The Best Thing He Never Knew He Needed

by Tina Martin

  “Right, so she can get ready for the concert. Dante and Dimitrius have been talking about it all week. I think they both need baby breaks.”

  Sherita nodded just barely. Come on with the coffee so I can get out of here…

  “So what time are you getting over there?”

  She frowned. “Over where?”

  “To Dante’s house this evening.”

  Her frown deepened. “How did you know I was going there?”

  “How do you think I know, Sherita? Your girlfriends are married to my brothers.”

  Sherita heard the barista read off her coffee order, watching him place a cup of coffee on the counter. He called out Desmond’s order immediately after hers.

  Nearly snatching her cup from the counter, she wasted no time heading for the door.

  Desmond was right on her heels.

  She pushed the door open.

  Desmond caught the door before it closed in his face, then exited behind her.

  “What time are you getting over there?” he asked again, watching her dress sway as she walked away from him.

  “What’s it to you, Desmond? Why do you care what time I’m going to be at Dante’s house?” she shouted, without missing a step towards the boutique.

  “So I can arrive at about the same time.”

  Sherita stopped dead in her tracks. She turned around to look at him and asked, “What?”

  He took a sip of the macchiato, watching her stare back at him. Since she had walked a few feet away, he took slow, deliberate steps towards her. He was enjoying this way too much. “Oh, you didn’t know I was going to be there? Thought for sure you would have known about it since it was Emily’s idea. She said you could use some help with the babies, and since I happen to be free tonight, I accepted the challenge.” He took a huge, greedy bite of the scone, nearly stuffing the whole thing inside of his mouth.

  Okay…he’s only trying to get under your skin, Sherita. Don’t listen to him. Emily, of all people, know you don’t want to be anywhere near Desmond.

  Sherita smiled. After taking a moment to think about it, she discerned how foolish he sounded. Babysit? Who was he kidding? The only thing he knew how to do concerning a baby was the process it took to make one. He’d probably cringe if a baby spit-up on his expensive clothes. Did he even know how to hold a baby? Feed one? Change a diaper?

  Sherita turned to walk away from him, satisfied she was finally putting space between them.

  “See you later, Sherita.”

  “Yeah…sure you will,” she mumbled.

  Watching her pull the door handle of the boutique, Desmond shouted, “You’re welcome, by the way,” while holding up his cup. He watched her shake her head then continue inside of the boutique. He simply smiled, stuffed the remainder of the scone in his mouth and headed back across the street for his jeep. He had some things to wrap up with Dante and Dimitrius at the office today, and then he planned on reviewing his schedule for the upcoming week. He was due to fly out to New York, but he preferred to stay put in Asheville for now. And his reason for that had nothing to do with work.

  CHAPTER 2

  Greeted with air-conditioning, Sherita set her coffee on the glass counter and leaned up against it. Thank goodness there were no customers in the boutique. She needed a minute to catch her breath.

  The sight of Desmond made her feel like something had been prohibiting her to breathe. It should’ve been a felony for a man to look and smell as good as he did, and he did it effortlessly on a daily basis. Even outside of work, he’d wear his jeans low on his hips with a plain-looking shirt and a hot pair of shoes. Every time she laid eyes on him, he was well put together. She was impressed, but she wasn’t interested. She was done with players.

  Five years ago, she met Thane Pennington in college, and they’d dated for two years. She was foolishly in love with him, the way a woman should be infatuated with the man she could see as a husband, especially after getting to know that person for two years. Thane knew her mother, father and all her friends back then. He was the man she wanted to spend her life with. Have children with. But whenever she brought up marriage, Thane would quickly change the subject.

  Then one day, he casually confessed he wasn’t ready for a commitment. Said he didn’t know whether he could be the one-woman type, at least as far as he could see at the time. That only meant one thing to Sherita – he didn’t want her. She’d invested time in him, put her heart on the line, only to find out she wasn’t the woman he wanted. She wasn’t good enough. If she was, then wouldn’t he have slid a ring on her finger before some other man came by and stole her heart?

