Later that afternoon, she got a call from Bobbie.
“Hey Avery, I just wanted to let you know that you are more than qualified for the condo if you’re interested.”
“Really?” Avery knew that she would qualify, but hearing it made it much more of a reality than she thought it was.
“Yep, and I have a couple of others that you may be interested in,” Bobbie told her. Her phone beeped and she saw that it was Duke, so she ignored the call and made a mental note to call him back.
“Um, wow. I mean—” Avery didn’t know what to say.
“Well, I know you’re at work. So, call me later and we can go over a couple of things.”
“Okay, will do,” Avery told her. Her emotions were a myriad of excitement, joy, and nervousness. Her desk phone rang and she quickly picked it up. “Avery Belmont.”
“What the hell is going on, Avery?” Duke’s voice was so loud that she had to turn the volume down on her phone so others wouldn’t hear him yelling.
“What are you screaming for, Duke?” she hissed.
“Because I’m pissed, that’s why, in case you can’t tell,” he said.
“Pissed for what?” she asked, wondering what could have possibly happened to set him off. Things between them seemed to have been back to normal by the time she returned home Saturday night. She had even relented and gave him some after everyone had cleared out of their house after the fight was over.
“Is there something you need to tell me?” he asked.
She quickly tried to think of what he could possibly be referring to. “No, nothing.”
“Then why the fuck did you just get a message from some chick saying that you’re good to go on the condo? Huh?”
Shit, Bobbie must have called the house before reaching me on my cell phone. Avery hadn’t mentioned the condo to Duke at all, not wanted to spark an argument between them. Now, it seemed as if she was going behind his back.
“Duke, it’s not what it seems,” she tried to explain to him.
“It seems that your ass is making plans and making moves without me, Avery. What’s the deal?”
“There is no deal, Duke. Tabitha went and looked at a condo Saturday and I was with her,” she said.
“I shoulda known it had something to do with that “Becky” from the job. I swear, it’s like you’re turning into a fucking Stepford chick since you’ve started working at that place a year and a half ago,” he told her.
“You’ve been listening to your cousin too much, Duke, because you sound just as stupid as he did telling you that bullshit Saturday night,” she whispered into the phone.
“If you don’t wanna be here anymore, Avery, that’s fine. Just be woman enough to tell me,” Duke said and hung the phone up. She was livid. Duke knew that of all the things he could do to piss her off, hanging up in her face was the worst. She tried calling him back several times, but he ignored her calls. Sitting back in her chair, she tried to calm down enough to get some work done, but she knew that there was no way she was going to accomplish anything, not until she had this situation handled. She sent a quick e-mail to the department secretary and Demi, letting them know she was leaving work because she was ill. She knew that they would probably bitch about it, but she didn’t care.
“What’s wrong?” Tabitha asked as she grabbed her things and prepared to leave.
“Nothing, I’ve just got a migraine. I gotta leave,” she told her.
“You need me to drive you home?” Tabitha offered.
“No, I’m good,” she told her.
“Can I have your cake?” Malcolm asked.
“Malcolm!”
“What? She’s leaving,” he said.
“Sure, knock yourself out,” Avery told him and hurried out. Cake was the last thing on her mind—saving her relationship was the only thing she wanted. She fought back the tears as she left the building.
“Hey, where’s the fire?”
Avery turned to see Kurt waving at her across the parking lot. She slowed up enough where he could catch up to her.
“I’m leaving early,” she told him. “Migraine.”
Kurt looked at her strangely. “Man, I’m sorry. Wow, you don’t look so good.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I’m concerned. Let me drive you home.”
“No, I’ll be fine,” she said, “I just need to get home.”
“Okay, well, can I call you later and check on you?”
In a sense, she really did want him to call, but she knew that things between her and Duke were bad enough as it was. The last thing she needed was for him to see Kurt calling her cell phone.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Now that I think about it, I guess that’s a bad idea anyway. Your man didn’t seem too keen about meeting me the other night,” he said, smiling.
