She told him the only three words he was ever comfortable in saying were “Where’s my checkbook?” Amidst the tears she went on and on about how he had met her family and her friends and yet he never introduced her to anyone in his life. She knew he had a family because he mentioned his brother and sister often, and made mention of his father and mother. Shontae had never told him that she had even spoken to his mother when he had been ill, and she gave her a piece of advice that his favorite food was peas. Through sobs and snot, she cried, “I’ve even heard you speaking to some woman in French and another in Spanish!”
“What? You have nothing to say, Mr. Perfect?”
He knew now that those words and what he was hearing were not her own, but the words of her stupid ass brother. He actually found himself smiling. Then he started to laugh. This shit can only happen to me.
He got up from the table, grabbed the bottle of wine, a magazine from the coffee table, and a book from the shelf. He retrieved his leather satchel from the holder by the door and took out his MacBook, setting it on the table.
“Did you hear me?”
Looking at her with a faint curiosity, he only said, “You are only partially right, but my family is my business.”
She wasn’t going to let this discussion slide by as she had with so many in the past. “Oh no you don’t! Not today, buddy, you are going to have to say more than a few sentences this time!”
He booted up the computer, poured himself a glass of wine and handed her a handkerchief. “I’m sure most of what I just heard are your brother’s words and not your own, but that’s fine.” He took a sip of the wine and looked her in the eye. “If you wanted to know anything about me or my family, you only had to ask. If you didn’t want to ask, you could have Googled us.”
It’s been three damn years. I don’t know why you didn’t!
She was starting to pace and becoming uneasy that he did not seem surprised by her request. “When you’re in a relationship, your family becomes my business! But you seem rather calm, like you knew I was going to do this.” Now she wanted to know why.
“I saw it coming,” he said calmly. “I saw the look in your eyes four months ago, when your niece and nephew spent the weekend, and you saw me playing and interacting with the kids. I figured it wouldn’t take you long to want to renegotiate our terms.”
Shontae drew up in a huff. “Whaddya mean, ‘terms’? Our relationship ain’t no business deal.”
He looked up and gave her a look that she had never seen before and she thought it better to take a seat. “Yes, you negotiated the terms,” he paused. “I asked you to be my girlfriend, you added rules, I countered your rules on the kitchen table, and you closed the negotiations with me on my back on the floor.”
He sipped his wine. “You then asked if there was something that a bitch needed to sign.” He smiled. “Now a bitch wants to change the rules.”
He was calm although on the inside, his stomach was turning over. I feel sick. “You were hoping that your words would make me fight to keep you and we dance around the topic of you not wanting kids.”
Shontae was quiet because she could tell he was pissed. “If your goal was to be my wife, you shouldn’t have fucked me on the first night, and you should have negotiated your desired outcome better.”
Her mouth was open. He leaned forward and used his index finger to close it. Hold it together, you communicate through this. No walking away. Tell her. Talk to her.
“You want me to talk, fine. I hope you are prepared to hear it all.”
Shontae’s eyes darted back and forth, searching his face, hoping, wishing … for what, she was uncertain.
“I have actually used my checkbook for very little over the past three years. I taught you to save and invest, and this condo you paid for, although I bought the furniture and paid down the points on the mortgage loan.”
Gawain pressed a couple of buttons on his phone and the computer screen came to life. Something was stirring inside of him and there were things he wanted to get off his chest as well. He hated deception more than anything and wished she had just been honest.
He continued, “The trip to Maui, you bought the tickets and I borrowed a friend’s house.”
Gawain wanted to show her how her insecurities were unfounded and were now going to be replaced with a whole new set. “My family is actually my business. In conjunction with the company I work for in Chicago, I also assist in managing two family businesses.”
He continued, “Shontae, I have only two friends, both of whom work as much as I do.” He inhaled deeply. “When I am free, which is rare, we try to get together. Every free minute I have is spent with you.”
Gawain went on to explain, “You know I’m on the road 70 percent of the year. The closest thing I have to a bed or a home is the one I share with you.”
Further he added, “I have not slept with or been intimate with another woman since our first night together.” He sipped again on the wine which had started to sour in his mouth. “There has been only you. I save everything for only you.”
The look of shock on her face was almost as priceless as the next two or three bombshells were going to be. “I have not introduced you to my family because they are, well, intimidating as hell. I had recently considered taking you to my brother’s ranch with me, but I noticed the changes in your behavior.”
She opened her mouth, taking offense at his insinuation that she was not good enough, “I can hold my own around anyone!”
He didn’t answer, but only raised his brows, with a look of “really?”
Furious, she snapped at him, “Yeah, really! And I am not the only woman in your life. Your job is your wife and I am your dirty little secret.” She emphasized the job as if she were personifying the word to describe something he didn’t already know.
She was as getting as angry as he was. Raising her voice, she said, “When you leave at the end of the month, there are no signs that you were ever here! Not a single trace or even a random hair on a pillowcase. Like you are leading some kind of double life or something. That’s why I asked about meeting your family.”
