Open Door Marriage

by Kai, Naleighna

  Dallas sat up and took her hand in his. “Thank you. Finally, someone who understands what I’ve been saying. They’re acting like I’m an idiot.”

  She gave him a small smile. “Well, you have to understand that each physician always thinks they know best.”

  “How do I get her up out of here?” he asked. “They’re not just going to let me wheel her away, right?”

  “You have a right to take your mother anywhere you like. Start with a call to Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The closest one will probably be in Tulsa, but it’s so worth it. Then, request that her records are transferred to a physician there.”

  Dallas was out of his seat and hugging the stranger before he could give it a second thought. Within 24 hours, his mother was transferred. Within a week, she was responding to their treatment.

  When he came back to the hospital to locate Tori and thank her, he ended up taking her to dinner that night. And the next night. And the night after that. She had traveled to Tulsa with him several times, and had even gone on her own, when a game sent him to the other side of the country. Tori had met his parents and took the time to research anything he, or his parents, needed along the way. They’d been friends ever since.

  The treatment for his mother was a long and arduous journey, but even he could tell his mother was now focused on beating the disease, rather than being beaten by it. For that, he was forever grateful to Tori Mitchell.

  Their friendship deepened over the months as he excelled in basketball and at the same time, Tori worked on meeting every goal she set for herself in medical school. The next step after friendship was dating, then the next logical step was marriage, though that step had come from Tori.

  The two had been dining in a private area of Tate’s, Tori’s favorite soul food restaurant that Dallas co-owned with his cousin, Lolita. The place was colorfully decked out in a Motown theme—all the way down to plates that were made in the impression of old school vinyl records. It was a night of celebration—Dallas had won another case involving a frivolous lawsuit from yet another woman who was after him strictly for a quick life-time payday.

  Their dedicated servers waited just outside the door of their private dining area as Tori and Dallas partook of the restaurant’s specialties—fried chicken, collard greens, 4-cheese macaroni cheese, sweet potatoes, and fried green tomatoes.

  “You know,” Tori said softly, around a bite of jalapeño cornbread, “a lot of your problems would go away if you got married.”

  “You’re forgetting women these days,” he countered. “They don’t care if there’s a ring or not.”

  He reminded her about Helen, the church’s young secretary, and her gold-digging friends who’d been through so many members of his basketball team that he’d told his boys to stop attending service if they were only on “pussy patrol.” He hadn’t seen so many desperate women since Moses parted the Red Sea. Females—young and old, single and not-so-single—weren’t waiting for “I do.” They were just slipping between the sheets and saying, “Ooops, I did.”

  Tori laughed at his candid explanation, then looked at him for several moments. “You know a reporter asked me if you and I were an item. I didn’t tell her anything.”

  Even though their friendship had blossomed into a relationship, Dallas hated the media in his love life, so they hadn’t gone public.

  “I don’t mind them knowing that you’re my girl,” he said.

  Tori toyed with her food. “It’s funny, she said she didn’t believe that we could be together because the rumor was I was a virgin and no way would the great Dallas Avery be with someone who wasn’t putting out.”

  Dallas shook his head. “I don’t understand why everyone’s always in my business.”

  Tori shrugged. “Well, I did tell her that part was true. Only one special man will have the privilege of knowing me intimately.”

  Dallas took a bite from one of the homemade wheat rolls. “I’m still amazed that you’ve kept it on lockdown all this time,” he said, chuckling. “There definitely aren’t that many twenty-six year old virgins around.”

  She grinned, placing her napkin back on her lap. “It’s not hard to do. No other men have measured up.”

  Dallas nodded and put his attention back on his plate.

  “You measure up.”

  Dallas’ head whipped toward her. “So what’re you saying, Tori?”

  She toyed with the fork as she shrugged. “I think it’ll be a good idea if we get married. Then maybe you’ll stop ending up in these lawsuits with women who have your bank account in their crosshairs,” she said. “I listened to that woman in court, it was obvious you hadn’t slept with her. She thought you’d just pay her to go away.”

  “I don’t give in to blackmail,” he said, his mouth stuffed with food. “The DNA would’ve told the truth.”

  “But by then your reputation, your brand would be a little damaged. That’s what these women want you to pay to protect. Your brand.” Tori took another bite of crispy fried chicken. “Getting married means you’ll have one place, one woman to come to for everything. Love. Sex. Friendship, and definitely having all those children you swore up and down you wanted.” Tori grimaced as she looked over at him. “Although, I think we’ll have to cap that number at one. You’re not wearing my womb out with eight children.”

  Dallas put his fork on his plate and stared at her for the longest time. “Tori, at least three children, if that’s the case.”

  “Why’re children so important to you?”

  “We’re educated,” he began, swirling a bit of lemonade into the sweet tea in his glass. “And we have morals, and money. Add marriage to that, then we’re definitely the type of people who are supposed to have children.”

  Tori thought about that a hot minute, then raised her glass of wine in a toast. “I’ll drink to that.” Then she gave him a wide smile. “At least until I get pregnant with the first of our two children.”

