by Gina Kincade
"You've never seen us together. We've never even dated." Bee feels like she should be embarrassed by the admission, but she's not. She only feels a slight disappointment.
Looking up at her again, Red explains, "He sounds different when he talks about you, and not just to me, to the rest of the staff, his clients, and his family too."
"Hunter talks about me?"
A nod of the head is not enough, as Red tells her, "Yes, always. He's talked nonstop about you ever since I got back from my trip. That's why it's weird for me to hear that he brought another woman to your place. If there's anyone who can answer that, it's Hunter. Did he explain why?"
Blanche sighs as she takes her spoon and scoops up soup. "I gave him a chance, but he came up with a lame excuse."
Red surprises her by reaching forward and covering Bee's hand on the table. "Will you give him another chance?"
Looking around the bistro, she sees people enjoying themselves. Friends laughing and couples kissing. This is what normal looks like. Bee's life has never been normal. Like a newborn, she is learning how to live, react and interact.
If her mother did not insist that she date Perry because of his status and pedigree, she wouldn't have dated anyone. She wouldn't have been hurt terribly too. Bee is confused by her own reactions. Should she heed Red's advice, Hunter's so-called best friend and give the man a second chance? If she does, what will happen? To them? To her?
Or they can continue living together as virtual strangers, and when it comes time for her to move on...how could she when she's carrying his child? Can she really care for this child on her own, without Hunter, without his family's involvement?
Bee thinks of Marianne and Jason. There's no doubt how much they love each other. And they work well together for the sake of their family. Can she and Hunter have the same dynamics as Mare and Jay?
"You know what, I'm not hungry after all." Bee pushes herself away from the table and stands, holding the table and chair for support. "Thanks for inviting me to lunch. I have to go back to work." In a rush, she has forgotten her cell phone on her desk. She spies the clock on the far side of the restaurant, which tells her that she has more than enough time to eat and talk. But even the thought of it makes her exhausted.
"I can have it wrapped up for you so you can eat it later?" Red offers. Whether she's faking it or not, Bee doesn't know, but from what she sees now, Red is a good person.
No wonder Hunter has fallen for her. Bee bites her lips, saddened by that idea. "No, thanks. I'm good."
Red mutters a goodbye as Bee exits out of the bistro, with varied preoccupation in mind.
She takes her time walking back to work. The day is getting shorter and autumn's crispness fills in the air. As she reaches for the door to her office building, she feels a prickle on the back of her neck. When she turns around, her jaw drops, and her chest constricts.
The sleek black sedan's backdoor opens, a tall, thin woman in her mid-sixties steps out, all decked out in designer duds. An air of superiority is present on her countenance.
"Get in the car, Blanche." It's an order, not a request. It's always been an order.
Blanche grips the door handle tightly before letting it go. All courage and bravery she felt earlier during her face-off with Red has vanished in the presence of her own mother.
Chapter Eighteen
A tap on the glass sliding door distracts Hunter momentarily. He pauses inking when he sees Daisy waving her hands, urging him to come out. Hunter quirks an eyebrow at her before patting his client on the shoulder.
"Brent, can you give me a sec?"
"Yeah, man, give me some time to breathe too. That motherfucker is painful."
Hunter snickers at Brent. "Remind me to give you a pussyball after. I'll be back." He places his iron down. "Don't touch anything," he warns Brent before sliding the door open for Daisy.
"You've got a phone call. A Trisha? Says it's an emergency about Blanche," Daisy rushes the words out, already walking away from Hunter.
He hurries to clear the steps from his room to the front of the studio where Daisy holds up the phone for him.
"Trisha? Is everything okay?" Hunter feels the loud pounding in his chest. He doesn't care if he sounds worried in front of people, not if Blanche is the reason.
He's found that he cares for Blanche more than he realizes. His epic failure the weekend before haunts him in his sleep. Every single day he has woken up trying to figure out ways to surprise her, and he has stopped short at making her meals and sending her flowers.
