It's Raining Men

It's Raining Men! Hallelujah!
It's Raining Men! Every Specimen!
Tall, blonde, dark and lean
Rough and tough and strong and mean

 

 

Trixie slept later than usual, thanks to her late night, but barely managed to arrive on time for brunch with Diana, Mart and Dan.  The big surprise hit her as she walked up to find Diana and Dan laughing over the newspaper, while Jim and Mart scowled at them.  Diana had failed to mention that Jim would be joining them, too.  Trixie had a distinct feeling the omission was deliberate on Di’s part.

“What’s up?” She asked cheerfully, sliding into an empty seat in between Jim and Mart. 

“You!” Mart growled, looking at his sister’s smiling face and wondering how she managed to look so alert after such a late night.  “What’s the big idea going out with a guy like Charlie Prescott?  Everyone knows he’s a jerk.”

“Gosh, and here the word I got was that he was a chump!” Trixie grinned.  “It was just a date, Mart.  A harmless night at the opera.  His parents sat with us and we went for coffee with them afterwards.  It’s nothing serious, and definitely nothing for you to be concerned about.”

Diana giggled again and even Dan couldn’t suppress a chuckle.  “I think it’s this picture that has him so upset.” Diana slid the New York Post across to her.  Buried in the late-breaking gossip section on “Page Six” was a picture of Trixie with Charlie and his parents.  It was clearly taken during the opera’s intermission and the accompanying blurb was an innocuous comment concerning one of New York’s most eligible bachelors being snagged.

What had Mart in an uproar, and Jim fuming, was the close proximity of Charlie’s hand to Trixie’s backside.  Trixie remembered the moment well; his hand was resting with deceptive casualness on her hip, and she had just moved it from an even more embarrassing location.

“Oh, good grief, Mart!  It’s just a picture.  You should know that New York’s finest bachelor chump is safe from my feminine wiles.”  She looked around trying to get the attention of their waitress.  She desperately needed coffee.

“Trixie, that dress is… well… you don’t wear a dress like that when you go out with a guy like Charlie!” Mart refused to give up just yet.  “Not to mention where his hand is.” 

Trixie shook her head.  It was the first time she had seen her almost twin in months, and here, instead of welcoming her back to New York with open arms, he was lecturing her on fashion and dating.  She wondered what his problem was, and was debating whether to ask him exactly what kind of dress one did wear when dating a guy like Charlie, when the waitress arrived with a pot of fragrant java.

Distracted by the arrival of steaming, hot coffee and the standard recital of the morning specials, Trixie let it go.  Mart was clearly eager to order.  Trixie agreed she only needed a moment to decide, and ordering last gave her enough time to glance at the menu and decide if pancakes or an omelet sounded most appetizing that morning.

After the waitress had left them again, Trixie sighed and turned to Mart.  “It’s really good to see you, Mart, even if you are acting like an idiot.  I’m not some silly teenager trying to fend off Tad Webster’s wandering hands.  I know how to take care of myself on a date.”

“I thought you turned Webster down, Trix.  How did you know he had wandering hands?” Dan asked with a seeming innocence.  “I’m pretty sure I remember him asking Mart to intervene to get you to go out with him.”

Trixie tossed her head and sniffed.  “Really, Dan.  Do you think the girls at Sleepyside don’t talk to each other?  It seems to me you three would have done your homework on Tad before trying to set any of us girls up with him.”

“I didn’t try and set you up with him,” Jim protested, finally speaking as he raised his hands in defense. 

Trixie’s head whirled quickly to the man on her left and gave him a piercing look.  “But you didn’t tell him to back off either, did you?”  Trixie remembered the pang of heartache she had felt when she learned Jim told Tad it was okay to ask her out.  She leaned back in her chair and took a quick sip of coffee.  “Can we please change the subject?  Tad, Charlie, whoever – no guy is going to try anything with me and get away with it unless I want him to.”  She shot a stern look at her brother.  “I’m a big girl, Mart.  Get over it and tell me why you haven’t stopped by to see me.  I emailed you all my new address.  In fact, I’m surprised none of you have stopped by.  After all, I’ve been there a week tomorrow.”  She grinned at them.  “You’ve missed all the fun of unpacking and trying to arrange movers to make deliveries in Manhattan.  Talk about a mystery trying to figure that out!”

