The Way Love Goes
Copyright © 2015 Christina C. Jones
Cover art by Christina Jones
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real locations, people, or events is coincidental, and unintentional.
This was fun. But, then again, it kind of always is.
Putting my energy into bringing black stories to life is something I live and breathe, a passion that will always make a way into the forefront of anything I write. Trust me – I’ve tried to write without it, to try something new, and the romantic element just won’t let me loose. So, I’m just gonna go with it.
When I wrote A Crazy Little Thing Called Love, it was never intended to be a series. But, here we are, four books in, with a vibrant community of characters waiting for their unique stories to be told. And a super-secret something happening that I cannot wait to be able to share with you all.
I want to thank you, dear reader, for your support. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my books, I hope it’s a wonderful experience for you, and that it compels you to want to read the stories of the other couples mentioned in these pages. If this isn’t your first CCJ book, thank you too, for your and support, for telling people about by books, for reading, for… everything.
THANK YOU.
Obviously, I want to thank God as well, for the gift to go along with my passion. My husband for his patience and amazing support of my career as an author. My girls for providing an endless background music track of laughter.
And on this project especially, my friends and betas. Especially N.A, who had to suffer through me ranting and obsessing and venting and raving and obsessing a little more about Sean and Fallon’s story.
I love you.
To my betas…. Boy, we almost lost it there at the end, didn’t we?! LOL! But I thank you, profusely, for your honest thoughts and criticisms, and for sticking with me through this. Without you, this book would not be the project that I’m proud to send out into the world.
Thank you.
The inspiration soundtrack for The Way Love Goes is available on Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/user/1260206154/playlist/6aGVp9dyQ49OM80NnKzTSm
“The firm wants me to move.”
It wasn’t the first thing Ray had said to me all evening, but it was the first that garnered enough interest to look up from my expense report to give him my full attention.
I stuck my spoon into my empty ice cream bowl and turned in my office chair to watch as he buttoned his shirt. “Move where? Like, the other Chicago office?”
Ray shook his head. “Nah, babe.”
I lifted an eyebrow when he told me where. Like... seriously?
“They need an ambitious young lawyer as another partner in the new location. And that city is rebuilding right now... It could perfect for my political career.”
I tipped my head to the side. “And what about mine?”
He stopped with his buttons half done, and turned to me with a smile. Ray was a gorgeous man. Smooth dark skin, slim, fit build, bald head, and chiseled features. Half the women in our district would vote him into a position on looks alone.
“Well, you’ve been talking about opening a second location, right?”
I reclined back in my chair, swaying back and forth. “Yeah... I have.”
“And I mean... it’s not like we can get engaged hundreds of miles away from each other. And if I’m going to take the world by storm, I’m definitely going to need a beautiful woman on my arm.”
I smiled. “Also true.”
I think a statement like that was supposed to make me feel giddy and excited, but his hints at marriage had become so common it just didn’t do anything for me anymore. Of course I wanted to get married - it was the natural next step after two years together. But he’d said it so often, with no follow-up, that I was starting to suspect it was his way of reminding me that he was committed, and I loved him for that.
There was plenty to love about Ray.
Handsome, charismatic, ambitious, motivating. Reasonably good in bed, a great listener... And he was actually a good friend. He and I were great together. Well... good together.
Really... that seemed to be the course of my life in all categories, these days.
Business was.... good. The store seemed to have hit a good stride and was basically running itself - with hired management, of course.
Social life was... good. I hung with my girls once a week for our usual lunch date, and saw my bestie nearly every day since she was my assistant. Nothing exciting.
Family was... good. My parents were complaining about not seeing me enough, but when they did see me, spent time dogging Ray. My brother was off God knows where with God knows who, dancing for his dinner on stage with whoever was the hottest pop star this week. Normal stuff.
Ray and I were... good. Scheduled dinners at least twice a week, scheduled sex at least three. We were currently way off schedule. We were both so busy it was becoming the norm to, even though we lived together, only see each other in passing. But we were both building careers. It wasn’t as if we’d lost feelings for each other, we’d just lost focus a little.
So maybe... a new start was just what we needed. Just me and him, taking a new city by storm, coming together again. The conquering of a new challenge was great for forging a connection. Or in our case - forging it again.
“Okay!” I said, sitting up in my chair. “Let’s do it!”
In the mirror, Ray lifted an eyebrow. “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I nodded. “I’ll call Ayden, and we’ll start looking at locations for the store, and finding out good neighborhoods, and real estate prices, and --”
“Whoa, slow down,” Ray said, chuckling. “It’s not official yet, but I’m glad you’re excited. Your support is everything to me, baby. Thank you.”
I beamed at him as I pushed myself up from the chair, sauntering over to where he stood in front of the mirror. “You are very welcome.”
He glanced over at me with a smile as he tucked his shirt into his pants.