When he asked Bee for her to meet his parents, she clammed up and made an excuse to leave. Hunter has been relentlessly worried that she will never forgive him for his stupid slip up. If she ever does, he vows never to look at another woman again. He'll do just about anything to get Bee's forgiveness, but how can he make her believe it?
"I can't get a hold of Blanche," Trisha responds. "I need to talk to her."
"Have you tried her cellphone?"
"I tried everything. She's not at the office. She's not picking up her cellphone. Nothing. I've left her tons of messages."
"I can try my brother."
"Please. I need to find her before it's too late."
"Too late for what?" Hunter doesn't know much Bee's friend, Trisha. As far as he is aware, Trisha is the only person Blanche knows in the city. The last time he was faced with the woman, Trisha yelled at him for letting Blanche believe that he wanted nothing to do with her and their child. She will never ask Hunter for help unless if it's a true emergency. It scares him more now that Trisha is calling him up to look for Bee.
Trisha sighs at the other end. "Her mother's here, in the city. I didn't tell her where Blanche works or lives, but if her mother was able to find my apartment and where I work, she will definitely find Blanche. We can't let that happen."
Blanche has never talked to Hunter about her family, not that he has ever asked, no thanks to his stubbornness and stupidity. "Why is it a bad thing for Blanche to see her mother? What aren't you telling me? Is Blanche in danger? Is my baby in danger?"
"No. I don't think so. I don't know, okay?"
"What do you mean you don't know?" Hunter raises his voice. He ignores the curious looks from people around him. "Should I be calling the cops, Trisha?"
"No! Not like that. Reyna will never hurt Blanche. But...I'm afraid that if Reyna is here, Perry won't be too long."
"Who the hell is Perry? What the fuck is going on?" Hunter grips the phone tighter.
"Look, can't we meet somewhere? I haven't tried your place yet and I'm on my way there. Meet me there and we'll talk. Call your brother. See if he's heard from Blanche."
"Yeah, see you at my place."
Hunter hangs up the phone. He can feel the vein on his temporal throb angrily. "Daisy, I have to go."
The spiritedly receptionist nods. "I'll deal with Brent."
Before he can head to the door, Red walks in, immediately noticing Hunter's agitated state. "What's wrong, Peter?"
"I need to find Blanche," Hunter tells his friend.
"Blanche? I've just seen her."
A deep scowl lines Hunter's face. "What do you mean you just saw her?"
Red looks at Daisy, standing behind Hunter and back to the big man again. "We had lunch together."
"Lunch? What the fuck are you doing asking her to lunch, Red?" Hunter grits out.
Red raises her palms up, hoping to placate Hunter. "I wanted to talk to her, Pete."
"The fuck, Red? Why didn't you tell me you're doing that? You could have made things worse!"
"Worse?" Red blinks, and huffs out a heavy breath. "I'm trying to make things better. I didn't know I wasn't allowed to talk to Blanche. You never told me that I needed to stay away. And how could I be making matters worse?"
Hunter wants to walk away, but instead, he raises his index finger and points it at Red's face. "You have no fucking clue, do you, Red?" Red pushes his hand away. "I'm out of here."
"What
the hell was that about?" Hunter hears Red ask, but Red isn't his main concern at that moment. He has to figure out what's going on with Blanche.
Why is her mother's appearance bad for Blanche? And who is Perry?
He hails a cab. While he waits to get home, he punches his brother's number on his phone only to get Jason's voicemail over and over again. He leaves a quick message to Jason asking for him to call him immediately. Then he tries Mare at their home, where he also reaches their voicemail. Trisha said that she's tried calling Bee's office without getting a response, or her cellphone. Hunter tries both anyway.
The tremor in his chest speeds as he listens to the sound of Bee's voicemail. After sighing and clearing his throat, he leaves her a message.
In less than ten minutes, he arrives at his apartment building. Hunter sees Trisha stepping out of a cab too. They meet at the front steps.
"Start talking," he asks Trisha as they make their way up the steps. "Who's Perry?"