Dan was the first to answer.  “No one’s seen me, Trix.  I’ve been up to my neck on a case, but we finally had a breakthrough Friday.  Now all we have to do is wrap up the reports.  I’ll be by soon, right after I drop in unannounced and have a little talk with Webster.  Today, if you still need help unpacking.”

Trixie giggled and shook her head.  “No, the unpacking’s finished.  It’s pretty easy when you don’t have much.  Besides, you don’t need to talk to Webster.  We took care of him without your help.”

“Oh?” Mart interjected, his eyes narrowing as he gave Trixie and Diana a suspicious look.  “How exactly did you manage that?”

Trixie shook her head, sharing another giggle with Diana.  “Sorry, Mart.  In the sacred pact of all things girl, I’m afraid I can’t tell you.  Perhaps your wife will tell you later; after all, it was her idea.”

Mart’s jaw dropped and he gave Diana a look of shock.

“Later, sweetie,” Diana patted his hand and adroitly changed the subject.  “Trixie, it sure seems like you would’ve had plenty of clothes to unpack.  That dress is this season’s latest from Europe.  You didn’t get that in a few hours on Saturday.”  Diana’s well-manicured finger tapped the newspaper still lying open in the middle of the table. 

Trixie took a breath.  “No, I had the dress.  I got it while I was in Europe last month wrapping up a case for the bureau.  It was one of the last projects I was able to finish for them.   The dress was part of the case.”  Trixie picked up her coffee mug in what she hoped was a casual manner. 

Diana gave her a sharp glance and let it drop.  She knew she couldn’t openly question Trixie’s explanation, and it did explain why her friend owned a four thousand dollar dress.

“You may be busy moving, but you’ve already had time to make dates with the biggest bachelor chump in New York,” Mart protested.

“Well, you can blame Jim for that!” Trixie shot back.

“Me?  What did I do?” Jim had been strangely quiet since Trixie’s earlier rebuke, speaking only to order pancakes and coffee.  “I’ve been out of town all week.  If I’d known you needed a date to the opera, I would’ve happily taken you, Trix.”

“Would the two of you get real!” Trixie snorted.  “I was out with Charlie because Jim’s cousin – Ben Riker – introduced me to him at Bitsy Thornhill’s fundraiser Friday night.  He asked me out to the opera, and I didn’t have an excuse not to go.  His dad owns Eastway-Berkley and they’d be a great corporate account for Honey and me.  They’d need a ton of consulting, employee background checks, everything.”  

“You went out with the guy to meet his father?” Mart said doubtfully.  Trixie shook her head at the irony.  How little credibility the absolute, literal truth bought her with her friends!  That was exactly why she had gone out with Charlie, but they were having a hard time believing it.

“Dad would be happy to have a word with Mr. Prescott,” Jim told her.  “Why didn’t you just let him know?”

“You know,” Trixie began pertly, “it might be hard to believe, but I’m still a Bob-White.  Making contacts is the biggest part of setting up a new business.  Jim, I know your parents would be thrilled to introduce me to anyone I asked them to, but I need to do this on my own, without their help.  Your Dad’s already done so much to get me started.  He helped me find my apartment; your mother’s introduced me to a thousand women with the right husbands who’ll need investigative services.  It’s time for me to do the work.”

Trixie sighed in exasperation.  “Would all of you just chill?  It was a harmless date, with a man who thinks he’s God’s gift to women everywhere.  If I can’t handle myself with a chump like Charlie, then they should’ve thrown me out of the CIB.”

