by Sherie Keys
“Let’s see how it goes with Oliver first,” she told him. “I’ve got to get back to work. I have a lot to do.”
Mike let her go and straightened his pants and shirt, shoving the ring box back down into his pocket. “Okay. That’s cool. Where is he? Can I meet him?”
“He’s at school right now,” she answered cautiously, wondering what was going to happen.
“Oh.” Mike considered her answer. “Well, what if I go pick him up with you today, and I meet him. We can go out for pizza or something. Does he like pizza? All kids like pizza.”
Delphine laughed. “Yes, he likes pizza. Fine, you can come with me to pick him up and meet him, but I want you to be good around him. Be gentle and careful. He’s just coming into a new living situation here, and he’s still trying to get used to it, so no pressure.”
“Yeah, I got it. No pressure. No problem. Del, honey, I’m going to make sure that this goes well. I want you back, and if that means I gotta be a father to an eight-year-old kid, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he vowed it, looking more serious than she had ever seen him.
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you here this afternoon.” She gave him a nod and went back into her home, closing the door behind her and reeling again on the inside. She wondered if she had temporarily lost her mind, telling Mike that if it worked out with him meeting Oliver that she would consider marrying him. She had broken up with him and gone through hell afterward, and suddenly there she was ready to consider not only taking him back but taking him back in the most permanent way possible.
The day flew by, and before she knew it, Mike was back at her door, showered and changed into nicer clothes. She knew that he was trying to make a good impression.
“You look nice,” she told him, giving him a smile.
“It’s an important day,” he told her confidently. He got into her car with her, and together they went to the school. Oliver came out with his friends Josh and Brad, talking and laughing with them as he had the day before, and he looked happy as could be until he saw Mike standing beside the car, leaning against it. His smile faded some, and he looked at Delphine with worried, questioning eyes.
Delphine went to him out of earshot of Mike and reassured him. “I have a friend with me today. He wanted to meet you. Is that okay?” she asked him, making it clear that it was acceptable for him to say no.
He looked over her shoulder and regarded Mike for a long moment. “It’s okay. If he is your friend, then I’ll meet him.”
“All right. Let’s go.” She smiled at him. “How was your day?” she asked as they walked back to the car.
“It was really good,” he said with a wide smile, but it wasn’t as big as the smile he had shared with her the day before. His attention was solely on the man standing against the car. They reached him a moment later, and Mike waved at him.
“Hey there, buddy. My name is Mike. How are you doing?” Mike extended his hand to the boy, and Oliver shook it.
“I’m good,” he answered. “My name is Oliver.” His eyes scanned the man’s face slowly as he read him in his own young boy way.
“That’s a nice name. Hey Oliver, do you want to go get some toys? I thought I’d take you and Del out for a little shopping trip to pick up some toys. You probably don’t have many, do you? What do you think?” Mike grinned at him encouragingly.
Oliver lit up. “Really? I’d love to get some toys!” He grew excited.
“Well, great! Let’s all pile into the car and go get some. I know a toy store not far from here.” Mike got into the passenger seat, and Oliver got into the back, sitting behind Mike where he could see Delphine clearly.
Mike directed Delphine, and soon enough, they were at a toy store. Delphine looked at it in surprise. “I didn’t know this was here. That’s so weird. We’re not that far from the house.”
“I know my way around!” Mike chuckled, getting out of the car. They walked through the toy store together, and Mike let Oliver pick out a few toys that he really liked. Mike paid for them, and the clerk bagged them up.
“There you go, kid. Something to play with at home.” Mike grinned as they walked back out to the car. Oliver was blissful.
“Thank you, Mike!” He beamed as he got into the back seat and secured his seatbelt.
“No problem, kid.” Mike shot him a wink as he climbed into the car. They went back to the brownstone, and all three of them went into the kitchen. Mike turned to Oliver and lifted his chin.
“Hey Oliver, why don’t you take those new toys I bought for you and go play in your room for a little while? I need to talk to Del for a bit.” Mike looked at him pointedly.
Oliver’s face fell. “But I was going to stay in here and do homework with her.” He looked worried, and Delphine knew that he was still struggling a little with catching up on the work his new class was doing.
“Don’t worry, Oliver, you and I will do homework together today,” she promised him. The worry seemed to leave his face.
“Come on kid, go on and play with your toys in your room, and then after I’m done talking with Del, I’ll take you out for pizza. How about that? You like pizza?” Mike tempted him. Oliver’s eyes grew wide.
“I love pizza!” he gushed happily.
“Okay, then we have a deal. You go play in your room, I talk to Del, and then we go for pizza. Off you go, kid.” Mike eyed the stairs. Oliver nodded and took his new toys up the stairs.
