking a full load of classes. There were also the demands of his fraternity and an active social life. He was overworked and overtaxed, and he had a major research paper due before end of term, a project that made up more than half his grade. He had no time to study – never took his education that seriously. So he faked his way through his senior year, ultimately, and almost to his detriment, commit one of the worse offenses. It was nearly three weeks before the end of the term, and he hadn't even begun working on his project. Once again, Kevin took advantage of his situation, looking out for that timely opportunity. And it came in the form of a request from one of the professors: Go through the files and fetch several past research papers. Why? Because the professor wanted to consult a few in preparing future lectures. There were many well-researched and written papers which the instructors often cited in their own lectures and projects. So, in the vast filing room, Kevin pulled those requested papers, his eyes lighting upon a project in particular. The topic, the resource, the citations...This is exactly what he was looking for! Deftly, without being seen, Kevin hid the purloined paper within the stack. Later he spirited that paper back to his dorm; the only "work" do was to type up a new title page then photocopy the paper itself. What a boon! Too bad Kevin never noted the name on that title page, or the date.
******
"How did I know that paper was Brian's brother's? He had to see that, then he told my
professor, who immediately flunked me! I had to retake the class in summer school. Damn goody-two-shoes...Making me flunk that class."
To Kevin, it was a rotten thing for Brian to do, nearly derailing those dreams of grad school. Oh, Kevin got to march with his class, but he received no diploma, much to the dismay of his mother. Betty Williams admonished her son that one day his slacking and scheming will catch up with him. She partially blamed herself for spoiling and making things too easy for the boy. After all, he was an only child, and a child born out of wedlock. She thought she'd make it easier for him since the other kids teased him for being poor.
But Kevin wouldn't hear any of it. He just assumed that there was always someone out there who would take care of him. That someone did appear in the form of a promising music student. With Amanda sweet-talked into being his girl, and that she was destined for bigger and better things, Kevin had no worries. Once he had his hard-won MBA (He earned this on his own – no cheating this time – much to his chagrin), he had his pick of any dream job, but turned down a lucrative offer from Dale Industries. Why, thought Kevin, should he work for the very man who caused his utter embarrassment and failure? No, Kevin would be his own man and work as Amanda's manager. With the income she generated, he wouldn't have to lift a finger. Just book the recitals and concerts and the rest is easy.
But Brian had to muck up things – Again!
"Muttering to yourself, Kevin?" The slender, ivory-hued, blue-eyed, statuesque redhead finally emerged from the kitchen, carrying a tray of sandwiches and coffee. She was quite pretty, and wealthy in her own right. Toi Brazzle, pop queen extraordinaire, set the tray on the sofa table while Kevin still sat brooding.
"Kevin," she said, "why so glum? Come on, you have to eat something, and you promised to take me to Club 52." Toi couldn't understand it. She only met Kevin a few weeks ago at one of the city's hottest night spots, and they hit it off right away. But wasn't he engaged to that classical singer, Amanda somebody? Oh well, he's over her now, at least that's what he claimed.
Kevin continued to brood, oblivious to Toi's admonishments that he eat something before going on a night on the town. He just sat there, downing another shot of whiskey. She never liked him drinking so much, and it painfully showed whenever he had words with his ex-fiancée.
"Kevin," she said, flicking a stray strand of auburn hair from her oval face, "how long are you going to beat up on yourself like this? You and Amanda are splitsville, so why are you still..."
She could say no more. With a dejected sigh, she handed Kevin a plate of sandwiches and a cup of coffee. "Here, you can't just drink your dinner."
Kevin finally accepted the food then said, "Toi, you know I told you Amanda and I are finished -- Well, she did the dumping, and for what? So she could call the shots in her career! She should be grateful I ever acted as her manager. I mean, I got her gigs that most beginning performers only dream of. She's won awards by the truckload, because I made her what she is. And now she gives me the boot for that Brian Dale. She's having dinner with him now, can you believe that? Brian is a pain in the butt, and I can bet good money he's after more than Amanda's talent, if you know what I mean."
Toi just let Kevin rant on. Honestly, thought the quirky and lovely rocker, he act as though he's owed the moon. He hasn't offered to act as my manager, and I really don't need his kind anyway. The only reason Toi put up with Kevin was that he was fun to be with, but not the type of person to whom she'd trust her future and career. To her, Kevin was the type of man she usually despised: Lazy, given to endless periods of sulking, not owning an ounce of ambition. OK, so he does have one drive, and that is to worm his way into the heart of some wealthy, unsuspecting woman in hopes she would take care of him for the rest of his life. In the meantime, he'd masquerade in public as "I'm the power behind her success," so he wouldn't have to endure the stares and whispers that he was nothing more than an opportunist. Toi was aware of Kevin's past problems; his mother told her so much the last time she spoke to Betty over the phone. Something about Kevin didn't quite click so Toi had to do some digging on her own and learn a few things about her latest fling. To be sure, Betty was unaware of her son and Amanda's breakup; she warned Toi that Kevin was up to no good, and that he had yet to learn from his past mistakes.
"Kevin," Toi said, inserting a rocking CD into her player, shimmying her lithely slender body to the music. She did look rather fetching in her strapless and very skintight green lamé
mini-dress; the sexy, sinuous body movements were not lost on Kevin. Still wriggling quite sensually, she continued, "When you finish eating, why not get cleaned up then we can hit the clubs."
Kevin, swallowing the last of the coffee, didn't reply. Instead he got up and joined Toi in the dance. Not a very good dancer, Kevin did manage to match Toi's movements,
much to that lady's amusement. "Why go at all?," he asked. "We can stay in, maybe catch a movie on TV..."
Already he was planning his counterattack against Brian Dale and Amanda. Sure, he and Amanda were finished as a couple, but there was so much unfinished business. There was the fact that Brian had scored again at Kevin's expense, forcing Kevin to look elsewhere for comfort. He had Toi but she was getting wise to his game, so he had to look for someone else not quite as astute. Yeah, that cute little blonde who works in Dale Industries who, and it had been rumored, nursed quite a crush on the CEO. Well, wonder what that lady would think when word gets back to her that the boss tossed her over for the likes of Amanda Hardy? Whatever the outcome, it wouldn't be pleasant for Amanda. Now, that blonde works in accounting. Wonder if there is something amiss, something that could show up the oh-so virtuous Mr. Dale...
To be continued...Go to Chapter 7
Copyright©2004 by P.R. Parker. All rights reserved.