“Exactly,” she said. “What are you doing here? I thought you were working out of the southeast office.”
“Things changed. Besides, it didn’t make sense for me to fly out and then fly right back Wednesday. So, I stayed.”
“I’m glad,” she said before she could stop herself.
“Me too.” He looked at her and again, she felt the heat rising on the back of her neck. Damn, how does he do that? What is it about him that makes me hot? He’s not even my type. I don’t go for shirts and ties, I go for jerseys and Timbs!
“Well, I will see you tomorrow,” she said and got into her car. As she drove off, she saw him out of her rearview mirror watching her. Knowing that Kurt was back in the office almost made her want to turn around and stay at work, but she knew she had a situation to handle and kept going.
Chapter 9
Avery pulled into the parking lot of Duke’s job and prayed his car was there. She was relieved when she spotted it parked on the side of the building. She knew that if he was still at work, there was a chance she could talk some sense into him because Duke never clowned in public. He always said that he kept his dirty laundry at home where it belonged.
Stay calm, Avery, she told herself as she dabbed on her lip gloss and checked her reflection in the mirror. You know you’re the reasonable one and you’re gonna have to make him understand that you didn’t do anything to disrespect him. Remember how much you love him.
“Hey there guys,” she waved at Los as she walked into the auto parts store, “Is Duke busy?”
An unfamiliar, attractive black man in a shirt and tie standing near Duke’s other coworkers looked up and smiled at her. “Well, hello there. I’m sure he’s not too busy for a beautiful young woman.”
He is cute, Avery thought as she smiled back at him, noticing his green eyes. “Thank you.”
Los shook his head as he picked up the phone and called Duke over the intercom system. “Duke, you have a visitor at the front.”
A few seconds later, Duke strolled out and looked surprised to see her.
“Hey,” she said, grinning, hoping he would be glad to see her.
His face was void of any expression as he simply replied, “Hey.”
“I came to take you to lunch,” she said.
He looked down at his watch and said, “It’s after one o’clock, Avery. I went to lunch at twelve.”
Avery knew that Duke pretty much came and left the store as he wanted to in the past. She thought he was trying to be difficult until she saw him glance over at the shirt-and-tie guy.
“New management, new rules,” Los volunteered.
The man looked over at Avery and said, “Come on now, Duke. You know it’s not even like that. If you need to take a few and go speak with this young lady, you can.”
Duke looked like he wanted to snap, and Avery wondered if his disgust was directed at her or the shirt-and-suit man. Either way, he simply said, “I’ll be back in fifteen. And for the record, I’m right in the parking lot and I’m not leaving the premises in case there are any questions or problems.”
“I got you, Duk
e,” Los made sure his voice was heard.
Avery followed Duke out into the parking lot and stood next to his shiny car. The custom paint job still looked brand new.
“Duke,” she started to talk first. “You know I love you and I would never do anything to jeopardize what we have. What I don’t think you realize is that everything I do is to benefit us. That’s why I enrolled in grad school, that’s why I work so hard, that’s why I fuss so much. I want us to have everything we want.”
“But I already have everything I want, Avery. I have you. That’s all I need. You act like we ain’t talk about all this. When I told you I loved you and wanted to be together, I did everything you asked me to do in order to make that happen. You told me to get out the game, I did. You told me to get a job, I did. You told me to stop hanging out and be there for you, and I am. And I did all of that out of love, because I love you. Do you know what I gave up for you? Now, all of a sudden, you done changed shit up in the middle of the game.”
“But I haven’t changed shit up, Duke,” Avery told him.
“You have, sweetheart. You just don’t realize it. Now, my house ain’t good enough for you. I’ve been asking you to marry me for years, and you keep saying wait. And let’s not even talk about when I bring up having a baby. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m good enough for you, for real.”
