My cell phone buzzed from the other line before I could answer her. It was Danni calling me back.

I told Victoria, “Consider it done. You got the look. We just have to work on that height of yours. So all you have to do is show up like you’re serious.”

I wasn’t planning on using the extra tickets they had given me to the banquet anyway. I wasn’t inviting Corey to the event, and I hadn’t called up any of my other folks in Chicago. I was pretty much laying low. I thought about Andrea showing up, which was still a possibility. But I couldn’t let thoughts about her derail my day. I had to fill my plate with other items to do. So I forced myself to move on, don’t look back, and don’t even think about her.

Victoria cheered up a great deal after the banquet invitation.

She said, “Oh, I’ll be the hottest of the hot. And I bet that I’ll make you real proud of me. You watch.”

I laughed. “I hope you will. But let me take this call, and I’ll call you back later on to give you all the information.”

“Okay. And Terrance?”

She waited for me to respond again.

I smiled and said, “Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

Sincerity was her way of locking her teeth into a guy. But she would only use it with someone she felt could really help her. I guess I was in that position.

I hung up with Victoria and caught Danni on the last ring.

“Hello.”

“Oh, I was just about to hang up,” she told me.

“With no messages?”

“For what? You don’t respond to those things. I leave you a message and you don’t call back for five hours.”

“But I do call back.”

“Yeah, whatever. So are you being good out there in Chicago?” she asked me.

“Are you being good in Atlanta?”

“I’m always on my best behavior. And most of these guys hate me for it. But I do it anyway, all for you. But will you do the same for me? Drum roll, please.”

I laughed. She was being lighthearted about it, but she was also getting her point across.

I told her, “You’re in good shape. I’m just handling my business out here. In fact, I didn’t even feel like going out to the meet and greet tonight. So I’m just sitting up in the hotel room watching HBO.”

“Yeah, with a little chick about to bring you room service and spend the night for breakfast in bed.”

She had quite an imagination.

I said, “Is that what happens when you’re on the road?” Danni was due to fly out to Detroit for an automobile campaign the next day.

“I could if I wanted it to; every night of the week,” she answered.

“But then you would be a professional garden tool,” I told her.

“Whatever. I would have me a good time though.”

“Is that what you call it?”