“You don’t have to do any of this.”
“Brooklyn,” I warned. “I meant it when I said that this is the start of us. And yes, we do need to talk about that call. I want transparency between us. I can throw on some sweats and take you.”
“Okay. Okay.” She smiled. “Not used to being taken care of.”
I pushed down the sheet covering her body. “Get used to it.”
“I really have to go.” She moaned when my lips sucked on her rigid nipple.
“Mm...hmm...need to get it in one more time. I can be quick.” I insisted and pushed her onto the bed.
Brooklyn grabbed my face when I hovered over her. “I lied.”
“About what?” I frowned.
She searched my face in the moon-lit room. “I did get a call, but I was able to handle it, so I wouldn’t have to go in. It’s how I ended up hearing you on the phone. You stayed in the bathroom for a while after you ended the call. I thought you might have wanted space.”
“You want to talk now.” She nodded, and I eased beside her, pulling her right under me. “I’m listening.”
Brooklyn’s head rested on my shoulder, and her hand on my chest. “Are you completely done with Sekani’s mother? We didn’t know each other two days ago, and she still loves you.”
“Is that why you were really going to leave?”
“I’ve been with you one day and already feel like I could be with you forever. I can leave now before it becomes impossible to walk away.”
“And it’s two days in, and you keep trying to end us without giving us a chance.”
“I don’t want to be the next ex of Carter St. Patrick.”
I protested, “And I don’t want you to be the next ex, but all either of us can do is take it one day at a time, deciding that we want each other every day. I feel the same as you. Like we’ve been knowing each other forever. Like, I want you to meet my children and family type of shit.”
She smiled. “I want you to meet my mother, too.”
“Then why did you decide to tell me you were lying about having to leave?”
“Because I could see it all in your face that you didn’t want me to leave, and you were willing to tell me what happened on that phone call. Hard to keep up a lie when faced with honesty.”
Even in the dimly lit room, I could see the lines of worry cross her forehead, though she’d decided to stay.
“Complicated relationships used to be my middle name. I had a very messy life that, in some respects, I’m still cleaning up. It’d take a book to explain my past with women, and I’d rather do that at a more reasonable hour.” I squeezed her to me. “What I will say for now is that I don’t want to have another phone call like I just did with any woman because I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I know for a little while, Joi is going to fight me on being with you because she’s lonely and regretful about ending our relationship. I moved on when I moved out, or I would’ve never moved out. There isn’t anything she can say that will make me change my mind about her and me. Joi has been through a lot, and I tried to be there for her. Even scheduled and attended a couple’s therapy session alone since she didn’t bother showing up. Joi didn’t know how to let me in. I can’t fight for a relationship alone.”
Brooklyn kissed my chest and admitted softly, “I like my independence and relying on myself. I don’t know if I can let you in.”
“You already did when you told me you lied.”
The edges of her lips curved. “Then I guess I can tell you something I’ve never had to say out loud to anyone.” She rubbed my chest. “In some ways, my ex was like you. Charming, handsome, financially stable, smart, a little older, used to winning. On paper, we were the perfect match. In person, we used to butt heads because he could be demanding, and I’m stubborn, as you already noticed. Yet, I loved him. Thought he loved me too.”
“Did he step out?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. We were engaged, and he insisted on this lavish wedding that I didn’t want, proud to show the world that he was marrying a doctor.” Brooklyn’s lips trembled. “The night before our wedding, he seemed off and irritable. I kept asking if he was okay, and I even told him we could postpone the wedding. He told me that didn’t make sense since our families and friends were already there, and he was overwhelmed with everything, and reassured me that it would pass.”
I waited with bated breath, though I knew what she would say next.
“The next day, an hour before the ceremony, his best man told me that he wasn’t coming.” Her voice cracked, “His best... man... broke the news to me. Not him. He did the ultimate ghost and stood me up at the altar. The worst part, if you can believe there’s anything worse, was that he disappeared. He’d already given up his apartment and planned to move into my house, for which he'd given me the down payment. I couldn’t even go to his place and demand answers. He refused my calls but again used his best friend to relay a short note that he was sorry for being acoward, that he wasn’t ready for that type of commitment, as he thought, and that it wasn’t me. Any man would love to have me as his wife.” She balled her hand on my chest. “I guess every man except him.”
“How long ago?” My question seemed so basic, so asinine. What do you say to a woman who wears her goodness and guardedness on her sleeve with a shattered heart that would make her suddenly believe that I would never hurt her?
“Three years. I moved to L.A. to be with him. Left all I knew in Nashville. I was an OB-GYN and worked in a clinic. After the wedding fiasco, I didn’t want to deliver babies to happily married women and needed to be busy, so I didn’t feel the mind-numbing pain. Lucky for me, I got a residency in the ER of the busiest hospital in California. Then my mother moved in with me back in January because I never took off enough time to visit her.” She tucked her head against my neck. “The only friends I have are my mother and a nurse at the hospital. You’re the first person I've spent any real time with besides my mother in three years... the first person besides her and my aunt to step through the doors of my house. I was about to have a panic attack about opening up to someone who could potentially hurt me like he did. If you didn’t insist, I wouldn’t have gone with you.”
