“Yeah, yeah.” Thomas Ellison dismissed his son. As the patriarch of the famed Ellison clan, Thomas built his career being a civil rights lawyer protesting when he was young back in the 70’s. During current times, he was every family’s go-to man when it came to police shootings and police brutality cases.
To say Thomas made a killing off black death was an understatement. “Where is she? Is she with you?”
Thomas had such contempt for Aaliyah, he couldn’t even say her name. “She’s not with me.” Ocean replied, wondering why he even told his father that much.
“Good.” Thomas added. “When is your flight?”
“This afternoon.” Ocean glanced back at the clock on the wall. “Why?”
“Tonight you have a date with Ximena Montez. She’s the daughter of Ricardo Montez, head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. I’ve already made the reservations and car service. You two are going to dine at the minibar restaurant and then go to the philharmonic where you’ll be seen by other social pages. By tomorrow, this will be all buried into the back pages and everyone will focus on you and Ximena.”
Ocean sucked the inside of his cheek and briefly pressed the phone against his forehead. “I’m not going on a date with her.”
“Ocean,” Thomas’s voice was like a father speaking to a child who’d behaved badly, “we’ve already discussed this. The arrangements have been made. You’re going out with her and that mess you’re in will be settled as if it never happened.”
Mess. He and Aaliyah were in a serious relationship and they were almost engaged. Ocean wondered if Thomas would have the same feelings if Aaliyah was named Becky and had a lighter complexion. “Why do you hate Aaliyah?” Ocean dared to ask. He already knew the answer but he had to hear it from his father. “What did she ever do to you?”
“I have ambitions regarding the future of this country that go beyond your feelings. If one person hates me in comparison to millions, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” He hung up.
Ocean almost ripped out the phone and threw it across the room. He decided he’ll go his Krav Maga classes instead that night. “Infuriating.” He shook his head. He heard a knock on his door and yelled for the party to come in.
“Man, I don’t know how you do it.” Ocean’s chief of staff, Justin Campbell, walked in. He was a tall, muscular black man with a bald head and goatee. “You two are all over the internet. The biggest news story in politics that has nothing to do with a potential World War Three or pissing off every single one of our allies.”
“Still no word on the only person who matters in all of this.” Ocean glanced down at his iPhone to make sure it was on and the volume was up. Now he felt like he was a lovesick teenage boy waiting to see if the girl he’d crushed on was going to return his call. “She matters more than any talking head right now.”
“Has she gotten back to you?” Justin asked and Ocean shook his head. “Give her some time. I’m sure she’s overwhelmed by all of the attention.”
“This is what she wanted, though,” Ocean defended his actions. “She wanted to be a politician’s wife and this comes with the territory.”
“You’re not any politician, though.” Justin poured a cup of coffee at the bar. “You’re an Ellison. Everyone knows how Ellisons get down.”
“Everyonethinksthey know how my family is. No one knows. The truth is more boring than all of the narratives everyone keeps putting out.” Ocean replied. When he was younger, a friend showed him a news story about his father having an affair with a famous actress. Ocean simply replied it wasn’t true because the woman didn’t have the right paint job. “The only thing they have on my father are his past affairs and even then, they don’t have anything current. How much longer are people going to recycle a twenty-year old story?”
“As long as police are gunning down black folks and your father is defending said families.” Justin took a sip of the too-hot coffee. “There’s that.”
“There’s that.” Ocean shrugged. He checked his phone again. No word from Aaliyah. He purposely set his phone so she would be the only contact to come through. No one else mattered. “I have a flight to catch in a few hours. I need an answer from her before I leave.”
“She’ll give you one, one way or another.” Justin reassured. “She doesn’t seem like the type to keep you hanging just because.”
“I just need to know.” Ocean bit his fingernail. His stomach curled up into tight knots and he let out an emotional, quiet sigh. His plan sounded great in his head but it might have spectacularly backfired on him.
If he lost Aaliyah forever, Ocean simply didn’t know what he would do.
~~~~~~
“I see you’re popular now,” Avery Smith boomed over the phone to his only daughter. “When’s the wedding?”
Aaliyah shook her head as she painted her toes. She’d been up for almost two hours and it seemed the story of her and Ocean simply picked up steam. Her IG followers were now close to a million; a blistering change from the barely fifty thousand from the previous day.
She’d received numerous phone calls and requests from many news stations and magazines asking her for an interview or any sound bite. She hadn’t returned any messages and didn’t plan to. Despite her anger towards Ocean, Aaliyah felt she needed to consult with him first. There was an innate need to protect that man, despite the heartache he’d given her. “I don’t know what to do, Daddy. He tricked me.”
“Well, yes, that wasn’t cool. But he had the right intentions. Ocean doesn’t seem like the type of man to intentionally hurt you or manipulate your emotions.” Avery replied. “I met him once and he was a nice, good man. Good values and despite his familial relations, he came from a good background.”
Avery never liked Aaliyah’s past boyfriends though she could admit she didn’t have the best choice of men. She dated former criminals, bad boys, variations of fuck boys, and just no good men. Ocean was the best man she’d ever dated.
He was also the man who’d given her the worst heartbreak. “I don’t know, Daddy. This is pretty crummy of him.”
“Pippi, this is what you wanted.” He referred to her childhood nickname. “You wanted to be a senator’s wife at one point.”