Avery looked at him, shaking her head. “Duke, you know that you’re the best thing that ever happened to me. When my mother died my senior year of college, you were the one that stood in and took care of me. My life wouldn’t be as good as it is right now if it wasn’t for you. And you’re right, you did everything I asked you to do. You went above and beyond to prove how much you love me. But, it’s like now that you have me, you’re fine with that. I want to travel and do things, but when I mention it, you act like I’m all of a sudden trying to be bourgeois or something, and I’m not. Am I wrong for wanting to buy a house?”
“You have a house, Avery. What’s wrong with our house?”
“It’s nothing wrong with our house, Duke. But look,” she pointed at his car, “your car was fine. It drove great, had the rims, the system, but you wanted to get a fresh paint job. Why?”
“So it would look better.” He shrugged. “So, all of this is because I got my car painted?”
Avery shook her head. “No, Duke, it’s not about the paint job at all. You’re not getting what I’m saying. You wanted your car to look better. That’s what I want for us. Our life is good now, but is there something wrong with wanting it to be better?”
“It is if it’s never gonna be good enough. Let’s say we get this dream house you’ve gone and picked out. What’s gonna happen in a year? It’s not gonna be good enough, then we’re out looking for something better. That’s not how I wanna live, Avery. I like our life now, we’re happy. Well, I’m happy,” he sighed. “And you were happy too until you started working at that place. Now, you can’t even seem to stay outta that place. You barely even come home.”
“Because I’m studying, Duke. It’s just a quiet place for me to study,” she responded without adding and somewhere I don’t have to worry about the damn internet getting cut off.
“I don’t know what you’re doing. Your ass wasn’t studying when I popped up there Friday night. What was I supposed to think?”
“I was on my way home to be with you, Duke,” she explained for the hundredth time. “You popped up as I was leaving.”
“Yeah, the broke brother popped up as you were leaving with the Brooks Brother, go figure,” he laughed. “I gotta get back to work.”
Before she could even respond, Duke had walked away and back into the building. Avery had too much pride to go after him. Instead, she sulked back to her car. At this point, Avery did have a migraine. Her head throbbed to the point that her face was starting to ache. She went home and crawled into bed without even taking her clothes off.
It was after eleven when Avery finally woke up. She sat up and listened for the blaring of the TV coming from downstairs, but it was eerily quiet. After going to the bathroom, she peeked out of the window and saw that Duke’s car wasn’t in the driveway. She checked her cell phone to see if he had called, but the only missed calls she had were from Tabitha and Bobbie. Not only had Duke not even come home, he hadn’t even called to check on her. Avery quickly changed clothes, grabbed her laptop, and left. She didn’t want to be there when he came home. She thought about going back to the office, but didn’t want to chance running into Kurt or maybe even Demi. Instead, she drove to IHOP, thinking she could kill two birds with one stone: Feed her growling stomach and study for a while.
The restaurant was fairly empty when she walked in. She was seated at a table far in the back and ordered a hot tea, along with an omelet and a stack of pancakes. She ate her food and dug into her books, determined to at least get some studying done.
“Now what’s a pretty girl like you doing all alone in a place like this at night?”
Avery looked up and saw the shirt-and-tie guy from Duke’s job standing in front of her table looking very much like Terrence Howard. She smiled. “Studying.”
“So, I see,” he said. “Are you taking the bar soon?”
“No, accelerated MBA program,” she told him.
“Just as difficult,” he said. “We weren’t properly introduced earlier. I’m Daniel Flanagan.”
“Nice to meet you, Daniel.” Avery wiped her hands on a napkin and stretched it out to him. “I’m Avery Belmont.”
“The pleasure is all mine,” he said. “Well, I’m not gonna disturb you. Nice seeing you again.”
“You too,” she told him, and then added, “I hope I didn’t get Duke into trouble this afternoon.”
Daniel laughed and said, “No, not at all. They act like I’m this Nazi manager who is out to get them, which I’m not. I’m pretty much a laid-back guy. They just like to give me a hard time, all the time.”