When he was gone, Mike turned to Delphine and seemed to relax a bit. “How am I doing? Pretty good, huh? Listen. I never should have let you go. I love you. You seriously mean everything to me. I was just afraid of having a family before, but I thought about it, and now I can see that it’s a good idea! I see you with Oliver, and you’re so good with him. You’re a natural! It’s good. It feels like we could be a family, right? I know we could do it. I want you to think long and hard about this, and then take that ring and walk down the aisle to me. Let’s do this for real, okay?” He pleaded, his smile full of hope.
She sighed. “I’ll think about it,” she answered him. Delphine wondered if it was possible. It was strange to her to see such a change in him, where he had been so adamantly against having children just two weeks prior, and suddenly he was all for it. It left her feeling as if she was on uncertain ground. He had made a solid point about Oliver having a father around, and she knew that could make a difference to the boy.
Mike went to the bottom of the stairs and called up to the second floor. “Hey Oliver, come on kid. Let’s go get some pizza!”
Oliver cried out, “Yay! I’m coming!” He hurried out of his room and down the stairs as fast as he could without falling. Mike laughed at him and rubbed his hand over Oliver’s dark curls as they headed out the door.
Mike took them to a little pizza parlor not far away, and they each got their own favorite kind of pizza, which made Oliver glow with happiness. When he had eaten nearly all of his pizza, Mike reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a handful of quarters.
“You like video games, kid?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow.
Oliver shrugged. “I don’t know. I never played one before.”
Mike looked at him in surprise. “You’ve never played a video game? Well, here’s some quarters. You pick the game, and I’ll show you how to play it.”
Oliver beamed with delight. “Okay. Thank you!” He scooted off of his chair and stood before the games, unsure which one to choose. Mike pointed to Pac Man and took the boy with him to go show him how to play it. Delphine watched them laughing and playing together, and she wondered if she was looking at a clone of the Mike she had broken up with only two weeks before.
It wasn’t too long before Oliver had the hang of it and Mike left him with a tall stack of quarters. He came back to the table and sat down beside Delphine. “He’s a pretty smart kid. He picked that game up fast.”
“What do you think of him?” she asked, eyeing Mike carefully.
“I like him. He’s a nice kid. Polite. Smart. Y
ou got a good one.” He gave her a wink.
“He is a good one,” she said with a smile, thinking to herself that there weren’t really bad kids out there, just kids that needed the right home to be in.
When the pizza and quarters were gone, they left the pizzeria and Mike stopped them before they reached the car. “Hey, it’s a nice night out. There’s a park not far from here. Why don’t we take a walk?”
Oliver shrugged. “Okay. I have to get back home to do my homework sometime,” he said, looking up at Delphine and taking her hand in his. She loved that he said it. Back home. She smiled down at him.
“We’ll just make it a quick walk, then.” Giving Oliver’s hand a gentle squeeze, they headed to the park. Mike sprung for ice cream cones for each of them, and Oliver looked like he was in heaven. They had walked far enough that their ice cream cones were gone when Mike stopped and turned to face them.
“Hey Oliver, I’m going to let you in on a secret,” he said, kneeling down in front of the boy, eye level with him.
“What secret?” Oliver asked curiously.
“I love Delphine,” Mike admitted. Oliver giggled and smiled. “And you know what else?” Mike asked, raising a brow at Oliver.
“What?” Oliver asked.
“I want her to be my wife.” He pulled the black box out of his pocket again and opened it, holding it up to Delphine once more. “Marry me, Delphine. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Oliver’s mouth fell open, and he looked up at Delphine in surprise. She gaped at Mike and then sighed and closed her mouth. Taking a long moment, she finally turned and looked at Oliver. “What do you think, Oliver? Should I do this?”
Oliver shrugged. “I think it’s up to you to decide. It’s your choice.” He looked surprised that she would ask him what he thought, but he gave her his honest answer.
Delphine smiled a little and then began to laugh softly. “Well, I guess that’s a yes, then. Mike, I will marry you.”
Mike grinned and slid the ring onto her finger. “You’re going to be so glad that you said yes. I’m going to make this a really happy family.”
She couldn’t believe it as they went back to the brownstone, and she gazed down at her left hand. The moderate diamond there sparkled against her dark skin, and she found herself totally amazed that she was making another big change in her life so suddenly. Then, she reminded herself that it wasn’t quite so sudden. She had been with Mike for a year and a half, and the ring on her hand and a family in their future was what she had wanted with him. It looked like it was going to happen.
When they got to the house, Delphine and Oliver went inside and Delphine stopped Mike at the door. He looked at her in surprise. “What, you don’t want me to come in? I thought I’d stay the night, and we could, you know… celebrate.” He gave her a come-hither look and winked at her.
Delphine shook her head. “You know, I said yes, and I meant it, but things are still really new around here for Oliver, and I feel like he and I need to settle in just a little bit more. This is our trial month and it’s really important for both of us. I think he and I need to get through this month before we make any more changes around the house here. I’m sorry, but I’m going to ask you to wait for me. I think we can do that. It’s a month, and we’ve just said that we’re going to spend the rest of our lives together, so a month kind of pales in comparison to that.”
