Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal by Mallory Monroe

from her yet
again.   He turned back around, and pulled
her into his arms.
    Gloria was at first shocked, and then relieved when
Mick held her.   She wasn’t going to sob
in his arms.   He hated weakness.   Even she knew that!   She stifled her cry, but she couldn’t
suppress it.   It wasn’t until they had
stopped embracing, and he left, did she fall against the door and let it all
out.   She boohooed cried.   She was so tired of these endless false
starts, when she had been so hopeful.
    Outside of her front door, Mick could hear her
sobs.   He stood on the opposite side of
the door and listened to his daughter cry her eyes out.   His heart melted as he heard her.   He wanted to go back in, and hold her again,
but he knew he was not the answer.   He’d
let her down too many times himself.   What could he bring to the table?
    But he couldn’t walk away.
    He opened the door, forcing her to back away from
it, and went back into her apartment.   When he closed the door, she fell into his arms.
    On her sofa, he held her.   He held her until she had no more tears to
cry.   He held her until she was sound
asleep.

 
    Roz parked her Bentley in the space reserved for
CEO, grabbed her briefcase and purse, and made her way toward her front
entrance.   She almost made it in.   She was a mere few inches away, when somebody
called her name.
    “Rosalind Graham?”
    A few weeks ago she became Rosalind Sinatra.   But because her agency was the Graham Agency,
she continued to use her maiden name as her professional name.   She therefore assumed whoever was calling her
wasn’t a friend, but a client.
    When she turned and saw a gentleman walking her way,
a tall, elegant African-American gentleman, she was as surprised as she was
confused.   It wasn’t just any man walking
her way, but Broadway star Hamilton Sturgess.    “Hamp?” she asked with a smile.   “I don’t believe it!”
    Hamilton smiled grandly as he made his way up to
her.   He was dressed in a suit and tie,
looking far more formal than she remembered as his usual style.   And he looked older too.   But he still had that charm.   “I’m not a ghost, don’t worry,” he said as he
approached.   “A blast from the past,
maybe, but not a ghost.”
       Roz smiled
too.   Hamp really was one of the good
guys.   But why in the world was he in her
orbit?   “What are you doing here?” she
asked him, as he came upon her and gave her a friendly hug.
    “I heard through the grapevine that you had yourself
a talent agency here in Philadelphia.”
    “I do,” Roz said.   “As you can see.”
    “Yes, I see,” Hamilton removed his shades and looked
up at the impressive building of granite and glass.   “You own it, lease it, what?”
    “Own,” Roz said.
    “Wow.” He looked at Roz.   “I’m impressed girl.   You did great for yourself.”
    Coming from Hamp, it was a compliment.   “Thank you,” Roz said.
    “Yeah, at least one of us did well.”
    Roz stared at him.   What in the world was he talking about?   “So what are you doing here?” she asked again.
    Hamilton exhaled.   “I need representation, Roz.   I
need a fighter like you.”
    Roz was thrown.   “What are you talking about?   Aren’t you with the William Morris ---?”
    “Everybody dumped me,” Hamilton quickly
interjected.   “I did one dumb thing, now
I can’t get a job as a dog catcher on Broadway.”   His look was sincere.   “I need your representation.”
    It was a thorny problem for Roz.   She thought the world of Hamp.   She respected him as one of the greatest
actors of his generation.   But they had a
history.   A very brief history that he
told her going in was going nowhere, but that didn’t stop her from falling for
him.   That didn’t stop her from hurting
like hell when he kept his word.
    “This is . . . very surprising that you would come
to me, Hamp,” she said.
    “I know.   And
I’ve always been straight with you and