  She should’ve had a clue about Thane when, after two years, he hadn’t told her that he loved her. But boy did she love him. She thought if she loved him hard enough, said it often enough, then eventually he would learn to love her. She thought wrong. He never said it back.

  So since he wasn’t ready for a commitment, she told him she wasn’t ready to have her time wasted. She would not allow him to string her along while he dated other women. What did he expect her to do? Wait for him? That’s why she broke it off. A few days later, he had another girlfriend.

  It was hard to walk away, and she felt like a fool for loving a man like Thane and how much of a mistake their relationship had been, but then she remembered something that stuck with her from the commencement speech at her college graduation. She couldn’t recall anything else the lady had said during her inspirational speech, but she remembered her saying this:

  “There is only one mistake you will ever make in your life, and that is not learning a lesson from a situation disguised as a mistake. You may make that one mistake over and over again, but be encouraged. The lesson you gain from it will far outweigh any disappointment.”

  And she was right. She’d learned a lesson from her failed relationship with Thane, and that was to stay away from him and his kind – a man who was more interested in playing the field rather than being a real man and loving only one woman.

  That’s why she couldn’t tolerate Desmond. Admittedly, she was attracted to him. What woman wouldn’t be? Still, she knew she couldn’t allow a man like him to creep into her life. If she was willing to let her guard down so easily, then she might as well have stayed with Thane and played the dim-witted girlfriend role.

  After she calmed herself down, she said, “Emily, where are you?”

  “I’m in the office,” Emily said.

  Sherita, with her cup of coffee in hand, headed for the back office where she saw Emily sitting behind her desk, staring at the computer screen. “Guess who I ran into at the coffee shop.”

  “Who?”

  “Your crazy brother-in-law.”

  Emily smirked. “Oh. Desmond.”

  Out of the brothers, Desmond was definitely the wildest of the three. He’d ride his motorcycle rough like he was on top of a galloping horse. He was extremely spry – had enough energy to create his own form of electricity. Dimitrius swore his brother had some type of hyperactivity disorder and, according to Dante, Desmond got up every morning at four to put in two hours of exercise at his home gym. And the man could eat a whole buffet if nobody stopped him. Still, he didn’t have an ounce of fat on his lean, muscular body.

  “Did he say anything to you?” Emily asked as she typed.

  “He did, actually.”

  “That’s surprising. I know he’s been avoiding you for quite a while now.”

  “And you know I’ve been doing the same with him, right?” Sherita asked.

  Emily smirked. “Yes, Sherita. I know.”

  So he was lying. Sherita smiled. Relieved. She should’ve known by the smug, satisfied look on Desmond’s face that what he said about Emily asking him to help her babysit wasn’t true. “Shrew. Good. Now I can breathe.” Sherita sat down in a chair in front of Sherita’s desk.

  Taking her attention away from the computer, Emily looked at Sherita and asked, Girl, what’s all that about?”

  “What?�
�

  “The sighing, and is that sweat on your forehead?”

  Sherita swiped the backside of her hand across her face. “Emily, you have no idea what I’ve been through these few minutes.”

  Emily grinned. “At the coffee shop?”

  Sherita laughed, feeling silly for letting Desmond get to her. “Yes. Desmond was bothering me the entire time. Like the showoff he is, he placed my order, tried to buy a scone for me and then paid for my coffee, and everybody else’s by the way.”

  “Oooh, that’s sooo terrible,” Emily joked.

  “I know it sounds silly, but that’s not the part that really got to me.”

  “Then what did?”

  “The fact that he said you asked him to help me watch the babies tonight. Now I know he was lying—”

  “Oh,” Emily said. “Umm…Sherita, he wasn’t lying.”

  Sherita’s eyes widened. “Wait, I don’t think I’m hearing you correctly. Are you saying you asked him to help me babysit?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Sherita’s face twisted. “Emily!”

  “What?”

  “Why would you do something like that?”