Mart and Jim had the decency to look ashamed.  “I guess you’re right, Trix,” Mart mumbled.

“Yeah, so long as you broke his fingers before the night was out, I guess it’s okay,” Jim said heavily.  He vowed never to let her know how much the picture bothered him.  But he resolved to find out exactly how many charity functions she would be attending, and to do his best to accompany her to most of them.

Before brunch was over, the Bob-Whites had invited themselves to Trixie’s apartment to hang out. “Besides, Mart and I want to get the scoop from you about why you decided to quit the CIB,” Dan told her, his eyes searching her face for clues to the truth.  “We’ve heard Diana’s explanation, but we want to hear it from you.”

“Sure, but I still think ‘quit’ is a hard word to use.  I didn’t quit.  I simply negotiated my exit strategy,” Trixie informed him with a lofty tone.

Jim snorted.

“Do you have something to say, James?” she asked pointedly.

“Yeah, I do. Face it, Trix. You couldn’t stand the thought of Kansas for three more years, so you got out.  We don’t care. All of us are just glad you’re back in New York.”  Jim glanced around the table at the Bob-Whites.

“Speak for yourself, man,”  Mart muttered.  “Where Trixie goes, there goes madness and mayhem.”

 

 

Trixie found herself in a fortuitous situation once again.  With the Bob-Whites settled comfortably around her apartment, and Jim’s simple explanation paving the way for Dan and Mart to believe her story, she gave an award-winning performance. Still, Dan gave her a keen look more than once when she explained the situation.  Mart seemed about to ask a question or two, but then stopped himself. 

“So… the end result was Kansas or quit?” Dan asked with a perceptive stare. 

“Yes,” she replied.  “Not to mention no guarantees on seniority in the office, nothing that would let me be the first to have off for Thanksgiving or Christmas, or weddings or anything.”

“Weddings? Whose wedding do you need off for?” Diana jumped in immediately.

“Well, none, yet.” Trixie blushed, kicking herself for letting that slip.  It was clear that now Diana was suspicious, but about an entirely different thing.  The look she shot Trixie was meaningful.  Diana would be cornering her later.

Mart and Jim, both self-professed computer geeks, admired the sleek little laptop Trixie had set up in her office.  “This little baby is loaded,” Mart whistled appreciatively.  “I’ll bet I’d never have to worry about running out of space.”

“Do you run out of space on your computer?” Trixie asked.

“Oh!  To say the least!”  Mart groaned. “Di takes a ton of photographs with her digital camera.  I don’t like to delete any of them because she’s always going through them and playing with them.  They take up a lot of space.”

She nodded, but wondered why on earth Di didn’t simply have her own computer.

“How’s the job?” she asked instead.  Mart had been working at the United Nations as a translator for some time.  He was more than ready for Jim’s school to open.

“Most of the time it’s fine, especially right now when it’s cold and rainy and there isn’t much to do outside.  But come spring, I’ll be wishing like crazy for Jim’s school to be open.  I hate being inside all day.”

“It shouldn’t be that much longer, right?”  Trixie turned to look at Jim, who had been listening to the conversation with great interest.  “When exactly will the school be ready to open?”

“It will depend on how fast construction goes this spring.”  He smiled at his friends’ enthusiasm for the school.  “We decided to forgo the formal ground breaking since I ended up doing that work in New Orleans for my buddy Chase.  Mother suggests we have a naming ceremony or something instead.”

“What is the name of the school?” Trixie had wondered, since it had never been mentioned.

“It’s not going to be announced until the night of the fundraiser.” Jim answered.  “Maybe even later at a formal naming ceremony.  And before you ask again, I’m not telling.  It’s going to be a surprise.”

“You haven’t told anyone?” She was amazed, since Jim was rarely secretive.

“No, not a soul.  But I think Dan started a betting pool if you’re interested.”  Jim smiled as he looked over at Dan, who grinned back at him shamelessly. 

