“Honey, you should have seen me. I wore a one-shoulder pink cocktail dress I had bought especially for this dinner she and I had been planning for weeks. I was sexy as hell.”
“As you always are.”
“Thanks sweetie, but I don’t need your help.” She laughed.
“When I tell you it hugged my body and revealed curves you know I rarely show. I was standing in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window staring into the courtyard, feeling taller than tall in my backless silver shoes. I had an almost empty bottle of cabernet sauvignon in one hand, and held a wine glass close to my lips with the other when she opened my door and walked in. I turned my head slightly, looking over my left shoulder. Trevor, what she said next took my feet from under me.”
“I’m not sure I want to hear this,” I said, but I had my ears glued to the phone.
“Well, neither did I. But right now, you have no choice.”
“Continue.” I held my breath and prepared for the worse.
“Toni simply held up her left hand exposing her vintage diamond engagement ring and told me he asked her to marry him…and she had said yes.”
Hearing what happened to Denise and Toni had left me without words.
“I don’t understand why you’re just telling me this,” I finally said. Denise’s angel had broken her heart. “I thought you guys were back on cloud nine by now. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I needed to work this out on my own. I thought she’d realized what we had and come back, but apparently life with the good doctor was sweet enough for her.” There was a sadness I had never heard before in Denise’s voice that was becoming familiar.
“No regrets, right?”
“None whatsoever,” Denise said, pausing for a moment.
“So you have a wedding to prepare for?”
“Trust me. I’m not checking my mail for an invitation.”
“Don’t you want to be the one in the front to waive her hand after the pastor ask the congregation to speak now or forever hold their peace?”
“I don’t need to be the one telling Toni she’s making a mistake, even if that’s what I truly believed. It’ll come across as selfish. Whatever will be, will be.”
“Spoken like a trooper.”
Whenever I spoke to Denise I’m reminded why she had become the friend I would always want in my corner.
“Listen,” she spoke softly. “When you answered the phone, you sounded like you were expecting someone who had already gotten on your last nerve. What’s that all about?”
Distance and time had happened to Denise and me. Dinners and lunches at our favorite Le Petit Poisson once scheduled with a simple phone call now required a reservation and a three-hour flight. So there was a lot I needed to tell her, but where should I start?
I hadn’t told Denise too much about my rise with Jackson, which came as a result of my fall with Kelvin. And I wasn’t going to mention hearing of Kelvin’s plans to move back, though I wondered briefly what had happened with Kelvin’s relationship with Lawrence. I hadn’t mentioned the eerie phone calls that begun shortly after Jackson had settled into my life. Then there was Dexter. I didn’t know how to tell her about the feelings for Dexter that had settled in the pit of my stomach; feelings I’d been trying to ignore and couldn’t quite explain. I didn’t want Denise to think news of Kelvin returning to the area, or that unexplained feelings for Dexter had thrown a curveball into what I had with Jackson. I was doing a good job making my relationship with Jackson work, even with all that was going on around me. I was through with my love for Kelvin, and as much as I could, I was showing Jackson just how much I loved him.
13
Ain’t Nothing but Love
Trevor…
It seemed I had blinked and Thursday was here. Until tonight, I had no idea Natalie knew her way around the kitchen. Usually when my father suggested dinner, she was the first on the phone, pressing the numbers to one of her favorite restaurants. I think she had one or two of them on speed dial. She was keeping this talent hidden, but tonight she had definitely let her inner-chef work her magic in the kitchen.
Jackson had spent his third day at University Hospital in meetings, this time with the CEO and the board. Three days on the job and it seemed each day was already longer than the previous, but he wasn’t complaining. He’d called earlier, a few minutes before five to say he had to work late, which was fine, since Natalie still had some time before dinner was placed on silver platters and brought to the table.
Apple avocado salad with tangerine dressing teased our taste buds in preparation for the main meal. The tomato and avocado salad with green empress dressing had become my father’s favorite, so there was a colorful display of that, too. Grilled shrimp with garlic-red chile-thyme marinate satisfied the seafood lover in all of us. The Peking duck sat in the middle of the dining room table on a bed of greens and slices of oranges as if it were a succulent turkey on Thanksgiving. Natalie had everyone in mind when she began planning this dinner a few days ago. She was trying to please us all, which wasn’t necessary. My father had already fallen in love with her, and, well, she had me when I saw him smile when he first mentioned her name.
An hour into dinner and Jackson still hadn’t arrived. When my cell phone vibrated, I hoped it was him calling to say he was, at most, five minutes away. When I looked at the screen, Caela’s asparagus-green eyes stared back at me. She sported a medium length short hairstyle. Her hair color fell somewhere between auburn and red, but I liked that color the most. This was my favorite picture of Caela, a glamour shot taken over a year ago when she entertained the idea of modeling. She would have been good, too.
“Hello,” I answered, excusing myself from the table.
“Hey, are you busy?” Caela asked. That was a trick question. Even though I loved Caela, I hated being interrupted when having dinner with my family.
“What’s going on, Caela?” I asked.