  Emily offered an innocent shrug, but nothing about what she’d done had been innocent. “I just thought two babies were too much for you?”

  “Too much for me? I do just fine with Ezra and Grace. Are you kidding me?”

  “Yeah, but you’ve never watched them at the same time, and we’re going to be gone for six hours, Rita.”

  Sherita was so mad, she could scream. How was she supposed to survive six hours with Desmond when she could hardly tolerate him for ten minutes? “Okay, Ezra is a bit rowdy, yes but Grace is mellow and calm. She does nothing but eat, sleep and flash dimples all day. I can handle them both just fine, so call Desmond and tell him he doesn’t have to babysit tonight. I’m sure he can find some woman to occupy his time.”

  Emily grinned. She knew Desmond liked Sherita. Everybody knew it. She had a feeling Sherita knew it as well. “I can’t call him and cancel. He was pretty excited about spending some time with his niece and nephew.”

  Yeah, I bet he is excited. “And what is Desmond supposed to do to assist me besides get on my last nerve?” Sherita asked.

  “Warm bottles, change diapers, feed, burp, sing, rock the babies to sleep…he’s really good with children…makes you wonder why he claims he doesn’t want any.”

  “It may make you wonder. I could not care less.”

  “Oh, come on, Rita. It won’t be so bad.”

  Sherita shook her head. “It will be bad. I haven’t seen him for nearly a year and now, all of a sudden, he’s buying my coffee and offering me fruity lemon biscuits and whatnot.”

  “What?” Emily laughed.

  “And you got me babysitting with him, too? I can’t do it.”

  Emily laughed harder.

  “I’m serious, Emily. I can’t do it. I do not want to be anywhere near Desmond.”

  “Why? Because you like him?”

  “No! I do not like him.”

  “Oh yes, you do,” Emily said, finding Sherita’s denial comical. “You like him. As I recall, you told me he was handsome.”

  “So what? I can’t compliment a man without wanting him? Desmond is handsome. So is Dante and Dimitrius…doesn’t mean I want them.” Sherita shook her head, exasperated. “Why would you do this, Emily? You know Desmond is not the kind of man I would ever want to be involved with. I don’t date men who date women for sport.”

  “That’s funny, because as long as I’ve known him, I’ve never seen Desmond with a woman. Have you?”

  “I can’t see the wind, but I know it’s there. Look, bottom line is, I promised myself I would never get involved with a man like Desmond. I told you about my last relationship. Remember Thane?”

  “And how long ago was that? Five years, Sherita? Listen, I of all people, know how difficult it is to start over. When Melvin died, I didn’t want to date another man. I thought I was done. Then I met Dante and—”

  “And you fell in love and have a beautiful baby boy,” Sherita interrupted. “What does that have to do with me and Desmond, Emily? Are you actually trying to set me up with him?”

  “Sherita—”

  “You are, aren’t you?” Sherita interjected. “You’re doing all of this intentionally?”

  “Sherita, just—”

  Sherita threw her hands up in the air. “I can’t believe you, Emily.” She stood up and walked out of the office. Fuming, with a flushed, reddish face, she returned to the front counter, sitting on the barstool in front of the cash register.

  “Jeez, Sherita. I didn’t think you would be so upset over this.”

  Sherita released a breath. “Emily, if you want to set me up, fine. But it doesn’t have to be with a man like Desmond. You and I both know he’s not marriage material and I’m not saying I’m ready to get married right now. What I am saying is, I refuse to waste an ounce of my time on a man who’s not willing to commit to me. I did it before, and I’m not doing it again.”

  Emily thought about what Sherita said for a moment. She hadn’t realized how deeply Thane had hurt her friend until now. Maybe that’s why she kept herself busy with a few classes here and there, helping her out at the store and traveling to take pictures of newly married couples. It kept her mind off of what she didn’t have. Then again, how could taking pictures of couples keep her mind off of what she wanted but didn’t have?

  Emily pulled in a breath then walked up to Sherita and said, “I’m sorry, Sherita. I just thought that maybe if you spent some time with Desmond, you would like him, or could change him.”