He tapped the screen on his phone as he picked up the latest issue of a Vanity’s Pleasure catalog. He flipped the magazine to page two.
“Okay, you want to play it that way, let’s meet the family.” For the first time in three years, she felt afraid of him. Something in the way he spoke to her indicated that inside he was mad as hell, but on the outside he was the perfectly composed man she always saw.
The computer screen opened and the stunning model on page two was now on his screen. She smiled when she saw his face and he literally lit up when he looked at her. “How’s the world’s most beautiful and vain little sister?”
She threw her head back in laughter, tossing a mane of hair. “I’m doing well, how is my super smart and devilishly handsome big brother?”
He was still holding the magazine and she added, “Oh I see you have the latest issue,” she paused, “what do you think of our new fall line?” The conversation went back and forth and suddenly Gawain lapsed into French. His sister responded back in the same language, they laughed, and he reverted back to English. “So, I’ll see you this weekend okay, I want to go over some numbers with you.” He toyed with the stem of the wine glass. “And I want to go over some more of the projections with you as well, I cannot see how you are going to net half a million in sales on these uncomfortable men’s underwear.”
The look on Vanity’s face changed, she didn’t recognize the background of the room he was in, “Where are you?”
“Chicago,” he added tersely.
“Oh, are you with her?”
“Yes.”
“Did she get the trousseau I sent?”
Shontae came around the screen, her lip curled and nose crinkled, “A trou what?”
Vanity’s eyes widened in disbelief at what she saw, “Sacré bleu, is that a gold tooth?” and she began the most rude laugh.
&nbs
p; She looked at her brother, “Well, well Blackbeard, I see what kind of booty you have been raiding?”
Gawain pretended not to know to what she was referring, but knowing his sister as he did, he waited for her next move.
“I guess this would be a great time to ask for a new Palomino pony?”
“Buy your own damned pony. Besides, on top of your more than generous annual salary, you have an expense account, so I don’t see why you can’t buy your own horse.”
“Not a horse, Junior, a Palamino Pony. I found one for twenty five right outside Agua Prieta.” She was now beginning to whine and knew where this was headed.
Shontae picked up on her calling him Junior and realized that he was named after his father. I never bothered to ask in three years.
Gawain was firm with his sister, but his words did not match his facial expression. “Buy your own damn horse and twenty five thousand is too much to waste on something you are only going to use every now and then.” It confused Shontae. His eyes were filled with so much love when he spoke to his sister. A look of love she had never received from him.
“Besides,” he added, “you don’t even ride the gelding I bought you four years ago. On top of that, I just bought you a plane last year!” Shontae had never heard him raise his voice, nor had she seen this side of him. He was firm with Vanity, but the love that was radiating from everything in him when he spoke to his sister … so much love. Shontae found herself feeling jealous of their relationship.
“Fine!” she said, “we seem to be at a stalemate.”
He leaned back in the chair, his face stern, but the love in his eyes was filtering through the screen. “No. We are not.”
Vanity arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Either you buy me a pony, or I am going to tell.”
Shontae did not understand what it all meant, but the look on his face meant he understood what Vanity was saying, and he still gave her a firm look of no.
He had drawn his line in the sand.
“You always have your panties in a wad, Junior … learn to relax a little more. I’ll see Friday!” She disconnected.
Shontae’s mouth was still open. “Your little sister is Vanity Devons?”
He only nodded. “You have a plane and we flew commercial to Hawaii in the bad seats by the toilets?”
His mood had turned dark. “You said you wanted surprise me. You bought the tickets, and I took care of everything else, as we agreed. In the past three years, I have kept up my end of all of our agreements.”
Shontae threw her glass of wine at his head, all the while screaming at him, “You are such a dick!”
Gawain only moved to the side to avoid being hit in the head, “How am I the hard on? I have done everything you have asked of me. I have given you everything you have wanted, and now, since you can’t have your way, I am the asshole?”
“No you are the asshole because you stayed and took advantage,” she told him through tight lips.
“Took advantage of what Shontae?” He stood up and started to gather his things.
“Me … this … everything!”
Gawain threw his hands up in the air. “That is part of the problem with us, Shontae, you try to pretend you are some naïve little girl from the hood, when you set your cap for me. You came after me.”
“No, our problem is just what you said. I am some little naïve girl from the hood. In your book I would never be good enough. You gave me everything I wanted, but you never gave me you.”
“This is making no sense to me. I don’t know what you want. I am just going to get my stuff and go.”
Shontae was looking around the room for something else to throw at him, until finally, defeated, she dropped her hands to her sides, “All I ever wanted was you.”
“Isn’t that what I gave you?”
Shontae’s cheeks were red with anger and frustration, “No, you prick. You gave me enough to keep me in place. You gave enough to the little hood girl to make her feel special, but the real you, you have kept hidden for that special woman that comes after me. I was your test subject.”
Gawain’s eyes were wide, “Test subject?”
“I’m not as dumb as you think. I could see it. Each month, the things you were trying to see what worked and what made me happy.…”
“That is preposterous! What if the things I tried in order to make you happy, were just that … me trying to make you happy? Which seems to be something I was never able to do, no matter how hard I tried.”