  Dallas chuckled at her attempt of narrowing the number down. “Well, I guess if I’m going to marry a woman,” he said touching his glass to hers. “It probably should be to a woman who’s always had my best interest at heart. A woman who cares about me, and a woman who I care about, too.”

  Tori beamed as she asked, “So, Dallas Avery … will you marry me?”

  * * *

  Tori had first suggested they elope right away and kept at it until he finally insisted that they wait until after basketball season. He paid for that delay when she began to prepare for a lavish wedding. The amount of money that Tori was spending on their wedding and the extensive amount of interviews that she’d been giving lately had cast shadows of doubt for Dallas on Tori’s true motivation of wanting to be with him.

  Only in the past few weeks had Dallas realized the crucial mistake he’d made by saying yes to her marriage proposal without giving it the weight he normally gave the heavier decisions that affected his life.

  Now they were both paying the price.

  Chapter 5

  9:31 p.m.

  Dallas looked across at Tori as she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that her aunt had more of a claim to his heart than she ever did.

  “Did this happen …” Tori said, her voice trembling. “Did you make love to her because I said I wouldn’t have sex until we got married?”

  Dallas shifted his gaze to the slender, golden-skinned woman, who still looked beautiful even with the effects of pain so clearly etched in her classically pretty features. “I keep telling you, that’s not what happened tonight.”

  “Then fill me in, because my mind’s running wild.”

  He grimaced, once again wondering what it was about Alicia that had caused him to almost have a serious lapse in judgment. Inwardly, he believed fate had landed him and Alicia in the same place tonight. Unfortunately, the timing of their meeting was off.

  “Sweetheart,” he said, watching as Tori rubbed her temple, “I promise you, we stopped before anything happened.�
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  “See, that’s what I get for letting my mother talk me into visiting all those people,” Tori said, shaking her head. “I should’ve been at the house when you got there and this—”

  “Tori, you have every right to be upset,” Dallas said, interrupting her, “but that wouldn’t change anything. Yes, your mother saw us together, but she lied when she said she caught us in bed. You can believe her if you want, but that’s the bottom line.”

  As he had done throughout the last year, Dallas once again quelled his natural inclination to pull her into his arms and give her the comfort she so richly deserved. Tori had never been one for public or private displays of affection—something else that gave him pause about making things more permanent. “A year together and I haven’t come close to doing anything like this.”

  “If waiting was going to be a problem,” Tori snapped, “you should have said something before now.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” he countered in the most patient tone he could manage. “And let’s get something straight—you set the terms for marriage. You didn’t ask me, you told me we were going that route. And I went along with it.”

  She lowered her gaze.

  He said, “What I was actually saying was waiting wasn’t a problem. I’ve been celibate for an entire year and never came close to taking another woman up on what they offered—until today.”

  Tori looked at him with a mixture of weariness and sadness. “You don’t have to worry about it anymore. Do whatever the hell you want.”

  Dallas was never one for knockdown drag-out fights. His parents had years of vicious verbal fights that had left a stain on his soul and he’d vowed never to get into it with anyone that way—whether in his professional or personal life.

  Dallas stood, straightened his slacks, swept through the room and went for the door. “Good night, Tori.”

  “Where’re you going?” she asked, moving from the sofa to perch on the edge of the dining table.

  “I shouldn’t stay here.” He held up his hand to ward off her verbal attack. “I have some things to sort out.” Taking in the defeated set of her shoulders, he added, “I thought I was doing everything right. Got back in church, got my career going with an NBA contract, was ready to make my best friend my wife. None of my plans included hurting you in any kind of way.”

  Tori glared at him as she said, “You can’t go without telling me. I need to know what really happened. Mama said you were naked. Aunt Alicia was naked. Tell me. What happened?”

  He sighed. “I’d just come out of the shower. I walked into the wrong room. Alicia was already in the bed. I didn’t know she was there,” he said. He decided to leave out how close they’d really come to making love, not wanting to hurt her even more with all of the intimate details. “Bernice walked in the room and assumed that we’d slept together,” Dallas continued. “I. Didn’t. Make. Love. To. Alicia. Tonight.”

  “But you wanted to,” Tori challenged, waving her hand in the air.

  Dallas stared at the diamond on her left hand that took him hours of working with a designer to create. His answer to her statement was, “Keep the ring, the condo, and the car. I’ll have everything paid off and moved into your name.” When she didn’t respond, he pressed on. “And I’m going to put some money in your account. I don’t want you to have to worry about anything while you’re starting your residency. I owe you at least that.”

  Tori blinked twice. Her pink lips opened and then suddenly closed. Several moments later, she finally found her voice. “Are you ending our relationship?”

  “Tori, let’s be honest,” he said slowly. “We’re friends. Great friends, but we need to leave it at that.” He moved forward to continue his path to the door, but was halted by her voice.

  “Wait, but … I …You said our friendship is what made our relationship so special,” Tori stammered.

  “I know, but I was already wavering over this whole thing, and today solidified it. Because I’d turned down every woman that came my way, but Alicia . . . Alicia makes me lose my damn mind.” Dallas shook his head. “Now what does that say about me?”

  Tori stared at him.