  “Change him?” she asked, tilting her head, not believing what Emily said. “A woman can’t change a man.”

  “Dante changed for me.”

  “That’s because he wanted to change. You didn’t make him change. Listen, Em, I’m speaking from experience here. When I started dating Thane, I knew I was playing with fire. All the girls wanted Thane. He was every woman’s dream. Tall, dark, handsome…studying law. I can’t lie…I knew better…knew I should not have given it a second thought when he asked me out, but I did because he was soo handsome. And underneath all of those good looks was a man who couldn’t commit to me. For two years, I was his girlfriend, but he would still flirt with other girls. He even had another girlfriend while he was dating me. After all that, you think I’m supposed to date a man who is just like that? I won’t. I can be cordial with Desmond, but as far as a relationship is concerned, I’m not wasting my time.”

  “So you’re not going to babysit tonight.”

  “I’ll babysit, but I’m not doing anything else where Desmond Champion will be in attendance, and I would appreciate it if you drop the idea of Desmond and I being together.”

  “Duly noted,” Emily said. “I apologize.”

  “Thank you,” Sherita told her. And that was that. “Anyway, I know you guys are excited to get out of the house.”

  Emily, Dante, Melanie and Dimitrius had a date night lined up for this evening and well into the night. First stop was a Maxwell concert.

  “Girl, yes!” Emily said. “I love Ezra to death but mommy needs a night out, and this is my first Maxwell concert. It’s going to be a good time.”

  “Are you all having dinner right after?”

  “Yes. Dante made reservations. He wouldn’t tell us where we were going, though.”

  “So what time should I be at your house tonight?”

  “We’re leaving at seven, so I would say you can get there at around six-thirtyish. You can close the store at five.”

  “Okay. Got it.”

  “Perfect. Now let me get my butt back in this office. I have a few more orders to complete before I leave.”

  “Okay, Emily. I’ll take care of the customers,” Sherita said, watching a few women come inside the store.

  CHAPTER 3

  Sitting in Dante’s swanky office, Desmond pulled up a blank note on his i
Pad while holding a stylus in his right hand.

  Dimitrius stared at his computer screen, replying to an email.

  Dante, leaned back in his chair, was still on a conference call that had run over.

  Desmond glanced at his watch. The meeting was supposed to begin promptly at ten, but it was already eight minutes past the hour. He didn’t care, but he knew Dimitrius did. Dimitrius was a stickler for time. Usually, when a meeting was a second behind schedule, Dimitrius would be downright irate, annoyed and fuming with irritation. So why wasn’t he going ballistic right about now?

  Desmond observed his brother, trying to figure it out. Seemed that since Dimitrius had married Melanie, he’d leveled out, wasn’t so tightly wound and took some time to relax. Marriage changed him. A baby changed him. Fortunately, it had been a change for the better, but unfortunately, not all marriages changed people for the better.

  Desmond stood up, lowering his iPad and stylus to the table and stepped out into the hallway, heading for the vending machine in the break room. He took some change from his pocket and fed the machine enough money to purchase a honey bun. And just to be on the safe side, he purchased some M & M’s, too.

  Ripping the clear, plastic wrapper, he took a massive bite of the honey bun while heading back towards Dante’s office. He opened the door, took his seat again and dropped the packet of M & M’s on the table.

  Using the stylus to bring up his calendar, he scanned his schedule for the upcoming week while cramming the remainder of the honey bun inside of his mouth. While he chewed, low hums of mmm seemed to be coming from deep within his throat.

  Mmm…mmm…

  Before he could even swallow, he was already tearing open the M & M’s, tossing a handful of them into his mouth, chewing hungrily, and the uncharacteristic humming sound started up again.

  Dimitrius looked at Desmond and frowned. Since when had he become a junk food addict, and why was he eating like food had been a new concept, and he’d just discovered it? Dimitrius then glanced up at Dante as if silently asking him these questions.