Real Love 5 (Love the One You're With)

by H. H. Fowler

  “Don’t blame yourself for my decision, because it has nothing to do with you. It’s all me…I’m the stupid one.”

  “Kevin, let’s not go there. You are only looking for an excuse to paddle your way back to your old habits – or should I say your old flames.”

  At those words, Kevin looked up and stared in Hunter’s direction, but he gave no indication that he recognized her sitting thirty feet away in a rented Buick. He placed his hand over his head and gave his throbbing right temple a squeeze.

  “What are you getting at?” he asked her.

  “I’m not getting at anything except that I should have trusted my heart when it told me that this connection between us was too good to be true.”

  “You don’t mean that…what we have is real; you know that.”

  “I don’t know anything where we’re concerned right now.”

  Kevin attempted to sigh away his frustration, but it didn’t work. “What time does your plane land in Tampa? I can’t do this over the phone.”

  “You expect me to come to Tampa after what you’ve just told me? What is there left to talk about?”

  “Hunter…don’t do this to us. I need to talk to you, then maybe you will understand why I can’t marry you – not in the state I’m presently in.”

  Shiloh flipped her lengthy hair to one side and then walked slowly toward Kevin, encircling him like a lioness ready to pounce on her prey. Kevin seemed intimidated by her – the way his gaze painstakingly followed her movements. On her second lap around, she stopped in front of him and seductively ran a finger along the exposed skin inside his shirt. This time Kevin didn’t do anything except keep his fiery gaze locked on Shiloh. In any event, Hunter had seen enough.

  “Maybe this is for the best,” she said. “We barely know each other. And you know what? I agree with you…rushing into marriage at this point is not only irrational, it’s suicidal, in every sense of the word. However, I don’t think that we could even be friends after something like this.”

  “Please tell me that you’re still on your way to Tampa. There are a lot of things I need to explain to you and doing it over the phone would not be the same.”

  Hunter was usually in control of her emotions and was reasonably fair in giving someone the benefit of the doubt, but in this case she was too messed up to offer Kevin anything more than her cold attitude. She was actually seeing his betrayal in real time, leaving little for her to misinterpret.

  “Your photoshoot is still on for ten in the morning,” she said. “But you don’t have to go if you don’t want…I could always get someone to replace you.”

  “Hunter…”

  “I can’t say that I regret meeting you.”

  “Hunter…please…”

  “Because that would be a lie,” she rambled on. “But I will say that I’m disappointed in the way things turned out. I think it’s best we say our goodbyes now, while we’re still being civil with each other…I’ll go first…”

  “Hunter, please!”

  “Goodbye, Kevin. And I sincerely pray that you have a happy and prosperous life.”

  “This is not goodbye for me. You must know that I love you and I will pursue you until –”

  Hunter hung up, not only because she didn’t want to hear those empty words coming through Kevin’s lips, but also because she didn’t want him to witness her falling apart over what had been the best thing to ever have happened in her life. She dried her eyes with the palms of hands and soon found herself whispering to God for direction. At this point, Shiloh had sauntered away toward the building, leaving Kevin to battle his own tears.

  What am I to do, Lord? Because it’s clear that Kevin has deceived me. But I’ve never felt so strongly about a man as I feel about him. Why couldn’t he just tell me the truth about Shiloh Bethune; I would have understood. I also understand how unfair it would be to hold a person’s past against him.

  Hunter stopped praying when she heard a voice as clear as day say, “If that is true what you’ve just said, call him back. Things aren’t always what they seem.” Hunter sat up straight, looking around to make sure she wasn’t losing her mind. But the voice persisted, wooing her so gently that she felt compelled to listen. Could this be the voice of God speaking back to her? Sasha had told her repeatedly that God was famous for whispering into the conscience of a person, helping to bring clarity to a situation. And soon, if that person took heed, they would find themselves doing things they didn’t want to do and saying things they hadn’t planned on saying.

  Without further resistance, Hunter pressed Kevin’s number on the screen and then saw him, in a desperate manner, put his phone to his ear.

  “Please tell me that you are still on your way to Tampa,” he pleaded “or else I’m gonna catch the next flight out to Devin’s Cay. Either way, we need to talk.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Hunter heard herself say. “Turn around and look to your right. I’m sitting in a burgundy Buick LaCrosse – about thirty feet away.”

  “I see you…” Kevin was moving as quickly as his strides would carry him. It didn’t dawn on him that Hunter may have witnessed the drama between him and Shiloh a few minutes ago. “I’m coming to you right now.”

  “And Kevin, just so you know,” Hunter said, “it wasn’t my idea to call you back. So you had better thank God that He actually speaks to His creation.”

  Kevin pulled open the passenger door and slid in, giving Hunter a guarded look. With the phone still attached to his ear, he said in a tone overflowing with relief, “I am thankful, but more so because you have decided to listen. Like you, I am impressed with God’s goodness and I’m beginning to see the sense in trusting His wisdom.”

  Those words, irrespective of how disappointed Hunter felt at the moment, restored a measure of warmth to her heart. Maybe – just maybe, she thought, this man could truly be her husband. But only time would tell.

