“Should we start the tour?” He asked, leaning over a bit to meet eyes with me.
“Yeah, sure,” I said with a nod.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Tami’s smile. I knew what I had to look forward to at the end of this meeting from her, she was so damn googly eyed.
We walked around the building, going room to room. I explained certain elements and color schemes to them with the biggest smile on my face. I didn’t necessarily have to explain anything. I just… wow. The House of Nova Ray turned out to be better than I expected. It was everything plus more. And by the look of contentment and happiness in Crescent’s eyes, I could tell he was very pleased with the work I’d done. Orion too. Hell, Tami even had this look of love and admiration in her eyes. I shouldn't have been surprised by that. She’d been around for so long, witnessing Couture at so many stages. She knew how big the contract with Skylight Industries was so maybe she felt as proud as I did.
“Thank Shar for me,” Crescent said, as we stood in the play area she suggested.
I smiled. “I sure will.”
The playroom was a hit. Although it was a recreational area, it still had the class and elegance the rest of the hotel had. She was right to suggest it.
“So, this concludes the tour,” Crescent stated, his eyes locked on mine.
I nodded and pulled my lips into my mouth. “Mmhmm.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you on The House of Nova Ray. You did an exceptional job.”
“Thank you, Crescent. It has been a pleasure working with you as well.”
Tami and Orion were busy looking at the rest of the room while Crescent and I had a stare off. I wondered what he was thinking. I wondered if he’d missed me as much as I missed him. Wondered if he thought about me as much as I’d thought about him. I thought about him often. I was back at square one, playingwith my pussy at the thought of him. Crazy right? At least now I had something to go off of. I wondered if he’d touched himself to me, too. He probably didn’t need to touch himself. He could very well be in something new. A man as fine as he was couldn’t be single still. I wondered if that was why he’d stayed away for so long. My mind was swimming with so many thoughts.
My phone rang, pulling my attention away from him. I fished around for it and pulled it out. It was Hazel. She was most likely calling to check on me. I declined the call and hit her with a quick text, letting her know I was finishing a meeting and would hit her back as soon as I could. When I looked up from my phone, he was steady staring at me.
“So, listen… you know The House of Nova Ray was big for me. The biggest project I’ve ever worked on. Because it means so much to me, I decided to put together a little party to celebrate the completion. Just a few colleagues and a couple of people who knew how important it was to me. Since you literally helped bring it to life, I would love for you to come.”
With raised brows, I nodded. “Sure. When?”
“Saturday. I know it’s short notice. I just decided to put it together.”
“That’s cool. I’ll be there.”
With that, we concluded the meeting and headed out of the building. Both Crescent and Orion saw us to my car. Orion and Tami talked. Crescent and I stayed silent and I was once again, left wondering what could have been on his mind. It stung a little… listening to Tami and Orion talk amongst each other while we said nothing. But… I was in a season of accepting things for what they were and I had to accept this too. That maybe Crescent and I was just a thing for a season and with the completion of The House of Nova Ray came the completion of us as well. For real.
A couple of hours later,I was sitting outside of the courthouse in the parking lot, emotionally preparing myself for the hearing. I hadn’t spoken to Duke about anything but the kids, and divorce stuff every now and then for the past few of months. Hadn’t sat in a space with him for more than five minutes neither. We didn’t talk. We didn’t check in on one another or anything like that. Hell, we barely talked about the kids since they were old enough to be in contact with him themselves. It was a little weird at the beginning. Sometimes I still looked up and couldn’t believe where we were. Looking back, I never thought we would be here, getting ready to finalize our divorce. But that was life and that was the way things were.
I took a deep breath, grabbed my folder and my purse and got out of the car. On my way up to the building, I noticed Duke walking ahead of me. Under my breath, I prayed he wouldn’t turn around and see me. But that was to no avail. A few feet away from the door, he looked over his shoulder and his eye caught mine. I didn’t know what to do so I gave him a soft smile. He nodded, stopped and waited for me to catch up with him. I sighed and placed a piece of hair behind my ear. Awkward.
“Hey,” I dryly spoke when I made it to him.
“Wassup? You alright?” He asked, surveying me, looking me up and down.
I did the same to him. He lost weight. Duke wasn’t a big man. He was pretty in shape but standing before him I could tell he’d lost about ten pounds. Ten pounds he did not need to lose. His eyes were lifeless and there were black bags underneath them. His hair was untamed. He needed a line up on his beard and a cut really bad. His clothes were even wrinkled. He didn’t haveon a suit. A pair of black jeans, Jordans and a gray collared shirt that played peekaboo through the top of his black jacket. He didn’t look good at all. He looked stressed as hell. It would have been easy for me to snicker at it and say that was what he deserved but I didn’t feel that way. In fact, I felt pity. All he had to do was do right by me and we wouldn’t even be here.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said, as he held the door open for me. “You?”
He shrugged. “Breathin.” He eyed me up and down again. “You look good.”
“Thank you, Ducati.”
“How long you think this shit about to take?” He asked as we walked down the hall.
I checked the paperwork in my folder for the court details and stood at a wall to find the courtroom number. “I don’t know.”
He didn’t say anything. Stood back and waited for me with his hand stuffed into his pockets. I wondered what he was thinking. Was probably filled with a ton of regret. I turned the corners of my mouth up and sighed when I found the courtroom number. I walked off and he followed behind, quiet.
There was nothing for us to discuss. I was actually surprised he walked with me. Duke was bitter. A lot of the silence between us was because of him. He never had anything nice to say and was always snappy. I, on the other hand, didn’t give a fuck. I could speak to him with ease. Could even ask about his day and things like that. But the energy he gave off was off-putting, so I kept my distance. I was able to hold an adult conversation with him because I didn’t have any more resentment in my heart for him. I’d released it and him and got damn it felt good.