Trisha doesn't reply right away. The woman usually seems overconfident, but at that moment, she looks shaken, afraid.
"Perry is Bee's ex-fiancé."
Ex-fiancé? Upon hearing it, Hunter stops walking and stares at Trisha. "Fiancé?"
"Ex." Trisha continues making her way up the stairs, but not knowing exactly which is Hunter and Bee's apartment, she waits for Hunter to keep going. "Let's just say he's bad news, and Bee ended up here to get away from him, and her mother."
No good to his Blanche? Hunter doesn't like the sound of that, but he needs to focus. "How do you know her mother is here and not Perry?" He sticks his key into the handle, and opens it, calling out Blanche's name, and getting no response.
Trisha watches him from the living room, as she answers his question. "Reyna came to see me at work. My parents gave her my information."
No matter what she thinks of Hunter, or how Bee has painted the man, Trisha knows he cares very much for her friend. The worry lines on his face tell her, and so does his frantic search in their small apartment. He walks into one room, crosses the living room, opens another door, and then backs to the first room again. There might be hope for the two of them, after all. If Reyna doesn't convince Bee to leave New York City and return home.
Home, where Blanche will be unhappy, and where Perry will continue to have a hold on her. Trisha cannot let that happen. Hunter has to know how important it is to not happen.
"Perry abused her," she blurts out, making Hunter turn from wherever he is headed and straight in front of Trisha.
"What?"
Hunter is a large man. From the very beginning, Trisha has seen how intimidating he can be, but Blanche saw something else in him. Bee wasn't afraid of him.
"Bee came here to escape him. She had bruises everywhere. Her lips and one eye were swollen. She refused to go to the hospital because she was afraid that they would ask for her ID and she didn't have any. And even if she did, she wouldn't want her mother or Perry to find her. I asked my boyfriend to look after her. He's a med student."
The memory of that night weakens her knees. Hunter helps her to the couch, waiting for her to continue.
"I barely recognized her. She still had blood on her face and her hair. Her right shoulder was off its socket. I don't know how she made it all the way here without passing out from the pain. She tried to fight him off. She had years of martial arts training, but Perry...Perry surprised her. She was breaking up with him. She was telling him she's had enough of him cheating on her with all his women. Blanche didn't expect him to turn into that, a monster, and it took her by surprise."
Whatever Hunter has felt before has taken a backseat. All he can feel is the anger running through his veins. His arms feel like popping from the tight fists he's making. His jaw is ready to come off its joints from too much clenching.
He stands and makes his way to the door. "I’m going to kill him. I'm going. To find him and kill him."
"We have to find Blanche first," Trisha says quietly behind him.
Blanche, his Blanche. Hunter cannot imagine how anyone can lay a finger on such a beautiful spirit. He hates himself more for the idiotic things he has done to her. But he has been given a chance to make everything right. To prove to Blanche that he's worth a chance, which he's worth loving.
What Trisha has told him made him see red, but the thought of Blanche loving him, and him wanting her to, causes him to tremble. How could he have been so blind? For years he has focused on no one else but Red when it came to the matters of the heart, that he has refused that anyone can make him feel the same way. How wrong is he? Once he finds her, he can tell Blanche. Even if she'll refuse him, at least she'll know. It took him years to admit it to Red, and only when he knew it was too late. He can't make the same mistake with Bee.
"Let's check her office again."
As he reaches for the door handle, it turns and the door pushes open. Blanche sees him with a shocked look on her face. "Hunter? What are you doing home this early?"
Hunter cannot answer. All he wants to do is envelope Blanche in his arms and never let her go. He steps forward and pulls her into an embrace, and knowing that isn't enough, he frames her face with his hands, and claims her lips.
Chapter Nineteen
The kiss takes them both by surprise.
Blanche feels herself molding against Hunter's taut body. His hands bracket her face. If he didn't do that, she would have melted down on the floor. Her eyes draw close as his tongue plunders her mouth, tasting her.