  “Okay…you have the floor,” Hunter said. “And please, don’t leave out any detail.”

  Epilogue

  The Smithson Hotel – Saturday Morning – 2:11 a.m.

  “Excuse me, sir, I’ve misplaced my room key.” Annalise leaned on the counter and gave the front desk clerk a look that said that she was about to go into labor any minute. “I can’t get back in because my friend is out partying with some jerk.”

  “How’d you misplace your key?” the clerk questioned.

  Annalise raised up a plastic bucket that had “The Smithson Hotel” printed on the front. “I went to get some ice and as I was pressing the button, the key must have slipped through my fingers and fell through the vent.”

  The clerk stared at Annalise as if he was waiting for the punch line, because it was the first time he’d heard a guest report such a story. He offered a friendly smile anyway.

  “Okay, ma’am. I would be happy to assist you. What’s the room number?”

  “5020.”

  “And under whose name is the room?”

  “Rena Henderson – short, stubby-looking lady, with light brown hair. She’s a part of our entourage that came in from Trinidad and Tobago. You may have seen her around.”

  The clerk smiled and said, “Can’t say that I have. So the room isn’t in your name?”

  “One of them is…but I’m staying with my friend because –” Annalise yelped suddenly, gripping her stomach in pain. The rest of her words came out strained, which was exactly as Annalise had planned. “There are four rooms in total…uugghhh, I’m so sorry…please excuse me…”

  “Is everything alright, ma’am?”

  Annalise opened her eyes slowly as the pain began to subside. “Braxton Hicks….have you ever heard of them?”

  “I believe they are some type of contractions –”

  Annalise yelped again. “Please, sir, I need to get to my room so that I can lie down.”

  Hotel policy expected the staff to be accommodating, but at the same time, they couldn’t simply replace room keys to anyone claiming to
have lost one. However, the woman looked as if she was in the final stages of her pregnancy and was obviously experiencing some kind of pain. Why would she lie about something as austere as a room key? The clerk sized up Annalise one more time and decided that she wasn’t a threat. In fact, he’d seen her earlier walking around with a man with dreadlocks who he knew was a guest in the hotel, which helped alleviate some of his suspicion.

  He pushed a clipboard toward Annalise. “I need you to sign this form and produce some form of identification, if you have it.”

  Annalise rested her driver’s license on the counter and pushed it toward the clerk, who gave her a puzzled look because he wasn’t expecting her to have any sort of ID. Who the heck took their driver’s license with them when going for ice?

  “It’s a crazy habit of mine,” Annalise said. “I’m pregnant and I’m in an unfamiliar place. I don’t know when I might need it…” She gripped her stomach again. “Ooh, another one…excuse me for a sec…”

  “Under normal circumstances,” the clerk paused, as he left his station to assist Annalise. “I would have required the person to be here and the ID of the individual whose name the room is in, but I will trust my judgment. Besides, your name is in the system as one of our guests. Here is your key to 5020. Do you need me to help you up to your room?”

  “How kind of you,” Annalise said. “But I should be okay in a few minutes. These aren’t the real labor pains yet.”

  The clerk was beginning to feel uncertain about his actions, praying that he didn’t get into trouble for going against hotel policy. But how much harm could a pregnant woman do, who could barely get out of her own way?

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you? he asked Annalise. “It’s no issue for me, really.”

  “Yes, I’m sure, but thank you. You have been very helpful. I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you.”

  The clerk smiled at the accolade, as he watched Annalise wobble away toward the elevator. He called out after her. “Enjoy the rest of your stay at The Smithson Hotel.”

  “Thank you…I will.”

  Geesh, he was so easy...like taking candy from a baby. Once Annalise got into the elevator, her lips twisted into a devilish smirk, which soon turned into a full blown laugh. Rena Henderson, you are in for a rude awakening, if you thought you could put your frisky hands on Armando and get away with it. I will be waiting for you the next time you show your ugly face.

  ****

  Once again, with Hunter flying out to Tampa that morning, Drake and Sasha had Hunter’s house to themselves. But there was a telling difference in the atmosphere. As opposed to Sasha’s cold, combative attitude toward her husband, there was serenity building swiftly between them. Drake could not tell if the news of his inheritance was the reason for the change in Sasha’s behavior, or if she had finally realized that she was the one made especially for him. Regardless of the reason, he was thankful for the breath of fresh air blowing in his marriage.

  He smirked when she sauntered toward him, wearing hot pink lingerie, lined with white fur around the neck. It was one of the sexiest lace chemises she’d worn to date, which reminded Drake of the ‘naughty’ side of his wife. Sometimes a graceful woman with great poise and beauty hadn’t any idea of how to let her hair down and please a man in bed. But quite the contrary when it came down to Sasha. She pleased him immensely. That was why he couldn’t understand why she would get uptight when he often wanted to make love to her. She did her job well and what man wouldn’t want to bask in that?

  “You like?” Sasha twirled from side to side, throwing her head back like she was posing for a photo for one of those fashion magazines.

  Drake grinned. “For every time you ask that question, wearing stuff like that, you know exactly what I’m gonna say.”

  “Well, darling, I wanna hear you say it.”