“The odds are two-to-one in favor of a name that incorporates the use of Ten Acres,” he informed her.  

Trixie laughed.  “I’ll come up with something, Dan, and place my bet.”

Diana and Mart began to make noises about leaving.  The trio had begun to don their coats and say goodbye when Trixie’s phone rang. 

“Grab it, Trix!” Mart encouraged her as he and Di headed out the door.  Dan followed them with a wave of his own, but Jim hung back.  She motioned for him to wait, and since he was not ready to leave, he simply pretended not to listen while she took the call.

“Hello, Charlie.”

Jim cringed as she continued the conversation, and when she began discussing Valentine’s night, he wanted to crawl under a rock.  There was absolutely nothing he could do as he listened to her make plans to go to the Heart Association’s Valentine’s Day Gala with Charlie “the Chump” Prescott.

She hung up and smiled at him.  That smile was enough to make his heart thump louder.  “Did everyone else leave, then?” she asked him, glancing around to make sure she hadn’t missed anyone.

He nodded, wondering how to tell her what he had to say.  “Trix, are you going out with Charlie Prescott again?”

“Yes.  He asked me to the…”

“I heard,” he interrupted.  “Trixie, I really wanted to take you to that, but…” he pushed a hand through his ruddy hair, wondering how to tell her he was already taking someone else.

“But what?” she asked gently.  “Jim, I don’t expect you to rearrange your life because I’m in town now.  I know you hate fundraisers.”

“It’s not that, Trixie.  For the next two months anyway, I’ll probably be attending as many fundraisers as you are.  Mother’s orders.  It’s just that back in December, Bitsy Thornhill had one of her fundraisers.”

Trixie nodded.  “Grace told me that she has several every year.  I’m surprised I didn’t see you Friday night.”

“If I hadn’t been on my way back from Washington, I would’ve been there.”  He paused and took a deep breath.  “You see, Trixie, the thing is... the fundraiser in December, it was a bachelor auction.”

“You mean – you bought a date with a beautiful single girl?”  Trixie felt a jealousy well up within her that she had to swallow hard to suppress.

“No, a single girl bought a date with me.”  He flushed to the roots of his hair.  “Mitsy Thornhill was the high bidder for a Valentine’s Night Date with me.  She bought a night on the town with me -- dinner, the Heart Association Gala, coffee and dessert, even a hansom cab ride through Central Park.”

Trixie studied Jim’s embarrassed expression, and wished fleetingly that she had been there to bid against Mitsy.  “How much?”

 “How much is it costing me?” he asked, momentarily confused.

“No.  How much did she bid?”

“Seven thousand dollars.”

Trixie nodded again, and swallowed hard, the jealousy threatening her ability to speak.  “I’m sure it will be worth every penny for her.”  Standing next to him, she was certain of the truth of that statement.

“Trixie… you’re not mad at me, are you?  I mean, it is Valentine’s Day and if I didn’t already have this… this… thing planned with Mitsy…” Jim’s decency wouldn’t allow him to call it a date, “… then I would’ve asked you as soon as I knew you were back in town.”

Trixie nodded.  A sudden stab of desire for Jim made it hard for her to trust her voice.  There’s nothing I could want more!  She cleared her throat and forced herself to respond in a light tone.  “I’m sure I could manage to save you a dance.  There’s little doubt that Charlie and Mitsy know each other.  We could probably even swing two dances.”

“Does that mean you’re not mad?” Jim found he could breathe again.

“Of course not!  It’s a good cause, and like I said before; that kind of date with the eligible Dr. James Winthrop Frayne is worth every penny.”  Trixie had to force herself to smile.

“I could arrange for you to have a date with Dr. Frayne and it wouldn’t cost you a cent.” He managed a tentative smile.

“Oh? Really?  How long would it take for you to arrange something like that?”  In spite of her nonchalant words, Trixie could feel her heart pounding and her breath coming harder.  It took all the effort she could muster to maintain a casual air.