A purr reverberates through her, while Hunter presses his hips against her body. Hard, tight, and heated. Her own hands find his thick biceps, gripping and clawing for support.
It takes Blanche back to their very first night, their only night together. How sensuous he tasted then, even with the hint of beer on his tongue. But his own flavor hasn't changed since. She inhales him, takes everything he's willing to give. She wants him. Now. Right there and then.
The flutter in her stomach returns, and Bee snaps her eyes open. Hunter's eyes are closed too, a delightful moan escapes his mouth. She dislodges her fingers and pushes him away, but he is built like a brick wall and all she can do is make him stop kissing her.
"What was that about?" The question is meant for the both of them, but she only waits for his answer.
Hunter lets her go slowly, and bites down on his lower lip, looking shy. His hand grips the back of his neck as he stares at the floor.
"I...I was worried about you," he tells her quietly.
Bee lets her mouth hang as she digests his reply. Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees a figure. "Trisha? What are you doing here?" She moves around Hunter and faces her friend.
"I was looking for you. Your mom, she's here. She came to see me," Trisha explains. Bee ignores the entertained look on her face.
"Yeah, she came to see me too at work. You told her where I was?" Blanche places her purse and lunch bag down on the coffee table in front of the couch and sits on an armchair. She doesn't dare touch that sofa, not since she slept on it last, and definitely not since finding Hunter making out with a girl on it too.
Trisha sits, and reaches for her hands. "You know I would never do that. I don't know how she found you."
"It was going to happen eventually. You know mother, she has her wily ways."
"Is she..." Trisha fleetingly lets her eyes travel to where Hunter stands frozen by the door with a blank stare. "Is she alone?"
When Bee nods, they both relax. "For now, at least. I asked her not to tell him."
When her mother came to her, Blanche's first worry was that Perry was in the car as well. She couldn't quite shake off the fear of being around him again. Reyna Adams Lee is a resourceful woman. It has surprised Blanche that it has taken her this long for her mother to find her.
However when Bee asked, her mother replied with, "It wasn't hard to find you. You don't have any friends, Blanche. I was just waiting for you to come crawling back once you realize how hard it is to be on your own." Reyna
sneered at her. "Imagine my surprise when I find you in this situation."
The situation being Blanche's pregnancy. She isn't showing fully, yet, but Blanche's waist has expanded, and her belly slightly rounded. Her breasts have gotten fuller too, and the clothes she's chosen to wear hug all of her new curves. She's a proud pregnant woman. The compliments she has received from other women in the same condition have been uplifting. She's been told that pregnancy suits her, and she carries it well.
Blanche was afraid of what her mother would suggest, but shockingly, Reyna shrugged it off and said, "It is what it is."
"Did she ask you to go back?" Trisha disrupts Bee's thoughts.
"Yeah."
"And?"
Bee is aware of Hunter's presence in the room with them. He's been quiet the entire time, which means he's been listening to their exchange. She glances at him surreptitiously, before answering Trisha. "I said I’d think about it."
Trisha tightens her grip. "You can't go back. You know that. You know what he'll do to you."
Bee snaps her head up. "Trish." She cocks her head to the side. Bee hasn't told Hunter anything about her past. She's not sure how Hunter will receive it.
Trisha presses her lips together, then says, "I kind of told him."
Blanche's eyes widen and her mouth gapes. "Why would you?"
"I panicked. I couldn't get a hold of you. I tried your work and cellphone, and you didn't answer. I called him to help me find you. Sorry, Bee, but I don't regret it. He needs to know. Your moms here and soon, Perry will come too." Trisha wrings her fingers together. The ever-confident friend isn't too confident at that moment.
Blanche shakes her head. "I'm tired now, Trish. I'm here and I'm safe. You better go home...and call your parents. Who knows what my mom has told them."
Trisha hesitates to move, but after a few seconds, she does as she's told. She stops to thank Hunter before stepping out the door. "Take care of her, will you?" Trisha mutters under her breath, not too low that Hunter can't hear.
Hunter nods and lets her out the door.