  Drake indulged her. “I would say that I had no idea that you were so courageous.”

  “Then I would respond by saying I love you and my only desire is to make you happy.” Sasha climbed onto the bed, straddling her husband’s thighs. She gave him a sensual kiss on the lips. “That hasn’t changed, even though over the last several weeks, I’ve been acting inane and have virtually become a pain in your butt…”

  “I understand, babe. The pressure you were under –”

  “Let me finish,” she said, planting another sensual kiss on Drake’s lips. “I just want to apologize for all those times I’ve questioned your leadership and have doubted our love. I realize that you’re a man with his own vision for his family. I should have supported you – or at least met you halfway, but all I did was complain and sulk over how determined you are in fulfilling your dreams. I was hoping tonight would be a peace offering and the turning over of a new leaf between us. And please, honey, don’t think my change of heart has anything to do with your inheritance…”

  “Our inheritance,” Drake stressed.

  “Well, you know what I mean. I’ve loved you since I was a kid, way before we had anything to boast about. I love you even more now – for the man you are to me and the man you’ve become. I pray that God will prosper our marriage and bless us with long life so that we can see our children grow to become loving and productive adults. You’re one in a million and I wouldn’t trade you for the world.”

  Drake chuckled, despite his eyes being wet with tears. “Awwh, babe that was touching. I don’t know what to say that would be able to top that. But know that I will move heaven and earth to keep that smile on your face. And there’s nothing too big or too small I wouldn’t do for you. So this leads me to something I want you to read.”

  Drake reached for his cell phone, pulled up the email that Lewis had sent him and then gave it to Sasha. It simply read:

  Dear Mr. Beckford, this missive is to inform you that a sum of 3.1 million dollars has been transferred to your account and will be available within three working days. The remaining assets of the estate and all other benefits will be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future. If you or your wife have any questions, you know how to reach me. Do enjoy the rest of your day.

  Sasha looked up at her husband, as the reality of the email slapped her in the face. This was no gimmick. Her husband was actually a millionaire.

  “What are you thinking?” Drake asked.

  “That I’m never going to ever leave you, not only because I’d be a fool, but because I see God manifesting Himself so richly in your life. All I can say is that my faith has been fully restored.” Sasha began to fan herself. “I feel like crying.”

  Drake pulled Sasha on top of his chest, wrapping his arms around her. After a short while, he said in a mischievous tone, “Those are happy tears, aren’t they? I believe that they can wait, because I was kinda hoping we could finish what we started a few moments ago.”

  Coming from her husband – knowing how straitlaced he was – that made Sasha laugh. “Alright, mister,” she said, prancing up. “I hope you have the energy to keep up with me.”

  “Bring it on, babe, bring it on.”

  THE END

  Some of what’s to come in Book 6

  Three Hours Later

  Sasha couldn’t sleep. And she wondered if it was because of the exciting news surrounding her or if she was beginning to fall in love with her husband all over again. Maybe it was both. Thank God the next day was Saturday, because she wouldn’t be able to function in the classroom after the fiery session they’d had. In any event, she was envious that Drake had been able to fall into a deep sleep so quickly. Why was it that she had to be the one wrestling with insomnia when it was Drake who had tired her out? She sat up and allowed her gaze to rest on the flat screen TV. The Anderson Cooper talk show was on, discussing various types of germs and how to prevent the spread of them.

  The talk show host went on to explain that cell phones were filthy, the reason being that cell phone users were always touching their phones, and in effect, were transferring bacteria to their devices. It was e
stimated that 1 in 6 cell phones had fecal matter on them and that cell phones had 18 times more harmful bacteria than that of a door handle in the public restroom.

  How gross to be watching such a thing after making out with her husband for what seemed like half of the night, but personal hygiene was very important to Sasha. She was relieved to have stumbled across the information – though she didn’t usually take her phone into the bathroom anyway. Now she had an even better reason not to. However, Sasha didn’t know that she was about to go against her new set of rules. Her phone began buzzing with messages, one after the other.

  This concerned Sasha greatly, because the last time her phone kept buzzing this early in the morning, she and Drake were lured into a church that almost burned down with four hundred people in it. What could it be this time? John Dewy was in prison, locked away from hurting anyone again. Were his goons after them now? Against her better judgment, Sasha reached for her phone and clicked into her email messages. There were three of them, all sent within three to four minutes of each other. The first email had no title. It was from someone named Anonymous_Eyes. She then clicked into the body of the message which brazenly stated:

  You’ve been a naughty little girl, Mrs. Beckford. I know what you did three weeks ago in the boy’s locker room. And just in case you’re wondering if this is blackmail…it is. You have less than 15 hours to convince Levi to return to Xavier High and accompany the boys’ basketball team to the national tournament.

  The second email read:

  Oh, and don’t even think about going to the police because I won’t hesitate to blast your dirty laundry for all eyes to see.

  By the time Sasha clicked into the third email, her hands were shaking – actually, it felt as if her entire body was experiencing tremors, which signaled she was about to go into a panic attack. And not wanting to disturb Drake with her reactions to the emails, she quietly slipped out of the bed and locked herself in the bathroom. The third email was the deadliest of them all.