“I can imagine,” Avery said.
“They hate the fact that I was brought in to run the store, but what they don’t realize is that I’m the best thing that could have ever happened to them. If I hadn’t intervened, my uncle was going to sell to one of the large corporate chains and they would be out of a job. We all know how that goes,” Daniel sighed. “They would have fired every last one of them and brought in their own employees. All I ask from them is to have a little work ethic and respect the job, that’s it. But, I guess that’s too much.”
“It’s all a learning process for them,” Avery said. “They were used to running the shop and having their way, and now they got a real boss. I think what you did is commendable. I’m actually writing about that topic for my senior seminar thesis. You mind if I ask you a couple of questions?”
“Not at all,” Daniel said, sliding into the booth and sitting across from her. For two hours, they talked about the ever-increasing problems within inner-city neighborhoods and solutions that could take place within the corporate arena to alleviate them. Daniel seemed to have as much passion about the subject as she did. She shared with him the desire to buy a home, but her reluctance due to her relationship.
“It’s hard,” Daniel told her. “You want more out of life, but somehow feel like you’re betraying your past if you move on.”
“Exactly.” she nodded. “I love my neighborhood and the people. But, I’m starting to feel trapped. It’s like all of a sudden, I feel like if I want to get ahead in life, I’m the bad person.”
“You can’t allow yourself to feel that way, though. If you do, you’re gonna end up resenting your life, and becoming bitter. You’ve got to make choices to make yourself happy, and make them without regret. Despite whoever says or feels differently.”
Avery looked up at him and knew who he was referring to. “But, it’s not about just me.”
“It is about you. You’re the only person in your life that can make you happy. Listen to me; I’ve been where Duke and Los and the rest of those guys are. They’re complacent. T
hey’re happy with just having a nine-to-five with enough money in their pocket to buy the latest video-game system and party on the weekends. That’s why I can relate to where they’re coming from,” Daniel told her. “But, then I realized that life was too comfortable to me. I was no longer satisfied with having just enough. I wanted more; more out of myself, and more out of my life. So, I did more, I worked more, I achieved more. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more, Avery. Hell, there’s nothing wrong with expecting more from Duke. He’s comfortable.”
Avery was shocked at how a stranger could evaluate her situation and put things into perspective better than she could.
“Oh my goodness,” she said, noticing the time. “It’s almost two-thirty.”
“Wow, I didn’t realize it was that late—or should I say, early,” he said.
Avery gathered her books and thanked him again for his time and insight. “I really appreciate it, Daniel.”
“Hey, anytime. I enjoyed it,” he said and passed her a business card. “If you need any more help, feel free to give me a call. And remember, there’s nothing wrong with wanting more.”
She picked up her things and hurried home, knowing that Duke would be worried. He’s not that worried, he hasn’t called to check on me. He’s probably not even home himself.
She arrived home to find him fast asleep in their bed. She quickly changed into her pajamas and climbed in beside him, careful not to wake him. He stirred beside her and she eased under the covers. Her head hit the pillow and she closed her eyes, thinking that as soon as she drifted off to sleep, it would be time to wake up.
“Avery,” Duke whispered into the darkness.
“Yeah.” Avery’s heart began pounding.
“I love you,” he said, and pulled himself close to her, snuggling tightly.
Relieved, she told him, “I love you too, Duke.”
“Then stop running away from me,” he said.
Chapter 10
“I think you should get that one,” Tabitha said.
Avery looked at her reflection in the mirror as they stood in the dressing room at Nordstroms. Finding the perfect dress for a size-four person like Tabitha was easy, but the perfect dress for a size twenty diva, such as herself, was a little more difficult. This was the first dress she had tried on when they arrived at the mall earlier, and now, after trying on six more in four other stores, she returned and decided to retry the black Adrianna Papell gown. It actually flattered her thick curvaceous body; the dramatic, deep-cut neckline was perfect and showed off just enough cleavage. It was classy and sexy all at the same time.
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