“I just saw Jackson at Java House. Didn’t you say you two were having dinner with the family tonight?”
“I did. We are.”
“Well, unless that’s you sitting across from him at Java House, and you forgot to tell me your momma was Puerto Rican. Wait, let me look again.” Caela paused. “Nope, that’s not you.”
“Are you sure?”
“That it’s not you? Of course I’m sure.”
“I know it’s not me,” I said, trying not to get loud. “I mean are you sure it’s Jackson. Who is he with?” I asked, sounding like a detective firing questions like I was trying to solve a case.
“He’s with some guy. And yes, I’m sure it’s Jackson. Their interaction looked intense.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean they seemed to be discussing something important.”
“Did he see you?”
“I doubt it.”
“Look, Caela, I have to go. I’ll call you later.”
I hung up the phone and walked back to the dining table. I sat back in my chair and resumed eating in silence until my father broke in.
“Hey,” he said. “Is everything ok?”
“That was Jackson. He should be here shortly.” I didn’t see any reason why I should share my conversation with Caela. If she said she had seen Jackson, she wasn’t lying. Jackson wasn’t a hard person to pick out from a crowd. We sat, ate, and talked about school, work, and trips my father was planning with Natalie.
“He better hurry up and get here,” Adrian spoke. “I think my mom was trying to impress him. I hope he knows I’m packing a few to-go plates for later. He does know I’m a college student, right?”
Just as I was about to ask Adrian a question, the doorbell chimed.
“That’s probably Jackson now,” I said. I excused myself from the table again.
I walked to the door, looking at my watch. When I opened the door, Jackson stood with a wide smile across his face. He was looking good. He looked especially handsome in his grey solid Hugo Boss suit, white solid st
retch fitted shirt, and textured stripe skinny tie. His suit jacket hung from the closest finger to his thumb, and he leaned against the door as if he expected me to answer.
He walked in, and after a long hug, said, “Sorry I’m late.”
“No problem,” I said, and closed the door behind him. “We’re in the dining room. How was work?” I asked. I walked a few steps behind him.
“Long. Meetings.”
I waited for Jackson to elaborate, but for now, that was all I got from him. He walked directly to the bathroom before making his way to the dining area.
My conversation with Caela came shooting back. Could she have been mistaking? Had she actually seen someone she thought was Jackson? I didn’t want to think he had lied to me. Why would he? And if it was him, who was this person he was having this heated conversation with?
“Mr. Robert, Ms. Natalie, sorry I’m late,” Jackson apologized as he removed a chair from the table and sat.
“You don’t have to apologize. Things happen,” my father responded. “Looks like you’re going to have to get used to these long days. Just get you something to eat.”
I looked at my father, and then at Jackson. Was he lying to my father, too?
I was able to push everything to the back of my mind during the next two-and-a-half hours as I sat having dinner and laughing with my family. Getting to know Adrian was fun. He had skipped his usual dining hall gathering with his roommate and campus buddies to spend the evening with us. I wouldn’t exactly label him a momma’s boy, but he definitely loved spending time with Natalie. His father was an undercover police officer who died in a drug deal gone wrong. Adrian was about six years old then. He wears his father’s Medal of Valor he was given after foiling a teenager’s suicide attempt from the bridge of a busy highway. Now a smart nineteen-year-old bio and chemistry major at the University of Pennsylvania, Adrian was already playing the role of my little brother, asking me questions about this female in his lab he had the hots for.
“I know you don’t press for the ladies, but…” usually preceded his questions. He didn’t care about my affection for Jackson. He was just glad to have an “older brother to chat it up with.” I’m not sure how he took my advice, or what he did with them, but since his father wasn’t around and my dad was now a part of his life, at least he now had two men to keep him grounded and walk the right path, though Natalie had already made sure he wasn’t a nuisance.
I enjoyed getting more acquainted with Natalie, too. As she listened during our table conversations, debates, and disagreements, she kept her left hand pressed against the left side of her face, unintentionally displaying the white gold engagement ring my father presented her a year earlier.
“That’s it,” my father said when his eyes first met this perfect jewel.
I wondered if my dad had this much excitement when he chose the ring that represented the love he had for my mother. The diamonds that once sparkled under the fluorescent lights in the display case now gleamed from Natalie’s perfectly manicured fingers under the lights above the dining room table.
Neither my father nor Natalie were in a rush to get married, but in the two years since they’d met, he was convinced this was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Adrian had his lab class early in the morning and was getting ready to go back to campus, but not before fixing a plate for himself and his roommate Brooks Clayman.
“He’s going to see what real cooking tastes like,” Adrian joked before leaving. Natalie and my father stayed in the dining room chitchatting over coffee. Since Natalie cooked, Jackson and I volunteered to clear the table and prepare the dishes for the dishwasher.
“I checked my schedule to see about dinner with Dexter,” Jackson said, placing the last dinner plate in the dishwasher. He stood with his back towards the kitchen island, his palms pressed against the ceramic counter top.
Without turning to look at him I asked, “And?”
