The next woman turned the tables on him when she proposed they have a sex-only relationship. They would meet at a motel once a week and after spending several hours together go their separate ways until the next time. Lamar’s male pride was wounded, but he managed to get over it because of what he’d done to the other woman.
However, it was different with Nydia. Not only would they openly date, but he was uncertain as to where he wanted their relationship to go. He wasn’t in love with her, but knew it would be so easy to love her. Everything about her appealed to him. It was as if he had been waiting for a woman like her to come into his life. He likened her to the bubbles in wine that turned it into champagne. She tickled his nose and his palate. Lamar slipped his arms into his suit jacket, walked out of his office with its views of the Mississippi River, and took a back staircase down to the street level.
Although it was late September, the heat and humidity made it feel like the height of summer. One of the many things he’d enjoyed about living in New York was the change of season. The first time he’d experienced an appreciable snowfall he took the subway to Central Park and asked a kid if he could use his sled to go sledding. The young boy gave him a strange look until he explained that he came from Louisiana, and it was a rare occasion that it snowed there. And if it did, it disappeared within hours.
Fall and winter were his favorites. Lamar became a tourist when he strolled aimlessly along broad avenues peering into department store windows gaily decorated for the holiday season. He’d been transfixed by the tiny white lights threaded through naked tree branches along a stretch of Fifth Avenue, and would occasionally stop in to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pray.
Watching the skaters in Rockefeller Center with the massive Christmas tree as a backdrop never failed to put him in a holiday mood. And now that Nydia had invited him and Kendra to join her family in New York it was something he was looking forward to, if only to relive the time when he’d been a student in a city that at first had overwhelmed him with its nonstop energy.
Lamar walked the four blocks to Casey’s, waiting outside the pub for Cameron to join him. He didn’t have to wait long until he spied the financial planner coming down the street. They shook hands. “Thanks for meeting me.”
Cameron smiled, and attractive lines fanned out around his blue-gray eyes. “You called at the right time. I usually don’t have a liquid lunch, but this is one time when I definitely need one.”
Lamar seldom drank during the day, and when he did he limited it to a single beer. “Casey’s is the best watering hole for a liquid lunch. I take it you had a rough morning.”
“No shit,” Cameron drawled as he opened the door. “It’s one I’d like to forget. Should I assume yours was equally frustrating?”
“Let’s say it has been better,” Lamar said. “I’ll tell you about it after we order.” He didn’t tell Cameron that losing the bid wasn’t the only thing on his mind, but that would wait until after he let his friend blow off steam.
The hostess greeted Cameron by name and escorted them to a table in a corner where they did not have to shout to each other to be heard. The pub was a popular eating establishment for many of the businesspeople in the CBD. It was where they’d gather for lunch and dinner to eat and watch the many muted television screens tuned to news and sports channels.
A waiter approached the table and set down menus. “Can I get you gentlemen something from the bar?”
“I’ll have a Sazerac,” Cameron said.
Lamar hid a grin. His friend had ordered one of the city’s signature cocktails. “I’ll have a beer.” If it had been later in the day he would’ve ordered a Rob Roy. The drink made with scotch and sweet vermouth was slightly less lethal than a Sazerac. The lunch-crowd bartender tended to be a little heavy-handed when it came to pouring bourbon.
The young man wrote down their drink order. “Do you know what you want to eat, or should I give you time to decide?”
Lamar stared at the menu. “I still have to decide.”
Cameron glanced up. “Same here.”
Their drinks arrived, and they touched glasses. After a long swallow Lamar felt some of his tension easing. “I take it you’ve had to go a couple of rounds with a client.”
Cameron ran a hand over his neatly barbered graying light brown hair. Although approaching fifty, he appeared as physically fit as a man decades younger. “There are times when I ask myself if I’m crazy trying to save people from financial ruin because they want to invest in some half-baked, crazy-ass scheme their friends or relatives are concocting. And when I try and tell them it’s nothing more than a hustle, they threaten to have another company monitor their investments.”
Lamar gave Cameron a direct stare. “What do you tell them?”
Leaning back in his chair, the wealth manager affected a wry smile. “I always advise them that they have a choice to stay or leave, but if they do, then I willnottake them on again. My mantra is once burned, twice shy. It’s just not worth the aggravation. It was the same when I dated. Once I decided not to see a young lady again, I didn’t want to relive whatever problem we had with each other.” Cameron paused. “Speaking of young ladies, how are you doing with Nydia?”
Lamar wanted to wait before broaching the subject of Nydia, but now that Cameron mentioned her he had to open up about how he felt about her. “Friends-wise, we’re good. But it’s a slow go in the romance department.”
The wealth manager gave him a long, penetrating stare. “It will continue to be a slow-go until you take off that piece of jewelry you’re wearing on your left hand.”
Splaying his fingers on the table, Lamar looked at the ring. Valerie had placed the matching tricolor gold band on his finger at their wedding, and it had remained there to this day. His head popped up. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is no woman is going to get serious about you when you’re still wearing your wedding ring. At least, no single woman who would even remotely think of considering a future with you.”
A slight frown furrowed Lamar’s forehead. “Is that what Nydia told Jasmine?”
Cameron shook his head. “Jasmine doesn’t discuss her friends with me. The only thing I know is that if it hadn’t been for Nydia I wouldn’t be married to Jasmine.” He told Lamar about meeting Jasmine at Hannah DuPont’s wedding and asking her out. “She told me that wasn’t possible because she was going back to New York. I took a chance and asked for her phone number because I go to New York every May to reconnect with my college frat buddies. And that was almost seven months away.”
Lamar rested an arm on the table, completely intrigued by Cameron’s story. “I take it she agreed to go out with you.”
“She did, but only after she disclosed that Nydia had convinced her to answer my text and say yes.”
“So, Nydia is responsible for bringing you and Jasmine together.”
