It took an entire thirty days and nights of video chat dates, due to Nicholas’s busy work schedule and my refusal to let him meet Bella, but Nicholas and I had finally watched the first five movies from the series he was obsessed with one hour at a time. At this point, I had to admit that I was quickly becoming a fan myself. I found myself struggling not to watch the other movies without him.
It was worth the wait because I loved spending time over video listening to his colorful commentary and explaining the differences between the book and movie adaptations. I didn’t know why, but I was surprised to find out that he had an MBA in finance. I had completely misjudged him at first sight; well, almost.
He explained that although his uncle ran an illegal business, he encouraged him and his cousin to do things the right way. His cousin dropped out of college after his freshman year and ran to the street life, but Nicholas stayed dedicated to his uncle’s dream for him. He explained how his uncle had gotten a ten-year prisonsentence for some of his illegal dealings and still had three more years to serve.
We had fallen into a routine of him calling and waking me up after he dropped his daughter off from school and headed to his office. When he told me that he mostly ate takeout from the casino restaurants because he was always on the go, I made it my business to make him lunch a few days a week and take it to him, while Bella played with Miss Ramirez’s grandchildren.
I could tell that his life needed a woman’s touch. For now, making sure he wasn’t killing himself with takeout would have to do. He’d bought me a car and asked for nothing in return other than my time and attention. The least I could do was give him a few home-cooked meals.
When I was around Nicholas, I could let myself forget the mess my life had gradually become. I wasn’t worried about whether I could go back on duty or if I needed to try to get a transfer. I felt confident about putting in for that transfer, but I knew that Tremaine was likely going to try to get in the way of that too.
When I was with Nicholas, I wasn’t worried about money or bills. He had stepped in and literally eliminated the burden of having to figure out transportation and how I was going to get my car fixed. I had to be careful about what I said around him because if something was bothering me or felt like a concern, he immediately started trying to figure out how to take care of it for me.
Nicholas was aman.Well, at least he was damn good at portraying the role. It scared me that I genuinely enjoyed getting to know him. It terrified me even more that I felt myself falling for him a little more every day.
Nicholas understood that my career was such a touchy subject that we had declared the subject off-limits. Now that we were getting closer, he felt like someone I wanted to share thingswith. I wanted to ask his opinion about things that affected me. He didn’t know what I did for a living yet, but it was time for me to tell him.
I even considered asking him what he thought about me putting in for a transfer to a different department. I wasn’t sure how that would go over though. I didn’t want to get into the conversation about my boss being Bella’s dad, but if we were going to keep getting to know each other, the subject would have to come up sooner or later. I would rather get it on the table early on, before either of us became too invested.
What was I saying? Nicholas was invested as hell. He had bought me a car for God’s sake. He had even joined me and Sade on our last lunch drive, bringing more than enough food and supplies to double what we already had. Apparently, so was I, because I had finally let him convince me to come over for an in-person movie night with our daughters.
He had been working late for the past week and was finally taking a night off. We had done several movie nights, but this one felt different. Hell, it was different. Not only was I going to his house, but I had never introduced Bella to anyone outside of family.
From the very start, I was wary about bringing men in and out of my daughter’s life. My mom never did that, even after my dad was gone. Not that she didn’t eventually start dating. I just never saw a parade of men in and out of the house.
If I brought someone in to meet Bella, they had to be a permanent fixture in our lives. I promised Nicholas that I would take him seriously. Plus, Bella was small. If things didn’t work out between me and Nicholas after a few months, or even years, she wouldn’t even remember him.
On the other hand, his daughter was six years old. She was more likely to feel the effects of having things fall apart. Not to mention the fact that she already had a mother. I didn’t evenknow how to navigate that, because Nicholas and I barely spoke about her outside of him explaining how they met.
He met her when he was temporarily living in the Dominican Republic, working for his uncle. She also lived in the states but was there visiting her grandparents. They hooked up there and found each other back in Georgia. A year later, they had a daughter.
I didn’t even have a problem with the fact that he co-parented with his daughter’s mom. I just didn’t have time for the drama and explained just as much to him. When he requested a quiet night at his place, I was hesitant to accept his invitation. If it weren’t for Crystal and Sade in my ear, urging me to take a chance, I would have kept going back and forth until I talked myself out of going.
“I’ve never introduced my daughter to any woman I was seeing, but I feel good about this, Jameela. I know that you’re taking a huge risk, but so am I. Let’s just take things one day at a time until forever. Can we do that?” he asked.
“How do you manage to make everything sound so simple?”
“Because things are only as hard as we make them. You can accomplish anything a little at a time, Jameela. I can show you that.”
His words were the final nail in the coffin.Those words made me agree to have an in-person movie night with our daughters tonight. The sound of my phone ringing made me smile. There was a time when I got annoyed at my phone waking me up because there was usually someone wanting a favor or reminding me about a bill at the other end.
Who would have thought that just a few weeks after meeting the man for the first time that I would smile at the very thought of hearing him ask about my day. From the very start, Nicholas insisted that he meant nothing but good and had shown andproved. My smile widened as I walked over and picked up my phone.
The wide smile on my face faded as soon as I saw Tremaine’s number. All the warm fuzzy feelings I’d been feeling disappeared as soon as he entered the equation. I hadn’t spoken to him in over a week and never looked forward to his calls because he never wanted to talk about my return to work or, more importantly, our daughter.
Since the moment he’d gotten that promotion, he had turned into an arrogant, demanding asshole. I barely recognized the man who I’d considered a friend for close to two years before getting pregnant by him.
“Hello?”
“Jameela, I need you here for a meeting in two hours.”
“What’s this pertaining to? There wasn’t a meeting scheduled today.”
“Just get to the precinct, Jameela!”
The click that followed his demand almost set me on fire. How dare that bastard hang up before I could hang up on him! I was so sick of his dog ass that it wasn’t even funny. I planned to look into the narcotics department in Lakeview and had even started to consider changing departments within our precinct.
As far as I could tell, my direct supervisor would have to approve my paperwork. Seeing how that was the same person who kept me from returning to duty in the first place, I didn’t feel all that confident about the move.