Shontae was quiet and staring at him, “What if all I wanted to be happy was to be a part of your world? To meet your family, to feel as if I mattered to you?”
“You do matter which is why I didn’t mix the two,” he said softly.
She threw his wine glass at him, “You came in here—knowing I didn’t have the experience to be with a man in your league. You used it to your advantage with your sex tricks, fancy wine, frou-frou coffee blends and expensive clothes. You sucked me in and had me hooked.”
“Shontae, I am not that kind of man. I learned what you liked and only sought to give you mutual pleasure when we were together. I had no idea you felt that way … that you think I am like that … that you think I am that kind of a man….” My chest feels tight. That hurt. That really hurt. I have got to get out of here.
“I just wanted to meet your family,” she said softly. “So I could feel like you and I were a family.”
11
Jousting With the Squire
Be careful what you ask for…
He dropped his head and now had the book he’d taken from the shelf in his hand and less than 20 seconds later his phone began to vibrate. He pressed another button on the computer and the screen came to life.
She looked at the book.
She looked at the name.
She eyed the swashbuckling hunk on the cover with the jet-black billowing hair.
Shontae looked at page two of the catalogue, then back to the book and then at Gawain. “No fricking way!”
The swashbuckler on the book cover was now on screen with the hair tied back in a ponytail. “Hey, big bro, what’s this I hear about you dating some hood rat with a gold tooth named Sha-Nay-Nay?”
Shontae’s hand went to her throat and she sat down behind the laptop screen out of view. “Is she there? Let me see her.” Wilfred leaned from side-to-side on the screen as if he could peek around the monitor.
Gawain only appeared disgusted. “Stop it before you fall off your special high chair. You can’t see around the monitor besides, what’s with this whole pirate theme?”
Wilfred laughed as he looked at the book that his brother was holding in front of the monitor. “Maybe I should be asking you that.” It only irritated Gawain more when Wilfred started sucking on his front tooth.
Gawain didn’t take the bait, and Wilfred went on, “It’s the whole Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp take me you dirty pirate motif is what I had in mind.”
Wilfred took a breath. “Dude, where are you?” Shontae listened to the conversation between the two brothers and immediately noticed that they were very close. Based on the conversation, she was able to figure out that Gawain owned half of his brother’s publishing company. As she continued to listen, she also began to understand that he also owned half of the sister’s company, and it appeared that he was the financial brain behind both enterprises.
The conversation lapsed into Spanish, then there was more laughter, then she heard “Mama.”
Gawain asked his brother, “Can you do me a favor?”
“Anything for you, Junior. What do you need?” Wilfred asked. Gawain said something about calling Chuck and wheels up in twenty. Shontae had no idea what that meant either.
“I’ll try, but he took the parental units to D.C. Mama needed to meet with the Consulate and Dad had to meet with some justice guy, and then they’re scheduled to have dinner with the Obamas.”
Wilfred teased him some more about not opening the weekly itineraries hi
s parents sent out. Changing his tone, he told his big brother, “Junior, I think they are really worried about you.”
They both got quiet and Wilfred said in a low voice, leaving towards the camera like he was actually whispering in his ear. “Dude, you know Dad thinks you’re gay, right?” and Wilfred broke into laughter. Shontae saw Gawain’s face get really tight. “When he told you that he would love you no matter what your life choices, I nearly fell over the side of the boat!”
Wilfred continued laughing as he moved into, “You know Mama is about to head home to Portugal to find you a third cousin or something for a wife, so she can get her grandkids!” Wilfred laughed even harder.
Gawain snorted. “Shut up and get a haircut, you vegetable growing hippy! And feed my horse the oats I bought instead of those cabbages. My baby was farting all the way down the trail last week.”
Wilfred shouted as Gawain reached to disconnect the call, “Hey, Junior, is that your Boo Bear I see behind you? Is that Sha-Nay-Nay?” Shontae was still seated behind the laptop screen, but at his words, she stood up and eased her way around to stand behind Gawain.
“None of your damn business, pirate!” Gawain wasn’t smiling when he added, “Hey, I read this book, you could have warned me that it was going to be based on my last girlfriend.”
Gawain thumbed through the pages, and when he looked back at the screen, his brother had removed the hair band, and his hair had fallen down around his shoulders.
Wilfred shook his hair out, allowing the long strands to fall over one eye. “Yeah, I’m sorry, but the whole thing waking up and finding her in bed with me was too much. I thought writing about it would be cathartic. I’m sorry, I should have discussed it with you first.”
“Go ahead and profit at my expense, you ass!” Gawain continued, “You need to put your hair back in a ponytail. You look like an anorexic Troy Polamalu.”
Wilfred ignored his teasing and lowered the tone of his voice from baritone to bass, “Sha-nay-nay, baby, can you hear me?”
As Shontae stepped from behind Gawain, she noticed he was getting angrier by the second. “Her name is Shontae and did you just Barry White her?”
Courting Guinevere (The Davonshire Series Book 1) Page 8