“Well, when I think about it –” he stopped as the ringing of the telephone interrupted him.  “Do you want to go ahead and get that?” he asked.

It was the last thing Trixie wanted to do.  But instead she nodded mutely and turned to answer the call.  To her surprise, Ben Riker was on the phone.  He got right to the point.

“Trixie, I feel really bad about how things turned out with Charlie.  I saw your picture on ‘Page Six’ of The Post.  Since you’re trying to attend these things to make business contacts, and I pretty much do the same thing, I’d be happy to be your date for the next one.  Are you going to the Heart Association Gala Tuesday night?”  Ben had been impressed by how great Trixie looked at their last meeting, and was eager to see more of her.

“As a matter of fact I am,” she answered, glancing at Jim.  “Charlie’s already asked me to the Gala.”

“Oh.”  Ben hesitated.  “How about we go out for coffee tonight so I can make it up to you?”

“Tonight?” Trixie was taken aback. She cast a surreptitious look at Jim, who had crossed the room to look out her window at the view.  He seemed unconcerned about her conversation.

“Are you busy?”

“Uh… no, I guess not.”  Trixie felt her neck grow hot.  She was uncomfortable having this conversation with Jim Frayne standing right there in her living room, and too flustered to come up with an appropriate excuse.  “What time?”

Ben suggested a time and Trixie quickly agreed.  She concluded the conversation, mentally kicking herself for her lack of finesse. 

“Sorry about the interruption, Jim,” she said, moving to join him in front of the window.

“I guess I should have realized you’d be busy, now that you were back in town.” Jim replied with a forced nonchalance, quelling the tumultuous feelings that had been unleashed in him as he overheard her make plans for the evening.

“I’m not that busy,” she hastily assured him.

“Didn’t you just make plans for tonight with Ben?” he asked polite deference in his tone.  He had been on the verge of asking her out when the ringing phone interrupted their conversation.

“Umm, well, yes.  But it’s just coffee.  Remember I told you he introduced me to Charlie Prescott.”

Jim said nothing for a moment.  He finally shook his head and gave her a small smile.  “I’d better be going, Trix.  I’ve got a lot to do before my meeting tomorrow.”

She nodded, wanting more than anything to change what had just transpired with the two phone calls.  Walking with him to the door, she wondered if he were angry with her. 

When they reached the door, Jim hesitated.  He finally turned and looked at her hard.  “I guess I’ll see you around, Trixie.”

“Jim, wait!” She put out her hand to stop him.  “Earlier, when you said you wanted to take me to the Gala on Valentine’s Day.  Did you really mean it or were you just being nice?”

“You know me better than that, Trixie.  Of course, I meant it,” he answered. 

“What were you saying earlier then, when Ben called?” she pushed, certain that she needed to know.

Jim couldn’t remember precisely what he had been about to say, only that he wanted to take her on a romantic Valentine’s date instead of Mitsy.  “I don’t remember exactly,” he hedged.

“We were talking about your date with Mitsy,” she prodded. 

“I’m not going on a date with Mitsy,” Jim protested.  “I explained that.  It’s a charity thing.”

Trixie shook her head. She couldn’t offer any further prodding without feeling the fool.  “Okay, then.  Well, I guess I’ll see you later.”

Jim pulled on his jacket.  “At least I’ll see you at the gala Tuesday night.”  He reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.   “Don’t forget to save me that dance.”

Trixie nodded, still feeling uncomfortable with the outcome of the evening.  There’s something he’s not saying – what is it?  Jim dropped a kiss on her cheek and turned to leave.

Jim walked quickly to keep warm in the cold, February air.  Thoughts of Trixie dating Charlie Prescott and Ben Riker preyed on his mind.  He made it half-way to the train station before remembering that he had meant to go to his parent’s apartment.  He had to back-track nineteen blocks to reach the penthouse.