by Rochelle Alers, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Brenda L. Thomas; Crystal Lacey Winslow
Chapter 12
Victoria stood out on the balcony overlooking the ocean. It was the same view she had before. Only this time, she wouldn’t be drowning her sorrows in liquor.
“Ummm, breathtaking view, isn’t it?” Damon stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He buried his nose in her hair.
Victoria closed her eyes and leaned back into his embrace. “It’s beautiful.” They stood in silence for a minute, before Victoria finally spoke. “I still don’t understand why you wanted to come back here.”
Damon pulled her hand and sat her down in the patio chair. He sat down next to her, never releasing her grip. “Because Belize is where my life changed forever. I came here one year ago with only one hope, that I was mistaken about Trina. When I found out I wasn’t, I felt like my life was over. You brought me out of my despair. And honestly, we were both so messed up emotionally; I never thought we’d make it. But we did. We not only survived, we flourished. Ours may have started as a rebound romance, but it definitely ended as the real thing.”
Victoria felt her eyes watering. He had said everything she felt. When she was little, her grandmother always used to say, “Baby, we may not understand why God does some of the things He does, the way that He does them. But give it time, and the picture will become clear.”
Now, her picture was crystal-clear. Because of Damon, not only had she gotten over what Kendrick did to her, she had found the true love that she always felt like she deserved. If she had married Kendrick, she would never have known the love she felt right now.
“We got over your drama—” Damon said.
“And your drama,” Victoria interjected. They both laughed.
“My divorce is final, and I think Trina has finally realized that it’s over.”
“Not for lack of trying.” Victoria recalled the numerous phone calls, hang-ups, and threats she had received for about a month after Trina’s visit. Victoria had ended up changing her phone number, and Trina had even gotten a friend at the phone company to get her that number. She stalked Damon twenty-four/seven, pleading for another chance. Damon had her served with a restraining order, and that seemed to be the wake-up call she needed. She cursed him out, then called Victoria and cursed her out. The last message she’d ever gotten from Trina said, “Hey, home-wrecking bitch. You can have Damon’s sorry ass. I’m moving on.” They’d had no more problems since.
They did have a problem or two with Kendrick, who couldn’t handle the thought of Victoria with another man. He’d had his family and friends beg her for another chance, and he’d shown up at her house a couple of times. But after getting nowhere, his communication had suddenly stopped. Victoria had heard he hooked up with a hairdresser on the North Side, and that was just fine.
Damon caressed Victoria’s face. “I just wanted us to end up where we started.”
“So are we ending?” Victoria joked.
“Quite the contrary.” Damon lifted Victoria up and turned around and straddled the chair in front of her. He took her hand. “This is not a proposal, yet. But it is a promise. That I will love you unconditionally. I can’t lie and tell you I’m ready for marriage again—yet—but I am ready for love. The rest, the rest will come with time.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Victoria leaned in and kissed Damon intensely while the Belize sunset cast a warm glow all around them. If she had ever had any doubt that blissful happiness really existed, it was gone. What she felt right now, what she’d felt the last year with Damon, that was the happiness she deserved. And the happiness she finally felt like she had gotten.