“Where are you headed?” I asked, grabbing his hands to stop him. I dropped my fingers down to undo his zipper, but he moved back.
“Meeting the guys,” he said, shifting his gaze to the mirror and giving me an apologetic shrug as he finished fixing his clothes. “I’ve been putting them off, you know. Don’t want to be late.”
I let out a little sigh, but still raised myself up on my toes to press a kiss to his lips. “I definitely understand that. Have to keep those commitments to our friends. As a matter of fact… I need to call Ayden anyway. Talk to her about something not work related for a change. And of course, talk to her about our move.”
“That’s right.” Ray kissed my forehead as he buckled his belt, then grabbed his jacket from the bed as he headed for the door. “Get back to me with whatever you find, okay? And thank you, babe.” He grinned at me, his politician grin, then gave a firm nod. “We’re going to be a great team.”
I gave him a little wave as he left the bedroom. A few moments later, I heard the distinctive thumps and clicks of him opening and closing the front door, and locking it behind him.
I smiled. He was right. We were going to be a great team.
One.
It’s a little bit insane how when you’re pissed, your body redirects your energy. Hot tea streamed over my fingers because my hand was shaking so bad, but I didn’t even register any pain. Logicall
y, I understood that doing nothing about the scalding liquid would later present itself as a regret, but I kept on clutching that cup, trying to keep my tears in check.
Other emotions would come later, but right now, I was angry. I was very, very angry, and I was very, very hurt, because what the hell did he mean, he wasn’t coming?
“Ray… the only reason I’m here is because of you. You were the one being transferred here. You started talking about getting engaged. You asked me to come with you.”
His deep rumble on the other end of the phone line only highlighted the pain. How dare he break my heart in a bedroom voice? “I understand that, Fallon. And please, I want you to understand that I appreciated that. I appreciate you.”
“Then why?”
He let out a sigh that was so heavy I felt it in my chest, and I could imagine him shaking his head. “This just isn’t working anymore.”
“How so?” I snapped, finally releasing the teacup onto my desk with a plop that sent a puddle of tea dripping to the desktop. “It was working when I was flying up here to secure space for my store. It was working when I moved six months ago. It was working when I was spending every bit of spare time I had looking for, and then buying a house, Ray. You’ve given me no indication that anything was wrong, and now you’re ready to break up? Tell me, please, when did you realize it wasn’t working anymore?”
Silence, only punctuated by the subtle sounds of his breath ruled the air between us for a few moments before he answered. “Right before you moved.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “Right before I—right be—are you kidding, Ray? I put my business’s reputation on the line opening this second location. My financial security, and my credit. My name is on a mortgage now, because I was so in love with your trifling ass that I moved here for you. And motherfucker… you’re going to sit on this goddamned phone and tell me that you knew, six fucking months ago, before I completely uprooted my life, when I still had a chance to back out of this shit, that you weren’t even really feeling it like that anymore? After you all but promised me a proposal. After I’ve been with your ass for three years?”
I stopped to giggle again, and I was sure I sounded like a complete maniac, but at that moment, I didn’t really care. “Oh, Ray. Ray, Ray, Ray… you know… I am really, really glad, for both of our sakes, that you didn’t get on that plane this morning. Because if you’d told me this shit in person… I would fucking kill you.”
I pulled the phone from my ear, then pressed the button to end the call.
Breathe, Fallon. Breathe, breathe, breathe, I told myself.
So I did.
I took deep breaths in and out until I felt my heart stop racing. I closed my eyes, willing calm to wash over me, replacing anger with peace. Pushing out negativity, breathing in positive energy, and then… I snatched up my teacup and launched it at the wall.
There were several reasons that was a bad idea, the first being that the cup wasn’t empty, so now I was going to have to clean tea from my bedroom floor. Second – though the cup hit the wall with a thump and remained intact, once it hit the floor, it shattered into pieces. Another thing to clean up. The third, and definitely largest reason I shouldn’t have thrown the cup, didn’t present itself until a couple of moments later, when a fine crack appeared on the wall where I’d hit it. Right in front of my eyes, that crack traveled and spread until it reached the prized Rashad Martin photo print on my wall.
It fell at the same moment I stepped forward, intending to grab it.
But… ha-ha… the photo wasn’t the only thing. When the heavy frame came down, it brought a whole section of drywall crashing to the floor with it.
So I did the only thing that seemed to make any semblance of sense in that moment.
I sat down on the floor and cried.
The house was supposed to be an adventure.
Before I moved, Ray and I would spend lazy Saturday mornings together watching HGTV, looking around the Chicago condo we leased, trying to see what we could do. We hit yard sales together, to decorate our home in the modern eclectic design aesthetic we shared, and dreamed about rehabilitating a house. Purchase something run-down, barely fit to live in at all, let alone call it a home, and then together, restoring it to its former beauty, bringing it back to life while he built his political career and I built my business… but now… I guess that dream was dead.