  “I have to go, sweetheart,” he whispered, unable to spend another moment witnessing the damage he had done. “You can send the things I left at your parent’s house to my place.”

  She caught up with him at the door and placed a hand over his. “Do you …” Tori cleared her throat. Her golden skin flushed considerably. “How can you be in love with her? She’s …. She’s … old!”

  Dallas took in the tears slowly making their way down her face. He resisted the urge to wipe them away. “Age doesn’t have anything to do with love,” he said, before adding. “And she’s not old. She’s mature, no games, a lot of wisdom to share. Alicia is every bit of wonderful.” He caught himself, sure that was not what Tori wanted to hear.

  “So the wedding’s off?” Tori asked, frowning.

  Dallas released a heavy sigh. “I come to meet your whole family for the first time and this happens? Not exactly a recipe for ‘til death do us part’,” he countered. Then with the tip of his fingers, he finally wiped away the tears streaming toward her chin. “You won’t forget it; neither will they.”

  Tori placed her back against the door, blocking his exit. “So what I want doesn’t factor into it? I haven’t even said everything I wanted to say.”

  He paused, waiting for her to continue. He did owe her at least that.

  “You did wrong,” Tori whispered, then looked at him and amended, “almost did wrong, and now I’m the one being punished for it.”

  Dallas placed his hands on her shoulders. “It’s not punishment. You deserve a man who can be faithful.” He meant that. As much as he adored Tori, there was no way he could be faithful to her now that Alicia was back in his life.

  Alicia had stolen his heart, then shattered it by leaving him with more questions than answers. But in just those few moments with her tonight, Dallas experienced a feeling of expectation—of possibilities, of passion, that he never wanted to go away. Chemistry and passion that was missing with Tori.

  “Was she that good? I mean, when you were with her before?”

  “Tori,” Dallas warned. “Don’t ask me a question if you can’t stand to hear the answer.”

  Tori fell silent, inching away from him.

  “I have to get some sleep,” he said as he watched her back up.

  He opened the door, but she gripped the edge of his shirt. “We haven’t finished.”

  Dallas placed his hand over hers, giving it a gentle pat. “Get some rest and know that I’m truly sorry.”

  He kissed her, implanting the memory of her taste and feel in his brain. He was saddened by the fact that he didn’t have that same spark of desire for Tori that he had in just those few minutes with Alicia.

  “Goodbye, Tori.” Dallas walked out of the suite.

  Chapter 6

  9:31 p.m.

  Alicia Mitchell nursed her drink while lounging in one of the comfortable chairs across from a place called The Daily Grind. The bar itself, a maze of glass, mirrors, and high backed seating, hosted only one other patron, who sat talking to the burly bartender in between snatching glimpses of the football game playing on multiple screens. That is, when he wasn’t trying to keep an eye on Alicia or checking out the ample assets on the barmaid with fiery red hair.

  “Are you good for right now?” the redhead asked Alicia, giving her a smile.

  “I’m fine. Thank you.”

  “Well, let me know if there’s anything else that I can get you.”

  As the woman turned away, Alicia thought: Yes, there was something the woman could get for her. She could help her rewind to the time when Tori unexpectedly dropped into her life.

  * * *

  Twenty-Four Years Ago …

  Alicia walked into Michael Reese Hospital, got directions from the security guard, and took the elevator to the maternity ward. She entered a room down the
hall from the nurse’s station and paused at the entrance. An infant swaddled in white cotton blankets slept quietly in a clear bin.

  Bernice was sporting green contact lenses, a wig, and several layers of makeup; the get-up caused Alicia to frown. “Wow, the circus must’ve needed a whole new clown. You definitely look the part.”

  Bernice hurriedly slipped on the last of her street clothes and stuffed the hospital gown under the covers. “Glad you finally made it,” she said sourly.

  “I’m not on your clock. I don’t see why you called me in the first place.” Alicia noticed that the second bed in the room was unoccupied—highly unusual in a training hospital unless you had major cash. “It’s not like we’ve said two words to each other since you married my brother.”

  “We had every reason to stay away from you,” Bernice snarled. “You told him not to marry me.”

  “And I had good cause.”

  “You don’t know me, lady,” Bernice snapped, shaking a fist at Alicia. “You don’t know nothing about me.”

  Alicia shifted so she was closer to the baby. “But I know women like you, and there was nothing that led me to believe that you had given up your old life.”

  Bernice’s golden face flushed with color. “He told you about that?”

  “Of course. My brother tells me everything.” She chanced a look at the infant. “Well, he used to tell me everything until you came along. Smart move, making him relocate to Rockford.”

  Bernice laughed. “It’s the only way I could be sure you didn’t mess things up for me again. And it worked.”

  Alicia focused on her sister-in-law. “Then why am I here?”

  Bernice marched across the room, grabbed the baby from the bin and shoved it into Alicia’s arms.

  “Alicia, meet Baby Mitchell. Baby Mitchell, meet your Aunt Alicia.”

  Alicia quickly secured the baby, smiling down at the little bundle, who was stirring because of Bernice’s jerky movements. “So precious,” Alicia whispered, stroking a finger across the soft pink cheeks.