“I have to attend a conference.” Suddenly thoughts of Kelvin and his conferences came rushing to the front of my brain. Half of those “conferences” were spent becoming familiar with Lawrence Cousins. Then I thought again back to the conversation I had with Caela. As much as I wanted to question Jackson about that, I held my tongue. I hoped I wasn’t finding myself in a similar situation.
“When do you leave?”
“Sunday morning,” Jackson said. “I’ll be gone for a week.”
“I guess when duty calls…” I said with sarcasm. “Guess I’ll have to find a way to make it without you.” I was joking.
“So tomorrow after work will you come stay with me?” Jackson asked. He walked over and stood beside me. Both of us stood facing the sink.
“If you weren’t leaving for an entire week, would I still be spending the weekend?”
“Whatever, man.” Jackson smiled, kissing me on my cheek. I loved it when he was affectionate like that. Even though we tried not to show too much of our love in the presence of my father and Natalie, I loved it when Jackson looked to the left, then to the right, and kissed me when he was sure they weren’t looking.
14
Feel the Same Way I Do
Trevor…
“So what did Jackson say?” Caela asked.
I was in the car driving to work. I knew she couldn’t wait until morning came to find out if I had addressed her Jackson-sighting with him. But she wouldn’t be Caela if I weren’t hearing from her this early.
“It wouldn’t hurt to say good morning. You know, use some of those manners that woman you call Mamma gave you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I just hurt my chances of sitting at the royal table?”
“Girl, you didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, Adelaide, so you’re not hurting anything.”
Caela gasped. I knew how to take her breath away. That was the reaction I always got from her whenever I used her middle name, especially since it was unexpected. Her mother fell in love with the Australian city of the same name during a summer visit and insisted on the name for her oldest daughter. Like I always told Caela, she should consider herself lucky her mother hadn’t fallen in love with the city of Cockburn or some other city that made the list of worst city names in the world.
“In that case, answer the question. What did Jackson say?
“I didn’t give him a chance to deny or confirm?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I didn’t ask him anything.”
“Didn’t you want to know?”
“Of course I did, but not at the cost of interrupting dinner.” I was sitting in traffic a few feet from my exit. “He apologized to us and stuck to the story that he was working late.”
It had started to drizzle lightly. I gazed out and up into the sky, watching gray clouds dominate. I don’t remember the forecast calling for rain, but then again, I wasn’t paying much attention to the TV while I dressed. The weather didn’t surprise me anymore. I was just waiting for it to snow in June.
This was the usual exchange Caela and I enjoyed when we were out having lunch or dinner, or in my office, away from the watchful eyes of my other employees. I never hid from them we were like family, but I made sure she didn’t receive any special treatment. Caela was reliable as an employee and as a friend. She was the friend with whom I shared my personal and business problems, ‘cause I knew I would always hear the painful truth. Sometimes, even with Wesley around, I bounced business ventures and ideas off her. Wesley was my right hand man, but Caela had become my right hand woman, much like Camille, my former assistant.
“So, dinner was all right?” Caela asked.
“It was better than all right, but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t think about your phone call from time to time.”
“When I didn’t hear back from you, I went to bed worrying my phone call had ruined your evening.”
Caela was a natural worrier. “Well, you can rest your brain now, knowing the evening went on without a hitch. Oh! You didn’
t tell me where you were going last night.”
“I was going to meet Jenilee, Kaitlyn, and Amadeus for dinner. They were already out and I didn’t feel like cooking.”
“That’s nothing new. You never feel like cooking.”
“You damn ass!” Caela yelled. “If you were in such a damn hurry, you do know a plane would get you there faster.” It was raining, which meant her car windows were tightly shut and she was yelling at a man or woman who couldn’t even hear her.
“I need you to get all that out your system before you even press the button to the fifth floor and step foot into the office.”
“I’m sorry, but these people act like they are making monthly payments on their licenses.”
I looked at the clock in the dash, which displayed 8:45. It was only 8:15. I had purposely set the clock ahead.
“I’m going to leave you and your road rage alone. I’m gonna stop at Daily Grind. You want something? No? Good,” I said, smiling.
“Whatever! You know what I want.”
“I do. Everything,” I said, laughing at her. “I’ll see you in a few. Hey,” I said before hanging up. “Stop cursing at people who can’t hear you.”
I loved Fridays at work. Everyone was usually more relaxed, especially after feeling like Monday to Thursday was filled with accomplishments. And most, myself included, started their countdown to happy hour the moment they woke. Caela knew how I felt about Fridays, so meetings were never scheduled, and unless it’s a must, meetings were never scheduled before 11:30 on Mondays.
There was a little bustle at Daily Grind. I walked up to the bar
and ordered a Chai Latte and a Breakfast Bowl, and then a Mocha Espresso and a Monte Cristo for Caela. While I waited, I sent Wesley a text message asking if he wanted me to grab something for him.
I sat at a table and waited. When my cell phone rang, I answered thinking Wesley was calling to add his order. “You got my text?” I asked without looking at the phone.