He nodded. “Okay. I get it. I understand. I mean, I wish I could stay. I miss you a lot, but I’ll wait. You’re worth waiting for. I’ll see you around, and in a month, we’ll make another new change.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek, and she said goodnight to him and turned her attention to Oliver and his homework.
Chapter10
Delphine went to the warehouse the next morning with the renovation plans. They were mostly finished, other than running them past Justin for his final input. When she walked into the office, she set the plans on the desk and he saw the ring on her hand right away.
“What is that?” he demanded in a serious tone, staring at the shining rock.
“It’s an engagement ring,” she said quietly, knowing he wouldn’t be thrilled about it.
“And to whom are you engaged?” he asked insistently, raising his eyes from the ring to look straight at her.
“I’m engaged to Mike. He came by and told me how he misses me, how he wants to make things right and he wants a family with me. At first, I told him no because of Oliver, but then he said he was willing to take on Oliver and raise him like a son, and that made a difference to me. He tried really hard, and it seems like he and Oliver are getting along well, so I didn’t see any reason to say no.” She raised her eyes slowly, and he narrowed his gaze at her.
“No. I want you to know right now that I respect your opinion and your judgment and your decision, but I am staunchly against this. Totally, completely, staunchly against this. It cannot happen,” he stated flatly and passionately.
She sighed. “I suspected that you’d be unhappy about this.”
“Unhappy is not the right word. It’s much closer to unhinged. Think about this carefully. Think about why you broke up with him. Think about how he lied to you and deceived you the entire time that you two were together. Think about that. Think about Oliver and his future. Do you really see Mike as a good role model for Oliver? Think about all of these things. And I think that if you do some serious soul searching, you’re going to realize that you are about to make a huge mistake.” Justin crossed his arms over his chest and pursed his lips in a thin line.
Delphine knew that he was holding back much more than he wanted to say. She knew that it was going to take some time to win him over. “I’m going to give it some serious thought, but I think I’m going to marry him.”
She left it at that and turned her attention back to the plans she had laid out on the desk. She felt like she was saved by the bell when their manager walked into the office. Georgia was a small, thin black woman who was mighty on the inside, with a big heart and a brilliant mind. She gave them both a big grin and nodded to Delphine.
“I’m glad to see you’re back again. I hope you had a nice trip. I’ve got some news for you two.” She jumped straight into the meat of it, and Delphine couldn’t have been more grateful for Georgia’s timing or interruption. She could see that Justin would remain unhappy with her decision.
“I’ve drawn up some new proposals that we can offer to Commissioner Pain In The Ass. Hopefully, these will change his mind, and he’ll give us the green light to start operations in Harlem and further up north in the Bronx,” she began, setting a short pile of papers down on the desk.
“Commissioner Hank Thomas has been taken care of and is no longer in the way. We have a green light to move forward with everything,” a man’s voice sounded in the office, and all three of them looked up toward the door.
A handsome man who looked to be in his thirties was walking toward them wearing a very fine-looking suit and carrying a leather briefcase. Justin and Georgia both reached their hands out to him to shake his hand as they greeted him.
“Oh good, you’re here. Thank you for coming.” Georgia smiled widely.
“Yes, thank you so much for being here and for doing all that you’ve done,” Justin added, and then he turned toward his best friend.
“Delphine, this is Julio Rivera. He’s our angel investor. Julio, this is my partner, Delphine Bishop.” She reached her hand out to him and gave him a smile.
“It’s nice to meet you.” She nodded at him. “I understand that we have you to thank for this building?”
He nodded. “Yes, I stepped in and helped acquire it just in time. I’m also funding the renovations to this property, so we can get this business up and going.”
“And it sounds like now we have you to thank for getting Hank Thomas out of our hair and out of our way, am I right?” Georgia asked, her smile growing wider.
Julio chuckled and nodded. “Yes, that’s true as well. Commissioner Pain In
The Ass will no longer be a pain. He’s given us the approval for everything we’re doing. He just needed some… persuasion. I have one of the best lawyers in the state, and he took Hank to the carpet. All the red tape is gone, legally. He won’t be breathing down our necks ever again.”
“That’s amazing! Thank you so much! You’re a godsend!” Justin was completely thrilled and looked as if he might hug their investor.
“It’s my pleasure. Truly.” Julio smiled at them all, and Delphine looked at him curiously. Justin saw her do it and gave her a questioning eye, but she shook her head. She turned their attention to the renovation plans, and they all loved what she suggested that they do.
“I also created a map of all of the sites that we want to work on throughout the city. The maps are broken down by neighborhood and outlined here.” She laid out more pages for them to look at, and they could easily see how much time and work she had put into them.