Along with my relationship.
My phone rang again, and Ray’s handsome face flashed on my screen. I wanted so badly to ignore it, but my thumb slid across the screen anyway.
“What do you want?”
“To apologize,” Ray said, and I rolled my eyes. Of course he wanted to apologize. “You just… you were so excited about moving, and you’d already gone through so much to set up the new location for your store. I didn’t want to ruin that for you.”
A surge of annoyance spiked in my chest. Was this fool dense? “With you, Ray. I was excited about moving with you, excited about building our life. A year ago, you came home and told me your boss wanted you in charge of the office out here, that you’d have to be here to accept the job, and you needed a first lady. I didn’t want to move. I wanted you. So I took these chances, for you. While you were training, and preparing, I was putting everything on the line to expand my business, and find a home for us. I left my friends, left my family, left the life I knew to build a new one for us. It was never about being here. It was about being here with you.”
“I’m sorry, Fallon,” Ray insisted, after another long moment had passed. It bothered me that he actually sounded sincere.
I shook my head, then roughly swiped tears from my face with the back of my hand. “Yeah. You really are.”
I hung up, and was about to toss the phone away when it started ringing, yet again.
“What?!” I growled into the receiver after swiping the screen to answer, and my combative greeting was met with sucked teeth.
“Um, ugh,” Ayden said. “What’s with you this morning?”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, pressing a hand to my forehead. “Thought you were Ray.”
“And you answered like that? What’s the story there?”
I blew a quick puff of air through my lips as I shook my head. “Way too long to tell right now. What’s on the agenda today?”
“Adjusting your attitude.”
“What else Ayden?”
There was a short pause, and a second later, she began rambling off shipments and purchase orders and window display designs. I listened while I pulled myself up from the floor, taking mental notes about what I needed to handle myself, and what to delegate to her, even though I was pretty sure she already had it down.
That’s why I liked Ayden. She always had her shit together, even when I didn’t.
“So do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she asked, as I surveyed my appearance in the mirror. If nothing else, at least I’d look good today. The weather was agreeing nicely with my skin, and my two-day-old twist-out looked better than it had on day one.
“Not particularly.” I pulled my toothbrush out of the cup, and turned on the water to rinse it off. “I would actually like to pretend this morning didn’t really happen.”
My phone rang at 5:13am, right before Ray’s scheduled flight. We’d planned this well in advance, that he would call me when he was about to board the plane for the two hour flight that would get him here. I was supposed to be picking him up from the airport, and the advance call would give me an idea of what time he’d arrive, so I could plan my day accordingly.
What really happened is that he waited until the last possible minute to tell me he wasn’t getting on that plane at all. That he’d requested the position that required the move go to someone else. That not only was he not coming... he didn’t even want me to come back.
A sob built in my throat as I really considered that. How delusional I had to have been, how utterly blind not to see that the man I’d been with for three goddamn years… was co
nsidering putting me off the team. How stupid I was to uproot my life for someone who didn’t even have the decency to tell me in advance that he wasn’t taking the flight that would have connected us again after living apart for six months. How pitiful, to go to such great pains over someone who’d promised me nothing.
So, yeah… delusional, stupid, pitiful.
Sounds about right.
I lifted my toothbrush, and just before I put it in my mouth, I caught a whiff of a strange metallic smell. My face pulled into a scowl as I sniffed around for the source of the odor. Raising my toothbrush to my nose, I nearly gagged at the rusty chemical smell. Still frowning, I turned the water back on, then lowered my face toward the stream.
Ugh.
Definitely the culprit.
“Fallon, are you still there?”
Ayden’s voice on the other end of the line nearly made me jump out of my skin. I’d forgotten that I was holding the phone at all, let alone that she was still there.
“Yeah,” I said, flipping the faucet down to turn off the water, and tossing the toothbrush into the trashcan. “I need you find me a contractor, so some progress can get made on the massive list of shit wrong with this house.”
The little brownstone building I’d found, a diamond in the rough, was perfect – as long as one kept in mind that “perfect” was pretty damned subjective. It had a lot of problems, but really, that made it just right for what Ray and I had wanted in a home.
Ayden, the home inspector, and my realtor, Jada, had all looked at me like I was crazy, and the mortgage broker seemed uncertain. But restored to its former glory, it could rival any of the other newly restored places on the block. I had the vision, the determination, and good enough credit to make it happen.
I hired an exterminator to make sure I was bug-free, and an electrician to make sure I wasn’t going to die in an electrical fire. I hired a crew to go in and clean it up as best they could. And then… I moved in. I hadn’t touched anything, hadn’t started a single project, because I was waiting.
The Way Love Goes (Serendipitous Love Book 4) Page 1
